WE NEED BETTER FORUMS!

m0nkeycheese on 30/06/2012 - 22:16
Last edited 30/06/2012 - 23:04

Ok this is in reference to the lack of support of the forums.

Id like to reference this post; http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/73906

As you will see and everyone knows it, many of the forum posts go unnoticed because of the lack of exposure.
Id like to quote myself as per the thread above

Forums are hopeless… The side list needs to be longer on the front page and be 'bumped' if someone is commenting on that thread. Works great in all the other forums ive been part of in the past. Otherwise once its off that short list on the front page its forgotten :/

Basically if the list on the front page was longer and the latest thread commented on was 'bumped' to the top then the current 'hot topic' would get more exposure and actually make it a productive forum. At the moment its where posts tend to go die :(

A prime example of this was the charity donations voting. Many people didn't know about it till it was too late to suggest a charity.

Also too many sub-categories gets a bit confusing, maybe less categories?

Please can we implement something like this or suggestions?
Thanks.

Site Discussion

Comments

  • Car-la-la on 30/06/2012 - 22:59

    definitely support this , great idea!

  • King Tightarse on 30/06/2012 - 23:07
    +1

    Fully support and agree with this.
    Would suggest losing all the sub-forums and just have 3-4 basic categories.
    Less is more!

  • sraymond on 30/06/2012 - 23:12

    I think you need a tab at the top of the Forum page titled recent posts. Clicking on that would take you to a page that lists posts according to how recently they were made. They should be listed under a link showing the thread title and the category.

    • m0nkeycheese on 30/06/2012 - 23:16

      That kind of already exists in the 'live' tab. But the problem is people are lazy these days and much like google if your not on the front page forget it! It needs to be there without clicking on anything then the forums will take off and become just as valuable as the deals.

  • sraymond on 30/06/2012 - 23:16

    I see there s a subscribe link on posts, so if somebody feels strongly about a topic or cause, they could urge others to subscribe to it.

    • m0nkeycheese on 30/06/2012 - 23:17
      +1

      What its burried before they see it? :(

  • Moderatorneil on 30/06/2012 - 23:19

    Recently commented threads sounds good. We are always trying to promote the forums so maybe we can put those notifications somewhere (not sure where).

    • m0nkeycheese on 30/06/2012 - 23:24

      If you look down the side of the deals there is plenty of room till the last deal on the page id suggest there. U could even have a recently commented 'box' as well as the current one. But I think just 1 box would be less confusing maybe

  • King Tightarse on 30/06/2012 - 23:31
    +1

    There are simply too many categories - just counted 19!
    My original post was moved to the "Rebates and Cashback" sub forum. It wont be seen by many (any?) one there. No one opens it, no one sees it. The front page of that sub forum has last-posts dating back to 2009.
    Talk about slow moving!

    If there were simply 3-4 subforums they would be simpler, easier to keep up with, more relevant and more used.

  • ShortyX on 30/06/2012 - 23:39
    +1

    Agreed! Less categories!

    And maybe kill the CIA (Cheapskate Intelligence Agency) as it seems as a bit of a flop (sorry ozpete)…only about 50 topics in 7 months. General discussion would be fine for this.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/07/2012 - 09:57

      Dont be sorry, it was an idea that wasnt supported, thought it might move all those off topic discussions about waiting for a new product etc, would be centralised, so agree killing it makes sense.

  • King Tightarse on 30/06/2012 - 23:53

    Another way to go would be the Whirlpool approach whereby the main category shows all the posts from all the sub-categories as the same page. From there users can click on the subcategory which is attached to each post and only see posts relating to that subcategory.
    Hope you get my drift P.

    So for example clicking on "android phones" reads all the various models/brands sub-categories which the user can than click to isolate those posts,.. easier to link!
    See here-

    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/

  • scrimshaw on 01/07/2012 - 08:36

    Is it possible to have sub-groups within a category?

    Consider Whirlpools example: a drop down selector within a forum

    It kind of works like a tagging system. For example, you can tag a post, or post in a "Shops" group, but it is still viewable in the Desktops category.

  • [Deactivated] on 01/07/2012 - 10:15

    The Whirlpool thread ideas discussed above, make some sense.

    Alternatively maybe if we could move off topic comments to a forum, then forums might get more use. There are hundreds of board (bored) members who love having a say about everything in a deal post, but never visit the forums, where social interaction is welcome and encouraged. The same ones who get stroppy when their cute off topic comment gets moderated.

    Or maybe instead of the Offtopic tag, there is a "Fun discussion here tag"** where the humour generated from a post can be pursued but out of the main thread.

    Alternatively, people could mark their comments as "comedy" etc, so those wishing to see just deal only discussions can filter out these rather than wade thru many of these comments to see something relevant to the product being discussed.

