The Future (my two cents)

imported
#1

From my observation, what makes a successful forum is the users not which site hosts them or what person(s) moderate them. But also from my observation a hosting site or moderator can unfairly destroy what the users have created. This upsets me.

Unfortunately I don’t see this cycle of creation - destruction changing much. Two reasons why.
1. It is cheap and easy to put a forum site up. Anybody can do it.
2. Peoples interest change.

So this brings me to my Topic title, “the future.” As the primary administrator for this grouping of sites, I’m in a position to make a difference, at least here anyway.

The forum here is bare minimum. There are no bells or whistles. Personally, I’m happy the colors are acceptable. :slight_smile: But there’s so much room for improvement. I feel it’s way overdue for enhancement. The trail community deserves so much more then to have there favorite forum site pull the plug every year (3 years straight now).

Leif and I have talked about the forums for (wow) years now. We have lots of great ideas. But in the true sense of forums, what do you think? What should the ideal trail-related forum offer? I want your input. Dreaming is welcome. I want ideas like, “The forum should lock up my computer if I haven’t been hiking in 6 months.” I will be making changes here so let me know.

My first improvement will be speed. This site sucks!!! It’s too slow!!! :slight_smile:

ZipDrive

#2

We’re lucky to have high speed cable so any slow server ops aren’t as noticable. We’re not sure what to change. As long as we’ve been here the chances that you and 'L have come up with work well. The site and forum are a super archive for info for daily users like us but it maybe a little hard for new hikers to find what they need or want. It looks like we tend to lump most hiking issues into the AT area no matter what we’re talking about. Which isn’t bad but may make some of the other tabs redundant. Which is our fault for not using them I guess.

Bramble & Bushwhack

#3

I disagree with you here, I spent over $700 since last June to develop a site users would appreciate. I paid for forum software licenses and photo gallery software licenses, moved from one server company (that I paid for a whole year upfront) after it was not up to my nor the users expectations, to one of the more expensive companys that had servers on site and were not resellers. It was not cheap at all and yes anyone can start a yahoo or delphi site, but no not everybody has the knowledge of php, sql or ASP to start a site easily.

Second Whiteblaze.net didn’t close but could of because I have real trouble with AT Troll and not SGT.Rock but in the end I realized it was the hikers site and gave in with the transfer to AT Troll when I could have just deleted the whole thing.

I would much rather be hiking anyways than fuckin’ around with this kind of shit.

Im sorry if you take offense to this Zipdrive and you know Iv’e supported you guys every way I can and will continue to, but no not just anybody can whip a forum together and make it successful.

easy

#4

BTW I do own another VB forum license that I will donate to you if your interested. I was in the process of starting another site (midwest hiking) but im blowing it of now to go hiking.

Easy

#5

One thing that I have noticed on this site is that users have been posting messages and claiming to be other people. I would like to have an option for people to login in order to verify that they are who they say they are. I don’t however want to limit who has access to or uses these forums. I beleive everyone should have a right to read and use these forums without logging in.

Another Thought:
“but no not just anybody can whip a forum together and make it successful” - putting a fourm together and making it successful are two different things. :wink:

What I think Zipdrive is saying is that most people can purchase pre-written forum software and install it. Any understanding of php, sql or ASP is very important if you want to do any customization of the site that is hosting the forums.

Leif

#6

Gee here’s a thought. Trailjournals is “THE” kickass site for journals. It’s exploded and everyone gravitates to it to read journals. The forum traffic is good but not what it could be. Whiteblaze has taken off and IMO is “THE” best AT Forum going right now. Both sites are looking to expand and grow. Maybe you guys and Sgt Rock/AT Troll should talk about a partnership. Man… what a great site it would be with your journals and Whiteblazes forum. Hey just a thought… you know how “partnerships” can be sometimes!

Moose

#7

I agree with Moose if we could bring everyone together in some way, that would be best. Regarding trailforums specifically: registration may be necessary to keep riff raff to a minimum, but I can’t say I’m too fond of having to register to use the forums. But what must be done must be done. Some other thoughts on the trailforums lay-out: I seldom “enter” a forum page, but use the main forum page to see if there are any new topics being discussed in any of the forums. If I don’t visit for a while, I inevitably miss some topics. I was thinking, if possible, on the main forums page it would be great just to have listed the recent thread titles under each trail forum and not the replies (perhaps just have after each thread title a (#) showing the number of replies). That way, more threads will become visible upfront. Also, if the peak and gear forums etc. can be brought back to having recent threads listed on the main page, there might be an increase in their use. Thanks Leif and Zipdrive for this site, it’s come along nicely! (Leif, I promise to get around to working on peakjournals one of these days!) Take it easy.

