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Old 04-02-2023, 18:25   #1
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Forum architecture

Hello, I very much enjoy this forum. I’ve been sailing for 45 years and find it to be a terrific resource.

Having said that, I’ve found that substantial areas of content are impossible to find. For example, your ‘ Scuttlebut’ pages (and many other content- cruising guides for example) are NOWHERE TO BE FOUND on any index or drop-down list. Also, just discovered you have many levels of content that only appear on the “post new thread” function. Indeed the post new thread box is the ONLY navigation feature in the whole site that contains all? sub pages and fora.

You all really do have a world class resource. The site deserves a proper architecture and upgrade. Please redesign, or just add, all the major pages to your drop down look up function at the top of the page

This will allow members to actually navigate to the various pages that people spend so much time updating and providing input to…

Thanks
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Old 04-02-2023, 20:17   #2
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Re: Forum architecture

I've pointed it out before:


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Old 04-02-2023, 21:05   #3
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Re: Forum architecture

Guys, while it's good to make aware of such an issue, it also important to remember that the forum is quite large and driven by volunteers.
On top of this it is, amazingly in our times, free to use.

Update and redesign would likely be costly and very time involved. I would hope some upgrade is possible in the future, but at the same time I would hope too that this would not lead to paid subscriptions and premium features as it has been the case on other platforms.

Personally I prefer an open and free forum which is less modern to one which is going towards being more commercialised but also more flashy and perhaps easier to use in some small aspects.

The resources of this forum never seize to amaze me.
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Old 04-02-2023, 22:48   #4
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Re: Forum architecture

Agreed, but there is nothing flashy about a simple index so all the major topics can be found bynthe people who contribute to them. It’s not that hard to do, and is not expensive to do…
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Old 04-02-2023, 23:07   #5
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by Franziska View Post
Guys, while it's good to make aware of such an issue, it also important to remember that the forum is quite large and driven by volunteers.
It's part of a for-profit commercial enterprise.

Social Knowledge, L.L.C

They have about 20 employees and a multi-million dollar annual revenue according to publicly available information.


(I'd guess primarily ad revenue. Remember, if it's free - you are the product )
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Old 04-02-2023, 23:24   #6
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Re: Forum architecture

I, too, am always amazed by the number of forum threads (heading?) that a post can be put into. As you say, they only become apparent when making a new post and suddenly I am confronted with so many options.
And do they really matter? In my daily(!) reading through new posts, I just scroll through the new posts, with no regard to whichever sub-heading it might have been put into.
Having said that, the interface (android app) is rather clunky. For instance having to rename a file suffix to get it accepted is ridiculous. And I never bother with the search function in the app cos it returns such a very unrefined list.
Creating better architecture would require that posters put things into the right place. And then the drift... a post on anchoring could meander off to lithium, then sailing etiquette, then USA non-metric, then back to anchoring. And who (which volunteers) would want to spend all day enforcing architecture?
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Old 05-02-2023, 00:57   #7
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by StuM View Post
It's part of a for-profit commercial enterprise.

Social Knowledge, L.L.C

They have about 20 employees and a multi-million dollar annual revenue according to publicly available information.


(I'd guess primarily ad revenue. Remember, if it's free - you are the product )
Interesting, did not know that.

Surprising then though, that they use unpaid volunteer moderators.

Regarding advertising, thats thankfully a pure website thing, the Android app is free of ads.
Yes, one can use the posts, history and preferred subjects of these users then which present valuable info than I guess.

Funny enough I'm always diligently refusing cookies whenever I can and probably as a result get always irrelevant ads shown to me in web browsers [emoji846]
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Old 05-02-2023, 01:31   #8
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Re: Forum architecture

The whole is thing indexed by google. If you search from there you will find it. Maybe not ideal but..

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Old 05-02-2023, 03:38   #9
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayne hoath View Post
The whole is thing indexed by google. If you search from there you will find it. Maybe not ideal but..

Attachment 271147

Yep google: "site:cruisersforum.com my search terms"
Or use the Google Custom Search box.
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Old 05-02-2023, 16:49   #10
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by Franziska View Post
Interesting, did not know that.

