Can we have a Forum?

[Clark Stevenson]

The title says it all!

I have a real burning hate for Mailing Lists which usually i just accept, but i feel that Away4.0 is a big thing.

Using a Mailing List feels like its 1609 and Galileo is about to peer through his telescope for the first time!

Clark.

[Jesse Nicholson]

Agreed, it's kinda starting to piss me off I almost unsubscribed cause
I'm tired of getting 10 million emails a day. I have contributed and
enjoy doing it but I don't want to be forced to get every single
message. A forum is a perfect idea I think the fact that you have to
go digging in pretty much any email client for newsgroup settings says
it all.

[Páll Zoltán]

i agree, tho Gmail's Priority Inbox helps a lot :)

Z.

[Darcey Lloyd]

1. Are you aware that google mail and other mail like hotmail and yahoo offer filters?

2. Are you aware that you can send emails directly to these folder so they never appear in your inbox?

3. Are you aware that these email folders will have a number next to them stating how many you have unread?

The combination of Archiving all these emails into a folder and then being able to search through them all via keywords, attachments, date, from, to, starred, unstarred etc etc etc makes for a resource much like a forum (in my opinion - butter than phpbb3 etc), just you can access it anywhere you can get your email. It would be the same as searching the google group for Away3D just from your inbox. Which at the end of the day is list of posts which you can search, same functionality as a forum.

Personally I love it this way, I have over 4000 emails in the folder, a resource I love, my first place of searching if I ever have a question or an issue, the next is google directly and then I post on the google group.

GMail guide:

1. Create a Label eg. Away3D (Choose a colour for it, so it shows up in your inbox neatly)

2. At the top next o the button search the web, there is a text link labeled "create a filter"

3. In the from field enter "away3...@googlegroups.com" and click next step button

4. Tick the box apply the label and choose the "Away3D" label you just created

5. Now if you want to auto skip the inbox and go to your Away3D mail folder tick the box "Skup the inbox"

6. Tick the box right hand side of the create filter button labeled "Also apply filter to x conversations below", this will label all the emails you have had from the group previously and perform the actions on all them too.

7. Click create filter

As for yahoo and hotmail, the process would be similar.

A forum would be nice, don't get me wrong, but I don't feel I am missing out on anything having it this way.

D

[Bob Warfield]

Darcey, they don't even have to do that.  Just go to the Google Group and edit your membership to say you'll read it on the web.  Then read it on the web just like a forum.

 

Best,

 

BW

[Fabrice3D]

Just want to add another detail if you are mac based:

I don't like the online googlemail interface and preffer have all in Mail. I use the online gmail one only to change settings or add filters.

Mail supports gmail pretty well and even sync it all to your phone.

Make a map "on my mac" go to the account and make a rule --> all messages go to this map

it extremely easy to search and keep all together.

To me, its way more flexible than a forum, as online forums are just another open window and you have to refresh the pages to read the threads/answers.

html browsing is just not my thing :)

That having said, nothing stops you to start one! I recall that for PV3D and Sandy a few were online and pretty popular...

But be aware that a good forum requires maintenance, moderation and will eat quite a few hours of your free time per week.

Fabrice

[Peter Kapelyan]

Some people have a burning hate for forums :)

Maybe we should have a poll? Enough people want it and we can put one on away3d?

However with a forum + mailing list, that's two places to check, which seems a more primitive solution than just having one place.

-Pete

--
___________________

Actionscript 3.0 Flash 3D Graphics Engine

HTTP://AWAY3D.COM

[Stephen Hopkins]

The sad thing about these mailing lists is that many questions go
unanswered, get lost and forgotten (at least my posts do). I don't
post for help here that often, but whenever I do it seems to be
because of some bug I'm encountering and no one is of any help. I hate
having to bump these problems after they get buried 2 pages deep and I
just give up on it/do some ghetto work around. I've put bug reports in
the issues section but to me it seems like the only accepted bugs are
ones that the developers post. I know there is some unnecessary stuff
in the bug reports, but really I think a lot of them are legitimate.

http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/a44b6ad3334aba2f/1beda11f665ebbaf?lnk=gst&q=explode#1beda11f665ebbaf

a few months after that post, this bug (vertices not having a geometry
reference) was eventually fixed indirectly, presumably for another
problem but not because of the problem it created for Explode. I
didn't post an issue for it because to me, it just seemed like no one
cared. None of my other issues had answers and I was getting pretty
mad just being ignored, not knowing if anyone actually read my post,
and seeing people reply to other postings.

