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Experimental feature coming Friday morning...
Authored by: bluehz on Jul 11, '03 09:42:44AM

I like this idea - but am not seeing the "Is it a hint?" hints. I am logged in as usual. Maybe I am missing something - but the 2nd hint for me on the main page is yesterday's hint about MS Remote Desktop.



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Experimental feature coming Friday morning...
Authored by: filburt1 on Jul 11, '03 11:28:12AM
The "Is this a Hint?" hints are at the bottom of the page (and continue on to the next) and have the image: http://www.macosxhints.com/layout/Classic/images/topics/rg-isit.gif

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Experimental feature coming Friday morning...
Authored by: bluehz on Jul 11, '03 12:07:34PM

Ahhhh.. now I see... I had "Topic Icons" turned off. Is that the only way to differentiate them?



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Experimental feature coming Friday morning...
Authored by: bluehz on Jul 11, '03 12:23:18PM

Ok - finally got to view the "Is This a Hint" items. I really like the concept, but I really fail to see where it differs from actuall publishing the hint itself. The lines are blurred. For example when I look at the "Is This a Hint" hint - its really no different in format or structure than any other hint posted. If you are going to do this - I would like to see it as more of an overview on a single page or maybe a sidebar box. You know - instead of the full hint text - it could be something like an rss newsreader with all topics condensed onto one page....

Title
Synopsis

then maybe a method of voting yes/no.

Not only would it be faster to read, and not become blurred with the "real published" hints but I think it would faster for Rob to publish them this way. Instead of having to format and proof, etc a full hint - its simply a one sentence blurb about the hint.

On a somewhat related note - what I would really like to see here at MacOSXHints is something along the lines of the the daily mailing of the "Unix Guru Tips" <http://www.ugu.com/sui/ugu/show?tip.today>. These are short usually "oneliners" that come in a daily text only, no adv, links, etc mailing. The tips are fantastic and usually fall into categories that just don't warrant a full web page, etc.

For example - this is a tip from a day or so ago...
----

VI LINE NUMBERS

Ever want line numbers
while editing a file:

:set number

We can see the line numbers...

------

Obviously this is UNIX related tip, but MacOSXHints could be OS X related. I doubt you want to do a mailing list (although that would be great - I have a fantastic archive of these UNIX oneliners now that I have been subscribed for a while) - but maybe you could do a section of daily quick tips, one-liners, etc.

Just my 2 cents worth.



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I wanted them to be identical...
Authored by: robg on Jul 11, '03 02:59:49PM

They are, in all sense, finished hints. It's just not clear whether everyone would want to see them or not. Doing a synopsis is actually tougher than just editing it, for then I have to try to distill the essence of the hint down to a sentence or two ... and then, if it's "approved," I'd still have to go back and edit the original again.

Conceptually, your other mailing list idea is good, but the reality of my spare time is that it won't happen unless this turns into a full-time occupation and I can hire some help! :)

-rob.



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