Forum Improvements
Submitted: Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
ThreadID:
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Replies:
17
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13
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ExplorOz Team - David
Hello All,It is really excellent to see how
well the
forum has been going lateley, thank you everyone. I want your honest
feedback on how to improve the system. One of the areas that interests me the most is the page dispays, we are currently showing 20 items per page however we are now receiving 10+ questions per day. Should we show more per page or create category headings. I am reluctant to force changes so please tell me how you think it could be improved.Any
feedback on the fourm is most welcome on this thread as we want to make our
forum the best on the net (as if it isn't already).Regards David
Reply By: Tony- Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
David, I think the
forum is fine they way it is. Easy to navigate and find what I'm looking for. Category headings can make finding info/questions a bit harder as they is often more than one category that a question/info could fit into. Also, many postings have more than one question involved. I like the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). I have abandoned other forums because often I will read a question that say, is about a problem with a particular vehicle. Many months later I may have the same problem and want to
check the responses. But what category was it in? Takes too much time to sort through all those headings. This
forum is great - just start at the top and go back through the pages (or use the search engine but that sometimes is a bit of a pain). The present format makes it really easy and quick to
check new postings and reply to those that I may have input for. Anyway, thats my two bobs worth. Keep up the good work!
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Tony,Thanks for that I thought it was pretty good but I was just wondering if others felt the same. Is there something I can do to make the search better as you mentioned it can be a bit of a pain? As we develop the software that runs the site inhouse we can make almost any change. Thanks for the feedbackDavid
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Follow Up By: Justin - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
I agree with Tony - KISS - the current format is fine.
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Reply By: Mark - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Hey David. I reckon 20 per page would be better. I really like the Overlander
Forum as
well, but this covers more camping oriented topics, so it is quite different. Also to try and cut out some of the less genuine posts, we could have usernames and email addresses. And one more idea from Overlander having the posts sorted by date of reply, so the last post replied to goes to the top of the page. Like I said your
forum is great for more camping oriented questions, and your search facility is great.
Cheers.
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Follow Up By: Slunnie - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Yup, I agree fully with you Mark.
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Reply By: Guy North - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
I would welcome 20 listing per page. But each listing should be readable.
I would NOT like to see the format change.
The way it is classified by posting is excellent and would NOT like to see the
LATEST POST or ANSWER to a posting being the first in the
forum.
I am on
forum which have the latest posting or answer to a post and this is bad news
when the thread start to be "hot or very hot".
Then this particular posting tends to claim all the space and NO other subject can any
display space.
In conclusion: the way it is with 20 posts subjects instead of 10.
Guy
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Reply By: Jinki - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
David -
I like the
forum as is - easy to read for an old
grey gal! In fact I like the whole site - enter it each day to
check on road conditions, petrol prices, trek notes, travel diary and the user
forum. It is great to read what others are up to and planning. Hubby and I have gained much from this site. I would say continue to show 20 questions.
Keep up the good work.
Best wishes and Regards Jinki
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Reply By: jono - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
i too would be reluctant to alter the format too much. category headings would (in my view) be a mistake as often i am not looking for a particular topic, but just browsing all issues involved with 4WD'ing. for my money....keep it as is
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Reply By: charl makssi - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
this
forum is fine as is.
well done exploroz team you have the best web site of it's kind as it is comprehensive and very australian that is
well suited to the users.
thanks in advance for your effort
charl makssi
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Reply By: Lizard - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Likewise David - I prefer this format ...
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Reply By: Paul - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
it's perfect the way it is.
by far the the best way to have a
forum.
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Reply By: ExplorOz Team - David - Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thursday, Apr 25, 2002 at 00:00
Thank you everyone. It is sometimes hard for us to know what you guys & gals need. I write this stuff and think it is good for me but we are always want to improve what we have so this is why we ask. At this stage I will make no changes to the
forum and spend some time making the
shop easier to use and more functional.Thanks again David
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Reply By: Steve - Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
Forum is great. My only problem is you cant put paragraph breaks and formatting in the post. Keep up the excellent work, the site is a wealth of info.