Possibly my saddest post:
http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/f2159c64049d76da/5a71731be6373cc2?lnk=gst&q=sprite3d+clipping#5a71731be6373cc2

Heres another guy running into the same problem a year later.
http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/25573057659ee8b2

also
http://code.google.com/p/away3d/issues/detail?id=128&can=1&start=100

[Bob Warfield]

Steve, it's true, many issues do go unanswered.  I know most of mine have too.  But what does that have to do with whether there is a forum?

 

Adding one will already split the limited attention of those who can help in even more directions.

 

Sincerely,

 

BW

[Stephen Hopkins]

If there is a forum, at least you will know if people actually looked
at your post and just didn't bother or didn't know how to answer. I
think having subforums would also be very helpful. Could categorize
posts into Discussions, Specific Problems, Resolved problems,
Beginners Forum. Ideally, all problems would eventually be resolved. I
know that this would take quite a bit of community effort. Even if
there wasn't some kind of requests/processed system, it would still be
very helpful to have subforums. People asking for help aren't gonna
get drowned out by other posts.

On Mar 26, 8:05 pm, Bob Warfield <b...@thewarfields.com> wrote:
> Steve, it's true, many issues do go unanswered.  I know most of mine have
> too.  But what does that have to do with whether there is a forum?
>
> Adding one will already split the limited attention of those who can help in
> even more directions.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> BW
>

> On Sat, Mar 26, 2011 at 6:46 PM, Stephen Hopkins <rentakni...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > The sad thing about these mailing lists is that many questions go
> > unanswered, get lost and forgotten (at least my posts do). I don't
> > post for help here that often, but whenever I do it seems to be
> > because of some bug I'm encountering and no one is of any help. I hate
> > having to bump these problems after they get buried 2 pages deep and I
> > just give up on it/do some ghetto work around. I've put bug reports in
> > the issues section but to me it seems like the only accepted bugs are
> > ones that the developers post. I know there is some unnecessary stuff
> > in the bug reports, but really I think a lot of them are legitimate.
>

> >http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/a44b6a...

>
> > a few months after that post, this bug (vertices not having a geometry
> > reference) was eventually fixed indirectly, presumably for another
> > problem but not because of the problem it created for Explode. I
> > didn't post an issue for it because to me, it just seemed like no one
> > cared. None of my other issues had answers and I was getting pretty
> > mad just being ignored, not knowing if anyone actually read my post,
> > and seeing people reply to other postings.
>
> > Possibly my saddest post:
>

> >http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/f2159c...

>
> > Heres another guy running into the same problem a year later.
>

> >http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/255730...

> > > HTTP://AWAY3D.COM <http://away3d.com/>

[Jesse Nicholson]

I say we take it to a poll. Honestly I'm not to get rude here but
can't really help it, there's no two ways about it doing things, this
way is just plain being stubborn and wanting to stick with what is
comfortable (for people who are arguing against a forum). As we can
already see from the limited amount of feedback we've been able to get
here it's bad for getting things resolved. Also, it's bad for the
engine. People looking for help (most probably junior to intermediate
developers or maybe even product testers) are going to find links to
this place via google, see the ****pile of messages + the garbage
interface + legitimate complaints and sad issues as stephen has posted
and probably just plain go somewhere else. I mean really people
product support is the only reason why someone would buy alternativa
and not use away3d. A forum is a nice, presentable, easy to use way to
properly do what we're trying to do here. About the comments
suggesting how to configure your mail client etc I find that kind of
insulting, although I could be interpreting it wrong Darcey your post
seems a little condescending. I'm a programmer, pretty damn sure I
know how to configure my mail client and I'm pretty sure you know that
too and so it can be nothing but a sarcastic answer. The point is I
don't want to. The point is even if I set my group settings to only
read online there's still piles and piles of news messages to sort
through not organized at all and honestly as a contributor that's more
than I care to do anyway. Anyway I could be wrong about Darceys
comment but I highly doubt it, I mean most of us here are developers
of some kind so I'm pretty sure it would be assumed we have basic
knowledge of how to use a mail client. If I am wrong I apologize for
the assumption. Again, lets take it to a poll.

