Bugs and Suggestions

CodeErgoSum7-Jun-21 20:19

7-Jun-21 20:19

Hi Chris

I know you are one of the big bosses
(I like the fact a big boss spends his time talking with users)

I wish to write an article about functional programming. It will be a controversial article (I love functional programming but I think there are excesses)
Years ago, I did such a thing about using "GoTo": a religious war started right away and I lost a lot of points.

Is there, here on CodeProject, a way to constructively criticize a common opinion without being burned in the public square?

Thanks for your time
Vincenzo S.

Chris Maunder8-Jun-21 7:06

8-Jun-21 7:06

Vincenzo,

I would love to see an article like this. I spend a lot of my time questioning the team on why we do certain things and when the answer is "we've always done it this way" I start scratching a little to find the real reason. Good habits are good but it's important to question assumptions.

We could do a couple of things

Disable voting. I'm not a fan of this but it's an option
Disable the forum attached to the article, or a softer version is make it so only high rep members can post. Not great, but not terrible
We help you edit the article, ensuring the introduction makes it clear that the topic is an opinion piece, it's exploratory, and it's intended to generate sensible, constructive debate. We could even ask a couple of the high rep members to keep tabs on it to ensure the tone stays civil.

My preference is #3.

With languages changing so quickly, and our need to switch to potentially unconformable languages becoming more of a thing, it's important we accept different philosophies and styles because sometimes we don't get to code in the manner we'd like to. Sometimes we have to compromise or bend over backwards a little.

cheers
Chris Maunder

CodeErgoSum9-Jun-21 20:40

9-Jun-21 20:40

Hi Chris

What do you think about a mix between #3 + #1?

Number 3 should be the right way to go, but I'm sorry to say that not all people know what respect is.

The article will cover functional programming in javascript.
During a "stage de professionalization" for a company in Luxembourg, I discovered that the main application was written forcing javascript to behave as if it were a functional programming language like HASKELL.
Javascript is a multi-paradigm language. In my opinion, forcing it to behave like something it is not, is an aberration.
Who wrote that code is a highly skilled developer that wrote very interesting stuff. I think it would be interesting to involve him in the discussion. (as long as he wants to participate)

Cheers

Vincenzo Stramaglia

Chris Maunder7-Oct-21 12:01

7-Oct-21 12:01

I'm sure we can work out a way to disable voting if that's what's needed.

cheers
Chris Maunder

CodeErgoSum7-Oct-21 20:03

7-Oct-21 20:03

Hi Chris
The matter is not about enabling/disabling votes.
A vote is always important because there is always a reason behind any vote. What matters is to understand what the reason is.
There is something in my article that triggers 'downvotes', but how votes are managed by CodeProject doesn't allow me to understand such reasons, and, even worse, downvotes cost me 'reputation points'.
I think, how the 'voting system' is configurated, pushes writers, to write only 'demagogical' articles, and let me say this, in my opinion, is highly detrimental for everybody, CodeProject included.

Since you are one of the big bosses, let me take please the opportunity to express my opinion also about how 'reputation points' are managed. People write free articles in exchange for 'reputation points'. 'Reputation points are like a currency and thus CodeProject' in somehow is like a Bank (when it manages 'reputation points')
I had many 'issues' with my 'reputation points' and that (at the end) was the other reason I left 'CodeProject'.

Regards

Vincenzo Stramaglia

Chris Maunder8-Oct-21 6:02

8-Oct-21 6:02

If you write articles purely to get reputation points then this isn't the site for you.

We, collectively, write articles to share what we know, freely. To help each other. To say thanks to all the other developers who in turn have shared their code and knowledge.

We used to force comments on downvoting specifically to address the issue you raised. Read about why we ditched that.

cheers
Chris Maunder

CodeErgoSum8-Oct-21 7:47

I want to remove one of my CodeProject accounts

8-Oct-21 7:47

We struggle to understand each other, but you are right about one thing: "this is not the site for" me.

Sorry Chris I'm tired of spending time trying to reason with you and your people: at this point, it's pretty clear that we don't share a common way of thinking.

It's time for me to leave. Good luck

Vincenzo

Answers count

Nelek27-May-21 11:34

Nelek

27-May-21 11:34

We have had a report about the solution 52 to this ****Changed to prevent abuse*****[^] Question, where from the 52 solutions I suppose most of the solutions were reported and nuked for spam or site driving.
The questions is still showing the pages account (1 of 3 pages) although there are only 2 remaining answers (1 and 11) and if one click on page 2, then the list is empty.

I suppose that the counters keep track on solutions posted, but not reduce the amount when the solutions are nuked by reports (don't know about other reasons as deleted by protector / staff / owner)

M.D.V.

If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

Re: Answers count

Matthew Dennis31-May-21 4:11

Matthew Dennis

31-May-21 4:11

I'll take a look.

"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."

User 1518069726-May-21 5:10

User 15180697

26-May-21 5:10

I accidentally logged in using my Google account, and by doing so I created a new account in addition to the old account I have used for years. How do I remove the new account linked to my Google account? I have looked for a way to remove the account on your web pages, but found nothing.

modified 23-Jun-21 21:01pm.

Re: I want to remove one of my CodeProject accounts

Chris Maunder26-May-21 5:16

Lua comments in formated output get deformed with span tags

26-May-21 5:16

Click on your username at the top right to go to your profile page and select "Privacy" (the last tab). This allows the ultimate in privacy: closing your account!

Just make sure you close the correct account.

To associate your Google login with your older account, go to the same page, choose the Account tab, scroll down and select the social login provider(s) you wish to use.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Patrick P. Frey24-May-21 11:15

Patrick P. Frey

24-May-21 11:15

I am up to publish an article with a lot of Lua code including comments.
The comment lines of the code gets deformed in the publish preview.

