Forum Improvements - User Poll

[DHutch]

As part of the on going and continuous development of the forum I would like to gather some feed back from members on features that we could add to the forum, as detailed below, using the above poll.

 

Improvements to the gallery

Reducing limits and looking at further improvements which can be added to the existing gallery.

Tapatalk app support

Adding support for Tapatalk, a common multi-platform mobile application for browsing forums.

Forum member map

A google maps based display overlaid with members locations, or approximate locations. Members would have control of who was able to see their location, and be able to opt out if the wished.

Direct image upload

Allowing members upload images directly to their posts, rather than having to host them with a third party such as ImageShack or PhotoBucket.

Revised forum areas

Addition, removal, splitting, or combining of the current forum areas to adjust them to the changing demand.

Guide to using the forum

A short document explaining and informing members of the various forum features and how to use some of the more advances tools and forum options.

Alternative forum skins

Different colour schemes and or layouts of the forum display, such as a ‘work safe’ , high contrast or large font option.

Forum merchandise

A small range of CanalWorld branded merchandise, such as a new window sticker, a mouse mat, and clothing.

Other (please detail below)

If you have voted for ‘other’ please make it clear in your reply what you suggestion and or comments are.

 

Thoughts and comments are welcomed below, and I am also happy to take further suggestions and discuss my thoughts by reply. Obviously as well as the time to implement the change, some of the above changes may have a cost implication, however for now I am mainly interested in members opinions as to which they would find most beneficial.

 

The provision of a stable and cost effective forum, offering reliable performance for a suitable return, will always remain the number one priority.

 

==

 

Many of you will be aware from the recent threads and announcements that we have recently taken on an additional three members of staff, including or first member of technical staff, who are and will be working along side me to run and develop the forum.

 

Since I took over ownership of the site in 2009 we have had a 40% increase in posts generated, and a similar increase in both the number of users on-line during peak times, and the rate of new members joining.

 

This has drive a number of changes and equally presented a number of challenges, we have successfully continued to operate and grow, making a number of significant changes during this time, but the work is continuous and in parts we are working to catch up on certain area.

 

So on top of the features listed above there will be and has been a significant number of changes behind the scenes, increasing the server resources, improving the automated backup of the forum database, and adding a development site to allow better testing and implementation of changes before the are released onto the live site.

 

Finally, there have been a number of short service outages recently, and there will be a few more as the work continues to put various improvements in place, however we will continue to keep these to a minimum where possible and apologies for any inconvenience caused by this.

 

 

Daniel

 

Site Owner

 

 

 

[junior]

I've voted Direct Image Upload, Revised Forum Areas ]and Merchandise.

 

Direct Image Upload as even after 10 years of using forums, putting a picture in my post is still my biggest headache.

 

Revised Forum Areas as this has been bugging me for a while. I'd like to see a sub-forum dedicated to Moorings. Good places, LTM's, info on visitor moorings in certain areas etc. Also an area for discussion on wooded boats would be good, as would the 'Recommend a tradesperson' area i suggested a few weeks ago. There are some areas of the forum that are hardly used and could be merged with existing areas. Some of the 'Stickys' could do with reconsidering as well.

 

Merchandise as it would make other members a bit easier to spot if there was a decent window sticker or something awailable.

[sueb]

None of the above happy with it as it is

[bottle]

I'm with Sue.

[RLWP]

I'm with Sue.

 

Congratulations!

 

Richard

[bottle]

[john6767]

Daniel, I think direct image upload would help a lot of people, but what are the cost implications of hosting images. I would hate to see the site have to take on advertising for example to fund this.

[DHutch]

Daniel, I think direct image upload would help a lot of people, but what are the cost implications of hosting images. I would hate to see the site have to take on advertising for example to fund this.

Absolutely, and we would have to do some fairly careful sums before we implemented it, in conjunction with similar calculations on increasing gallery limits, along with considerations of where and what we plan to do for servers in the future.

 

However, the sites server resource requirements* means that we currently have a package which 300gb a month of bandwidth (the other thing that costs, and which photos use a very lot) of which we only use around a quarter.

 

Hence as I say, at this level, while that's a valid concern, I'm interested in peoples thoughts on the functionality benefits alone.

 

 

*predominately, 4gb of dedicated ram to handle the page generation requests

 

 

Daniel

[Guest]

Displaying images in the forum is a cinch.

 

The fact they are hosted elsewhere is much more cost effective than hosting them here.

 

Uploading them directly here will still require a process that inevitably some people will still find difficult.

 

As to the OP, I'm with Keith too (bottle) the forum is fine as it is.

[DHutch]

Very glad that people are, largely and in the main, very happy with the current function of the site.

 

However equally, the inclusion of all of the eight items in the above poll have come directly, if not exclusivity, from member requests and suggestions made on the site and via PM.

 

 

Daniel

[cotswoldsman]

As a Continuous Cruiser I quite like the idea of the map, I must pass hundreds of members a year but do not have a clue

[BlueStringPudding]

Direct image upload into forum posts has my vote

Edited September 1, 2013 by BlueStringPudding

[Québec]

re: Direct images...I agree with Martin. The danger is that members (including me) upload huge picture files and very soon there's no free space - unless there is an automatic, and low cut off - in which case people will just get frustrated with constant 'image too large' warnings. At least with off-site hosting e.g. photobucket, facebook, etc. they a) have the capacity and b.) there's some size control....and linking really shouldn't be a problem, though it often seems to be.

 

Paul

Edited September 1, 2013 by Québec

[madcat]

I mostly like things as they are.

Iam very pleased by the new Arts and Crafts section and will be using it quite often I expect.

I voted for more info on using forum features, I find I struggle with new stuff.

