Changes to the forum-discussion thread

[dancer]

Originally Posted by Administrator

This is my every intention. When first getting to know a community I like to ask a few questions. I helps me better understand what your needs and wants are as a member. [/i]

Welcome, Phil. And maybe we as members would like to know a little more about you. For instance, may we have the names of the other forums you moderate. I belong to TractorByNet.com and CountryByNet.com and LawnmowerForum.com. Should I be looking at others?

And best regards to Brendan for having a dream and doing something about it -- unlike most of us "wannabes". It takes a helluva man, or woman, both to accomplish something like that and to know when to retire from it with honor.

No matter what is requested by the membership, you cannot make the site "encyclopedic". The various search functions work well enough for those who are willing to work them. I am one of those. For members who get too frustrated or lack the skill, ask them to PM me with their question and I'll do the research for them -- until I tire of it. And seeing the samo-samo question over and over doesn't bother me personally, though it clearly does some other people. If I've been there and done that, I just ignore the repetition. The same would be true of advertising, you put it on if it suits you and I can easily ignore it.

What do you like the most about the site?

A sense of community and helpfulness, mixed with light-hearted verbal "fun" and patter, along with the occasional serious discussion. I'm especially attracted to well-written posts and OPs who express themselves with linguistic correctness or with imagination, or better yet with both.

What do you think the site needs to help improve your experience?

Personally, I happen to like the contentious subjects -- which include religion, politics, weapons, and discussions of what is/is not entertaining. However, discusssions in these areas must be kept "polite", which it turns out can only happen with the active help of moderators as such subjects do indeed tend to degrade into a pushing/shoving/shouting contest between two, and usually only two, members. So a Sheriff to enforce the rules and to minimize the "attitudes" would be a good thing at that point -- "Take it offline, you two!"

Being a site supporter or considering it what do you feel you want to see as an incentive for your supporter dues?

I realize that I'm getting something that I value at a very low cost. To be a $tromtrooper costs, at the miminum contribution, half of an annual membership in Classmates.com -- but it's silly even to compare the two.

If there was one switch that I could flip, it would be to turn on the filter limiting posts apparently fueled by alcohol or other mood- and attitude-altering substances. I'm not generally opposed to the ingestion, just the unlimited effect.

The Pointless Profanity Club seems to have already muted itself... Discussion mostly about motorcycles seems a better idea.

[K1W1]

While we are making suggestions.

Tapatalk support.

We are in the era of the iPhone and smartphone whether we want to be or not so lets embrace it rather than fight it.

[RedBean25]

Originally Posted by K1W1

While we are making suggestions.

Tapatalk support.

We are in the era of the iPhone and smartphone whether we want to be or not so lets embrace it rather than fight it.

+ 16 billion

That would be a lot easier than viewing the site on the browser of the phone.

[Administrator]

Originally Posted by K1W1

While we are making suggestions.
Tapatalk support.
We are in the era of the iPhone and smartphone whether we want to be or not so lets embrace it rather than fight it.

Tapatalk works well on some forums and some it is just a huge pain. This can be rooted back to your data plan provider. At least on another forum I admin on they discovered some of the users where having trouble with double and triple posting from tapatalk. I will look into what is causing troubles here if you have specific tapatalk issues we may be able to help with. at the end of the day some of it is still up to tapatalk.

Originally Posted by dancer

Welcome, Phil. And maybe we as members would like to know a little more about you. For instance, may we have the names of the other forums you moderate. I belong to TractorByNet.com and CountryByNet.com and LawnmowerForum.com. Should I be looking at others? And best regards to Brendan for having a dream and doing something about it -- unlike most of us "wannabes". It takes a helluva man, or woman, both to accomplish something like that and to know when to retire from it with honor. No matter what is requested by the membership, you cannot make the site "encyclopedic". The various search functions work well enough for those who are willing to work them. I am one of those. For members who get too frustrated or lack the skill, ask them to PM me with their question and I'll do the research for them -- until I tire of it. And seeing the samo-samo question over and over doesn't bother me personally, though it clearly does some other people. If I've been there and done that, I just ignore the repetition. The same would be true of advertising, you put it on if it suits you and I can easily ignore it.
A sense of community and helpfulness, mixed with light-hearted verbal "fun" and patter, along with the occasional serious discussion. I'm especially attracted to well-written posts and OPs who express themselves with linguistic correctness or with imagination, or better yet with both.
Personally, I happen to like the contentious subjects -- which include religion, politics, weapons, and discussions of what is/is not entertaining. However, discusssions in these areas must be kept "polite", which it turns out can only happen with the active help of moderators as such subjects do indeed tend to degrade into a pushing/shoving/shouting contest between two, and usually only two, members. So a Sheriff to enforce the rules and to minimize the "attitudes" would be a good thing at that point -- "Take it offline, you two!" I realize that I'm getting something that I value at a very low cost. To be a $tromtrooper costs, at the miminum contribution, half of an annual membership in Classmates.com -- but it's silly even to compare the two.
If there was one switch that I could flip, it would be to turn on the filter limiting posts apparently fueled by alcohol or other mood- and attitude-altering substances. I'm not generally opposed to the ingestion, just the unlimited effect.
The Pointless Profanity Club seems to have already muted itself... Discussion mostly about motorcycles seems a better idea.

