Questions moved ... any suggestions

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi all,

We all have seen recently that some questions are moved to different subtrees of the forum.

While I keep thinking that this is a good idea, it could be a bit confusing, especially for the new users posting a question, because the reply count shows always zero. A user can then believe that nobody answered if he doesn't click on the link.

I already made a few suggestions to HP to modify this behaviour, for example having a special icon next to the header (like the magic rabbit) illustrating that the question has been moved.

I'd like to collect all suggestions, send them to the forum admin, and let them decide how this particular point could be improved.

This forum is a great tool and it's up to us to help HP improving it.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

Dan

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi Dan.
GOOD idea.
What about setting the reply number to a big white asterik ?
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes
p.s.
thks and merry xmas to you as well

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi Alexander,

I'm the one who made you reach the 250 points for your new hat. ;-)

Congratulations!

Dan

[Rainer_1]

I think it would be better that the link points to the new thread directly instead to the forums directory.

[Cheryl Griffin]

Dan,
I'm reading this post because I hang out here, but the Community Admin does not necessarily read every post. That would be a huge undertaking any given day, for every forum.

When we find these messages, a few of us alert the CA. And, posting messages to get feedback from other users is great but your ideas will carry a lot more weight if you send them directly to the CA.

Use the Contact HP button to the left of the screen or follow the links here:

http://us-support.external.hp.com/usage/bin/doc.pl/sid=d518ba8b14fd8f60c6/screen=usageFeedback

http://europe-support2.external.hp.com/usage/bin/doc.pl/sid=bfdbeeac17a39ba37d/screen=usageFeedback

Cheers!
Cheryl

[CHRIS_ANORUO]

Hi Dan,

You have a great point there. But follow Cheryl advise and have a Merry Xmas!

[James R. Ferguson]

Dan:

I agree that the reply count=0 is misleading. In lieu of another icon/picture I would suggest an "M" in place of the reply count, thereby denoting the movement.

Rainer's point of directly linking the original post to the new one is good, but if done, one would "lose" the sense that one had transited from one formum family to another. Perhaps the first jump could be "This question has been moved " where XXX=the major families like 'Networking & Openview' and 'Servers', etc.

Cheryl:
------
While I agree with you that Shayne, Jeff, et al. can't puruse every post, I think Dan is correct in soliciting others input here. Ideally the author, like Dan, could then specifically send a "contact hp" message with the link to this post. This would satisfy the best of both worlds. It's great having people like yourself, however, making sure that issues and suggestions do get "upstairs". Your attentions are always greatly appreciated!

Regards to all!

...JRF...

[Cheryl Griffin]

I agree.

One advantage of posting here is that an idea is suggested but with everyone's two cents added, the idea is molded into something even better and/or alternative solutions are developed. (The M idea is great! Another idea: if we could show the subject line AND add the link directly to the new message... making both subject and link viewable from the list of messages, so you dont have to call up the message just to see it moved then click the new link....)

Just want to make sure that the thread is sent on to the CA. That way we can implement these ideas.

PS. I sent this message to Shayne.

Take Care!
Cheryl

[Victor BERRIDGE]

Hi Dan,
I agree also,
Its confusing, and depending on the net speed frustrating if you have just a little time to spare, if no move icon is available, I would prefer it not be there at all...
Something more confusing is happening now:
I get regularly when refreshing the page, the state of 2 days ago... and not being able to see new post for a few hours...
All the best
Victor

[James R. Ferguson]

Cheryl:

Thanks!

Victor:

Thanks for noting this new anomoly. I had this problem extensively the other night, but since we were having problems with our own internal proxy servers...

...JRF...

[Rita C Workman]

I think the idea of M is great and especially noting in the message where it's moved to.

And I'm relieved to see I wasn't losing it.......I thought I was in the twilight zone or something. Thanks Victor and James.

/rcw

[Rob Mallard]

I like the idea of moving questions, but leaving a link from the old posting area is only a benefit to the orignial poster. The rest of us have to follow the link and load a different forum list. I know this sounds trival, be with the performance issues of this site, the less demands on the servers the better.

What if when a question is moved a email is sent to the poster? No link would be needed, less demand on the system, less confusion.

[Dan Hetzel]

Cheryl,

The only purpose of this thread was to try finding a solution to this rather annoying "feature" of the forum.
My intention has always been to collect ideas AND to send the link to HP using the forum feedback form.

I guess it would be easier for HP to solve this if a few interesting solutions are presented with the "bug report". As you said, if erevyone is adding his $.02, maybe we'll get a buck at the end of the day ;-)

I really like this forum as most of us, including myself, take benefit from other's experience and knowledge. I'm convinced that even people flying as high as James, Stefan, John, Rick and Kofi to name a few are sometimes getting useful info here. I'd really like to see this forum getting better every day.

To make a long story short, I'll send a link to this thread early next week (using the "forum feedback" form) as this would leave some more time for good ideas to show up.


With kindest regards,

Dan

[Tim Malnati]

A while ago I brought up the idea suggesting a separate area within the Forum structure specifically for Forum issues. The idea being that problems, suggestions, and the like could be discussed here and receive the benefit of input from many people. This would allow the CA's a central place to watch for things on the other end as well. I'm not suggesting that the feedback area go away completely where there are issues that don't necessarily involve a forum response either. I know it's not a priority at the moment with the other Forum issues that we must deal with, but I don't want the idea to completely fall off the radar screen either.

For a moment I thought back to a time when the Forums did not exist and the ITRC was known as the ESC instead. Back then we didn't even have a feedback mechanism. I recall having a variety of problems with the ESC and finally getting to a point where I made a phone call to see if I could get some attention to it. No one at the Response Center seemed to be aware that the ESC existed. So the person I was speaking with at the RC suggested that we make it into a software call. The situation became somewhat comical where the ESC became a priority because of CSS support. Many phone calls came in that day; mostly attempting to determine what the ESC was. Things have obviously improved since then, but I would suggest that the bumps in the road (SSI errors!!!) suggest there is still plenty of job security.

[Dan Hetzel]

Hi all,

As it's been suggested, I forwarded this thread to the 'Forum Feedback' team.

Many thanks for all the useful comments and suggestions
and
Merry Christmas to all of you

Dan