Old Versus New Forum

[dwhite]

At least a couple of comments have been noted that the new forum is not as easy to use as the old CVRS forum before the website change, or as user-friendly as forums on other websites. Could anyone who has opinions or suggestions about this issue, please post them and elaborate? We are not sure about the features we should be looking at.

Don

[Ed Stone]

Good idea to have this thread in the Suggestions Box Don. While I have had no real issues with the new-style forum, it seems a little slower than the old one (response times when accessing a topic etc). The functionality seems top be there, except maybe not as intuitive as some other forums – just takes a little getting used to.

[Gerry O’Hara]

The forum seems to have a faster response time these days – not sure if there have been some changes to the software or hosting, but it definitely seems ‘nippier’!

[phil]

sadly this forum is down to a handful of posters and the post count has fallen to the point where it could easily be followed in one thread. Not sure of the statistic but it is obviously not being used much anymore. There really isn’t need for a whole bunch of forums and sub forums since very few people use it anyway. I suggest we strip it down to one page unless readership supports the need for a bunch of categories.
It was a lot of work to get it going on PHPbb and to try to encourage it’s use and the forum could be a way to unite the CVRS on a national level.
what can be done to encourage members to use the forum more?

[phil]

I think that at this point we should seriously consider going back to PHPBB the readership has really fallen off and I think a lot of the reason is this software. I have been a participant in another non radio forum and that was started about a year ago. It is running on PHPbb with updates and the webmaster on that forum isn’t having the issues I did with false sign ins or spam. We lost most of the activity once it was ported over to wordpress and the forum is really crucial to the communications of the CVRS, especially for those not near enough to attend meetings.

[John Bartley]

I would have to ask why the forum doesn’t have the most common feature of all … “view posts since last visit”. In every other forum that I read (one radio forum, one woodworking forum and one skidoo forum) the “posts since last visit” button is the one I use to navigate my way into the forum. It just makes life easier. I guess that the other feature that goes with the “new posts” button is the button the takes you to the first unread post in a thread.

cheers

John

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by John Bartley.

[phil]

the forum starts with the forum software which could be free or paid software, then one has to work within the features supported by the software maker. Usually there are features that can be added by updating code that exists on the server.

as features are added it complicates the code and if features are added it can fix issues but also by entering into various combinations it sometimes presents possible issues because although the base software is tested and made stable, the various combinations of features added may or may not work together as expected.

Generally updates become available to modernize features and to prevent issues, also there are features that may be added.

to gather more info you may be able to go to the forums that you like, and observe what software it is running on, then you can check with the software company and find out what updates are available.

one way to find out a little is to open a particular forum , then right click and choose “view source”
that will being up some code which to the novice may seem like Gibberish. If it’s a simple HTML page you may be able to understand it better but for ecxample I just did that on this website and copied this line out

<!– This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v3.0.7 – https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/ –>

this is a note, it is omitted from the actual code by the brackets. it gives the website for the Yost plugin and if you go to that website and dig around you can learn more about Yost.

another forum you like may be running on completely different software and to expect the web developer to import features that you like may or may not be possible.

I’m certainly no web developer or even a good webmaster because I don’t have the training to support this. For this reason Im not the best choice to be webmaster. its better that torch is carried by someone more qualified. I think it’s also important that the person who is at the controls also checks in on the forum to manage and communicate with readers about it’s continual development.

Im not saying this is what has happened with this forum but I know of others where a webmaster started the forum and didn’t have time or devotion to not only start the forum but to fix issues that users reported. One that I frequent got into a situation where the person who created it became unavailable. It got overrun by spam. The only way that the users could fix it was to elect someone to create a new forum and manage it and then everyone jumped ship to the new forum. That particular one is running very successfully on phpBB but it also has a web developer that knows a lot more than I do and who is devoted to communicating about the software and fixing issues or adding features as requested.

The CVRS has paid some professionals to redesign the website and to manage the forum. the CVRS has somewhat limited funds to spend on web development but it does have a positive balance. other than some investment in professional website help, most involved with administering the CVRS are kind volunteers with interest in the society that wish to see it succeed and continue.

Most on the forum are quite computer savy but when you speak to the people at various meetings they may or may not even be involved in the forum. My take was that even those who were not using the forum did seem to recognize how important it is to have a forum and website especially since the CVRS is so widespread physically.

It would be impossible to get everyone int he CVRS around a single table to even discuss. Some still benefit even if they can’t use a computer. They still may be able to ask a friend to post for help with parts, or it may help encourage others to be informed of meetings for example.

Other than the kind of help that the forum is normally used for , it also is an avenue for the person in a northern town to be involved and have some say in decisions that affect the CVRS. If they are so inclined there are many ways to volunteer their help, To some that may be helping others with parts and info to help with projects. Others send in articles for the newsletter. To some the CVRS is all about personal relationships at local meetings. all the members contribute through paying their share of the membership fees. Sometimes radios are donated and auctioned with proceeds to the CVRS and even those that are just a member wanting to sell some radios contribute by making them available.

Phil

[phil]

I don’t really understand why all the formatting like line spaces get lost. I tried to make the above more legible but as soon as I hit post all my line spacing gets lost.

[Gary Albach]

Hi all – as the unofficial ‘project manager’ for the project to refresh our CVRS website, this is a good opportunity for me to introduce myself, give a brief report on the project and where it stands, and collect your input on the current site, including the Forums.

To avoid potential confusion, and to make future posts easy to find, I have started a new thread entitled ‘CVRS Website Refreshment Project’ in which I’m hoping we can discuss not only improvements to the Forum but also the website in general.

Please meet me at the new thread ‘CVRS Website Refreshment Project’ and I will try to present an overview of where we stand.

Cheers,
Gary

[Author]

Posts