Does Somersoft need a botox injection?
- Thread starter reeco
- Start date
I like SS the way that it is.
Although, maybe one idea for the mods. I don't know if the 'welcome' email that people get when they first sign up already includes this; but perhaps a link to a couple of the FAQ threads, and directions towards the search function, could be worth adding to the template? Just a thought.
Thats a great idea i think. When your already already accustomed to SS people can forget how hard it maybe for others less knowledgeable. So for yourself to say that JGG i think its a great thought
Sim
Administrator
Which changes were they?
Sim
Administrator
Technically possible. Whether it's a good idea is debatable. I'm not terribly fond of link pop-overs, which is what you are essentially describing - usually used for advertising, but can be used for explaining TLAs and such. If done in a subtle way, it could work.
Would need to test that out and see what reactions are. I think it would need to be configurable per-user because once you are comfortable with most of the acronyms, having the links in every post does get a bit annoying.
Sim
Administrator
The current forum design is quite old - hasn't been updated in a while, only minor tweaks here and there. This has mostly been deliberate, although I do agree that it is time for some design changes.
There is a major upgrade coming soon, the jump from vBulletin v3.8.x to vBulletin v4.x is a major restructuring of the underlying product and comes along with a large number of new features and a completely redesigned UI. I'm waiting for a few more bug fix releases to ensure that the new platform is stable before I look into the upgrade - but it will be a significant change for everyone. The basic forum will work the same way, but there will be quite a few unavoidable visual changes. When I upgrade, I will take the opportunity to modernise the whole site design.
By the way, the correct place to post this would have been in the "Help and Feedback" forum, because then I would have been automatically notified about the thread and would have responded earlier
Not to worry, I've moved the thread there for you
Sim
Administrator
Always open to suggestions for improvement - feel free to post anything you like in the "Help and Feedback" forum. I can't promise I'll implement everything, but I'm happy to receive ideas.
The current forum design is quite old - hasn't been updated in a while, only minor tweaks here and there. This has mostly been deliberate, although I do agree that it is time for some design changes.
There is a major upgrade coming soon, the jump from vBulletin v3.8.x to vBulletin v4.x is a major restructuring of the underlying product and comes along with a large number of new features and a completely redesigned UI. I'm waiting for a few more bug fix releases to ensure that the new platform is stable before I look into the upgrade - but it will be a significant change for everyone. The basic forum will work the same way, but there will be quite a few unavoidable visual changes. When I upgrade, I will take the opportunity to modernise the whole site design.
By the way, the correct place to post this would have been in the "Help and Feedback" forum, because then I would have been automatically notified about the thread and would have responded earlier
Wow. You might **** some old timers off. As for the acronym thing maybe there could be a pop down tab similar to what happens when you click on a persons username. That little feature is quite smooth and instant. Just what a acronym finder should be if it were implemented in some form. Just quick scan and bang your on your way.
You have probably thought about this but would you consider how SS blends with the Ipad. Regardless of personal opinion...im seeing some very large steps being taken towards the ipad. Heres some links that might put things into perspective if your not a fan
http://gizmodo.com/5504402/how-the-ipad-is-already-reshaping-the-internet-without-flash
http://www.newsweek.com/id/235565/page/1
Theres a media tilt on those links but im sure you can see between the lines where it could "maybe" expand the abilities SS . I can assure you ill be reading from it when it drops
Last edited:
By the way, the correct place to post this would have been in the "Help and Feedback" forum, because then I would have been automatically notified about the thread and would have responded earlier
This is sort of what i mean. How was i suppose to know im wondering? Theres "sometimes" no real flow or path of least resistance in SS. Dont get me wrong there are some great things you can do in this forum. Really great things...but the flow of features is more daunting then free flowing. So you get these awkwards movements in peoples assessment of how the site works rather then ...dare i say it for looking like a fanboy
. Apple like flow of info.The conversation was of a general nature that needed many people to chime in. I did this by assuming that the "coffee lounge" reflected the general nature of my intentions and also by looking at the count of posts...i could only achieve the opinions i did by posting in a highly visited area. Then again some maybe only looking to a specific person for help such as yourself. Thanks for the feedback also
May i ask if you can point to an example of what the site may look like in terms of UI or generic features? thanks
Sim
Administrator
the flow of features is more daunting then free flowing. So you get these awkwards movements in peoples assessment of how the site works rather then ...dare i say it for looking like a fanboy
Really, there aren't many features - at least hardly any that are of significant consequence to 99% of the users of the forum.
It's a discussion forum. There are a list of topics. Pick one, read it, post in it.
Not sure how you could make that "flow of info" any more straight forward? Happy to hear suggestions, but I really don't think that basic model can be improved.
The Apple discussion forums use pretty much exactly the same model, eg: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=190
First assumption is that the Coffee Lounge is more visited than other parts of the site - which I think is not necessarily correct (although it may be for some people).
Most people use the "New Posts" feature to find what is new since their last visit. That being said, the location of the "New Posts" link is something that does need to be changed on this site - it's not very obvious tucked in with all the other links at the top of the page.
Have a look at two of the other forum sites I run:
http://www.invested.com.au/
http://www.zoochat.com/
Both use exactly the same software, but have been heavily customised (in their own way) to improve the UI. The new Somersoft site won't look like either of these, but some of the design elements I've used will apply well to the upgrade site.
