Suggestions for forum improvements

[Bantamtim]

1) A "suggestions forum" where topics like this can go.
2) A "who's online" section somewhere on the main page.
3) Is there any way of seperating someone's signature from the main post? It could potentially get quite confusing.
4) Avatars.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Some people like post counts.

[Sentamu Bantam]

What day is it bro?
It's gotta be MAY something?http://koti.mbnet.fi/oskunoma/dans.gif



'Hit me YEAH!'

[TheDuck]

It does seem to be missing the date :P

I'll look into that think it's more todo with the Windows Server than the forum it's self.

Who's online i've just started to implement that you'll see it appear soon.

Avatars good idea - suggested elsewhere and will be added.

Post counts, i'll look into that.

[baldbantam]

I second the avatar request, but is there any function that allows users to chose whether avatars and signatures are viewed or not?

From your other thread it would appear people like a claret and amber look, but my personal preference is black text on white background. I think it's easier on the eye if you are on for any length of time. The novelty value of claret and amber wears off after a while. Again, is there any function that allows users to set their own preferences?

A feature that many liked on the old message boards was the ability to see who else was on line at the time. Can this be added in?

[baldbantam]

Any chance of:

Ability to search for posts by user

Ability to search for threads started by user

A more advanced control panel for posts enabling text modification (bold, italic etc), auto picture insertion, auto quotes etc.

I use vBB boards quite a lot and these are standard features. I don't know what the capability of this software is, or whether these things are possible on it.

[TheDuck]

I'm sure I can add all those features, If there isn't a pre-made mod for them i'll write them myself with being a bit of a php whizzkid :)

[baldbantam]

How do you put smilies in - I can't find an option.

I can't seem to get the clock right. I'm on GMT, but it is an hour slow regardless of whether I have DST set or not.

[TheDuck]

Set it one hour + and the clock will be right, thats what I get for using software written by Americans :)

[Sentamu Bantam]

Dude, I'm kinda forgetful.
Can you wizard an option to always display my sig?
I'm such a cool guy and want to share myself with all batmans.







'Soul powered'

[Bantamtim]

The option is in your control panel, under "Forum Settings" I think.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

How do you get the picture on???

[TheDuck]

http://www.vail.k12.az.us/cwehome/images/rundog.gif

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Hey thats not fair how did you do that :)

[TheDuck]

Take a look at this page http://boards.rivals.net/default.asp?sid=883&p=16&style=2&forumId=4254&action=1&replytoid=534629393 Posted By Kop Kred.

[baldbantam]

On your forum list 'Announcements' is spelt wrong - you are missing the 'n' before the 'c'.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Cheers ed

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Doh

[TheDuck]

nearly :) move the / to the other side of the img.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Ill get there in the end.

[baldbantam]

The page you linked to for the image info is timing out on me. Any chance of instructions on here?

And what am I missing to put smilies on?

[TheDuck]

to post imgs do [ img ]url to image[ / img ]

remove the spaces between the ['s

images are : followed by a letter.

[baldbantam]

http://www.baldbantam.co.uk/Images/blehh.jpg

Cool.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Looking good Deano ;)

[Sentamu Bantam]

Thanks Dude, you're Boss!







'Slide'

[Stuttgart Bundesbantam]

Hi. I just wanted to second baldbantam's suggestion of a black-text-on-white background (or something similar) cos I'm finding it all a bit gloomy and hard work on the old mince pies as it is.

Otherwise, it's looking good!

[baldbantam]

Thread display is set to 10 posts per page. That's not a great deal.

Any chance of making it user settable or changing the default to a higher number, perhaps 25?

For housekeeping purposes you might want to think about adding another couple of forum options. I would suggest:

Bugs and Technical Faults

and perhaps more controversially:

Problems and Complaints

It's good that you are running this as a moderated board, but your moderation process needs to have a transparent appeal, review and complaints process to avoid accusations of moderator bias and unfair treatment. That keeps the general population happy with the principle of moderation, and ensures it doesn't feel like the secret police.

I would also suggest that you have a private forum for your moderators where they can discuss moderation actions in private before putting actions in to effect. You may want to obtain a consensus in private before banning someone, locking threads or editing posts. Also handy for moderators to have a place to vent a little bit of frustration if users are playing up.

[Rick]

Baldbantam, there is a report this post button under each post if you would like to complain, this way someone won't get abused for disagreing with something (pardon the spelling) like on the OMB.

