The New Version of TDWTF


  • ♿ (Parody)

    I've been hard at work (give or take) on a new version of the site -- build from scratch from the ground up (that's right, no more Community Server). It's very simple in design and is more Article/Comment based than it is Forum/Messageboard based.

    So here's my questions to you: what to do of the other forums (GEneral Discussion, etc)? You know, the ones that are used by like .01% of the readers? I'm leaning on simply keeping CS for this part of the site (you know, as a "temporary" thing that will probably be indefinite) -- but am totally open to other ideas. I think it'd be great to open up this side of the community a bit more, any thoughts?



  • A simple forum with no funky WYSIWYG editing (BBCode, Textile, whatever) and support for posting pre-formatted code chunks, PLEASE!  I love the side-bar forum and the coder challenge forum.  It would be sad to see them go. 



  • Can't wait to see it!
     

    My vote is to keep the other forums -- I especially love the sidebar WTF.  Any forum software is fine, as long as it has some good editing and quoting features, is fairly fast etc.  I like the "Quick Reply" feature in some forums, and also the ability to view previous messages in a thread.  Any of these features might be an improvement over CS.



  • CS is fine for the other forums, since the (is it really?) 0.01% of the readers who do use those forums are familiar with the quirks CS has to offer.  If you want to ditch CS, I'll put in a 'me too' for the features that other people like.  Fast, simple editing (that doesn't decide to render differently after preview) is prob. number one.  Threading is nice, but not necessary.

     

    As for removing the other forums, please, please, please don't.  There are some great discussions that happen there. 



  • [quote user="shadowman"]

    I like the "Quick Reply" feature in some forums, and also the ability to view previous messages in a thread.  Any of these features might be an improvement over CS.

    [/quote]

    I think that basic forum software that allows Quick Reply (similar to commenting on an article with most blogs) would be ideal 99% of the time.  I have very little need for a full-featured editor that kinda-sorta works in any browser but IE, and I'd imagine that the majority of posters here would appreciate a simpler interface by default too.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    Thanks for the feedback. To clarify -- I have no intention of getting rid of the Side Bar, General Discussion, or Coder Challenge -- I just don't like the idea of having half of the site run on CS and half run on the thing I'm putting together. But, now that I think about it further ... I see no reason not to do that. They'd be kinda separate things, just share maybe the user/registration bit and the sidebar or something. Several istes seem to do that.

    djork, the new article commenting system will be one big ole textbox that will allow BBcode. I think that'll be a lot easier for everyone.

     

    I'm excited -- I've got some fun plans for TDWTF in 2007. One big one is coming up with a new name for the site -- I'd like to move into something without the word "daily" or the word "WTF" in it. Anyone have suggestions? Please contact me via email (or use the contact form) if you've got some ideas; I'd say poost here, but the homesteading vultures might snap it up. I wanted to buy Enterprisey.com (registered a month after I first used the word) -- the guy said his valuable property would require in the "tens of thousands" to sell. I didn't bother contacting the guy who snapped up CodeSOD.com

     



  • I would prefer if all the boards were just a box for plain text that supported BBcode.  as long as it also supported [code] tags.  also, [java] [C++] [Perl] [Ruby] ect. tags would be nice but not necessary.



  • Wasn't needing to support the requirements of the main site a big argument for using this forum software in the first place?

    With that gone couldn't pretty much any forum software be used? All the other common forum software I have used is nicer to deal with that this, perhaps better software would attract more users.



  • To tell you the truth, this version of Community Server is far, far better than that last abomination, and really doesn't bother me at all.

    If I have any good ideas for a new domain name, I will either send them to you, or register them and demand hundreds of thousands of dollars. (That's a joke - I will send them to you.)

    'brillant.com' - as well as many other TLD variations of same - is taken, naturally. 


  • ♿ (Parody)

    [quote user="stinch"]Wasn't needing to support the requirements of the main site a big argument for using this forum software in the first place?[/quote]

    Mostly backward compatability -- simply upgrading from CS2.0 to CS2.1 took at least twelve hours. Possibly more. Migrating to a different platform would take a lot more time (database, users, tempates, etc).