[Li]

A forum can be helpful in many other ways also. Topics can be categorized for instance. We could have a section for Broomstick, another one for bugs, another one for showcase, etc. Then stuff would be easier to find and keep track of. Our inboxes wouldn't be bombarded by every single topic out there but only the ones we follow. I think it would definitely improve communication in the Away3D community. Downside is, of course, it would require management. If that is possible, I would vote for migrating to a forum.
If we can specify the items to be included in the poll, I could make it up quickly and add it as a topic in this list.

[Michael Iv]

Darcey and Fabrice you are right in the that the google group is pretty convenient system to exchange questions and answers  but it lacks one think that forums may give and that is the interface which sorts and maps the questions to relevant categories .Forum like system allows  easily track unanswered questions as well as all kind of "hot" discussions .Google groups you can search but it is not always a convenient thing to do as the search outputs in many cases a wide range of discussions unrelated to the what you are looking for (just based on a keyword ). Shortly if we poll I VOTE FOR AWAY3D FORUM ! :)

On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 6:47 AM, Li <paleb...@gmail.com> wrote:

A forum can be helpful in many other ways also. Topics can be categorized for instance. We could have a section for Broomstick, another one for bugs, another one for showcase, etc. Then stuff would be easier to find and keep track of. Our inboxes wouldn't be bombarded by every single topic out there but only the ones we follow. I think it would definitely improve communication in the Away3D community. Downside is, of course, it would require management. If that is possible, I would vote for migrating to a forum.
If we can specify the items to be included in the poll, I could make it up quickly and add it as a topic in this list.

--

Michael Ivanov ,Programmer
Neurotech Solutions Ltd.
Flex|Air |3D|Unity|
www.neurotechresearch.com
http://blog.alladvanced.net
Tel:054-4962254
mic...@neurotech.co.il
te...@neurotech.co.il

[Trevor Burton]

well, having spent some time on mailing lists like this and there are often calls for a forum because mailing lists are 'old' and forums are packed with lots of cool features. The forum gets put up and then hardly gets used cause everyone replies to the messages on the mailing list.

I'm not sure why this is, but the fact is i've never seen an instance of a mailing list switching to a forum and the forum becoming a thriving community either instead of or as well as the mailing list. Maybe it's because If a forum goes up people have to deliberately switch their habits and checking mail is something you do anyway so the mailing list is convenient.

Plus there are always considerably more 'lurkers' than 'posters' on mailing lists, maybe it's something to with it, i don't know.

All i'm saying is, that despite the extra features forums might offer the mailing list is simple, so people will tend to use it. There's a user-experience study there somewhere i'm sure.

Don't want to sound negative but i wonder why, if a forum was a better solution, we aren't all using a forum already and we're having this conversation.

my tuppence :)
T

--

---------------------------

Trevor Burton

[abowman]

+1 for an Away3d Forum.

Here is a question that I asked a year ago that I think got lost due
to the design of Google Groups.

http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/49ea14bb2f9de6a5/9d69fc2f8e44f879?lnk=gst&q=walk+wave#9d69fc2f8e44f879

BTW, I asked the same question yesterday if anyone would like to
answer it. :)

http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/b3d2e7743a731ad2

On Mar 26, 9:46 pm, Stephen Hopkins <rentakni...@gmail.com> wrote:
> The sad thing about these mailing lists is that many questions go
> unanswered, get lost and forgotten (at least my posts do). I don't
> post for help here that often, but whenever I do it seems to be
> because of some bug I'm encountering and no one is of any help. I hate
> having to bump these problems after they get buried 2 pages deep and I
> just give up on it/do some ghetto work around. I've put bug reports in
> the issues section but to me it seems like the only accepted bugs are
> ones that the developers post. I know there is some unnecessary stuff
> in the bug reports, but really I think a lot of them are legitimate.
>

> http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/a44b6a...

