I Think I'm Done With CodeProject
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I don't claim to be an expert (just as well, people would laugh) but would be willing to do some noise filtering to save others time. Elaine :rose: The tigress is here :-D
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Until these most/all of these issues are addressed: 1) The site simply cannot support the number of users it has attracted. There seems to be anywhere from 6,500 to 9,000 users online at any given time, and this is crushing the site's ability to exist. If I'm not greeted with a 500 error, the pages takes its sweet bloody time scratching itself onto the screen. It takes even longer to display the front page of the lounge. 2) The message boards are completely inadequate because of the sheer number of posts that are submitted. Posts scroll out of freakin site after only a few hours because of the way the forums work. Despite what people think, many of us have freakin jobs and need sleep every once in a while, and we simply can't monitor the site 24/7. Until a real forum system is installed, I won't be posting any more. If you're not using one because you can't find one written with ASP.NET, that's a piss-poor excuse to ignore an obvious problem on the site. 3) The fact that people can post anonymously has been a thorn in the site's side since the forums were created. There's apparently no way to IP ban people from posting, or there's no desire to do it. Whichever is the case, it's unacceptable. 4) General forum abuse is rampant. Despite obvious instructions to not post programming questions in the Lounge, people do it, and then at least 30 people point out to the offender that they screwed up. The net effect is that more desireable posts fall off the edge of the world never to be seen by people who might be interested in reading or responding to them. 5) The voting system is at least three shades past stupid, and is obviously being abused, especially where the programming articles are concerned. I know I'm not the only person here that's been a victim of this problem. Now, some of you (people that don't know me) may say "so what, this guys is a dick and he rarely contributes anything anyway", but if the problem is large enough for me to post this message, then you can bet there are plenty of other users that feel the same way but are trying to be more tolerant and simply haven't been pushed quite hard enough to say anything. I've been here 5 years (in December), have posted over 5000 messages in these "forums", and have submitted 12 articles, thinking contributing to the site would do somebody some good. I respect Chris and his team, and honestly appreciate what he's trying to do on CodeProject, but I've simply had enough. The site is crumbling under the weight of the user base, the qualit
Here are some ideas for filtering out unwanted users and posts: a) when joining you can't access member features until you have responded to an email and activated your account and which you don't get for 24 hours from registering. This will cut out casual trolls and other undesirables (except me of course :laugh:). Many sites use this type of membership. I know that you can easily set up a hotmail account but how many people would bother just to make a single post or to vote someone down whose views/article they didn't like? b) NO anonymous posts (I understand the reasons for allowing these but things have changed: so must this rule). c) a monthly/bi-monthly/regular activation process along the lines of a. d) subscription only membership (thereby alleviating the need for ads or at least a drastic reduction thereof). e) separate the forums from the code and/or separate out the code into separate sites on different web-farms. f) upgrade to a more scalable technology or more efficient servers. Hope this is useful.
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Yep, very true. The amount of dorky articles is unbelivable. Whats needed is something like slashdot, so that you don;t have to view stuff below a certain rating. Sadly, the current rating system is not up to it, as tiny minded trolls go though voting stuff down or up depending on their feeble thoughts. Frankly, you should not be able to vote unless you are at a certain level, e.g. gold. There are enough of us now. Troll accounts should be deleted, so they never make it to being able to vote.
The "Latest Articles" page has such a filter expressly for this. I can increase this filter threashold for the newsletter, but aren't willing to increase it for the homepage because a) articles are only on their for a day b) if someone votes an article down then it's lost forever. cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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I really share your feelings, although i'm pained to criticise, because I, like others are very grateful for the hard work chris & the team put into this site. But it really needs a new coat of paint. You can get some understanding of why the site can be slow, and falls over, when you consider a few things:- The main c# general articles page (which I won't link to, because people will click it), currently stands at a whopping 772 Kb. And that's not including images, stylesheets or anything. 772 Kb is riduculous. The page needs splitting, urgently. And most of that 772 Kb is presumably dynamic, so some poor sql server is getting a pounding every time the page is loaded. As I write this, the first page of the lounge is at 145 Kb. The text of every message is inside the page; and displayed with some Javascript and DHTML. Again this is unneccessary data to be pulled from the DB, and sent to the client. It seems CP site code was written for when the site was a lot smaller, and hasn't scaled well at all. Chris, Is there anything we can do to help you make some improvements? And to make it worse, the little nipple type mouse pointing stick thing on my laptop keypad has fallen off.
using System.Beer;
You can change the forum display settings not to include the message text, but only include message headers (and optionally, a short message preview). This will cut down forum page size (use the "View" dropdown at the top of forums). I'm also working on the rewrite which will allow a further option to reduce bandwidth while still ensuring it's responsive. The C# page is a mess - I know. I've been putting off reorganising this because there's a major reorg coming up and I don't want to double up work. But the emouse pointing stick. Oh man. I'm so, so sorry. cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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The "Latest Articles" page has such a filter expressly for this. I can increase this filter threashold for the newsletter, but aren't willing to increase it for the homepage because a) articles are only on their for a day b) if someone votes an article down then it's lost forever. cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
And I definitely appreciate that! It's not cool when two months of effort gets harpooned by a troll. Any possibility of making voters and their votes a public part of the article (as well as a public part of the voters profile). The ability to contest and cancel troll votes (voters who are not willing to defend their 1.0 vote) would also be welcome.
