Mon Mar 10, 2003 2:53 pm
Regarding: These Forums
Greetings all,
I have been posting in these forums for a while, and reading them much longer.
I just wanted to know if anyone else thinks they make finding information, and even keeping track of "favourite posts" rather difficult.
I DO NOT mean this as an insult to the Administration here, in fact I thank them for even taking the time and effort to offer the services!
But, the general functions seem to be lacking a bit.
Examples:
A ) The "show posts from last X days".
If you set it to just the last couple of days and actually miss checking the forum for just one day you must then set it higher(Instead of just clicking "Page Two" like most other foums do.), which in turn seems to overload the server and either cause "page cannot be found" errors or it just takes forever for the topics to be parsed.
Plus, if too many people have it set to "Show topics from last year" then you have it being TOTALLY bogged down if even a handful of members are using it at one time...plus it makes DOS attacks on the forum VERY easy to do! One machine could have this forum dead/unusable without even having to know how to program or even know what DOS stands for! LMAO! That just seems to be a bad way to display the topics.
B ) "Search" function turned off.
This was turned off due to a huge jump in visitors right before the games release. Wise thing to do. But, I watch the "logged in" numbers and they seem to have settled down drastically. Perhaps it would be safe to turn it back on and see if it is feasible to use it again.
C ) "New Posts" icon not accurate.
It just doesn't seem to actually show which posts are TRULY "new" or have new posts added to them. Usually it only has the "new post" icon for about the top 15 posts, even if everyone on the page is actually new.
Or, it shows a bunch of "new" posts but when checked there have actually been none added to the thread..
Have no idea why/how this happens, but it happens on both computers I log in from at different locations and different ISPs. So, I think it again is some kind of parsing error. Dunno.
D ) "Show X posts per page" doesn't seem to work.
No matter now many posts you select it always seems to reset to the default "20 posts per page".
E ) No "jump to page X" option.
In many/most forum there is a listing of pages right under the Topic Title so that readers following the thread don't always have to open the first page, let it load, then select whichever page they last read.
Perhaps this could be added? It saves a lot of time having to load only one page per thread in contrast to two pages per thread...again this effects low bandwidth people much more, but even saves time for broadband users as well.
F ) No "hide email from other users" option.
I may just be paranoid, but I don't like just anybody to be able to look at my profile and have my email address...which is why I have changed it to a bogus one.
However, I DO like the Admins to be able to email me! And, having to use a bogus one to prevent my address being put on spam lists makes this impossible.
It also leads to other users using bogus email adresses for the same privacy reasons, and if they accidentally click "be notified of replies to this topic" the Admins get flooded with "mail returned" emails.
G ) "Usergroups"
It may be nice to offer a "Usergroups" feature.
They can be used for things like "clans", "guilds", "modder groups", etc.
They have several uses, but I do not really have the time to go into them all right now.
H ) Private Messages
Perhaps it would be nice to also offer this feature?
It ties in with hiding one's email address(for obvious reasons) but still being able to have other users send direct messages to each other.
Well, that is all I can think of right now.
And I DO know how hard it is run run these "open" forums.
I have Moderated, Hosted, and Administrated many over the years.
If you would like to see an example one I set up, but have temporarily deserted due to real-life time problems, you can check it out HERE.
As I said, this is not meant as an insult to the Admins, but merely as a string of possible suggestions to improve something we all use and have grown to depend upon.
Be Well All,
Dredd
Edited by - Cptn. Dredd on 10-03-2003 15:22:02
I have been posting in these forums for a while, and reading them much longer.
I just wanted to know if anyone else thinks they make finding information, and even keeping track of "favourite posts" rather difficult.
I DO NOT mean this as an insult to the Administration here, in fact I thank them for even taking the time and effort to offer the services!
But, the general functions seem to be lacking a bit.
Examples:
A ) The "show posts from last X days".
If you set it to just the last couple of days and actually miss checking the forum for just one day you must then set it higher(Instead of just clicking "Page Two" like most other foums do.), which in turn seems to overload the server and either cause "page cannot be found" errors or it just takes forever for the topics to be parsed.
Plus, if too many people have it set to "Show topics from last year" then you have it being TOTALLY bogged down if even a handful of members are using it at one time...plus it makes DOS attacks on the forum VERY easy to do! One machine could have this forum dead/unusable without even having to know how to program or even know what DOS stands for! LMAO! That just seems to be a bad way to display the topics.
B ) "Search" function turned off.
This was turned off due to a huge jump in visitors right before the games release. Wise thing to do. But, I watch the "logged in" numbers and they seem to have settled down drastically. Perhaps it would be safe to turn it back on and see if it is feasible to use it again.
C ) "New Posts" icon not accurate.
It just doesn't seem to actually show which posts are TRULY "new" or have new posts added to them. Usually it only has the "new post" icon for about the top 15 posts, even if everyone on the page is actually new.
Or, it shows a bunch of "new" posts but when checked there have actually been none added to the thread..
Have no idea why/how this happens, but it happens on both computers I log in from at different locations and different ISPs. So, I think it again is some kind of parsing error. Dunno.
D ) "Show X posts per page" doesn't seem to work.
No matter now many posts you select it always seems to reset to the default "20 posts per page".
E ) No "jump to page X" option.
In many/most forum there is a listing of pages right under the Topic Title so that readers following the thread don't always have to open the first page, let it load, then select whichever page they last read.
Perhaps this could be added? It saves a lot of time having to load only one page per thread in contrast to two pages per thread...again this effects low bandwidth people much more, but even saves time for broadband users as well.
F ) No "hide email from other users" option.
I may just be paranoid, but I don't like just anybody to be able to look at my profile and have my email address...which is why I have changed it to a bogus one.
However, I DO like the Admins to be able to email me! And, having to use a bogus one to prevent my address being put on spam lists makes this impossible.
It also leads to other users using bogus email adresses for the same privacy reasons, and if they accidentally click "be notified of replies to this topic" the Admins get flooded with "mail returned" emails.
G ) "Usergroups"
It may be nice to offer a "Usergroups" feature.
They can be used for things like "clans", "guilds", "modder groups", etc.
They have several uses, but I do not really have the time to go into them all right now.
H ) Private Messages
Perhaps it would be nice to also offer this feature?
It ties in with hiding one's email address(for obvious reasons) but still being able to have other users send direct messages to each other.
Well, that is all I can think of right now.
And I DO know how hard it is run run these "open" forums.
I have Moderated, Hosted, and Administrated many over the years.
If you would like to see an example one I set up, but have temporarily deserted due to real-life time problems, you can check it out HERE.
As I said, this is not meant as an insult to the Admins, but merely as a string of possible suggestions to improve something we all use and have grown to depend upon.
Be Well All,
Dredd
Edited by - Cptn. Dredd on 10-03-2003 15:22:02
) and blaster of trolls!!