Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
This is the SIXTH SNOW&ICE discussion thread opened in the past 20 hours. Please DON't respond....
... unless, of course, you're Robert Bridges.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
-
John, you're not Robert Bridges! But yes, they'll soon have the Ladder covered.
-
Permalink Reply by Malcolm on
-
So what? Are we running out of electrons? Is the internet full?
Given the difficulty of spotting any thread that either hasn't been posted to in the last 2 hours, or started in that time it's not surprising new threads get started.
I wonder if there's a way to improve the forums here - they are easily the worst technically of any I use, although of course the best socially.
-
Permalink Reply by Liz on
-
And if with Malcolm you rail
that regarding recent activity,
ning is beyond the pale;
hover thy tiny mouse o'er forum
and you shall see
the glory revealed
of recent activity
Rob
-
-
Liz, I would love to respond in rhyme, but haven't got the time. Hats off to those that can, from one who sorely can't.
On the forums - I'm well aware of the recent activity and newest discussions bit on the forums menu. As of right now, the first page of recent activity tops out at 2 hours ago, and newest at a 6 hour old thread from Hugh. Funnily enough many threads appear on both lists.
The fundamental problems I see are:
* No way to "pin" threads to the top of the list, so e.g. a "Snow and ice" thread could be pinned there right now
* Relatively few threads show up in the list (only 10). A thread per line would show about 80 at a conservative estimate.
* A way to see what threads have new activity since you last read the forum
* Linked to the above, a way to jump to the bit of the thread you haven't read, rather than having to go through the whole thing to find the new comments.
Essentially, the forums should work much more like Gmail or YaBB, (e.g. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/).
Sadly I think most of this is unachievable with Ning, who have sadly chosen to reinvent the wheel poorly.
I do understand the limitations that this site are not those of the admins!
Malcolm
-
Permalink Reply by Hugh on
-
Thanks for that.
You're right. I think the overview of what's happening is poor. Traditional forums probably do it better. I wish we could change that. On the other hand Ning does offer a lot of functionality beyond the forums that trad forums don't.
We could "pin" discussions by "featuring" them, but to be honest that'd be another task and I'm quite sure would result in lots of prvate messages to Liz and I. So on balance I'd rather not.
I'd love to have the intelligent system you describe which remembers what you've seen before. Do other forums have that?
I guess whatever the case, unless there's a system that's better overall for comparable money and to which we can export what we have, we're probably stuck with Ning for the time being. If you've any ideas within those limits we'd love to use them. In the meantime, let's carry on building up the wishlist.
-
-
I agree that the Ning software isn't perfect Malcolm. There are limits to what we can change, but it would be helpful if you could outline what specifically would you like to see changed?
One thing we could do is to change to flat rather than threaded.
In the meantime, I hope the diagram below gives some sense of what's already available to navigate round the forums.
-
-
I don't think flat v threaded is the issue (see post above for issues I see). Personally I like threaded, since it matches my mental model of how these conversations work. But I do realise others might not share the model and thus the enthusiasm.
-
-
A Homeworker obsessed with his thing
Has just hijacked my own little Sting.
WTF is poetic
Or e'en empathetic
In all this bloody crap about Ning?
-
-
Sorry, Rob3, I tried you see
To stay true to the spirit of poetry.
Alas, it is true that there's been a hijack
Let's give Old Age his snow thread back.
Let the ning nang nong
Move right along
To the place it belongs
Over ...here
-
-
Alistair, re the January effect on licit/illicitencounters some Yank has contacted me with
The Frost Report
Some say that HOL will end in fire,
Some say in ice,
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Rob3 (not Bridges)
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