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While I might have agreed a year ago, I now think you're over-reacting. Here's why:
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
the pages takes its sweet bloody time scratching itself onto the screen
If I really think about it, the up-time is actually significantly higher than the down-time. And my primary concern with CP's down time is not whether I can access CP, but whether other's can access my articles. I solved the second issue with my own website. And no, I'm not trying to sound arrogant, like ooh, my articles are the cat's meow. But they are a way of getting work, and that's why I need the visibility.
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
many of us have freakin jobs and need sleep every once in a while, and we simply can't monitor the site 24/7.
Why would you want to? Is there something so bloody important in every single post that requires your constant attention? Hardly.
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
Until a real forum system is installed
I actually like CP's forum a LOT better than any other forum I've ever seen. The classic forum format sucks, IMHO.
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
General forum abuse is rampant.
Over-exaggeration. And again, so what?
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
The voting system is at least three shades past stupid,
Ignore the voting system. It's not that CP's voting system is stupid, it's that any voting system exhibits stupidity. It's the nature of the animal. But the voting system does weed out the truly stupid articles.
John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
then you can bet there are plenty of other users that feel the same way but are trying to be more tolerant and simply haven't been pushed quite hard enough to say anything.
I wouldn't be so sure. Certainly my rants and raves haven't been listened to. Why should yours? I took a more 12-step approach. Accept that I have no control over what Chris does. My blood pressure is a lot better now that I really don't give a damn whether CP has ads or not, etc. However, part of that attitude is the result of my taking control of something that I am capable of controlling--again, having my own website, with
Marc Clifton wrote:
it's that any voting system exhibits stupidity
Especially the American voting system. :rolleyes:
Marc Clifton wrote:
I actually like CP's forum a LOT better than any other forum I've ever seen. The classic forum format sucks, IMHO.
I'll agree with that. However, I do think something needs to be done to weed out the crap.
Picture a huge catholic cathedral. In it there's many people, including a gregorian monk choir. You know, those who sing beautifully. Then they start singing, in latin, as they always do: "Ad hominem..." -Jörgen Sigvardsson
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Until these most/all of these issues are addressed: 1) The site simply cannot support the number of users it has attracted. There seems to be anywhere from 6,500 to 9,000 users online at any given time, and this is crushing the site's ability to exist. If I'm not greeted with a 500 error, the pages takes its sweet bloody time scratching itself onto the screen. It takes even longer to display the front page of the lounge. 2) The message boards are completely inadequate because of the sheer number of posts that are submitted. Posts scroll out of freakin site after only a few hours because of the way the forums work. Despite what people think, many of us have freakin jobs and need sleep every once in a while, and we simply can't monitor the site 24/7. Until a real forum system is installed, I won't be posting any more. If you're not using one because you can't find one written with ASP.NET, that's a piss-poor excuse to ignore an obvious problem on the site. 3) The fact that people can post anonymously has been a thorn in the site's side since the forums were created. There's apparently no way to IP ban people from posting, or there's no desire to do it. Whichever is the case, it's unacceptable. 4) General forum abuse is rampant. Despite obvious instructions to not post programming questions in the Lounge, people do it, and then at least 30 people point out to the offender that they screwed up. The net effect is that more desireable posts fall off the edge of the world never to be seen by people who might be interested in reading or responding to them. 5) The voting system is at least three shades past stupid, and is obviously being abused, especially where the programming articles are concerned. I know I'm not the only person here that's been a victim of this problem. Now, some of you (people that don't know me) may say "so what, this guys is a dick and he rarely contributes anything anyway", but if the problem is large enough for me to post this message, then you can bet there are plenty of other users that feel the same way but are trying to be more tolerant and simply haven't been pushed quite hard enough to say anything. I've been here 5 years (in December), have posted over 5000 messages in these "forums", and have submitted 12 articles, thinking contributing to the site would do somebody some good. I respect Chris and his team, and honestly appreciate what he's trying to do on CodeProject, but I've simply had enough. The site is crumbling under the weight of the user base, the qualit
I agree with some of John's points, but IMHO, the site would be improved dramatically just by removing "The Soapbox". How many users post there exclusively and don't contribute anything code related? Not only would there be fewer trolls attracted by the religious/cultural/political flamewars, there'd be less of a bandwidth strain and more storage. If you're into that kind of debate, there are lots of other sites on the Internet that cater to it. Share and enjoy. Sean
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You can change the forum display settings not to include the message text, but only include message headers (and optionally, a short message preview). This will cut down forum page size (use the "View" dropdown at the top of forums). I'm also working on the rewrite which will allow a further option to reduce bandwidth while still ensuring it's responsive. The C# page is a mess - I know. I've been putting off reorganising this because there's a major reorg coming up and I don't want to double up work. But the emouse pointing stick. Oh man. I'm so, so sorry. cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Cool, I'll try that. What about changing the default view, at the very least for unregistered users, to only show the headers? it might save some server load if more people get the lean version? Glad to hear theres a reorg in the pipelines. I shall attempt to perform a lengthy surgical reattachement operation to said stick thing tonight. I fear the worst though. Do you think it's enough justification for my employer to get me a brand spanking new laptop?
