Forum Suggestion Thread

[Bob N]

Thanks Mark! I thought it would be somethng simple and don't want to make a bunch of work for you. Let it drop if it is a big deal or costly.

[Mark]

New Forum, lets get some feature suggestions! I want to try out the fancy plugin system

[Check twice!]

Originally Posted by Mark

New Forum, lets get some feature suggestions! I want to try out the fancy plugin system

Looks great, but a thought to keep in mind. There reaches a point where we "over decorate", and thinking more is better sometimes make things look crowded, and becomes hard to manage.

Following a thread to get the vital information you may need, can get a little frustrating at times. There are members on the forum that have above average information, jigs, and all round knowledge on subjects, maybe a section high lighting these members, without any input would be benificial to new as well as old members.

I did find it hard to get information when I first joined, there is so much "general talk", I know this is needed for interaction, but most join because they are looking for something, and hence "repeated posts".

My son is a believer in wiki's, for sourcing material, and getting answers.

Just thinking out loud, "through the eyes of John"

Thanks
John

[Mark]

Great concept John, I agree with you totally, the problem is I need to figure out a way to properly concentrate that information.

I suppose I could look up some type of system where users can mark threads as "Quality Threads" and those type threads and simply be reached by a click of a link?

Let me know what you think.

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Mark

My son said there is no easy way to make a forum into a good data base, it is a chat program, and would not be easy to manage. (as far as he knows)

A wiki could be set up to complement the forum, it would be the data base, that will interact with the forum. It can be edited by all members, but the old method stays as well on each update. You can limit or allow full priviledge as all original data remains .

Like I said I was thinking out loud.

I guess this would be a perfect world.

I really like what the team has done. I might ask you to go to midibox.org they have a system like I was talking about. They have a forum, wiki, and a blog. You do not have to choose all these features but the forum and wiki would be good.

I really do not know if this is feasible, but at least "I am thinking", rare at my age.

Have a great day
John

[Mark]

Thanks much for the links and information. I agree with you, possibly a Wiki will be a good compliment to RouterForums.com. Thanks for the great suggestion.

On a site note: I modified the thread rating system. You can now vote on a thread easier.

Basically, the way it's going to function is, if a thread contains decent content, you vote "Excellent". If it's lacking in content, you vote "Terrible". Then, when you're browsing the forum, the higher rated threads will have more stars to the right side in the forum view.

This isn't a solution to your suggestion, just a small upgrade

Thanks again, I'll checkout that Wiki idea.

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Mark

Maybe try Dokuwiki, this is the program my son uses right now.

It doesn't use a database, just plain text and can intergrate into the vBulletin user list so people wouldn't have to sign up twice. It also isn't overly bloated with features like some wikis and is wrote in very well commented PHP.

Good luck on the upgrades.

John, with Scott's knowledge.

[Mark]

Thanks for the information, I'll check that out.

Thanks John and Scott

[Mark]

Added a left style navigation on the front page of RouterForums.com. Hopefully it'll help people find the right sections and assist with navigating RouterForums.com!

Let me know what you guys think.

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I like it as it opens a new window, and my Mac loves multipal windows.

The regular forum click through just goes to the topic. I like simple and this works for me.

Down side for me none, but some may say, "we already have a method of getting to the threads already". This is true, but I like the new window.

No problem with or with out, but I would use it for the new window feature.

Are you having fun playing Mark,,,

John