Reducing the number of forums

[Gisle]

I have now combined several forums to make the total number smaller. What do you think? Is it better like this?

Cheers!

[Skylark]

1. Can you take the "Discussion Board" button on the home page and make that a link to a list of threads with the most recent posts? Don't stop with today's posts, list a certain number of posts, for example, the last 30 active threads, and allow the user to go further back in time if he wants to.

2. Maybe make a "Home" button or "Forums" button to list all the Forums.

3. Is there a chat function in this software? A lot of times I see people who are logged in that I would like to say hi to. I guess the private messages function would work. But a chat would be fun too.

[Jeff H]

Yes I do think that reducing the number of forums helps a lot. The most successful sailing BB's have relatively few forum topics. While the 'View posts since last visit' feature helps a lot, it is still ungainly to have to open a topic, then a thread when there is such a small volume of posting.

Respectfully,
Jeff

[kokopelli]

It's getting there! There is still so much to sort through! Thanks for continuing to work on improving the board though!


Kokopelli

[Gisle]

Skylark once whispered in the wind:
1. Can you take the "Discussion Board" button on the home page and make that a link to a list of threads with the most recent posts? Don't stop with today's posts, list a certain number of posts, for example, the last 30 active threads, and allow the user to go further back in time if he wants to.

2. Maybe make a "Home" button or "Forums" button to list all the Forums.

The "Discussion Board" button is the "HOME" button for the combined site of the discussion board and the photo gallery. If using the "View New Posts" and "Mark All Forums Read" links correctly they (together) will do what most people need, but the developers of the software are working on more and better options. I'm sorry there are no function for listing the last 30 active threads etc in the package yet.

Maybe I should make the links bigger for people to see them?

Skylark once whispered in the wind:
3. Is there a chat function in this software? A lot of times I see people who are logged in that I would like to say hi to. I guess the private messages function would work. But a chat would be fun too.

I have been checking to implement a chat function before, but I'm sorry, it's not in the current version of the program-package. Some hackers have made chat functions for it, but it may make it all unstable and we've had enough downtime due to database trouble caused by the host earlier.

When a stable chat function is available I would love to implement it on Cruisers Forum - by then I hope we have a lot more active members.

[Gisle]

Jeff H once whispered in the wind:
... While the 'View posts since last visit' feature helps a lot, it is still ungainly to have to open a topic, then a thread when there is such a small volume of posting

I agree on that Jeff, but hopefully the traffic will increase a lot and the software is made for HEAVY TRAFFIC.

Cruisers Forum has the following structure on the Bulletin Board:

BOARD
--CATEGORY
----FORUM
------THREAD
--------POST

in addition to the Photo Galley which is divided into categories too.

Imagine having a 1000 new posts in the category you fancy the last week. You really don't wanna mix it up with posts from all the other categories or forums, do you. You may want to subscribe to just one or two forums in that favourite category of yours and forget about the rest of the bulletin board.

You can tell the board to e-mail you when there are new post in your favourite forums.

Check out THIS SITE using the same software with more than 35.000 members and more than 24.000 threads



... or this forum (same software) that had the following statistics when I visited it today:

45.793 registered members
2.176.455 posts
662 online active users (last record 1.339 online users)



CANNABIS EDGE - Community & Discussions

Maybe they're all high ??? I'm NOT a member.

As you can see from the PUBLIC SITE STATISTICS link, the traffic is increasing. If we all invite one more friend to join, take part in the discussions, upload and comment on photos - Cruisers Forum will soon be a much more interesting site to visit.

I'll keep on working to make Cruisers Forum a favourite site for cruising sailors, but I don't have the funds to pay others for publicity. There has been suggested before on the board to make a voluntary donation system to help cover the operation costs. I don't know what you think of that? I think I'll make that a poll one day. That may give us funds for advertising in relevant magazines ...