I see the 'actinic designers' section..

[Mike Hughes]

I see the 'actinic designers' section is having a discussion on what the point of the private section is.

So not only is it secret but they don't even want us to know why it's secret.

I though Chris was supposed to be sorting this out.

Confused as always.

Mike

[jont]

So not only is it secret but they don't even want us to know why it's secret

It was the one user who started the thread questioning why it was there and whats the point of a closed forum - the general consesus (and the original poster has accepted the reason) is that is it useful for designers to display clients URL's so they are not indexed by spiders and also if the designer needs to discuss an aspect of a clients site without the client (or the world at large) being able to see.

The vast majority of the users that have access to that forum tend to post into the open forums for a speedier and wider range of answers unless they need to keep something away from general consumption.

I will now be shot in a drive-by shooting for revealing the secrets like the Masked Magician

[Mike Hughes]

Jont, that sounds fair enough but if Actinic are going to accept this then they should really bear the administrative headache of moving all "non secret" threads to the open forums.

Here's a list of topics I can see from the top level view at the moment:

1. What exactly is the purpose and scope of the "Actinic Designers" closed forum?
2. Need solution to Complex Shipping requirement.
3. Workarea Restictions.
4. "Deploy Partial Site Design"
5. Customer accounts on the server end
6. Actinic plugins programming guide or API
7. More shipping problems
8. Please split this.....
9. Customer "Portal" in Actinic - possible feature request?
10 Feature request - code editing...
11 Hiding all the site from unregistered users
12 Dutch Translation
13 Bug in v8??? [LINK] method of producing site hyperlinks is not working at 14 The dreaded line 1214 import error
15 Navigation YahooSection Tree
16 Update prices globally.
17 New layouts; layout types?
18 Place of Setting...
19 How does UPS Online Tools work?
20 Dreamweaver Template to actinic.
21 Number of orders

So everything from shipping tables, V8 bugs, line import errors, feature request, update prices globally, Dutch translation, etc, etc. How many of those really need to be hidden from the mass of actinic users?

As I've said. If actinic and some designers really want a secret forum then they also should take responsibility to use it sensibly and only hide those threads that really need to be hidden.

Less confused. More dumbfounded.

Mike

[cdicken]

Hi - I've just arrived back from holiday. I'll take a look at this and try and make it work better.

[jont]

they also should take responsibility to use it sensibly and only hide those threads that really need to be hidden.

I agree entirely. I don't think I have ever started a thread in the designer forum as I know it will be answered quicker and often more comprehensively (when it is a subjective question) out in the open AND it allows others to see what is happening and it may be of benefit to them also. Maybe some like to get their monies worth by posting into the forum??

Most of the posts in the designer forum are usually found in the open forums with a bit of digging around and I often think posting a thread in there serves to slow the response times down - to the detriment of the poster. The number of posts that are worthy of public interest are very very few - the ones that cannot be found in the open are often very site specific anyways.

The designer forum is meant to be a benefit of purchasing the developer license - as this forum has so many "experts" registered and many of the heavy users seemingly on here every hour of the day I personally would forgoe my developer benefits in lieu of a quicker response to my question - this is just common sense to me!

Maybe a designer forum sticky outlining the basic uses / "rules" for the forum would be an idea.

Just my 2p worth as a developer license owner and a user of the open forums

[Mike Hughes]

Makes sense to me Jont. And I'm sure if the actinic mods moved non confidential stuff into the open forums then people would probably get the message.

Most of the topics I can see there look like they should be moved into open forums where everyone can see what issues and solutions are being discussed.

Mike

[pinbrook]

I've been mulling this over....

It had escaped me before to use the desiger forum for more confidential Qs and where you don't want a site url to be indexed or the discussion viewable to the world. I shall probably start using this more now.

I think most hard core posters use the "New Posts" option to view threads therefore largely it goes over their heads as to which forum a thread is actually in, until knowing which version is critical.

It will be an impossible task for mods to move stuff from designer to an open forum as there may be a reson that the poster hasn't placed it in an open forum.

Maybe a sticky at the top of designer could be used to remind people that the designer forum is closed and as such gets less views and potentially a slower response.

[cdicken]

The plan will be over the next few months to turn the Actinic Designers forum into a place where people post plug-ins, tips and tricks etc. rather than it just being an alternative support forum.

Watch this space.