  • ♿ (Parody)

    [quote user="tster"]I would prefer if all the boards were just a box for plain text that supported BBcode.  as long as it also supported \[code\] tags.  also, [java] [C++] [Perl] [Ruby] ect. tags would be nice but not necessary.
    [/quote]

    Don't know what BB code is supported off hand, but -- check out the site options by clicking on your name in the top links. Not super intuitive, but if you change "Content Editor" to "Plain Text" that should work.



  • My $.02:

    Meh.

    :D

    Seriously, I very rarely reply to the actual TDWTF articles. I read them, and enjoy them, but have little desire to add a "Yeah, WTF is up with that??!?" or "The Real WTF Is... (tm)" to the comment list. If it were threaded like /., that might change, but as long as it operates like a blog, I'll probably not care either way how it's commented upon, so long as I can read it.

    The forums, however, I very much enjoy, and am glad to see that they're not disappearing. Whether they're CS or not doesn't matter much to me, so another 'meh' there, I guess, but I really like vBulliten. Something with smilies would be nice.

    On an entirely different side-note, I'd really love to see some new WTF swag. I can't wear a T to work, even on casual Fridays, but I *could* wear a polo shirt. I'm pretty sure CafePress could do those. I'm thinking along the lines of the logo on the left breast, and maybe a cute TDWTF oriented saying on the back. I'd love to get a "Yes, I'm a C-pound expert" polo shirt. As it is, I'll be buying the mug after the holidays.


  • ♿ (Parody)

    [quote user="Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Over."]

    On an entirely different side-note, I'd really love to see some new WTF swag. I can't wear a T to work, even on casual Fridays, but I could wear a polo shirt. I'm pretty sure CafePress could do those. I'm thinking along the lines of the logo on the left breast, and maybe a cute TDWTF oriented saying on the back. I'd love to get a "Yes, I'm a C-pound expert" polo shirt. As it is, I'll be buying the mug after the holidays.

    [/quote]

    Better swag coming -- the Digital Donkey Mug was an experiment, it worked well. I was able to get better quality mugs delivered to everyone for less than what CafePress can. This opens a lot of possibilities, embroidered poloshirts, etc.



  • [quote user="Alex Papadimoulis"][quote user="Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Over."]

    On an entirely different side-note, I'd really love to see some new WTF swag. I can't wear a T to work, even on casual Fridays, but I could wear a polo shirt. I'm pretty sure CafePress could do those. I'm thinking along the lines of the logo on the left breast, and maybe a cute TDWTF oriented saying on the back. I'd love to get a "Yes, I'm a C-pound expert" polo shirt. As it is, I'll be buying the mug after the holidays.

    [/quote]

    Better swag coming -- the Digital Donkey Mug was an experiment, it worked well. I was able to get better quality mugs delivered to everyone for less than what CafePress can. This opens a lot of possibilities, embroidered poloshirts, etc.

    [/quote]

    cough cough ahem... WTF rubber stamp! 


  • ♿ (Parody)

    Here's what I got so far: http:// new.thedailywtf.com -- it's a bit rough; the commenting is non functional (all of the data is working off of unoptimized, unindexed views instead of actual tables). Bandwidth/connections also limited as not to cause any actual load. But, should give an idea ...



  • I REALLY like how the current format is more like a forum than a blog. The new format looks like a blog where people can comment. I like the forum style because it encourages discussion over why it was a wtf, and what should have been done, etc... I'm glad the current other sections will be kept as well. I like the coder challenge ans side-bar sections alot...

     

     



  • Of course the daily WTF is the main attraction, but I like the other forums as well (notabley the I Hate Oracle one!).  you can probably get rid of/condense some of them but don't get rid of all of them!

     The recent code snippet is a good addition. 

     Love the site - keep up the good work!



  • I'd like to see a simple forum, something like Vanilla (getvanilla.com) being used, but I doubt you've got PHP support here... bloody ASP.



  • @Alex Papadimoulis said:

    Here's what I got so far: http:// new.thedailywtf.com -- it's a bit rough; the commenting is non functional (all of the data is working off of unoptimized, unindexed views instead of actual tables). Bandwidth/connections also limited as not to cause any actual load. But, should give an idea ...

    I'm sorry, but I hate it: one of the great things of the current format is that you can see the whole stories on the front page, and you only need to click to get the comments, plus when you're in the comments you can just scroll up to see the wtf again (at least on page one). It's much more useable than new.tdwtf.com.

    Change the platform if you want, but don't make the site less enjoyable please.

