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RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

GSquared — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:14:01 GMT

I like the ideas in the article at the end, about adding the editorial to the front page, and so on.I don't think a lot needs to change in the appearance of the page. It works, and it's "branded" for me. Has positioning and and the right emotional impact (looks like something from an engineer, rather than something from a marketing group, which carries the right implications and emotional tone). (Yes, I've spent too much time in marketing and sales.)There are a couple of functionality changes that I would like, if they're popular enough.First, I'd like a simple link to my subscribed topics on the front page. I don't like the e-mail notifications, but I do like to follow up on threads I've been involved in. I manage the list daily, looking for further details, removing dead threads, etc. It's just not as easy to get to as I would like.Also, on the list of subscribed threads, I'd like an indicator that says, "there have been 2 posts since you last viewed this thread", or something of that sort to indicate new content, and possibly the last date viewed of the thread.Second, I'd like a filter on the forums that would allow me to look for unanswered questions and posts. Quite often, when I sign in, I actively look for posts that don't have an answer yet, so I can answer them.When I look at a thread, and see that the most recent answer was by GilaMonster, Matt Miller, Jeff Moden, etc., I can pretty safely assume that whatever problem the thread was started with has been solved. When I read their posts, I'm more looking for solutions I wouldn't have thought of myself.It would be nice to be able to quickly filter the forums for questions that haven't been answered yet, so I can help on those.Right now, I can scan through, looking for posts with 0 replies, and that gets me part of what I'm looking for, but not necessarily the whole thing. I'm not sure how I'd build it to work that way, but it would be nice if there were a way to mark a thread as "solved" or "answered", and then to filter against that.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

GSquared — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:02:49 GMT

[quote][b]James A. Lawrence (2/26/2007)[/b][hr]Here's an example, visit This (somewhat new) SQL site is pretty cool from the aspect of design... and the articles and 'How To' items are very well written. Read one of Robyn Page's articles for example. I believethis site isbased out of the UK. On the volume of info a site provides, I think this it easy to overdo. That is, some include so much info that you're simply overwhelmed. I really like the 'need help' questions on your site - I have gleaned a lot of useful info from those. [/quote]James, Simple-Talk is another Red Gate site. I'm sure they are aware of it. :)Gotta second the motion on this one. The Simple-Talk site is very, very nice. Phil mentioned at one point that the SQL Server focused material was going to be more emphasized on SQL Server Central, and that Simple-Talk would focus more on .NET. Links back and forth between the two, and a shared style, would be nice.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Lowell — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:38:16 GMT

I love SSC, and wander through it nearly every day .things i'd like to see:Something we had at one time, that was snipped out in the new design:under "Recent Posts" link, I'd like the dropdown to add "View UnAnswered Posts", that would list all the posts that have not been replied to yet...I'm not in a race with of the higher output posters, but it's worthy sometimes to see what might have been skimmed over.Something new:The "My Posts" link is great, but it would be awesome to be able to filter it/search against it based on a string. Alot of times, a new question has been already answered in detail in a previous post I might have made, and it's hard to search through my own posts to find the answer I could point them to or re-paste.This functionality could be replaced by google, if we had the ability to also search/filter by author, as well as text. That way, If I knew Jeff Moden's "Tally" table was relevant, I could filter on that...searching witht eh current google for "Jeff Moden Tally" isn't as specific As I'd hope for.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Tom Garth — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:19:18 GMT

What I DON'T like.Let me preface my comment by mentioning that I live out in the boonies, and expect that DSL is a distant future for me here. Never the less, with careful planning, I still do more than 90% of my job from home. Therefore my remarks come from a 56k modem user's standpoint.I don't like any page that refuses to stop loading when you tell it to.Ads are okay and necessary. Flash content and the like is not welcome, but mainly because so many sites don't allow the main content of a page to load until the Ad content is downloaded. The same sentiment is felt for pages with [b]large [/b]flashy image files.A couple of examples of this are:http://www.WashingtonPost.comhttp://www.msn.FoxSports.comA friendlier experience is found at http://news.yahoo.com/ where the page content appears to be one of the first things to appear.SQL Server Central is one of my favorite sites, because of the content, and the knowledge of it's contributing members, but I wouldn't visit it daily if it didn't present itself in a "56k Modem Friendly" manner.Keep up the good work Steve!

