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Mandolin Cafe
Sep-11-2008, 3:11pm
Here's a tip that's a great feature of this software. Often times users don't provide very good titles to threads. You can't be sure if this is by design to try to get people to read it, or that it's just that they didn't thnk through the title. If you do a mouse-over (holding your mouse cursor over the link) the thread link, you'll get an extended snippet of what the first line in the thread is about. Helps you decide if it's really something you want to read.

And, how many of you are using the "Rate This Thread" tool?

Edit: appears thread rating has been turned off since the beta testing. We'll see about getting that added back.

Mandolin Cafe
Sep-11-2008, 3:20pm
Thread rating has been turned on. :)

Ted Eschliman
Sep-11-2008, 7:14pm
Here's a tip that's a great feature of this software. Often times users don't provide very good titles to threads. You can't be sure if this is by design to try to get people to read it, or that it's just that they didn't think through the title. If you do a mouse-over (holding your mouse cursor over the link) the thread link, you'll get an extended snippet of what the first line in the thread is about. Helps you decide if it's really something you want to read.

Quick commentary along these lines. In addtion to minor typo corrections, we took some liberties in the old forum to clarify topic titles. If there was a "teaser" with no secondary explaining title (like "Wow! What's this??"), we often felt it was a service to the readers to include more content into the title as a timesaver, (edit: "Wow! What's this Nigerian Scam??") This cool mouseover feature eliminates that need, but it's still a courtesy to be clear in your titles, and not wear our your welcome with melodramatic, overtly sensationalistic titles. ("Free Lloyd Loar!")

Mandolusional
Sep-11-2008, 9:36pm
I noticed the mouseover info, that is a really nice addition. So subtle yet it adds so much, thanks again for all the hard work!

Mandojulie
Sep-12-2008, 8:38am
I cannot see how or where to rate a thread. So this thread is rated...

JEStanek
Sep-12-2008, 8:46am
Julie,

The Rate this Thread function is not turned on in the Support area. If you go to any other area, like Post a Pic, click on a thread. There is a grey bar at the top of each thread page with drop down boxes for Thread Tools (where you can subscribe to a thread), Search this thread, and then one that says Rate This Thread. Click it, and you can choose the number of stars you feel a particular thread deserves.

Jamie

Edit: Under thread tools is where you'll find the Show Printable Version of a thread. This is similar to the old forum where extraneous stuff (like attached images are dropped) and many more posts are viewable at once. However, you still will have to click through pages of the thread.

JEStanek
Sep-12-2008, 9:00am
Another Tip for folks so inclined. On the old forum when you looked at a person's Profile, you could see their real name, if they had included that. I used to use that function to reply with a person's name instead of their screenname. This information did not get imported. If you would like to have your real name available to the community, pop it into the Biography section of your Additional Details of the Edit your Details section in your User CP.

This information is shown in the About Me tab in your Profile Page.

Jamie

Mandojulie
Sep-12-2008, 9:27am
No wonder I couldn't find the rating here. Hooray! I'm not a dummy.

Thanks for the answer.

Julie

P.S. I'll go check out my CP and add my real name. On similar note I used to look at people's profiles to see where they were. Now it's right there, very nice.