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AlanLittle	Forum-about-the-Forum	Lead	[-]
Posts: 716 (03/04/03 04:18:31) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Tags : None Not sure if this is the right place for meta-discussion, but at any rate, here's an interesting piece from a software design website about how the design of various kinds of discussion board software affects the tone and quality of the online discussions that take place. Oh, and bandawoman - I'm afraid your subliminal "trying hard" to get me to be the moderator for the Mysore forum hadn't previously registered. Ask me again in a couple of weeks - am in the middle of moving house (trying to build kitchen units and simultaneously prevent pregnant girlfriend from carrying heavy boxes around in the rest of the apartment - very taxing). Should have DSL at the new place shortly and then I'll think about it.
bandawoman	Re: Forum-about-the-Forum	#1	[-]
Posts: 2349 (03/04/03 10:05:39) Clearer of Obstacles Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Thanks Alan, it's really not a lot of work, just keeping things in their place and zapping the SPAM like that hartsion thing that's on every forum, sending old moldy topics to the Ghats if you feel their time is spent but someone may still benefit from the information at some point down the line. The meta forum is Newcomer, but I'll leave this here till you can find it. And I hope your move is as easy as it can be (it's never really easy). DSL at home, yeah!
bandawoman	Question on organization	#2	[-]
Posts: 2349 (04/28/03 04:46:15) Clearer of Obstacles Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Just want to take a reality check: am I the only one dismayed by clutter in the fora? The beauty of this board vs Yahoo is its organization; you don't have to scroll through thousands of one-off posts before you find what you're looking for. There are established topics which get pulled back to the top of the fourm when someone puts a new post up there so a new post does not get lost. And the older topics are displayed for anyone looking for a specific subject. And if that subject is not covered (which is rarer and rarer), it's easy enough to start a new one in the appropriate forum. The more "stream of consciousness" type posting there is, the more clutter, the more frustrating it becomes to search, so the more repetitive posts reproduce themselves... viscious cycle.Plus some great "old" information gets lost since someone who originally posted a great response/advice/answer a) may no longer be active; or b) does not what to repeat him- or herself. It seems to me that the more redundant topics we have, the harder it is for a user, specifically a new user, to find what they are looking for or add to an established topic. Which is one reason why I have been trying to discourage repetitive posts and put more active moderators on board. I was thinking of putting a sticky on top of each forum to welcome new folks and guide them to scan topics before posting to see if their issue has been covered or if there is an existing topic to which their post pertains, and also to point out that there are multiple pages of posts so what they see on the front page of the forum generally only sctratches the surface of what exists. Especially since few seem to stop here and figure out how to use this board (it can be daunting, I'm sure!) Any feedback or ideas?
DartingLeopard	Re: Question on organization	#3	[-]
Posts: 18 (04/28/03 06:08:57) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	This is just my own opinion, but I prefer a more laid back approach. I'd much rather read people's new thoughts on an old topic in a new series of postings and have two sets of posts than read someone jumping on new (or old) people every time they post something someone wishes they didn't. This is just me, but for me that makes this a less pleasant place. A little bit of flexibility feels more comfortable to me than a structure so insistently rigid that the same point has to be harped on over and over. I'm fine if someone starts another topic on something that was discussed two years ago. And if someone drops in a link to the old discussion as part of the new discussion (for informational purposes rather than to put down the current discussants), that's great, too.
