Thanks for your earlier explanation of the system. You didn't elaborate on
how the 'passport failure' affects it, though - and I suspect that a lot of
readers won't know what you mean by passport, either. I suppose you're
referring to the Live ID you sign in with.
I still don't understand what the 'Rate this post' button is supposed to do.
I would have expected it to give me an opportunity to express an opinion of
the post's value by giving it a rating, say from one to five stars, where
one meant worthless and five meant a complete solution or an extremely
helpful comment. But it doesn't, so what does it do?
Some comments, if I may, on this post inline...
"Mark L. Ferguson" <MarkLFerguson@xxxxxx> wrote in
message news:30FBB009-143E-4C6E-B04C-2537D9078B4C@xxxxxx
Quote:
> The Communities 'rating' system is the best MS idea in a while. I am
> really behind seeing it work as it should. A 'peer rating' seems to me far
> superior to any other. I know, as an MVP, I'm 'preaching to the choir'
> with you, but I couldn't resist this chance for a little 'public advocacy'
> for my project.
> 1. Almost all 'nubie questions' posted here carry the 'question' icon
> visible when using the communities interface. This means they are using
> it, and not the other newsreaders a veteran of the groups might prefer.
Not necessarily, I think. If communities support features are enabled, a new
post compose window contains radio buttons to categorize the post, with
'question' as the default. You can tell whether a poster is using the web
interface by checking the headers. They carry message IDs like
GUID@xxxxxx, and irritatingly fail to disclose the poster's IP
address. A newsreader post often contains clues to the poster's OS, as well,
so you don't have to go through the 'which OS' round of questions and
answers.
Quote:
> 2. "Answered" questions do Not 'age off' on the web interface, as they do
> on the newsreader download set.
I'd noticed that it was pretty random which ones were still available on the
web of those that had disappeared from the NNTP server. I cannot understand
why they can't all remain on that server, apart from offensive ones. Adobe
seem to be able to to that, for example.
Quote:
> 3. Moderation is possible, and effective when using Communities (thought
> limited to a 100 or so of the total by MS )
Quote:
> 4. The 'scorecard' (profile) is a motivator for helpers and the 'medal' is
> an ego boost as well as a guide.
That sounds pretty childish to me. It might apply in some fora, but I can
hardly see that regular posters in serious technical newsgroups would be
more motivated by getting stars in their attendance books than by a desire
to be helpful.
(Incidentally, having been an intermittent user of MS newsgroups for ten
years or more, I thought it would be interesting to see what my profile
said. Despite having posted more than 1500 times since November 2006 (when I
got the machine I'm using now), and having got lots of green ticks for being
a good boy, it said "No information available". So much for the rating
system!)
Quote:
> 5. Searching the web interface includes 'age old' answers. (a point I
> think it may take an MVP to appreciate 
I've almost given up on searching there, because it's so disappointing.
Google is much better at finding posts on MS newsgroups. My ideal would be
to have all the posts I've downloaded to remain on my machine, where they
can be indexed and searched in a fraction of the time it takes to conduct a
search elsewhere. I do try and remember to copy older posts to another
folder from time to time, but when I forget, they're gone. If anyone knows
how to prevent them from being deleted, I'd be delighted to hear.
Quote:
> Other arguments are in the link in my sig.
.... where it says i.a. "In the message pane, do one of the following:
+ If the post answers your question, click Yes next to Did this post answer
the question?
+ If the message was not helpful to you, click No next to Did this post
answer the question?
The post you rated is now marked as an answer..."
....whether it was helpful or not. Bizarre!
Incidentally, WLMail will for some reason not recognize the bookmark '#' in
links. It doesn't help to escape it, either, unless I'm doing something
wrong.
--
Noel
Quote:
> "...winston" <winstonmvp@xxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:38AA90ED-9A93-4B86-A10E-CAC4AF32DA07@xxxxxx Quote:
>> Hello marfer,
>> Nice to see you too. As always appreciate the time you've spent to share
>> your knowledge with all of us. Still plucking away on a tablet ?
>>
>> Most of my efforts are via the nntp interface with an occasional forary
>> into the web interface. The latter can occasionally test one's patience
>>
>> This response is from the web ui.
>>
>> I see the same 'Rate a post' in my own messages when using WLM whether
>> posted via WLM or the Web UI. I've also noticed that WLM doesn't always
>> consistently handshake with the web ui even when using the same community
>> Live ID to sign-on in WLM. e.g. Counter(number of posts), Rank(mvp tag)
>> and Rating fields.
>>
>> I've tried quite a few different scenarios(same id, same modified id in
>> both WLM and my community profile) without consistent success. In fact,
>> some items change on later subsequent openings of WLM.
>>
>> Wish I could provide a solution.
>>
>> "Mark L. Ferguson" wrote:
>> Quote:
>>> When changing newsgroups, back and forth, to look for responces and
>>> reply (in
>>> WLM and Windows Mail) I will often see my post go up, but I get the
>>> "Rate a
>>> Post" offer in my own message. This means my passport logon has suddenly
>>> failed. I have to restart WLM to get this to work again. I do see the
>>> correct
>>> passport info in the indicator box in the WLM window, it just decides to
>>> not
>>> work. I have learned that when I have trouble getting the button for
>>> "Reply
>>> to Group" to highlight, I know it's time to restart.
>>> This seems to be some problem with the passport verification when
>>> changing
>>> newsgroups. This was happening in Windows Mail, so I changed to Live,
>>> but
>>> after a month of using each one, I am getting the same passport failure.
>>> I
>>> don't think this is anything to do with the passport site, but something
>>> in
>>> the apps themselves.
>>> Since I have lost over 10% of my posts that were rated as an 'answer' to
>>> this posting failure (he said without a trace of rancor :/), I would
>>> like to
>>> hear from anyone else seeing this, and if any better fix is available
>>> than my
>>> 'highlight failure' indicator.