Question

Tentative OS Proposal

Answer 1

Boom. Thanks :)

Answer 2

I probably should have posted it here first

Answer 3

What exactly is the objective of this endeavor?

Answer 4

In the simplest terms, The end goal is to make the necessary and appropriate changes and improvements to OS.

Answer 5

Like i said earlier i totally agree with everything Especially the Skype App suggestion makes things a bit easier

Answer 6

You really want to make it more user friendly, remove the html component and focus on a client server model.

Answer 7

the medal system should be a bit strict its easy for people to make another account and *Medal* themselves

Answer 8

That's another reason I posted this. I sort of laid down a foundation to build upon. From here, we can just extract more ideas and suggestions, and objections of course.

Answer 9

Focus on a client server model? What do you mean by that? This is a client server model.

Answer 10

Just a suggestion for the Chat-boxes but there should be a mute button for each individual user so they can mute users they dont want to listen to the message from said user wont appear for the person who muted the user

Answer 11

I guess the real issue is to find a system that is not too heavy weight that it gets in the way but one that is not too light weight so as to be open to abuse. It is a very difficult balance to achieve.

Answer 12

Skype "integration" as we know it wouldn't be hard from a technological standpoint as you can just store skype usernames as a profile attribute and make "Call this User" buttons or whatnot with existing skype:// url handlers. Granted OS would be unlikely to achieve full integration compared to another large site as those two are joined down the line by the same company. Needless to say, Skype integration is a pretty cheap feature (its also a lot cheaper than turning out a traditional flash/red5 (ew) implementation as its expensive to scale)

I think if you're going to do "Mathematics Sub-Groups" then just generalize the feature into the ability to support sub-groups across the site. Of course as you roll out more advanced community features you introduce the costs of staff to develop and/or police these new developments (From a legal standpoint, only so much can be done voluntarily).

I love most of the other suggestions as they come into play. The whole point here is community driven learning, implementation specifics be darned! :P

Answer 13

shadowfiend: I mean that by using client/server software you are able to more complex programming, Under the current model you are limited to the inherent "clunk" of various browsers. Not to say that you need to move away from html all together, just to not have it be the backbone of your experience.

Answer 14

For me, using FF 8, I get a substantial lag when switching between the dashboard and a running chat at the bottom of the screen. This is something that I attribute to the coding language used to create the interface.

Answer 15

Whats the Good Solution Button? Wouldn't it be like the good answer button?

Answer 16

From what i read it is simply a word change......lol

Answer 17

There are just as many pitfalls coding outside of the browser. Having the browser as our primary target lets us iterate fast and be accessible to anyone. It's unlikely to go anywhere anytime soon.

That said, we're continually looking at some of the performance issues. Not sure what you mean by switching between the dashboard and a running chat. Do you mean opening a chat?

Answer 18

eSpeX: However it gets expensive to develop applications for all the various native platforms as you're subject to a much narrower list of "standards". Plus much of the userbase is under a set of restrictions that don't allow the installation of applications since the computers are often managed by a central entity. So you're leaving out a core group of folks there (mostly university and K12 users).

While I agree that you could take advantage of a much more interactive set of features, it gets rather costly in development time to develop natively. You've got users on a plethora of hardware installations not to mention there are several hundred variants of the 'Linux' OS out there alone. Mobile development outside of the HTML5/Scala/lift paradigm is a nightmare :P

Answer 19

Hero: I like the addition of sub-groups, especially in math.

Answer 20

The trouble with sub-groups is exactly the trouble with the Physics, Biology, Finance, etc groups: when you fragment the community, you end up with a bunch of groups with no one in them. We're more focused on getting more people into the smaller groups than on shrinking the math groups.

Answer 21

(For now, mind you.)

Answer 22

Compy: Agreed and understood.

Answer 23

shadowfiend: What if you were to create the sub-groups but keep the "lobby" as a common area?

Answer 24

I like the idea of a subject matter expert. What about about allowing a subject matter expert to mark a solution as "approved"? This could happen automagically if the subject matter expert gives a medal?

Answer 25

I'm happy to hear that you like something. The sub-groups are just virtual groups. They don't really exist. Like you shouldn't be able to join a sub-group. The idea exists as a way to organize and disseminate math questions into their appropriate areas without dismantling the mathematics group.

Answer 26

We've been thinking about ways to subdivide groups for a while, including sub-groups with a feature whereby any posts to a sub-group “bubble up” to a higher group, but we haven't come up with anything we're satisfied with yet.

