Has the idea of changing the actual message board structure ever come up? Is it possible? I guess this would need to be directed to MR. Wisely. But, I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts. I’m thinking there could be several section in The Poststructural Message Board.
Maybe:
General chit chat (on or off topic)
Whistle repair, maintenance, and tuning
Tunes info. (new tunes, I need the sheet music for this song/tune, where to find such and such song/tune etc.)
Upcoming whistle events or related events
Newbie questions
Whistle classifieds
Official announcements (for Mr. Wisely’s use only)
WhOA (hello, my name is ______ and I suffer from WhOA.)
I know this may seem like a huge change, but I think it would benefit everyone. The board seems fairly chaotic right now and hard to follow, unless you spend half your day checking and re-checking threads. Is there any reason a change couldn’t take place? Perhaps all the old (and very valuable) information would be lost with an upgrade? Perhaps the phpBB Version 1.5.1 is the best it gets? Just the thoughts from a new guy trying help.
I like it the way it is. I think that if it’s split up a lot of good input will be lost.
I don’t think it takes that long to check. I scan, and if a topic isn’t intersting to me, I don’t look at it. Also, each time you log on, it’s pretty quick to see what topics have new posts since your last visit.
At any rate, I think you may generate a lot of conversation both ways with this one.
I thought this might be the general feeling. I think it’s one of those things that if it was to change, in time you would enjoy the new version much more. Check out this message board:
I got the idea here. I post on this one often and I like the structure much better. It is more user friendly and I can hit the “new posts” button to see what has been posted since the last time I visited. Everything is right there and easy to search without doing an actual “search”.
On 2003-02-04 16:43, Bala wrote:
I thought this might be the general feeling. I think it’s one of those things that if it was to change, in time you would enjoy the new version much more. Check out this message board:
I got the idea here. I post on this one often and I like the structure much better. It is more user friendly and I can hit the “new posts” button to see what has been posted since the last time I visited. Everything is right there and easy to search without doing an actual “search”.
But you can see the new posts since the last time you visited here too…they move up to the top and the files to the left of the message header turn a different color (pink, in my case).
I rather like the board the way it is. I post on a lot of different message boards, with many different structures (and even moderate a couple), but I really like the informality of this one, and the flexibility of this script.
A. It would be hard to delineate the categories so that there would be minimal overlap.
B. It would cause confusion concerning which category to use.
C. A thread often evolves to an entirely new and interesting topic which might belong to a different category. This would necessitate moving the topic to a different board. (This happens sometimes even with the existing structure, when posts to the whistle board are moved to the trad board.)
D. Some of the boards would be used so infrequently that their existence would not be justified, and then the acceptable topics for another board or boards would need to be expanded in order to accomodate those of extinct boards. I.e., the structure of the boards would need to be periodically revised.
E. Most people (like me) probably would not scan the threads in all the categories and they might thereby miss something of great interest to them.
F. Lots of other negatives. It’s too boring to list them.
On 2003-02-04 16:49, Ridseard wrote:
Here are a few negatives.
E. Most people (like me) probably would not scan the threads in all the categories and they might thereby miss something of great interest to them.
Exactly- some time threads “wander off in a different direction.” Many times I learn something very useful from the new direction. If the original post was in a category that I didn’t look at, I would miss out on the information.
Exactly- some time threads “wander off in a different direction.” Many times I learn something very useful from the new direction. If the original post was in a category that I didn’t look at, I would miss out on the information.
When you hit the new posts button you have the same effect. You get every new post. You wouldn’t have to sift through every section. On my example message board we have post the go in all directions and deviate far from the original topic, and no one has trouble following them. Also the BBcodes are a click away rather than having to go to a separate page and insert the codes by hand or have them memorized. Also I realize the new posts here are shown in pink, but you also see the old posts that you have already read.
I think it would be good to have a special folder for things like Classifieds, or Tune Search, or Whistle Makers’ Chat or whatever. Things which are clearly only of interest to those who partake.
My only reservation is that TOO many special areas may make it hard to avoid overlap. Or worse, it may remove some discussions from places where they might have collateral benefit. For instance, I would hate for all newbies to be relegated to a special area. New folks often as really good questions - especially likely when you consider how clever you have to be to have picked up a whistle in the first place.
Also, I would hate for it to be rigid. It is a Good Thing for people to jump into the main stream of conversation and offer me a great deal on a great whistle, for example. I would hate to have missed 50% off something special because I wasn’t actively shopping the Classified section today.
My only reservation is that TOO many special areas may make it hard to avoid overlap.
We’ve never had any overlap issues. You post where it makes sense to post and you make the sections fitting to accommodate all subjects.
Or worse, it may remove some discussions from places where they might have collateral benefit. For instance, I would hate for all newbies to be relegated to a special area. New folks often as really good questions
Good point I think there would actually not be a need for the newbie section. any question they had would fit into the other sections.
Also, I would hate for it to be rigid. It is a Good Thing for people to jump into the main stream of conversation and offer me a great deal on a great whistle, for example. I would hate to have missed 50% off something special because I wasn’t actively shopping the Classified section today.
Again, with the “view new posts” option this is not an issue. Just hit view new post and you will stay on top of everything. Just like this board.
I’ve been on and off lots of boards, too. I like the structure of C&F, especially since people are very good about using the OT designation. I guess I’m of the opinion that this works, so why change it?
I love chaotic!!! I love reading a thread not knowing what it will turn into. I love the knowledge that one can mine in here. My life can be structured out there, not in here please. I prefer to spend MY TIME in here because of the way it is set up. Its loose, friendly, kinda off the cuff. Its a whistlers place. Lets just let it be what it will be.
We already have a problem with the need for double postings on the main board and the ITM board. Even with these, people still miss out on information they want because they are not in the habit of searching this or that board.
Let’s continue to live in our rich, varied, lush, prodigal and sexy jungle and let the lawyers and archivists get on with the business of forcing everything into artificially neat and narrow categories.