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Matt Miller (#4) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:32:10 GMT

I know I'm a tad bit late to the party as well - but is there any chance to think toward improving "accessibility" As in - [url=http://www.section508.gov/]http://www.section508.gov/[/url]As in - put some thought into say - a "lightweight" version, or something that might work on a smaller screen. The query/nav buttons (like "recent posts") fall down on my Treo due to something custom in the Javascript. I spend a fair share of time sitting in airports, and this is one site I essentially can't use while there.Assuming you're using master pages and those kinds of concepts the right way - it shouldn't be all that ludicrously complicated. You can get pretty far with some fairly minor additions/changes to the code.Edit: I see Ewan already beat me to it:).

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

JJ B — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:12:12 GMT

I echo other posters in stressing simple and easy to use features over focusing on "look and feel". The feature I wish for most is a way to "subscribe"? to articles without having to post a reply myself. When I post a reply, I start to get e-mails sent saying that other people have posted comments on the same article. This is a great feature! I don't want to waste my time checking the site all day long or over several days. I just want to know when something new has happened. What I would like added is the ability to get those e-mails even when I haven't posted a reply. I don't always have something to say and don't want to waste anyone else's time with a filler comment. Instead, I want a nice big button that says something like "subscribe to comments" or whatever text is clear. That way I can get the e-mails about new comments, and follow the discussion in a manner efficient for everyone.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Jereme Guenther — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:04:00 GMT

Add my vote to this idea.My favorite forum software that incorporates this functionality is SimpleMachines which is the best free forum software I have found.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Peter Schott — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 17:00:00 GMT

Page navigation at the top of the screen would also be a welcome feature. If I'm either returning to a topic or want to jump to the last page of an existing one, I have to scroll all the way to the bottom to get to the page links. I think that the spbclub forums work pretty well as far as navigation goes - page links at the main subject line and in the posts themselves. Xda-Developers forums also work pretty well. I especially like their button on the posts to "go to first unread" for the topics. That's great for the really active discussions where you want to pick up where you left off.-Pete

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Peter Schott — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:37:00 GMT

Well, as a long-time reader/lurker, I like the "second look" idea. That's been missing for a while. Perhaps even break this down into "most read" vs. "most commented". Otherwise, the simplicity of the site has been a big plus for me. The search feature for the forums works pretty well, as does subscribing to topics. The only downer for me right now is that my daily e-mails don't seem to be making it my way with any regularity. That was a pretty big draw to the site for me as it contained a little bit of everything and I'd often jump in on a topic I could assist with or look at some articles that sounded interesting because I read the snippet in the e-mail.-Pete

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

webrunner — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:55:00 GMT

I'm late to the party, but here is a quick comment.I don't visit slashdot often, but when I do, there are usually some really interesting user comments posted. But I dislike the layout for threads of responses. It is very easy for comments to be invisible or buried several levels down. I think that layout may be related to the rating system for the comments themselves, but more often than not it is merely annoying to me. I much prefer the forum style here at SQL Server Central, where posts are fully visible and the thread is broken into pages. The only things I would change with the forum layout here are:1. Perhaps to find a way to give a little more info about which specific message a person is replying to (it's not always the message just above). I don't know whether some system of indentation would work or whether some color-coded or other reference in the heading of each post would work better. 2. When I post a forum reply, I am taken back to the first page of the replies. Could you add a user account preference that lets me choose whether to go back to the first page of results or stay on the page where I am replying? (Or does this option exist already?)3. It looks like preview and some HTML options work in IE but not Firefox. I'm not sure how much you can do about this, though.Thanks for listening to your user community!webrunner

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Ewan Hampson — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 07:04:00 GMT

I would second (third... fourth...) all those comments so far about keeping it clean and simple, avoiding irritating animations and pointless fancy flashes. And those that praise the current simplicity and emphasise that we want information and professional exchange, not entertainment or visual clutter.

I would like to put in a word for the pet concern I always raise with our intranet folks at work - cater for Accessibility with a capital A. I would like to be interacting with computers as a developer and DBA until I retire. If I simply imagine what it would be like eg to lose all or part of my eyesight, or to lose the use of one hand, I hope that I would not have to give up applying my skills, knowledge and logical brainpower just because the computer assumes I have full mobility and sight and doesn't provide alternative ways to provide input, to navigate or to read data. You cannot write every app to cater for everyone and everything, and some support would have to come from the client end (readers, touch interfaces, all that specialist stuff for specific disabilities). But please bear in mind people who need different fonts sizes, have partial colour-blindness, who maybe cannot handle a mouse precisely, and don't produce anything that will work only eg using colour contrast or at high resolution.

