| Author | Message | ||
     Stryder |
I'd like to see a real web forum instead of a BBS type format. Of course I'm sure this will be met by jeers and cat-calls from the old timers here that are used to it but I've often given up here just because it's so hard to navigate (read: different than most web forums). | ||
| Blake |
What is a "real web forum"? Do you use the "Search" - "Registered Users:" - "Messages since I last searched for new messages: " option? It is by far the easiest, simplest way to browse any web forum I've ever seen. | ||
| Stryder |
"What is a "real web forum"?" Oh look, I made it 6 minutes before someone misses my point. :-) I mean a real threaded forum where I can look at a title like "New to Buells, question about aftermarket clip-ons" and know exactly what it is and whether I want to read it. This is a BBS or for those that don't remember a real BBS it's more an email trail than anything else. It's not threaded although there are a few different sections that hope to keep things sane. "Do you use the "Search" - "Registered Users:" - "Messages since I last searched for new messages: " option? It is by far the easiest, simplest way to browse any web forum I've ever seen." No, but I am trying to learn it. My point is that you have a few styles of real threaded web forums and they all look almost the same. Then I come here and it's completely different. I have to re-learn things. It's not an email list but it reads like one except I have to go to a web page to read it. It's not unlike the XL-List web interface but even that's threaded. Don't get me wrong, I've hosted, admin-ed and moderated web forums. I know all the "if you don't like it you can have your money back" arguments. This area was for posting desired improvements. If I and others that believe phpBB is better (as an example) post then maybe someone might think that is a valid "upgrade". If all that ever gets done is bashing other people's opinions then there's not much sense in having an area asking for opinions, is there? You just never know how many people you lose because this is so different than all other interfaces. I see allot of very nice additions here but all of them that I have seen so far are things that are part and parcel of even the most basic (and free) forum software. Just MHO of course. | ||
| Davegess |
Personally I find this to be a pretty easy forum to naviagate and the Search function is a big part of that. I use a few others, like American Thunderbike, and really dont' like them. | ||
| Stryder |
Yes there are worse and yes, some like this. I just saw a place asking for suggestions and I made one.  It's not meant to be a slam on the maintainers of this code... I've done it. I just think most of the work everyone is doing could be handled more easily (and in a more familiar manner to veteran forum users) by using a Forum instead of a BBS. | ||
| Outrider |
Please don't change the BWB and make it like those other Buell oriented websites. This is the only one I have found that has recognizable organization and makes any sense. | ||
| Blake |
Lee (Stryder), Welcome to participation on BadWeB. Maybe I need to clarify my point... It's not that I "missed [your] point." It is that I don't understand your statement. It makes absolutely no sense to me. As admin of the site and frequenter of a number of other web forums, I have no clue what you are talking about. Still don't. You might try looking around the forum before asking that it be reorganized on a grand scale, and then you might want to explain so I can understand what exactly you are proposing. I have no idea what you are proposing. Can you provide a link to a forum that exemplifies the format which you are proposing? FYI: This forum consists of tens of thousands of individual discussion threads and hundreds of thousands of individual posts. Last month BadWeB served up no less than 65GB of content to thousands of Buell enthusiasts the world over. The site in no way resembles a simple linear single-thread BBS as you seem to be implying. At least not in any way I can imagine. BadWeB before it was "BadWeB" did start out as a BBS and before that a mere email list. That lasted for about six months back in 1998. Ever since then we've been a combination linear topic (General Discussion Board) formats and thread based (Quick Board, XBoard, Thumper Forum, Old School Buell, Knowledge Vault...) formats. | ||
| Stryder |
Okay, fair enough. Maybe it's because I didn't know enough about the subject to be able to post in one of the areas you say is more threaded. I chose "General" (as does I'm sure 99% of the newcomers here) because it's the only one I knew for sure fit. Looking at the Quick Board, XBoard, etc., that's what I think the General board or forum should be. That sort of threaded approach seems more logical and "at home" to me. Maybe there's a reason you have it like this. Even so, if I stayed in the other thread based forums, would I miss out on stuff in here as people tend to stay in the General areas? See what I mean? Someone else posted about the archives being on top of the pages. That too confused me. I went to where I thought I would see posts and saw those. I thought I was in the wrong place. Lots of folks don't scroll down if it doesn't look right. You could call it lazy or stupid I guess but presentation is everything. Also, I notice that you do now have functionality built in to link to a specific post via the right click thing but it seems that lots of folks that read here don't use it, they use what's in the address bar. I ended up here once based on a post in another forum/list and damned if I could find the information we were talking about so I left. I might have been the best, most helpful mechanic and tuner in the world (believe me I'm not) and just left because it made no sense. You do agree I'm sure that lots of forums get new business via Google searches and posts in other forums. Speaking of Google, your layout is frames and even though I saw a way to enter without the frames your main entry points point only to the frame presentation. This means that Google or other crawlers will never find great information that might bring some good folks in. Maybe that's by design or maybe not. I'm not asking that it be reorganized on a grand scale, at least not on my say so of all things. I'm just saying that as a new user it was very confusing (still is for that matter) but I don't feel that same confusion on a phpBB forum for instance. It would be a shame to lose potential contributors just because of that. Did that make more sense? By the way, thanks for taking the time to discuss this with me. It show allot of class and reading my original post I can see where I was misunderstood and it could have been taken as inflammatory. I never meant that to be the case. | ||
