Addressing issues raised in the survey

Thanks once again to all you lovely people who devoted time to completing our recent user survey. The feedback has been instrumental in helping determine YC's future direction and, perhaps more importantly, what can be done to address existing issues.

Apologies for the long post which follows, but I found it impossible not to be more succinct.

One of the most common criticisms raised was the complaint that posted music is often given the silent treatment. I attempted to address this problem well over a year ago with something called the Orphaned Threads system. It's linked to on the Quick Links menu, but I doubt many of you know of (or remember) its existence, much less understand its functionality and purpose.

I therefore decided that it might be a good idea to take this existing information and present it in a way far more accessible to users. This has given rise to a little box entitled "Recent Posted Music" which appears on the forum index underneath the shoutbox. The threads it shows are always comprised of two pieces which are considered highly "ignored" according to the Orphaned Threads system's criteria, and one thread which is considered to have originated from a highly "contributory" author, again according to the existing criteria.

Before you ask, you have the opportunity to turn it off in your user options. Scroll right to the bottom and look for "Display Selected Recent Music". (I also noticed a recent shoutbox discussion and thought similar treatment could be applied to its bad word filter, so you'll see an option for enabling/disabling that too)

It's OK at the moment, but I have future plans which include:

• Giving users the chance to define how many threads should be displayed in the box
  
• Re-designing the full Orphaned Threads interface so it can be more easily understood
  
• Implementing an incentive scheme for commenting on works highlighted by the system.
  

Somewhat early days yet, but as I like to say, watch this space. :)

I'll be happy to respond to any questions or suggestions people have. This thread will also be used to announce other changes or additions introduced in light of the survey results.

I like the sound of things so far. I'm going to go play around with this new toy! :happy:

Good ideas there!

Would it be possible at some point to have either a scroll bar on the box or have them laid out in a different way? I'd like to have more than three peices in there but don;t really want to scroll down using the bar at the side of the page fro ten minutes to reach the rest of the forums!

It's looking good though, am also off to play :)

I'd like to have more than three peices in there but don;t really want to scroll down using the bar

There's a "more" link you can click.

True, and I use it! But that involves going to a separate page. And on some days I will be too lazy to do so!

But it does work, 'twas just a thought! :)

...a little box entitled "Recent Posted Music" which appears on the forum index underneath the shoutbox.

I don't see it.

*switches to default style*

Ah! There it is.

*switches back to 'Dark Yellow'*

It appears the 'recent posted music' box is only visible in the default skin.

Just so's you know's! :whistling:;) That said, I like the idea. :thumbsup:

Default skin pwns all anyway. :happy:

Great feature! Thanks Mike. :)

Whoops - it should now display on the non-default skins as well.

If I have time later today then I might add a new feature or two. ;)

Just a teensy issue:

When someone posts in a thread that shows up on that, it says the thread is by that person.

Not major, but it may bother some people.

Not sure I understand what you mean, Mitchell - care to re-phrase?

Um, Never mind. I think I'm insane. That doesn't happen at all. You can ignore my post. :P

In the box, it doesen't display the name of the thread poster, but the last poster in that thread.

In the box, it doesen't display the name of the thread poster, but the last poster in that thread.

Yeah, I thought that might be what he meant, but then I double-checked and didn't observe that behaviour.

Thanks anyway, Mitchell. It's the thought that counts. ;)

Can we add being able to attach wav. files. ??? :D

WAVs are enormous and frankly very outdated. MP3 uploads will be supported once we launch the new software in a few months' time. (The contract is currently being finalised, so no false hope this time around! :D)

Can we have it where the uploaded MP3's can be streamed? In other words, if I want to upload an MP3 but not have people actually download it, could there be an optional Streaming Only mode? Just a thought...

I believe the new software will support that distinction, yes.

That, my friend, is brilliant! thank you so much for working for so long to get this to happen!

The majority of credit should go to chopin, since he was the one who penned the reams of detailed specifications. I merely nitpicked here and there. ;)

A full announcement will go up once the contract is actually done and dusted.

Wonderful!

If you go to your user options and set "Hide wiki recent changes on forum index" to No, a box will appear on the forum index summarising any changes made to the wiki since your last visit. This feature was originally only available to Editors and Administrators, but on reflection I decided it may not be a bad idea to open it up to everyone, especially since the survey indicates that people on the whole aren't interested in and/or able to understand the wiki.

There are a few other things in the works too, but they may have to wait until I have more free time. In fact, the next thing you may see is an analysis of the survey results once it closes on the 17th of this month.

The survey expired on the 17th of this month, having attracted a total of 179 responses. Naturally, we're pretty delighted with this.

We will be posting something up about it soon enough - it's just a case of requiring time to analyse the findings.

What about other issues?

How do you mean, "other issues"?

One of the most common criticisms raised was

Well, the beginning of that sentence, for one, implies that there were more common criticisms.

Moreover, I don't remember mentioning this as an important criticism in my survey, but I do remember answering other questions, about the layout, wiki and other things, as well as mentioning various other stuff in the small box where we wrote comments. But it would help a lot if we all had access to our replies of the survey, this way we could point out the things we criticised.

Anyway, I am fairly sure that the fact that many threads are buried is not the only issue raised in the survey. Unless, of course, I was the only one to address other issues other than that, but I doubt so.. :| So, I was just asking, since the title of the thread is "Addressing issues raised in the survey" and not "Addressing one of the issues raised in the survey" that maybe we could have just a list of the things that were addressed in the survey results and what actions are being taken for them (if any) :)