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Something i believe would be great for W3schools


jhecht

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DONT USE ASP Solves that problem easy enough. Also, dont much like the layout, seems REALLY crowded. When was the last time the website went through a redo? Seriously... its about time. It's been the same since i was like 11 or 12. Seriously guys, fix it. Also, a bit more explaination on AJAX would be good, and a bit more on the javascript prototype system would probably do people wonders. Also, i find lots of grammar mistakes here and there. Fixing those would be awesome.

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Actually, is development on the site even still going on? I haven't seen any updates to tutorials or references, and no one at the parent company apparently ever posts a message in this forum, I think I've seen it happen once in my time.Is the site still being developed and maintained, or are they just using it for ad revenue?

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Now that you mention it, thats a good question. I dont think i've even seen the website update once since i've came here...Wow... We should all create a better w3schools than w3schools.

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Lol w4schools - why not :) but where are we going to get the content from?

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The tutorials are still in development, yes. Since this forum popped up, new tutorials are AppML, XML Dom (or at least they expanded on it), the PHP tutorials are greatly improved from what used to be just the basic operators and function names, and I know the PHP tutorials are still being worked on (we mods get updates from time to time, basically because they are very busy). Probably more too. I can't confess to keeping track on every tutorial on the site. Also, don't forget, they are not just busy with the w3schools site, but also their company RefsnesData, which provides web solutions to companies.http://www.w3schools.com/about/about_refsnes.aspSo they are not solely dedicated to w3schools.com, no.

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I knew they weren't solely dedicated to the site, I guess the complete lack of communication with anyone having anything to do with the site makes it feel like the forum is completely separate from the other site, like it would almost make more sense for the mods to set up their own forum that they have complete access to and then w3schools can link to that forum, instead of them linking to a forum that they have control over but aren't active in. Either that or hire a community liason. It would just be nice to see a little participation from the people we're trying to support.

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Well hey, i got an answer to why there are a few grammatic errors here and there. the people who made w3schools are from norway. Guessing english isnt the first language over there, huh? If they wanted they could get someone like justsomeguy or one of the people who speak english as a first language to do the text for w3schools, having them read over it just to make sure its what they want.

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I'll write tutorials if they pay me
You do know there are lots of people that would do it for free, right? I include myself too. I mean, if I had any sort of guarantee that a tutorial I write will be reviewed and added/replaced to the existing tutorials or that I'll be able to fix all sorts of errors on the fly, I'd do it in the second for free. And I'm certanly not the only one that thinks like that.
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Yeah, me too :) as long as it was not going to be sold...

