Is it just me, or....

[rv-4mike]

I know I've mentioned this before, but thought I'd bring it up again. Am I the only one here who has a problem with all of the different forums (General, Members rides, For sale, etc...)? If Al hadnt mentioned the posts about this year's R&G in a post on the General Forum I'd have never found the thread, seen all the pictures, or seen the results.:nonod:

 

That was a terrific thread and Jerry's pics were awesome. Glad I stumbled on it.

 

I know that having the seperated forums may have some advantage when searching archives. But seems to me that the disadvantages (missing out on interesting threads because you dont take the time to scan through multiple different forums) far outweigh whatever advantages there may be. I'd like to see ALL topics posted to the General Discussions forum. It's easy enough to look at the first couple of posts in each thread to assess your interest.

[flexer]

I'd disagree. I kinda like having things sorted because once this forum is a year or two old I will want to go back and find a thread and not want to look at every forum. Plus as this hobby grows we will have people that come to the forum for diffrent things. Pretty soon there will be a engine section, F/I section, who knows.

 

Plus, I don't mind going to the diffrent sections, because when I log in it highlights the new posts for me so I can quickly go through and see what I want to see.....probably takes me just 5 min a day.

 

J. R.

[slngsht]

It's a balancing game... On the one hand we don't want a bunch of dead sections, on the other hand, as J.R. points out, it's nice to have focused discussion groups (keep me away from the forced induction section - if Frankn7 doesn't kill me by then, my wife will).

 

Mike, do you use the bottom right hand of the home page? It always lists the 10 most recent posts, regardless of section. That's where I go when I come to the site.

 

Also, if you are interested in a particular area, but don't want to click there regularly, you can subscribe to that section and get an email whenever there is a new post.

 

[rv-4mike]

To each his own I guess. This is the only forum I've spent any significant time on that is partitioned like this and I find it to be pretty clunky to use. Just my opinion. I find it easier to go to 1 place and scan through 100 topics/day than to have to scan through 15 different forums to see the same topics listed.

 

I check in usually once a day in the evening after work and usually just go to the General section. I'd venture a guess that from time to time I would find things of interest in all of the sections so subscribing to one or two wouldnt help much. My example of the Run n Gun thread is the perfect example. I never go to the events section as I'm generally not interested in the typical autoX anouncements. But I definitely was interested in the RnG results and all of Jerry's pictures. I suppose I could subscribe to them all.

 

Using the 10 most recent doesnt really work for someone who only checks in once a day. I'm pretty sure we get more than 10/day. Very useful for someone who lurks most of the day but I cant do that.

[Boxologist]

if u start from the USA7s main page which displays all the subforums, u can quickly see where the recent activity is since u last came to the site. i find it quite navigatable. it is different than a usegroup or older bbs setup, but i am also used to quickly scanning thru site sthas have well over 20 sub forums, and sub forums of sub forums.

[slngsht]

hmmm.... maybe we need a page that lists all topics and allows you to jump in, sort of an alternate view of the forum - yet allow topics to still stay in their sections. I'm completely booked the next two weeks, but this is doable.

[scannon]

The Miata.net forum looks similar to this one in structure but it has a link at the top called New Posts. That forum has over 44,000 members and 2.7 million posts.

 

Using the New Posts link, you get a single listing of all the new posts that fit on 10 pages (about 285 of them in cronological order) without any sub forums. Any thread you looked at in the past has its title changed from bold to regular type and if it has had a new post since your last visit it will show a button that will take you to the first unread post. This New Posts link is a feature available to registered members and is not available to guests.

 

You can sort through them very quickly.

 

I don't know if that feature could be added to this format but it might give everyone what they are looking for.

 

On this forum, I make use of the orange page icons on the right of the pages to show me which sub forums or threads have been posted to since the last time I was here. The main difference is that the button will only take you to the latest post, not the last one you read. You still have to drill down to get to the new posts but on a forum of this size that doesn't seem to be a problem for me.

 

 

 

[Mandurath]

I prefer this style to that like the yahoo boards, which is why i stay on locostusa and here vs the others. Ease of use with the same info, but i guess its what one is more comfortable with.

[powderbrake]

I find the blue folder that indicates new posts and the "Today" or "Yesterday" info on the right side to be quite sufficient to find new posts that I wish to read.

[Kitcat]

No problemo here-the last thing I need is an even more tempting diversion from gainful work:).

[Boxologist]

No problemo here-the last thing I need is an even more tempting diversion from gainful work:).

 

you mean whats sits in the garage isn't?:lol:

[gjslutz]

For my $.02, I find this forum quite easy to find the most active posts. I check into the General Sevens Discussion and look at the last posts in bold.

A few of the other sites I visit use this and I find it helpful, great work folks.