design and discussion

[TomG]

The idea in this note is that the use of this site is very discussion oriented. Some subjects go on for a week or more. The design of a site certainly affects how it is used. To me, discussion is the strength of this site, and it would be good if future site development supports discussion use. Hey, there are some really knowledgeable and helpful people here. Other sites are not as discussion oriented. Most responses come in the first day and are more like sound bites than conversation.

My general idea is that the main index is topic, not discussion oriented. The index is good for searching for information, but less good for following discussions. When I first started reading forums like this, I went to the index categories (topics). I wanted to read everything I could about some tractor or some implement. The topics were useful. Now, I want to follow discussions, and the discussions I'm interested in often have little to do with the topic. As a result, the topics aren't especially useful to me.

I'm best able to follow discussions from the subject headers, not from topics, and the new message boards are best for me to see which discussions received new posts. I go into the 24 or 48 hour board and scan down the subject headers. I click on a header I recognize or looks interesting, and then get the whole thread. It's a little cumbersome, but it works for me. If I use the index, I can see which topics have new posts, but I have to into a topic to see if the new posts are for a discussion I want to follow. Often, I have to page down the subject headers to find the discussion I want.

It seems like a lot of work for the new site developed the topics, but didn't do much to support discussions. I generally like the new design, and I'm learning to use it better, but I think it would be a good thing if future development were focussed on discussion. That seems to be what the participants here do well.

I noticed that I didn't say anything about what might support discussion. I guess that's being discussion oriented. You don't have to post self-contained notes. If there's some interest in the subject, there will be responses and that's OK. If there's no interest, that's OK too, and in that case, I didn't take everybody's time to download a rambling tract on site design.

Anyway, I might rather talk about my new box scrapper and 3ph pallet forks. Yikes, but then I have to use the topics and figure out where to post it. Guess it's time for another coffee. Later.

 

[W5FL]

It is not an easy problem. Topics and replies change the thread and the subject does not change.

The only way I have found is to use the search for certain keywords and then read those topics. Unfortunately, I had a lot of trouble searching the archives for all topics and all time. In some cases searching only a single topic worked. In others, I had to do as you said and go through the long list of topics in the archives to find what I was looking for. Good Luck

 

[Muhammad]

We just updated the archive, the search now works, much quicker than before. Also we updated some other things that should load the topics and threads faster.

<font color=blue>>></font color=blue>Muhammad
<font color=blue>Forum Master</font color=blue>

 

[MChalkley]

And from what I can see, the "make things faster" changes are working very well. Thanks!!!

 

[BobT]

All good points made. I think there is ALWAYS compromise needed on both sides of this issue. I must admit, initially the "speed problem" coupled with my own lack of experience with the forum format, caused me to spend quite a bit of time getting around. The speed issue has disappeared for me, thanks to Muhammad's tweaks. And, I now pretty much know where I am going, and what I am after, and find my use and reading patterns quite acceptable. I come on the forum 4-6 times a day, and never have to spend more than 3-5 minutes getting "caught up."

As was noted elsewhere, while there are some hundreds of "regular" registered users, there are literally tens of thousands of additional visitors who are viewing all of your brilliant contributions -g-. Moreover, many people really need to use the search functions, since there is such an ocean of knowledge in this forum, and building all the time. This was the main reason the old forum collapsed, and I don't blame Muhammad for addressing the search and data issues first.

I am sure as time goes on, Muhammad will do all he can to add features and make the forum even more of a delight to use. I personally find TractorByNet.com the best tractor-related site on the Web. There are a couple of others that I just can't use, they are so "messy" and convoluted. I like the organization here, and Muhammad's administration is simply superb---keeping everything alive and focussed, but great good humor.

BobT. (trying hard to "graduate" above Member).

A Indiana Boy