The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: Marshal Halloway on December 07, 2007, 03:18:52 PM
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Hi folks!
With more members and different topics, it is time to separate the posts in different categories.
I invite you all to come up with suggestions on how you want this forum to be categorized. I do have some suggestions on my own, but I would like to have your opinion as a forum member before I start on this.
THANKS in advance.
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I advocate we have both kinds of forums: Country and Western.
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Marshal
You could have Handgun sections for Personal protection/ Home Defense, Target, Hunting,Plinking. Then Rifle & Shotgun sections with the same. Maybe a Gun Rights section for any issues that would effect gun owners.
How is that for starters? ;D
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I understand where you are coming from, but I would suggest not splitting into categories. Every forum I visit that has categorized as caused a loss of contact between people. What I see is that if there are five categories most people will visit two or three on a regular basis, and not the other two or three. Pretty soon some people that used to discuss and debate lose contact with each other. I actually just came off one forum that went from two to five categories about six months ago. At first the visits remained the same, but the posts dropped off. Now the visits are dropping as well, and I was just noting that there are about half a dozen of the former strongest visitors that I have not heard from all fall.
DAMN GROWING PAINS!!!!
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Marshal, give us some of your ideas and maybe we can tweek them or maybe they will help us brainstorm.
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I DO NOT want this forum to be like all the others. The catagories are just fine.
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Marshal, give us some of your ideas and maybe we can tweek them or maybe they will help us brainstorm.
The only suggestion I have so far is this:
Change the name of General Discussion into something else and move it to the top of forum index page.
Have one board for "Guns"
One for Politics and Second Amendment.
That's it.
I have different experiences with forum administration. As mentioned above, too many categories might lead to confusion, especially on a forum where gun owners in general are welcome.
AND..... I won't fix it, if it ain't broken. However, keep the feedback comin' !!!
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It's fine the way it is.
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The only suggestion I have so far is this:
Change the name of General Discussion into something else and move it to the top of forum index page.
Have one board for "Guns"
One for Politics and Second Amendment.
That's it.
I have different experiences with forum administration. As mentioned above, too many categories might lead to confusion, especially on a forum where gun owners in general are welcome.
AND..... I won't fix it, if it ain't broken. However, keep the feedback comin' !!!
Sounds like a good idea that shouldn't spread things too slim.
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Sounds like your undecided...If it ain't broke.....
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The only suggestion I have so far is this:
Change the name of General Discussion into something else and move it to the top of forum index page.
Marshal,
I have found that the only element of Downrange TV that is a bit cumbersome to maneuver is that in order to read beyond the several latest posts that appear on the home page you need to go to the forum index page and then scroll down to General Discussion....why? I would suggest simply creating a button right at the bottom of the latest posts, perhaps labeled "More" or keeping it "General Discussion", which brings you directly to the General Discussion page and allows everyone to see the remainder of the posts quickly and easily. That way you won't need to go to another screen to get to where most of us regularly visit.
Other than that, I love the way the forum is laid out now. Thanks for doing a great job managing this site....great voice by the way........Marshal'ette was right. I enjoyed your first podcast and looking forward to your weekly broadcasts.
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I dont see a need for alot of change, perhaps an easier way to navigate. :-\ :-\
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The menu system can be set up a little different and there are several ways of doing it. However, there is already a menu system that might work the way CDR describes it. CDR, just to make sure I understand it correctly.....
I have found that the only element of Downrange TV that is a bit cumbersome to maneuver is that in order to read beyond the several latest posts that appear on the home page you need to go to the forum index page and then scroll down to General Discussion....why? I would suggest simply creating a button right at the bottom of the latest posts, perhaps labeled "More" or keeping it "General Discussion", which brings you directly to the General Discussion page and allows everyone to see the remainder of the posts quickly and easily. That way you won't need to go to another screen to get to where most of us regularly visit.
On the top menu (yellow background), I can set up a sub menu on the forum button where all the different boards are listed and from there you can go directly to the board you want to read.
What I do.... and we all establish different personal routines on how we maneuver around. When I go to the DRTV home page, I look at the 6 latest posts. When I click on one of them, it takes me to the latest post in that particular thread. Now..... here's how I do it from there.
If you look at the bottom of this page, you see a text line like this:
The Down Range TV Forum | DOWN RANGE with Michael Bane | General Discussion | Topic: Setting up the DRTV forum in different categories
If I want to read this thread from the beginning, I click on |Setting up the DRTV forum in different categories|. If I want to go directly to the General Discussion Index page to see the index of topics(threads), I click on | General Discussion |.
There is also a Jump To feature at the bottom right, where you can jump directly over to the different boards.
Keep the feedback comin' ...
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Marshal,
That's interesting in that I never tried maneuvering that way to the General Discussion board as, to be honest, I never went down past the last post in a thread to even notice that there was a General Discussion button. I always went into Forum on top and then scrolled down to General Discussion which was more steps than I thought necessary. I like the idea of a sub menu on the Forum link on top to access the various boards, but if I could make a suggestion.....consider the button that brings you directly to General Discussion after the newest six posts as, what I do, is look at the home page and look for the posts with the blue label that reads "new", and those are the ones I read. What you can't see quickly are any new posts that exceed the ones posted on the home page. To clarify, lets say there are 15 new posts since you logged in last and you can only view 6 of them on the home page. You don't know if there are more than 6 new posts until you go into the General Discussion forum, which means you need to maneuver to the General Discussion link to see the remainder. A hot link "General Discussion" or "More" button right on the home page directly beneath the 6 new posts would get you there easily and quickly without the need to go to the forum sub menu on top of the home page and select "General Discussion". It's just one less step that gets you directly there. When you think of it, at least for me, the new posts are what the majority of us are probably going to most often. A hot link button straight there would be helpful.
Thanks for the tip on how to link in on the bottom of the page once you are into a thread. That certainly beats scrolling down in another page, but consider the hot link as I described. Regards.
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I like it the way it is. here's what I do..........
I have the forums index page saved in my favorites,
Then I just click the link that says "show unread post since last visit."
After I have read all the new posts, if I want to review something I click on home and scroll down to whatever categorie I want.
Maybe that helps somebody?
cookie
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The " show unread post's since last visit" is the ticket, also replies to your own posts. That way you can read whatever has been posted, since the last time you visited. I would like to see a new classified or for sale category.
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The " show unread post's since last visit" is the ticket, also replies to your own posts. That way you can read whatever has been posted, since the last time you visited. I would like to see a new classified or for sale category.
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Ok, folks!
I have done some minor changes on the forum.
The existing boards are now sorted in two categories:
Member Section
Down Range Cafe (the old General Discusssion board) is on top of the forum index page.
followed by the other boards for member discussions.
I have also added the requested Classifieds board.
Show Section
has all the different show boards from podcasts, videos and TV Shows.
Nothing new except from the classifieds and current boards are now divided in 2 categories.
On the DRTV front page, I have added board links to recent topics.
And that is all that will be done with the forum at this time.
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I likey!
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Looks good, Thanks Marshal