ASP.net wish list
I think it would be nice to have a place where developers could submit feature request or enhancement request for the next version of the ASP.net / Visual Studio software. It would be good to have an ongoing list of features that people have submitted for all to see. By doing so, MS could then allow visitors to vote on the priority of submissions in the list in an effort the get an idea of what is most important to the group as a whole. Have people sign in using the pass port in order to ensure that the voting is not skewed.
Categorized FAQ for forum questions
There are several questions that are asked time and time again in the ASP.net forums. For people that try to help answer forum questions on a regular basis there are three options:
A) Re-answer the question
B) Search for an older post that answers the question and then reference it
C) Let someone else catch it…
I think it would be nice to have a categorized FAQ section that "forum answerers" could link to and use for reference. Forum moderators could be used to help build the FAQ, as they are most familiar with the common questions ask. Moderators could then append to the FAQ as new common questions come to their attention. Such a utility would not only help forum members, but also help show MS where the greatest areas of question are concerning the ASP.net product. Intern, MS could use that information to as a possible source for future enhancements… Don't misunderstand, I realize the FAQ forum could be used in a similar fashion; however, by allowing the moderators to be more involved I think information will be a bit more refined and more issues brought to light.
I do realize there is already a FAQ section on the MSDN / ASP.net site… However, that FAQ is more geared towards marketing questions.
Resource Voting / Rating / Comments
I really like the way Amazon allows visitors to rank books or products and then leave feedback. It would be nice if MSDN / ASP.net offered such a feature for all things ASP.net (hosting, books, components, utilities, resource sites)… www.asp.net does list a lot of resources and does allow users to rank components… However, it would be nice to see a place that outlined all of the different ASP.net resources, allowed users to rank them and optionally leave feedback as to why they assigned that rating.
Weblog Collection
I think the weblog collection is a wonderful idea… However, I feel like it has a lot of room to grow. MS has created a place where that industry experts and developers of ASP.net can post their personal logs. They have gone a step further and brought all of those logs together into one combined log… but that is where it ends. Why not allow the weblog collection to be categorized (tutorials, new information, personal opinions, just for fun, etc…) and possibly break out those that pertain to programming into ones that provide source code and those that do not. I think would increase their value greatly for the end user. Just another though, it would be nice to see the weblog collection moved from a nested menu to a link on the front page. It is a great tool that just needs a bit more advertising.
MSDN Magazine / ASP.net Articles
MSDN Magazine, and all the code contained within, is available free on the web. Similar to the weblog collection, I think that is a great resource that is not advertised near enough. I realize that users can find a link to it through the menu on the MSDN / ASP.net site… However, I feel that is a lot of good content that gets overlooked. If nothing else, a link on the MSDN / ASP.net front page would be a good step in promoting it a bit more.
Suggested Standards
I've seen a lot of people who ask about recommended standards… What is the best way to do things when coding in ASP.net? I know there are many ways to "make code work" in Visual Studio, but what is the recommended way… And why? I'm sure MS has a set of standards its coding teams use… Let the world know what those are in case they would like to use them as well.
Debunking Myths
Not a high priority… There are a lot of .Net myths out there. It would be nice to see someone address these, and debunk the ones that have no basis. If nothing else it would make for interesting reading.
Migrating from desktop development to ASP.net
The MSDN / ASP.net site offers a lot of info for people migrating from other web languages to ASP.net… However, the site does not really address programmers moving directly from desktop development to web development. One trend that is prominent in the business industry is companies wanting accessibility via the web. Several of those companies have coding teams in place who support and grow older legacy applications. Those same teams will be the ones that help move those applications to the web. The more information those people have, the easier their job becomes. Classic VB coders may first choose VB.net … Why not give those developers a better idea of why they should consider ASP.net vs. traditional desktop development?
Far Stretch ~ Integrate MSDN.Whatever with MSN…
MSDN / ASP.net hasA LOT of good content! However, the site isn't dynamic enough to be a default home page. It would extremely nice to have themes available for the MSN homepage based on the different VS technologies… Therefore, one could have MSN set as their homepage… And the MSN homepage, based on the theme selection, would then pull the most recent dynamic content from their MSDN language page (ASP.net, VB.net, C#, etc…)… MSDN / ASP.net is not very dynamic; therefore users rarely have a trigger to go see what's new on the site. By having the dynamic portion of the content on a homepage users would have the needed trigger to go and see what else may be new on the site. That could also help promote the page to developers who are not aware of it.
Hope that helps…Wow -- I *love* to get items like this.
Some answers, and I'll take the rest back and digest.
