Hi,

Just some of my view: Can include some discussion topic like Invention Ideas, Eco Environment Ideas.

I do encounter Element-14 closing off when i click on some link too.

Did you have any difficulties or questions during the registration process?

 No, that seemed to go smoothly enough.  It was not obvious how to initially create a account though.
 I remembered seeing a place to create a account, but couldn't find it for a while after deciding to
 try it.

 

Areas you like:

 The overall idea sounds like it could be useful.

Areas you don't like:

  Overall the site is quite confusing.  There is no one single directory to everything
  logically arranged.  I expected this on the home page, but that just has a lot of random
  stuff all over the place.  I still have no idea what all is buried in this site.
 
  This post editor is squirrely at best.  I like my posts to look neat and be nicely formatted.
  I couldn't find any introduction to the post editor.  Can I type HTML directly?  Or some other
  set of tags used by the post editor?  I tried the HTML view, but it's too much of a mess due to
  all the implicit formatting already applied to the text.
 
  I wanted to quote parts of the post I was replying to, but the editor did very strange and
  unexpected things just by my hitting ENTER or even just moving the cursor with the left and
  right arrows.  Then text doesn't appear to wrap.  At least it isn't wrapping to the window as
  I'm typing now, so it will probably look like a mess in someone else's window.  I apologize for
  that, but don't know how to fix it.  HTML should wrap automatically, but it seems this post
  editor goes out of its way to defeat that.  Argh!
 
 

Did you complete your profile?

 

Yes, I think so.

 

Argh again!  Now this text is in a subwindow with hashed background in the post editor, whereas the stuff above is not.  It

started out in a hashed window, but that magically went away for unknown reasons.  I hate to think what this post will

look like to other users.

 

 

Did you have any difficulties or questions related to the profile?

No, but I think there should be more information about users that helps others judge their context.  Such information should include
Geographic location, age, and level of expertise with electronics.  Having users enter the year and month of their birth would be good enough.  Then the software could just diplay the current age in years.  My location is Littleton Massachusetts in USA, but just USA > Massachusetts would be good enough to provide context for others.  Knowing whether someone is a high school student or a professional EE with 30 years experience makes difference in how you consider what they say and how you would respond to them.

Any specific problems you had either finding information or taking a specific action?

Yes.  As I said, the site organization is a mess.  I saw there was a video introduction, but some computers I work on don't have sound and on others I don't want to annoy people near me.  There should be a simple document explaining the site and how to use it.

Overall, there should be a clear and obvious tree structure to the site with the top couple levels or so visible from the home page without all the surrounding clutter.

(This text is being entered in one of those boxes with the hash background, and appears to wrap.  I still have no idea how to get into and out of these boxes, and what meaning they have to how my post will eventually be presented to others.  Appearance matters, and I'm reluctant to post without knowing how something I type will be presented.  I have some things I'd like to say and discuss about Eagle, but this site is too confusing for that at this point.)

I think some of the problems were due to trying to quote the specific text I was replying to.  I think it's important to do that for context, especially on a multi-user forum such as this.  This is my second post here, and this time I'm trying the HTML editor mode.  Most forum post editors I have used provide a standard way of showing quoted text and give you wiki-like tags for basic formatting.  I don't mind using HTML, but quoting the replied-to text is a pain.  I can see the post I'm replying to below the window I'm typing this, but selecting portions of the text doesn't work right.  Try it yourself.  I ended up copying the whole thing, pasting that in a ordinary editor window separate from the browswer, pasting selected sections here, then surrounding them with I tags to show they are quoted.  This is just once to see if it can be made to work at all.  I'm not going to keep doing this.

I care that things I write look presentable.  Unfortunately your software makes that impossible to guarantee, so I'll probably refrain from posting here until it's fixed because otherwise you're basically making me look stupid.  One important feature would be a preview button.  It's easy to miss a tag or something, but how am I supposed to know I messed up something if I can't see the result before committing the post?

Is it really so hard to use common off the shelf free forum software?  This is a solved problem.  Why can't you just use one of the freely available solutions?  I don't get it. There are already plans to improve the "rich text editor" to provide various keyboard shortcuts that people are familiar with, especially control z to undo.

Again, why not just use one of the various freely available software packages?  I'm no expert on them and have never used any myself, but I know they exist and have used forums based on them.  It seems a common subset of features has emerged that any user can expect, except here.  This includes a way to quote parts of the replied-to post, basic formatting of the new text, and the ability to preview the result before committing.  This isn't rocket science, and has already been solved a number of times.  Why are you re-inventing a wheel, and then doing a crappy job of it? We are also working to redesign the home page and navigation of the site to make the content on the site easier to find and make it less confusing to use.

That would be a big help in making the site usable. If you have any specific suggestions in how you would expect the site to be arranged, or what content would be most relevant to you on the home page, we are very open to your comments.

If you have a chance, could you post the details on what browser version you were using? This will help us better address the problems you've mentioned specific to posting a reply. I'm using FireFox 3.0.5 and the text wraps okay, and the left/right arrows are working okay for me as well. You can try using the "insert raw html" option which is accessible from the >> up in the top portion of the reply box (next to the smiley face). That lets you type a combination of straight text and also html into a reply window.

I have attempted to monitor activities on the 'Communications' Group as well as let another body to have admin rights to the group.

Strangely ....I no longer appear to be the owner of the group ...infact where has the group gone?

Whatever happened to the 30 members listed for the group?

Yet I can see other groups with less than 3 members & many groups with subject-overlaps, eg Wireless vs wires less, Microprocessors vs uProcessors, to mention just 2. Does this make sense?

Feedback appreciated.