Help, Suggestions, Future of The D-Word

I think I asked the same thing a while ago. It would be great b/c sometimes I remember that someone, let's say Kurt Engfehr, posted something important a while back about, let's say, the art of filming roadrunners. Then I could just punch in "Kurt" and "roadrunner" and it would narrow down the postings immensely. Currently it only seems to search the name if it's mentioned in the post. Though I suppose the workaround is we could all start signing our posts. The other thing I find odd is that, when we do search a keyword, it brings up the posts in no particular order. It would be great if it could bring them up in chronological order, starting with the most recent. That way I could at least get recent roadrunner discussions and not ones had in 1999.

(no roadrunners were harmed in the making of this post)

beep-beep.

Search results are ordered by relevance. And tagged postings come first.

Just tag whatever posts you find useful, and you'll easily find them again without any need for a search.

And: this is the Beta.

How does it determine relevance if you only have one keyword? Also isn't it searching on all tags, not just mine? Or is it only searching on my tags?

P.S. For a Beta, D-Word is amazing. No major complaints. Just suggestions for the next version if and when it comes.

thing about the tags is that, we didn't tag shit a few years ago.

we will have search by user and different sort options in the next version... some time in the next few months. The search-my-tags-only thing is also in the pipeline...

How does it determine relevance? Tags first (as Ben said) and then using a full-text search algorithm. If you really want to understand it, see here but it's awfully technical.

Peter, silent man behind the architecture, thank you again for devoting so much time to structuring this with the co-helmers. Happy New Year.

Hosts, FYI, I just did a search on "batteries" to find the very helpful post that Kurt recently posted related to the new restrictions on lithium batteries so I could share the info with someone offlist. I did find the post, but ahead of it were other posts with the word "batteries," all of which were older posts and none of which were tagged (Kurt's posting was tagged). Just thought you should know...

I'm new here, so forgive me if I'm posting this in the wrong place. This may be less of a help issue than it is a request. I just registered to get my "enthusiast" designation and have really been enjoying exploring the areas of this site I have access to. One of the things I know I (and I would guess many others in my shoes) would benefit from is some sort of public forum containing documentary reviews or recommendations. I am always looking for suggestions from people who are as into docs as I am. I live in a rural area, which limits my ability to see more obscure films (ones not available on Netflix). I'm not sure how complicated something like this would be, but it's just a thought. Thanks so much for this site! I'm glad I found it.

good suggestion, chris. we had a favorite docs topic for a while, but it petered out in time and we archived it. alas, accessible to d-word members only. it's well worth thinking of doing something public in that way.

could do a list of the favorite films of d-worders – a doc filmmakers list of films for doc lovers – based on the multiple lists and recommends we've all made over the years.

Has anyone suggested the feature of allowing registered users of this site to send msgs to each other? The general format of the topics board here is kinda new to me and I'm still trying to get used to it. But the tagging feature helps a lot!

if you fill out your profile we have access to your email address for private messages.

I love the new D-Word and its simplicity has really helped me get more involved. Thanks to everyone for all of the incredible work that went into this new platform!

I do have a question/possible feature request. Is there a way for me to use one e-mail address to receive my e-mail digest from D-word but then to a display a different e-mail in my profile? This would be convenient as I'm guessing that, like me, many people have multiple e-mail addresses and use some for list subscriptions, some for business contact, etc.

Functionally, I guess this would mean that instead of having the option under "settings" to hide e-mail address, there would be two options: one to hide primary e-mail address and another to hide "other" e-mail address.

Thanks for your proposal, Robert.

Does anyone else see the need for this?

Ben, that would be useful (but not esssential) for me also.

I would also like a feature where I could be permanently logged in at all times, i.e. where your server would remember my IP address.

But again, these are not critical isues. It's an awesome site and I'd love to earn my membership soon!

Log-in to The D-Word is cookie-based, not IP-based.

But we can throw a "keep me logged in" option onto the feature list if people want this. However, all modern browsers offer to remember log-in details for you, so the proposed feature is not really a necessity these days, is it?

Vis-a-vis, Robert B's request: Maybe I missed something, but what is the e-mail digest? Is this a new feature where there's a summary of all the postings of the day? Or is this just like the old "notify me of postings following mine" option from the Utne days. Personally I don't feel like I get so many postings from D-Word that I would need to have a separate e-mail account for them. But if it's not a problem to implement this change for folks who would want it, sure why not.

On permanent logins, again I don't feel strongly about it, though it would be nice. When I'm using Firefox at home, it remembers the log-in details. At work, I'm using Explorer and it doesn't remember them (maybe b/c oursets us to not remember cookies, but I'm not sure – it remembers my Gmail login automatically). If permanent login is an option, It would still be good to have an easy way to sign in and out. I never figured out how to do that with Utne and, as a result, visiting D-Worders to my home couldn't log me out and re-log-in as themselves to post stuff.

Email digests can be selected at the bottom of each Topic or on the My Topics page. You'll receive the new postings in the selected Topics by email rather than by logging in. Not just a notification.

As for logging out, you had to close the browser with Cafe Utne (one of previous platforms). Now, you can just use the Log out on the top right of every page.

excuse me. What happened to archives and file store – like releases etc?

Not sure what you mean with archives. Archived topics are all with us.

Not sure what you mean with file store either. The Resources page hosted by an inactive member? If so, we never had any releases on there, just some sample budgets and proposals that are pretty much out of date now. As soon as our previous platform allowed us to post attachments, there was no need for separate hosting any more. You're the first one to miss these files.

Just b/c we haven't posted like David, doesn't mean there aren't others who miss them as well. It's nice to have resources in one fixed place. But I suppose the fix is to do a search on "release forms" or "releases" and create a tag if some smart soul hasn't done so already.

Exactly. :-)

I love the customizing abilities of the new D-Word format, but, and I may be the lone moron who has this problem, I have accidentally hid topics probably ten times while trying to go back to topics list. I've noticed and fixed it immediately about 9 of those times, but at least once, I didn't realize for like a week that I was missing a topic. I guess I'm not even sure why someone would hide topics in the first place. Maybe put the option in a different place where I don't accidentally click on it. Of course, if I'm the only one, than... well, don't worry about it, I just need to work on my mouse skills.

It has happened to others, too. I think we just need a bigger space between the two links.