Discussion: Some updates

So, we have some changes, mostly related to discussion. here are the highlights:

- discussion categories - these are mostly self-explanatory, and should make it slightly easier to find/ignore particular topics. there will always be some gray area so use your best judgment when posting.

- event discussion - you can now have threads associated with events, which is the right place to discuss things like logistics that are not of interest to orienteers in Timbuktu. also, you of course want to promote the event you're organizing, but the general forum is not the best place for that, so keep it in the event discussion.

- discussion filters - these let you see just the event/race/log etc threads you might care about. e.g. the default event discussion filter shows you only threads about races on your calendar.

- rss feeds - for any discussion view (discussion.jsp), there is a corresponding rss feed. So for example you can get a feed with all the comment threads in your log.

- log discussion doesn't dissappear. active threads will still be accessible from your main log page if the associated entry is older than 7 days. also, you can have log discussions that are not linked to a training entry.

- you should now be able to change your password.

- split tables will show a "log" link if appropriate. it's looking for an entry on the same day with approximately the same duration as your race.

there were also a fair amount of changes under the hood, so don't hesitate to post here if you notice anything broken.

it seems like there is a problem where "sign out" doesn't work, I am looking into it. if this affects you, it is possible to force the same effect by clearing your browser cookies.

How do you get mulitple intensities as per your log?

see http://www.attackpoint.org/discussionthread.jsp/me...

A couple of questions --

1) is there a way to get it to remember that I want my default event filter to be "all events"?

2) is there a way to get it to flag new posts under event discussion with the "new" flag as in the main discussion?

3) what does "events from autofilter mean"?

Thanks

ken:
Nice new look to the home page (tho I was hoping that you'd give me the option to hide my neglected training log, to keep it from slapping me across the face every time I visit A/P).

On first-pass inspection, I particularly like the more prominent role you've given private log comments. Older subjects are now listed, and may be directly accessed with a single click...nice.

Judging from the time you made the initial post on this thread, it looks like you're burning the midnight oil to do this. It is nice to see such tangible payoff from our small donations. Thank you!

randy: 1&2) not yet, but coming soon. 3) oops, that needs to be explained somewhere. it's your saved search parameters from the events page.

Clicking on 'training' then 'Orienteering' (or any other activity) gives me:

Active training logs in the last 7 days: (from today to a week ago)

com.mysql.jdbc.exceptions.MySQLSyntaxErrorException: Unknown table 'w' in order clause.

New look is good, though my deep link to training comments sorted by latest view (http://attackpoint.org/trainingcomments.jsp/sort-l...) doesn't appear to work any more. I wonder if this sort is still present, just that an activity needs to be added.

It's probably explained somewhere, but how do you determine someone's "primary sport"?
The changes look nice. As always, thank you Kenny!

I'm surmising that attack badger discussions now can be shunted far "Off-Course"?

The main Racing page is sweet!

What does the "flag with care:" do?

"Primary sport" is set in your preferences.

I love that you included a specific category for off-topic discussions. I've noticed on other sites that having an OT area helps keep the peace. The name you came up with is perfect: "Off-Course".

the "table w" issue is fixed. Also note that the old feature allowing you to sort your favorites at the top of this list is no longer available (they instead show up on the "training" page), but the setting has not yet been removed from the preferences page.

the trainingcomments.jsp page is gone now, but this is almost the same idea.

"flags" are the beginnings of a group-moderation ability that will help to more quickly remove posts from Mr Cleavage and friends, recategorize misposts, and mark really interesting discussions so they can be highlighted or found much later. at the moment, the info is just stored to be manually reviewed by me. eventually stuff may happen automatically given enough flags.

Well this was a surprise! it is definitely going to take some time getting used to, but looks good to me (a bit confusing but good)

GREAT new look! Here is another error :(

http://www.attackpoint.org/userproximity.jsp

just get an error message!

Both of my boys JaysonR and JaxonRickel ran the Western States Sprint. JaysonR shows pts and place for that race under his log. JaxonRickel however shows no pts or place under his log. The only difference is that Jayson entered his split times, and Jaxon claimed his.

jingo6390 - updates are not instantaneous, and Jaxon's log should reflect the additional information when the next one is done.

a question:
how can i delete previous races from my profile that do not belong to me? I have a hand-me-down SI card, so I show up on attackpoint as having run Men's 21+. Or should I just log my splits manually and forget about using the SI card as an identifyer?

Michelle,
This is my guess...you have that SI-card # in your profile? If so, you should probably delete it from your profile. Then you can claim your splits each time after they are posted, and check the box to not save the card - treat it like it is a rental card. That way, only splits you claim will show up in your log.

You can click on the splits and do a delete, which will blow it away entirely.

If you refer to the events that show on your 'start page' [i.e. Recent splits (your events) in the lower right hand corner] I noticed the same thing.
Shown here are all the splits entered from that particular event that you have marked in your event calendar. In my case I didn't even enter my own splits so maybe that´s the reason the others are showing?

I'm not sure how others feel about it, but I'd rather have the default filter for Events be "All Events" - especially once people have the ability to change and save their filter. Otherwise, assuming that (a) inertia will keep most users on the default setting and (b) not all users put their races on their calendar, organizers lose an important channel to communicate to our small (and marketing-budget-impoverished) orienteering community about upcoming events.

Thinking about Ken's valid Timbuktu concern... maybe a future event filter could be by continent?

Regardless, thanks for all the hard work and the excellent set of updates. We are sooooo lucky to have AP!

