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The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
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  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
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Message Board Suggestions

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    Message Board Suggestions

    Got a couple of suggestions which could improve the use of this board.
    1. Have a solutions area, where the original question and the final solution are posted (skip all the not relative or not leading in between), it can become very time consuming to go thru every response. This new posting should be created by the original thread submitter, members could be encourage to post when they got the help they needed.
    2. Finally, have an area where you acknowledge yearly, monthly, weekly who is the top contributors of solutions are. That would further give members an incentive to participate in sharing solutions and posting the final solution.


    It is but a suggestion, just trying to help thanks,

    Your new Aphaholic, Juancho...
    Juan Silva
    My Small Bizz, LLC
    sigpic

    #2
    Re: Message Board Suggestions

    Originally posted by jmsilva View Post
    Got a couple of suggestions which could improve the use of this board.
    [LIST=1][*]Have a solutions area, where the original question and the final solution are posted (skip all the not relative or not leading in between), it can become very time consuming to go thru every response. This new posting should be created by the original thread submitter, members could be encourage to post when they got the help they needed.
    I think this was suggested before but suffice it to say it's far easier to scroll to the end of the post.
    TYVM :) kenn

    Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Message Board Suggestions

      I respectfully disagree Kenn--while I very much appreciate the Alpha forum and users, it's often easier for me when I need help on something like Javascript or SQL because on many forums the question is posted and the answer voted on by other users--if you want to look through all the ins an outs of conversation, you can, but the answer to the original question is staring you in the face. Often the good-natured interaction on the Alpha forum veer off course even after the question is answered, to a similar question or not infrequently to a non-Alpha conversations about where people live, etc, in which case the answer is not in the last post.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Message Board Suggestions

        Originally posted by christappan View Post
        I respectfully disagree Kenn--while I very much appreciate the Alpha forum and users, it's often easier for me when I need help on something like Javascript or SQL because on many forums the question is posted and the answer voted on by other users--if you want to look through all the ins an outs of conversation, you can, but the answer to the original question is staring you in the face. Often the good-natured interaction on the Alpha forum veer off course even after the question is answered, to a similar question or not infrequently to a non-Alpha conversations about where people live, etc, in which case the answer is not in the last post.
        I'm confused, what is the disagreement? I said pretty close to the same thing you said, did I not?
        TYVM :) kenn

        Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Message Board Suggestions

          Maybe I'm misreading your post--I thought you were saying a displayed answer was not as good as scrolling to the end of a forum post.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Message Board Suggestions

            Yes, you did misread my post. (I should have used the word 'thread' instead of 'post') Implied is the fact that this would not really work because it would require the original poster to take additional action and that would hardly ever happen, simply because, as you pointed out, there is quite often so much in the middle that is very helpful as well and trying to identify a complete answer could be a pain.
            TYVM :) kenn

            Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Message Board Suggestions

              I don't know what Juan was thinking, but when I read his post I was picturing something like this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1...th-join-in-sql. The original poster may or may not have marked it the right answer, but it's pretty clear that if 72 people thought it was a useful answer compared to the next-best answer that garnered 10 votes, it's probably a safe bet. And there are "other" answers, but there's often comments on these why they don't work or are less efficient, effective, flexible, etc.

              As an added bonus, I just realized that the question itself is rated as well, which might prevent questions on our forum like "How do I get Alpha to send an email?" that the person asking a) hasn't read the documentation or thousand other posts on emailing from Alpha and/or b) they haven't given enough detail about their specific problem for anyone to know what they're missing. I read a thread on the Alpha board tonight where I bet six somewhat-redundant posts by (really nice, patient) people were simply attempting to get the questioner to ask a clear enough question that they could help while the questioner continued to not post the question any differently or implement the suggestions they'd already made.

              Regardless, sorry for the miscommunication--I missed something and/or incorrectly assumed something.