Sweeper

#8

Zip hit it best. We have many “armchair” hikers and forum watcher friends that don’t add anything because they are either shy or don’t feel like they have anything new to tell. Or they think they can’t compete or talk with those of us that have been hiking for more than a quarter century. We would love to have you. [We] make what happens here so special. There is always something new to learn about our sport and obcession from every end of the scale. I just seems like the same twenty of us going around and around. When the tit for tat gets out of hand it needs to stop but it would be great to get more people to chime in with whatever is on his or her’s mind.
Sweeper’s idea about making threads easier to see would be cool. If you were out for a while a lot gets missed. I built one web page from scratch and it was tough. Not my area. Anyone need a Toyota fixed?

Bushwhack

#9

I kind of like slashdot’s (slashdot.org) way of handling logins, you can either have a profile and use it or be an ‘anonymous coward,’ of course you could use a different term :wink: Maybe we could have a compromise that lets people set up a profile and other people can put in their own names (like we have now) as long as the name isn’t being used by a registered user? Or, it could be set up where posts from logged in users have a special icon. Another forum improvement would be real threads, like what you see on newsgroups. Anyhow, just my $.02

                              -Ian-

Ian

#10

I think TJ is a great site. I don’t use the Forum section as much, as I do WhiteBlaze.Net, simply because there is more traffic on WB. I do however read 80% of the journals from start to finish. I think log ins may be necessary, if there has been a problem with people using other peoples names. This isn’t good. I think log ins may be a necessary evil, if you want to post to the forum. I also think subject titles are good.

Hydromagnt

#11

Sooo does it matter if users are registered or not? I guess we that are have finacially given? I’m confused more than normal.

Bushwhack

#12

If we did do login I think we would still allow anyone to post, but if you posted without a login then it would just say that you were either not a member, or that you weren’t a verified user. I wouldn’t want to limit the site to just registered users.

Leif

#13

How do you differentiate between registered posters, and non registered posters, when a non registered poster is using a registered person’s name? I don’t mean to make this more difficult than it needs to be. If the problem is people using other people’s names, I don’t know how you stop this, without making it a requirement for people to register, in order to post.

Hydromagnt

Hydromagnt

#14

I guess it would help to keep out those that are not truely “our family” and cause trouble but then if say a boy scout want to get in on the Q+A and can’t, that’s not good. I would still rather have anyone be able to post, member or not, so we can share more of what we know. Limiting education is a crime. An uninformed hiker is often a dead on. Or at least has some nasty blisters and crotch rot when the could have been given the ups. Dunno, still fuzzy on that whole thing. I would hope that knowledge would be free…after you send $39.95 to “Send Leif to Florida@Ineedatan.gorp in small bills”.

Bushwhack

#15

Are Leif and Zip going and can they have the site up to show us what they have in mind whilst we all stand around in the cold and give our ideas? Might help with the brainstorming during the thunderstorming during the sleet storming etc.

Bushwhacky

#16

I was thinking that we could do it the same way we did on trailchat… the way isn’t fool proof, but every member name would be unique. That way if my member name was Leif, there would be a little note or indication that I was a registered user with the name leif. If I posted without logging in (there would be a note that I was an unregistered user) I may or may not be leif, that is up for the readers to figure out. registered users would have a profile where they may indicate that they never post messages without logging in (if it was a problem). I don’t think the posting of messages using other peoples names has been a huge problem, but by giving users the option to register it adds a little bit of protection, plus will give you more options.

We want to allow users to control what the site looks like and what pages comes up when they go to trailforums.com (colors/layout). These are options that we can set up for registered users… just some more thoughts.

Leif

#17

I’m a regular visitor to this site (thanks Leif and Zip)and enjoy moving around freely while I’m here. I read the journals, visit the forum, rarely, but sometimes, posting a reply there. Speaking for myself and maybe others that visit the site, being identified as a registered or non-registered user would not be attractive to me. Kinda like “you’re in”, “you’re out”; “you’re one of us, you’re not one of us”. I know that’s not the intent, but it may be perceived as such. I tend not to get on many sites like that.

Peep

#18

If it’s an option I don’t think most people would get stepped on. There is the possiblity of all of us shouldering the responsibility of being sincere. I think we can be upfront about using the site. And give those a leg up that are new while boosting the overall user appeal. We, as a hiker community, can heighten awareness of porper ethics.:>#

BW

#19

I don’t post a lot here even though it’s one of my favorite places on the net. I’m very active in another non hiker forum that has registration and the thing I like about registering is you can edit your message (or delete it) after posting. One advantage is if you want to embed html or a link, you can post and then test to make sure it looks right. The one bad thing about this forum is once you click post reply, it’s out there forever.

I think that other forum software is Fuse Talk 3.0. Very nice interface.

And once again, Thanks a million Leif and Zip for running trailjournals and trailforums. It’s much appreciated.

HotFoot