Forum Suggestions/Forum Tricks

[Grainger49]

There wasn't an obvious place for this so General seem like it.

I would suggest that there be a "folder" for non Bottlehead tweaks.

Anyone with other suggestions should post in this thread.

Thanks,

 

[Balle Clorin]

With so much flexibility every post may become a sub catagory. 
What if we keep the "General" as "general audio". and moved the no-audiorelated in an Offstopic section?
Then General audio could cover tweaks and so on ,everything on audio,but not kit specific?

Best regards
Balle

 

[Grainger49]

Right.  There could be a forum question and suggestions area that can be deleted when the startup is over.

 

[Grainger49]

I have seen a lot of posts about Legacy products, Paraglows and Parabees, that I am not familiar with.  How about a brief description of these in the Legacy section?

Thanks,

 

[booangler]

I have seen a lot of posts about Legacy products, Paraglows and Parabees, that I am not familiar with.  How about a brief description of these in the Legacy section?

Thanks,

I concur, sounds like a great idea.

Alan

 

[Len]

I have seen a lot of posts about Legacy products, Paraglows and Parabees, that I am not familiar with.  How about a brief description of these in the Legacy section?

Thanks,

When you get up to NY, come to my place for a listening session. I'll show you a 'glow.

 

[brian]

Honestly, I would recommend condensing down the number of topics.  I personally find it hard to manage when new comments come in.  Also, usually a good search function makes a hierarchical folder structure an out of date strategy for finding posts of interest.  Ironically, email systems are moving towards a monolithic folder structure and rely on great search (GMail, for example) resembling the monolithic forum we just left (minus the great search).  I would recommend trimming down to: "Announcements", "Current Products", "Legacy Products", "Other Designs", and "Off Topic".

 

[Grainger49]

I have seen a lot of posts about Legacy products, Paraglows and Parabees, that I am not familiar with.  How about a brief description of these in the Legacy section?

Thanks,

When you get up to NY, come to my place for a listening session. I'll show you a 'glow.

I'd love to.  I can't say I'm headed North any time soon.  But I will remember.

Thanks,

 

[Len]

I have a suggestion for the forum administrator, though it may just be me not knowing how to do something.

When I get replies in my email, I can't figure out who sent them. In all other forums I can see who posted. That is a great convenience.

 

[Len]

I'd love to.  I can't say I'm headed North any time soon.  But I will remember.

Thanks,

Cool. I have a picture on the wall I'd like to show you.

 

[Capt.Z]

I like to bring up the 'For Sale' page, that lets inmates buy and sale 'bottlehead related' items only.

 

[Grainger49]

I have a suggestion for the forum administrator, though it may just be me not knowing how to do something.

When I get replies in my email, I can't figure out who sent them. In all other forums I can see who posted. That is a great convenience.

When I get notification it tells me who the poster was on the end of the first line of the email.  Is that what you mean?

Capt.Z, rule four:  "Fourthly, no for sale or want ads..."  I don't blame Doc, his site is here to promote, sell and support his kits.  This will send his children through college.  We hope!

 

[Len]

When I get notification it tells me who the poster was on the end of the first line of the email.  Is that what you mean?

Yes, it tells who owns the thread. But once you're following a thread, it's more important to know who posted what it says in your email (the reply) than who started the thread, at least to me.

 

[Len]

When I get notification it tells me who the poster was on the end of the first line of the email.  Is that what you mean? (2)

Oh, maybe the poster name is the one who replied. I assumed, since it said "a thread you were watching by ...", that the thread was by ...

I guess if it said "you have a reply by ... to a thread you are watching" it would be harder to spot the name of the poster. So the topic name is in the subject line, and the poster name is on the first line of the body of the email. Then when you cllick on it, it goes to the page, and it comes up on top (I changed that default from bottom) if nobody else has posted since.

Okay, I'll get it eventually. Thanks Grainger.

 

[induna]

Honestly, I would recommend condensing down the number of topics.  I personally find it hard to manage when new comments come in.  Also, usually a good search function makes a hierarchical folder structure an out of date strategy for finding posts of interest.  Ironically, email systems are moving towards a monolithic folder structure and rely on great search (GMail, for example) resembling the monolithic forum we just left (minus the great search).  I would recommend trimming down to: "Announcements", "Current Products", "Legacy Products", "Other Designs", and "Off Topic".

I disagree. Searching only works when you know what your looking for. A hierarchical folder structure facilitates browsing for topics on related subjects, allowing the user to explore posts that might appear tangential to their initial interest, but which contain valuable information nevertheless.

 

[Doc B]

My take on this is that along with a some very unique posts the old forum also has ten bazillion posts asking the same questions again and again over the years. That indicates to me that the search function isn't being used as thoroughly as it might either because it doesn't work too well or because folks don't bother. My breaking the forum down into the subcategories I chose is intended to reduce the redundancy in posting by making a given subject like (Gott im Himmel)  "what's your favorite Foreplay output capacitor?" (AUUGGH, OK I'm alright now) more easily sorted through.

As for sifting through the new posts that come in, there is a link near the top of the page  - "Show unread posts since last visit". I'm finding that very useful, and I hope others are too. One can also be notified by email of new posts to particular topics of interest by clicking "notify" at the top of the thread.

 

[brian]

Hi Doc, good points.  Responses:
1) We should use the star feature of forums to indicate users to commonly asked questions.  Headwize (headwize.com/ubb/forums.php) is currently pretty idle, but it used to be a good example of this.
2) I've also found "Show unread posts" useful, but that flattens the folder structure and kind of defeats the purpose of any hierarchy!
Best, Brian

 

[Grainger49]

I just thought of this because Java did an install.  How about a child board under General for PC related subjects?  

Most likely there are other subjects that could be put into child boards.  Do any of you have suggestions for other child boards?

 

[Grainger49]

Doc,

I have discovered a lot of features that I have not known before.  This software is far more sophisticated than the AA.  But I guess as an official old fart it has taken me a while to find most of it.

How about a "How to use this forum" thread, sticky????

 

[ducati guy]

I tried to wait for a while before sending this so as not to jump to conclusions, but I think the old forum was much more "experimenter friendly". I have gotten back into electronics recently after a hiatus of many years. I used to read the forum as a part of my daily routine: personal email, business email, Bottlehead forum, etc. Even though I did not think I was not interested at the moment by the content of many posts, their content got me thinking about aspects of audio construction or theory that I never would have considered looking up specifically. My wife calls it tangential thinking; I call it relaxation. It is very hard to do the same thing on the current forum; too many divisions that cannot be viewed (easily) as a whole on a daily basis. I would suggest that you have a section for all daily posts irrespective of content. They could be deleted after a given period of time, one day, two days or whatever.