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EduVideo.org
Problems with the new Developers Community...
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 00:00
Hi Kaltura,
Firstly, congratulations on the new Kaltura Developers Community! You've done a great job of compiling a whole heap of useful information into the one place. There's a whole lot of new really useful projects now on offer, which is fantastic.
However - I do have some complaints! I'm really sorry to have to "bag" your brand new system on it's very first day, but I feel these are important issues, and it would be really interesting to see what other users think.
Firstly, to be perfectly honest, I'm not a big fan of this new forum system. I really liked the old system, and would have much preferred if you stuck with it and expanded upon it. phpBB may have it issues (such as high levels of spam) - but at least it's got a great interface, is easy to use, and is extremely powerful. However, that said, I'm willing to trust you on this one, and see how these new forums play out.
Here are some issues I currently have with the new forums:
1. The lack of more generic forums such as the "showcase" and "off topic" sections. It would also be great to have a forum for topics such as this one - discussions of the developers site itself. Seeing as I had no logical place to post this - I just picked a forum that would generate the most traffic in a hope that someone will actually see it!
2. As far as I can tell, you can no longer "subscribe" to threads or forums. I don't have time to constantly check back on the forums for new posts - so it was fantastic to just get an e-mail every day telling me what's happening on the forums. I really believe this feature needs to be implemented, for these forums to be actually useful.
3. I've lost all my old posts! OK, sure, you're manually trying to copy and paste everything over, but I can no longer get a list of all my old threads for reference purposes. If you're planning to move everything from the old forums to the new forums - can you also keep the post ownership intact?
4. I generally feel a bit "lost" in this new forum system. With the old system, when you open the forum - it clearly displays which threads have new posts, and what they were. In this new system, you have to basically click a hundred times to get a grip of what's happening in the community.
The forums aside, I think it would also be extremely beneficial to transfer the wiki over to this site. It would be great to be able to search for API calls using the search facility in the top of the page. At the moment, there still is no CENTRALISED place to get information on the Kaltura platform. It would be great to just have ONE site for all the information you'll ever need in terms of Kaltura Development. It would be great to have links to USEFUL developer tools listed on the top of the developers site as well (such as the TestMe console, KMC, etc.). A quick drop down menu at the top of each page, allowing you to jump to a particular forum would also be extremely handy.
Finally, there are a lot of broken links on this site. For example, the "Kaltura’s Client Libraries" link on the "About" page.
Again, sorry to dump all this negativity on you from day one! It's just I always find it a bit annoying when people break something that's already working fine. I know you've got the best intentions at heart, and I know you're all really working incredibly hard behind the scenes to develop a community to really benefit everyone. It's just I don't think that this new forum is really speeding up or improving upon anything.
I'd love to hear what other users think!!
Thanks for your time!
Best Regards, Chris!
P.S I'm just going to do some tests below. Please ignore.
This is bold. This is strong. This is em. This is cite. This is
- ul
. This is
- ol
. This is
. This is
- dl
. This is
. This is
.
Code Test:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::StreamMetaData/getStartBytesOffsetFromOriginal()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::StreamMetaData/seekToPreciseKeyframe()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/checkLoading()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/seekMedia()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/::fixPlayheadAfterMetadata()
at Function/http://adobe.com/AS3/2006/builtin::apply()
at ()
at flash.utils::SetIntervalTimer/flash.utils:SetIntervalTimer::onTimer()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::_timerDispatch()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::tick()
BBCode Test:
This is bold. This is a URL test. This is italic. This is underlined. Let's correct this mispelled misspelled word. Jane was at the coast. Joe was in the forest. You said: HEY!. She said: What?.
I love
- Oranges
- Apples
- Bananas
This is a quote:
Chris wrote:
Hello world!
This is code:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::StreamMetaData/getStartBytesOffsetFromOriginal()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::StreamMetaData/seekToPreciseKeyframe()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/checkLoading()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/seekMedia()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/::fixPlayheadAfterMetadata()
at Function/http://adobe.com/AS3/2006/builtin::apply()
at ()
at flash.utils::SetIntervalTimer/flash.utils:SetIntervalTimer::onTimer()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::_timerDispatch()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::tick()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::StreamMetaData/getStartBytesOffsetFromOriginal()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::StreamMetaData/seekToPreciseKeyframe()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/checkLoading()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/seekMedia()
at com.kaltura.net.streaming::ExNetStream/::fixPlayheadAfterMetadata()
at Function/http://adobe.com/AS3/2006/builtin::apply()
at ()
at flash.utils::SetIntervalTimer/flash.utils:SetIntervalTimer::onTimer()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::_timerDispatch()
at flash.utils::Timer/flash.utils:Timer::tick()
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 00:08
#2
Strange! You cannot edit the first item in a thread, but you can edit replies... Maybe it's just a bug then?
On another note, it took me four goes until I got the darn CAPTCHA right!
Please ignore below this - just doing some more tests...
Line 1
Line 2 (with one space in between)
Line 3 (with two spaces in between)
Line 4 (with three spaces in between)
Line 5 (with four spaces in between)
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 15:37
#3
Chris, I agree with most of your comments about the new forum system. The forum system, indeed the entire new community site, look suspiciously like another software user community with which I'm familiar (and not especially impressed) -- http://community.be.org/.
Forum structure is a tricky thing to get right, but when, for example, the WordPress Plugin forum gets split into half a dozen or more forums -- well, combined with the new system, the change is rather jarring. But as you say, I'm willing to trust Kaltura and make an effort to adapt. The line break issue needs a fast fix, though.