MyTractorForum.com is one of the forums I work with. I guess you could call them rivals of LawnmowerForum.com and the new Lawnmower-forum.com I hear has just started up. What else about me... My Girlfriend is the one in the family with a motorcycle, She drove a Harley for years until she lost it in a divorce and she has encouraged me to get my M-class license and ditch the bicycle collection for something with an engine. The plan is to invest after we are married.
As far as flaming and swearing this is somthing I will work on with the mod and admin staff to keep it at a reasonable level. We can install language filters but as I can tell this forum is a group of mature individuals that for the most part know their manners and the place and time for special verbal expression.

Originally Posted by Black Lab

Hello Phil,
As has already been mentioned, sometimes political and religous discussions get way out of hand. I am not sure how to handle that.
But, you could also add to that list, "Which oil should I use?"; "Which is the best tire to buy?"; "Which is the best windshield?"; "Which is the best seat?".........
Just poking a little fun here. However, these topics can also insight very heated debates.
Two areas of primary interest to me on the site are, somehow directing riders to a Frequently Asked Questions area so that multiple posts on a given topic aren't repeated, over and over again. This is not a rant by me, (Okay, I did vent on one poster about tires once.), it is a wish that there was someway to direct readers and riders to an area on the forum where they could easily find answers to their questions. (A big, flashing neon yellow arrow?). Hopefully, this would reduce multiple posts on, (sometimes volatile!), topics.
The other area of interest to me is the "How To" section. There are some good threads there that have been made "stickies". There are also some good threads that have gotten buried beneath other posts. What posts that have been made a "sticky", to me, there could be a better way of organizating it. Could it be possible to have this type of information split up between the DL-1000 and the DL-650 so the threads aren't combined? Maybe something like DL-1000: suspension, brakes, electrical, motor, clutch; etc. And then, do the same for the DL-650. I'm thinking of ways to try and reorganize the resources that have been posted in a way that a reader might say, "Okay, I own a DL-650 and I would like to learn how to remove the front wheel." (There is an ABS version and a non-ABS version of the DL-650. Removing the front wheel is slightly different for both bikes.). They could click on a "DL-650 section" and find a resource that was organized for easy reading, "Wheels", and below wheels are subcategories. Currently, there is not enough information, (on this site), to fill all of the categories, but over time, it will happen and can be added.
Just some of my thoughts.
Barry B.

The religion and politics thing comes up alot on different forums. There are two ways to handle this. you make a religion and politics forum and you encourage people to post in it as they see fit and hope no holy wars break out. Or you politely ask people to keep religion and politics off the site and request the staff move these threads into holding area that is not in public view. I have forums that have in the past added the religion and politics are though in talking with the mods have also heard they regret adding it since they grew too big to kill and there was issues with having to suspend and ban otherwise good members for starting fights.

The rest is streamlining a good search engine and building forum topics that will be labeled a little more specifically with multiple child forums to encourage specific topics to be discussed in there. The rest is working with the mods and admins to make sure we keep things friendly and on topic.

I will try to go through questions again to see what I missed but I paying attention I just didn't want to appear too long winded right out of the gate.

[K1W1]

Originally Posted by Administrator

I will look into what is causing troubles here if you have specific tapatalk issues we may be able to help with. at the end of the day some of it is still up to tapatalk.

AFIAK this forum is not registered with Tapatalk. If it is I don't recall seeing the announcement.

[honest bob]

Originally Posted by K1W1

AFIAK this forum is not registered with Tapatalk. If it is I don't recall seeing the announcement.

Nice catch Kiwi

[Billyboy]

Originally Posted by Administrator

we are just here to make sure the lights stay on

Your plan is perfect. This site isn't broken. It is home to a great bunch of boys, girls, and loveable lunatics. We have all learned to wave at cows.

[Administrator]

The site is not broken but there are things we can do to help make everyone's experience better. There are also a lot of great tools available to help the staff this gives them more recreational time and less keeping up with admin stuff.

[Administrator]

There was a request that it not require 60 seconds between searches, it has been shortened to 20 seconds. There still needs to be some buffer of time in there I do hope this compromise helps some.

I will keep looking through the requests today and over the weekend and see what I can do to implement those.

[greywolf]

That helps. Thanks. Now we'll see if the forum can stand it.