There are sites and bodies trying to encourage the right ideas, such as

http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php

http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_checkpoints.hcsp

I make no claims for my own apps here, I'm no expert at making things accessible and adaptable; I just try to do better each time.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

MarkusB — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 05:50:00 GMT

I'm a susbscriber for more than 4 years and I must say it's one of the best sites I visit. The layout is simple and clear and don't need any change as far as I'm concerned. But since you asked for general site improvements, here's my bit:

I agree with Jerome earlier, that it would be nice to be able to see correct answers of QOD's you already answered. Sometimes I'm in a situation which was the subject of a QOD, but can't remember the correct answer.

Another idea might be a filter on the QOD page which shows only the unanswered questions. Sometimes when I have too much time I like to answer some older questions, but now I have to scroll and scroll, just to find them.

The scripts page needs some updating. Now behind the categories it only shows scripts for 6.5 versus 7/2000. While the category FT2005 says it's for all versions. I suggest using categories like now and add a subcategory with scripts for the various versions.

For the rest kep the good work going.

Markus Bohse

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

ZETM — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:35:00 GMT

To be honest, you have done an excellent job for the SQL Server community. This is my first stop when I'm wanting to learn something new about SQL outside of books I own. If I'm having a problem, I can probably find the same problem on your forums faster than any other source including Microsoft's Technet/MSDN. As a web developer I like the color schema you use. So many websites through up dark colors with angry colors ( dark red text against black/dark blue backgrounds ). Or the blitzkrieg of ad where you can't tell why your on the site in the first place and, oh yeah, you've probably just been infected with a trojan or other marketing bug from some nefarious advertiser. To that extent, I believe you have handled your site very professionaly and succinctly. I know change is sometimes good...but this site reminds me of a great album like Steely Dan's 'Aja.' You never get tired of being here where all things SQL are concerned.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

rudy - Doctor "X" — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:39:00 GMT

Simple and clean, easy to read. I opt to keep the 'look and feel' the same since this is the most useful SQL Server site I have seen. If it came down to one thing it really would be the "feature" request since some really good discussions often go more than one page. You might also want to add a "Last Page" right undeneath the Prev/Next Topic as well since there are posts that folks do not contribute to but will want to skim the first and last pages as a continuing education.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Jereme Guenther — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:14:00 GMT

Good request, I have been thinking about this as well. To add to this request could we have the option to receive one email per thread when a new message has been posted and then no matter how many more posts are created we won't get more emails until we have read the thread?

I have this feature on one of my schools Alumni forums and it is really nice because it keeps your mailbox from being flooded with messages for hot topics.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

James Moore-280591 — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:57:00 GMT

Steve,

Can I ask for one other "feature" request which is when you watch a thread and it emails you that it takes you to the right page of the thread IE the URL in the email being http://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=32&messageid=346215&p=3 rather than http://www.sqlservercentral.com/forums/shwmessage.aspx?forumid=32&messageid=346215

Thanks,

- James

P.S. Thanks for getting rid of the bold links

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 08:38:00 GMT

Script comments have been noted as well. Thanks for those.I think we'll do our best to avoid more ads, especially bigger ones. I think the Google ones are relatively unobtrusive, so they'll probably stay.The search thing we used to have and then it broke. Whenever you searched, you had the option to save the search and then it would run once a day, looking for new results. Not sure what happened and slightly afraid to run that now. With our volume of searches, we might get overwhelmed, but we'll take a look.Steve

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

jfmccabe — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 01:24:00 GMT

Lovely site.

One thing I would like is the ability to comment on scripts. There was a reasonably nice documentation script of the day posted recently but it fell down when dealing with instances e.g. Server\Instance because of the \ and also with unusual database names which needed bracketing e.g. 2005 (don't ask!) There was no obvious way to raise these comments.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

dan-282380 — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:38:00 GMT

One thing that may be helpful is if you had focused emails. Maybe if the user typed in a search and requested that any new items in the search results be emailed to the user as the database grew? At the very least, that would be fun to make.

other than toys like that, your site is nice, clean and useful. just promise me you'll stay away from big graphic buttons, animated flash menus and crap like that.

-good luck

-Dan

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Jeff Moden — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 20:25:00 GMT

Personnally, the look and feel of SSC are both the best on the web I've seen. I'd leave it alone so far as any look and feel goes...

