newsbin.com

I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way, as I am only intending to provide constructive criticism and not seem like I am "going off" about anything. I know I can go back to the old stuff - then again, I could also ride a horse to work if I wanted to, hunt for all of my food or hit my chosen mate over the head with a club and drag her back to my man cave by the hair. Point being that people don't really like going backwards, especially if forced to do so. Again, these are my opinions and not meant as attacks on anyone.

-The "upgrade" leaves behind the old nbpro.exe and installs a new newsbinpro.exe file - can mess up existing shortcuts and users may not know what is causing the issue, where to look, or how to fix it.

-The removal of the AutoPAR tab. I don't like this idea at all and find it makes the whole process that much more confusing - glad I'm not a new user or I'd probably have never understood it. Seeing things helps people understand how they work better then decide if the feature is more helpful to them or not.

-Downloaded files now just sit in the list and aren't removed after the d/l is complete. Why? Now I have to remove them manually each time. More work on my part means I'm less likely to want to use that particular software. A step backwards.

-In the Download tab, the Current Progress bar is for ALL files. If I don't have it expanded, then it appears as if the download is incomplete when in reality it's that the par2 files aren't needed and so the progress bar remains to give the appearance the download is incomplete when it's really not. Maybe work on this a bit more - a bit deceiving especially for new users. Possibly divide it to indicate the par2 progress (if you're sticking to your guns about not adding a separate AutoPAR tab). I feel this is going to get really, really confusing in the end and can't quite figure out what the big deal is about not adding it back - oh well.

That's about it so far. Again, I don't mean to get personal by the comments above - just a blunt person and trying to make light out of certain things. I can say that the things I have listed above are annoyances but I'm not going to get completely upset about it and rant on and on and on. Hope this helps in some way!

EDIT (as I've found more):

-Right click on the top of the files list being downloaded -> AutoPAR -> Sample files results in complete extraction and launching of media player or whatever. I thought sample meant test (sort of like the old AutoPar tab used to let you recheck all the files to see if they were passing parity check). Just more confusion it seems.

- What does the autopar properties tell you about the set that's sitting there? Right click properties. Works if you've downloaded at least one par.

Are the rars encrypted? That'll make them sit there too.

Right clicking at the top of the list brings up AutoRAR properties (keep in mind, the download is now done, if that matters - hence the Progress bar issue) which creepily looks almost like QuickPAR's interface and output information. I can see the set is complete. (insert sarcasm here) Now makes the progress bar even more confusing. Which is right? Which do I trust? I'm a new user and I have no idea what's going on now.

More clicks I guess? So 3 keys to start my car instead of one.

NOTE: edited my first post and added another area that could cause some confusion for new/inexperienced or even experienced users, as it got me once already.

Also, thanks so much for staying on top of your software and at least taking the time to read and respond to us pain the ass users. Wish I could say the same for the dude responsible for CD-Tag.

More on the AutoPar tab:

If I stop a download, it disappears from the download tab, but all the RARs that were loaded remain on the disk and show up in the files tab (OK, this is good, but I have to manually delete all the Rars and Pars.) With the AutoPar tab, I could click "delete all Rars and Pars" and they are gone. Now, maybe I've missed a quick way to delete the files associated with the download I just stopped.

Hmm wonder how safe it would be to delete any files that were downloaded from an item you manually remove from the download list? Maybe a special delete option or shortcut that does this cleanup? "Shift-Delete" in the download list perhaps.

I'll note this idea.

Understand, I think the autopar tab was stupid and was only a stopgap to something cleaner. I think you ought to be able to do anything from the download list that you could from the autopar tab. That's the goal. Why add extra tabs if you can do it all from one place? I think you guys asking for the autopar tab should instead be suggesting ways to make the download list work better for you.

As the download list fleshes out, I suspect you'll be able to let go of the autopar tab.

I added the feature that lets you delete the partial download when you delete files from the download list. It'll be in the next version.

Quade wrote:I added the feature that lets you delete the partial download when you delete files from the download list. It'll be in the next version.

Great! One of the biggest missing features.

- mho

Ok, just a couple small nits:

In V5, when a number of files or posts are selected, the number of things selected was displayed in V5. I find that more useful than I expected as i keep looking for it in V6. Can you please add this feature to your low priority list of things to consider, or are you doing it now an I just don't see it?

Also, posts and file mouse selection is different. On post selection, one can start with a post and drag the mouse up (or down) and all the items are selected. When selecting and dragging on the file lists or downloading lists, no other items are selected. It would be useful to have it work the same as posts do. (Yes, I can shift and click to get a number of contiguous items, or ctrl and multiple select now)

It's a good sign when very minor things like this come indicating the application is really working well as it is, keep up the good work!

In V5, when a number of files or posts are selected, the number of things selected was displayed in V5. I find that more useful than I expected as i keep looking for it in V6. Can you please add this feature to your low priority list of things to consider, or are you doing it now an I just don't see it?

It's on the status bar, on the right hand side. It you have low screen res, it's possible you can't see it.

I can look at drag select it's all new code, I think I was hoping it would just work....

mho wrote:

Quade wrote:I added the feature that lets you delete the partial download when you delete files from the download list. It'll be in the next version.

Great! One of the biggest missing features.

Any chance we can get this on a key-bindable function (or just hardcoded to shift-DEL?)
Not a big fan of dialogues:-), and I'd like to use both "delete from list" and "delete from list and files from disk."

If it's already possible, somehow, I can't figure it out...

Thanks!

- mho

Just following up...and I hope my sarcasm wasn't off-putting. I'm sure in time, I (we) will forget the AutoPAR tab.

Any thoughts on the rest of the items above?

It seems that we've discovered a new functionality that was buried in the forums called thread hijacking!

Bump

I'd try 6.01B5.