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Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 9:44 pm
by Andrew Lee
Over the past two weeks, there has been intense debate here, here and here about the notification frequency issue.

Many excellent ideas have been proposed to tackle this issue, from the simple to the complicated. And according to the poll, it seems almost half doesn't think there is a problem at all! I think this post by usdcs best sums up the general feeling:
Life is noisy. As I type this, my co-worker in the next cubicle is talking over the wall to the next person about a personal matter. I don't really want to listen to that.

But, I often pick up other useful business related information in the din in this open office environment. As I see it, I must learn to ignore the noise. If I were to shut down this communication "feed", I would surely miss something important.

This whole discussion has been prompted by a limited number of persons complaining about a limited number of applications. I feel that the discussion has almost become noisier than the original issue.

At best, Andrew might be able to design better "noise filters". But, I don't believe that we can, nor should we, eliminate the noise altogether. If we did that, I believe that it would impair our "hearing", as it were.
Nevertheless, I am going to try tweaking the system to see if a better compromise can be found. Being the lazy bastard that I am, I will try out the simplest tweak first, which involves an addition of only 3 lines of PHP code. :D

This change restricts the rise of any database entry bubble to the top of the main page (and RSS feed) to once every seven days. This means any app will get the top spot at most 4 times a month. For the engineering minded, effectively we are putting a low-pass filter over the incoming signal in an attempt to smooth out high-frequency components.

Let's try this out for a bit and see if anyone dies or any computer gets trashed as a result before exploring more complicated solutions. I may even back out of the change if enough of you think it hampers the usefulness of TPFC drastically. So let's break into it for a week or two and let me know what you think after that.

Thank you.

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 10:19 pm
by joby_toss
Hey...I've just updated PeStudio! :)
And it works!

But the problem is that there is something (minor) wrong with version 3.36 so I emailed the author...and I think there is another quick update on its way! :)

@JohnTHaller: you are right about PeStudio having issues from time to time! But not always! :)
Edit: it turns out it's not PeStudio's fault, but the .dlls I tested (the ones from the latest CamStudio 2.6.294). Same error I get using FileInfo plugin.

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 10:39 pm
by guinness
Only 29 people voted! :shock:

I didn't get that too involved with the discussion, but I feel bad for Checker :D I know personally I wouldn't bother updating the entries, if my hard work wasn't being seen by users.

That's why for some its easy to criticise the frequent updating, when they don't update! :)

But as ever I will embrace the change and continue to help.

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Sun Oct 31, 2010 10:42 pm
by joby_toss
How about a side list with notes about the latest "updated or changed" softwares, like the "recent comments" one? No separate rss feed, just for quick checking!
It may sound redundant, but this one will ignore that filter...Is this even possible?!

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:08 am
by Checker
guinness wrote:... I didn't get that too involved with the discussion, but I feel bad for Checker :D I know personally I wouldn't bother updating the entries, if my hard work wasn't being seen by users. ...
No problem for me :lol:

But one question:
I just updated Miranda IM.
Changelog:
- Fixed memory leaks
- ICQ: Fixed connection issues
- Jabber: Fixed account manager dialog to not allow manually setting SSL/TLS flag for the GTalk accounts

No I will find this entry (presently) at the end of page 3.
How will this come to the users attention :?:

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:50 am
by Checker
joby_toss wrote:How about a side list with notes about the latest "updated or changed" softwares ...
I like this idea :!:
For example: A title "version number updated" followed by the apps-names (as links).

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 2:06 am
by Firewrath
gee, why didnt someone think of this before? ;)
(sorry, i just had to, :P)
Firewath wrote: another possibility that i forgot to throw in, is that you could make 'Updates' like the forum and comments bars to the right,
just the Date then the App name, that would take all the updates off the main section and put them on a long enough list that ppl can still access on the front page,
adding the version number to that is a nice idea,
though i prefer the date because you might know you updated an app a week ago, but you might not remember the version number,

Although,i feel this goes better if updates are removed from the main page listing and just kept to a sidebar,

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:32 am
by SYSTEM
Thank you, Andrew. :)
Checker wrote:But one question:
I just updated Miranda IM.
Changelog:
- Fixed memory leaks
- ICQ: Fixed connection issues
- Jabber: Fixed account manager dialog to not allow manually setting SSL/TLS flag for the GTalk accounts

No I will find this entry (presently) at the end of page 3.
How will this come to the users attention :?:
The users will notice the update when Miranda IM 0.9.11 or 1.0 (or whatever the next version will be called) is released.

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 7:56 am
by Checker
If the next update will come in two month, the entry may be unnoticed for this time.

And: With the next version I will overwrite the "what's new"(Checker :wink: )-field :!:

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 8:05 am
by Checker
An actual update of PhonerLite will be found (presently) at the end of page 10 :!: now.
Changelog:
Fix: Failed calls due to re-INVITE sent too early.

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 11:51 am
by SYSTEM
Checker wrote: If the next update will come in two month, the entry may be unnoticed for this time.
That's why the filter should mainly affect the applications which are updated constantly too often. If updates come out all the time, the users can safely skip an update or two.

Andrew is currently "trying out the simplest tweak" (one update in n days) and, unfortunately, it mainly blocks "update bursts". John T. Haller has updated GIMP Portable three times in one day (namely 16 August 2009). Should any of these updates have been blocked? No. GIMP Portable hasn't been updated too often in general.

The proposal of lyx attempts to address this problem, but may be difficult to implement. :|
Checker wrote: And: With the next version I will overwrite the "what's new"(Checker :wink: )-field :!:
You're right. I hadn't realized that problem.

Re: Testing out new notification policy

Posted: Mon Nov 01, 2010 1:39 pm
by Andrew Lee
But one question:
I just updated Miranda IM.
Changelog:
- Fixed memory leaks
- ICQ: Fixed connection issues
- Jabber: Fixed account manager dialog to not allow manually setting SSL/TLS flag for the GTalk accounts

No I will find this entry (presently) at the end of page 3.
How will this come to the users attention :?:
The new code was comparing against the date of last version + content update, when it should be comparing against the date of last version-only update. I have fixed it up, and bumped Miranda IM + Phoner Lite manually. Apologies for missing it out..
How about a side list with notes about the latest "updated or changed" softwares, like the "recent comments" one? No separate rss feed, just for quick checking!
It may sound redundant, but this one will ignore that filter...Is this even possible?!
Yes, it is possible. But let's wait awhile to see if it's really necessary.