Forum Improvements - User Poll

[Ange]

I'd quite like a big ass CWDF tea mug :-)

Oh lordy - the time for bed for me is now and that is my lasting image

[Caprifool]

Oh lordy - the time for bed for me is now and that is my lasting image

Bet you saw a ass shaped mug with CWDF stamped on one cheek! :-D

[Ange]

Bet you saw a ass shaped mug with CWDF stamped on one cheek! :-D

That is the moment where I'd hug you lovely man!

[Caprifool]

*blush*

[MtB]

Lovely donate button in full view in menu bar, or some other eye catching location.

 

I'll second that. Stick it up there just to the left of the SEARCH box.

 

 

MtB

[Ange]

*blush*

snuggles. you know when you have total companionship and you just snuggle next to each other. Grand innit. Huggles across the internet my friend xxx

[MtB]

Oi, you too!

 

<jealous> lol!

 

 

MtB

Edit, I think I meant 'two'. Two much scotch, possibly...

[Caprifool]

:-D

[Orca]

Direct image upload for certain. A few other (non-Waterway) Forums I post on have been doing this for a while. Would bode well on here I reckon with all the traffic.

[Guest]

We already have 'direct image upload', surely? We can put photos in our gallery.

 

The reason 'direct image upload' is winning so far is that linking to images in our own gallery, already hosted here, doesn't work. Why on earth not?

 

MtB

 

????????????????????????

 

Yes it does,

 

Edited September 2, 2013 by The Dog House

[Guest]

Lovely donate button in full view in menu bar, or some other eye catching location.

 

I agree with his, other forums I visit have this a 'donate via. paypal' button. I know we have one here but it's not prominent enough.

 

Plus I'm not sure anymore about the resistance to allowing discrete advertising on the forum, it doesn't have to overwhelm it as you see on some sites, and as long as Daniel had the say in exactly what was advertised (get your Viagra here!! - or rather not) it could be a useful source of forum income.

 

Anybody who doesn't want to see the ads. could just use adblock or some similar add on to their browser which prevents ad.s displaying and works brilliantly.

 

Also an improvement to the 'ignore' function would be good - currently it doesn't work well because if you use it but then somebody quotes that person you still see what they have said and you also see a message they have posted something and get the option to click on it.

 

It would work better if you just couldn't see any contribution at all from a member you have blocked, yes you can (as I currently do) just not interact any longer with certain individuals but it would perhaps make for less angst if you could not see some snide or underhand comment they may have made, obviously trying to goad you in the process.

Edited September 2, 2013 by The Dog House

[Doorman]

 

ETA how could I forget, and a sub forum on TOILETS AND SANITATION o yes!

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Good suggestion Pete but I doubt whether there would ever be enough interest in such a bland subject.

 

On the other hand though, I do believe that a virtual coat and pair of running shoes would come in handy on here, especially for me!

Edited September 2, 2013 by Doorman

[Doorman]

Lovely donate button in full view in menu bar, or some other eye catching location.

Perhaps area with a few usefull functions (scripts?) like, power audit (fill in your watts one appliance at a time and usage in hours per day and get a suggested amount of watts for solar panels or size of battery bank), standardised contracts (private sell, work, quotes etc.), monthly cost calculator (fill in blacking every X years, services X times per year, oil changes, fuel, paint job every X years, insurance, certificates, mooring costs etc. press a button and get your average monthly costs or what you need to save for when the costs arrive. Diesel price thingy (Listed diesel sellers, enter the latest price you payed, click and it sorts who's the cheapest) Paint or blacking calculator (enter boat length and paint tin size, press and get how many tins you need. Just thinking out loud. I bet the rest of you could think of some nifty calculator you would like.

A press area to download a selection of printable stationary, logos for putting on stickers, documents or posters to pin up on bil boards advertising say, a banter in X village. A non computer savvy boater in the area might be very happy to join the fun.

I'd quite like a big ass CWDF tea mug :-)

I agree.

 

There will be potential new members together with existing ones who could use such calculators to their advantage, thus making the forum even more attractive than it already is.

 

 

Home>About Us>Site Information - at the bottom of the page.

Whilst using an IPad I don't see that at the bottom of the page, as well as many other things.

Edited September 2, 2013 by Doorman

[DaveC]

With regard to direct uploading of pictures, it would be useful if when reading threads if an option to only download "thumbnails" or what ever they are called was available. This would help those who have a small download limit when using say a dongle when cruising. Not such a problem when on a home broadband connection though.

 

 

Dave

[Leo No2]

Dan - I think there are too many pinned items - there are eight in the General Boating thread. Things that are important and need to be pinned change over time so perhaps it is an appropriate time to review what's there.

 

I'd like a better mobile version (iPhone in my case) and I notice that the mobile version I use by default runs in GMT so posts on the Web anre currently 1 hour out from those on the mobile version. Also as I have worked with a 24 hour clock for my entire working life I'd like to see Forum times in the 24 hour format rather than AM/PM but realise that's an individual preference - wonder if it is perhaps configurable?

 

I'd also like to see tablet devices able to use fuller formatting options (iPad specifically for me but understand it also affects other tablets) which seemed to disappear with the most recent upgrade.

