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Oh yeah, one other thing...
What in tarnation is a Drop Bear?
Jason Jystad
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Yee gods, and I parked under a tree today! *slinks away looking up*
Jason Jystad
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Very nice. The interface is a little unfriendly at first but the work it does is very impressive. Nice one.
Michael 
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I suspect Chris is going to change the interface, but I would be curious to know if there is anything you would do different to solve the issues you noticed? I am always looking for different views and trying to improve my skills, especially usability.
Jason Jystad
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I'd have prefered the cursor to have been placed between the tags rather than at the end because thats what I'd expected to happen.
The buttons looked a little silly, different sizes and the one with combination of upper and lower case. Didn't look right to me.
These are all issues that would probably have been sorted out in the real implementation rather than in your test page. Nothing major, just me being picky. 
Michael
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Michael P Butler wrote:
These are all issues that would probably have been sorted out in the real implementation rather than in your test page
You are correct, the presentation is something that Chris is going to make quite different anyway so I was being silly and the cursor between the tags is something I am working on it is just being difficult.
Michael P Butler wrote:
Nothing major, just me being picky.
Not at all, these things are important. Thanks.
Jason Jystad
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Jason Jystad wrote:
I bring you the Code Project Posting Toolbar.
<a href="http://" target="_blank">http:
*sigh* Not even my friends support me
Very cool toolbar Jason.
An "instant preview" (done client side, no server call) would be nice. Not hard to do with IE's HTML features. Shout if you want the code.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge
Tim Smith wrote:
Over here in the third world of humor (a.k.a. BBC America),
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Paul Watson wrote:
*sigh* Not even my friends support me
Ok, what'd I miss? I sense a missed thread here. Fill me in.
Jason Jystad
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There's a thread somewhere in the lounge where Paul posted a link then Nish got upset that it didn't open in a new window. Long story short, Paul thinks all links should open in the same window (so those who want it to open in the same window can, and those who want it in a new window can as well) and Nish thinks links to a different domain should open in a new window.
James
Simplicity Rules!
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Ah, that makes sense then. Thanks James.
I guess I am going to have to respectfully disagree with Paul on this one.
Actually I would agree with him, except I frequently use a browseing hider service that makes my right click to open a link in a new window not work right. It does handle links that open new windows correctly though. This is really the only reason I disagree.
In case you're interested the service I use is orangatango [new window]
Jason Jystad
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Hi Chris,
Just wondering if it would be possible to have a button or some way of posting a message saying "I'm off" or somethign to that effect. Just to let people know your gone. I know it can be annoying for when your in the middle of a conversation and people just disappear [god know's I've done it enough]
Now this post wouldn't and shouldn't be added to you list of messages posted. [maybe just appear as a title in the message board]
Anyway. I'm off now
"Isn't that the "write once, debug everywhere" language?" Tom Archer on Java...
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Brian Delahunty wrote:
or some way of posting a message saying "I'm off" or somethign to that effect
Download Sonork, get an account, put the number at the bottom of all your messages. Then people can add you and see if you are online or not 
Admitedly your idea is very nice (ICQ has some code like this that you can plug into your website showing your status) and I have many ideas for merging IM and forums into a more active and better conversation space. Both have their plus points and negative points but together I think they would be sublime.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge
Tim Smith wrote:
Over here in the third world of humor (a.k.a. BBC America),
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Just an idea (aren't they all) but how about providing an XML feed of all (or even just the top) forums?
I am itching to write an app which works much like the news readers of old but for the CP forums. The app would connect to the XML feed, get the new posts/topics/threads and then present it to the user to read. Naturally posting back to CP would be out at the moment as that would mean more work than you need Chris, but the feed would be simple enough to set up. (for posting back a link in the app would open the right URL in the users browser window.)
This would also cut down on all that HTML and JavaScript you have to send with each forum page. Also the app could have some really good search and filtering features (want to see only posts without the word "gotten" in them? no problem.)
