asked
[meta] Questions & Concerns about how the new site operates
With the switch-over, I've gone looking to see what has changed and I'm finding some gaps in quite a few places. For example, the FAQ and About pages are generic pages from the new system, not specific to Ask.SQLSserverCentral. Also, there were a number of tools that opened up when I hit 10,000. They seem to have been removed (not a loss, I never used them) which leaves me wondering how much of the moderation gets opened up and when (apart from the abilities mentioned in the FAQ). Also, I suppose I already know the answer to this question, but, I don't see a place for discussion about the site, so I assume we still have to mix in meta questions with the real questions like I'm doing now. Is there a way to set preferences? I'd like to see the questions always by the newest first, but I keep popping back to the most active, which isn't that helpful. Is there an overarching explanation as to what's changed, how, what else needs to happen, etc. I ask because this is all completely new and totally unexpected. The medium to light users are going to be a bit gobsmaked as much as the heavier users. Some details & help & information would make the change go a bit more smoothly. Thanks.
Hi @Grant Fritchey, you have moderator status, which means that you have all privileges and capabilities that can be gained by reputation. In effect, your reputation is higher than any threshold required to use an ability. Moderator and admin roles are different, however, so you don't have access to the administrative console where lots of things can be changed. @Matt Whitfield has already made some useful suggestions about non-admin moderation features, and this is something we will pay attention to. The Red Gate guys will need to edit the FAQ, About, and other static pages. Of course, they will be the ones who give any overarching explanations, as well.
I don't miss a thing, but there were quite a few more options open. I didn't take advantage of any of them previously. I'm just noting that in poking around more things changed than simply the GUI.
Which brings up two more questions... About the preferences or settings page. Is there one? I've received a couple of comments by email from the site, different than what I've seen before and they didn't include a link to a particular discussion. In fact it looks like my registered email address is open to others. Is that the case?
@Grant: * You can adjust your notification preferences from the menu on your profile page. * Each email should have a link to the discussion it relates to - are you sure? * Addresses are not publicly visible, but as a moderator you may be able to see them.
Found it. I clicked on a few users, I can only see my own email address, which is good. How did I get emails from individuals though that weren't linked to any particular discussion?
The way I've cut the meta stuff was that meta stuff about OSQA itself and how it works should probably go into the OSQA meta forum... Meta discussion about this community I don't think is big enough to separate into a separate forum (personally). It's probably worth updating [this question][1] on meta OSQA to let the OSQA guys know about mod stuff that you miss - because to be honest I can't remember what I've missed - if someone had notified me, or **anyone** for that matter, about the move, I guess we would have had the chance to compare side by side and make a more comprehensive list of stuff... As for the overarchiing explanation - I think we're all waiting on that one :) [1]:
http://meta.osqa.net/questions/2788/things-that-non-admin-moderators-need
Not sure. I think the meta questions get in the way. Not stuff like Kev being an exceptional dba, but honestly goofball questions like mine that can be taken... offline, not so much non-public because I believe in public discourse, but not so much in people's faces. A secondary area off on the side somewhere... vague though it may be, that's my suggestion.
Ah, so discussion about the software can occur there. That's good to know. I was still thinking about discussion about the this site needed a place that wasn't directly in the face of people who are only interested in posting questions & answers about the SQL Server product stack. If that's possible within the infrastructure of the OSQA.
I think it's six of one and half a dozen of the other as to where meta questions about the community (as opposed to the software - for example my recent plug for Kev being exceptional DBA) should be placed - you have any thoughts?
We have considered building support for a "meta-site" directly into the OSQA system, so each OSQA site would implicitly have a sideband area for meta-discussion. Would this be a useful option here?
I'm not 100% sure now, but I THINK that before the migration, a question did only get "bumped" when it had a new answer, not when it had a new comment. Can anyone more experienced confirm or deny that?
@Magnus - yes - that's correct. Personally I'm still deciding whether I like that or not :)
I believe OSQA provides admin preferences to select which actions cause a bump. I don't remember whether comments do that by default, bu that was apparently how most users wanted it on a bunch of different sites. The truth is that a much more interesting view of the overall flow is coming soon, and this entire current model will likely feel obsolete very quickly. All the regular users want to see what has changed, without having to click all over the place to find it. We have a view that shows this "action stream" directly, and I like it a lot better.
@rickross - I'm hoping that view will be a preference thing, so users can opt in / out of it as they please?
Personally, I prefer having it get bumped up by comments as well. In some cases, the comments can be tremendously significant.
Speaking of comments... - What's the purpose of being able to "Like" a comment, besides making Facebook users feel more at home? If I understand correctly, it doesn't affect karma (?). - Seems like either the evaluation or the description of the "Pundit" badge is wrong (alternatively hard for me to understand...).
http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/badges/ says the badge is awarded to anyone who "Left 10 comments", but so far only TimothyAWiseman has been awarded the "Pundit" badge.
