Topic: Miscellaneous / Is there a copyright on BC user interface ?

There is also a lot of interesting content on the web if you Google “copyright look and feel”...

Topic: Miscellaneous / Is there a copyright on BC user interface ?

Jason has always been especially possessive of 37signals unique blend of design and aesthetics… and I agree completely if someone is ripping off 37signals CSS or HTML outright or shamelessly cloning their products (feature for feature + design). That is blatant stealing and people should be called on it.

However, as the author of some of the apps you might be mentioning with a similar look (co-author of Beast and author of Pastie).... someone who has spent HOURS or DAYS making and tweaking my own designs, sweating out the details and the pixels and writing my own HTML and CSS… I think it’s rude for Jason to call every similar app a copy and lump them in the same basket.

Obviously 37signals inspires a lot of other designers and I think this is good trend. I don’t think everything Jason calls a copy is a copy.

In the end I think you have to let your conscience or legal department decide…

Related:

• http://blog.pastie.org/2008/05/sheet-of-paper.html
• http://blog.pastie.org/2008/05/build-a-good-wa.html
• http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/575-but-theres-only-so-many-ways-to-do-something-right

Topic: Feature Requests / Spelling

If you use a Mac you get free spell checking in the browser!

Topic: Campfire / Removing chat rooms doesn't work

I’d recommend e-mailing support.

Topic: System Announcements / Read/Unread improved in messages list view

Melvin wrote in the other thread:

I wonder how you’re able to do it on your forums so well and not the messages area? Is it just the volume of messages?

I didn’t get a chance to reply before the thread was locked but I wanted to. The forums are using Beast software, which Rick Olson and I co-wrote… and 37s is right that’s it’s a royal pain to track read flags on messages in the database individually. Beast “cheats” by using a combination of your last login time and your browser session to store what you’ve “read” since your last login… anything prior to your last login is already considered read. And while your browse your last login time is updated in the database but your session continues to remember what was new when you first logged in… I’m probably not explaining it the best, but it’s pretty slick.

A little more complex than 37s first implementation but falling far short of their final solution… which I assume is an actual read flag of some sort in the database for every user for every post…

Topic: Miscellaneous / Database design question/help

It’s likely one large database… this is how most Rails apps are built.

Topic: System Announcements / NEW FEATURE: "List view" for messages

I agree that blog and forum view may be lost on the average Joe…

Topic: System Announcements / Some adjustments to the Overview screen

I agree, it’s an improvement… Does the BRIGHT YELLOW today bug anyone else… I mean I know it’s supposed to jump out… but ouch, maybe my eyes just don’t like yellow.

Topic: How are you using Basecamp? / How can external company staff assign to-dos to internal staff?

Clients cannot assign tasks to employees.

Topic: Feature Requests / Custom Domain

Bringing your own domain to Basecamp would also break their SSL.

Topic: System Announcements / NEW FEATURE: Interface design refresh

We probably need a custom color setting for the blue bg title color… and have it themed…

Topic: Miscellaneous / Best Web Hosting?

Hmmm, is this related to Basecamp?

Oh, well I guess it is misc…

I like Rails Machine for hosting.

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Uploading Excel Files has MAJOR bug

/ is not really a valid character for a filename… Try naming it 5-3.xls instead.

Topic: Feature Requests / do-not-reply emails != me

I agree this could be done better… but doesn’t 37s send a nice bounce message if you do goof this up? It’s not like the mail just goes into space never to be seen from again I don’t think.

Topic: Feature Requests / Share Projects Across Multiple Basecamps

Problem with sharing data across multiple accounts is who owns that data.

Topic: Feature Requests / Archive to .zip

What point is archiving without re-import?

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Forum Software

Beast (the forum 37s is using) is an open-source project. Feel free to contribute…

http://beast.caboo.se/

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are quirks in IE, I try and avoid it whenever possible… we welcome patches though. If you’d like to see the forum software itself improved maybe join the beast forums and fire off a few suggestions there.

I definately think some of the things you mention are areas for improvement, but even if we patch the core software getting 37s to update their custom version might be a bit harder.

Topic: Feature Requests / Support for Microsoft Office 2007 Filetypes

You mean they just don’t get the cool icons? Is that waht “lot of problems” refers to?

Topic: Campfire / Notifications

The fonts are ugly as heck, but that’s pretty neat. :-) The Pyro for Windows.

Topic: Campfire / Notifications

You should get a Mac. :-) Hopefully you don’t know what you’re missing, but it’s a shame.

Topic: Feature Requests / Archive to .zip

Sounds very complex and not useful to a lot of users. Can’t imagine this would be a future feature.

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Viewing a file not happening

Kristi – Some browsers are dumb like that but most newer ones should scale the image (which is more helpful).

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Basecamp forum bug

Sounds like a glitch with your beta browser… maybe there is some CSS “hack” to fix the issue, but really I’d say it’s a browser issue… though if anyone wants to submit a fix (beast.caboo.se) we would definately review it… I’m sure 37s would probably patch their copy as well.

BTW: Are you on nightlies? I can’t find a stable nightly since 1.1 Beta that doesn’t crash every few minutes… can you recommend a specific day?

Topic: System Announcements / The new Basecamp Forum

http://beast.caboo.se/forums/1/topics/964

[bait] Come on, you guys got to use the 1.0 version. ;-) [/bait]

Topic: Feature Requests / To-Do Organization

I just add a placeholder item.. you don’t even see it after a while.