Design of the Forum

[vvill]

I’m familiar and happy with the vBulletin system – I think it generally works pretty well. I do think there’s rarely a case for sub-forums. Multiple boards are fine but once you get into having sub-levels it’s too much taxonomy.

@cyclingfool 97994 wrote:

“site:bikearlingtonforum.com” plus keywords in a Google search tend to get me in the ballpark pretty fast. That said, I agree it’s unfortunate the native search isn’t more robust.

Yeah, this is what I use for searching just about anything.

[mstone]

The worst thing about the software behind this forum is that it doesn’t remember what you’ve actually read. You can get a “what’s new” list, but that’s measured from the last time you visited, not what’s unread. So it’s really hard to just read a couple of things and then go back later and read other things that haven’t been read yet.

As far as a calendar, I think it would only be a positive feature if someone were going to curate it. Otherwise it would just end up looking sad and nobody would bother checking it.

[DCAKen]

@mstone 97997 wrote:

The worst thing about the software behind this forum is that it doesn’t remember what you’ve actually read. You can get a “what’s new” list, but that’s measured from the last time you visited, not what’s unread. So it’s really hard to just read a couple of things and then go back later and read other things that haven’t been read yet.

As far as a calendar, I think it would only be a positive feature if someone were going to curate it. Otherwise it would just end up looking sad and nobody would bother checking it.

What I’ve noticed is that if I’m signed onto the forum but not active on the page for a while (15 or 20 minutes), it will mark everything as “read”, even posts I haven’t opened yet. It may be the way I have my browser set up, where I don’t reload from the cache when using the back button, but that’s the only annoyance I’ve had.

[Drewdane]

@arlrider 97966 wrote:

I personally wish that this forum would have a little more division by topic. Generally (pun intended), everything ends up in “general discussion”. It’s OK now where in absolute terms there aren’t that many posts, but if membership grows it could be a bit unwieldy.

MMDV – My Mileage Definitely Varies. I don’t like forums that are broken down into zillions of specialized sub-forums.

[PotomacCyclist]

One major plus for this forum is the absence of regular software updates and overhauls. So many websites, forums and software providers overhaul everything on a regular schedule, no matter how complex the task and no matter how much it breaks all of the basic functions of the site or software. On other forums, these updates can sometimes cause so many problems that it’s almost impossible to use even basic features like forum posts. (We see the problems that operating system updates can cause, on computers and on smartphones.) A lot of those site/software supervisors appear to like change just for the sake of change. Or they are trying to stay flashy and hip. Or something like that.

So a big thumbs up to keeping this a nice and stable forum. There have been occasional hiccups, but those generally get resolved quickly. (There was one weekend when the site was down, but not too bad over a 5 or 6 year period.) It’s nice to know that this forum works nearly all the time, and that the entire site isn’t being completely redesigned every year. Stability is good when it comes to forums and other communication/information outlets. Minor changes don’t bother me, because those don’t appear to break entire websites.

[americancyclo]

I’ll add that I get frustrated when I try to search a three letter term such as “WOD”, “CCT”, “air”, or “psi” since the native search ignores terms shorter than four letters.

As a solution, I like the idea of integrating the vbulletin google search, at least until I can remember to just use the google site search.

I noticed recently now I can see ‘likes’ on tapatalk, which is great, but I thought I would be able to give ‘likes’ as well. Doesn’t seem to be the case.

Can we implement that feature? I realize it might be a limitation of our software or tapatalk’s software.

[arlrider]

@Tim Kelley 97967 wrote:

So what’s your suggestion?

My suggestion was simply that the sub-fora better align with what people actually talk about. There are lots of recurring themes in the general forums that could be their own.

-Cycling-related policy
-Cycling etiquette
-Cycling news

Etc.

Like I said right now, the forum is fine for the current level of activity. If it got busier then at some point it would need to be split, I’d think.

[jrenaut]

I browse the forum almost exclusively using the “new posts” link. Conversation here doesn’t tend to stay categorized within forums or even within threads, so I’m skeptical that more sub-forums (is it really sub-fora? English is such a stupid language) will be much benefit.

Obviously others browse differently, though, and adding more categories won’t make my experience worse, so I don’t object.

[cyclingfool]

@jrenaut 98065 wrote:

I browse the forum almost exclusively using the “new posts” link. Conversation here doesn’t tend to stay categorized within forums or even within threads, so I’m skeptical that more sub-forums (is it really sub-fora? English is such a stupid language) will be much benefit.

Obviously others browse differently, though, and adding more categories won’t make my experience worse, so I don’t object.

I’m the same way. Unless I’m starting a new thread, it’s “New Posts” for me.

@jrenaut 98065 wrote:

sub-forums (is it really sub-fora? Latin is such a stupid language

Also, FTFY.

[rcannon100]

@arlrider 98063 wrote:

My suggestion was simply that the sub-fora better align with what people actually talk about.

That really has more to do with the author of posts than the design of the forum. People seem to just post every blather everywhere – and others regularly hijack threads regularly with their own posts. It’s awful, awful I tell you.

BTW the black fur puppy and the white chest brindle are still available for adoption.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6917[/ATTACH]

It’s just terrible how people are regularly hijacking threads and seemingly put any information anywhere.

[jrenaut]

Latin is dead, and clearly for good reason, so I won’t disparage it (further). English is alive and kicking and has really earned the criticism.

[rcannon100]

DismalScientist disliked this post

No, no, no. That’s Steve O’s job.

[PotomacCyclist]

“Latin is a language / Dead as dead can be / First it killed the Romans / Now it’s killing me.”

[PotomacCyclist]

@rcannon100 98068 wrote:

That really has more to do with the author of posts than the design of the forum. People seem to just post every blather everywhere – and others regularly hijack threads regularly with their own posts. It’s awful, awful I tell you.

BTW the black fur puppy and the white chest brindle are still available for adoption.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6917[/ATTACH]

It’s just terrible how people are regularly hijacking threads and seemingly put any information anywhere.

Their names are Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian, Eddy and Bernard.

[dkel]

@PotomacCyclist 98072 wrote:

Their names are Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian, Eddy and Bernard.

Rockford and I just adopted a new puppy; her name is Mothra (or Mosura, if you prefer the Japanese pronunciation).

[Author]

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