Deary deary me!!

I used to look around the old forum and almost always liked what I saw. This new piazza is difficult to use, dull and the layout not easy to work out. Why was the old one closed so quickly? 

I can see you have some difficulties in using this new system.In fact the tags you added to your post are not very related with the content - as it should be.Anyway it is not too late to learn something more! I'm sure the FAQ section will be of help. I don't believe "before" was better, but just different. :)

"You have to wade through EVERY single UNREAD post to 'remove' them, (unless you have hidden this clue somewhere (in white !)) whereas before you just got the last 24 hrs or so ? I have not been able to view my own posts 'immediately'" Hi,Thereare four choices on the banner at the top of the page "Community" Where you can see everything"New Activity"  Where you can see just the new activity since you last logged on"My Activity" Where you can see topics you have posted on"My Posts"  where you can see your posts immediatelyI understand that a search facility is in progress - but at the moment that would be pretty useless until there is more content on this new site-of course you can still search on the old ITMAG forum if you need something specific.Hope this helps Jinty   

Hey it is now working very well for me (with alittle help from my friends). I think it did need some getting used to but actually I do now like the new format, and am very pleased to meet new people, am in no way a techy person , I leave that to my "support" group, but thats good, I guess thats what this new community is about, helping each other?Aj

Angie am I pushing my luck then if I ask you about the setting up of groups???  It seems that if they are to be public ie advertised then anyone can post.  No need for membership!!!  Crazy eh???  I'm awaiting some sort of response on this. Anyone???  lol

To get your group listed you have to go public.  If you don't list it then there are no requests for membership..  Chickens and eggs spring to mind.

 I think that the Groups in the new community are replacing the old sub-forums. I do not know whether this was intended or not, but it is what I can observe. My opinion is that closed groups or the ones where membership is by invitation only or not open to all members is counterproductive.

Exactly Gala.  That's why Ronald needs to revaluate their set up and revise.  As it stands it's a mockery where non members can participate in them.

 I do not worry about the groups being open to everyone. On the contrary, I think that being able to read all the postings may help members to make up their mind to whether it is worth joining them. Perhaps, i would put a restriction on adding posts to them if you are not a member, but I would not go beyond that.

 Gala I am sorry you miss my point.  There is no point setting up a Group if everyone can post in it.  Memberships are redundant.

If everyone joins in then why have groups  Jinty eh???  lol   My Group - Vita Urbana is for members here who have very close connections with Italian cities or towns in Italy and don't harvest olives or have swimming pools for example.  Their interests lie elsewhere like opera houses or discussing tourist taxes levied third airport sited at Viterbo, property prices which according to a recent article in Italymag, are holding up comfortably in the current economic downturn  and so on  ......

seems simple to me too... if someone has an interest they will post.. what the benefit of the group system is on here is that it as gala says is almost a sub forum allowing subjects to be grouped together... and most probably will tie into the tag systema lot of what seems to me to be going "wrong" is due to the success of the place...  often quoted in the past was the difference between membership numbers and active posters... and that without a select few the place would go down the tubes... this now has been shown to be untrue... in my opinion ... and we have new posts and news members... if i try and look at new posts i end up with 9 pages.... cannot cope...so groups/tags will eventually help in narrowing this down... i also find it hard still to work out where the posts i am interested in are... i know i could look... but am used to doing things automatically.... ok this is getting easier... because i am working out where to look but it always comes down to the numbers... really the input is overwhelming me and i know for sure that  i have / am missing posts or replies that i might well be interested in but never get to see them unless someone  replies and they get into the first page of new posts again..i do not have the time to read through all nine pages... and am sure its going to increase...  what will happen then say is a new member...having their first post down at page 3 or 4 will maybe not have had a reply and think we are all snooty...or whatever... maybe even one of those rare emergency questions that needed a quick answer... so there is tuning... i know people are working hard... and i agree with much of what Kevan said ... i for one will stick with it... i know its not right at the moment ... but i think its been shown that input from our side is picked up very quickly... some is solvable by adding standard new features... other parts will require re writing and longer time... i think its getting there 

We cannot expect that in the new format everything is going to work to perfection. One thing is to have ideas and a different one to put them into practice. I agree with Adriatica in everything he says and I am also pleased to see the increasing number of members, both old and new (or perhaps "recycled" who are participating.I do believe in open groups. Members will possible read or participate more than non-members, but at the same time it gives everyone a better base upon which to decide whether they want to join in or not.Perhaps, the new groups are replacing the sub-forums, as I said before, and this is not bad. We all have our areas  of interest and there will be groups in which we would like to participate more than in others. Still, many other posts will not fall within a group category, so we need to have those two facilities available.We should all be a bit more patient - this does not mean that we cannot make suggestions or warn whenever something is not going right - but we are not going to have everything perfect from the start. 

