Upcoming Site Update

[Admin]

I have been playing around with the BETA version of IPS, the software we use here, and I must say I like it...still working on cosmetics but it has some great new features...stay tuned:

 

 

 

 

Oh, also I am looking for a Site Logo to go in the header...any suggestions?

[Admin]

Still working on the soon to be released IPS update. Using the latest BETA version:

[old man emu]

Didn't you mother tell you that if you kept playing with it you'd go blind?

[Admin]

Talking about playing with things...I have in my head a concept of changing the word "Forums" into Discussions where discussions on a given topic are held within separate categories of Discussions, the same as we have now in terms of Forums, threads and posts BUT to also have a general "Forum" that is not displayed as Discussions but as a Facebook style of short messages and quick replies. Obviously these would be stored in a "forum" but displayed like facebook with its intention to be different from "Discussions"...if you can get the gist of what I am saying. Asked the family this morning on what to call that facebook style "Forum" and I suggested "Quips" but the kids didn't know that word...they only know "Tweet" and "Facebook Post" and "Facebook Reply".

 

So the end result I am picturing is that instead of Forums we have "Discussion Types" (a forum) like "Science and Technology Discussions" where a "Discussion" (a thread) contains user's posts discussing a specific item. Then we also have "Quips" ??? (a specific forum that is hidden as it is just a storage area) that is for quick and short posts and is displayed like Facebook or Twitter.

 

This all comes together when viewing the Whats New section...there is the standard Whats New as it is now for Discussions and another page for Quips where if you want to reply to a Quip you do so "inline" like Facebook. The Quips page is continuous and like Facebook the Quip subject and Quip posts just drop down and forgotten about.

 

It is just an idea I am playing around with in my head but if it goes ahead we would have Social Media Quips, full fledged interesting Discussions, public or private subject Groups, personal Blogs, current Australian News, etc etc etc

[willedoo]

It will be interesting to see how it all pans out. That's a lot of possible features. I'm assuming blogs would be a place where members could run a blog on a current ongoing project that would have interest to others. Also the groups feature might be good. I'm a member of a Yahoo ALSE group which is a good source of knowledge and interest. The only problem with Yahoo Groups is that they are email groups and you miss the forum format.

Edited July 5, 2020 by willedoo

[onetrack]

Don't ever go over to anything that resembles Farcebook in style, or you'll lose me immediately. It's the worst, user-unfriendly layout anyone could ever devise. 

[willedoo]

Just wondering if there would be enough interest in having a hobbies category in the forum list.

Edited July 20, 2020 by willedoo

[willedoo]

or a history category?

[Jerry_Atrick]

I'll second both... I am not a huge history buff, but have learned a lot if interesting things on sites...

[red750]

I thought that was what the chat room was all about. That place where many enter, few leave, but there's never anyone there, and no chatting goes on.

 

Here is a sample of a chat facility on another forum. They call it the Shout Box. There are only about half a dozen members who log on before six am each day and post the sort of nothing shown here. "12ing it" is the code for leaving the Shout Box, to go to work or go get the morning paper.

 

[Admin]

On 30/07/2020 at 8:10 PM, red750 said:

I thought that was what the chat room was all about. That place where many enter, few leave, but there's never anyone there, and no chatting goes on.

 

Here is a sample of a chat facility on another forum. They call it the Shout Box. There are only about half a dozen members who log on before six am each day and post the sort of nothing shown here. "12ing it" is the code for leaving the Shout Box, to go to work or go get the morning paper.

 

There is a line of thought that Chat Rooms and Shout Boxes take posts away from forums but on the positive side they provide a different level of interaction...your thoughts?

 

On 30/07/2020 at 3:31 PM, willedoo said:

or a history category?

Hobbies and History are 2 great ideas but like everything, the work load of populating say a History database would be big as what History do you list? You could go all out and have an Australian History section and then have categories that match the forums like car, Sports, Politics etc. Now say that is created...what then? How would you make the most of it like in terms of cost/benefit...the cost of effort to enter and maintain it compared to how the user base benefits from it. Your thoughts?

[willedoo]

16 hours ago, Admin said:

Hobbies and History are 2 great ideas but like everything, the work load of populating say a History database would be big as what History do you list? You could go all out and have an Australian History section and then have categories that match the forums like car, Sports, Politics etc. Now say that is created...what then? How would you make the most of it like in terms of cost/benefit...the cost of effort to enter and maintain it compared to how the user base benefits from it. Your thoughts?

Ian, I was thinking of them as forum sub headings for posts in the same manner as the current ones - general discussion, politics, religion etc.. As opposed to separate sections like classifieds, business, groups & blogs etc..

Edited August 7, 2020 by willedoo

[old man emu]

Me too! I'd go for a History sub-heading so that all the little tidbits of history that come up as sidetracks in the existing sub-headings could be directed to one place, or people could put a note in the thread to say that something relevant had been posted in the History sub-heading. That way, the original theme of a thread might not wander off down a side track. Also, there are times when surfing the 'Net that interesting history factoids come up that a person might like to share. A History sub-heading would be a great place to go.

[Admin]

Okay thanks...I have created an Australian History forum for this

[old man emu]

That's good, but a lot of our discussions open the door to tidbits from worldwide history.

[Admin]

28 minutes ago, old man emu said:

That's good, but a lot of our discussions open the door to tidbits from worldwide history.

I have changed it to just History