List your suggestions to improve the forum. Options

[JohnV]

Here are some of the improvement suggestions I have/have heard so far:

- Fast forum selection menu to the home-page (jump instantly to the specific forum)

- Rename the subforums: From Vorbis-General to Vorbis - Vorbis General etc. At the moment you don't see at the "View New Post"-page if the thread refers to Vorbis General, AAC General, MP3 General, etc. You just see it refers to General -forum, which can be any of the General forums.

- Link to longer "Latest Discussions" list page. Home page "Latest Discussions"-title should be a link which would open similar but longer list (maybe 20-25 or even better if you could choose it) of latest discussions. It would always show longer list of latest dicussions no matter if threads are marked read already.

[Dibrom]

Well I've just got done with the second item on your list there, but that will likely only be an interim solution. I think it would be more appropriate to just modify the "View New Posts" Page, but that will take a little bit more work, so for now just renaming the forums will have to do.

I'm looking at working on the first item you mentioned via a little popup menu or something like that. It shouldn't be too hard to do.

The last item though, a link to a longer "Latest Discussions" page may be easy, but I'm not quite sure yet. I'll have to see what I can do.

[Jon Ingram]

Would it be possible to always include a link to 'view unread posts' at the top right of the page? At the moment it's displayed on some pages, but not on others, and I have to click around until it appears.

Another option would be to have the option to 'only view unread posts' -- just like a news reader, which is effectively what you are writing. (and access to the threads via NNTP would be interesting, but probably not just a couple of minutes coding).

When you post something and then select 'view unread posts', the article you posted is listed as 'unread' -- this should probably be changed.

It would be nice for the threads you have previously posted in before to be distinguished in some way, in case you forgot that you were interested in them

Not a problem, but it might be an idea to hide admin options from people that aren't admins -- might make the interface a little less cluttered.

(apologies if any of these are actually implemented already)

--

Other than that -- this is probably the best forum I've seen of its type.

[Dibrom]

Originally posted by Jon Ingram
Would it be possible to always include a link to 'view unread posts' at the top right of the page? At the moment it's displayed on some pages, but not on others, and I have to click around until it appears.

Another option would be to have the option to 'only view unread posts' -- just like a news reader, which is effectively what you are writing. (and access to the threads via NNTP would be interesting, but probably not just a couple of minutes coding).

When you post something and then select 'view unread posts', the article you posted is listed as 'unread' -- this should probably be changed.

It would be nice for the threads you have previously posted in before to be distinguished in some way, in case you forgot that you were interested in them

Some of these things I may be able to address, some I may not be able to. I'm not sure if I can have an absolute "view unread posts" as in unread period since you joined the forum, but I can include a seperate link to the "view new posts" on each page, which shows threads which have had new posts since your last visit.

I'm not sure about the last part though, except you can select "recieve updates to this thread" which basically subscribes you to the thread.

[b]Not a problem, but it might be an idea to hide admin options from people that aren't admins -- might make the interface a little less cluttered.

Are these options you are seeing on the main portal page? or the forum page?

[b]Other than that -- this is probably the best forum I've seen of its type.

Thanks

[2Bdecided]

I think one big improvement would be some mechanism to stop people from replying to threads that are several years old.

At least, there should be some kind of pop-up warning when they hit reply on a really old thread "This thread is X years old - are you sure you want to reply?" before they can type their reply.

It would stop people accidentally answering questions years after the OP has moved on!

What do you think Dibrom?

Cheers,
David.

[pdq]

I like your suggestion a lot, but should it really be addressed at Dibrom? He hasn't posted in nearly 2 years.

[kwanbis]

I think one big improvement would be some mechanism to stop people from replying to threads that are several years old.
David.

Isn't it ironic you are replying to a 10 years old post?

[benski]

Wow. You guys sure missed the joke

[2Bdecided]

Wow. You guys sure missed the joke

Maybe finding one of the oldest threads on HA to make the point was too subtle. Shame - it look a lot of clicks to find it! (There are lots of dead links at the end of the chronological list of threads).


Seriously though, it would be a nice feature. If only to save embarrassment. I'm guessing people arrive at old threads via google and don't notice the date?

Cheers,
David.

[Rogee]

I thought it was good joke.

Seriously though, I don't see a problem with reviving old threads. A topic is a topic. At most forums I visit, users are reprimanded if they start a new thread when one already exists for a topic.

[pdq]

I would think it would be entirely appropriate to start a new topic and provide a link to the much earlier one, especially if the subject of the new topic is a little different from the subject of the old one.

[2Bdecided]

A warning pop-up wouldn't stop you though - you could go ahead and do it if that's what you wanted.