.....the main page of the forum is overly long and the most recent top postings only tell about AstroPulse. The user came here to find something for MultiBeam... How far do they have to scroll to find what they need?
After looking closer, It became clear that exact duplicate posting at NC is not necessary.
The key info is "easy identification" of the notice & which specific release is applicable to the user.
They just click on the appropriate link & it takes them to the full release post here.
It's also easier to manage on my end, since If I need to make a change to the release info or DL "here", I don't have to go & edit the same @ NC post. This happened a few times and was quite inconvenient. So the NC post is more "future safe".
I have to ask, how much news actually goes out over the RSS Feed?
Re: RSS feed. When I first got it up & running, I just wanted to get it to work properly, so I linked it to a specific release section & provided enough space that the whole release could be reflected in the RSS.
Afterall, some people want all content via RSS, some only want abreviated info w/ "link to more".
However, users can set options w/ their RSS readers as to how to deal w/ most recent, read & older news items.
When Jason first released a Beta Installer, I included a RSS notice & decided to use RSS more as an announcement, w/ a link to the full release post. This worked real well & a person could easily read the shortened post via handheld etc.
I'm inclined to use RSS in future mostly as "notice" tool w/ release description & link.
Re: RSS user base. It's a new feature & how many people use/see it will be related to how many forum visitors at NC can easily see it's available.
As several members have commented, many members don't visit forums regularly or hardly ever.
Since there are several hundred thousand "actively" crunching hosts at Seti, vs. 2200 members "here", I suspect the number of potential RSS users to be significant as more "infrequent visitors" at Main see the option is available. That's the real benefit of the sticky post.
They won't know this feature is available if buried in the Opt Relase thread as 1) They won't know about it to even look there "for it".
IMO, the space it takes as a sticky is worth the convenience and communication benefit since the member base is SOO LARGE, but varies greatly on how often people visit. Of course, Seti also get's "new members" daily as well
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