New Forum Features Soon - Pls Read and Comment

[Craig]

The fencing.net forums run on the VBulletin software platform. In the next release, which should be soon, there are a number of features that would be of benefit to the Fencing.Net community. I wanted to take a minute and point out a couple of features, how I think they could be used, and get some feedback on implementation.

For a full listing of the features from the developers, view the forum thread at vbulletin - http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=249460

The software is a "beta 3" stage, which means it is about a month or two from release.

For Admins/Mods: Improved spam management.

For users:
Thread tagging - you'll be able to tag your threads to help newer users find related threads when searching on a topic. (Similar to blog post tagging). This way, when replying to a thread you can tag it as the topic areas to make it easier for other users to find later.)

Member Profile Pages - These look a little more like facebook type pages, but are redesigned to integrate more Social Site features like groups and public messaging (like writing on the wall in facebook)

Social Groups - This is what I think will be really cool for fencing.net. The Social Groups feature will allow creation of groups which can be public or private (and you can set it to be invite only). This would be great for setting up groups for individual fencing clubs and divisions and I'm sure that there's a way to integrate AskFred into the Groups page to show tournaments within the division or hosted/attended by the club.

Craig

[Neinteen]

Wow, all 3 sound cool.

[oiuyt]

Great, just what I need. More reasons to spend even more time on FNet.

-B

[Zilverzmurfen]

Wow, all 3 sound cool.

I agree; they all sound very nice.

Not sure if this is a good idea, Craig, but you could set it so that only Green members can set up those 'Member Profile Pages' ans 'Social Groups'. That way you might get more people to supprt this great site.

...come one people, he already told us diapers are expensive -- Go Green.

[LTranter]

You know, I do need to work some time....

L

[KD5MDK]

Great, just what I need. More reasons to spend even more time on FNet.

-B

Maybe it will take some time away from Facebook?

All the features look great to me.

[veeco]

All great features, I am salivating just thinking about them!

In addition to those features, I think it would be great to lift the current restriction to 3 characters for words to search for. Perhaps even change it so that a search for "sabre*" also shows threads about the weapon, but those about ethymological discussions on the genders of the fencers who fence that weapon. It would make the search feature a lot more useful, I think.

[parrythis]

For Admins/Mods: Improved spam management.

YAY! Spam belongs in my frying pan, not on my computer!

Social Groups - This is what I think will be really cool for fencing.net. The Social Groups feature will allow creation of groups which can be public or private (and you can set it to be invite only).

This does sound cool. Think of it! We could have an "Epeeists Only" group that really is epeeists only.

[Craig]

In addition to those features, I think it would be great to lift the current restriction to 3 characters for words to search for. Perhaps even change it so that a search for "sabre*" also shows threads about the weapon, but those about ethymological discussions on the genders of the fencers who fence that weapon. It would make the search feature a lot more useful, I think.

Good points. Now that this site is on a dedicated server and it's been running well for a while, I can try that out. Also the thread tagging option will greatly improve the search function. The only problem is the legacy threads that have no tags. We'll probably need to add tags to threads as we rediscover the ones that had really good nuggets of info in them.

Craig

[Craig]

I agree; they all sound very nice.

Not sure if this is a good idea, Craig, but you could set it so that only Green members can set up those 'Member Profile Pages' ans 'Social Groups'. That way you might get more people to supprt this great site.

...come one people, he already told us diapers are expensive -- Go Green.

Thanks!

Once I download and install the beta on a test board I'll have to see which features should be open to all and which, if any, would be better as premiums. Any of the features which include some sort of limit (ie - number of pictures, range of templates for personaliziation) will have more available to Green subscribers than standard members.

We're now receiving more interest in general advertising on the site so instead of feature restrictions I'm looking at extending the ad-supported vs. ad-free model as well.

The last bit is looking at what features are available to non-registered users (Guests) vs registered members who contribute (post).

Craig

[Inquartata]

For users:
Thread tagging - you'll be able to tag your threads to help newer users find related threads when searching on a topic. (Similar to blog post tagging). This way, when replying to a thread you can tag it as the topic areas to make it easier for other users to find later.)

Or for that matter easier for ME to find it. If good material crops up in a thread digression, searching by title or keywords sometimes doesn't locate it.

A tentative 'hurrah'. I just hope it doesn't mean another complete site redesign...

[seven6ty]

How about fixing the current site up so that the water cooler layout matches the rest of the board and changing the oooooogly green color scheme?

[Inquartata]

Seconded. I use the "old skin", but the WC stubbornly retains the "new" one, and will not, for example, allow the "Mark forum as read" function to operate...

[Fencergrl]

Yeah... and some threads don't always go to the last page... such as "The Question Game".