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Viewing The OD Forum

(18 posts)

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  1. Sean
    Founding Member

    After some discussion in another thread where a few comments brought up the fact that some people might not look at the forum directly but only view the latest 10 posts on the OD home page got me thinking a new thread was in order to discuss this and my personal feelings about it. Only looking at the front page to see what's going on with the OD forum is sort of a bad idea since you only get a snap shot of what's going on with the community, basically the latest 10 active posts. Here's an example of why I feel this is a bad idea. Lets say post #11, #12 or even #20 which would be off the home page might have something really important needing attention or someone needing some help, etc but it was pushed off the top 10 on the home page with other threads getting more comments or a lot of new threads being posted. That's not good. Of course some would say show more posts on the home page. Ok, so were do we draw the line? 15 posts? 20? 100? That could possibly make the home page really cluttered and you still might miss posts that were just behind the set limit for the home page display. Bottom line, it takes only a few seconds to click forum in the navigation to look. Taking a few seconds out of your busy day/night to look directly at the forum could help save the day for a designer, template user, etc. Thoughts?
    Posted 2 years ago #

  2. SquirrelNmoose
    Member

    The forum doesn't seem busy enough to feel the necessity of checking further than the home page. I try to check in once a day, but if I don't I certainly don't feel like I missed anything. and usually can pick up where I left off only a few posts down.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  3. Dean
    Member

    It could cause people to start bumping threads if they've had no response. Why even have the posts on the front page? I don't use them as I use the main forum index. If they were to stay, I'd get rid of the last post by bit, and make the text a little smaller so you can double the amount on there.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  4. null
    Member

    Posted By: SeanOnly looking at the front page to see what's going on with the OD forum is sort of a bad idea since you only get a snap shot of what's going on with the community, basically the latest 10 active posts.
    Sean, it's a good idea actually. I don't want a detailed look, I want a snapshot. I'm lazy, I don't like to click if I don't have to. I often have 10 or more sites on the go at once and I don't hang around those that make me navigate too much. I like everything concisely summarised on the first page - OD does that pretty well. I visit daily and there's no need for me to look beyond the first page. I agree, the forum isn't that busy. OD takes a lot longer to load than other sites - I don't navigate around the site unless I have to. I guess it's that old '3 second rule' when people visit websites. Pete
    Posted 2 years ago #

  5. Sean
    Founding Member

    @DeanStev: So far in almost 2 years OD has been online, thread bumping hasn't been too much of an issue. Having the latest 10 threads shown on the home page was done to help strike some interest in the forums. I'm like you, I do look at the home page but I also look at the forum main index while logged in so I can visually see what threads have new comments, or new posts that don't show on the home page.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  6. icyone
    Member

    my bookmark is only set to forum then I randomly check the front page
    Posted 2 years ago #

  7. Sean
    Founding Member

    Posted By: perthmetro Sean, it's a good idea actually. I don't want a detailed look, I want a snapshot. I'm lazy, I don't like to click if I don't have to. I often have 10 or more sites on the go at once and I don't hang around those that make me navigate too much. I like everything concisely summarised on the first page - OD does that pretty well. I visit daily and there's no need for me to look beyond the first page. I agree, the forum isn't that busy. OD takes a lot longer to load than other sites - I don't navigate around the site unless I have to.
    @Pete: I agree that a snap shot is good and I am not suggesting we have more forum detail on the home page, however there could be some good posts that are not even shown on the home page if they get bumped down a little. Maybe kick up your 3 second rule to maybe 5 or 6 seconds from time to time and click the forum link once in a while to see if something exciting is going on. As for OD site load times, we are working on refining some code to help with this, however it does seem that vanilla is the main issue with bottle necks on load times so far, but that's for another thread discussion.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  8. SquirrelNmoose
    Member

    Or if you keep track of threads viewed you can give the registered users a count of how many new posts, like other types of forums.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  9. Matt-Kern
    Member

    >> I visit daily and there's no need for me to look beyond the first page. Thats pretty much my reason.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  10. Christopher
    Moderator

    The only reason I view /forum/ and not just the homepage is because restricted topics (i.e. admin/moderator only) are only visible to us on the main forum page. Otherwise I'd be just like most of you guys, only viewing the homepage to get an overview of the recent activity.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  11. Sean
    Founding Member

    @Christopher: "what if" the most recent activity goes beyond the 10 threads on the home page? Threads would be missed unless they get bumped.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  12. conartistdesigns
    Member

    a news scroller mabey? but not just that simple somthing more appealing and effecient...
    Posted 2 years ago #

  13. null
    Member

    if the posts go beyond the home page THEN i'll check the forum - it's rare it does though
    Posted 2 years ago #

  14. SeanPollock
    Member

    Yeah I agree this forum isn't active enough for me to view the forum index.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  15. Sean
    Founding Member

    Ok, so the forum isn't super active, however I know from personal experience with a few threads in the past some important things got buried and people missed out. I would highly suggest though, if you are a moderator or a fellow admin, you should at least look directly at the forum index once a day so you can see if something new is posted in the admin/moderator section which does not show up in the latest posts on the home page. For everything thing else, I suppose just looking at the home page is fine.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  16. null
    Member

    I think most of us know how fast the forum moves on the home page so I think it's easy for us regulars to go to the forum page if needed. If anything why not move the latest news to another page and put more recent posts in it's place. the lastest news on the left rarely gets updated and quite frankly contains wrong information! I think the latest news is less relevant than what is posted by admins in the forums - so yeah, i'd have the recent x posts from forums a,b,c on the right and the recent Z posts from forums L,m,n on the left. or maybe not
    Posted 2 years ago #

  17. Sean
    Founding Member

    @pete: Quick question, is the Nulsen Haven site on your OD profile page your website? How about the web design company Sumo listed on the site? I was going to email you via your website off forum, which is why I went to your OD profile page, but the site doesn't look like it's a personal site and I can't find your name on it, so I didn't want to send a message without checking first. Latest news... what information do you consider "wrong information"? I know it hasn't been updated in a long time, so I actually just updated it and will be better about having things in the latest news that we also mention in the forums that's considered OD site specific. Thanks for the nudge on it needing to be updated.
    Posted 2 years ago #

  18. null
    Member

    Nulsen Haven is the mob i work for. The design contest news is wrong, in that it got cancelled, so maybe not 'wrong' but at needing removing or correcting you should have my email from a few months back regarding the paypal api 'thing' (that
    Posted 2 years ago #

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