Answer 27

I would like to qualify to be a Mod if possible

but there is no list of qualifications

Answer 28

As for skype or skype-like communications, it's outside of our range of likely features for the near or mid term. We're looking to provide the simplest experience for giving and getting help, not the greatest range of possible experiences. So far, the current experience is Good Enough for 80-90% of interactions. There are some warts (particularly the lack of ability to insert text into a drawing), but it's good enough most of the time.

Answer 29

I wouldn't mind seeing the addition of a searchable equation database.

Answer 30

We're more likely to introduce some sort of private or offline messaging as a way to let you communicate more secure credentials, though that'snot certain at all.

Answer 31

Hm. You would search for what, equations used anywhere on the site, or a predefined set?

Answer 32

I admit, I wasn't prepared for a discussion concerning limitation and technicality issues.

Answer 33

@eSpeX: Personally i dont see a problem with the equation database it is sorted thoroughly enough to find what your looking for

Answer 34

shadowfiend: I was thinking more of a library where you could search for the equations used in physics for constant acceleration for example.

Answer 35

Regarding good questions and good answers, as we've explained a multitude of times, our intent is to *encourage* better questions and answers, but not to *ban* “worse” questions and answers.

Answer 36

Geometry_Hater: Are you saying that one exists?

Answer 37

Right. That's not likely to happen anytime soon, because it's subject specific. We do have partners in the various subject areas, and we need to get links to them back up on the group dashboards so people know where to find resources.

Answer 38

if your going to use subgroups make the questions asked in those groups visible in one page, so that users can see what questions are beings asked in each of the groups and answer accordingly instead of having to switch between groups

Answer 39

I had a discussion with Chris regarding many of these ideas Shadow and he's the one that told me to create this proposal. He actually liked my "good solution" button idea, lol

Answer 40

eSpeX: Nah im saying that its not necessary to put one in the Equation button Database as it is easy to find said equation anyway

Answer 41

The ability to edit a question or response you have made would be very valuable.

Answer 42

Wow hero, you put a lot of thought into this.

Answer 43

Actually, it took me all of a day and a half to create

Answer 44

Not in total time. In actual time, maybe a couple hours

Answer 45

Geometry_Hater: No, I was more suggesting a page with an mysql backend that you could search through as opposed to google or flipping back through notes and textbooks.

Answer 46

Oh, I love the fact that you're presenting these ideas. This is how we can discuss them and present our points of view and see yours and find middle group, plus have some idea sparks of our own.

Answer 47

@eSpeX - aren't you basically then just reinventing google search on the OpenStudy site?

Answer 48

I hadn't talked to Chris about the details he'd discussed with you, so we'll be talking about that ourselves soon. I will tell you what I will tell him though—the good solution button is unlikely to be used any differently. Once people see its purpose (to reward a helper), they will use it for that regardless of what it says.

Answer 49

I think you can achieve the goal of a "good solution" by having a subject expert. if the subject expert clicks "good answer" then it could automatically be marked as a "good/approved solution"

Answer 50

We're actually looking into the zone of subject tests, but that's in very early stages and probably won't happen soon. Meantime, mini-blogs, post icons, etc, all of these are ways to clutter the interface. The post icons would make scanning easier, but asking a question would either be harder (if these were required) or the scanning wouldn't be any easier (because few people would use them). Mini-blogs seem completely orthogonal to the purpose of OpenStudy as a place for people to give and get help. There are other sites where you can post monolithic articles about help, honestly. We want to stay focused so we can build the best real-time help site out there.

Answer 51

how about a Ping option?

Answer 52

I've actually seen post icons in use on forums before, and they are generally rarely used, so the answerers generally ignore them entirely.

Answer 53

With respect to the "good answer" buttons, there are times when I would like to give a medal for an answer but I am not the one who asked the question, could there be different levels for community approval and helpfulness?
asnaseer: You would not be recreating a google search as the page could be much more focused and less all the extraneous bs you get on a web search.

Answer 54

Can you explain the ping thing saif sorry but it's just that dont know what that it......

Answer 55

We will be putting an “honor code” of sorts up front at signup soon.

-> eSpeX you can already do that. Or is your concern something else?

Answer 56

it's like if u want help from let's say lagrange. So u may call them by a ring or something that someone's calling u or stuff like that.

Answer 57

also you should be able to leave a discussion instead of having to leave the entire group lol

Answer 58

saifoo—I do like that idea, though it would have to be implemented in a way that isn't annoying, particularly if a lot of people want your help.

Answer 59

lilg—what do you mean by leave a discussion?

Answer 60

shadow: My concern/question is slightly different, just because I (as a spectator) agree or appreciate an answer does not directly reflect if the person asking the question got as much. Does that make sense?