>
> a few months after that post, this bug (vertices not having a geometry
> reference) was eventually fixed indirectly, presumably for another
> problem but not because of the problem it created for Explode. I
> didn't post an issue for it because to me, it just seemed like no one
> cared. None of my other issues had answers and I was getting pretty
> mad just being ignored, not knowing if anyone actually read my post,
> and seeing people reply to other postings.
>

> Possibly my saddest post:http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/f2159c...
>
> Heres another guy running into the same problem a year later.http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/browse_thread/thread/255730...
>
> alsohttp://code.google.com/p/away3d/issues/detail?id=128&can=1&start=100

[Michael Iv]

I am not sure but from my experience I think you can use 2 channels of animations on the same mesh.Because when you use one all your mesh is under control by the channel .So I can't see how you can make two channels operate on the same mesh at the same time. Also for your scenario the usual approach is to add two separate anim sequences -one for walking and second for walking and hand  wave. Once again I am not sure and if someone has a better idea I would like to hear it too.

[Michael Iv]

Sorry for this typo:

I think you can use 2 channels of animations on the same mesh

I meant to say YOU CAN'T

[Li]

We've discussed this with the team and we agreed to have a forum. We will be implementing this soon, along with other tools to enhance community support and communication.

If you want to leave suggestions as to which tools to use, ideas, etc, please do!

[John Brookes]

Forum and mailing list or just forum?

[Li]

First both, and see how it evolves from there.

[Michael Iv]

Sounds good.

On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 7:12 PM, Li <paleb...@gmail.com> wrote:

First both, and see how it evolves from there.

[Michael Iv]

BTW PHPBB is a nice forum software.

[Darcey Lloyd]

If we are to get a forum I would also recommend PHPBB 3, fast and easy to setup and has lots of themes which are easily modified. It also has lots of mods for extra functionality but if you want to keep maintenance down, don't start plugging these in or you could find yourself trying to fix the mods on minor version upgrades. It also has the ability to upgrade itself when a new version is out via the admin console.

Also beware of SWFs displaying in posts, they tried a fix for this last time I used version 3 but ended up modifying quite a few things for it to use SWFObject. They might have fixed it but if not, I posted on their forums on how I fixed it at:

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1390775&start=30

D

[Wouter Walmink]

I am definitely in favor of a forum if it will help get questions
answered more and more quickly. Since the available online information
& support for Away3D is limited, this mailing list is my sole hope to
find answers to 'uncrackable' issues.

A few weeks ago I asked a question about -what seems to be- a bug, but
no responses so far (http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/
browse_thread/thread/79f85e6e1d8874bd/b71599376daec637?
lnk=gst&q=outline#b71599376daec637). I think that the use of
categories in forums could make it easier to distinguish between
beginner's issues, bugs and general tips or tricks. When experts or
Away3D developers can focus on one category, it would also be a more
efficient way to direct the available manpower.

On Mar 29, 12:27 am, Darcey Lloyd <darcey.ll...@gmail.com> wrote:
> If we are to get a forum I would also recommend PHPBB 3, fast and easy to
> setup and has lots of themes which are easily modified. It also has lots of
> mods for extra functionality but if you want to keep maintenance down, don't
> start plugging these in or you could find yourself trying to fix the mods on
> minor version upgrades. It also has the ability to upgrade itself when a new
> version is out via the admin console.
>
> Also beware of SWFs displaying in posts, they tried a fix for this last time
> I used version 3 but ended up modifying quite a few things for it to use
> SWFObject. They might have fixed it but if not, I posted on their forums on
> how I fixed it at:
>
> http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1390775&start=30
>
> D
>

> On 28 March 2011 22:55, Michael Iv <explomas...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > BTW PHPBB is a nice forum software.
>

> > On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 11:12 PM, Michael Iv <explomas...@gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >> Sounds good.
>

> >> On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 7:12 PM, Li <paleblue...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>> First both, and see how it evolves from there.
>
> >> --
> >> Michael Ivanov ,Programmer
> >> Neurotech Solutions Ltd.
> >> Flex|Air |3D|Unity|
> >>www.neurotechresearch.com
> >>http://blog.alladvanced.net
> >> Tel:054-4962254

> >> mich...@neurotech.co.il
> >> t...@neurotech.co.il

>
> > --
> > Michael Ivanov ,Programmer
> > Neurotech Solutions Ltd.
> > Flex|Air |3D|Unity|
> >www.neurotechresearch.com
> >http://blog.alladvanced.net
> > Tel:054-4962254

> > mich...@neurotech.co.il
> > t...@neurotech.co.il

[Clark Stevenson]

Sorry for the delay everyone!