ASP.net wish list
You asked, we created. The <a href-"http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/productfeedback/Default.aspx">MSDN Product Feedback Center</a> is designed to do just what you asked. You can submit feature requests (or bugs) here, and they go right to the product team(s). You can also see submissions others have made, and vote on them.
Categorized FAQ for forum questions
Working on that one -- the existing FAQ is a little light, I'd like to move it more to the style of theVB andC# FAQs. Would that work for you?
Resource Voting / Rating / Comments
On my list of "thinking on this one"
Weblog Collection
The only problem is that it can really vary, even for a single poster. However, on the thoughts list.
<b>MSDN Magazine / ASP.net Articles
I've been trying to headline as they go live. Sounds like I need to do more.
Suggested Standards
Excellent idea -- I'll do this one.
Debunking Myths
Possible work into the FAQ?
Migrating from desktop development to ASP.net
Touchy subject here (the VB guy is just around the corner from my office). More seriously, likethis article? Do we just need more content like it, or different?
Far Stretch ~ Integrate MSDN.Whatever with MSN…
Like the slightly more dynamicMSDN labs VS2005 page? (it updates headlines, etc. based on the preferences you've provided)
Feel free to keep the great ideas flowing.
ASP.net wish list
You asked, we created. The MSDN Product Feedback Center is designed to do just what you asked. You can submit feature requests (or bugs) here, and they go right to the product team(s). You can also see submissions others have made, and vote on them.
That is exactly what I was thinking about – awesome job! I like to consider myself "well read" and had no idea that such a site existed. I think the more people that can see that, the better. I would even go as far as to say a link the VS.net IDE would be an idea to consider. Often times people have great ideas, but have no clue where to send them. The easier MS can make idea submission process the more people will use it.
Categorized FAQ for forum questions
Working on that one -- the existing FAQ is a little light, I'd like to move it more to the style of the VB and C# FAQs. Would that work for you?
My original thought was something similar to the open directory navigation style where that a high level topic could lead to several sub topics…
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Programming/Component_Frameworks/
Where that ASP.net moderators could categorize the question types (Web Forms, Data Objects, Client Side Script, Etc…), then have the questions and code sample solutions. Make the whole thing searchable… Rather than true forum style, where users could, it would be nice to see static pages in a true Q/A fashion. That way links could be provided to pages in the FAQ and solutions would not get lost in "long posts". The whole theory being that the moderators who create the entries could do so by summarizing a long post from the forums into a simple Q/A. The FAQ forum on ASP.net is a good start I just think it could be fleshed out a lot more.
I'm truly open to anything, the above is just a more elaborated form of my original thought process.
Resource Voting / Rating / Comments
On my list of "thinking on this one"
The original thought for this comes from searching for hosting. There is a ton of companies that host, but I would love to see what their end users have to say when I'm making a decision. The same holds true for components and books. Companies will always post the positive testimonials they get, but never the negative. It would be nice to have a place where end users could speak their mind if there were a lot of problems. I understand that such a site would need to be moderated, but I'd love to see some real world testimonials (the good and the bad) before making a decision on a product.
Weblog Collection
The only problem is that it can really vary, even for a single poster. However, on the thoughts list.
The original thought here was to have the weblogger select a category when creating an entry. That would be the only method I could think of to make the system work. I think the end result would be a much more valuable set of data.
MSDN Magazine / ASP.net Articles
I've been trying to headline as they go live. Sounds like I need to do more.
I think you've done a great job of catching the headlines! The problem I see is that people are unaware of what all the online version of MSDN has to offer (similar to people not being aware of the MSDN / ASP.net site) … They go to the site once, look around, think about what a cool resource it is and then don't think to go back for 6 months… I guess that's where the thinking of integrating the MSN homepage spawned from. People need a trigger to make them think to go back to the site. By integrating the quality content of MSDN / ASP.net with their homepage they would have that trigger. They may not go every day, or even every week… But they would have an update if things going on and a subtle type of reminder that the resource is there.
Suggested Standards
Excellent idea -- I'll do this one.
That is wonderful news to hear. I know many people will be very excited to see that.
Debunking Myths
Possible work into the FAQ?
FAQ, possible dynamic content (one myth per month)… Anything really… Heck, even allow users to submit myths? I think there are a lot of people using VS.net that have got "bad" information that would like a source to get good, definitive answers.
Migrating from desktop development to ASP.net
Touchy subject here (the VB guy is just around the corner from my office). More seriously, like this article? Do we just need more content like it, or different?