I second your recommendation to move the wiki to this site and of course echo your congratulations to Kaltura on releasing the CE Alpha and debuting the new community.
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 15:26
#4
Hi guys!
Thanks a-lot for your feedback - it is highly appreciated and very important to us.
Most of the issues you're having are being handled and will be fixed soon (you can see the captcha is no longer required for forums once you have logged-in, and the line-breaks are fixed).
Forums - this was a tricky decision to make, and I do agree with you, the new forums feel a-bit overwhelming. Unfortunately, basing the whole site on drupal required us to either create some kind of single-sign-on and fix the design of phpbb to fit the rest of the site Or use the drupal system built-in forums + forums plugins by the drupal community and built on-top. True, this is a hard move, but if we want to scale - this was a must, and we feel that soon enough we'll find the golden path (and design/layout) for better forums that are also integrated to the rest of the site -
This is also where you come in as the community and users and help us understand how to make things better, easier, sexier and helpful to your needs.
Post ownership is a-bit tricky, but we're working on it :)
We will soon update a new guide that will be linked on every form for creating /edit posts, docs etc. This will help you when writing to understand how and what are the options available for layout and design of the post content.
I agree with you on the general forums, it will be added soon.
Subscribe to changes is on the makes, and will actually be available more than just to forum posts - you will be able to get notifications for any change in content (e.g. changes in documentation).
You can actually see that comments were added to threads - see the legend at the bottom of the forums list when you enter a specific category. We are working on adding this feature to the Forums Lobby as well. + views counter (which is actually available on the thread now).
Quick navigation on forums is a great idea - will be added!
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 22:27
#5
Fantastic! It's great to see you're really listening and more importantly acting on recommendations!
Thank you!
Best Regards, Chris!
P.S. Please ignore the following - just testing line breaks!
Line 1
Line 2 (with one space in between)
Line 3 (with two spaces in between)
Line 4 (with three spaces in between)
Line 5 (with four spaces in between)
Thu, 05/07/2009 - 22:28
#6
Ahhhh... just for the record, it seems line breaks are still broken!
Also, did you ever consider this: http://drupal.i1media.no/
Fri, 05/08/2009 - 00:11
#7
What ever you were testing a few moment ago in terms of making the forum home page looking like a proper forum (i.e. list of different forums, with view counts, etc.) was great! My only problem with it was the sheer quantity of forums! Can you have sub forums on this system? For example, you should have one for "Client Libraries", then within that, PHP, Ruby, Java, etc.
Fri, 05/08/2009 - 21:14
#8
Chris, what you may have saw, wasn't a test by mistake ;)
You can access an alternative page of list of all forums at: http://kaltura.org/forum
This is currently "behind the scenes", because we are organizing the overall structure of the forums (as you said, sub categories). It will be available once this work will be finished + design tweaks we're currently working on.
But, the new "alpha" page is available in case you feel it is more useful and comfortable - so feel free to use it, and throw us your feedback and suggestions.
Btw, we did try the phpbb-drupal plugin you mentioned.. it doesn't integrate well, we looked for a complete solution that will integrate search and internal drupal management - 1media basically does limited user control on single-sign-on.
Fri, 05/08/2009 - 22:16
#9
Regarding the new-line (line breaks) issue -
Built in Drupal uses a script called autop (http://ma.tt/scripts/autop/) to better layout the posts and comments.
What the script does is basically convert every two consequent < br > to < p > .
Thus you'r comment is automatically being converted so that paragraphs are being separated by < p > tags instead of too many < br >'s .
However, should you want to force a line-break, you can use the tag [\br] (no backslash '\') like in the following example:
No line breaks stay on the same line.
One line break creates a new line.
Two line breaks creates a new paragraph.
Three and more line breaks can be created by using the force br tag [\br] (in this case, three times: [\br][\br][\br])
Sun, 06/14/2009 - 09:05
#10
Hi Everyone!
Sorry, it's been a while since my last post. I've been flat out recently...
I was just wondering what everyone things of the new Kaltura Developers Community, now that it's been operational for a while.
Personally, I still find the forums to be a bit uncomfortable, and to be perfectly honest, one of the reasons I haven't been posting much on this new system is because I find it a lot harder to keep track of different posts. Is anyone else having this issue?
I have been following the Community Edition forum though, and even though I haven't had a chance to test it out myself yet, I must say it's been very exciting to see everyone messing around with it! Even more exciting that people are trying to get it to run on Macs and Windows! Keep up the amazing work everyone!
Hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll be able to spend more time around these forums!
Best Regards, Chris!
Sun, 06/14/2009 - 09:17
#11
Hi Chris,
Glad to hear from you!
About tracking the different posts - we actually implemented a new subscription system that lets you subscribe to any thread you want, which makes tracking threads more convenient. We would love to hear more feedback and see more posts!
Sorry to bother you all again - but I have just discovered some more issues:
1. You need to complete a CAPTCHA every time you reply! Although I understand the logic as to why this is, I'd much prefer to put up lots of road blocks during the registration stage, and leave posting quick and easy. I can't be bothered doing a CAPTCHA every time I need to reply to a post.
2. You seem to loose all line breaks in forum posts - making things really hard to read.
3. You cannot EDIT a post after you have posted. I'm pretty clumsy and trigger happy, so an edit function is vital for me.
4. You can no longer see how many people have viewed your post. I find these kinds of stats really useful.
Do these things bother you too as a Kaltura Community member? I'd LOVE to hear your feedback!
Best Regards, Chris!