using System.Beer;
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The "Latest Articles" page has such a filter expressly for this. I can increase this filter threashold for the newsletter, but aren't willing to increase it for the homepage because a) articles are only on their for a day b) if someone votes an article down then it's lost forever. cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Until these most/all of these issues are addressed: 1) The site simply cannot support the number of users it has attracted. There seems to be anywhere from 6,500 to 9,000 users online at any given time, and this is crushing the site's ability to exist. If I'm not greeted with a 500 error, the pages takes its sweet bloody time scratching itself onto the screen. It takes even longer to display the front page of the lounge. 2) The message boards are completely inadequate because of the sheer number of posts that are submitted. Posts scroll out of freakin site after only a few hours because of the way the forums work. Despite what people think, many of us have freakin jobs and need sleep every once in a while, and we simply can't monitor the site 24/7. Until a real forum system is installed, I won't be posting any more. If you're not using one because you can't find one written with ASP.NET, that's a piss-poor excuse to ignore an obvious problem on the site. 3) The fact that people can post anonymously has been a thorn in the site's side since the forums were created. There's apparently no way to IP ban people from posting, or there's no desire to do it. Whichever is the case, it's unacceptable. 4) General forum abuse is rampant. Despite obvious instructions to not post programming questions in the Lounge, people do it, and then at least 30 people point out to the offender that they screwed up. The net effect is that more desireable posts fall off the edge of the world never to be seen by people who might be interested in reading or responding to them. 5) The voting system is at least three shades past stupid, and is obviously being abused, especially where the programming articles are concerned. I know I'm not the only person here that's been a victim of this problem. Now, some of you (people that don't know me) may say "so what, this guys is a dick and he rarely contributes anything anyway", but if the problem is large enough for me to post this message, then you can bet there are plenty of other users that feel the same way but are trying to be more tolerant and simply haven't been pushed quite hard enough to say anything. I've been here 5 years (in December), have posted over 5000 messages in these "forums", and have submitted 12 articles, thinking contributing to the site would do somebody some good. I respect Chris and his team, and honestly appreciate what he's trying to do on CodeProject, but I've simply had enough. The site is crumbling under the weight of the user base, the qualit
The voting system abuse is why I quit posting code articles here.
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The voting system abuse is why I quit posting code articles here.
Agreed. In order to deserve a 5, you need to post something crazy. Not even worth trying. Don't get me wrong, some articles don't deserve crap, but some other pretty good articles get ratings in the 3s. On another note, I already made this suggestion but it went straight to the obituary I guess. Why not have a section for code snippets only? I often have great code snippets I'd like to share but just don't have to write an article, or it might not even be worth writing an article for. I end up not posting them to CP because of this. And if I wrote an article for the snippet, I'd get rated very low because it's not out of the ordinary.
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Yep, very true. The amount of dorky articles is unbelivable. Whats needed is something like slashdot, so that you don;t have to view stuff below a certain rating. Sadly, the current rating system is not up to it, as tiny minded trolls go though voting stuff down or up depending on their feeble thoughts. Frankly, you should not be able to vote unless you are at a certain level, e.g. gold. There are enough of us now. Troll accounts should be deleted, so they never make it to being able to vote.
I agree. It would be nice if only gold votes counted on an article. What I would like even more is if voting were no longer anonymous. Or at least maybe you could choose to only view article ratings by gold votes.
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And I definitely appreciate that! It's not cool when two months of effort gets harpooned by a troll. Any possibility of making voters and their votes a public part of the article (as well as a public part of the voters profile). The ability to contest and cancel troll votes (voters who are not willing to defend their 1.0 vote) would also be welcome.
I think this is a real solution. You can not vote unless you also cast a comment along with the vote. That comment should be publicly viewable.
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Trollslayer wrote:
What does the country of origin have to do with it? CP is international.
