[marko]

It's been a few months now since we upgraded, with the site having settled down nicely we're now looking over a lot of the functionality within the downloads section. We've already made a few suggestions to the developers of Invision who produce the software that our site runs on, like searching within specific categories - that function was taken out during the upgrade but we would like to see it return, search results should also contain info at a glance like the date the software was added, date it was updated and so on.

The developers are usually keen to hear suggestions and although we've made ours we want to hear your views and suggestions so we can relay these onto them. Did you use a function before and it's not there now?, can't find something else?, not happy the way something works?.

Please be as open and honest as you like, we're keen to pass on all information and suggestions to Invision who will take these opinions on board and if possible include those ideas in the next release of their software.

Cheers
Marko :man_in_love:

[JM_Runs]

I agree, the ability to search in specific categories is useful. I also think some categories are full of stuff relevant to gamers and not to others.

Sub categories would also be useful. For example Network Utilities - Then under that, Network Scanners - Protocol Tools - Wireless Tools - Network monitoring tools - Mapping Tools etc.

[TheRaven]

All in all, I must say that this upgrade is some of the most aesthetically pleasing venue that I've seen in a long time regarding FreeWareBB's upgrades and face-lifts. Very good choice in the new direction for the boards here.

I must agree with JM_Runs on the point that categorical atomization would definitely add a dimension to the search functionality that many have grown accustomed too and actually have come to expect when performing a search regarding a specific need.

Another awesome feature could be a "Search" tool-bar button set to the right of the "Home Page" image button on the user toolbar. It takes you directly to the search page with all of the appropriate drop-downs, etcetera so you could get your seek on expeditiously. BTW the user bar at the bottom of the content area for the FreeWareBB users was a nice touch but, the go directly back to the top of the page arrow at the far right of the toolbar is pretty well thought out. The little things snow-ball into a big enjoyable interaction -- nice touch.

[marko]

We're definately making suggestions on the search function to Invision, to be honest we were dissapointed with the new search, our wish list for the front end search specifically would be something just like you suggested Raven, keyword search (with dropdown to search title/description or both) and the ability to choose category or search all. This would all be packaged on one line, probably at the top of the site - that's our recommendation anyway.

We could have attempted this ourselves but because Invision have removed searching categories and made other changes to the code it's virtually impossible for us, best we can do is make the suggestion in the hope they include something like this in the next release.

Keep em coming guys :man_in_love:
Cheers
Marko

[DaComboMan]

An "add to favorites" option could be a nice feature.
It would be something that we do with Youtube clips we want to save but not necessarily interested in getting emails about.

[marko]

@grumplstink, we've already made the suggestion to the developers for a much improved search facility, depending on which features they agree to include in the next update we could have all those suggestions included :)

@DaComboMan, we already have that feature on the site for our downloads (see screenshot below) - we'll be adding a little tutorial and explanation of the functions currently available from our download pages in the next newsletter due out on Friday this week (10th Sep) :)

[DaComboMan]

Marko,

That's just fine for downloads but i wanted to point out was in the forums' section.
Say, if i want to follow a thread without receiving notifications for new posts, then a favorite option could be handy.
Otherwise, i suppose a "view my posts" option would do almost the same thing.

[marko]

Ah, sorry DaComboMan, presumed you were referring to the downloads, although there is a way NOT to receive email alerts for every topic you're subscribed to, here's how:

If you want to 'Watch' a topic and have that topic listed in your Control Panel but NOT receive email alerts for replies hit the "Watch Topic" button.



On the next screen, you have the choice of how to receive notification of changes, or in this case you would just choose "No Notification" and then hit the "Proceed" button.



When you start a new topic, you can choose not to receive email alerts for replies if you untick the "Enable email notification of replies?" tick-box found under the "Options" area near the bottom when making your new post. If you reply to a post, you'll automatically be subscribed to the topic but you can change how you want to receive notifications of replies, or whether you simply don't want notifications. You would do this by going into "My Settings" at the very top, right-hand side of the site, then choose the "Forums" tab and then the "Manage Watched Topics" link. Look for the topic you want to change your notification options for, and place a tick in it's tick-box.



Then finally, scrolling down to the bottom of the page you'll see a drop-down box with the available choices in it. Choose "Change To: No Notification" and then hit the "with selected" button and you won't receive email alerts again for that topic.



If, when replying to posts you simply do not want to receive any notification and don't want to be subscribed then instead of using the "Fast Reply" box at the bottom of the post, you could use the "Add Reply" button which will take you to another screen to enter your text but underneath the "Options" area you can expand where it says "Click to configure post options" and in there you can untick the "Enable email notification of replies?". I know it all sounds a bit long winded, but if you do this a couple of times it becomes second nature :)

Hope that all helps :)
Cheers
Marko