With regard searching and archiving, why not just set up a forum? New userswill benefit from the threaded conversation and I won't get distracted everytime my email alert goes off :) It's fair to say this is fairly well established, but when Flex goes mainstream it will be impossible to maintain this on email.
RSS just blanks me and complains about a cookie... which is a shame as thatwould have been perfect - assuming I could switch off email alerts but still send messages to the list? Cheers for all your hard work btw, Tony. -----Original Message----- From: Matt Chotin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 04 March 2005 15:15 To: [email protected] Subject: [flexcoders] random flexcoders notes THIS IS NOT AN OFFICIAL MACROMEDIA MESSAGE, ALL COMMENTS ARE MY OWN 1) You may have noticed that the response from Macromedia employees on flexcoders has slowed down a little, I wanted to share a few thoughts on that. 2) I also have seen a few questions regarding loading SWFs and subsequent problems, I don't have new insight but can share some warnings. 3) My own view on the state of flexcoders and its developers. ---------------- 1) Wondering where the Macromedia employees are for answering questions? The answer is hard at work on the next version of Flex. Despite the fact that we've made no official announcement about what will be in the next version, when it's coming out, etc, it doesn't mean we aren't busting our tails to try to come up with something special. In fact things are pretty busy here in Flex-land, and that means that we're focusing on tasks directly in front of us and looming deadlines more than answering questions from the list. It's been a relief to see so many of you out here answering questions, it lets us feel like we've provided enough bootstrapping that developers can help each other without being involved (more on this in my part 3). This doesn't mean that we're not reading the list, but it may mean we're slower to respond and may not have time to research questions we don't know the answer to easily. This is my own process for answering flexcoders issues (not recommending for others but it's the only way I can stay sane): 1) has the question been answered (even partially) by someone else on the list? -- delete 2) is the question something that I've seen asked and answered before recently (and know that the people who can answer the question are active participants)? -- delete 3) is the question something I know the answer to and can explain easily -- answer 4) is the question something that I don't know the answer to but can point someone towards solving it themselves? -- give that info 5) does the question require research on my part? -- save until later 6) does the question require so much research that it will take me a long time because I really don't know this area? -- delete, someone else will hopefully look into it Like I said, this is one way that I handle the volume of email that comes through. A few months ago I had the time to do more research to answer problems, now that's not the case. In fact it's one reason why we have a great support team, some issues take time to answer, Macromedia provides resources for providing those answers (and doing the research) that aren't easily done by folks like me. With that said let me also re-iterate that it is NEVER cool to mail a MM employee off-list to ask for help unless you've been specifically invited or you are mailing your support engineer. If I have an answer to a question I will do it on flexcoders when I have time. We all understand that people have deadlines and I feel bad when I can't respond quickly. But we offer our 2-hour turnaround Gold support for a reason :-) OK, moving on: 2) A few questions have come up over the last few weeks regarding issues with Loaders (specifically when something is loaded functionality breaks compared to when it was not loaded). I don't have much to offer unfortunately other than to say there are lots of known issues when using loaded content :-) For example, the cursor problem that we found last week turned out to be a known issue that we had in the release notes (don't look at me to blame you for not reading them, I didn't remember to check). The DragManager problem discussed last night also is apparently a known issue but I'm not sure there's a release note. The big thing to know is that static classes (things like CursorManager and DragManager) can be negatively affected by using the Loader to load additional MXML applications. There will be bugs, and while there may be people from Macromedia who know how to workaround the issues, I am not one of them and see #1 for why you may not receive answers from others :-) Best thing to do is always remember to check the release notes and search macromedia.com for technotes and other articles. And then be wary when working with loaded MXML applications! 3) My view on the state of flexcoders: It's strong, it's great, I'm loving it! I am thrilled to see so many people asking questions and so many people answering them. It means we have great users (and I admit that it is a new experience for me given products I worked on at previous companies). I am excited to see people discussing architecture, coming up with multiple answers to the same problem, sharing ideas, and in general working to improve the quality of code produced by all. At the same time I think there are some technical improvements that could be made to make all of our lives easier. 1) flexcoders searching is horrible. We all know it, and it's a detriment for many people because folks come in and ask common questions simply because search won't show it has being asked and answered before. I don't think mailing Yahoo and asking them to improve search is going to do much for us, but if there are people who have ideas on how to improve things I think you should share and perhaps try to contribute. Exposing the RSS to Google didn't seem to make a difference, I know I've run searches for messages that I know exist and Google blanks. Moving flexcoders to another listserv is not gonna be acceptable right now since so many people know the location, and creating a competing list doesn't make much sense either. But finding some different/better way to archive these messages would be good. This is a call for volunteers (actually a call for you to offer your services to Steven and Ali who are the moderators). 2) Macromedia has a number of "Getting Started" resources listed on the web site, but I'm not sure that everyone takes the time to read them, and maybe they don't fully know where to go. We also have a number of people taking issues and putting them on their own sites (cflex.net, flexauthority) and these are great resources for people to search as they're getting up to speed. Flexcoders isn't a forum, so there isn't a concept of "sticky" posts, but I think it would be helpful if you guys came up with a good list of "getting started" resources including FAQs and reference sites and posted them to the list occasionally for new users. Some newsgroups and mailing lists have the auto-posted FAQs, maybe someone would want to take on that task here? Finally I just want to commend everyone for being such good community members. I think the folks who post have been unfailingly polite and we don't see flame-wars, coding-religion wars, and other kinds of posts that turn people off from these kinds of developer lists. I hope that everyone will continue to ask questions and answer what you can and in doing so help us make Flex as successful as possible. Do your part to help others now and give the Macromedia folks the opportunity to create something even better for you in the coming months. Matt Yahoo! Groups Links This communication together with any attachments transmitted with it ("thisE-Mail") is intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information which is privileged and confidential. If the reader of this E-Mail is not the intended recipient or the employee or agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any use,dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this E-Mail is strictly prohibited. Addressees should check this E-mail for viruses. The Company makes no representations as regards the absence of viruses in this E-Mail. 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