Good stuff.

Maybe a way of rating the thread/question as well ? Would this help identify of some of the nonsense (or off topic...spammy) ones?

Someone has been berating people for being intollerant...I don't actually agree as any post with a semblance of sense usually gets reasonable replies...

Ok there is some good natured joking...but often with some valid pithy idea or observation in there.

....errr, yes...Iknewthat..just testing ..

All the new stuff sounds really great, though it will take a while for it all to filter into my brain. At present there is only 1 question;

"Each registered user has a limited number of "rating votes" that they can use per day. "

How many ? I'd sooner save my votes for 'positive' use if the limit is low. All in all, I think you've done another excellent job Mark. For now, I'm going to amuse myself for ages just collapsing Del up and down (revenge for all the times he's collapsed me with laughter )!

Hi

The number of votes is over 15. I hesitate to give an exact number because the system's defintion for "a day" is a little weird (8 hours of inactivity), and we may tweak the limit if it feels necessary. There is no "harm" in hitting you limit, and we (the admins) can give more votes to people if they prove to be good, reliable "pruners". (We may not notice any one person being especially "good", so anyone, feel free to ask for more but expect us to examine your prior votes.)

Thanks
- Mark

Thank you guys,

Excellent job (as always...)

Mark -

Those are all really excellent features! THANKS!

I wonder, is there a way to mark some posts as "read" rather than using the "mark all posts as read" button?

Yeah, I know what you mean, but we can only keep track of so much. I'll put it on my list but don't expect this one any time soon. Sorry!

Thanks
- Mark

> I wonder if 'off-topic' just refers to the original question/post. In some long threads, things go off course, but it's sometimes very good quality discussion (eg the UFO thing).

This is a good point... some comments that are not directly relevant to the original thread are of "good quality". I figure the community will come to terms with this eventually, and we'll tweak the software to facilitate. One suggestion I have heard is to change the self-vote for OT from "5" to something less than that, so it would take fewer votes from others to cancel the OT rating. A balance of "3" OT votes are required to make something officially OT, so it takes three people voting "Not OT" to cancel a self-declared OT comment. Maybe the initial self-declared rank should be "4" or even "3" instead of "5"... time will tell, but feedback on that is welcome.

Thanks
- Mark

You've clearly put in a lot of work to introduce these new features. So far I think it's all pretty good. As you say, time will tell. Personally it takes me a fair while to get used to things when any system is changed. The facility to post a new comment and collapse it myself (at time of posting) is great. CR4 is not short of jokey banter (which I view as a good thing), so the instant collapse thing should please all. The bulk mail delete is also very useful. Being able to view threads as either entirely straight or as 'off-topic-and all' is something I've not seen anywhere else on the web. It makes CR4 user friendly to all types of preference.

few sites are daily updated ..... i think we are whitnessing a well built and organised site , a place where every comment has its effect ............ keep on the good work .... hope we can help a much as we could..............

I go away for a week ... and all this happens! I seem to remember that the last upgrade happened when I went away. In future I'll post warnings! This is looking good...off now to play with it all, I reckon we should be able to collapse all of Kris's comments!!

Thanks Mark and team for all the hard work.

Is there a way that the comment is mailed to the subscribers?

Would save us some time.

I'm not quite clear on what you mean Gwen. Is it 'can a reply comment in a thread be copied as an e-mail directly to a user' ? I don't know the answer to that, but it does sound interesting (maybe a bit complex to arrange ?). Being able to forward Private Messages to myself as e-mail would be useful, I can't see an easy way of retaining copies outside of CR4 without cut'n'paste via word.

Perhaps Gwen is thinking of the Yahoo Groups option - where you can elect to receive each post as an email...rather than a notification which then requires you to go to the site to read the post.

I don't think I'd use it for threads, but for PMs, it would be useful. Of course we could just use email ( give Kris my email address!! Nooooooooooooooo_oooooooooo)

Mark,

I have a suggestion for anyone to comment on.

Threads occasionally get "closed to further comment" when they go off the rails too far. Perhaps this idea could be extended : If a thread has lain dormant for (say) 1 month, why not close it to further comment. The original participants have presumably lost interest and would not notice new comments. Anybody who found a closed thread and was interested in commenting could always initiate a new thread. Duplication of thread topics happens anyway, so I don't think there would be a loss. I think people tend to notice new threads more than those they have previously participated in. Discussion would remain fresh, since the closed (effectively 'archived') thread could be referenced. Comments anyone ?

One other point - maybe posts that are checked as 'off-topic' by the person writing them should have some form of display added to indicate this. Readers may then be clearer about why particular posts are seen collapsed. I've noticed some confusion on this issue.

When a thread gets closed, the off topic should be removed. It makes the thread interesting for later browsing, without having to read your own off-topic stupidities again. (so I can show them to my kids when they grow up)

That's a good point and mirrors something I'd been thinking on. Any given topic usually crops up in numerous threads ( some good stuff occurs spontaneously in the most unlikely places). Maybe one day, it could be selectively compiled into a definitive CR4 knowledge base. By virtue of it's posting here, stuff becomes CR4 copyright (I think), so for now I just keep a mental note of where to find subject matter that interests me.

For now, the off-topic button is there precisely so you don't have to read stuff, and the report button serves similar purpose. That's how I viewed the purpose anyway.

(A minor linguistic courtesy detail Gwen - 'my own' or 'ones own' conveys your point better than 'your own'. My own use of English frequently fails me, so please don't take offence at that.)

Hi Kris

Part of the "vision" I have for CR4 is very much in line with what you are describing. I think of it as "wikification"... turning something that is not a wiki (like an interesting/informative thread) into a wiki article where it can be edited to just "the good stuff" and then absorbed into the larger wiki (focused on Engineering).

I haven't written any wiki code yet but the idea keeps kicking around in my head, so one day I hope to get it out.

Thanks
- Mark

Hi Mark,

That's terrific to hear. CR4 is accumulating a fantastic data set across a huge range of Science and Engineering topics. The open chat style nature of CR4 helps to keep the questions and answers coming, which makes it an enjoyable place to visit. One day, getting the good bits filtering into a more tech style format would make it a hugely popular resource. I've already noticed that some searches on google point me straight to CR4, so I think the compiled database idea would take off like a rocket. Kudos to you and all the others who keep it running.

Hi Mark,

Could we have a "next PM" feature, similar to the "next post" feature you've wonderfully introduced?

Looking forward to the wikification!

Good idea (and easy to do, which is a great combination).

I'll add this in to the next release, which should be in a day or two.

Thanks
- Mark

It's there. It works. It's great!!

Thanks Mark, you work is appreciated.

I thought of another one for the PM section...could we have a "Mark selected items as Read" as well as the unread option, please? When you have time.

Thanks