Copied from the TEST forum, since that will be automatically deleted soon.
This message was written by James Morrison:
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I imagine Farnell wants to bring these support forums into the
element-14 domain since they already have forums there and they are
trying to drive all traffic through that site.
Element-14 sounds like a nice idea, and still could be, but the
execution sucks. I did try to check it out maybe a month or two ago, but
it was really confusing where I was and what else there is stashed away
someplace. The excessively busy look didn't help at all. They are
trying to put a lot of stuff in one place, which is a reasonable idea,
but their organization is a mess and you never feel you know what else
there is and descerning some regular structure to things is difficult.
It is a little organic for me too.
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The post editor for the online forums is a total disaster. Basic
formatting doesn't work if you want to quote pieces of a post you are
replying to. The post editor here is much better, although I've
definitely used better. At least with this one the formatting seems to
work as documented. My main problem with it is that some normal keyboard
sequences don't work as they do everywhere else. You have to use the
mouse for certain things, and I hate that because it really breaks up the
thought flow and is so much slower. I also don't like how you have to
wait for the whole page to load before you can start editing. If you
don't, the cursor gets poofed away a little while in.
Do you have any specific examples? I'll take it under advisement. I use
this enough to know the markup codes and just enter them by hand from the
keyboard. I very rarely use the mouse while posting.
If you click on the link "BBcode in on" to the left of the text window
during posting it will open a new tab (or window) with a description of all
the markup you can do. It all gets translated out when syncing to the nntp
server so it looks OK there too.
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Good to see they are trying to maintain backwards compatibility
with the nntp forums--kudos to them for that.
I don't see why Cadsoft can't be dragged kicking and screaming out of
the 1980s. Web forums is how it's done.
I know what you are saying, nntp is dying a slow death. It's too bad
because it certainly does provide a good medium for some things. But it
has its limitations too and these days companies are starting to block port
119 for security reasons since very few people use it.
CadSoft has always sold their licenses on the basis that free support could
be had from the EAGLE community and CadSoft staff through their nntp
servers. I take it as a mark of their integrity that they are continuing
to fulfill that promise even though there are pressures to change.
I hope that eaglecentral provides a nice middle ground--if you want to use
nntp you still can but for those who prefer the web you can do that to.
And we can all participate in the same discussions.
Of course this whole discussion is going to be wiped out in a few days
since it's in the test forum 
Cheers,
James.
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Browser access to CadSoft Support Forums at http://www.eaglecentral.ca
