Tech Group Report 2012-10-31

Freegle Tech Report October 2012

Messages 10270-1063

Members 93

Do you read this report? If you are at all interested you are welcome to join us and offer your opinions and ideas. Non techie mods who are willing to try out new stuff are also appreciated, as it is useful to have people,who see it from the user perspective.

General

Member Plug in being withdrawn

We now have 87 groups listed which have links to the Member Plug in on their Yahoo group. Group support will not be available after the end of November, although if it doesn't break it could be available for a bit longer. If you have any links or files it is suggested you remove them, and get Freegle Direct added to your group, if you haven't done so already. Please if you take it off go to http://bit.ly/TiEGoE and remove or cross out your group.

Join Now Boxes

8 Groups still have the now defunct coding for the Join Now box (this leaves an unsightly mess on the Yahoo pages: Kettering, Cowal-Peninsula-Freegle, Hayle-St. Ives, East Staffs, Wolverhampton, Dewsbury, North-Warwickshire-Freegle, Mansfield_Freegle
Want help to remove these? Then mail freegledirecthelp @ yahoogroups.com or drop me a line at dorothyjeanquinn @ yahoo.co.uk

Direct

a. Edward has done some work on improving the interface for phone users. It was tested by those of us with smart phones.
If you have a smart phone and see something which could be improved, mail support@ilovefreegle.org with the make, model operating system and browser used.

b. We are considering ways that we could cut down the volume of FD messages to the owner address. Two suggestion are:

• Implement a scheme on Freegle Direct. You could add or remove a moderator on FD if you were yourself a moderator, or get the first one added via a -owner address verification.
• Use the modplugin, and synchronise the email addresses of moderators from Yahoo to FD, so that FD could then detect that you're a moderator on Yahoo and grant you mod status on FD.

This way, only those who wanted to receive the mapping, categorisation, warning, and event authorisation posts would get them.
If you have an opinion then join us, read the thread and give it!.

c. The Offer/Wanted is now blank between posts, as some members were leaving the default one in by mistake.

d.Changes were made to prevent the little padlock errors that indicate that a page is not entirely secure. If you see these kinds of errors please take a screenshot and send it with the url you are at to support @ llovefreegle.org

e. As a result of member complaints, it was decided that we would no longer send out the request for permission to republish every 90days. If anyone changes their minds, they can be directed to http://direct.ilovefreegle.org/settings.php

f. A delete photo function was added on FD message makers, as it can be difficult especially on phones to upload the correct photo.

Events

a. An edit link has been introduced. At present this is only accessible when you are logged in using Facebook as a page admin of the group's Facebook page. http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Direct_Moderator_FAQ#Can_I_edit_an_event_after_approving_it.3F

b. A prototype for the handling of RSS feeds for those community groups who use them to have them added to our events has been developed. It is incomplete as yet. It would not be able to be manipulated by ordinary mods as it requires requires some geek skills and knowledge of regular expressions.
The effort required to set one up would be great and may have to be charged for. Are any groups aware of suitable websites,groups which may be interested?.

c. On some groups it has been noticed that the verification emails for Events is not been clicked on. To help combat this reminders will be sent out daily for a week or until a request for verification of an event has been responded to.

Yahoo website

a. Those of you with the larger Direct box on their page may have noticed a change in design and wording. This was done in response to a moderator's suggest, which we agreed was an improvement. So worth asking if you have an idea how to improve something.

b. Edward is trialling a mailto: function for all Yahoo group members to ask them to invite their friends. The initial results seem promising.

Servers

We have been down a couple of times this month . The host had problems but kept us informed and had it back up and running within a couple of hours. We also triggered an error causing members to be unsubscribed. This was put in reverse fairly quickly but caused delays in some tasks which are carried out at quiet times.

Points raised and sorted

a. A Problem with a warning message popping up when posting was fixed.

b. On a few groups a bug causing offers not switching to taken on request, was discovered and sorted.

c. It was asked if we could have a limit to how often reposts reminders go out. An option has been added to group settings so that they can control this individually.

d. Chase up emails stopped coming out and were turned back on when noticed.

e. A moderator had problems posting messages to Freegle Direct using Internet Explorer 8. This was fixed although it is advisable to use 9 and above.

Wiki

The biggest problem reported by members is how to leave the group. A page has been written for Mods who wish to use it. If you have anything to add and then please do so, or mail dorothyjeanquinn @ yahoo.co.uk. http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/How_to_help_a_Member_leave_your_group. Some tidying up is ongoing on webpages covering some of the same stuff.

Questions raised and answered

Q. . I just posted three messages from my Phone and only one came has arrived why?
A. It seems that your phone cached the Post page, and as a consequence it decided your post was a duplicate. A fix has been now applied to prevent this.

Q. Is there a way for members to leave Freegle (FD) completely (all details etc)?
A. If they sign in and click on the leave the group link in the left column. If it is the last or only group they are in, they should be removed completely. We only keep members details for the local groups operation. However some debris is at present being left behind when they go. It is on a todo list to get it removed automatically.

Q. When someone signs in on FD using their yahoo id do they get an fbuser address like facebook and google do?<br A. If they have already posted or the membership list is being synchronised then anyone using the same email address or username will have their membership combined with the Yahoo one.

Q.I clicked the link to give feedback and the text suggested that the people that I'd freegled with recently should have been listed there. There weren't. Am I supposed to add them?
A.Yes if they are Yahoo members. Direct members should have them listed.

Q.When posting a message using Freegle Direct. How does this decide on which group to default to?
A. Last group posted on.

Q.Can I put two places in for the Mapping Hint?
A. No.

Q. I've chosen to hide my name in the FD settings, works perfect when posting the offer straight from FD as it shows "A Freegler" but when I mark it as Taken it puts my full name in every time.
A. It was a bug it should be fixed now.

Q.Is there a way I can send an admin to just FD members?
A. No. You can add something to the automatic emails which go out though.

Q. Any ideas why some group logo's might now be showing with a black background on Direct?<br? A. It seems to happen when php Thumb which is used on the app processes images picks up ones with transparent backgrounds. If you change it to one on a white background on Yahoo group it should get picked up okay, though perhaps with a delay.

Q.If I tick the group settings to view on Facebook the mapping shows the group as being on Facebook. I just want to enable users of other local groups who have joined via FB to be able to join, respond and see the posts.
A. You don't need that box ticked. Whether or not you have that setting ticked, members who are using Facebook could find and join the group via the app.

Q. A member says he can't always upload a photo on the Yahoo group message maker. Is this because he hasn't got flash 10?
A. If it is intermittent it is more probable his broadband is a bit slow. The settings have been changed so that it now gives 4secs to load which should help prevent this.

Q. Can we have a page on the main website for groups looking for moderators?
A. It would be better if GAT and the Admin desk did the referrals.

Jean
Freegle Tech
1st November 2012

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