But I would fix things like how the active thread page doesn't work and the fact that when typing a long reply, you better do a copy before hitting the post button or you may have the unpleasant surprise of lossing a half hour reply with no way to get it back.

Bottom line... the look and feel is outstanding... I'd leave it alone... fix the bugs and make a better site search.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 18:29:00 GMT

OK, Red Gate has asked and bold on links is gone!Actually Dinakar asked, but I might need James to write something for me one day

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

James Moore-280591 — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 16:47:00 GMT

Just to add a +1 for the removal of the bolding of links..

As another idea how about a SQL Server Cookbook esque wiki for common admin/sql tasks?

- James

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Jereme Guenther — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:48:00 GMT

I have to agree, this feature has caused me some minor annoyances as well.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Dinakar Nethi-176633 — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 14:24:00 GMT

Whatever you do please remove the bold on links feature. Its very annoying. Community Server is releasing(or has it released it already?) a new version CS2. I hear its pretty good. Perhaps we can use CS2? They allow some user customization too. forums.asp.net uses CS if you want to check it out.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Jonathon Storm — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:20:00 GMT

Great job; keep up the good work. I like the following: Editorials Member-of-the-month (though I don't pay attention to it; it's important) Second Look

I agree that the look and feel of the site should be stable; it should rarely change. Every few years, maybe OK; but every 2 years is probably too much. Perhaps every 4 to 5 years consider a major change--but only because you have ways to make it better, more useful, etc. I don't want glitz and glamour; I want elegant, nice design, easy-to-use, not too busy. I love the fact that it is relatively straight-forward and not too busy.

I like the level of advertising--very good. I agree with your position on personalization and news.

I agree that the characteristics of the sites you don't like are to be avoided at all costs! I won't use those types of sites, unless I absolutely have to.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Jereme Guenther — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 13:20:00 GMT

My two things would be to enhanse the Question of the Day; and site layout consistency.

For the Question of the Day it would be nice to be able to see not only the question but also the correct answer for those you have already answered. Currently I can only see the answer I gave and even that doesn't appear to be easy to find.

For the site layout there appears to be to radically different layouts for the main site and for the forums. Getting the layout and colors the same would be kind of nice.

Just my two bits,Jereme

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Katie Walker — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:06:00 GMT

I really like the Editorials. I think they add a lot to the newsletter. I like that I can read what other people in the profession think.

One suggestion would be that some of the links don't take us straight to the article. Sometimes I have to click on 2 or 3 links before I find the article. And every once in a while the article isn't there anymore. It would be nice to be able to get to the article with one link.

Please keep the font normal size. After staring into computer screens all day, it is nice to be able to read something in normal font.

Thanks for having this newsletter available! It has been a big help!

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

tlehn — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:02:00 GMT

I would love to see a section that reviews 3rd party software in a video format like CNet does with there Editors reviews of products. Then a link to real users opinions and rankings of this software would be nice.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Ralph Nickname — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:03:00 GMT

I have been a subscriber for years, but very rarely respond or otherwise comment. Perhaps it's childish, but it bugs me to be referred to as a "Newbie" because I am an infrequent contributor. Otherwise, I have been a satisfied subscriber. I am sure you have lots of great suggestions from other folks for presentation suggestions.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

sheepoo — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:48:00 GMT

KISS, KISS, KISS

Site menu on the top, no matter where you are on the website
User menu on the left
Ads with on left or right and not in between article headings
Bigger site search box (where to put this?)
Collapsible article headings and details (nice to have...put last on the 'to-do' list

Just my 2 cents

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Jesus Cardenas Mercado — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:45:00 GMT

Perhaps some sort of table of contents to keep things on a high level and then if you want drill down to it, and an alphabetical index of the scripts could be very usefull.

Thanks Steve and SQLServerCentral Team, you are doing a great job here.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Steve Jones - SSC Editor — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:41:00 GMT

Thanks for the comments and I don't think the plans are to make things more lively (flash, etc.), but rather cleaner. I've never thought that there was much wrong with our layout, but I didn't think it was great either.We'll definitely mock things up and you can look at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/default2.asp for some ideas. Nothing definite, but there are some ideas there.Also, I added the "join the discussion" link. Not sure why I waited so long for that one.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

MVDBA — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:05:00 GMT

as long as it's fast and useable i don't care (or want) fancy flash animations, button rollovers etc. I want to find and post data fast.on another front how about knowledge base/expert system sectionanswer yes/no to 20 questions and hey presto you get a reasonable set of things to check/fix - helpfull in giving standard answers to some of the more simple questions that get posted in the forumMv

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Roger L Reid — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 08:04:00 GMT

Gosh, of all the database sites I like your layout the best. Content is frequently good (not always a given in the MSSQL Server world.