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Okay, i'm just saying I'd want to get compensation for the traffic they'd be getting from it, and the ad revenue they're getting.
I'm guessing the best they may offer is a few days/weeks/months of a free text ad. And that would be done only if you've proven your expertise elsewhere.Of course, those are only my own assumptions. I can't say anything for sure.In any case, I'd still do it for nothing. At best, I'd want my name be mentioned once somewhere on the site (such as in the tutorial summary for example).
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I knew they weren't solely dedicated to the site, I guess the complete lack of communication with anyone having anything to do with the site makes it feel like the forum is completely separate from the other site, like it would almost make more sense for the mods to set up their own forum that they have complete access to and then w3schools can link to that forum, instead of them linking to a forum that they have control over but aren't active in. Either that or hire a community liason. It would just be nice to see a little participation from the people we're trying to support.
I understand how you feel. We [the mods] have access to everything except the ftp server, so any changes to the actual forum we can execute if necessary. We're only powerless when it comes to SQL errors and server errors that cause the forum to go down. Before the forum was set up, there was even less communication about new stuff, wasn't there? The forum was set up as an extra resource to the visiting members of w3schools, but there's a chance it may be drawing traffic away from the main site. Hopefully not though.
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Well hey, i got an answer to why there are a few grammatic errors here and there. the people who made w3schools are from norway. Guessing english isnt the first language over there, huh? If they wanted they could get someone like justsomeguy or one of the people who speak english as a first language to do the text for w3schools, having them read over it just to make sure its what they want.
They do ask people to email them about errors on the pages, whether inaccuracies in the tutorials or grammatical errors. Here:http://www.w3schools.com/about/about_helping.aspAnd you're right, Norwegian is the first language here in Norway, but we have compulsory English from the third grade on. Of course, that's no guarantee for becoming proficient in the language, but neither is speaking the language as a mother tongue. Learning grammar in writing is not the same as learning to speak a language.The main problem is that they can not afford to invest too much in the site, like having a dedicated proofreader. The site and tutorials are free for visitors to use, and I don't think the Refsneses count working hours on it, it is just a side project that they invest their time to offer. Ad revenue wouldn't be shared with others wanting to write tutorials, because ad revenue is necessary to cover the hosting and the enormous bandwidth costs of a site serving several million requests per day.
DONT USE ASP Solves that problem easy enough.
And THAT (the initial post) makes absolutely no sense.
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We [the mods] have access to everything except the ftp server, so any changes to the actual forum we can execute if necessary. We're only powerless when it comes to SQL errors and server errors that cause the forum to go down.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but every time I've seen the forum go offline the mods haven't been able to do anything about it.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but every time I've seen the forum go offline the mods haven't been able to do anything about it.
That's a server issue, not part of the board configuration you know. By having access to everything Jonas meant everything on the board and (if I'm not mistaken) everything that's on the server in which the forum is on (but no FTP to actually upload stuff).Is that right Jonas, or have I misunderstood as well?
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They do ask people to email them about errors on the pages, whether inaccuracies in the tutorials or grammatical errors. Here:http://www.w3schools.com/about/about_helping.aspAnd you're right, Norwegian is the first language here in Norway, but we have compulsory English from the third grade on. Of course, that's no guarantee for becoming proficient in the language, but neither is speaking the language as a mother tongue. Learning grammar in writing is not the same as learning to speak a language.The main problem is that they can not afford to invest too much in the site, like having a dedicated proofreader. The site and tutorials are free for visitors to use, and I don't think the Refsneses count working hours on it, it is just a side project that they invest their time to offer. Ad revenue wouldn't be shared with others wanting to write tutorials, because ad revenue is necessary to cover the hosting and the enormous bandwidth costs of a site serving several million requests per day.And THAT (the initial post) makes absolutely no sense.
My initial point is that they still use ASP, even though PHP can do pretty much everything ASP can do, if not a bit better more often than not. If they are on windows servers, why not move to linux? I could create an almost exact mockup of w3schools, except written in PHP/AJAX(for the try-it live demos). Mind you i am not saying PHP is the best language, but its certainly one that is easy to use and quick to pick up, so even if they dont know the language, there are many people here on the forum who do, and would be more than willing to donate some time to the project.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but every time I've seen the forum go offline the mods haven't been able to do anything about it.
That's what I said, isn't it? I thought that was clear from my post. So we can control the forum (member validation, board html configurations etc), but not the server it's on. More on that in this topic:http://w3schools.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=14188Particularly the last post by skemcin.
That's a server issue, not part of the board configuration you know. By having access to everything Jonas meant everything on the board and (if I'm not mistaken) everything that's on the server in which the forum is on (but no FTP to actually upload stuff).Is that right Jonas, or have I misunderstood as well?
Again, refer to skemcin's post linked to above.
My initial point is that they still use ASP, even though PHP can do pretty much everything ASP can do, if not a bit better more often than not. If they are on windows servers, why not move to linux? I could create an almost exact mockup of w3schools, except written in PHP/AJAX(for the try-it live demos). Mind you i am not saying PHP is the best language, but its certainly one that is easy to use and quick to pick up, so even if they dont know the language, there are many people here on the forum who do, and would be more than willing to donate some time to the project.
See, that's completely different. Just saying "DONT USE ASP . . . Solves that problem easy enough." made no sense unless you say why. It wasn't very well argued or anything, and I don't really see what the problem it would allegedly solve is supposed to be. I think most people can agree that using plain ASP is not such a good idea anymore, as Microsoft has stopped supporting it and moved to ASP.Net. PHP vs ASP.Net, however, is a completely different discussion, one that has been had on this board several times already. :)
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I'm sure there were people who understood what i said. Otherwise i would've gotten a ".. huh?" earlier on in the topic post and had to explain.

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I'm sure there were people who understood what i said. Otherwise i would've gotten a ".. huh?" earlier on in the topic post and had to explain.
I think what jonas was trying to get across is it's all well and good to just say don't use ASP. ASP was a very popular language around the time this site was started which is probably why they used it. However, the admins, because they run their company (to make a living) and are maintaining this site basically when they get some free time makes no sense to completely start over from scratch. If they were to do that you really would never see any new tutorials or updates.Like it or not ASP is still widely used, whether that is a good idea or not. In fact a governement position I applied for a couple months ago was for ASP and database management. MS has said that alhough there are no new additions to ASP they will continue to support it (if you are will to pay for tech support :)) for atleast 10 more years.
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I'm pretty sure with all that traffic the ad revenue could easily cover a professional design.And they could have a place to submit articles or have a volunteer team.The current design is awful and the tutorials/articles - although probably the best on the web - could be greatly improved.

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Unfortunatley the admin team is choosing to keep the site closed to outside help although if you emailed them a completed tutorial that was good quality they would surely consider it for the site.

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