Various questions about this site

terrypin wrote on 6/23/2011, 8:42 AM

I joined the magix.info site 4 years ago but didn't find it useful. I'm now returning because our English speaking forum at http://support2.magix.net/boards/magix/index.php?showforum=113 is sadly closing. So I'm essentially a novice member.

I'm having some basic difficulties understanding how the site is designed and how to use it.

1. I am now in a Discussion Forum, yes? This is what I have always simply called a 'forum'. I'm not in a Question and Answer Forum, which I understand is apparently an alternative way to have a DISCUSSION about a technical issue! So my first question is: what is the point of this distinction? Why have Magix provided both of these communication media? Which one to use? Must I read both if I want to keep up with discussions about MEP17?

2. There seem to be very few English-speaking discussions taking place? According to the Members link, magix.info has about 5,000 members in the UK and 14,000 in the USA. (BTW, no other English-speaking countries are included in the drop-down list. What about Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland...?) Yet in this forum, Movie Edit Pro | Video Pro X, there seems to be only two posts by English users. Similarly, if I open the confusingly labeled 'Member forums, Teams, Exchange' forum and check the USA and UK filters, I see atotal of 46 posts (a few not in English), of which I reckon about 6 are on MEP/VDL. In 4 years? From 19,000 English-speaking members? In our English forum (dead as of today) there are thousands of posts! (I've made about 1600 myself.)

Is the forum a very recent introduction on the site? Or has it been in place for years, like the rest?

3. When I open many 'threads' or whatever they are called I find that they are empty. Here's an example illustrated with 3 self-explanatory screenshots:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/MagixInfo-Forums-Overview.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/MagixInfo-Important.jpg

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/MagixInfo-Empty.jpg

4. Is there no Preview facility in this forum? No spell checker?

5. Finally, how stable is this site? On all attempts to post this message last night and this morning, clicking Send gave  "A technical problem has occured. If this error continues, please contact our technical support at http://support.magix.net!" Only now have I succeeded. (Well, a test was OK. I hope all is well when I press Send  after finishing this composition.) I've had feedback from others who have had same error. Has there been any explanation of this from Magix Support? Why not some comment in 'Notifications and other important messages' explaining what happened?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Last changed by terrypin on 6/23/2011, 8:42 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

Comments

Lazerboy wrote on 6/29/2011, 8:32 AM

Dear Terry,

 

thank you for this very important and interesting questions.

1.) First of all: We did not want to "close" the old forum, we wanted to move it. We are aware that this platform has not the xeact same functionality, but this also not the goal. We work hardly to improve functionaliry, delete bugs, develop new features and make this place smarter.

Please be patient as it will take some time. The main reason is to concentrate the knowledge in one place. Before we had two places and two platforms with much redudancy and duplicated content. We hope to help people in ONE platform more easily to solve problems.

The differentiation is not so easy and there will be some things that are floating between Q&A and Forum. But in general we say: Q&A is for easy problems, quick answers & fixes. The forum is for discussions. The moderators can move any post between the two sections. Let us wait how this develops.

2.) The forum is new - it started a week ago. It will take time until the posts grow. The old forum is still in read-only mode available. In the moment many discussions are in Q&A and in the forum "user forums" as there are existing MEP user groups from the past section "groups" that is a part of forum now. IT NEEDS TIME. If I search for "Movie Edit Pro", I recieve 2.600 results.

3.) This was a bug and we will fix it this week. As I said this is brand new and there are no englisch patches posted yet. What you see is the number of all patches that are mostly in German, if you go in the forum you only see the english patches - and there are non yet. This is a bug.

4.) No Preview, spell checker could be an option - we check this. Sorry for the weak communication. We will work on that.

This platform is stable. It has 5 times of the traffic of the old forum. Please be patient as we really work hard to improve everything here. I will also post a development overview later.

Important is: We do not want to copy a typical PHP BB platform. We have other goals, e.g. content concentration. Example: The option to switch in the forum per product between Q&A and discussions. There will be additional functions as featurevoting, product survey, prototype testing....

Thanks for your support,

Lazerboy

Lazerboy wrote on 6/29/2011, 10:05 AM

I would like to give you a short overview about the plans for the next months

Week 27 / 28

- General bug fixes, performance updates

- MOD Icon for all moderators as symbol on the frontend

- Mod "feature" lock users temporary

- improvement filters (additional options), displaying new themes/answers at every level of the forum

- displaying subscribed boards in personal profile

- feature "signature" for every user (can add information that is displayed in Q&A and forum)

Longterm: August/September

- general Relaunch & performance update

- new reduced design, better usage of space: usability & content is more important than look

Best Regards

L

terrypin wrote on 6/30/2011, 3:08 AM

 

Dear Terry,

 

thank you for this very important and interesting questions.

Hi lazerboy,

Many thanks for your detailed reply, which is much appreciated.

1.) First of all: We did not want to "close" the old forum, we wanted to move it. We are aware that this platform has not the xeact same functionality, but this also not the goal. We work hardly to improve functionaliry, delete bugs, develop new features and make this place smarter.

Please be patient as it will take some time. The main reason is to concentrate the knowledge in one place. Before we had two places and two platforms with much redudancy and duplicated content. We hope to help people in ONE platform more easily to solve problems.

I will try to be patient!

But I'm sure you appreciate that for those of us who have been happily participating in a properly working and familiar discussion forum, this closure (to read-only) comes as an unwelcome shock!

The differentiation is not so easy and there will be some things that are floating between Q&A and Forum. But in general we say: Q&A is for easy problems, quick answers & fixes. The forum is for discussions. The moderators can move any post between the two sections. Let us wait how this develops.