Original text:
-- Some comment
function foo( arg)
end

Preview of content to publish:
-- Some comment
function foo( arg)
end

I tried workarounds
1) to use 3 dashes ---
2) spaces in front
3) a dot in front
4) block comments --[[ --]]

Nothing worked

Re: Lua comments in formated output get deformed with span tags

Richard MacCutchan24-May-21 21:19

Richard MacCutchan

24-May-21 21:19

It's not clear what your problem is (both examples are the same), but the following appears to be correctly formatted:

Lua

-- Some comment
function foo( arg)
end

Message Removed

24-May-21 3:13

Member 10648783

24-May-21 3:13

Message Removed

modified 25-May-21 10:50am.

a modest suggestion for post 'reaction' icon change

BillWoodruff23-May-21 22:57

BillWoodruff

23-May-21 22:57

replace 'trophy' with 'coffee cup'

«One day it will have to be officially admitted that what we have christened reality is an even greater illusion than the world of dreams.» Salvador Dali

Re: a modest suggestion for post 'reaction' icon change

Chris Maunder26-May-21 5:16

26-May-21 5:16

They are one and the same, some days.

cheers
Chris Maunder

Down votes

CodeErgoSum23-May-21 4:13

23-May-21 4:13

Yesterday I published an article and this morning I discovered I lost lots of reputation points for downvotes.
The article is about an application that runs a model for the spread of covid19.
I Developed the application during the first lockdown. I spent more than 3 months, coding for not less than 10 hours a day.
Receiving a downvote is always frustrating
Receiving a downvote after such an effort without any explanation is mortifying simply because I can do nothing to correct the article
It is too rude and I believe CodeProject shouldn't allow this to happen!

Nelek23-May-21 5:43

Nelek

23-May-21 5:43

1x 1-vote
1x 2-Vote

Don't you think that you are overreacting a bit?

I personally think you could explain some more, show a bit of the code, etc. And the end looks like you were not finished when you hit publish... Last sentence is: "One last thought" (without even a point).
So I can imagine that someone gave you the downvote legitimatelly. But yeah, it would be nice to have a reason for the downvote, I agree with you.

An advice from long time member... don't take it too personal.

M.D.V.

CodeErgoSum23-May-21 9:04

23-May-21 9:04

Hi Nelek

Maybe I'm overreacting, but be in my shoes, plese.
I spent three months developing that application. Not the downvote is hurting me. Is the lack of any reason. How can I correct properly the article without any clue on what is wrong!

Anyway Thanks for your kindly reply

Greg Utas23-May-21 9:27

Greg Utas

23-May-21 9:27

I agree that downvoting without comment is rude. Apparently the site used to insist on a comment when downvoting, but how is that going to be policed? To satisfy the requirement, a comment can just say "Sucks!", which is still useless. So the requirement was dropped.

If your article gets a reasonable number of upvotes, the system will automatically purge outlier downvotes. This has happened with a couple of my articles that occasionally trigger people.

Robust Services Core | Software Techniques for Lemmings | Articles
The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

CodeErgoSum23-May-21 17:36

23-May-21 17:36

Hi Greg

I think downvoting is an issue that must be fixed. I agree with you that is not easy but I believe the quality of this service will be affected.
For example: talking of my experience: years ago I published an article on a controversial matter (the use of 'goto') I got so many downvotes that I was forced to delete the article.
(maybe the article was not perfect, but what I observed was a kind of religious war against the article and that shouldn't happen!)

anyway...

Thanks for your kindly reply.

Richard Deeming23-May-21 21:37

Richard Deeming

23-May-21 21:37

Member 270861 wrote:
I think downvoting is an issue that must be fixed.

Any reasonable suggestions as to how?

As Greg said, we've previously tried requiring a comment for every down-vote. That resulted in useless comments like "Reason for my vote of 1: asdfasdf".

It also resulted in users who posted genuine constructive criticism being targeted by thin-skinned authors who took the comments as a personal attack. Which then meant most people didn't bother down-voting anything, so authors with lots of friends could get their bad articles bumped up to the top of the list.

Article Voting: The dangers of all-good news [^]

There are features in place to try to filter out random down-votes. And anyone found to be abusing the system risks losing their account. But getting a couple of down-votes on your article doesn't come under either of those categories.

As with any system, there is no-doubt room for improvement. But it's much easier to complain and insist that it needs to be "fixed" than it is to come up with any sensible way of improving it. Smile | :)

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer

CodeErgoSum23-May-21 23:54

23-May-21 23:54

Hi Omer.
First of all, let me say I am pleasantly surprised that this is not an empty chat. It is clear that people 'who can' are listening trying to solve this issue.

You ask for a suggestion, and I had an idea, but after a quick reading of the linked article, I realized that it was nothing new! The only consideration I can do is: if you tried everything and despite that, the solution doesn't come, one possible option is a new start, with different preconditions.

I mean

Maybe the idea of 'voting' is not good as it seems. Try another way to reference good articles («the ability to sort the wheat from the chaff.»)

or

Split a vote into more components: presentation; difficulty; clarity and so on.

or

Maybe some idea behind the vote is wrong. For example,
- why we do believe anyone can give a vote?
- Should be the visibility of an article related to a vote?

Hoping it helps

Regards

Richard MacCutchan23-May-21 21:40

Richard MacCutchan

23-May-21 21:40

This is the internet where everyone has access. So, along with many professional programmers, we get the usual slew of pond life whose only goal in life is to annoy others. And since downvotes do not do you any physical or financial harm, just ignore them; we all get them from time to time.

CodeErgoSum23-May-21 22:15