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Steve,You can actually insert paragraphs and new lines into the
forum. I just do not advertise this fact. To insert a paragraph put you need to insert the HTML P tag - this means <P>. For a new line use the BR tage <BR>.I do not want the
forum replies to get to long so please use sparingly. All the best David.
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Reply By: Steve - Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
It's fantastic just as it is !! Even if there are a few "emotionals" who think that there is only one kind of 4wd .... they get a bit much with the slanging but as others say... no smoke without fire !!!
Steve- (the real Steve)
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Follow Up By: Steve - Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
Real.....REAL......
Well I just looked in my mirror and I'm here, but you certainly weren't. :)
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Reply By: MALS - Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
David,leave it as is. We love browsing and have learnt so much about topics we would never think to investigate if they were in specific categories.
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Reply By: Bill Church - Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
Friday, Apr 26, 2002 at 00:00
David, the only thing that I'd like changed is the capacity to edit our own posts, even for only 30 or so minutes after submitting them. This allows spelling mistake correction, etc, and also the ability to edit a post if we decide that it's inappropraite etc. Bill
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Follow Up By: Matt - Saturday, Apr 27, 2002 at 00:00
Saturday, Apr 27, 2002 at 00:00
Why dont you add a speeling chequer to the bottom next to submit follow up.
LOL
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Thanks Bill,I will look into this feature - I myself would like to be able to easily edit this data for a period. My only issue is that I do not want to force people to register/
logon to use the system - I can think of a way using session variables and I will look into this ASAP.Thanks David
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Reply By: Slunnie - Saturday, Apr 27, 2002 at 00:00
Saturday, Apr 27, 2002 at 00:00
It would also be nice to have a larger box to write replies in, and also the ability to see other replies when completing your own reply.
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
A larger input box - I will do it. Are you asking for all the details to be shown on the page along with the input areas.David
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Bigger boxes added - Are they now big enough. I also adjusted the fonts for the input boxes. What do you think.David
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Follow Up By: Slunnie - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Hey thanks David, what you have said is correct. It just means if you are responding to a reply or a follow up then you can see the one or ones that you are responding to, rather than typing, then having to copy, look back at the
forum, then repaste your reply. The extra typing space is much appreciated. Regards Slunnie
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Reply By: Jim Robinson - Saturday, Apr 27, 2002 at 00:00
Saturday, Apr 27, 2002 at 00:00
I think it works
well the way it is, you are not limited to particular topics and if you are a member you only see those Q & A's since your last
logon. Regards
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Exactly Jim,Thanks for the member system plug. For those of you that are not members please consider were the income comes from to make ExplorOz what it is. Most of it comes from David and Michelle's back pocket and our seemily unlimited (yeah right) time. Please consider becoming a member and not only will the system be easier for you to use but you will be helping us keep this system to best online 4WD resource for
Australia on the net.Regards David
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Reply By: alreadytaken69 - Sunday, Apr 28, 2002 at 00:00
Sunday, Apr 28, 2002 at 00:00
yup, great
forum. about the only change I'd make is before a post/reply/follow-on is accepted, a valid email/name is used and checked (if thats possible?)(for obvious reasons lately)
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Email addressing checking is possible but will have a performance impact. I can improve the checking and make sure the domain name is valid without to much fuss. I will attempt to do this ASAP.Thanks David
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Reply By: Peter - Monday, Apr 29, 2002 at 00:00
Monday, Apr 29, 2002 at 00:00
G'day all! My 2 cents worth is this. Can current (or hot) topics be sorted by "last entry date", thus keeping what is grabbing peoples attention to the fore and current. This gives people the opportunity to find what is new and what is not and should help new users asking common questions. Thank you and Cheers everyone!
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Follow Up By: Exploroz Team - David - Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
Tuesday, Apr 30, 2002 at 00:00
This is a very emotive issue and I think that at this stage I will keep the default format the way it is, however I may add a button to allow you to sort the responses by latest replies. This will provide the data you want and leave the system to way the that the others seem to want.We try to give the best to both worlds here at ExplorOz.Thanks for the input - David
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