Few suggestions!

WireNine

WireNine

Member
This forum is great, but it's lacking a few things in my opinion.

1. You guys should re-categorize your forums a little (merge web hosting reviews and discussion) yes it would be a lot more organized, but the sub-forums really turns off the people from viewing/posting in that particular section. The more sub-categories, the less # of posts show up on each and the visitors get turned away from the forums.

If you look at WHT's past, they had 11 total categories, no sub categories.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010201063600/http://webhostingtalk.com/

2. Upgrade to the new vbulletin 4, honestly it will greatly improve the social networking capabilities of the forums.

3. The current forum design is great, keep it :smash: but the forum categories are mis-aligned on the forum home. The last post bit don't line up with the other ROOT categories. Make TEXT bigger, I have to use the browser ZOOM to browse this forum or it hurts my eyes.

Move the upper banner elsewhere, being above the logo is killing hostingdiscussion brand. Nothing should be above the logo.

4. Get a few more moderators, admins, to help out around the forums :)

Just thought I'd share my opinion :crash: :twocents:
 
Another thing, twitter page was updated last on 2:11 PM Mar 21st via web

You should add a rss feed of the forum on your twitter :)
 
Get a few more moderators, admins, to help out around the forums
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To be quite honest, I think we do a fantastic job. Do you have any situations in particular that make you think we don't? Perhaps we could make the "Report a Post" button bigger. That should be on Art's to-do list. Actually, I think it probably already is on the to-do list. We just have a lot to do around here. ;)

I think your other points are valid. :)
 
I don't even see a report a post button :shh:

I also think you should be on par with WHT in regards to the advertising section, 14 day limit is a bit too much, 7 day limit for regular members, add premium membership for 3 day limit would be a lot better :agree:
 
I too had ever seen 'Report a Post' button.

WireNine

WHT,regards to the advertising section, 14 day limit is a bit too much, 7 day limit for regular members, add premium membership for 3 day limit would be a lot bette
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Ya I agree,that would be much better.:smash:
 
There should be a small report a post button in the upper right hand corner of a post, in the gold strip. It's a circle with a diagonal line through it, like a no smoking sign.
 
I can see where they're coming from on the report post button - it's super small. I wouldn't merge web hosting reviews with discussion - I think those two are vastly different.
 
Ali, thanks for your suggestions, obviously I appreciate your feedback. While some of them require further discussion, some of them I do agree with, namely:

- Twitter does need more updating, we will work on that;
- Forum re-organization is a potential move also, although they do allow us to spread content around for search indexing;

As for forum upgrade to latest version, that is a massive process in itself and will only will be done if we change things drastically. If there is not an immediate need to upgrade, I won't do it. The new vB does not really offer anything worthy. Version 4.0 does not offer any new social networking tools that we cannot have with a plug-in/mod now.

New moderators, might be a good idea, but we have a very strong and active team now that handles it very well and proactively. If I were to get help now, it would be someone in the Australian time zone to help us manage through North American and European night hours.

I am not sure what mis-alignment you mean. If you can send me a screenshot, I would appreciate that.

Oh yes, the Report Post button is on the to-do list!
 
I think just a text next to the button "Report Post" would help a lot.

"Tags" - enable the tags feature of vbulletin, I'm not sure if it's available in 3.6.8, so it might be worth it to upgrade at least to 3.8.5 :) Upgrading to 3.8.5 shouldn't be that major.

I'd be happy to help around as a mod if thats acceptable? I'm usually online most of the day/night working anyways :)

I will post a screenshot of the misaligned forum bit in a little bit.
 
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Also add Share This mod/plugin for vbulletin to allow people to post certain posts/threads to their twitter profile and other social networks.
 
Tags + Share This plugins are both valid points. Not sure how valuable tags are for the users here though. WHT has been using them for the past few months, but I can't see the direct benefit. I do not use them for search, and even if I were to use them, they do not give full picture because not everyone is tagging their posts. Btw, Sharing option is enabled on a Thread view level under "Linkback" link.

I was planning to get the Report Post button redesigned in the same format sometime soon, that would actually say "REPORT POST". Its a must do!

Moderators, unfortunately, cannot be involved, own or work for web hosting companies, but thank you for the kind offer nevertheless. :)

Quite honestly, right now the priority for me is the release of a Mobile Skin, but we keep running into issues. I might eventually have to upgrade to 3.8.5 after all.
 
Artashes said:
Tags + Share This plugins are both valid points. Not sure how valuable tags are for the users here though. WHT has been using them for the past few months, but I can't see the direct benefit. I do not use them for search, and even if I were to use them, they do not give full picture because not everyone is tagging their posts. Btw, Sharing option is enabled on a Thread view level under "Linkback" link.

I was planning to get the Report Post button redesigned in the same format sometime soon, that would actually say "REPORT POST". Its a must do!

Moderators, unfortunately, cannot be involved, own or work for web hosting companies, but thank you for the kind offer nevertheless. :)

Quite honestly, right now the priority for me is the release of a Mobile Skin, but we keep running into issues. I might eventually have to upgrade to 3.8.5 after all.
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http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=171947

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=213136
 
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It seems there is contemplation on upgrading, so one or both of the following points may be default in the upgrade. I'm a phpBB guy myself, so I'm afraid I do not know.

Oh yeah, and about that consideration of an upgrade, wouldn't there be security upgrades within the new package to take into consideration? Just a side thought there, not one of the suggestions.

Okay, the suggestions:

Firstly, I think there should be some user control to enlarge board-wide text size. The font, if you will. I don't see any button anywhere for the sight impaired or older folks. One size larger might be enough. Some sites have two size increases.

True, not a lot of users would feel a need to be reading a larger font, but it is a nice feature for those that do need it. Kind of a courtesy. It's a requirement by law in some countries in some venues. Not this sort of site, but it shows the issue of helping out sight impaired folks on the Net is gaining ground.

The guys and gals at W3C have a rather concise page on this business of font/text size here http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/font-size although I don't agree that one size fits all my university colleagues stuck in there at the top in a bold font. I say they should know better, but that's between us, yes? Anyway, what's even better on that page are the "Further Reading" links down at the bottom of the page.

The second suggestion I'd like to make a motion on is that teeny-weeny "Back to the Top" button down there. Seems like it could be better advertised as being there. Yes, I know its got an arrow shape. but text might be a bit better. Maybe just "Top" would be fine. There isn't even any hovering text to indicate what that button does.

Like a wrote above, one or both of the suggestions might already be built into an upgrade package, which would make this post pointless.

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