I am not impressed with this part of the forum, what about you?

[ClubMed]

Do your questions get answered to your satisfaction?

Are you informed whether something can be done or will be done or do you get the standard "We will inform Scott and get back to you" answer?

Just to see whether people think this is a useful feature or not I would like to make a poll.

The poll does not deal with the mods or Techimo in general, it only deals with the aspect of having a suggestion box and whether it is being used by those who would like to hear our suggestions.

If any or a lot of improvements are made in the background that we are not aware of then I apologise for a slightly negative thread.

If however our suggestions are not really dealth sith seriously then please see this as an opportunity to get some constructive feedback.

[Gomer]

They handle things well.... for instance, black dots. Also, look how one of the most recent question regarding book reviews has been dealt with.

While they don't address each topic brought up here, they are probably all looked at.

[ClubMed]

The black dots were only returned because the page or file-chaching feature did not work as was hoped or planned, this does not qualify as handling something well in my opinion.

Concerning the book review thread I agree it was handled very well, yet I feel this is a tragic rarity, I may be mistaken.

[Scott Tiger]

I think that Rob Rich does a really good job of addressing what he can. It seems he's always here so it's not like this place is being neglected. In fact, if I've ever had a problem he's always given me an reply within the same day and almost always with in the same hour. There are still some problems here but most growing sites have problems.

[Gomer]

The black dots were only returned because the page or file-caching feature did not work as was hoped or planned

Had people not petitioned for the feature to be reintroduced, it may not have been. They could have simply disabled caching and left the black dots disabled as well.

Think of the "suggestion box" title. If you go to a store, restaurant, or workplace that has a suggestion box; you just drop a suggestion in, not expecting feedback and not receiving any. That's how this forum seems to work.

[John Prophet]

Ive never used it..what is it?? lol

I am already averaging 50+ hours a week at TechIMO in addition to my real-life responsibilities. How much more effort do I need to apply here?

Scott works extremely hard at keeping ResellerRatings and PhotoPost in business so that TechIMO can stay in business. He puts in even more hours than I do!

I try to read through the suggestion forum a few times each week and take notes. I then fix what I can, and forward most everything else to Scott. We then prioritize the suggestions.

Errors and problems are addressed first, then we work our way down the list. I apologize if anyone feels slighted because we may not leave a reply, but rest assured, this forum is being read on a regular basis. One also has to understand that not all ideas are possible or practical for us to implement.

For example, I spent nearly five hours hashing through multiple layers of nested tables just fix a single annoying Opera bug last week. Contrary to belief, the simple fix first proposed and implemented ended up creating an even worse bug with Internet Explorer. So I was forced to test multiple code variations. I am still having nightmares about nested tables.

The black dots were only returned because the page or file-chaching feature did not work as was hoped or planned, this does not qualify as handling something well in my opinion.

The black dots were disabled and caching enabled due to server resources. I could not exactly see a way around that issue at that time, as we do have strict budgets for hardware and operational overhead, just as with any other site. The problems were resolved once additional resources became available.

During the month of January, we have upgraded our PhotoPost and ReviewPost installations, disabled forum caching (no small feat), patched multiple errors, returned the black dots, and performed dozens of behind the scenes changes to improve site performance and efficiency.

Best Regards,
Robert Richmond

[DVNT1]

Originally posted by RobRich
...During the month of January, we have upgraded our PhotoPost and ReviewPost installations, disabled forum caching (no small feat), patched multiple errors, returned the black dots, and performed dozens of behind the scenes changes to improve site performance and efficiency.

...and I'ld like to especially say thank you for disabling forum cache and (again) for returning the black dots.

[muno]

what on earth are the black dots?
please, I don't want anyone to hotlink a huge picture of a black dot here.
I want to know what they're trying to imply?

[ClubMed]

The black dot appears in the icon of each thread that you have posted in. The icon of a thread looks like an envelope and appears on the index page of each forum, say if you are looking at the community forum you will see the envelope images in the left side of your monitor.

It is an easy and convenient way of being reminded where you have posted.