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proposed forum upgrades
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ladies/gents:

i'm going to spend some money on our reader forum. i've spent a lot in the past on it, but not in recent years, so, time to again invest i think.

some of the upgrades are for me. some of the upgrades are for you. what upgrades could be for me? those that allow me to deploy banner ad units i cannot now deploy. what would be the upgrades for you? first, features that you might want but don't have. a like button? yes or no? also, maybe, a mobile version. something that allows you to view without having to scroll back and forth to read a post.

one thing i'm heavily leaning toward is a fixed size for the forum table. it would be just like the home page, 970px wide, end to end, including that right hand column where ads, polls, etc., live. the downside might be that it could be harder to manipulate from a mobile device. hence one reason for also having a mobile platform.

anything you want to say, i'm eager to hear. so i'm going to take input this week, and my trajectory will be bent heavily by the input you give.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
a mobile version..
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [kmill23] [ In reply to ]
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Unless I'm completely missing the how to part of this, I would like to be able to search and have results grouped by post instead of having every reply within the post show up. Not sure if I'm properly explaining
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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mobile version.

upvote / downvote

a way to tag threads with topics (e.g. swim drills, run shoes, doper of the day, popcorn thread, etc...)

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I'd be keen to have a feature in which I could more easily ignore posts from the nut jobs and see the posts from the brighter members of the forum. One method would be to have a feature permitting users to annotate user names, visible only to the user who made the annotation. It would be even better if threads didn't move up to the top for me just because one of the nuts posted. One could imagine several methods of implementing such a feature. Even just setting up the forum such that you get updates when chosen members post would be grand.

Also I'm rather opposed to like/up vote/down vote systems.
Last edited by: corneliused: Mar 24, 15 11:36
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I actually like it quite a lot already. Other forums I visit (not triathlon) could improve by emulating this forum, particularly navigation through the different categories, the option to see 25 posts or all of them, the way unread messages are flagged, etc. It's a very thoughtfully laid out site.

If fixed size means that large photos don't make the paragraphs ridiculously wide, I'm all for that.

Mobile might be nice but I hope I wouldn't use it too much.

No idea why we'd need a like button -- what function does it serve?

Thanks for asking, and thanks for an already-great site.

Steve B.
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Steve B] [ In reply to ]
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enhanced search functionality. eg, the BarryP run training posts would presumably have a lot of likes, so if you wanted to find good run training posts, but didn't know to search for "BarryP run training", you'd be able to come up with what other people find the most useful.

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Steve B] [ In reply to ]
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"If fixed size means that large photos don't make the paragraphs ridiculously wide, I'm all for that."

we fight the overwide photos. and the people who type characters in that over-widen the table. we've written some code to try to fix that. keeping the images to a fixed width, which means they deploy, widen the forum table, and then redeploy smaller.

but, basically, yes, we'll try to make the fixed width override everything that might widen the forum table. that bugs the spit out of me as well.


Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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An "Ignore" feature so people can block out trolls or other members that they just find annoying.

Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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"Unless I'm completely missing the how to part of this, I would like to be able to search and have results grouped by post instead of having every reply within the post show up. Not sure if I'm properly explaining"

This from above. Maybe two ways to search. One that returns the threads something was mentioned in and one that returns the posts something was mentioned in.

Or maybe a way to exclude the subject line from the search if you want. If someone mentions the search term in the subject line, every post in that thread will be returned even when only 2 out of 500 actually talk about it.


I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Power13] [ In reply to ]
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You mean a Bull_Winkle / TheForge button??

Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [JasoninHalifax] [ In reply to ]
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JasoninHalifax wrote:
You mean a Bull_Winkle / TheForge button??

What? Did someone say something?

Chicago Cubs - 2016 WORLD SERIES Champions!!!!

"If ever the time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin." - Samuel Adams
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I'd like to see some notifications like when someone quotes you, replys to your post, etc. +1 on the improved search. Searching right now is a huge pain and largely ineffective.
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [a300600st] [ In reply to ]
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there already is notification when someone replies to your post. search: yeah, we'll see what we can do about that.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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- Mobile version. It doesn't have to be an app, just a website that scales well on smaller displays. There are frameworks that can help you do that (bootstrap for example)

- Fixed width would be terrible. We live in a world where web site can be accessed from all kind of devices, of all sizes. Let the user decide what size is best for him, and scale correctly to that size.