 

 

2.) The forum is new - it started a week ago. It will take time until the posts grow. The old forum is still in read-only mode available. In the moment many discussions are in Q&A and in the forum "user forums" as there are existing MEP user groups from the past section "groups" that is a part of forum now. IT NEEDS TIME. If I search for "Movie Edit Pro", I recieve 2.600 results.

OK, I said I'd try to be patient, so I will wait. But for me and the other regular contributors to the old forum, this remains the major issue: the duplication of Q&A with Forums. Other key contributors in the old forum share my opinion. Even if
you eliminate the other forums in which MEP/VDL discussions could logically be posted, I can't see how
the MEP/VDL Forum will grow while the Q&A offers such an overwhelmingly larger resource. Just see the respective number of posts in the last week!

3.) This was a bug and we will fix it this week. As I said this is brand new and there are no englisch patches posted yet. What you see is the number of all patches that are mostly in German, if you go in the forum you only see the english patches - and there are non yet. This is a bug.

OK, thanks, understood.

4.) No Preview, spell checker could be an option - we check this. Sorry for the weak communication. We will work on that.

A Preview would be good, although I'm less worried now that I've used the site for a while, because it is easy to edit and even delete immediately. However, it is a surprise that a preview wasn't included, as it's standard practice for discussion forums.

This platform is stable. It has 5 times of the traffic of the old forum. Please be patient as we really work hard to improve everything here. I will also post a development overview later.

OK. I suffered Magix server problems I'm told. Hopefully they won't happen often.

Important is: We do not want to copy a typical PHP BB platform. We have other goals, e.g. content concentration. Example: The option to switch in the forum per product between Q&A and discussions. There will be additional functions as featurevoting, product survey, prototype testing....

Understood.  And I do accept the potential for new benefits compared to the old forum. We would simply like to see the features we already enjoyed recovered as soon as possible!

I have sent some detailed questions and comments to Ralf Hentschel about the Overview page. Perhaps you would find a copy useful:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/MI-Overview-1.jpg

Best wishes,

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

 

 

 

Last changed by terrypin on 6/30/2011, 3:11 AM, changed a total of 2 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

Lazerboy wrote on 6/30/2011, 11:06 AM

Dear Terry,

thanks for the feedback and for the screenshot. Some questions are easy to explain...but indeed you found a wrong wording (thanks!). In German we have news and messages, but "somebody" translated both with the word "news" - that is indeed confusing.

We fix that next week. Also we tested today a spell checker  - will go live next week for a test.

Cheers

Lazer

terrypin wrote on 7/2/2011, 3:49 AM

Hi lazerboy,

OK, thanks, look forward to seeing the improvements and bug fixes roll out.

Meanwhile can you confirm that this

http://www.magix.info/uk/various-questions-about-this-site.forum.499076.html

is the correct place for users to give you continuing detailed feedback please? Or is it the Feedback link?

I've just submitted my first by that method, about the Overview wrongly reporting that I have 'news' when there are in fact only old posts shown in the topic linked. Here's an example:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4019461/MI-News-Wrong-1.jpg

Also, what is the proper procedure for reporting software bugs and other issues please?

Finally (for now!) wouldn't it be better to have a Reply button visible at the end of the forum thread? Or in each post? At present, after opening a topic, I have to scroll to the end to read the latest, then, if I want to reply, I have to scroll back to the top to click Answer.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

 

Last changed by terrypin on 7/2/2011, 3:49 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

Lazerboy wrote on 7/4/2011, 3:34 AM

Hi Terry,

This is a good place to report and discuss about magix.info. The feedback is also collected by the editors team (nothing is lost), but sometimes there is no time for detailed feedback. All bugs are collected, all suggestions are discussed....

The bug that you have reported is the same like with the number of "answers" per forum. There is a new answer in German, French whatever -> you recieve a note about "news", but you only see the English posts. Stupid. But we discuss internally how we handle that. Facebook has no language filter. But as we have 10 times more German posters you would see a lot German text. We hope to find a good solution....

Concerning: Reply. We discuss to put it once more at the end.

Regards

Lars

terrypin wrote on 7/4/2011, 9:03 AM

 

Hi Terry,

This is a good place to report and discuss about magix.info. The feedback is also collected by the editors team (nothing is lost), but sometimes there is no time for detailed feedback. All bugs are collected, all suggestions are discussed....

 

But what about  MEP bugs, which is what I meant?

And how can I get those first 3 words above back into Regular?! They insist on staying in IItalic! This has happened before, and I usually spend ages clicking randomly until it gets changed...

The bug that you have reported is the same like with the number of "answers" per forum. There is a new answer in German, French whatever -> you recieve a note about "news", but you only see the English posts. Stupid. But we discuss internally how we handle that. Facebook has no language filter. But as we have 10 times more German posters you would see a lot German text. We hope to find a good solution....

OK, understood.

Concerning: Reply. We discuss to put it once more at the end.

Thanks, that would be much better I think.


--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Last changed by terrypin on 7/4/2011, 9:03 AM, changed a total of 2 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

Lazerboy wrote on 7/5/2011, 5:46 AM

Dear Terry,

we made an update some minutes ago and fixed many bugs and added new features

News about magix.info Updates 5th July:

- MOD Icon is live - you can identify moderators

- spell checker in text editor

- Bugfixes: several English wordings (e.g. differ messages and news in personal overview), correct view "existing answers" when a new answer is posted, ....)

- performance update (much faster now!)

Next update is coming, thanks for the support!

Regards

Lazer

terrypin wrote on 7/7/2011, 4:05 AM

 

Dear Terry,

we made an update some minutes ago and fixed many bugs and added new features

Thanks Lazerboy. Heading out for a couple of days but will test those changes on return.

Keep them coming!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Last changed by terrypin on 7/7/2011, 4:05 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)