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New Forums are Kind of ... Blah?

Started by Bryan, 2007-11-28T15:41:02-06:00 (Wednesday)

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Bryan

I've had this feeling ever since I saw the new layout.  I'm not sure if this is the end-all-be-all, but I figured I would voice my opinion.  The old site I could come to and instantly see if there was something that had changed.  the newest threads were right there at the top, the RSS feeds for popular sites were at the bottom (loved this).  This new site just feels like so much extra work.
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

Justin Camerer

yeah, i totally agree with you. the new forums really piss me off.

i am actually the guy that is kind of in charge of this, but the forum software is pretty crappy, so its quite a hassle to change stuff around. there are a lot of themes available for it, but they all have similar layouts with some colors changed. just so you know, i have been working on them a bit, trying to make it a little less horrible, but its not easy work.

if anyone has any suggestions on things they would like to see and would like to voice them, that would be great. i can't promise ill do it, but itd be nice to hear.
Justin Camerer
Do yo' chain hang low?

Jerry

Here are some things I would like:

1. Move the recent posts (above the list of the forums).
2. A module that has the RSS feeds from Wired, CS News, and there was one other one we used to have.
"Make a Little Bird House in Your Soul" - TMBG...

Gregory Bartholomew

I had suggested this forum software initially because it had modules already writtin to port data from xoops, updated versions of the software had been released more recently than three years ago (probably a good thing as far as addressing security and performance issues), and it had a feature set comparable to that of xoops (and several additional features like spell check, etc.). It was near imposable to change the xoops theme/layout as well so I don't see that as a big drawback. I know that the blocks and stuff can be rearranged because I've seen it done (e.g. http://galleryproject.oldiesmann.us/). I know that the default layout ins't great. I just haven't gotten around to changing it yet.
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Bryan

Something like the site you linked is very cool.  It is much more of a portal idea than strictly a forum.  I want to come to the site and instantly be able to see if something has changed.   In short, I really liked the last site.  Though I understand that it was simply outdated and started to show it's age.
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

Kit

So then I don't really think that it's a problem with this software, it's more of a problem that the site isn't organized exactly how we want it. I'd say the general consensus is to make the front page more focused on the most recent posts (as well as recent news, pictures, etc).

*edit*

Wow. Somebody already updated the front page with exactly what I said above. Looks good!
SIUe Computer Science Graduate

Admin

We'll, moving the recent posts to the top of the page was as simple as cutting and pasting an html div. I don't see that anyone has written an rss feed module for smf though. I could write one in my "spare" time if I didn't hate the php language with such passion. As for the picture gallery, it is still in beta and I'm having a little trouble with it on my prototyping site. It may be a while yet before I get around to implementing those additions.

If there are some talented php developers out there with some time, I'll give you access to my prototyping site and you can work with "oldiesman" and myself to try and get it working.

Bryan

The "recent posts" section is a start.  I just think we were selling ourselves short by making it strictly a forum.  We could really turn the CAOS site into a portal for all things computer & SIUE. 
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

Admin


Bryan

Quote from: Admin on 2007-11-29T10:39:17-06:00 (Thursday)
What sort of "things" do you have in mind?

off the top of my head I was thinking along the lines of the web 2.0 trends.  Start with Forums, RSS Feeds, Polls, Announcements etc.  Then maybe try expanding with things such as  Blogs and Social Bookmarking.
Bryan Grubaugh
Quickly aging alumni with too much time on his hands
Business Systems Analyst, Scripps Networks.

bandyguy


bandyguy


Admin

Blogs eh?

Well, here is a blog module for smf: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=793

Do we really want it? What blog topics should be started?

EvilAndrew

I think putting the recent posts at the top makes the site much nicer.   Is there any way to consolidate them to ââ,¬Å"recent threadsââ,¬Â instead of recent posts?  The way it is now, one thread could consume the entire page if enough people posted to it in a short period of time.
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bandyguy

That is exactly what I thought. I liked the way the old one just showed active threads, not every post.
Also I was looking around the simple machines site and found a link to http://dev.voixbox.com/
It liked the poll and calendar over to the side. The shout box over to the left was also pretty cool and innovative.