Curious about site format

Bartman

Bartman

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Hi all,

Is anybody else bored by the old forum-style format of the site? Most social media is consumed by more personal interactions and photos but forums tend to drive users towards conversations and information sharing. Which is good! But would it be interesting to anyone if we tried a combination of the two? Forums plus personal, social media type sharing?

I think it can be done pretty easily, it'll just take some thought on my part as to how it should look and how you will interact with the site once it's done. The current format will always be here for anyone that wants to stick with it and we'll still have forums for these conversations that draw us in but there will also be a new type of post that you'll be able to do to your own profile and there will be a page where profile posts will scroll in real time and comments on those posts will also be enabled.

It could be fun.

Thoughts?
 
You mean like Facebook where folks post pictures of their breakfast and stuff? To each his own!
 
You are a dedicated administrator! The Forums are great in my book. Acting simply as a voyeur to several threads I’ve learned an awful lot about my airplane and how to operate it. I am also so very much impressed with the help members have given each other. Pictures, of planes, pilots and adventures (not breakfast) are also always good. Learning more about other members who are willing to share is good too. But, I have gotten an awful from the current format.
 
I like a forum type interaction myself. I find this format gives information about certain subjects (airplanes) with a sidebar to the personalities doing the Q&A.
A site using the personalities as the lead and airplanes as the subtext wouldn't be as appealing IMPO...not that there aren't interesting people here but I'm in the the anti-twitter, anti-fakebook crowd.
It's just not what I'm lookin for...

JMPO
Chris
 
Plus 1. I had to block my family posts - one is pushing conspiracies, another thinks the world is 4000 years old, and the others post lots of photos of screaming grandchildren. Yow! No way I would ever "friend" anyone else.
 
I prefer the topical forum format. You are never going to beat Facebook at their own game. IMO this forum is more valuable as a long term repository of experience, knowledge, and resources.
 
One suggestion on organization. There are some questions and discussion topics that are clearly of widespread interest among owners of our type, and that most of us wind up addressing sooner or later. Examples:
  • Jack adapters
  • Parachute type
  • Fuel sticks
  • Gear bolts
  • IFR cert
  • Tail spring geometry
  • Reconditioned gear legs
  • Aluminum gear upgrade
  • Metal wing upgrade
We have had some pretty thorough discussions on these topics. IMO it would be useful to make those topics easier to find, especially for new arrivals. That would also lessen the number of duplicate discussions.

Stickies would help, but the site is a bit spread out for that. I recommend a single consolidated sub forum called Hot Topics, FAQ, or similar, in the Members Area just below the new arrivals intros. Only you as the moderator could elevate discussions into that sub forum.
 
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I also recommend you continue to be ruthless in pruning dormant forums and areas. For example, by now it is pretty clear there isn't a lot of interest in discussing airshow performers. Certainly not enough to justify a separate area. That could be consolidated into a single sub forum in another area. I also recommend demoting the events area below the flying and tech areas.

As any gardener knows, pruning is essential to allow the remaining limbs to grow stronger.
 
So, an odd thing happened the other day on the way to the frozen foods section.....

A long time ago I thought we wrote off the whole real-time streaming "Profile Posts" feature of the site so I was thinking about it again and figured I'd raise it as a potential change to the site. But then I actually looked and they're still there!

Here's the link to what New Profile Posts gets you;

You can post updates to your profile as status updates and they would be more like little ditties you don't think are new-thread-worthy but are part of what you're doing on a particular day, for no particular reason, like if I smashed my thumb with a hammer and wanted to post a pic of the carnage but didn't want to start a whole new thread about it. Some of you might like that, some won't. Any of you are certainly welcome/encouraged to start a new thread about whatever you want (except spammers, don't do it you little bastards!) but I understand why some people wouldn't want to.

So it's already there and if you click the "What's New" drop down link under the header banner at the top of the page, you can then click New Profile Posts and you'll see what ditties have been added lately. I can think of all sorts of things I'd post to my profile that I wouldn't necessarily want to use for a new thread so maybe I'll start doing that and we'll see if anyone else likes it. Profile posts are a lot more like the everyday stuff you'd see flow through your social media type sites and they're just another level of sharing that is possible here at the world's greatest Champ, Citabria, Decathlon, and sometimes Chiefs/Cubs website, ChampCitabriaDecathlonForums.com! :DC:
 
Big Ed said:
One suggestion on organization. There are some questions and discussion topics that are clearly of widespread interest among owners of our type, and that most of us wind up addressing sooner or later. Examples:
  • Jack adapters
  • Parachute type
  • Fuel sticks
  • Gear bolts
  • IFR cert
  • Tail spring geometry
  • Reconditioned gear legs
  • Aluminum gear upgrade
  • Metal wing upgrade
We have had some pretty thorough discussions on these topics. IMO it would be useful to make those topics easier to find, especially for new arrivals. That would also lessen the number of duplicate discussions.

Stickies would help, but the site is a bit spread out for that. I recommend a single consolidated sub forum called Hot Topics, FAQ, or similar, in the Members Area just below the new arrivals intros. Only you as the moderator could elevate discussions into that sub forum.
Click to expand...

Ed,

Yes, and no. I agree in that it's helpful for new people to be able to find these things but I disagree in that new questions from new people, even on old subjects, serve as a great jumping off point for new people to get involved and to start meeting their fellow members at the site. Old members are awesome for info and guidance in different ways but older members don't usually post as much as new ones so encouraging new members to feel free to ask whatever questions they might want to ask is part of a welcoming community and definitely what we want here.

Having said that, as great threads run their course, everyone can feel free to suggest they be pinned and I'll almost always oblige you. :)

For everyone other than Big Ed, "Pinned" or "Made Sticky" means they are made easier to find by being stuck to the top of the threads list in their category or sub-forums topics list. If you click on a sub-forum, you'll see a list of threads. In that list, next to the word Replies you'll see a push-pin, that means the thread will always be there at the top where the others are listed according to when the last posts were made.
 
Under that What's New drop down link there is also a link to "Latest Activity" which is another way to see a snapshot of what's new.

Here's a link;

Latest activity

champcitabriadecathlonforums.com champcitabriadecathlonforums.com
 
Not wild about extensive “stickies” to scroll through. Newbie asks a well-covered question? Post a link for her.
 
Bob Turner said:
Not wild about extensive “stickies” to scroll through. Newbie asks a well-covered question? Post a link for her.
Click to expand...

Agreed about scrolling thru stickies, which is why I suggested an FAQ section.

The easier you make it for visitors to find the content they are most interested in, the more traffic you will get. That's pretty much the reason why Mark Zuckerberg is the richest man in the world.
 
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