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Hot topics, new postings, voting buttons
I’m not much of an IT wiz but I am an observant person & yet… I’ve noticed in the (brief) 6 or so years that I’ve been using a computer that often I ‘don’t notice’ some of the functions on the screen in front of me…especially if I didn’t expect them to be there.
To give an example; I thoroughly enjoy statistics but until the ‘statistics’ function/link on this site was pointed out to me I had not noticed it. It had not occurred to me that it would be there.Maybe I’m in the minority (I’m not sure) but I know I’m not alone…but I’ve wondered if other readers know the possibilities of the forums & how things work.
I wonder if it would be useful to, from time to time, explain what some of the functions are & how they work.Eg; when a new post is made it is displayed as such on the home page. If that post or a combination of posts in that thread receives two or more votes, the thread is highlighted by inclusion in the ‘hot topics’ list. This doubles up the ‘advertising’ of that thread. Also when a new posting is made it pushes existing postings ‘down’ the list. I’ve noticed at times that a topic that seems to be of high interest (but not necessarily being voted on) is no longer ‘seen’ due to moving down the list & often, no further postings are made to that thread.
I assume that we all frequent the forums at differing intervals. By the posts disappearing off the lists I wonder if they are being missed by less frequent users?
Is it possible to have the lists on the home page work so that the topic does not double up. i.e, if a topic becomes a ‘hot topic’, can it be removed from the ‘new posting’ list & allow another post to have it’s place on that list.The motivation for this came about by talking to a few different people, independently of each other, about the forums & realising that we each use the forum differently. It appears that for some, that they are only prompted by the home page listings & another by the digests. In my case: > homepage> forums> new posts since last veiwing. That way I never miss anything.
The next example I also offer for totally constructive reasons. When the Cafe night, as an example, is ‘advertised’, it’s inclusion on the ‘new posts’ list pushes another post off. Often the majority of participants at the cafe night are regulars & so the notification is possibly at the expense of a thread that may be of interest to more people…but unfortunately now ‘not noticed’.
All the ideas/comments offered above have been made to (possibly) improve the experience for the reader & hopefully encourage even more participation.
edit; I’ve just remembered something else, on my computer at least, the ‘button’ on the new posts list does not work. Until I noticed (quite some time ago) the possibility to ‘go to forums’ in the ‘who’s online’ panel, I assumed the ‘new posts’ were all there was.
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2 Replies
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Quote:The motivation for this came about by talking to a few different people, independently of each other, about the forums & realising that we each use the forum differently. It appears that for some, that they are only prompted by the home page listings & another by the digests. In my case: > homepage> forums> new posts since last viewing. That way I never miss anything.That is the situation as I understand it too. Everyone finds a subset of the functionality that works for them, and of course has a preference for the site to change to facilitate their way of interacting. And yes, some people report bugs to me in parts of the site I didn’t even know worked at all!!!
The algorithms used by the site for lists and the like change quite frequently which is why they are not documented anywhere. I don’t adjust things to suit personal preferences, but rather watch the site navigation statistics and try to maximise the number of forum articles read – or if I’m trying to sell tickets the number of people visiting TrannyTix.
There is also a second side to this tracking that most members are probably not aware of, but which is crucial to the survival of the site. That is the way the forums and other information are presented to people who are NOT members. This is the largest load on the forums – and converting browsers to members is an ongoing challenge.
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Quote:I’ve just remembered something else, on my computer at least, the ‘button’ on the new posts list does not work. Until I noticed (quite some time ago) the possibility to ‘go to forums’ in the ‘who’s online’ panel, I assumed the ‘new posts’ were all there was.
I think I found why the button only worked in some browsers.
It certainly works for me in IE now.
So click on the button next to the words “What is new in the forums” – and it should show just that.