More than anything, I'd like more high quality content. But since you asked about design, look toward making a higher volume of archives easy to find things in.

As for content, I know you rely on your readers for that and I wish I had the time to do "What Microsoft Didn't Tell You about Installing Version 9 on X64..." (Short answer is that once you ARE running, 8 dual core Operterons with 64 Gig memory and iSCSI arrays are awesome powerwise: but you may end up reinstalling from the OS up about a dozen times before you learn all the ways you can screw it up)

Problem on content is: the good people are busy!

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Andy Warren — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:58:00 GMT

I think it would be useful to put up some mock layouts before making changes, more doable now since you have a team supporting you! I think a general clean up is worth doing, but not sure there is a killer feature that is missing - but how would I know??

On advertising, if you really want to do a service for the community, level the playing field. Because SSC has always been pay per ad rather than per per click, it has always skewed towards the bigger players. We (us three musketeers) tried to make opportunities for the smaller vendors (especially the one person startups) but we had to weigh that against revenue needs. You don't have that limitation any longer and I think you can do some good with it. Competition in the SQL tool space is good for all of us, but it's hard to compete if you can't afford ads. Show us ALL the tools in the SQL space, or at least the ones willing to pay some minimal ad rate to weed out the ones that aren't serious. Ads are a lot more interesting if there is variety, so if you combined running ads from more vendors with a policy that they have to change ads every 3 months I dont think some ads would be bad.

And here's one more I always wanted to do but is exactly counter to the ad supported model - show side by side comparisons of products. Reviews tend to be more product intro's and they have their place, but it would be really interesting to see feature comparisons (full in depth testing probably out of reach?).

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Tatsu — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:39:00 GMT

Just a few comments:

Just one menu please: Please put all the menu items in a single menu on the side or at the top of the page. The menu should be the same no matter where we are in the site.
Be careful with the rollovers. The current link rollover that changes the text to bold is annoying because sometimes the link moves down a line and the mouse cursor is no longer on it.
Keep the site light-weight. Believe it or not, some of us still have dial-up connections at home. The U.S. is dead last (or close) in broadband availability per-capita so it is pretty likely that I am not the only one.
Add a tagging capability to articles. See del.icio.us if you don't know what I mean. This would be the natural evolution of the current briefcase feature (which I like very much).

Overall, I like the site as-is and would be happy with it if there were no changes at all. But, since you asked... This is the best SQL Server community and I appreciate all the work that has gone into making it so great!

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

dbajunior — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 07:20:00 GMT

Here's an example, visit http://www.simple-talk.com/default.aspx

This (somewhat new) SQL site is pretty cool from the aspect of design... and the articles and 'How To' items are very well written. Read one of Robyn Page's articles for example. I believe this site is based out of the UK.

On the volume of info a site provides, I think this it easy to overdo. That is, some include so much info that you're simply overwhelmed. I really like the 'need help' questions on your site - I have gleaned a lot of useful info from those.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

mkeast — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 06:40:00 GMT

"we have a usability expert and a designer working on the look and feel to make things more, ah, well....beautiful?"It's really quite depressing when a functional site like sqlservercentral.com, which looks pretty good to me, gets a designer to "improve" the looks. I don't want fancy graphics, or those supremely irritating Flash objects (thank God for Firefox and FlashBlock!). I want a site that does the job as simply as possible, and loads pages as quickly as possible. All of that "pretty" stuff doesn't provide any functionality - it justs absorbs bandwidth.I know that evolution is inevitable, but I wish that wasn't true in this case.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Vasant Raj — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 02:25:00 GMT

Steve,

I feel that there is a need of a direct link to the discussion page from each article.

For example: The current display is:

Ideas for SQLServerCentral.comBy: Steve Jones

It can be:

Ideas for SQLServerCentral.comBy: Steve Jones Join Discussion

It would be useful, as we will be reading the article once-twice-thrice... but most of the time we will be interested in the posts made by readers. This change will directly allow us to go the discussion page.

RE: Ideas for SQLServerCentral.com

Richard Sutherland — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 02:10:00 GMT

I like the "second look" idea. I read it every day, but some days you just miss something that might have caught your eye on another day.