micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

I just got done scrolling through the forum list here at RCU, and it seems to get bigger every time I do. Theres now roughly 175 forums, and another roughly 75 sub forums! Its nice to have a specific forum for one specific thing, but it also sometimes makes finding your way around more difficult. Why the need for seperate Off Topic forums for the heli/plane guys and car/truck guys? Why the seperate catagories of "RC Airplanes" and "Electric Aircraft Universe"? Why the two seemingly differant, yet similar RC Gliders forum? A good handfull of these countless forums seem to get so very little traffic too.

No particular suggestion here I guess, its just hard to negotiate/navigate this site sometimes due to the ever increasing number of differant forums here (and this comming from a guy who a couple years ago actually asked for a new forum good thing the suggestion was declined )

Nick

mvigod

Nick,

We have a MyForums feature here in SETTINGS area that you can use to set to view ONLY the forums you want to see. Then when you click the MYforums button it will show you only those on the homepage, jump list and when you get new posts in that mode only new posts from your forums.

Balancing too many or too few forums is THE most challenging part of running a community site. We try to do our best to not over or under segregate things. I'm sure at times we have under/over shot this in various areas and we do readjust when mistakes are clearly apparent.

Your suggestion to combine electric with our regular ones is very interesting and we have thought about this. It may be something we do but it is a major move and not reversible unless I can think of a programming hack to combine forum views where say electric gliders can be its own forum BUT also the posts from there are seen in the regular glider forum.

LMK your thoughts

marc

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Marc,

I've been a member here since '05 and I didnt even know about the My Forums option...d'oh! Thanks for that tip!

How about something like a General Glider catagory, and make the differant glider forums into sub forums? I guess I dont know if that would actually help anything...

Thanks,
Nick

mvigod

I'm going to give it some thought but I'd first try to use technology to make custom user views more useful and customizable then even the myforums gives.

Like I said it is always tough to keep the balance perfect and it is always in motion

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

I like the idea of custom user views. If you guys were to do that, would things like backround color or text size be changeable as well?

mvigod

Possibly we could do that too. Right now we have new posts from MyForums so it does what I am thinking here but only for new posts since last visit. Not necessarily for just browsing regardless of posting time.

Also...gramatically it is "How about fewer forums" I think. I know my partner here is always correcting me on the less vs fewer as he is grammar police so now I have to extend the fun

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

My grandmother is an english teacher, I'm used to it (and she'd be so dissapointed with me!)

I just checked out the MyForums option, boy does that make things easier, thanks again for that tip.

Since I've got your attention, what is the "Score" located under the post count all about?

Nick

mvigod

Score is just something we are experimenting with right now. Users can rate other users posts. This way if a user has a large number of points they might be deemed as one of the more knowledgeable or active people on the site OR we may just use it to give out prizes and perks too. Right now we just put it out there and you cannot take points away from people so it is only additive.

Glad you like the MyForums option. We built it to deal with the many forum issue you initially outlined in your first post. We actually have had that feature for at least six years since we launched this new forum software. It helps alot to get to only the stuff you want to see for sure!

marc

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

Interesting idea for the Score, I do like free stuff (prizes)!

MyForums has been around for 6 years? Shows how much I pay attention...

Oh, and its "a lot" rather than "alot"

mvigod

Touche

Now you know why my partner here at RCU always corrects my english I'm one hot grammatical mess

micro_builder

My Feedback: (1)

Well, at least you're not alone, in fact speaking proper english seems to be the minority these days, especially on the boards...maybe a spell checker built into RCU?