I agree it feels a little too restrictive at the moment. the ability to choose your default filter will help, and I'll see what else I can do (like other filters).

I would also like to see the Events discussion a little more visible and default to everything not just mine. Took me a long time just to find it. I expected it to be a category in the discussion section then looked for a link from the specific event. Could not find it in either location. Finally noticed the little lists at the bottom.

In a related question. How do I control what appears in my list of upcoming events? It seems to be just those with lots of people going. Does not even include those I am going to. Is there some way to set it to Large and/or Local and/or I signed up and/or soon?

You should now be able change your default event/log/split discussion filters. You will see a "set as default" link above the filter selection box when you choose something that's not your current default. (Your defaults are initially "All")

in addition, new posts in these sections will get flagged as new.

Yes thanks ken. We are so lucky to have AttackPoint.

Did you change the data base for some of the metrics? It seems that we're now credited for much more discussion than we had credit for last week...and the ranking order has changed accordingly to depose J-J, and give Bash the top ranking with 2191 posts (an average of 6 posts per day?)! Could those be "life of A/P" numbers that are now being displayed, rather than posts during past year?

Under events, when you add an event, you can enter the sport such as "orienteering", "ski orienteering", etc. How about adding a category for "rogaine"? This might help users find (or filter out) the type of events in which they are most interested. At present, the best classification for rogaine appears to be just "orienteering".

Discussion metric now includes posts in people's logs. I'm very pleased to not be on top of that particular pile any more.

Hey ken,
On the home page my time for the last 7 days isn't changing. the log just dropped my 4hrs of skiing last sunday like it is supposed to but on my homepage, it still says i have those 4hrs (i wish i did, meant i would have trained this week) It might change i guess once i post something else, haven't tried that yet, but just thought you might want to know. Although it is a super small thing compared to everything else.
Thank you so much for attackpoint!! It is amazing and a great tool!

i think i am having the same problem...it added 1 hr 18 min and 2 seconds to my total time for the week...

Another minor bug: On the Split Analysis, Calculated errors are shown in gray as expected, but the Reported errors, to be shown in red, are not shown. Not sure if that is a new problem as just noticed it.

Minor bug (I think): Recent Splits section on my home page doesn't actually show my most recent splits.

The home page time thing is fixed, it was counting an extra day. I think the split analysis thing was an old problem, but that's fixed now too.

Bill, your problem should be fixed.

Thank you! looks great!

Wow, that's embarrassing! I guess I'm keeping up with too many Favorites.

There's still this weird behavior (in Firefox under XP, at least), where the "wrong" page will often pop up. Example: I look at my log, and click to read a comment thread. I click the "back" button to get back to my log, and then I click "edit" to change something in one of my log entries. When I click the "Submit" button on the edit page, instead of taking me back to my log, it goes to the comment thread that I had been on before. This sort of thing happens in a bunch of different scenarios, but this is a typical example.

yeah, I know the problem/fix for this one, too, I have just been lazy about getting around to it.

It is fixed. Thanks. BTW, I like the changes. Especially going directly to log comments by clicking on the comments summary link.

Take a rest Kenny, time to take Sam for a walk...

how did we get categorized into disciplines? since i run why am i not in the running gruppo, etc. Most are still listed under orienteering, why break a few out from the rest, lets all be one community. AP is an amazing invention, but not sure if some of these changes are really an improvement...

"how did we get categorized into disciplines?"

You mean under the "Training" list, Rudy? Edit your profile settings and see what you selected as your primary sport. I still see you on the Orienteering list.

It would be nice to have an "All" option for viewing everybody in a single list (as it was prior to change).

I'm presuming the change in structure is preparatory to taking Attackpoint (or at least, the underlying technology) to a broader audience? After all, if you put in this much time in programming, may as well monetize it a bit... (Not a criticism, just an observation that probably explains why it's necessary to introduce tagging by primary sport. Current demand for running discussion isn't that high, for example...)

That would make sense to me...

feet are not far off. one might speculate that the intent is to make back-end leverage possible while preserving the orienteering focus of Attackpoint...

Zuckerberg's NW has hit 1.5 BB.

Here is another potential bug highlighted by the "Orienteering Dreams" topic. It shows up on my home page, but when I go to discussions, it isn't there. Probably because it doesn't have a category associated with it.

im having problems signing out of attackpoint, anyone else?

Why would you ever need to sign out?? :)

See second post this thread; clearing AP cookies worked for me.

One reason to sign out is if there are multiple Attackpoint users (e.g. family members) sharing a computer. Or if you're using a public computer, I guess.

With the event discussions separated from the general discussion, there seems to be no notification of new posts regarding events. The Racing tab must be hit and then each thread individually checked for new posts. The event postings need to be highlighted for changes or brought back to the general discussion page. The latter might be preferred so we don't have to keep chasing around for posts.

walk, from the Discussion tab, you can just click the sub-tab for "from events" rather than going through the Racing tab. However, I agree it would be nice if there was some indication of new posts there (asterisk?) or if they were listed on the home page, whatever is easiest for ken.

Yeah, I definitely miss having event discussion in my face. I guess it's good to have it separated, since most events are of interest to a pretty small number of APers, but an asterisk or having them popup for me in my own discussion display would be cool.

Oh yeah, and let's not forget to donate.

Boris, so crazy Americans don't jump on the computer after you and post lots of (ridiculous) stuff in your name:-)

Why would I go to "from events" if there were no asterisk indicating a new post?

because that feature isn't working yet, duh.

holy cow, Gerald has been having a discussion all by himself in the several days since I last checked the unasterisked events discussion!

Duh!