New Forums are Kind of ... Blah?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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  Though I understand that it was simply outdated and started to show it's age.

[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!

[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. 

[Admin]

What sort of "things" do you have in mind?

[Bryan]

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.

[bandyguy]

now that sounds good!

[bandyguy]

If I knew php I would help :-(

[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.

[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.

[Kit]

If I knew php I would help :-(

http://www.w3schools.com/php/

There. Now you have no excuse.

[bandyguy]

Yeah, I've been looking at that. Actually my html skills are sort of sub-par and I doubt I'll get much php learned with finals coming up. :'( I might try over christmas break.

[bandyguy]

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=654  <- this looks very familiar to what we had on the last forum

[Bryan]

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=654  <- this looks very familiar to what we had on the last forum

Sexy!

[Admin]

It has the same information as what is on the recent posts index now. The message subjects and author names have just been put into a table. The table form, as opposed to the list form that is present now, requires a lot more space so far fewer recent posts can be displayed up front. This means that, for those of us who don't view the site as frequently, some topics may be missed because they aren't the top 5 or so newest. The current list format has the 24 most recent posts listed. I actually like what is there now better.

Are the recent posts not at the top for others? I thought I had changedthe setting globally for everyone. I didn't modified the other two themes though so if you are using one of them, you might want to switch back to the default theme.

[Admin]

If you want the list of boards to be sorted according to which has the latest post, then I think you are wanting this module:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=382

[bandyguy]

So would that bring the forum sections that are active to the top, or the actual threads. I liked the way the last forum was set up because I could instantly see what threads had been active, even if there were multiple posts in that thread. The way it is now, 18/about 25 threads would be consolidated into one row of the table showing that the corresponding thread had been active. One click and you can go and see that threads page and all the recent posts in that thread. Also, the RSS feed contains a feed of all posts, so if someone is not on often, the RSS would be a good way to see all the posts.

[bandyguy]

Just to clarify on my tone, I am not in anyway unthankful for the new forum. It is great and has a lot of potential. The people working on it are very talented and I respect them very much. I simply want to make suggestions as a user as to what I think would benefit the forum and make it easy to use, and more convenient.

[Admin]

It sounds like what you want is the mod that I posted a link to, not the one that you posted earlier (which doesn't consolidate threads (as is evident from the image preview on the download site)). I'm trying out the board/thread sort module on the test site now.

P.S. - I have no problem with people voicing their opinions (even if they differ from my own  :-)).

[Admin]

My mistake, it looks like there is an option to "only show the last reply" in the module that you posted a link to. That would consolidate the threads like you want. I'll try it out on the test site.

[Admin]

I've installed the recent posts module so that it is now grouping the threads, but I don't see any option to show the recent posts in table form? Does anyone know to get the table form?

[Admin]

There appears to be a bug in the recent posts module that I just installed. It will group the threads in the recent posts section but, if you set any of the options for the recent posts module in your profile, then the grouping will stop working PERMINATELY! So if you want the threads grouped, don't mess with that setting!

[Admin]

Never mind that last post, I found an option buried in the administrative menus which was preventing users from being able to set the "Only show the last reply of a thread" option. It is working now. Enjoy, and thanks to "bandyguy" for finding and recommending this feature!

[Gregory Bartholomew]

Now it seems to have this issue where it will only display the latest 10 threads??? Oh well - I guess 10 isn't such a bad number.