Forum Guidelines - New Users Please Read This

Poster: kevin3442
Dated: Friday June 18 2004 - 3:48:30 BST

Welcome to the Milonic Forums!

These are free public forums. Their main intent is to serve as a resource for all Milonic Menu users who (1) need help with menu implementation, (2) would like to suggest possible improvements to the menu system, (3) would like to report a suspected bug, or (4) would like to post anything else menu related. The busiest forum is, of course, the Help & Support for Version 5 forum. There, you will find a vast store of menu knowledge, from the menu's creator as well as from many of its users.


The Supported Version

The current version of Milonic DHTML Menus is version 5, and it is the only officially supported version. Version 3 is still in use, but is no longer officially supported in these forums. The Archived Topics for the old Version 3.0 Menu forum, however, is still available for version 3 users. There, you will find a wide variety topics dealing with old version 3 issues. You may still post questions there, but the Forum "Team Members" no longer frequent that forum, so the most likely source of help there will be other version 3 users. If you are currently using version 3, we strongly urge you to upgrade to version 5. We would also like to note that only the current release of version 5 is officially supported. So if you're running an older release of version 5, it's a good idea to update before posting questions here (more info on updating below)


Cast of Characters

Andy (with the "Milonic" avatar) is the creator of the menu system, and the owner, CEO, and Big Cheese of the company. He participates frequently in the forums, so keep an eye out for his expert advice (or is it advise in the UK?). Marty is the Creative Director at Milonic Solutions. You can thank her for the nicely-designed and well managed website, along with much of the behind-the-scenes operations. You will also see Marty on the forums from time to time. Some of the denizens of the forums — John, Maz, Ruth, and Kevin (kevin3442) — are labeled "Team Members." It seems only natural to think that these "Team Members" are employees of Milonic Solutions. That's a perfectly reasonable assumption, except for one thing: it isn't true! The "Team Members" are not employees of Milonic Solutions. They are long-time users of Milonic Menus who, for their own twisted personal reasons, enjoy volunteering their time and skills to help others solve a wide variety of menu-related issues. The only payment they receive for their efforts is the gratitude of the people they help, and the satisfaction that comes from helping people solve puzzles.

Since these forums are public and are becoming more widely used, we'd like to establish a few guidelines for use:


Be Nice!

This is the golden rule in these forums and bears re-stating: "Post unto others as you would have others post unto you." Most of the people who visit these and other on-line forums abide by this rule as a matter of course. Occasionally, however, we encounter someone who succumbs to the temptation to be, well..., not so nice. On these rare occasions, everyone is affected. Nobody likes to have rude or mean comments directed toward them, and nobody needs to read such comments directed toward anyone else. In addition, as a practical concern, the likelihood of receiving help is always better when you're nice. So please, if you can't post nicely, then do not post. Please note that it will be considered "not nice" for anyone to post information about reverse engineering the source code for the menu system. All of the Team Members reserve the right not to respond at all to rude or otherwise not-nice posts, or to respond in kind (while we try to exercise restraint, we're only human). Forum moderators reserve the right to delete posts that they deem to be overly rude or otherwise not nice.


Update!

Often times, the problem that drives you to the Help forum has already been handled in a menu update. Plus, the latest release is the only release that is officially supported. So, before you post your question, make sure that you are using the latest release of the menu code.

To check your release:
(1) Open your current copy of milonic_src.js, (2) Look in the comments section at the top of the file to find the release number.

To check the most recent available release:
(1) Go to www.milonic.com, (2) Click the "log-in" button at the left of the browser page and, well..., you know... log in (use the email address and password you used when you registered for an account at the website), (3) Click the big "Download Version 5" image at the right side of the page. This takes you to the download page, which will list the currently available release. If you are not using the latest release, then continue the process by downloading the latest release and updating your site.

Backup:
Before you update, if you want to be able to revert back to your previous version, copy the milonic_src.js, mmenudom.js, and mmenuns4.js files you are currently using on your site; these will be your previous-version backups.

To update:
(1) Download the archive file in your preferred format (.zip or .tar.gz), (2) Extract the archive to a folder, (3) From the files that you extracted, upload milonic_src.js, mmenudom.js, and mmenuns4.js to your site, replacing the older copies of all three files.


Search!

The Help Forum contains lots of threads from people who have already sought and received actual help. Chances are that you may not be the first person to experience the particular issue(s) that brought you to the forums. Use the Search feature to search the forums for existing threads that may answer your questions; use keywords, restrict the search to a particular forum, etc. If you can't find what you're looking for, then start a new thread and hopefully others will find that thread useful in the future.


Post a URL or Your Code!

If you post a message seeking assistance with a menu, it is much easier for us to help you if we can look at the problem directly. So, if you are able, post a URL in your message that will take us to a page that exhibits the problem (preferably, one of your own pages). If you cannot post a URL that goes directly to the problem (e.g., you're working on an intranet, a private staging server, etc.), the next best thing would be to upload a test page to a publicly accessible URL, and post a URL to that. If that isn't possible, then please post the entire contents of your menu_data.js file, along with the html code for a page on which the problem exists, and any code from external .css files used in that html page; that way, we can re-create the situation locally. If you are using ASP, PHP, JSP, etc, posting the source code may be useful, but it's also important to see the output to the client, so please post the html output as well. When posting code, please enclose each file's code inside of BBCode code tags. When you enclose something inside of tags, it looks like the following in the text editing area of the posting page:



Once you post the message, the text you put in the code tags will look like this:

Please use the "Preview" button before submitting the post, to make sure you used the code tags properly.


No Free Advertising!

It is considered bad form, and just plain uncool, to post the names of competing menu scripts in a favorable light, or to post URLs to sites that provide such scripts. On the other hand, it is perfectly acceptable to post the name of a competing script when drawing a comparison that is favorable toward Milonic (e.g., "I tried Widgetmenus, and it completely bites compared to Milonic.") The Milonic DHTML Menu is a commercial endeavor, and this site is a commercial site. We do not wish to provide free advertisement for competing products, nor do we wish to host links to competitors' sites. The forum moderators reserve the right to edit or delete posts with such content.


Don't be Shy About Helping!

Aside from the current "Team Members" and Milonic employees, there are lots of regular participants in the forums who help fellow menu users. The help these folks provide is invaluable in terms of the time it saves the rest of us. If you know the answer to a question or the solution to a problem, please feel free to jump right in and post it!

Thank you for abiding by these guidelines.

The Milonic Team