[TheDuck]

Good thinking :) forums created.

There will be a mods only forum but then only mods would know it's there ;)

Changed from 10 to 25.

[baldbantam]

Thorney Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Baldbantam, there is a report this post button
> under each post if you would like to complain,
> this way someone won't get abused for disagreing
> with something (pardon the spelling) like on the
> OMB.

I appreciate that, and it's a useful function. However, the general workings of moderation need to be as transparent as possible. I use quite a few different forums and moderate on a couple, and believe me it is easiest when the users feel that the staff are accountable and that decisions are open to public debate.

Of course, at some point the staff have to have the final say, debate or no. But a transparent process is the best way to go.

Can someone please please please tell me how to get smileys up.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

As you would on a text BB : then a ) for a smile etc...

[baldbantam]

Cheers :)

Ok, so what smileys are available? I don't do much texting so what are the normal codes?

[Bantamtim]

What would be useful is the ability to lock threads, so that no-one can post in them, rather than just delete or move them. For example, if an interesting debate gets out of hand and people start insulting each other then the thread can be locked until the people who are insulting each other have calmed down, and then re-opened so that the interesting debate can continue.

Another useful feature would be a forum that everyone can read, but only moderators can post in, where mods can explain their decisions (eg, I deleted this thread because...). This would stop a load of "Why did you delete that?" topics.

[Bantam Of The Opera]

So far ive only worked out:-

; ) Wink

: ( Frown

: D Cheesy smile

: ) Smile

:o
:x

[Bantam Of The Opera]

The last two were first attemps

: o is shock

:x is obviously nothing!!!

[baldbantam]

Bantamtim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Another useful feature would be a forum that
> everyone can read, but only moderators can post
> in, where mods can explain their decisions (eg, I
> deleted this thread because...). This would stop
> a load of "Why did you delete that?" topics.


Agreed. People get upset by bannings and the like if people disappear with no explanation. A post explaining the circumstances briefly can stop a lot of heartache.

You might also want to consider giving mods the ability to split threads if posts start to wander away from the original topic, so that discussion not relevant to the original debate can be split in to a separate thread.

[TheDuck]

:)-D

[Bantamtim]

Trying out other smilies...
: |
: @
: lol : is occasionally used on other forums, I'll see if it works here...

:|
:@
:lol:

Nope, none of them work.

[TheDuck]

Keep the suggestions coming :)

These are all good ideas and i'll add them very soon.

[Bantamtim]

Next suggestion - give me and Thorney modding rights over the two new forums as well?

[Bantam Of The Opera]

Post of the week.

Poster of the week.


Hee hee imagine the egos :p

[Kop Kred]

Would it be possible to put the latest post at the top of the screen regardless of forum?

[baldbantam]

For efficiency of moderation you might want to look at assigning moderators to specific forums, particularly if you end up with a lot of traffic.

[baldbantam]

The forum list might be better organised if you have the admin forums separated from the general chat forums in some way. At the moment it's a bit mixed up.

Something like:

City Talk
Transfer Gossip
General Chat

===============

Announcements
Bugs and Techical Faults
Complaints

However you can get the software to display it, it's easier to follow if organised by category.

You might also want to consider creating an 'Elsewhere' forum, where threads with little worthwhile content can be moved if they don't develop. Saves the forums getting cluttered with trash threads.

[CG]

yeah...needs the date sortin out

[Serium]

Advertise on BfB? Also please clear this topic a bit as its getting full lol

[TheDuck]

Michael Wood said to me he'd point people over here, whether he links to these forums or not is upto him.

Baldbantam links to this site from his :)

[Serium]

If you ask michael then he will link to you, he has done for people before, how about showing how many posts people have made?

[TheDuck]

Yeah, go into your control center and change it to always display sig :)

[tony d]

Ed

Anally retentive i know but, could you list the individual posts with the newest first instead of last..

[TheDuck]

You can specify that in your control panel :)

[baldbantam]

Can you do it so you automatically keep copies of your PMs without having to specify?

I'm using the PM option quite a lot, but I keep on forgetting to tick the box to keep a copy.

[wykie]

Spell checker please if possible, I type at speed but am not the worlds best typist so at work its ok as the checker picks up the wrong key pressed and the less than perfect spelling plus the thought of cut and paste to word is to geeky to consider.:)

[citygirl]

don't know if this has been covered, as i haven't gone through all the posts..

but is it possible to get users online on every page, or just forum list?