GATE Overflow Update

Question

GATE Overflow was updated to Q2A 1.7.4 from Q2A 1.7.0. I hope many of the bugs would be gone now. This was a major upgrade as it also coincided with the server upgrade. Also, all the core hacks in Q2A was removed making GATE Overflow more independent and all future upgrades will be done immediately.

One issue of upgrade is bugs - so please notify of any bugs. 

Also, please inform if anything improved. Some things changed at user end are:

1. Latex rendering on answer, comment submit without having to reload page.
2. New version of editor  - faster loading and fewer bugs

If things are stable a minor upgrade should happen within a month. Minor on the server side- but that will be more attractive for users :)

Also, there are plenty of development opportunities for Q2A which is an open source QA platform. I encourage those interested in web development to try. It is plain PHP and has a good framework. I have been making some plugins for it and some new plugins which have to be made are follows:

1. Automatic backup of site and database to GoogleDrive/Drop Box
2. Automatic posting of questions to FB page
3. Top Monthly Users per Category
4. Reply to Email and the reply getting posted as comment/answer

If interested I can help. Also, a good theme - can be forked from open source ones like Donut and a mobile app - also has a basic open souce code are required.

Though Q2A is open source, plugins can be free/paid. Also a good plugin can boost one's resume and get parttime work from site owners.

Also, GATE Overflow Home page is going to be changed soon. Except that if anything requires change please post below. These will be the last update for the site for at least a year. Some more coming things:

1. Some videos for critical topics which are not there in http://videos.gatecse.in
2. Automatic advancement of users to editor post based on points earned

Comments

Yes, preview is quite useful. unfortunately that is not available with ckeditor which is by default used here. But there is a new editor with this feature which shall be added here and can be chosen by the user if desired.

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Okay, but recently(for som days) i am unable to find buttons like, font style,size,superscript,subscript etc while answerng/coomeenting questions..... symbol, image table etc are there but many are not

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yes, they are just removed as they have better alternatives

$x_2$

$x^2$

Font-can be selected via styles.

Subscript-superscript etc would make the content ugly when made to PDF :(

Answer 1

@arjun Sir  Gate overflow has become much better .
few suggetions / modifications from my side :

• need detailed descritive or video solutions to some really difficult GATE questions  ( provision to add video solutions to each answers )
• each tag is having only questions. provision to add short notes or videos to tags would be sooper cool
• questions notification on/ off . Altough we comment some questions users may feel no importance of notifications
• Notification history search would be nice as most of the doubts could be recollected in last minute
• There are too much scrolling . It would be great if you could make everyting in single view

Will add thigs if I remeber anything in later point of time

Comments

@arjun sir ,

• Please dont allow users to post questions without proper tag and heading .
• Subject wise recent activity page is good choice as one particular user colud search for questions he has asked ages ago in a specific subject easily .

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And adding Unanswered  in Subject- wise questions would be better.

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@pC Yes, I also want that. But it will be worse to have wrong tags- like many people post in wrong categories. So, for good questions tags are anyways edited and corrected.

Subjectwise activity- Unfortunately is not in Q2A. Also, the activity page shows only questions from last 2 months I believe. I guess you want

https://gateoverflow.in/user/Arjun/questions

this page to be categorized subjectwise- is doable. Let me see.

@mcjoshi Actually subjectwise unasnwered is already there. But they are visible only when one clicks the "Unanswered tab" and then see the category widget on sidebar. Very difficult one- I'll see if this can be added to the tab.

Answer 2

Arjun Sir, I have a few suggestions

• Sometimes the best answer given to a question lies in the comments, and the best answer choosen by someone else is not even the best one. The admin should look to it.
• Although it looks trivial, but whenever we upvote a comment the points should increase.
• Whenever we tag a person (in comments/answer) the person may or may not know, so it would be cool if we have a notification button just like FB or Linkedin.

Comments

Best Answer- Yes, actually admins look at them. For last 1 month there have been a lot of NET questions added and I was busy with the some backend work. These questions will be checked soon.

Points for Comments - Yes, this is trivial but is not there now. It is coming in Q2A 1.8 which is supposed to be releases this month end. So, I'm just waiting for it.

Tag - Actually users gets notified if they are tagged. Issue is the name must be exactly same as their user name - 'Arjun' for me and 'Sourav+Mishra' for you. Not a good way- this shall be changed and made working like a FB tag.

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@Arjun Sir,

One suggestíon from my side, if you like it :--> Sometimes, answer is chosen as best but actually it is not a correct one and lacks good information. If soméone checks it, then its okk that could be corrected, but if it is not checked forever. I gives wrong information who see them .

So, I think best answer should be available only to a few,i.e only few people should have the authority to mark it as best ( specially who are moderators or who already have cracked GATE exam and not all the editors ).

Even i have sometimes marked it as best and you have corrected the answer many times, it makes a good learning though by correcting the mistakes but also it is not possible for u to look each and every answer, so if that answer is missed, negatives are awarded in exam.

So, I think marking best should be only available to some, not all .

Thanku :)

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@Kapil Yes, but unfortunately there are not enough moderators here. But I prefer all editors to "unmark" any best answer if anything is wrong there.

Answer 3

Happy for Updated GateOverflow.

Really its speedy now.

Sugession:-

1.The User Icons are not clearly Visible .

2.Like Stackoverflow there may be a choice like ACCEPTED which means it Fulfill the Askers need though it may not be the Best Ans.

3.  programs loaded in my screen are Center aligned so its hard to read due to alignment issue.

I 'll add more as i come accross any more problem.

Comments

1. User icons - thats issue with old icons- they are small. Only way is for users to change them including myself :)

2. This would be good. I'll consider this as it will make making the GO book easier without any wrong answer.

3. Can you show and example of this?

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Program Alignment problem

Platform details:-

Mobile Device

Google Chrome Browser

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Suggestion4:-

Sir Generally the question which seems to be useful further we mark as Favourite.

But can we make distinction between

Read & Favourite question, Only  Read( may not favourite) , Not read Yet.

Cz we have to go inside the question to know wether we have done with this question or not if it is not favourite.