Author Topic: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...  (Read 7180 times)

linter

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OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« on: July 24, 2007, 11:41:09 AM »
i think that has the potential to be a great meeting place for SUPers but i'm not so happy with the format of the forums.  does anyone agree with me?  here's what i think:

1/ already there are too many goups to make it easy to zip in, scan, and see what's going on.  now you have to go in, go out, go in, go out, when really it makes more sense to have separate groups for Environment, Classified, and Events but to combine into one the other three groups: gear talk, technique and discussion.  chances are people looking into one of those last three forums is going to be looking at the other two as well, since they're so closely related.  why keep them separate?    if you put em together it'll be much easier for users to get what he/she wants in an expeditious manner.

2/ any way to put a button on the front page that'd pull all the new messages together and present them all at once?

3/ with my hoped-for changes, i know the front page might not look quite so impressive with fewer forums but user friendliness should be the watchword.  i mean, right now i much prefer the Hot Sails Maui SUP forum, which is just one forum that does it all.  i even prefer pono bills rolling rolling blog page.

then again, maybe it's just me.  what d'yall think?


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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2007, 12:01:42 PM »
Hi, and thanks for the comments.  We definately want to hear what the community wants. 

In regards to your specific concerns, I hope you will find that the functionality already exists in the software. 

At the bottom of the "Forum Stats" section on the bottom of the home page you can view all of the most recent posts with a single click. 

In your Profile page, you have the ability to customize many of the parameters that will help each user display results in a manner that is most desirable to them (although you will need to be logged in). 

I think the software has done an impressive job in accomodating the many different ways that different users will use the site.  We are definately open to suggestions, however.


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noworrieshawaii

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2007, 12:46:44 PM »
I dont like the Pono style blog... waaay to much to scroll though. Personally, I like having the catagories... although I suppose combining a couple closely related could tighten it up.  Same thing with Hot Sails.... too all over the place.   

JMHO                                                         

linter

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2007, 01:18:20 PM »
thanks for the response!

I didn't notice the forum stats view-all button before but after checking it out, i still can't tell if it'll do what i'd like it to do.  it says, "view the most recent posts."  but how many is "most recent."  what would be more useful than most recent is "all the messages since I last visited."  can you set that somewhere?  if so, i couldn't find it on the profile page.

I still think you ought to address the issue of too many sub groups.  those three i singled out really are so closely related that they ought to be one.  it just makes for a better reading experience.  imho!

thanks again.  and keep up the good work.


At the bottom of the "Forum Stats" section on the bottom of the home page you can view all of the most recent posts with a single click. 

In your Profile page, you have the ability to customize many of the parameters that will help each user display results in a manner that is most desirable to them (although you will need to be logged in). 

I think the software has done an impressive job in accomodating the many different ways that different users will use the site.  We are definately open to suggestions, however.


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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2007, 04:47:39 PM »
Hi Linter,
Thanks again for your comments.  The view most recent posts link essentially offers the same functionality as the Pono site (plus some added features).  This is the most basic sequential list style forum view.  It is a reverse chronological list of every post ever made on the site, displayed 10 per page, with the ability to view in one spot all posts since your last visit.  Along with the original posters name and last respondents name, you can also see the individual title of the thread, plus the category it belongs to, with no need to toggle back and forth.  This allows specific categorization for those who think that way (myself included), and bulk information for those who prefer that viewing style.

I hope this is helpful and allows you to enjoy the forum in a way that works well for you!

noworrieshawaii

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2007, 06:12:29 PM »
since we're on the topic of this forum layout...   just wondering if perhaps maybe we could get it in HST instead of EST?  Just a personal preference..  :D   

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #6 on: July 24, 2007, 06:22:05 PM »
Your wish ...

Log in > Go to your Profile > select Look and Layout Preferences > Next to Time Offset hit Auto Select > Click change profile

In Hawaii this will use your system clock (assuming it is set for Hawaii Time) and auto-fill the offset at -6 hours.  You may also do this manually.  This allows all users to have the correct in their own time zone (as long as they are logged in). 

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noworrieshawaii

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #7 on: July 24, 2007, 06:36:04 PM »
yipeee........... ;D

linter

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2007, 05:11:14 AM »
Hi Linter,
Thanks again for your comments.  The view most recent posts link essentially offers the same functionality as the Pono site (plus some added features).  This is the most basic sequential list style forum view.  It is a reverse chronological list of every post ever made on the site, displayed 10 per page, with the ability to view in one spot all posts since your last visit.  Along with the original posters name and last respondents name, you can also see the individual title of the thread, plus the category it belongs to, with no need to toggle back and forth.  This allows specific categorization for those who think that way (myself included), and bulk information for those who prefer that viewing style.

I hope this is helpful and allows you to enjoy the forum in a way that works well for you!

well, a complete reverse chronological list of every post new and old might be useful to some people.  That said, i still think a reverse chronological list of every *new* post since last visit would be more useful to more people.  (As it stands, unless i'm mistaken, there's no indication on the pages to tell you when you've moved past *new* posts since last visit and on into *older* posts.)  I guess on this matter, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

on the matter of group consolidation, you haven't said a word.  What's up w/ that?

Keep up the good work!

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2007, 06:43:22 AM »
Hi Linter,

I appreciate your input,

Quote
i still think a reverse chronological list of every *new* post since last visit would be more useful to more people.

The reverse chronological list does offer you the ability to read new posts only with the caviat that you will need to recognize the first post that you have already read when you come to it, but that should be fairly straight forward.  All posts listed before that will be new, all after it you will have already read.

Quote
on the matter of group consolidation, you haven't said a word.  What's up w/ that?

Sorry, I touched on that when I had written:

Quote
This allows specific categorization for those who think that way (myself included), and bulk information for those who prefer that viewing style.

and earlier:

Quote
I think the software has done an impressive job in accomodating the many different ways that different users will use the site.

Those were meant to say that users really do use forums differently.  Some, for instance, may choose to only occasionally visit a "General" category which would contain (perfectly appropriate and valuable) threads like this one, or philosophical musings on the sport.

I left out a few pieces of underlying theory, which I did not want to bore you with, but here goes.  Web crawlers, the bots which are used by search engines (Yahoo, Google etc), will only crawl so deeply into a single database category (usually, the first few topics in each depending on site volume).  Thus, if all of our topics are in a single category, as on hot sails, we miss valuable web listings, and potential new users.  We have not yet been crawled for the first time, but that should occur within a month.

Also, MySQL (the relational database used here), functions WAY faster if a single bulk category is avoided.  This is especialy true when full site searches are being performed (which are the biggest performance killer on forums).  Now, with our whopping 40 members and 200 posts, this is not an issue, but in a few months, I envision a different scenario.

I promise, we are not trying to be too impressive with our main page, just trying to balance factors.  How about this, let's keep our eyes on it.  We will watch how things develop, and make changes in a few months as we mature, continue to gain users and get more input. 



linter

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Re: OT: the way this forum is laid out, well, uh ...
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2007, 07:48:17 AM »
no sweat.  anyway, as you might read in my post below this one, about SUP handles, i'm totally doped up and out of my mind on pain killers ;D, so anything i have to say about anything is probably suspect and should be viewed with a jaundiced eye ::).

 


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