- Do not allow "replies." Replying to a specific post makes the thread hard to follow if the forum is in "flat" mode, which I would guess is what most use. Even worse is that you can't just post a new message in a thread; you have to reply to someone, even when your message is not a response to a specific post.

Also, rather than developing your own forum, you might consider moving to an existing solution like phpBB. It probably does all you want (search, mobile version, compatibility with third party sites and apps...) and more. Migrating your data could be a challenge however.
Last edited by: nchristi: Mar 24, 15 12:23
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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tapatalk compatiblity...

https://tapatalk.com

ishi no ue ni san nen | Perseverance will win in the end. | Blog | @nebmot | Strava | Instagram |
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I would like the buttons for the different forums at the bottom of the page instead of the top because...I don't like scrolling all.the.way.up.to the top of the page once I'm at the end of a thread.

This truly counts as a first world problem, but I really would like it.

twomarks
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
there already is notification when someone replies to your post. search: yeah, we'll see what we can do about that.

I'll echo improving the search function to just get threads, not every post within the thread. Other than that though, I have to say that ST is extremely interesting and very addictive. I really appreciate ST being around:)


"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Plus whatever on a mobile version/app. ST on a smart phone is somewhat painful
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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You're going to have two broad categories here I think (with obvious cross over) being 1. features, 2. UX.

The decisions on features (ad banners, better search, like button, etc.) are going to inform whether you stick with the existing forum software or look for an alternative. Yeah migrating data usually sucks, but it's almost always possible. There is also no reason you can't bolt any of those features on to the existing forum software assuming you are hosting it yourself. They likely have some sort of plugin architecture?

The UX is something you could do regardless of the above. I am reasonably sure this forum has a template engine so you could likely reskin the existing forum in a more contemporary way that would address UX issues, like a responsive design (looks/works good on any device), rogue image sizes, etc.

In terms of what I'd like to see personally I think an update on the front end would be great but frankly it works as is for the most part. There is almost something "old school cool" about it ;) Surfing on the phone is the only major inconvenience and even that has improved with larger format screens recently. People with worse eyesight may disagree on that front.
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [nchristi] [ In reply to ]
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nchristi wrote:
- Do not allow "replies." Replying to a specific post makes the thread hard to follow if the forum is in "flat" mode, which I would guess is what most use. Even worse is that you can't just post a new message in a thread; you have to reply to someone, even when your message is not a response to a specific post.

I understand the irony in this post, but this ^^

ZONE3 - We Last Longer
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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The ability to embed Youtube clips. Have links be active on the first paste without having to take two steps to make them active (ie paste the link and then click on the little chain icon and repaste).

------------------
My business-eBodyboarding.com
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Power13] [ In reply to ]
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An "Ignore" feature so people can block out trolls or other members that they just find annoying.

I will second this and also add that an "Ignore Thread" or "Ignore post" button that basically takes a thread or post out of the reverse chronological main display would be helpful. Lot's of times, once I've read through the gyst of a topic I'm not following, it would help me see the posts I may be interested in sooner or easier if I could basically tell the forum "don't show me that one again."

In terms of upvote/downvote I rarely find that function useful in other forums or comment functions I use. Maybe ST would make better use of it given the quality of the members, but it usually doesn't assist in illuminating the most pertinent/useful posts.

I also second the ability to post to a discussion without necessarily having to reply to a post in the discussion.
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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I personally prefer to read chronologically. I loathe the way Disqus replies within a thread wind up taking things in a very different direction. So I would maintain a lot of the current functionality myself. I don't mind Liking; but upvote/downvote within a thread tends to ruin the way I consume message boards. Yes, this means Reddit pisses me off, despite its inherent value in delivering user content.

Mobile would be a big plus. If you need some developers to put that all in place for you, my agency could use some work.

----------------------------------
Editor-in-Chief, Slowtwitch.com | Twitter
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Re: proposed forum upgrades [Power13] [ In reply to ]
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Power13 wrote:
An "Ignore" feature so people can block out trolls or other members that they just find annoying.

+1

Meaning I wouldn't have to see the posts, quoted text, or any new threads started by select users. There is a wealth of information available here, but sometimes sifting through intentionally obtuse postings is almost unbearable.

On the flip-side, a "Favorites" feature for others that post useful material.

.


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