Hi All - I understand that the change was huge and it was uncommonly quick. I will try to reply to some specific things straight away:1. There is no way to "mark all as read" - true and we are working on that.2. There is no search - there will be (probably today)3. Viewing your own posts - click on "My Posts" on the top4. Viewing posts you have participated in - click on "My activity"5. The FAQs answer a lot of the questions. As the Italians say "e dispersivo" answering to everyone every time. The FAQs include quite a bit of info all in one place6. Groups - non-members cannot participate in them (so no mockery sempre_italia). If your group is open anyone can join, if your group post is also public others can see it (because the post creator said it should be public)7. Groups - open vs closed: you get to choose. The idea is that you have more freedom to create the space you like. There are pros and cons to each (closed groups may well have fewer members - open groups where anyone can join can grow faster, etc)8. Quotes - I answered to that. I realise that a few people want it a lot but repeating it will not change the situation. Currently the functionality is not there we hope to have it in the future but it is in the long-term queue  Hope this answers a few things - there are still improvement to come that I hope will help.      

Thanks for that Ronald [ a classic example of when I wish we had the old 'grazie!' button]

 STILL DON'T UNDERSTANDSubmitted by Cinghiale on 26 May 2009 - 11:34pm. Select your Group.Click 'Create Content'.You can then select your 'Group' only ORAlso click the 'Public' box if you want everyone to join in.Job done.  

Many thanks Cringhale.  I must have ticked my post for public viewing which was not my intention.  The learning process eh???  lol  

 Very odd but I posted an answer in reply to the quite and I don't see it!!!. This is what I said. Many thanks Cringhale.  I must have ticked my post for public viewing which was not my intention.  The learning process eh???  lol  

A pleasure sempre (better not use your initials!).We boar are here to serve in any way we can.

Hi RonaldUsing comments in groups and having comments set to the default Threaded list - expanded is a bit confusing - if someone clicks reply to a comment further up the long list then the comment appears there. Most users expect latest comment to appear at top or bottom and for longer discussions and can find threaded discussion difficult to follow. I prefer changing the setting to Flat list - expanded so that all comments appear in chronological order and adding the quote function so that users who want to reply to a post several comments back can use the quote feature. This is the set up I've used for Drupal groups on TeachingEnglish and it works well - sorry I can't show you groups there as they are all closed groups for Teaching Assosciations from different countries. I was going to upload a screenshot of groups on the site but it's not easy to add a picture to a comment as it's only possible to link to a URL in the add images for comments - do you plan to allow users to upload photos from within the comments WSYWIG editor too? Seems strange to allow the person who starts the discussion ability to upload photos but not commentors - if it's a security risk then probably don't want to allow either to upload photos?Kevan 

OK - so this is how it looks - in a flat-list expanded setting and using quotes to reply to an earlier comment. I tried it both ways and got user feedback and they definately preferred this

Hi - I thought that  a threaded list is more interesting as it allows sub-discussions to develop (you reply to a comment and another thread takes off there while others continue with the main theme). If you prefer flat then no problem to set it that way.As for quotes I send you a pm Kevan - if we can activate them on this site we will. I am not ideologically against "quoting" :) it is just a question of whether that is part of a toolbox that we can use on this site. If I missed a button somewhere that just switches them on I will press it - don't want any wild boars after me :)Images - no, you can't upload images in comments right now - we will look into it. You can link to images through the image button of the editor above but not upload.  Thanks

I can't believe all these posts....Who has the time to read through all this.  I really enjoyed the old website and it has proved very useful to me in the past.Do I have to log in to post now - or can anyone just log in.  If not I don't see the point of setting up membership.