[system 4-50]

<dream mode>

I'd like to be able execute code. For example

I'd like to create a process that members could input their electricity usage and their battery configuration and it would generate a charging scenario. And variations on that theme.

And a cable sizing routine specifically geared to narrow boats.

I'd like to create a NB configurator.

And an interactive BSS quiz/checker.

I'd like to create a tilt & tip predictor which takes simple weight data and tells you if an extra bag of solid fuel will make your boat roll over.

I can write some of the code but I can't cope with setting up a web site as well.

I don't see how that squares with this being a discussion forum but it might be useful.

</dream mode>

PS The existing setup is pretty damn good, given that its a discussion forum. But we need a reference database as well.

Edited September 1, 2013 by system 4-50

[boots]

Like it as-is, though the map might be useful

[larkshall]

On the whole I like it as it is.

If I were to make any suggestions it would be as follows (under OTHER)

 

Increase pm capacity to 150 per member.

 

Put a size limit on both file size and quantities of images uploaded in any one posting.

 

Prevent the duplication or triplication of images in Forum subject threads when quoted by members, its tedious, wastes bandwidth, and slows everything down.

 

Indexing of all images.

 

I think the home page needs some work on it, its not very informative for passing internet users.. EG there should be a quick way of joining the site.

 

Expired membership, All users should be forced to confirm membership every 12 months.

[DHutch]

re: Direct images...I agree with Martin. The danger is that members (including me) upload huge picture files and very soon there's no free space - unless there is an automatic, and low cut off .

There would most certainly be a image size threshold on the direct-upload feature, and assuming its practical to incorporate it (which I have not looked into yet) the option or requirment to resize larger images to suit as part of the process.

 

 

If I were to make any suggestions it would be as follows

- Increase pm capacity to 150 per member.

- Put a size limit on both file size and quantities of images uploaded in any one posting.

- Prevent the duplication or triplication of images in Forum subject threads when quoted by members.

- Indexing of all images.

I agree the home page is very poor, and work on that is planned.

 

Increasing the PM count is a very valid suggestion, and one that would be very easy to implement, so I will look into the effects it could have one database size and forum load and review the current limit.

 

With images hosted outside of the forum it is hard to control the file size, I have seen forums and plugins for resizing the displayed image but as so far as far as I know all the ones I have seen only change the displayed size, rather than the actual resolution or file size, which is very cpu intensive process to do on the fly, and cannot be done on a 'once per image' basis without then hosting it yourself, as per the gallery or proposed 'direct upload' functionality.

 

There is already a limit on the number of images you can hotlink to within anyone post.

 

Indexing of images is an interesting one, it would be easy to 'index' or at least have a folder of the images that had been added using the 'direct upload' function, if implemented, but I don't know what the options would be for indexing hotlinked images hosted elsewhere. I shall add it to the list of things to look into.

 

My views on 'pruning' the member database are largely documented in the recent 'how many members are there' thread, and in short, pruning after a year is certainly not something I plan to implement for the reasons outlined in that thread.

 

Daniel

[DHutch]

<dream mode>

I'd like to be able execute code.

For example I'd like to create a process that members could input their electricity usage and their battery configuration and it would generate a charging scenario. And variations on that theme.

 

- A cable sizing routine specifically geared to narrow boats.

- I'd like to create a NB configurator.

- And an interactive BSS quiz/checker.

- I'd like to create a tilt & tip predictor

 

I can write some of the code but I can't cope with setting up a web site as well.

I don't see how that squares with this being a discussion forum but it might be useful.

</dream mode>

PS The existing setup is pretty damn good, given that its a discussion forum. But we need a reference database as well.

Interesting comments.

 

The main issue I see with being able to embed code, is controlling what code could do, should it be used for malicious intent (if you can use it, the spammers will abuse it) however the list of things you detail are interesting and I don't expect to be adding code running capability its something I would be interested in talking about if you wish to PM me.

 

I have considered expanding outside of the forum and developing a attached site or 'reference database' at some point, including the possibility of creating a canalwiki site, which again, if someone was interested in spending some time developing I would be interesting in talking with them about that, although at present I am keen to focus closer to home.

 

 

Daniel

[Delta9]

 

I have considered expanding outside of the forum and developing a attached site or 'reference database' at some point, including the possibility of creating a canalwiki site, which again, if someone was interested in spending some time developing I would be interesting in talking with them about that, although at present I am keen to focus closer to home.

 

 

Daniel

I think the Wiki is a good idea, I could put some time into getting it up and running if you wish.

[RLWP]

I think the Wiki is a good idea,

 

So do I. Just don't ask for us to agree on anything...

 

Richard

[the grinch]

I'm with Sue.

when is the big day? lol

[luctor et emergo]

I think there is a reason why Daniel put this poll up. I feel that this site is growing out of it,s comfortable jacket. So, leave things as they are (and wither..) Or move on a step, and introduce some new and exciting additions to the site?

As a member who has been here for the better part of 4 years, the site has a potential to go stale, whilst still ha ving so much untapped potential to play with.

[Guest]

I think there is a reason why Daniel put this poll up. I feel that this site is growing out of it,s comfortable jacket. So, leave things as they are (and wither..) Or move on a step, and introduce some new and exciting additions to the site?

As a member who has been here for the better part of 4 years, the site has a potential to go stale, whilst still ha ving so much untapped potential to play with.

I don't get 'go stale'?

[RLWP]

I don't get 'go stale'?

 

Stagnate?

 

Something is changing in the forum at the moment. There are desires to change, grow, stay the same, interfere, fight, cooperate and more. There's more of it about than there used to be, perhaps because there are more of us than there used to be

 

Richard