Poll: Too many updates

All suggestions about TPFC should be posted here. Discussions about changes to TPFC will also be carried out here.

How can we tackle the issue of certain apps that are updated too frequently?

Poll ended at Sun Oct 24, 2010 4:35 pm

Not a problem for me
14
48%
Limit number of updates to 2 per 7 days
3
10%
Limit number of updates to 2 per 30 days
5
17%
Limit updates to 1 per 30 days, but can accumulate up to 3 updates if quota not used for that interval
3
10%
Show only new entries in RSS feed
3
10%
Others (Please reply and elaborate)
1
3%
 
Total votes: 29

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webfork
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Re: Poll: Too many updates

#16 Post by webfork »

lyx wrote:i agree that its not "our" business to tell developers how they should schedule their releases.
I concur as well, however:
  • Frequent releases target the hardcore users, not us. If we don't post each and every release, I don't think any developers will even notice.
  • Its not entirely on our shoulders to promote software: developers can (and often do) provide auto-update capabilities that are better able to address frequent updates.
  • We are marketing software by posting it on our site and, as we all know, there's such a thing as over-marketing something, resulting in disinterest in what the author is trying to promote.
guinness wrote:I just want to remind people back in the day with the lack of updates
Many updates are better than few, but I'd like to see the site find a comfortable median between too few and too many of a single program.

Stone Tablet
Posts: 42
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:58 am

Re: Poll: Too many updates

#17 Post by Stone Tablet »

I think we are asking the wrong question. We should be asking how can the layout be improved to allow the updates to reviewed quicker/easier for the user. For example at http://www.filehippo.com/latest/ 6 updates/screen will show on my screen with one page down I can see 4 more updates. Here I see 1.5 updates/screen and have to page down multiple time to see the 5 updates on that page.

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I am Baas
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Re: Poll: Too many updates

#18 Post by I am Baas »

Stone Tablet wrote:I think we are asking the wrong question. We should be asking how can the layout be improved to allow the updates to reviewed quicker/easier for the user.
Agreed. I don't quite understand the logic behind limiting updates.

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Andrew Lee
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Re: Poll: Too many updates

#19 Post by Andrew Lee »

Am i understanding this correctly, that this won't stop showing the current version on app pages, but will instead only affect notification of updates (RSS and frontpage)?
It should affect both front page and RSS, since some folks are also complaining about too many updates cluttering up the front page.

Would it help if we:

1) Split the RSS into two: *New only; *All

and

2) Collapse each update on the front page to a one-liner (expandable with a single click)?

Fire away! :D

donald
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Location: knoxville TN USA

Re: Poll: Too many updates

#20 Post by donald »

Andrew, I love the splitting the RSS and collapsing the updates it seems a great way to go.

I have no real problem with frequent updates, which include a version change but as some members have an issue with it here is an idea.

An Idea for the minimalists who wish to have cake and eat it to:

Hide updates made during a period such as Saturday-Thursday.

Then all hidden updates could receive an automatic 'vote' of 10 to show automatically beggining on Friday (or some other day).

As with private applications it could be searched for possibly with a method similar to the private apps operator.

The ideas above and the posting (showing in latest) of updates only when a version number changes would limit updates to about 4 days a month, and 52 a year. (This would also mean if I go into some entry I have posted to edit it, it would not show as being updated, But might/or might not require an EDIT tag for an non version entry update)

Possibly a terrible idea, I just had to share it.

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webfork
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Re: Poll: Too many updates

#21 Post by webfork »

Andrew Lee wrote: 1) Split the RSS into two: *New only; *All

and

2) Collapse each update on the front page to a one-liner (expandable with a single click)?

Fire away! :D
Both of those options would work great. I would say the RSS option makes more sense so those on the list with a preference can choose.

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Firewrath
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Re: Poll: Too many updates

#22 Post by Firewrath »

Andrew Lee wrote: 1) Split the RSS into two: *New only; *All
that works, 8)
Andrew Lee wrote: 2) Collapse each update on the front page to a one-liner (expandable with a single click)?
well i Like this, but can we at least keep like the 'Category' tag or something?
you cant always tell what a program does by its name, and i figure if you cut it down to just one line, that line would most likely just be the app name,
...and yeah, while i dont know for sure how you are going to do it, just thought id comment, :P

lyx
Posts: 84
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2010 1:23 am

Re: Poll: Too many updates

#23 Post by lyx »

Andrew Lee wrote:2) Collapse each update on the front page to a one-liner (expandable with a single click)?
I think a single line would convey too little information - one would end up expanding every app one doesn't know well yet.

Currently, an entry shows the following info:
*Appname *Version
Suggested by Username - Updated by Username on Date
Filesize - Popularity score
Links

*Category
*Synopsis
Writes settings to
Dependencies
How to extract
Path portability
License
System Requirements
What's new
The info marked with asterisks is what i'd like to be able to see instantly, to get an idea. So: Appname, Version, Category, Synopsis.

Everything else, i'd be fine to see on demand. Problem is that these fields are distributed across the entry, so i guess a completely new layout for displaying entries would be needed for this.

I do not think, that this is a good replacement for limiting update-notifications, but i do think that it would be a good idea anyways, because it would make scanning over news in the frontpage quicker.

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