    On an other note, why do you want to change the site's name? Isn't it fine as it is?

    Last note, if you ever happen to add new features, two (linked) I'd like to see are:

    • Read/participated threads flag, the ability to easily know which thread you've read in the past, and even more important the ability to know which thread you've participated to in the past
    • The possibility to get to the last unread post of a thread in a single click (from the thread listing)

  • ♿ (Parody)

    [quote user="masklinn"] whole stories on the front page, and you only need to click to get the comments, plus when you're in the comments you can just scroll up to see the wtf again (at least on page one). It's much more useable than new.tdwtf.com.[/quote]

    Main reason for this -- there will be several channels of content: Stories, CodeSOD, Front Page'd Sidebars, {under development, but TBA soon}. This makes it easier to pick which aritcles to read. As for the comments, most don't read it, and an Article + 50 comments is a lot to load if it wont be read.

     

    [quote user="masklinn"] Change the platform if you want, but don't make the site less enjoyable please.[/quote]

    This is the goal -- but thegoal is to make it easier to use and more enjoyable for the "majority of users" (i.e., no one reading this and no one who even knows General Discussion exists) vs "minority of users" (all of us).

     

    [quote user="masklinn"] On an other note, why do you want to change the site's name? Isn't it fine as it is?[/quote]

    Two words "Daily" and "WTF."

    As you might immagine, writing these articles Daily is difficult: they take a lot of time to dig for, verify, write, etc. What I'm working on now is getting more people involved (you've noticed the CodeSOD?) to spread out the work. This could mean several articles a day, several a week who knows.  Either way, the "Daily" paradigm doesn't make sense.

    As for "WTF" -- a few for reasons for that. I think a lot of the stories I share are entertaining/educational/interesting, but are not necessarily WTFs. Then there's the fact that the last letter is a vulgarity; I'm not a big fan of that part, and neither are a lot of potential sponsors. I'd still like to keep TDWTF as a part of the site, just not the name of the publication.



  • if sponsers can't handle an acronym of a vulgarity then they should probably go into the business of selling toys to preschoolers.  I'm more offended by the girl with her legs open on the bean bag chair and the purple cow with a viking hat than the letter WTF. 

     

    BTW.  I'm speaking hypothetically, I'm not actually offended by sexuality.   



  • I definitely prefer the current format, and I don't think it's just familiarity. In particular, having to click to see the full article is annoying; the whole article text should be available straight away as it is on the front page here. Introducing that extra click does nothing worthwhile as far as I can see.

    I notice you no longer have the main article text as the 'zeroth comment'; not sure what I think of that at the minute, just an observation.

    And I agree with tster, sponsors who are put off by a letter F are pretty lame. Not that I'm saying you shouldn't change the name if you don't like having a swear in it, mind. 



  • [quote user="Alex Papadimoulis"]

    I'm excited -- I've got some fun plans for TDWTF in 2007. One big one is coming up with a new name for the site -- I'd like to move into something without the word "daily" or the word "WTF" in it. Anyone have suggestions? Please contact me via email (or use the contact form) if you've got some ideas; I'd say poost here, but the homesteading vultures might snap it up. I wanted to buy Enterprisey.com (registered a month after I first used the word) -- the guy said his valuable property would require in the "tens of thousands" to sell. I didn't bother contacting the guy who snapped up CodeSOD.com

    [/quote]

    I was going to suggest brillant. Oh wait. I'll never look at that site the same again. 

    BTW Alex, are the other forums really only used 0.01% of the time?

    Given the track record of public postings of potential names being snapped up, may I helpfully suggest ImASillySquatter.com? (-:
     

    And having CS still around - I really don't mind, I find the irony delicious!


  • Back when I had only a dial-up modem, I found a way to read The Register without taking up the whole afternoon.  Bring up the home page.  Right-click on an article, "open in new window", and then after the window opened, press Alt-tab to get back to the home page.  Repeat for all articles.  Go to lunch.  Come back after all the pages have loaded.

    When I got a cable modem I thought I wouldn't need that technique again, but now I have to use it for the Daily WTF forums.  (Except now I can use shift-click to open in new window.)

    I hope that the new version has better response.  Also, AJAX is fun but could we have a bit less client-side code?  I'm running on an old Pentium 4 with hyperthreading here and I'm hitting the wall.


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