 

Apart from that it is great - and much faster since the weekend memory changes. Hope you are enjoying Delhi - I used to spend two months a year with NIIT and loved it.

[Guest]

Dan - I think there are too many pinned items - there are eight in the General Boating thread. Things that are important and need to be pinned change over time so perhaps it is an appropriate time to review what's there.

 

I'd like a better mobile version (iPhone in my case) and I notice that the mobile version I use by default runs in GMT so posts on the Web anre currently 1 hour out from those on the mobile version. Also as I have worked with a 24 hour clock for my entire working life I'd like to see Forum times in the 24 hour format rather than AM/PM but realise that's an individual preference - wonder if it is perhaps configurable?

 

I'd also like to see tablet devices able to use fuller formatting options (iPad specifically for me but understand it also affects other tablets) which seemed to disappear with the most recent upgrade.

 

Apart from that it is great - and much faster since the weekend memory changes. Hope you are enjoying Delhi - I used to spend two months a year with NIIT and loved it.

 

The lack of functionality on the iPad and other tablets is an issue to do with the browsers they use it's not a forum issue.

 

You can restore the functionality by using an alternate browser such as Puffin in the case of Android.

 

 

(ed to clarify who I was responding to.)

Edited September 2, 2013 by The Dog House

[Caprifool]

I think the existing mobile version is brilliant. It does exactly what I need it to do. Read the forum.

[Doorman]

The lack of functionality on the iPad and other tablets is a an issue to do with the browsers they use it's not a forum issue.

 

You can restore the functionality by using an alternate browser such as Puffin in the case of Android.

 

I'd gathered that but felt it needed a mention for anyone wanting to donate but had difficulty in finding the place to do it.

[Leo No2]

The lack of functionality on the iPad and other tablets is a an issue to do with the browsers they use it's not a forum issue.

 

You can restore the functionality by using an alternate browser such as Puffin in the case of Android.

All the iPad alternative browsers are just an overlay on Safari except for Opera Mini which also doesn't seem to allow rich formatting.

[MtB]

 

????????????????????????

 

Yes it does,

 

 

 

Well it never used to, surely? Is this not not the reason everyone thinks they have to upload their images to photobucket in order to put them in posts?

 

Given links to library images now work, we can forget all that mucking about with uploading to external hosting sites can't we?

 

 

MtB

[Guest]

 

Well it never used to, surely? Is this not not the reason everyone thinks they have to upload their images to photobucket in order to put them in posts?

 

Given links to library images now work, we can forget all that mucking about with uploading to external hosting sites can't we?

 

 

MtB

 

Only if we want to use up forum bandwidth, my understanding is that it's 'better' for the forum if images are held elsewhere.

 

I always thought you could link to gallery images but I hardly ever use or used it so can't say for sure whether you could before. However Images in the gallery have an internet address the same as any other so I would have thought it's always been possible.

All the iPad alternative browsers are just an overlay on Safari except for Opera Mini which also doesn't seem to allow rich formatting.

 

Sorry yes I realise that - I don't think you can fully rectify the issue on an iPad, but you can on an Android device such as my Nexus 7.

Edited September 2, 2013 by The Dog House

[smileypete]

I think some of the larger and more active sub-fora could be broken down. I seem to remember that the idea was resisted in the past for fear of losing forum identity and cohesiveness but we are much bigger and the knowledge-store far greater. As Pete points out the difficulty of wading through vast numbers of threads is daunting to forum greybeards, let alone newcomers. Moreover, there could be specialist moderators for each sub-fora to reduce the workload on moderators.

 

That's true, I wonder if it's technically possible to have a 'view new forum content' button inside each sub forum which would then work on that sub forum and any child forums.

 

Personally these days I just hit 'view new content' then pick out the threads to read, I never look at each forum individually, with the new forum software it's quite easy.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

Edited September 2, 2013 by smileypete

[Ange]

More PM space would definitely be handy.

 

Can we still send our PM conversations to our e-mail address? I used to be able to do this but can't seem to find the button any more.

[Phil Ambrose]

I'm happy to go with whatever Daniel thinks would improve the site, afterall it is his.

Phil

[DHutch]

Been and done 'change' to death, seen no real improvement so far.....

Really?

- I felt both times when we moved software version, particularly move from 3.1 to 3.4 when down well, and bought with it with a large number of positive improvements, including the admin side of it. The addition of the chatroom also went down well I felt.

 

 

 

There is, somewhere, a link to the forum Paypal donation thingy

Home>About Us>Site Information - at the bottom of the page.

I agree with his, other forums I visit have this a 'donate via. paypal' button. I know we have one here but it's not prominent enough.

For me deffo task number one is to put the donate button in a prominent place. We're united in that we're fairly demanding but united that we don't want advertising.

Please, Daniel, find a way to put a donate button somewhere really easy to find - what I'll do is every time this forum makes a difference to my life I'll donate some money - even if it's only £1 a time I can promise you that money from all of us will add up.

On a serious note and under the section 'Other', I'd like a facility to subscribe to the upkeep of the forum.

Lovely donate button in full view in menu bar, or some other eye catching location.

Point taken!