Gun Dog Forum

Howdy! Need some input, please.

How do y'all want FORUMS organized?

Most TOPICS that get replies and views are in 3 or 4 places:
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8500 topics in CHAT -- 99,800 replies
4000 topics in TRAINING -- 41,100 replies
2000 topics in DOGS FOR SALE -- 1,200 replies
1800 topics in HEALTH/NUTRITION -- 22,300 replies

* I moved a couple of really low, low-traffic sub-forums one level deeper on the site
* Put all the GDF (about GDF) in the same category
* Expanded the names of some forums to more descriptive...

So how do y'all want FORUMS organized?

That is about how most boards go

Dogs and Horses for sale and then one for General items for sale which would be for everything else

the WTB section not a bad idea to try for a while

So how do y'all want FORUMS organized?

Well, since you asked............

I want it organized the same way it's been for the last few years. Hit the undo button and take us back 2+ weeks, before all of this began. There's been more change to this site in the last 48 hours than the last 24 months.

What's made this site, and others like it, successful is not the format but the content, which has been 100% user-driven. I can jump on this site while at work, in the middle of a conference call while semi-distracted and have never had to worry about finding things. Now, I hit the refresh button and something has changed because a non-participant has decided to play around with a new toy.

I'm responsible for customer experience and user-interface development in my professional career; I understand how resistant to change users can be. But what makes this so challenging is that most established users of this site are members of other similar birddog boards; frustrate established users and they can easily shift to another board. Nothing here is unique; it can be easily replicated somewhere else. There is more supply than demand; it's why Uplandbirddog.com died, the dog forums on Modernsportsman,com died, ShootingSportsman.com has nearly died a few times and is a shadow of its former self, Versatiledogs is a shadow of its former self and so on and so on.

The first question that needs to be asked whenever change is an option should be "how will this increase the quality of user content created on this site?"

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but you asked the question

JMO,
Dave


btw, the removal of thread pages makes keeping up with a long thread on a blackberry rather difficult; hard to scroll down through 40 posts to find the last one you've read.

If it works, DO NOT CHANGE IT. DO NOT MESS WITH IT unless it breaks.

Thanks, Dave. You have some VERY valid points. I'm getting lots more positive feedback than negative, BUT if you don't like what I'm doing (or that I'm doing anything at all) please post and let me know, or PM me.

If you're logged in on your blackberry, you should be able to see the link at the top of any TOPIC which is now yellow which will jump you down to any new posts. If not, let me know.

Are there any other specific changes you don't like besides the threads being 50 posts a page instead of 15 a page?

Do you think we should make a mobile version of the site that's text-only?

GDF is ALL about the members and the content they create, and I realize folks have plenty of other options. I'm just trying to get the work done in the window of time I have.

There are 25,000 pages of content buried in here. We're pulling that out, organizing it, and putting that together in a GUN DOG LIBRARY.

There are a many of dead subforums on here that no one posts in that I'm going prune or consolidate. There are TONS of spammers abusing the forums for links, many from within our industry , and we're nuking those, as well as reporting to friends of ours at Google.

I know not everyone is going to like the changes that come with new ownership of the site, but I'm doing my best to keep as many members as possible as happy as possible.

Please continue to provide feedback, even if it's not what I want to hear.

A crackberry - droid Ipod friendly app version would be awesome

I try to do the black berry it is extremely hard to read...but most of my problem is I don't keep my reading glasses readily available
and I am looking at getting the droid x

Dave Quindt wrote:

So how do y'all want FORUMS organized?

There's been more change to this site in the last 48 hours than the last 24 months.

Have to agree. I've been off and on here all day, and every time I have to figure out what changed this time.

I liked the previous simple titles to categories. Maybe you're working a subliminal angle , but putting "Gun dog" in front of hunting, training, etc is a little redundant and takes my computer weary eyes a little longer to sort out what it is I wanted. Same with "Canine" Health & Nutrition.

I really do give you kudos for taking a hands on approach, so please don't take offense, I just think there is value in simplicity.

wems2371 wrote: I liked the previous simple titles to categories. ... but putting "Gun dog" in front of hunting, training, etc is a little redundant and takes my computer weary eyes a little longer to sort out what it is I wanted. Same with "Canine" Health & Nutrition.
... I just think there is value in simplicity.

Thanks for the feedback.

Seeing subforums with no new posts in over a month on the front page drives me NUTS which is why I'm moving stuff around. Problem is there's no way to do this on a live FORUM without doing it live unless I shut the forum down for a day, which I thought would be MORE disruptive.

Making changes in the middle of folks using the board is disruptive, so I'll quit doing that. No more major changes launched during working hours. I'll try to hold off until after midnight, too, because that's when the board quiets down.

I agree that category names should be as simple as they can be, but no simpler. I plan to add category ICONS which will probably be easier to use. -- r

People naturally resist change, implement slowly. I can attest to seeing a bit more change than I am comfortable with.

I agree.

Once I get the fonts fixed, I think the majority of major FORUM changes are done.

I need to dive into GDD and PP as well as figure out what to do with the albums, web pages and other GRANT functionality.

Some stuff is broken (like articles) and I need to figure out, if anyone else is using what parts of the non-FORUM GDF stuff...