New Feature? 'Personal List Of Guides'

[daamon]

Hi Baldrick,

As my knowledge and courage grows (adding selectable subs to DVDs from home shot footage is next - I'm on the case...), I'm expanding the list of guides that I'm referring to.

Once I've found one (or more) that I like for each topic, I then feel comfortable referring others to it/them if I think it'll be helpful.

For either case above, I'm finding that I have to do a lot of searching (either through the guides, or my old posts) to find the guides I want - and I think this could be much easier by the following (especially as I'm still in the dark ages and on dial-up ):

I think it would be useful if, for each guide / article / "How To", there was an equivalent of "Watch this topic for replies", reading something like "Add this to your personal list" (or similar):



Then, on the "Forum Index" page, you could add a line "View your list of guides" (or similar) to the existing options:

View posts since last visit
View your watched topics
View your list of guides
View your posts
View unanswered posts

Clicking on the new link would take you to a page that provided the title and the URL, both with hyperlinks so clicking on them worked, and making it easy to copy the title, the URL, or both when giving others info.

Once on the page, deleting and being able to PM each guide's details would be good...

I don't know how easy this is / how much work is involved, but thought I'd mention it. Let me know what you think.

Anybody else have any comment? I suppose we each have our "Favourites" on IE (or equivalent), but having them listed on the site makes them more accessible - especially when passing the link to others.

Cheers, Daamon.

[Hardcoreruss]

Good idea

[saurabh_fzr]

Excellent ! if that can be done

[daamon]

Thanks for the feedback.

Anyone else any comments? Loads of views, but not many comments... Come on...

[Will Hay]

Thanks for the feedback.

Anyone else any comments? Loads of views, but not many comments... Come on...

We either like it or we don't; what do you want, blood?
It's a good idea, I'd use it.
Will

[Baldrick]

Sounds like a good idea.

daamon: Just send me the php code so i can add it.....

[daamon]

We either like it or we don't; what do you want, blood?

Came back to my thread after a few (!) beers, hence my bravado... But thanks for your comment.

daamon: Just send me the php code so i can add it.....

Hold on a minute, I'll just knock it up. All I need is your admin ID and password, your ftp IP address and port number. Oh, and a clue as to what the hell php code is...

[daamon]

Sounds like a good idea.

daamon: Just send me the php code so i can add it.....

Hi Baldrick. The more I look, the more I'm finding guides that I want to keep a track of - any likelihood of this one coming to fruition? Or does your comment mean that it's a lot of work / future task...?

[Baldrick]

Sounds like a good idea.

daamon: Just send me the php code so i can add it.....

Hi Baldrick. The more I look, the more I'm finding guides that I want to keep a track of - any likelihood of this one coming to fruition? Or does your comment mean that it's a lot of work / future task...?

I have created the personal list database table now.

[Baldrick]

Done. You must be logged in to the forum or else you can't view, add or remove guides. Select Your guides under List By to view your guides.

I will fix so you can view your guides without beeing logged in also.

[daamon]

Hi Baldrick - Excellently done!!! Thank you.

Being the perfectionist I am, I've noticed a couple of bugs and some feedback - I hope you take it as enthusiasm to make the site better, rather than me being a pain... (I am, after all, a software test consultant by trade).

The bugs:
1) I've added a number of guides. But I noticed, that when searching through the guides in general, when one is displayed that I have already added to my list it still says "Add this to your personal list".

My curiousity led me to click on it (like someone could for real if they forgot they had the guide already), and I found that the guide was actually deleted from my list rather than nothing happening (best result) or a duplicate appearing in the list (would also, obviously, need sorting).

2) After a short amount of time (not sure how long - haven't measured it), like 30 minutes maybe, "list by Your guides" returns 0 finds even though they are there.

At the same time, when listing guides in general, the option to "Add this to your personal list" disappears from below the guide's details.

I refreshed the page and was still shown as logged in. Logging out then logging back in sorts this out. I'm guessing that there's a parameter somewhere that's timing out and telling the system that the user is no longer logged on, when in fact they still are (given your statement that you must be logged on to use it). Maybe the check of "logged on" is referring to the wrong flag / parameter?

And some feedback:

Consider the situation where newbies / rookies haven't yet found a guide that they really like and someone in the forum recommends one that they have in their list (quite common, I'd guess).

The URL they'll naturally be provided with is the one to the actual guide itself - coz that's all that's available, e.g.:

http://dvd-hq.info/Compression.html

...not a URL to the page where the actual link is:

https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=303&howtoselect=4;43#303

A solution (amongst others, no doubt) would be to list the latter URL in people's personal lists, along with the heading if possible, rather than the details that the link takes you to.

I mention this for two reasons:

1. It could negate the work you put into developing a rating system for guides recently, because they won't get to see the "Rate this guide" bit.

2. And people won't get to see the "Add this to your personal list" link coz they'll go direct to the actual guide itself - and defeating the object of implementing it.

Like I said earlier, I hope you see that I'm offering this as an improvement to the site rather than being a pain.

Cheers.

[Baldrick]

You are beeing a pain.

I will fix the add remove bug, forgot that one.
I will see what I can do about your feedback suggestion(means that it will take some weeks before I actually do something ).

Remember that the guide list is still an early beta...I don't think it is perfect yet...(as basicly the entire site... ).

[Baldrick]

Bug fixed, now it will say remove guide if you have added it on all pages.

[Baldrick]

Forgot to upload it... should work now...

[daamon]

You are beeing a pain.

Sorry . "Wink" noted... "No pain, no gain"... :P

Forgot to upload it... should work now...

Certainly does.

I checked out the 2nd bug (After a short amount of time "list by Your guides" returns 0 finds even though they are there) and that's still the case. I timed it and it seems it's around the 30 mins mark (if that's any help).

I will see what I can do about your feedback suggestion...

OK. Cheers for the feedback...

Remember that the guide list is still an early beta...I don't think it is perfect yet...

Sure, but I think you've done a great job as a starting point.

I'll leave you in peace now... for a while...

[Baldrick]

Bug 2 fixed. You shouldn't have to logout and login, but you must go the forum first.

I also changed the topic-links so it links to the actual guide on this site. I had actually already prepared to add it...but I have completly forget it.

[daamon]

Bug 2 fixed.

Certainly is.

I also changed the topic-links so it links to the actual guide on this site.

Hopefully, people will use that link when referring others to the guide...

One final thing... Thank you for your patience and for incorporating this into the site. I'm already gaining benefit from it, and I'm sure others will too.

[daamon]

Hi Baldrick,

Digging up an old thread, but it's relevant: I was introducing a friend to VideoHelp, particularly the ability to bookmark guides and tools, and notice that the functionality to view one's personal list doesn't appear to be there any more.

Tools and guides can still be added and removed, but they can't be viewed (unless it's changed and I'm missing it).

[Baldrick]

I disabled it some weeks ago when I separated the forum to a new server...I haven't fixed it back yet...

[daamon]

I disabled it some weeks ago when I separated the forum to a new server...I haven't fixed it back yet...

Ah, OK. Fair enough. Any ETA on its return?

Cheers.

[Baldrick]

Nope.

[daamon]

For those still wanting to access this feature (having guides in a personal list), I've found a work-around...

Add a guide, any guide - whether you want it in your list or not, to your personal list (that functionality still exists).

The URL that comes up after adding the guide is the URL to your personal list. Bookmark this for future use. The URL is in the format:

"https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?listallusers=[XXXXX]" where XXXXX is a number.

Delete the added guide if you don't want it.