Answer 61

Yes it would seem a little hard to balance that out

Answer 62

Ah, yes, I get it. We have discussed that, actually. It seems to be a relatively rare situation where someone else giving a medal results in an asker not getting the answer they needed, however.

Answer 63

as in i've commented once over here, but i dont want to be part of this discussion anymore but i will still get notifications unless i leave the entire group and join again

Answer 64

you could implement "ping" by having another area similar to "notifications" which listed all the people that have pinged you. maybe allow the user to select whether or not they want pings to generate a popup notification or not?

Answer 65

Ahh yes a block option is necessary for the ping idea

Answer 66

I'm honestly shocked that leaving the group and joining it again changes that in any way :p That's probably a bug.

The solution I suggested before still stands as my best idea: you get one notification popup for a question unless/until you go back to view that question. If you are viewing a question, you get no notifications (this is already the case).

Answer 67

shadow, sid was here yesterday, we spoke to him about this as well.
So the solution for this like there should be a "mute" option like if someone is someone is busy or he will be replying to that person in a bit.
people use testimonals now, which we see like when we check our notifications.. but at that time it's too late. :o

Answer 68

Hehe. I actually heard about that. You guys are so inventive :)

Answer 69

asnaseer: What benefit would it be to have the ability to ping someone?

Answer 70

Generally the idea is that some people like to get help from a particular user, so they like to let them know when they need their help.

Answer 71

ye a very annoying bug lol

Answer 72

No, I mean it's a bug that leaving and coming back stops them. So the bug is actually what's saving you right now ;)

Answer 73

How many characters can fit in the 'Ask a question...' boxes?

Answer 74

@eSpeX - you may have asked an question and may want help from a specific person. so you could "ping" them to ask them if they could come over to help you.

Answer 75

I promise not to fix it until we've figured something out for the other issue.

Answer 76

How about a "mis-catagorized" button to remove the english questions from the math group?

Answer 77

Questions are limited to 600 characters right now.

Answer 78

That's not a terrible idea. For now, we ask that you report abuse when you see those.

Answer 79

asnaseer: Ah, well maybe it could be a "page" feature? :)

Answer 80

and you think thats a good thing having notifications pop up even when you dont want to be a part of that discussion anymore, i mean you should just have a button "leave discussion" or something and all notifications will stop from there

Answer 81

but answers (and chat I think...) seem to be unlimited; I could probably post the entire MINIX source code here :-D

Answer 82

"ping" might be even more valuable if we had the ability to have a private one-to-one chat with another member - maybe??

Answer 83

Answers are intentionally unlimited. Chat, less so. I suppose we could limit it, as well.

Answer 84

@Hero/all - we've heard about sub groups quite a bit, but want to get down to the root need.

1. Filters - is it so askers can categorize by e.g. Algebra vs. Calculus vs. other etc..., and answers can filter questions by the same? That is, categorization to help streamline asking/answering.
2. Of is it you want to directly ping a different set of people.

Answer 85

one-to-one chatting seems to be a good feature; I think now we are just limited to fan testimonials :(

Answer 86

lilg—I think it doesn't matter if you get one notification to let you know something happened in there, never visit the question again, and therefore never get another notification.

Answer 87

lol it isnt just one notification though that is what I am trying to explain to you

Answer 88

Well for what it's worth, my notifications aren't even working ATM. :)

Answer 89

How so espex?

Answer 90

lilg—I'm talking about the hypothetical solution, not the way it currently works. I understand what you're saying the problem is with the current system :)

Answer 91

shadow: I have had a '1' on new notifications all day along with an occasional popup, however, when I click on "New Notifications" I do not see anything new nor does my '1' go away. Also when I load old notifications they are out of sequence.

Answer 92

I am experiencing the complete opposite - whenever someone gives me a medal, if I leave that question, then the medal notification keeps popping up every time some leaves a reply to that question - regardless of the fact that I do not visit that question again.

Answer 93

Also want to get down to the core need for private messages/pings/et al, can you all weigh in?
1. Is a core benefit offline communication? For example my friends aren't online, and I want to ping them to get on OpenStudy/help me something in particular when they have time?
2. Is a core benefit private, real-time communication, i.e. chat that not everyone can see/participate in?
3. Is the core benefit being sure that someone you trust/know in particular sees your question? Or the reverse, that someone you like to help can ping you when they need you for a specific question? And if so - who should be able to privately message/chat/ping you?

Answer 94

Hm. We've got the sequence issue in mind, need to fix that. It's weird that your unread notifications aren't clearing when you hit the link thouh.

asnaseer—yes, we know about that one. Hope to fix it in the next few days.

Answer 95

the problem with my notifications is: if someone replies to a question, i get a notification that the person has given me a medal.

Answer 96

Yep. That one too :)