Anyway, my point about the Help and Feedback forum is that if you actually wanted to see any changes or improvements made then you need me involved in the discussion too.
You can see the "default" implementation of vBulletin v4 on their own discussion forum: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/
I expect this site to look quite a bit different to that default implementation once I've finished the upgrade / redesign - but the same basic functionality will be there.
There is a new forum home page you can set up - kind of like a summary page, which may help with what you consider the "flow of information" ... their example is here: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/content.php
The built in content management system in v4 will allow us to more easily set up FAQs and Acronym lists, which are currently hiding as "sticky threads" in some of the discussion forums. This is one area which I think will vastly improve access to useful information.
Here are some screenshots of the new version: http://www.vbulletin.com/index.php?do=screenshots
I predict some complaints when I finish the upgrade ... some people always complain when you change things. This change will be unavoidable - the site needs to be upgraded (they will soon stop releasing security patches for this version), and this particular upgrade requires a completely new UI to be built. However, my goal is to make significant improvements to the site so everyone feels that any pain will have been worth it.
I will probably start by setting up a "beta" version of the upgraded site which I can use for testing. People can then play with it and make suggestions on what they like and don't like - and also get a bit more used to how it all works before I move the whole site to the new software.
Sim
Administrator
By the way - if anyone has any suggestions of other forums they particularly like the design of, please let me know - I'm always looking for good ideas.
Here is vBulletin's "official" list of sites: http://www.vbulletin.com/links.php ... although that isn't up to date (a couple of my sites aren't on there at the moment since they cleaned out the database recently - I'm waiting for them to be added back in).
A better list is the Big Boards list, which only shows forums with at least 500,000 posts (we would currently qualify in about 1,052nd spot for English language vBulletin based sites!).
http://rankings.big-boards.com/?filter=vBulletin,EN
Note that the majority of these biggest big boards will be running older versions of vBulletin - given the extremely high levels of traffic they receive and the complexity of their hosting requirements (server clusters, etc), they typically upgrade their site rarely. For example, the largest forum listed on that site uses 80+ web servers, 11 database servers (4 dedicated to forums), 3 session database servers, 1 memory cache server
In comparison, we use 2 servers (one web server, one database server) and they are both shared with other websites!
Here is vBulletin's "official" list of sites: http://www.vbulletin.com/links.php ... although that isn't up to date (a couple of my sites aren't on there at the moment since they cleaned out the database recently - I'm waiting for them to be added back in).
A better list is the Big Boards list, which only shows forums with at least 500,000 posts (we would currently qualify in about 1,052nd spot for English language vBulletin based sites!).
http://rankings.big-boards.com/?filter=vBulletin,EN
Note that the majority of these biggest big boards will be running older versions of vBulletin - given the extremely high levels of traffic they receive and the complexity of their hosting requirements (server clusters, etc), they typically upgrade their site rarely. For example, the largest forum listed on that site uses 80+ web servers, 11 database servers (4 dedicated to forums), 3 session database servers, 1 memory cache server
In comparison, we use 2 servers (one web server, one database server) and they are both shared with other websites!
Personally, I’d like to see a Stack Exchange version of Somersoft: http://stackexchange.com
As nice as all the banter is, it’s difficult to actually get locate answers to questions. Many threads go on for pages and pages and somewhere in there is the information you actually want but it takes a lot of trawling. The Stack Exchange model does remove a lot of banter which granted, some people like, but if you look through the current threads in most cases people have posed a question and they’re looking for an answer. Food for thought.
As nice as all the banter is, it’s difficult to actually get locate answers to questions. Many threads go on for pages and pages and somewhere in there is the information you actually want but it takes a lot of trawling. The Stack Exchange model does remove a lot of banter which granted, some people like, but if you look through the current threads in most cases people have posed a question and they’re looking for an answer. Food for thought.
Sim
Administrator
Hmm. I can see the value of this style of interaction in some situations.
While using Stack Exchange itself is not really an option based on the way they've structured their hosted solution (and the price - ouch) ... I think we could build something similar as part of the core website here.
I'll have to play with some code to see how easy it would be to make it work, but I reckon we could do something like have two buttons at the top of every forum area: "New Discussion" and "New Question" ... where discussion starts a traditional thread, while questions starts a Q&A style thread.
We already have a reputation system in place (it would need to be expanded to become more useful in the Q&A section, but the foundation is already there for that), and I'd need to write some code to make answers appear in the correct order based on their ranking - but I don't think that will be too difficult.
I originally dismissed the idea being only suitable for a small percentage of the questions asked here (such as "how much stamp duty would I pay when purchasing a property in victoria"), but looking more deeply at how their systems work and the way it is being used by other SE sites, I think there may be some real potential here.
Their approach to community moderation and reputation is also very interesting - I think I can use a lot of what they do on SE here on Somersoft even with the existing forum based site.
Interesting suggestion - thanks!
If it aint broke, break it!
it works fine for ignorant PC uses like me , and i suppose we see less of the older posters perhaps due to the questions asked again and again, like , hi i want to get into property where should i start, or my value was too low what should i do, or the bank said no , where to go now !
this drains on you a bit and those with the answers , have typed these soloutions a hundred times , so they get a little bored with it , just a guess?
what are your thoughts??
this drains on you a bit and those with the answers , have typed these soloutions a hundred times , so they get a little bored with it , just a guess?
what are your thoughts??
