Hello Jorge,

I agree with you, that there are a lot of good things in the new site. I also find useful the specific feature you described with the images.

I also like the 'status' messages, because they gave me the opportunity to enjoy some pretty good laughs!

I forgot to say in my initial post that there is a million dollar prize for the best feature described. If we can't decide, we will all share the prize. Up to now I was the only winner, but I've learned to get by on very little and it would be a real problem for me, so thanks for playing Jorge, and please take 5 dollars in advance!

Kind Regards,

Maria

Hi Maria,

Thanks for starting this thread.  I hope some of our members can find some good tips on how to best utilize the new features we have to offer.  For those of you who haven't looked at the "My View" tab on the homepage I'd suggest doing so (you need to login to see it).  I find it a great place to personalize a single page to only show content that is relevant to you.

Cheers,

Dan

BTW: Can I share in this million dollar prize you're offering??

Hi Dan,

I have used all the features mentioned in this thread and still think the 'Incoming Links' is the coolest. Can't you guys do any better than that? You will be able to share the prize when I will send you the million dollar bill. Just remove your share before giving us the rest of the amount!

Thanks for thanking me. I hope you are grateful enough to fulfill two wishes for me:

1. A super-button feature disabling moderator's 'dig logs and re-post' feature. I have found a workaround for this, but I bet it won't last for long.

2. A permanent pink color for my own badge. I like my badge now, but won't last for long, and the next one I like will take a lifetime to earn.

Kind Regards,

Maria

Hi Rob,

I will try to keep my posts more serious from now on, so I won't be defeating the alleged goals of this thread ('try' is the keyword here ).

Yesterday I saw the numbers you mentioned (WOW indeed!) here: https://supportforums.cisco.com/people

It's also possible to see who is online (or at least logged in). I don't recall this being possible before.

And there are many search options there.

I also like avatars and pictures for whoever wants to use them. Some years ago I wasn't particularly curious, but as years go by and I get to talk to the same people many times, curiosity evolves. Besides curiosity, I think they make the pages look better (especially the avatars), and I get to see very quickly who responds to what. In the Discussions tabs we can see the username of person that replied last, which also helps in that direction.

(BTW: very nice picture you have in your profile Rob, please tell your wife a girl from the "**** herd" says she is very pretty! )

I also like the fact that people names do not show by default. This might seem to contradict to the previous things I was saying, but it's not. I know some of you like to respond to people saying "Hi Rob" for example and made relevant requests to Dan, but I think people should get to choose if they want to display this information. From my own experience I know there have been some exceptional times I wished people could not tell if I am a woman. Which brings as to the "pink badge" and I have to say I was not joking about that. Light pink please! (I think, once upon a time, a badge color close to pink existed, but the guys freaked out and it was withdrawn, can't tell for sure, sometimes I confuse reality with the stories I make up ).

Did I say I like emoticons? Those are more useful with jokes than with serious cases, but when it comes to jokes they can make the content more live.

Kind Regards,

Maria

Hi Maria,

With all seriousness, please don't stop the humor and irony in your great posts

If there is no fun here, then what's the point after all. My wife (Carmen) will be happy to

hear your nice comments, but when she finds out that there are actually women in the

****Herd I will no longer be allowed to participate (Just kidding!)

I was originally dismayed that peoples names did not show up by default, but now I tend

to agree with your assessment. If someone wants us to know their name the post

generally includes a sign-off with something like;

Kind Regards - Maria

Or

Cheers! - Rob

And if they don't then I just address them with something like;

Hi 10s23rty78yu_33NERDYxx1,

A couple of those and they generally climb on board

Keep up the great work here Maria (+5),

Cheers!

Rob,

Hi Rob,

I understand, you don't have to say anything to her. Keep it for yourself. She might get suspicious about the context that lead to the revelation that you are married!

I won't stop having fun now that I started more aggressively, but humour is a risky business, especially in a multicultural environment. In Greece people are often sarcastic even about themselves, and I've seen this not being appreciated sometimes by people from other nations. I like English and American humour very much, but can't say I am familiar with many other kinds.  In addition, in these forums, humour is better received when you are doing it while also resolving some people's issues or being helpful in a more objective manner.

