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This topic contains 21 replies, has 13 voices, and was last updated by  martinc 5 years, 6 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 22 total)
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  • #74214

    Boris
    Keymaster

    Hello everyone.

    As you have probably noticed I’ve been busy this evening finally getting a few things sorted out with our forums. I hope you all like the changes I’ve made. These include:

    • New forumsEvents, Off-topic and Housekeeping (note topics posted to these last two are not automatically tweeted.
    • Improved spam protection – new registrations are now subject to a human check and verified against stopforumspam.com. Also you will notice a new Report button under each post. Please use this if you suspect spam.
    • Reply button – You will notice under each post there is a reply button that will auto-insert some handy code in your post to indicate who and what you are replying to. You may wish to use this in conjunction with the quote button.
    • @ links to user profiles – Mentions of usernames using the twitter format – eg @Boris are now automatically linked to that users forum profie
    • Polls – You can now create a poll when creating a new topic. I’ve added one to this topic so please vote and try it out.

    These forums have been phenomenally successful. In just 2 months it’s had over 23,000 absolute unique visitors and currently averages 1000+ uniques per day. The average time spent on the forums by each of these unique visitors is more than 6 minutes per day.

    This popularity is because of you and your willingness to help your fellow boris bikers. Thank you!

    Please let me know if you have any other ideas or suggestions to help improve these forums and I will see what I can do.

    Happy BB’ing,

    Boris.

    Don't forget to add your own signature! 1) Click your name in the top left (under Home once logged in) 2) Click Edit link on the left menu 3) Fill in "Your Forum Signature" 4) Click Update Profile
    #79637

    djc
    Participant

    Poll: how do I vote then… ah need to log in first: but why no link to login?

    #79638

    Boris
    Keymaster

    Replying to @djc‘s post:

    Not so easy to add a log in link, but looks like you got it worked out.

    Don't forget to add your own signature! 1) Click your name in the top left (under Home once logged in) 2) Click Edit link on the left menu 3) Fill in "Your Forum Signature" 4) Click Update Profile
    #79639

    Cathryn
    Participant

    Very nice, though I think I’d like to be able to see the hot topics list on its own, rather than having to scroll halfway down the page.

    Many, many thanks for all your work in setting up and running this. I’m on a couple of times a day,and its good to chat to other boris bikers, so much appreciated.

    #79640

    Trikeman
    Participant

    All good stuff.

    One extra thing I’d like: when you subscribe to a thread and click the link, it just takes you to the top of page one of the thread. Is it possible to have this link be instead to new posts (ie. same as if we clicked in the Freshness column)?

    #79641

    oysterbikes
    Participant

    Can you add the last poster back to the list of topics on the front page?

    #79642

    djc
    Participant

    Replying to @oysterbikes‘s post:

    Seconded. Didn’t understand at first but now I realise I can’t work out which threads I’ve already read up to date without the last poster’s name.

    #79643

    terry
    Participant

    I said this on another thread – but is it possible to have a “news” or “press” forum? News often doesn’t fit under the love/hate/etc categories.

    #79644

    chrispmatthews
    Participant

    yep, last poster please put back. Otherwise great!! :D

    #79645

    BrigitteBardotBikes
    Participant

    what chris said.

    #79646

    Dan Thomas
    Participant

    Some phpBB style forum’ing would be nice – people are familiar with it, it works… and has more features, like thread subscription

    #79647

    Boris
    Keymaster

    Thanks for the feedback everyone. Keep it coming! Here’s my response so far:

    Replying to @Cathryn‘s post:

    Quote:
    …I think I’d like to be able to see the hot topics list on its own, rather than having to scroll halfway down the page.

    I swapped the Forum Lists and Last Discussion around to emphasise the new forums categories. My thinking is that as this forum grows the latest discussion list becomes less relevant as members my wish to go directly into the forum that they are interested in – eg Data. Maybe I’ve got this wrong, lets see how it goes and maybe I’ll swap it back if it doesn’t work out.

    Replying to @benlovejoy’s post:

    Quote:
    …when you subscribe to a thread and click the link, it just takes you to the top of page one of the thread. Is it possible to have this link be instead to new posts (ie. same as if we clicked in the Freshness column)?

    Ben, not 100% sure what you mean. If you are referring to link in the email notification sent when a “favourite-ed” thread is updated, then it’s not that simple to change. I can have a go at updating the code down the track when I have a little spare time.

    Replying to @oysterbikes‘s post:

    Quote:
    Can you add the last poster back to the list of topics on the front page?

    Done. In fact, I think I’ve improved it. Instead of taking two columns (last poster and freshness) I have now combined them into one Last Post column. This add some extra space between posts making it easier to read.

    Hope this appeals to everyone.

    Replying to @Dan Thomas’s post:

    Quote:
    Some phpBB style forum’ing would be nice – people are familiar with it, it works… and has more features, like thread subscription

    I did consider phpBB and vbulletin but decided on bbPress for it’s simple clean interface that I think appeals to people who are not regular forum contributors. Despite the simple appearance of bbPress it is actually surprisingly powerful and flexible.

    You can subscribe to threads. I have the post notification plugin installed. You just need to click the “Add this topic to your favourites” link at the top of the page and make sure “Favourite Notification” is set to active in your profile. I might do a post explaining this with some screen shots.

    Replying to @terry‘s post:

    Quote:
    I said this on another thread – but is it possible to have a “news” or “press” forum? News often doesn’t fit under the love/hate/etc categories.

    I will add this, but before I do I would like some more feedback for everyone. Should I rename the Love and Hate forums? What would be better and more appropriate? Are there anymore suggestions for new forums?

    Don't forget to add your own signature! 1) Click your name in the top left (under Home once logged in) 2) Click Edit link on the left menu 3) Fill in "Your Forum Signature" 4) Click Update Profile
    #79648

    Trikeman
    Participant
    Quote:
    Ben, not 100% sure what you mean. If you are referring to link in the email notification sent when a “favourite-ed” thread is updated, then it’s not that simple to change. I can have a go at updating the code down the track when I have a little spare time.

    Yep, that’s what I mean. Understood that it’s not simple – I’m a reasonable man, I’m prepared to give you 20 mins or so. :D

    #79649

    radii8
    Participant

    Just one more to add, it would be good if the “edit” “reply” buttons were not so close together… I keep reading them as “edit reply” as if they were one and end up replying to myself (duh)

    #79650

    terry
    Participant

    Would it be possible to make the background of the “sticky” titles at the top a paler colour? I find that instead of standing out, they are in fact a bit difficult to read and easily ignored.

    The background colour surrounding this text entry box and/or that of every alternate comment in a post is pretty good.

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