Did we have an "Improving PP" Forum Category ?

I like the idea of using all Forums- but have found Planning Planet the best. I have come across the PMI College of Scheduling, but have not had any response so far.



As resident in the UK "our" association is the APM and not the PMI. Unfortunately there do not appear to be joint knowledge sharing between these two organisations. Perhaps as Planning Planet members we can make it happen. Do you know what the College of Scheduling is up to?.



I have come across the North American idea of Master Planning which appears quite different in approach to the UK Integrated Network approach. Would like to understand more about these differences in approach and philosophy.

Hi Planners,



Thanks for the kind words about the site / forum. I guess it is just a reflection of our joint participation.



We have completed the major job-related script changes, so now we have time to focus on the forum aspects.



See Development Discussion in the Improving Planning Planet Forum



We had offered this forum to several other sites around the world and made it such that it would have the same look-and-feel as the respective host-sites. The advantage (as we thought) was that all of us would be reading and contributing to the same central database of questions and answers - this must be a good concept, while at the same time the forum looked-and-felt like part of the host site - ie its not a planning plaet forum, but everyones. We have not had much success with this, but we are starting again to push the forum and its development.



I hope your see some changes and improvements. Keep up the good work and the useful comments.



Regards. James and the Devlopment Team

Hi,



Your suggested improvements for topic ordering have been done.



Hope it is as you require.

Mark,



I frequent 7-10 different forums covering project management and industrial maintenance topics on any given day. Each forum has its own flavor if you will. The subject matter within each one tends to focus on different areas (or speak to issues from varying degrees on the practical-theoretical continuum).



I would encourage you to participate in all of the forums that you find useful. Some forums have great potential, but do not yet have the critical mass of regular visitors to maintain a steady dialog of topics. I think that project management practitioners (aside from consultants and vendors) are reluctant to post messages unless they have a specific need.



The Planning Planet is by far the most active forum of the bunch (at this point in time) that I watch. I volunteered to assist the PP team with moderating here because I think the PP is worth supporting.



The PP is more focused on the practical side of project management (or the technical usage of specific software). For a more high level focus, I like the PMI College of Schedulings relatively new forum.



Bernard Ertl

InterPlan Systems Inc. - Project Estimating Software, Project Management Software

James,



[quote]Listing forum categories by last post rather than first post - can you explain what you mean by this?[/quote]



I think he is asking for the threads within a forum to be listed in descending sorted order from the date of the most recent posting. So that the threads with the most recent posts are listed at the top.



Bernard Ertl

InterPlan Systems Inc. - Project Estimating Software, Project Management Software

Hi Mark,



I / we have finished the job aler email script updates. You can try to configure your job alert by the link on the jobs page - I reckon you are firmly planted in your current position - so this will be of little interest to you. We have had a load of guys from all over the world, testing and re-testing it etc. It will probably come crashing down around our ears as it involves some seriously complex code and it may stretch the CDONTS email system.



FORUM

Separate category for "Improving PP" - YES DEFINATELY. Probably need one for Production Rates too so that we can get some of the guys organised into formatting all of the rates that are coming in from various coutries etc. Need a task force to get it organised I guess.



Listing forum categories by last post rather than first post - can you explain what you mean by this?



Forum Post Email Alert - this definately works, I will look into your case?



Editing you posts after posting - yes this is a ten minute task.



Current Errors - there appears to be a problem with the main forum page, as it does not show all of the categories which have been setup. I will get the bug-testers on it after this post. I expect to get to the forum improvements in the next few days. Sorry for the continued delays.



Keep up the good suggestions. I like your suggstions about free software to review. Good one. We are getting a lot of emails from various software vendors, except MSP and P3 funnily enough - perhaps they dont need us, who are asking to put their reviews on the site. We are still trying to work out the best method of comparing and contrasting the packages - as this determines what we ask them to present and how it is to be presented etc.



James

For Planning Planet

Hi Guys,



I am working madly on changing the job alert function - we have had 100s of emails asking for some changes. As a result no progress has been made on the other suggested areas of improvement for the site. Sorry. My other techie friend has gone out-station to Brazil and I none of us have heard from him since.



The job alert scripts are complete, and we are testing them now, so in the next fewdays, I will get onto the other development issues and make some progress on improvements.



The email notification script works ok. Mark, have you received this by email notification?



Regards...James

For Planning Planet

Mark,



The function works fine for me. You will know for yourself when you get a notification for this post (or do not.) If you do not receive the message, then I suggest that you confirm that PP has you correct email address.