So, how about discussing the 'Friend' feature now? Do you think this is helpful? I would be interested to see statistics of its usage. As far as I am concerned, I could add say about 4 people as my friends as a symbolic gesture, but I would like to avoid angry wives knocking on my door!

BTW: Rob, please stop rating my posts or my badge will turn yellow/gold before Dan has a chance to respond to my request! Yellow makes me look pale, and gold has "good resistance to oxidative corrosion and excellent quality as a conductor of electricity", so it could better be used in special electronics and astronaut helmets! (Hmm, if you tell your wife I said this, she might not be suspicious about anything anymore )

Kind Regards,

Maria

Hi all,

One more thing. I like the Overview tab in the subsections. I tend to use the Discussions tab more often so that I am able to see active and inactive Discussions. However, after following a particular Discussion for 2 weeks now in Wan, Routing and Switching (another opportunity for Guinness record and I am again a participant, this record by no means will escape me ), I came to appreciate more the capability of being able to jump to the last post in a Discussion using the Overview tab. I still have the threaded view to 'flat' for general performance reasons and the Overview tab helps me to not reconsider this setting on a case per case basis.

Kind Regards,

Maria

Hi again,

A couple of more things. I see it is possible for me to Edit Thread using "sidebar box 'ACTIONS'" (yeah, copy-paste from the page code ), which also means that the 'tags' can be edited, as well as the 'Subject'. I haven't actually done any of those, but have seen in another thread the author changing the 'Subject' to declare issue as resolved. Maybe we could encourage authors to change any one of those sometimes, if it seems appropriate to do so.

In the same sidebar box 'ACTIONS', I see that I can 'Move thread' to another NetPro community section. So, author has the option to move the thread if another section is more appropriate, instead of opening duplicates.

And of course all the other options in this sidebar box look very useful, although I haven't used anyone up to now.

Kind Regards,

Maria

Quick question: If somebody adds you as a friend, do you have to do some type of approval or is approval implied by not removing them (although you should because they are sometimes wicked )?

Hi Maria,

You do need to approve them first.  If someone 'friends' you under the 'account' drop down there will be a link 'items waiting approval'.  You'll need to approve or deny them there.

Cheers,

Dan

Hey Maria,

I have to rate great posts, so Gold is in your future Maybe Dan can

perform some reverse Alchemy and turn Gold to Pink (Hahaha!!)

My wife is very, very cool! You can't post up 10,000+ posts without

an understanding wife. I try not to spend too much time "Nerding"

(as she calls it) while we are together. So no worries here.

Canadians love self-deprecating humor as well, so this I why I love

to poke fun at myself first and foremost As you said, humor is

not always welcomed here, but for the most part it is. There are

some pretty funny people here who keep me coming back!

(Leo comes to mind!)

As for "Friends" - you can't have too many!!

Cheers!

Huff

Hi Rob,

Yes, Leo is really funny! But you guys sometimes say jokes about baseball, drinks I have to look up in Wikipedia, etc., so sometimes I can't get it fast enough to laugh as loud as your jokes deserve. This is my fortune among you and is fine actually.

Thanks for resolving my question about 'friends'. I was puzzled because our well-known wicked moderator used his super-powers once again! (wicked from merriam-webster: "going beyond reasonable or predictable limits : of exceptional quality or degree ). I hope you guys like the "fastball" part . I also hope he will use those super-powers for the good purpose of turning my badge pink, perhaps with the the reverse alchemy procedure you mentioned!

Don't worry, I don't have many friends because my levels of friendship are binary represented by a single binary digit. That doesn't mean I don't like talking to people however, and I consider some people here as friends in some other sense (you know, in logic circuits besides 0 and 1, there can be a high impedance state, ok this tri-state metaphor might not be perfect, since 3rd state means disconnected circuit, but anyway ).

I have posted some things about 'History' feature (now trying to be more objectively useful after all this post ) in another thread, because Jon asked before I had a chance to update this thread (which has kind of become my personal blog, but anyway):https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/1001621?tstart=0

Kind Regards,

Maria

p.s. Kind of missed Dan's post while writing this in small doses. Dan, is there a hope for me to mask my badge with pink color or should I forget this admittedly strange request?