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Notice to all! Please read.
I thought i would make this post seeing i have been on here about 3 hours this morning and i am only half way moving, deleting posts…
I started my browse of the boards this morning with the usual need to move a few posts to the appropriate forums. Not a big deal.. But it has to be done most days and starts to become a bit annoying. Anyway..
Kept going one forum to the next, finding older posts as I did it, I couldn’t believe some of the places posts were made..e.g.
“General sign topics” (football, did anyone see the game?)come on.. It only takes a second to click on the general discussion button etc..
It makes life much easier for us all if we don’t have to sift through spam posts, silly subjects & more.
One other thing… if you want a decent amount of replies to your post, how about giving it a proper “title”e.g. title read: (FONT) “placed in BUY-SELL-SWAP”
when I opened the post it says.. “Anyone know what this is?”Replies were zero.. and what do they expect.. If you need help, try asking properly.
67 people viewed the post. I bet some did know what the font was but didn’t bother replying because of the way it was asked.
If you can’t be bothered asking properly, then why should folk bother to help…Anyway.. That’s my Sunday rant out the way..
C’mon folks.. Things are going great on the site. Lets not let it fall to the sloppy
un-kept standards of other sign sites..p.s.
Can I have your opinion on this?
Should I introduce another 1 or two forums to break up the amount of posts in general sign discussion?
There are so many posts on “vinyl” it seems appropriate to introduce a vinyl forum.
If vinyl is all you do & you want to locate all the posts containing vinyl discussion then I would think this the way to go..
General sign topics is 6 pages long, it can only grow & become harder to locate healthy helpful posts…
There are a few other topics continually cropping up also..
What do you think or should I keep it as it is? -
12 Replies
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Hi Rob, I am worried that there are too many forums already and my lame brain can never remember what bit of the forum I have read stuff on, so nowadays I just click on the “last 24 hours” link and browse from there.
Life is just too short 🙄
BTW you are doing a great job lad keep it up. 😀
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Hi Rob,
I think it could be well worth thinking about BUT with so many wrong posts in the forums at present you could be making a rod for your own back.
If you add a forum say ‘vinyl’ and others, it could create a lot of borderline topics for instance; a question concerning vinyl and a backlit sign, would the poster place it in ‘vinyl’ or another forum! Or worst of all both.KISS. There’s a very good search engine on the site for tracing older post.
Please disregard the last ‘S’ 😉
Alan
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no more forums PLEASE!!! – or it’ll start lookin’ like that other site! urgh!:wink:
I also think that more forums just means more confusion…what’s needed is simply more policing. Perhaps it’s time to enquire if anyone else fancies a spell as a moderator – even if it’s just as the ‘Post Police!’ 😎
Everything on site is fab! – this is by far the most professional and the best UK based sign site – period! Like so many, I tend to just follow the ‘most recent posts’ listings and don’t take too much notice of which forum they’re in…unless they’re in one of mine! 😀
Carry on mate! – and if you need any help – then just shout!
more soon
mikethesign
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I agree with you guys.. I too just use the scroll bar to see recent posts or like mike says, the last 24hrs. I think most regulars surf the site this way.
The reason I was thinking this way was for when the site starts getting really congested. Or even for new comers today!
Can you imagine walking into a library for the first time.
You ask the librarian,
“Do you have fly fishing by JR Hartley”?
She replies..
“Oh yes we definitely do!”
You say
“Where do I look”?
She replies..
“Well it’s on the first or second floor.. Just browse those two floors till you find it”😮 😮 😮 😮
yeh right!Like the search engine here, if looking for vinyl, it narrows the posts to a few hundred or even thousand.
But the bulk of those will only contain the word, “vinyl” they won’t actually be discussing how it is applied or the like.
The task seems a bit daunting and we click off the site. Or over look what we really needed.Am I looking into this to far? Someone through some water over me, so I can stop moving these posts and changing titles…
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Rob,
I know this would mean more work for someone but would it be possible to have a ‘FAQ in posts’. (FAQIP) no, I assure you it’s not swearing. 😮
This could be a list of the most common and useful questions, linked to a list of the most useful posts on that topic. It would be like asking the question in the search but much more refined. As a new post came along that proved really useful a link could be added to the appropriate question in the ‘FAQ in posts’.
Just a thought?
Alan
Ps.
You could have a limited number of links to each question, once it reached its limit a better thread would replace the least useful.
Also threads could be cross linked if they answered more than one question. -
Dare I suggest that this problem of ‘finding stuff that’s gone before’ is a common one which all sites face sooner rather than later.
I remember me and Rob having a conversation about this many moons ago and that one idea was to simply ‘edit’ all posts after each 30 day period to remove the chitchat and leave the core information. The problem with this is the sheer effort such cataloguing takes in just one thirty day period!
Most of us don’t mind chatting over stuff again and again – over time that is! – but if we could ‘distill’ the most valuable information it would be another massive benefit to this site and one which would reflect our status as the UK’s No.1 Signmaking site for both comment and reference alike!
I do edit my own forums regularly. I clarify title descriptions, delete incidental posts, compress images to reduce page loading times, shorten reviews and comments made about them and so on. Hopefully, this will ensure they remain focussed, concise and rewarding to browse.
I can’t help feeling that at the end of the day – this type of stuff is well worth it – BUT – it takes a lot of man hours to maintain! You may not be able to do it on your own Rob…perhaps we need a few ‘librarians’?
more soon
mikethesign
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I have a similar problem with my Boxing Forum Rob and have taken the view that too many sections would limit the number of viewings which is my selling point. I don’t have many registered users, nor do those that register post on a regular basis, some not at all, but the viewings are pretty healthy.
I add sections to see if there is any interest and then remove them and the posts to a more general section as I find that nearly everyone wants to read everything anyway! (hot)
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Hey Rob,
I’m with the others here. Keep it simple mate. I log on every morning and you’re almost always logged on. With our time difference it’s got to be too much for you.It’s a brilliant site with great people. Lots of info for everyone. you have to make some allowances for newbies to search for things on their own. We all have to take responsibility for our own search for knowledge. So I for one always use the search engine before asking questions, I think others have to do the same.
I’m sure you could find some trusted volunteers to help out if it gets too much without you losing control. Have a think about it.
This has gone for me from just a good source of information to a community who I like to “keep in touch with” even just by reading posts. You guys in the UK have the financial benefits that being a member has. What a great thing.
Lee
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My point is proven…It’s 10 am here (GMT + 7hrs) and you’re logged on.
Get thee to bed…
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I have to agree with leeroy,
Not enough people use the search engine. There are questions that come up time and time again but with a little search those could be found.
I also think there can be times when topics loose track, and these do need to be pruned down so the revevant information is easy to see.
Everyone can do their part by using the subject line to better effect
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Whatever.
But I do think it important to learn that the plural of forum is FORA.
😀 😀 😀
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Rob
Why don’t you make a copy of the commonest asked questions instead of deleting them and offer it for sale to new members (as part of the joining). It would prevent a lot of questions being repeated.
Sometimes when browsing I make a mental note of a particular post I am interested in only to lose it after three hours of reading other posts.
It would be a valuable source of information.Just an idea.
Keith
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