Surprising then though, that they use unpaid volunteer moderators.
The use of volunteer moderators is extremely common and goes all the way back to the very first bulletin boards...before we ever called this thing the internet...We accessed those boards using dial-up modems at 2400 baud, tying up our phone lines and aggravating other members of the household as messages were downloaded for offline reading and replies were uploaded...

But I digress. Volunteer mods have lots of interest in the topic and the community, sometimes tons of knowledge, and almost always plenty of spare time.
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Old 06-02-2023, 21:10   #11
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by Glenn.Brooks View Post
Hello, I very much enjoy this forum. I’ve been sailing for 45 years and find it to be a terrific resource.

Having said that, I’ve found that substantial areas of content are impossible to find. For example, your ‘ Scuttlebut’ pages (and many other content- cruising guides for example) are NOWHERE TO BE FOUND on any index or drop-down list. Also, just discovered you have many levels of content that only appear on the “post new thread” function. Indeed the post new thread box is the ONLY navigation feature in the whole site that contains all? sub pages and fora.
.......
Not quite correct.
A single click on the CF banner at the top LHS of every page takes you to a menu of every available forum.

Double clicking on the drop down "Forum" tab does the same.
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Old 06-02-2023, 21:57   #12
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by StuM View Post
It's part of a for-profit commercial enterprise.

Social Knowledge, L.L.C

They have about 20 employees and a multi-million dollar annual revenue according to publicly available information.


(I'd guess primarily ad revenue. Remember, if it's free - you are the product )

Exactly. This is a for-profit private enterprise which generates revenue using the free content provided by its users.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Franziska View Post
Surprising then though, that they use unpaid volunteer moderators.

I’ve long argued they should be paid in some way.
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Old 07-02-2023, 06:10   #13
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike OReilly View Post
Exactly. This is a for-profit private enterprise which generates revenue using the free content provided by its users...
I look at it as a for-profit company which offers a service to volunteer organizations like CF. Volunteers use the platform for free to create this forum. CF doesn't have to hire IT staff and pay for hosting on a server farm.

In concept, I'm not opposed to ad-supported content. I'm not even all that worried about tracking me to better select which ads to show, although I admit I've made it a bit of a hobby to thwart that.

Without singling out this forum software, overall I think advertising on the internet has gotten out of hand. The relentless grab for users' eyeballs has resulted in annoying, loud, flashing, unstoppable, and generally disruptive ads.

While respectful ads which do not distract from the content I'm interested in would be fine, I'm forced to resort to ad blockers to make many sites tolerable.

This isn't good for users or advertisers. Imagine you're paying to get your message out to people who might enjoy your product or service. Do you want to get buried underneath all that annoying crap? Do you have any idea whether your message is getting through, or being blocked? When everyone is forced to used ad blockers, what will happen to free content?
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Old 07-02-2023, 06:30   #14
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by nwh10 View Post
The use of volunteer moderators is extremely common and goes all the way back to the very first bulletin boards...before we ever called this thing the internet...We accessed those boards using dial-up modems at 2400 baud, tying up our phone lines and aggravating other members of the household as messages were downloaded for offline reading and replies were uploaded...
2400 baud! That was blazing fast! I first used a 300 baud acoustic coupler from a teletype to a mainframe. Used up reams of paper. When I first used a 1200 baud modem, well, that was a speed demon!

Had two phone lines for years so that we could use the phone, too, well, talk.

Things certainly have changed, much for the better, some, not so much.

Later,
Dan
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Old 07-02-2023, 06:35   #15
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Re: Forum architecture

Quote:
Originally Posted by dannc View Post
2400 baud! That was blazing fast! I first used a 300 baud acoustic coupler from a teletype to a mainframe. [emoji3] Used up reams of paper. When I first used a 1200 baud modem, well, that was a speed demon! [emoji3]

Had two phone lines for years so that we could use the phone, too, well, talk. [emoji3]

Things certainly have changed, much for the better, some, not so much.

Later,
Dan
Well, 300baud, that was lightning speed, in our days we used pigeons to send little paper notes who occasionally reached their target [emoji1787]

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