I have a suggestion that could make the front page of DPC more appealing.
The forum activity around here has grown tremendously in the last year or so. The number of threads in each forum is growing as well. Sifting through what is displayed on the front page is becoming more challenging because the 30 most active threads that I view when I log on are sometimes all less than a few hours old. I am probably missing things I would like to see because of this.
My suggestion is:
Don't display the most recent thread activity on the front page of the site. Display one line for each forum topic (including administrator announcements). Basically, this means to bring the Community/Forums page to the front of the site.
This would make the front page of the site a bit less dynamic but it would also create an easier way to browse...
I gotta say I like it the way it is. Unless I'm mistaken, this proposal would mean that I'd have to click into various topic areas to see the most recent thread names? I like being able to bring up the site and see the most recent posts at a quick glance. I might be missing something, but I don't see how this makes it easier.
I have to agree with Alan. I would rather see the top twenty 'hot' forum threads than see the last thread in each forum category. There are some categories, such as the admin announcements, that would be on the front page in a pretty dormant fashion. If someone has been away from the site for a few days/weeks etc then there already is the opportunity to see the threads per cat under the community/forums. I think for those people who frequent the site often (a number of times a day) then having the dynamic content available without many clickthroughs is more useful.
I prefer it as is too but my preference would be to allow me to display more than the 30 most recently active threads on the home page. I'd like the choice of displaying 10, 30, 50 or 100 so I could change it depending on how recently I'd last logged in.
that is a super heavily used forum, but the way they hightlight the threads, both new threads, and threads you have posted to is pretty easy to navigate. also in your profile they allow you to receive email notifications to threads you have posted to, when some one replies, which wont be repeated until you have signed back into that specific thread. so you only one notification per login even if 50 people have responded... also allows you to sort the threads by a time frame ( last day, last 2 days, last 10 days... )
i would like to see these forums set up similar to that. its also a PHP driven web site - the forum module they use is used by other forums i am a member of as well..
Maybe it would be nice to have the items on the main page broken down by forum topic then rather than by most recent... they could be listed by topic and then by most recent... would help at least organize what is on the front page?
Maybe it would be nice to have the items on the main page broken down by forum topic then rather than by most recent... they could be listed by topic and then by most recent... would help at least organize what is on the front page?
This is how it was on the original DPC.. which I liked very much.
Why not add a link to 'Most Recent Topics' to the Forums list. Those who prefer the Forums to be displayed first can set their home page to the Forums List. Those who prefer to read just the current hot topics can use the site's homepage.
i totally agree with setz, it would make it much easier for me to pick what i want to see and be more active in the forums if i actually had to click into a category to see the contents. for instance, i don't really want to see the individual photo discussion forums, i don't mind them but they just take up too much of the forum activity. also i think we should add a hot deals and for sale/trade forum for people to exchange buy photo equipment with each other
adding to this, i have always wondered what the point of individual forum topics were. the way it's setup now with the recent forum activity in front, why would anyone bother differentiating between forums? essentially they are all the same forum with the exception of admin and rant forums. so maybe some consolidation of the forums needs to take place as well.
I for one, don't really see why Rant is in a special category. The ability to hide any forum group (except admin announcments) would be extremely useful.
Either there needs to be additional sub-categories or the categories, as achiral indicated, need to be changed/expanded to be less generic (e.g., a forum dedicated to voting, another for comments).
The most interesting threads to me are the ones in which I've posted and some that I am currently following. Giving everyone (or members only) the ability to follow a handful of threads would be great. Then the front page can display your posted threads, threads you're following, and the most recent active threads (ordered by forum topic as jmsetzler suggested).
Within a thread, an actual thread view would be nice too, but probably not a worthwhile effort.
I for one, don't really see why Rant is in a special category. The ability to hide any forum group (except admin announcments) would be extremely useful.
Thanks, Johh, for hitting on a very sore topic with me.
I'm in Japan, a very different time zone from the majority of movement on this site. The difference in forum activity between my bedtime and my morning check (yes, I'm a sad git) is huge. I've often seen a thread which looked interesting, told myself to look at it in the morning and lost it forever.
I like the forum section the way it is right now, since I can pretty much see what has been active. I'd like the ability to shut off certain forums categories, like individual photo discussions.
couple more thoughts on the cleaning up the forums.
1) make the search area more visible - ie at the top of each page - make it stand out.
2) post an admin annoucement asking forum users to use the search as a first attempt before posting a new thread.
3) create a search page - where you have the option of only search certain topic areas, certain dates.
this is what i have seen happen at the actionscript.org forum i mentioned above in the recent past. possibly as a result of growing use of their services.
the idea behind any educational site would be to have information easily accessible - many probably frequent this site for just that...
another possible plan would be to revamp the forum main topics into more specific headings, and force the general chatter into the general chat section, the rant section, the critique section, the off topic section... focus the major part of the forum towards education. in the end it could be that the moderators need to organize more, and direct posts to the correct area. depends on what kind of control, and cleaning up the site admins are after.