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Message Board Suggestions

                Not a problem. It's not like I haven't done the same.
                TYVM :) kenn

                Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Message Board Suggestions

                  More rules and controls?
                  Nah
                  The board is the best in my experience. First time in a long spanning career in this business I am not alone out there.
                  Some friendly banter and really generous people, what a community - I brag about all you guys.
                  And I've had my behind pulled out of the fire with snippets of advice that took dedication and time from the provider to take the problem seriously, regardless of a rating.

                  How long really does it take to skip a personal comment? And rating? I have found gems in offered solutions where the poster may or may not have got a solution.
                  It aint broke.
                  IMOH
                  Last edited by Ray in Capetown; 06-24-2012, 04:09 AM.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Message Board Suggestions

                    Hi Juan,

                    It is good to make any contribution to this forum, even if it is not the solution for the person who started the thread. I have often found snippets that have helped me.

                    I agree with ray, this forum lets peoples personalities come through, working on a computer all day is not the best way to get a laugh.
                    Regards
                    Keith Hubert
                    Alpha Guild Member
                    London.
                    KHDB Management Systems
                    Skype = keith.hubert


                    For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Message Board Suggestions

                      Originally posted by Ray in Capetown View Post
                      More rules and controls?
                      Nah
                      The board is the best in my experience. First time in a long spanning career in this business I am not alone out there.
                      Some friendly banter and really generous people, what a community - I brag about all you guys.
                      And I've had my behind pulled out of the fire with snippets of advice that took dedication and time from the provider to take the problem seriously, regardless of a rating.

                      How long really does it take to skip a personal comment? And rating? I have found gems in offered solutions where the poster may or may not have got a solution.
                      It aint broke.
                      IMOH
                      I don't believe Juan was suggesting there was anything broken about the message board. And, I'll bet he'll agree with your comment about the snippets of advice, etc. His point is that he would like to see another forum, a summary forum if you will, where the author could put the original question followed by the answer. I suspect he may get frustrated reading through a long thread and if there were a "Summary Forum", then it would shorten the time it takes to read through a lengthy thread. While he has a valid point, I think it would be more work than what it's worth. A better solution would be a better way for searching. That way, Juan (and I) could enter more complex criteria and more easily find what we're looking for. From what I understand, the structure of the message board is not Alpha's so making those types of enhancements is not likely.

                      So, while it ain't broke, it certainly could be improved.
                      TYVM :) kenn

                      Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Message Board Suggestions

                        Do not get rowdy, I agree with all you guys, just meant to suggest that there is plenty of space for improvement, which ever ways or forms it might take... as much as sometimes I also enjoy just spending time reading the threads, sometimes you just need a solution and do not want to spend hours to find it.

                        Juan
                        Juan Silva
                        My Small Bizz, LLC
                        sigpic

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Message Board Suggestions

                          Originally posted by jmsilva View Post
                          sometimes you just need a solution and do not want to spend hours to find it. Juan
                          I couldn't agree more! That's why there needs to be better search parameters to drill in on what we're looking for. Try searching using 2 or more words, with " marks and without. How many threads are found either way? Maybe it's me, but I spend too much time trying to find my subject. Most often, way too many thereads are found. So, it's natural to narrow it down by reading the "subject" of the thread. Most often, that's even worse because the wording there is even more vague.

                          Yes, there is room for major improvement, both on the part of the design and on the part of the person who starts the thread.
                          TYVM :) kenn

                          Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Message Board Suggestions

                            In the Advanced Search, what does the TAG do?
                            Seriously.
                            In my EDRMS system I can add Tag fields to documents as search aids.
                            Is this the same?
                            See our Hybrid Option here;
                            https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


                            Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                            You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Message Board Suggestions

                              Originally posted by Ted Giles View Post
                              In the Advanced Search, what does the TAG do?
                              Seriously.
                              In my EDRMS system I can add Tag fields to documents as search aids.
                              Is this the same?
                              Was wondering that myself..

                              google found this (among other things.)....

                              https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/thread_tagging
                              Al Buchholz
                              Bookwood Systems, LTD
                              Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

                              Occam's Razor - KISS
                              Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
                              Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
                              When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
                              "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
                              Albert Einstein

                              http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

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