Ahavayoga	Re: Question on organization	#4	[-]
Posts: 582 (04/28/03 06:36:49) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I'm with bandawoman. Redundant topics on Sudra forum and elsewhere are a pain in the neck. And this is from someone who is almost guilty of that "crime."
bandawoman	Re: Question on organization	#5	[-]
Posts: 2349 (04/30/03 05:17:08) Clearer of Obstacles Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Leopard, I really do hope it doesn't come across as jumping on someone. I am just trying to discourage multiple posting on the same topic to keep this board at a functional, efficient, and easy to use state, and also to keep the "oldies but goodies" more accessible. To do that, I'd prefer to put a polite "how to" pinned at the top of each forum rather than going around and having to "correct" individuals. That's no fun. There are many people who have joined (or lurked), looked at the Newcomer forum which gives must this guidance, and have gone through -- is it thousands of? -- old topics to see if what they are asking about has been discussed, or used the Search function (which never seems to work for me) and resurrected older topics relevant to their question/comment/humorous insight, some even in the Ghats! My hat's off to these people (oh wait, I never wear hats, except in the winter, although I should now that I'm back in the garden with my pale skin and... [turns back from major detour]). I'm pretty flexible (though not enought to get my Mary C back), but I think a gentle post at the top of each forum might prove helpful. (Nothing like: ""You VILL comply; resistance is futile.) Is there a consensus on this? It also helps when a topic's name is directly related to its subject. A while back someone swept through and changed the topic names so people could see from the forum page whether what they wanted to post about belonged in an existing topic.
okrgr	Re: Question on organization	#6	[-]
Posts: 3229 (04/30/03 06:57:35) Top Doc Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	A word of caution about trying to make everything just right. The world seems to seek situations of balance, left balanced by right, down by up, good vvs bad, happy vs sad, blonde vs ..., never mind. One aspect of balance is conflict, not evrything is supposed to go the way you want it to. To make everything thing work nice and smoothly, to seek complete harmony is to actually invite disruption. If everybody did everything the way that I or you or anyone else wanted them to, what would we have to complain about? we would have to seek out some new dissatisfaction to satisfy our need for balancing discord. the devil you know is often better than the one you don't.
bandawoman	Re: So you're saying...	#7	[-]
Posts: 2349 (04/30/03 07:40:30) Clearer of Obstacles Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	...with the devil you know thing......that I shouldn't ask Elegant and Rosie to be moderators? You sure got all philosophical, didn't you? (Plus I sure don't see right balanced by left at all these days...where have all the lefties gone?) Seriously, I do think there is room for improvement here, and only by action can that happen...Otherwise (I'm talking big picture here, not board) nothing would get done.
marrxi	Re: So you're saying...	#8	[-]
Posts: 129 (04/30/03 15:02:30) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	about the topic names..i wanted to ask if you can change topic names to help with browsing and identifying or isolating parts of a thread that deal with a specific topic...when we had the castor oil questions a few weeks ago, i was looking for a thread that had several good posts about the uses of castor oil. i did three types of search through every forum and came up with nothing, browsed through some of the threads whose heading suggested some connection and still nothing - it would have been great to link to it. anyway, keeping the forums more organized would be great, but with slow connection and considering the size of the forums, browsing through the topics may not be an option for everyone.
bandawoman	Extending Gold status on the cheap	#9	[-]
Posts: 2349 (06/27/03 05:16:24) Clearer of Obstacles Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Hello everybody: Preface: Gold status means we don't get pop-up ads, which were really annoying when the board was started. We paid a certain amoutn and we are now pop-up ad free. I've displayed an EZ board notice that will enable us to extend gold status without costing us anything if we accept this unobtrusive form of advertising, which is very targeted. You can see an example of it if you click on the link in highlighed box on top of each forum page and on the main page. We would only have to try it for two weeks to get the free extension. I am leaning toward trying it because of the cost benefit and also because it does not look so obnoxious. I'm also kind of curious about what they would consider targeted to us (fitness? weight loss? workout clothing?). Let me know what you think. B
suburbfreak	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#10	[-]
Posts: 323 (06/27/03 14:17:23) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	I just went and looked at the community chest thign... WOW ... $216 for a year of hosting is A LOT. You could host your own site with threaded forums for the same price. For instance, this other site: www.yapps.com has a site budget linked at the bottom of their page showing how much they paid... I think it was $174 total... has this ever been considered?