The sad truth is, that I can pretty much pinpoint plagarized articles by the author's name (and therefore assumed nationality) and the content of the article (as in, the content does not match what I would expect from the author). Here's[^] a perfect example. Yes, I do typecasting. So sue me. It works, and it works for a reason. Marc My website Traceract Understanding Simple Data Binding Diary Of A CEO - Preface
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Marc Clifton wrote:
Here's[^] a perfect example.
I'm trying to look at that example, but I keep getting error 500 :doh:
p daddy wrote:
I'm trying to look at that example, but I keep getting error 500
Nish already deleted it. Marc My website Traceract Understanding Simple Data Binding Diary Of A CEO - Preface
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The voting system abuse is why I quit posting code articles here.
Allen Anderson wrote:
The voting system abuse is why I quit posting code articles here.
Both your articles are rated 4+, that's a lot better than what some other similarly good articles got over here - so you didn't really get such a bad deal after all :-)
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Until these most/all of these issues are addressed: 1) The site simply cannot support the number of users it has attracted. There seems to be anywhere from 6,500 to 9,000 users online at any given time, and this is crushing the site's ability to exist. If I'm not greeted with a 500 error, the pages takes its sweet bloody time scratching itself onto the screen. It takes even longer to display the front page of the lounge. 2) The message boards are completely inadequate because of the sheer number of posts that are submitted. Posts scroll out of freakin site after only a few hours because of the way the forums work. Despite what people think, many of us have freakin jobs and need sleep every once in a while, and we simply can't monitor the site 24/7. Until a real forum system is installed, I won't be posting any more. If you're not using one because you can't find one written with ASP.NET, that's a piss-poor excuse to ignore an obvious problem on the site. 3) The fact that people can post anonymously has been a thorn in the site's side since the forums were created. There's apparently no way to IP ban people from posting, or there's no desire to do it. Whichever is the case, it's unacceptable. 4) General forum abuse is rampant. Despite obvious instructions to not post programming questions in the Lounge, people do it, and then at least 30 people point out to the offender that they screwed up. The net effect is that more desireable posts fall off the edge of the world never to be seen by people who might be interested in reading or responding to them. 5) The voting system is at least three shades past stupid, and is obviously being abused, especially where the programming articles are concerned. I know I'm not the only person here that's been a victim of this problem. Now, some of you (people that don't know me) may say "so what, this guys is a dick and he rarely contributes anything anyway", but if the problem is large enough for me to post this message, then you can bet there are plenty of other users that feel the same way but are trying to be more tolerant and simply haven't been pushed quite hard enough to say anything. I've been here 5 years (in December), have posted over 5000 messages in these "forums", and have submitted 12 articles, thinking contributing to the site would do somebody some good. I respect Chris and his team, and honestly appreciate what he's trying to do on CodeProject, but I've simply had enough. The site is crumbling under the weight of the user base, the qualit
That's too bad. If you apply Sturgeon's Law[^] to the web, 99.997% on the web is crap. Code Project bucks that trend by a wide margin.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Trollslayer wrote:
What does the country of origin have to do with it? CP is international.
The sad truth is, that I can pretty much pinpoint plagarized articles by the author's name (and therefore assumed nationality) and the content of the article (as in, the content does not match what I would expect from the author). Here's[^] a perfect example. Yes, I do typecasting. So sue me. It works, and it works for a reason. Marc My website Traceract Understanding Simple Data Binding Diary Of A CEO - Preface
Marc Clifton wrote:
Yes, I do typecasting.
Is this something like stereo-typing?
"Take only what you need and leave the land as you found it." - Native American Proverb
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The "Latest Articles" page has such a filter expressly for this. I can increase this filter threashold for the newsletter, but aren't willing to increase it for the homepage because a) articles are only on their for a day b) if someone votes an article down then it's lost forever. cheers, Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
Chris, I'm self employed I work a lot. Having said that CP is one of my main outlets when I'm tied to a desk. I love to come hear and hang out with the people your site has attracted. Lately, I've been tone strong to PUMPKINHEAD but I'm way willing to back off and take a more PC approach if you need extra volunteers to watch things and alert you of stuff. I'm here so much just scanning. I've got a slew of articles I'm working on to release in January or February. I just love strolling around here though. If you want some assistance in tracking anything or working on anything let me know. I'm way beyond happy to volunteer here. Like I said, it's recreational for me and I'm here often enough... If you would like me to do anything just let me know but I'm happy to offer any skills even just read/report to you guys. I offer this because I agree with what John Simmons has stated whole heartedly. If I'm willing to sign my name to his problem definition then I have to be willing to assist in providing a solution. Especially to a place that I think is pretty cool and worthy of some quality time and effort. I can provide you a list of references and other stuff if you want or need it. I'm happy to help though.:rose: - Rex
Some assembly required. Code-frog System Architects, Inc.