Yeah, I can relate to that poor VB guy… lol… I use to be him about 2 years ago. Tell him not to feel alone, Fox Pro coders are beginning to feel the same way too.
I saw that article after I had made my post. That is an excellent article, right on target! I think more desktop developers need to see stuff like that. The more people are exposed to that type of information, the more likely they are to consider the transition.
Far Stretch ~ Integrate MSDN.Whatever with MSN…
Like the slightly more dynamic MSDN labs VS2005 page? (it updates headlines, etc. based on the preferences you've provided)
Very nice site! I had not seen that yet… I think you are right on target. The whole thought behind integrating with MSN comes from the other features that the MSN page offers. On a homepage (in my opinion) it's nice to have a search box, some headlines, links to handy web features, etc… But to also have a section on the homepage with the latest MSDN / ASP.net news would be even better. True programmers love to program and they love new programming information, but they have a lot of other interest as well. A homepage that caters to common interest as well as work interest could make for a very useful tool.
Thanks very much for the feedback. I am always anxious to help. BTW, I read Microsoft is looking to hire around 7000 people… :) If there are any openings in the ideas department give me a call…
I had a few other thoughts last night and just wanted to pass these along…
Follow Up –Categorized FAQ for forum questions
I did some more digging on the MSDN / ASP.net site of found the "How-To" article section. The format of the individual how-to topics is exactly how had imagined the Categorized FAQ items. *Thinks to self, those guys at MS do some extremely awesome stuff*
Follow Up –Migrating from desktop development to ASP.net
I've seen a lot of VB6 to VB.net change list / "need to know" type docs. One thing that might be handy is a VB6 to ASP.net "need to know" information list. Support for other popular desktop languages might be good as well. Kind of a "Here's some of the functionality you use to have … Here's how you might tackle it now" type list.
New –Search – Limiting Scope
I realize how many places the search feature is and what all it does. That being said, I understand that the complexity of what ask may make this request not worth the effort required
Currently the search can be limited to five different options (one of which is "code and downloads"… my personal favorite). It would be nice to have two new categories: Search just MSDN / ASP.net and Search just How-To section
New –Section covering ways to improve development time "Tips and tricks" type thing
It would be nice to have a section where that the MS team and VS.net users could submit tricks and tips they have come across for quicker development. There are hundreds of different ways to do things when coding… However, there is usually a quicker better way. The section may be able to be used as another source of good, dynamic content.
Hope that helps...
I really like what VB.NET has done with "VB.NET at the Movies". Would really like to see ASP.NET follow suit. Hmmn suites...maybe you can talkem into a budget for something like that.
Cool idea -- I'll see if we can sponge up some money for that. BTW, you know that there are some excellentASP.NET movies that are part of VB@.theMovies?
I still want to see a preview/showcase of ASP.NET 2.0 stuff (like WebParts).
Keep checking out http://msdn.microsoft.com/asp.net/whidbey -- we'll have a number of articles on the new ASP.NET 2.0 features. I think the WebParts one (post Beta 1) is still coming, but there are some tech preview articles on WP you might enjoy.
I sent the below to your e-mail account, but didn't know if MS had a hoss spam filter in place that may scan it out. I figured I'd post it here (minus the login info) in case my e-mail got smacked down in transit : )
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The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of a Blog / WebLog that supported categories and was searchable. Over the weekend I got a wild hair and started putting one together. What I thought would be a weekend project turned into a "5 evenings of some pretty good work" project… lol.. However, I'm pretty excited about the end result.
The web app will support multiple "log" sites and offers a pretty good array of features. I created a mock Kent Sharkey site to give you a good idea of how it worked.
http://www.cantbedone.com/BetterLog/?ID=KShark
Your login info is below (it will allow you to login / add post) and get a good idea of what I was thinking about for the category stuff and searchable stuff.
Login Name: *****
Password: *****
The above login info will allow you to manage the mock KShark site… You can also log into the overall admin portion by using the below login info:
Login Name: *****
Password: *****
The admin account is where one could setup additional sites, users and categories… Like I say, I've only got around 5 evenings in it, so it still needs a bit of fleshing out.
I realize MS probably has a lot of time & effort in the getting the group web log setup and that drastic changes aren't very likely. However, I hoped that the demo might be some good "food for thought" in case there are any plans to add features later on.
I'm thinking once I get the "Better Log" app totally polished up I will make it an open source application. It's written in all in VB / ASP.net… And since most of the other large open source apps are in C# I thought it may be nice to have a good VB example out there.
Anyway, I just wanted to pass that along in case it held any interest…
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