JillEJ	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#11	[-]
Posts: 272 (06/28/03 14:21:31) Queen of the Jungle Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	The extended gold status deal looks good, as long as the ads don't get too obnoxious. Seems like the best way to go overall. If we try it and don't like it can't we always change to ad-free status again?
bandawoman	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#12	[-]
Posts: 2349 (06/28/03 16:53:51) Clearer of Obstacles Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	seems like we can go back to ad-free easily; would only have to try it out for 2 weeks.
susiegb	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#13	[-]
Posts: 289 (06/29/03 19:49:20) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Don't know if this is connected - but what's happened to the formatting? All of a sudden the text is much larger and in a serif font like Times Roman. i don't like it - much prefer the smaller, and sans-serif font. Has someone done something to make this happen, or is it just a glitch that will go away?! Can we change it back? Please?! - susie
Unregistered(d)	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#14	[-]
Posts: 0 (06/30/03 01:05:38) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Advertising Maybe ask ppl to vote with their wallets. 20 ppl put in $!0 each or 40 ppl put in $5 each by a given date and the forum stays ad-free. You can consider adding a temporary note to the boards heading, in the same area the free ads offer is. Personally, I hate ads so you can count on my wallet opening. Also happy to contribute the HTML for a temporary notice. Shouldnt take too long to put together. Another thought - I think the current subscription only runs out early Nov. Will be a shame if the ad-free time already bought will be eaten away by the two week trial. Text settings Susie sounds like the settings on your computer changed. Open Internet Explorer and: to change font - Tools/internet options/general tab/font box to change text size - View/text size
spangled	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#15	[-]
Posts: 3448 (06/30/03 02:48:18) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	No ads.
bandawoman	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#16	[-]
Posts: 2349 (06/30/03 04:33:44) Clearer of Obstacles Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Sounds like a no. We'll have a fund raising drive in Ocotber, I guess...
susiegb	Re: Extending Gold status on the cheap	#17	[-]
Posts: 289 (06/30/03 14:40:04) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	"Text settings Susie sounds like the settings on your computer changed. Open Internet Explorer and:" Yeah - thanks ra2dom - I was at home yesterday. Today at work everything is fine! No idea how that could have happened - just some quirky thing I guess
Ahavayoga	Thread about forum organization	#18	[-]
Posts: 582 (07/13/04 07:15:52) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	See below e-mail. I don't think Roy's idea (described below) would work because many people don't know which asanas are "Intermediate" or "Advanced." However, I think it's a great idea.... "CarlyleN, My take on redundant posting is that; people do it because it's not painfully obvious where they should put their post. So I propose the following structure for sticky topics in Sudra, or as brand new forums?? (you may have noticed this order elsewhere) 1 surya namaskaras 2 standing, or fundamental asanas 3 primary series asanas 4 intermeadiate asanas 5 advanced asanas 6 backbending 7 finishing asanas Of course there's no way to totally eliminate redundant posts. peace roy "
aani19096	Re: Thread about forum organization	#19	[-]
Posts: 463 (07/13/04 08:37:23) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	No or minimal sticky please. I like the way stuff bubbles up to the top (or disappears). - Anand
Ahavayoga	Re: moderate, don't control	#20	[-]
Posts: 582 (07/30/04 06:27:58) Reply Quote More My Recent Posts Message Me Connection Blocking Invite Ignore User's Posts	Dear Yogalisa, I'm responding to your comment in the Dalit thread, "moderate, don't control." You wrote: "But clearly, I wanted okrgr and others to see it - not to get lost in the quagmire." If you had posted your news in the "Social Corner" thread, it would not have been "lost in the quagmire." As soon as you posted your news, the "Social Corner" thread would have popped to the top of the page. No need to fear getting lost. I am one of the people who bemoans the proliferation of threads. It makes the board unwieldly and difficult to navigate and search. Did we need yet another thread on getting up from backbends? How many threads are there about Ashtanga in Amsterdam? Why can't folks add to the existing threads on these (and other) topics? However, it appears I'm in a minority, so I'll shut up. Bye.

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