| R1DynaSquid |
I think the entire board is fine as is...except for 1 thing I would like to see. If a particular thread gets moved down the list over the course of a few days & ends up being archived, I would like it so that if someone posts into that thread it moves back up into the current topics instead of just being flagged as having a new post in it. | ||
| Cj_xb |
It would be a shame to lose potential contributors just because of that. This forum consists of tens of thousands of individual discussion threads and hundreds of thousands of individual posts. Last month BadWeB served up no less than 65GB of content to thousands of Buell enthusiasts the world over. I believe Badweb doesn't lose too many potential contributors at all, given the info above, they ask, they figure it out and stay. And the search feature for "messages since last post" is the best thing since sliced bread, once you get the hang of that, you'll miss NOTHING !! CJ | ||
| Blake |
Greg, Me too. I believe that is slated for the next major upgrade to Discus. I hope! I also hope the archives transform from a list of subtopics to a small line of numerical page links as does UBB. Then we'd absolutely have the end-all beat all of discussion forums. Sounds like Lee is on board and cookin with fire. I knew he'd come up to speed quickly. I should probably make the new messages page the forum home page or put more admonishments to use it throughout the board and in the registration process. <sigh> I'll get right on that.  | ||
| Blake |
CJ, Yeah, then I saw Lee's response and deleted it. | ||
| Cj_xb |
 | ||
| Josh_ |
>I ended up here once based on a post in another forum/list and damned if I could find the information we were talking about so I left. Often what happens is there are pictures in the thread. When you follow the link you arrive centered on the post in your browser window - before the pictures download. After a couple of 640x480 shots of someones dyno charts open you're scrolling trying to figure out what you came for. | ||
| Xb9er |
I have to agree with Stryder. The Badweb is totally different from what you run into these days. I would like to see it updated to a threaded web forum also. I think that the typical forums out there now are easier to navigate. I would bet they are easier to manage as well. Stryder obviously knows more about this than I do so I would like to see what specific changes he recommends and what software he would suggest. As far as good examples, look at the Drummer forums www.kdfab.com or www.phpbb.com The archive system is not good at all as R1DynaSquid said. Why not do pages the way they do on Sacborg or most other web forums. Mike. (Message edited by xb9er on September 15, 2004) | ||
| Evaddave |
Since the "Messages since I last searched for new messages" feature is so useful (I use it all the time), can you move it to the top of the search form? Also, you might want to promote that feature on the intro text on the "About The Bad Weather Bikers" topic. Based on Josh_'s comment above: When images are uploaded in posts, is it possible to have the badweb server figure out the width & height and put that in the <img> tag? That way, when clicking on a message in the Search Results list, you're more likely to go to the right spot in the thread? (I realize there's nothing that can be done about remotely hosted images.) Dave | ||
| Blake |
Mike (Xb9er), I must be an idiot, cause I don't see a big difference between the examples you posted and BadWeB. Yes we have a few serially formatted topics, like this one, but we have plenty of thread based ones too (Knowledge Vault, XBoard, Thumper Forum, Old School Buell, Tale Section, Quick Board). What am I missing? I already commented on the clumsy archiving of Discus. However, one feature of Discus that is superior to UBB archiving is Discus doesn't wipe the entire page, it leaves the last 10 posts (or however many I tell it to) and only archives the previous 30 (or however many I tell it to). That is a huge help in keeping users from being forced to open a bunch of archived pages and it prevents the posts just prior to archiving of the page from being missed by others. Yes, as stated above, I hope to see the UBB style numbered page links implemented instead of the cumbersome subtopic style listings we now have. If you use the new messages utility, it isn't an issue as you are taken directly to the post of interest. Unless you run into a bunch of pictures on the page. Dave, The only way I know to prevent a bunch of pictures from goofing up a targeted post page loading is to set your browser to not display pictures. Or... you could simply refresh the page after it initially loads. It should then jump to the correct post. Great suggestions guys, keep it up. One thing everyone should keep in mind is that switching to another discussion forum software would be a HUGE undertaking and we would likely lose a bunch of content. I think barring some really really good reason to change from Discus that we are best served sticking with it. Discus does offer a nearly infinite range of customizability though. For instance this style of "Tables" formatting of the pages is very file size intensive. In MSIE if you right click on a discussion page and choose "View Source" and scroll down until you come to the posts, you'll see a ton of repeated table formatting code. To save on bandwidth I might revert to the old style non-tables format. Whatcha think? | ||
| Blake |
BTW, y'all apparently missed the 1st paragraph at the top of the page. ![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) | ||
| Xb9er |
Blake. The check is in the mail.  No, you're not an idiot. You're just "old school." By the way, with tabbed browsing in Mozilla Firefox, this site is easier for me to deal with. You should try Firefox if you haven't already. Mike. | ||
| Tripper |
old school is good. old school Buells, and old school minds. It's refreshing to see a new attendee take a serious interest. |