Great news!

It was interesting to read peoples opinions on it, and thanks for the tips about the mailing list.

Ill stay tuned.

Thanks,

Clark.

[Darcey Lloyd]

Was thinking I could setup a sub domain on one of my domains eg:

away3d.aftc.co.uk or away3d.allforthecode.co.uk and stick up a PHPBB3 forum for people to use?

Then when your ready I could take a MySQL dump and you could import it via phpmyadmin?

What you think?

D

[Li]

Thanks for the offer, but we are already working on a set up. It will take a bit longer because we plan to incorporate the forum with a new site we're working on. Hopefully all this will allow everyone to have better support.

[Asimkh]

You can use my forum if you like

http://www.charag.com/forum/

for discuss as its totally empty and not in use.


am also getting number of email from away3d and andriod



On Mar 27, 12:28 am, Jesse Nicholson <ascensionsyst...@gmail.com>

wrote:
> Agreed, it's kinda starting to piss me off I almost unsubscribed cause
> I'm tired of getting 10 million emails a day. I have contributed and
> enjoy doing it but I don't want to be forced to get every single
> message. A forum is a perfect idea I think the fact that you have to
> go digging in pretty much any email client for newsgroup settings says
> it all.
>

> On Mar 26, 4:04 pm, Clark Stevenson <a.scots...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > The title says it all!
>
> > I have a real burning hate for Mailing Lists which usually i just accept,
> > but i feel that Away4.0 is a big thing.
>
> > Using a Mailing List feels like its 1609 and Galileo is about to peer
> > through his telescope for the first time!
>
> > Clark.

[Asimkh]

http://www.charag.com/forum/

you can use my forum....its not in use currently :)

On Mar 29, 4:13 pm, Clark Stevenson <a.scots...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sorry for the delay everyone!
>
> Great news!
>
> It was interesting to read peoples opinions on it, and thanks for the tips
> about the mailing list.
>
> Ill stay tuned.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Clark.
>

[Li]

Well, I don't thing its a good idea to have people register there and then in the official one again. It would make everything a mess. Perhaps we should be patient for a few days, and then we could just use the official one.

[mani china]

official is best

On Fri, Apr 1, 2011 at 9:02 AM, Li <paleb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Well, I don't thing its a good idea to have people register there and then in the official one again. It would make everything a mess. Perhaps we should be patient for a few days, and then we could just use the official one.

--

Sincerely yours,

Mani Wang (王治强)

Flex Engineer（Flex工程师）

Mobile phone +86 156-2014-6968

Direct line +86 (22) 5985 0512

1F/B8 Tianda Science Park, No.80 4th Avenue, TEDA, Tianjin, 300457, P.R.China
天津经济技术开发区第四大街80号天大科技园B8楼1层（300457）
Tel：+86 (022) 5985 0599        Fax：+86 (022) 5985 0500 

[Jensa]

Hi guys,
Just wanted to remind you that you don't need to have any emails sent
you you at all from the mailing list. This is just a preference that
you can set and you can also get it like a Digest. If you prefer using
a forum, just go to http://groups.google.com/group/away3d-dev/ and use
the Mailing List from there. It's very much like a single-topic
forum :)

J

[John Brookes]

Are we there yet ;)

[wagster]

Great news. I learnt a huge amount from actionscript.org when I was
starting out and still go there regularly - it looks like cr*p but
it's really well organised and already has most of the answers to
anything you might ask.

[Li]

Sorry for the delay guys, we're almost there!

[Rob Bateman]

Hey Guys

sorry for the delay with this, we do have a forum that we are currently setting up on a staging server along with a site re-design. This has been a long process as we are doing things on the cheap, but we hope to be able to launch something in May

There may also be an interim period where we allow people who prefer a forum to use the staging server url to start posting. We're working this out as i type, but be assured that we want to make sure a forum is available for those who prefer it

This will NOT be a replacement for the mailing list, which will continue unaffected

cheers!

Rob

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 2:52 PM, Li <paleb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry for the delay guys, we're almost there!

--
Rob Bateman
Flash Development & Consultancy

rob.b...@gmail.com
www.infiniteturtles.co.uk
www.away3d.com