    And then maybe a "compare to tag" so the fans can do the same… Apple vs android games could continue until one or the other finds they really havent convinced anyone to change

    But then again pigs might fly as most of these probably are looking for the greatest audience…..

    ** needs better descriptor

  • retiredfeline on 01/07/2012 - 10:35
    +3

    There are hundreds of board (bored) members who love having a say about everything in a deal post

    But this is a deal-centric site. Why would people go start a discussion out of the blue about a posted deal in a forum. Some of the comments may be flippant but there is useful crowd wisdom there. I don't mind a bit of chaff as I'm pretty good at picking out the useful comments while laughing at a few on the way.

    Face it, you have an uphill battle getting people to go to the forums, let alone discuss long term in CIA. It's all about the deals. If I wanted a social site I would go elsewhere.

    Now as for the original complaint about a reminder that cashback would expire soon, it's not clear to me that it outweighs new deal postings. I mean not everybody is a techhead although I know there are lots of IT people here. I don't mean to pick on tech; the same would apply if the reminder was about say cookware. You can't please everybody. There might be a case for a deal recently commented sidebar or enhancement of the deals expiring soon page.

  • King Tightarse on 01/07/2012 - 12:08

    @ozpete

    You seem to be over-thinking this.
    I believe complexity will drive people away from the forums.
    If I check in, its only the General tab and maybe Computers. Thats it. Just too many sub forums to open.

    People care, but only "so" much about this or any other site.
    People want to be able to check in and out with the minimum of fuss.

    Just a glance to be up to date would be best.

  • mr_alligator on 01/07/2012 - 14:46

    Agree. Maybe we need two Forums list - one with 'New Topics' and the other that is 'Currently Active'.

  • berger on 01/07/2012 - 23:59

    Hmmm. Since reading this thread I thought I would check out all the sub-forums. There's an off-topic section.! Never noticed. It looks like as much use as the CIA section. I like to check CIA daily but it's stagnant now.

    Maybe drop those two, there are too many categories, it scares people away!

    Also, the amount of guests on this website is staggering! And it'll never change. People come for the bargains. I did originally… But felt I needed to contribute more.

    Overall I think the forums work fine for the most part. Easy to understand.

    My thoughts, maybe slightly off topic.

  • Moderatorscotty on 26/07/2012 - 21:54

    Revising this month old thread (has been too busy this month).

    First of all, YES we are going to do something. For now the most obvious moves are:

    • Close "Cheapskate Intelligent Agency" and "Rebates/Cashback" forums, and move the threads back into General Discussion forum.
    • Highlight prominent forum threads on the front page and forum main page. We do have "Most Commented Forum Topics" block on the sidebar, although I think we will want to drop the range from 7 days to 3 days to make it more fresh.

    Now the forums itself. At the beginning there were only

    • General Discussions (for everything bargain related discussions)
    • Find me a Bargain (for asking bargain related question)
    • Announcement/Feedback (for everything OzBargain website related)

    A few more forums got created for their specific functions, such as Free Websites/Software, Selling/Swapping, etc.

    Then a few more forums got created for their discussion categories, i.e. Computing, Mobile, etc. When you have function-oriented forums and category-oriented forums — that's where the confusion starts (not to mention the "dump-everything-here" General Discussion forum).

    MY development goal for OzBargain forums is moving towards those categories. As you can see that those category forums are actually linked with category pages. Maybe smaller communities can be created around those categories and then we can develop specific functions for different categories, or badges/rewards around those categories ("Mobile Expert", "Financial Guru" for example).

    So my plan is

    • Remove "Find me a bargain" forum. People ask very vague question that ends up becoming a discussion that's not even related to the question — that happens all the time. Might as well move the discussions to category forums or General Discussion forums. I am also planning to developing something to help people ask questions in forums (although currently people can already set up poll).
    • Keep General Discussion forum a free-for-all, i.e. topics that don't fit into any category forum. Discussion of merchants? Retail industry? etc etc
    • Hide "Introduce Yourself" forum or move it to Off-topic. It was there initially when OzBargain was a small community — I thought it would be a good idea to get to know each other. Almost 60,000 members later — maybe not. Unless someone is interested in Reddit IAmA style forum. "I Am A Harvey Norman retail employee. Ask me anything…"
    • MoneyBackCo/StartHere forum. Hmm not too sure what to do with them. Supposed to be a support forum to help Steve there, but it seems it's best to use their own support channel. Closing it?

    We'll close "Cheapskate Intelligent Agency" and "Rebates/Cashback" soon (later this week). It's our aim to build better and more useful forums for the OzBargain community — and thanks for all the feedbacks so far. Just that the bargain side of things is getting a bit distracting sometimes :)

    • m0nkeycheese on 26/07/2012 - 22:34

      Awesome thanks for all the hard work scotty!

  • King Tightarse on 31/07/2012 - 12:55

    Yep, cheers Scotty.
    Any move to de-clutter is good!

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