And of course the XML feed would be great for other things, like on other websites or in the screensavers (imagine an auto-updating screensaver which shows Nish's posts as they are posted and with an updating graph of his manic posting  )
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge
"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
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How would your app cope with the adverts, as people using your app to read the forum would cut down on CP's revenue.
Michael
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Michael P Butler wrote:
How would your app cope with the adverts, as people using your app to read the forum would cut down on CP's revenue.
Egad, poke a great big bloody hole in my unsinkable idea would you! Should have named it TitanicML.
Ok, fair enough. One solution is that the app I create has an advert feed built into it as well (much like Opera's advert bar.) People might get pissed off, but then CP has adverts as well, so it would be the same content, same adverts, better "service." (no offence Chris, but you would probably agree that the web is hardly the greatest interface ever.)
Of course people could make their own apps which use the feed but have no adverts. Then we could set up a simple user system around the feed that only certain users could, err, use. If Chris so wished then that XML feed (which is valuable content) could be charged for (much like MoreOver.com does.)
Well pointed out Michael. But ultimately I would love to see the XML feed as being free and unrestricted, but then Chris would love to have free servers lying around to cope with the demand.
Right now, I could, if I desperately and insanely wanted to, scrape the HTML sent back by CP to me for the content and construct that into an XML feed. Of course I would be mad to do so, but I could.
regards,
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love, and to be loved in return - Moulin Rouge
"Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
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Paul Watson wrote:
Well pointed out Michael.
Remember that he's British, Paul Those fellas are good at pointing out stuff
Nish
Regards,
Nish
Native CPian.
Born and brought up on CP.
With the CP blood in him.
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LOL. Yes. I suppose we can be a bit of a kill joy at times
Michael
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Judging by the replies, there seem to have been a few of us thinking along the same lines. I must admit that the advertising problem is what put me off the idea. The only way I could see it working and CP still make money is to charge for access to the XML feed.
Michael 
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Was going to ask that. Then I read your post. So I won't post it
"Isn't that the "write once, debug everywhere" language?" Tom Archer on Java...
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Damnit Paul! You turn off that telepathic vampire tap you have in my brain right now!!!
Seriously though, I have been kicking around an idea along these lines myself for the past few weeks. I came up with the same problem Michael did and I sort of filed the whole idea for later consideration because I couldn't see a way around it.
Since there isn't really any way for the feed to force or verify the display of the ads, we would probably need some form of identification handshake. Optimally we would want a way for the app to identify itself to CP and make sure only CP's version of the app could access the feed. Then we could be sure that that app would display the ads.
Heck if I know how to do that without some serious research. :shrug:
Jason Jystad
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If ads are being displayed on a client, how does CP track the ad views and the ad click throughs?
The second one is trivial - assuming that the client would actually make displayed ads clickable. The first one could require a bit of thinking.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
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Actually wouldn't you just do it the same way clickthrough.net and them do it?
Serve the ads centrally and log each ad request on the central server. Have the hyperlinks for the ads bounce through the central server before heading to the appropriate sponsor. Log all the pass-through traffic.
The issue I see with this is that there would have to be some sort of protection on the "ad feed" in the same way as the XML feed. Otherwise you couldn't guarantee the accuracy of your statictics.
Jason Jystad
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Pretty much my thoughts too - as long as ads were not cached, or if they were, the ad server is advised that a cached ad is being redisplayed.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
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Yeah, that sounds about right. I was figuring that the app would cache ads locally and then only "phone home" when it rotated the ad to a new one. It should probably check for newer versions of existing cached ads at tha same time also. That way the newest ads are always shown, but the bandwidth usage is minimized.
This kind of approach also keeps it possible to work out an "offline mode" like the news readers. Helpful for dial up people and travellers.
BTW did you catch my newest suggestion yet? It is the main one I mentioned before. It is up above. (Or are you trying to figure out how to gently tell me no? )
Jason Jystad
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