Just an idea

The Joe Show

While the whole 'communal' forum thing is very nice, (for the moment at least) it isn't working.

On the main site you've sectioned off the Road, MTB, Commuting and Beginners section.

It strikes me that the smart thing to do would be, rather than have a mass forum of arguments, have an idividual forum for each individual section. Is this not possible?

People who ride both could easily frequent all the forums, but those who only ride one discipline and hate everyone in a 5 mile radius, could stay in whichever section they pleased.

Matt

That may have worked a few days ago, however a lot of members have now come to the conclusion that it's a war with BikeRadar, and I'm doubtful they'd come back no matter what you did.

The Joe Show

John wrote:

eg. Back how it used to be.

Yes but no.

The forums are already sectioned off, right?

So, why not move each section, to it's respective section on the main website.

So it's still all on one website, still use the same database etc so your details remain the same on all the forums.

I just think it'll solve quite a few problems.

nirveous

Hmmm, it could, but it would still be change, a different website, new layout, etc, etc. So it probably wouldn't change all that much.

whyamihere

That's one of the things they're working on.

Try waiting a while...

Gavin Weeks

There are a lot of things we are working on, including this as a concept. The problem we have is the phpBB is a very "off the shelf" piece of software, even though it is customisable the process takes time. It is something we are looking into, as well as many other features which would make your experience on the forums easier and more enjoyable.

Please just bare with us, we are under strict deadlines and have a set plan of what is to be added and when, the forums just has to wait until myself and other developers can spare the time to really hit the forum hard and do the kind of features we want and you want.

The Joe Show

I'm perfectly willing to wait, but it just seems that all thats happening at the moment is everyones getting annoyed at each other, we're not being told what is actually happening, and all we can see is posts being deleted left right and centre.

A bit more information would be helpful.

Gavin Weeks

You'll find we are repeating ourselves time and time again regarding whats happening with the forums.

The posts which are being deleted are due to the content or context being inappropriate, abusive or excessively aggressive. You wouldn't want someone coming to your home and shouting at you saying your house was "sh*t" and that you painted it that colour just to p*ss them off, would you?

I have clearly stated I am currently working on the design issues with the forums, making sure it fully matches our original signed off designs, which at present they do not, this is partially because phpBB is hard to work with in conjunction with the main areas of the BRD site but mainly due to the short period of time we were able to spend working on the forums part of the site (which consists of about 3% of the entire build) so you can understand why we didn't get weeks/months to work on the forums, but more like a few hours.

We cannot give you an exact date and time on when improvements will be implemented because that will obviously cause more grief for us if we are more than 2 seconds late. The changes have to go up the ladder at Future and signed off before we can make them live.

urbanfatboy

When they go up the ladder, can you ask them why thewy anted to merge the forums?
and if they think it was a success.

Gavin Weeks

I think you need to understand what percentage of the site is forums. About 3% all in all. There is far more to Bikeradar than simply forums.

The guys at the top of the ladder made all the right decisions and once we have tweaked and improved that 3% all will be fine.

Open your mind (and eyes) to a little more of the site than just the forums.

The Joe Show

Gavin_Weeks wrote:

You'll find we are repeating ourselves time and time again regarding whats happening with the forums.

The posts which are being deleted are due to the content or context being inappropriate, abusive or excessively aggressive. You wouldn't want someone coming to your home and shouting at you saying your house was "sh*t" and that you painted it that colour just to p*ss them off, would you?

I have clearly stated I am currently working on the design issues with the forums, making sure it fully matches our original signed off designs, which at present they do not, this is partially because phpBB is hard to work with in conjunction with the main areas of the BRD site but mainly due to the short period of time we were able to spend working on the forums part of the site (which consists of about 3% of the entire build) so you can understand why we didn't get weeks/months to work on the forums, but more like a few hours.

We cannot give you an exact date and time on when improvements will be implemented because that will obviously cause more grief for us if we are more than 2 seconds late. The changes have to go up the ladder at Future and signed off before we can make them live.

No need to start getting annoyed, all I was suggesting is that you could possibly put out an annoucement saying "We're currently working on this, this and this", you don't have to say exact dates or times, just so the average forum user knows that you are actually doing something.

Sheepish

Gavin_Weeks wrote:

You wouldn't want someone coming to your home and shouting at you saying your house was "sh*t" and that you painted it that colour just to p*ss them off, would you?

That would, in fact, be highly amusing.

The Joe Show

I've got to say, if you took someone out of their sitting room, put them into yours, and asked what they thought, they would be perfectly valid in saying it was sh*t if they wanted to.

urbanfatboy

Gavin_Weeks wrote:

I think you need to understand what percentage of the site is forums. About 3% all in all. There is far more to Bikeradar than simply forums.

The guys at the top of the ladder made all the right decisions and once we have tweaked and improved that 3% all will be fine.

Open your mind (and eyes) to a little more of the site than just the forums.

What? I'm aware that the site has more to it than forums. There is no need to patronise me. I have been quite polite and not been critical of the site. Where do you get off responding like that? It strike me that right now you don't need to be losing more friends in here.

urbanfatboy

Well? Any response?

Yorkshireman

Gavin_Weeks wrote:

I think you need to understand what percentage of the site is forums. About 3% all in all. There is far more to Bikeradar than simply forums.

The guys at the top of the ladder made all the right decisions and once we have tweaked and improved that 3% all will be fine.

Open your mind (and eyes) to a little more of the site than just the forums.

With respect Gavin, I think quite a lot of the posters here only come for the forum and anything else is outside their `interest area`. On the C+ forum there were headers with information/updates etc plus Admin1 and M.Cole would post relevent information in every topic/section and guess what? ... a few posters obviously `missed` them (and C+ was a lot less complicated to navigate than this place). I`m not criticising here - simply trying to explain .

Gavin Weeks

Sorry for the slow response, I have been busy this morning getting some more bits done to the site and forums.

Nothing I said was patronizing in the slightest, and it wasn't aimed specifically at you, a lot of people here genuinely think there is nothing beyond the forums. My apologies if it did offend, its wasn't the intention, thats not how I "get off" as you put it!

I am neither annoyed or fed up with whats being said, I do in fact enjoy dealing with people be it to complain or compliment (Although this isn't part of my job!). But you must understand the frustration of the same recycling complaints and problems popping up in different threads,

End of the day, I know things are being sorted because I'm the one doing a lot of it, I wish I could set a date for it to be finished but that would only discredit my word if I get delayed in delivering. I do have other projects to work on, which is why I unfortunately cannot afford to sit on here 24hours a day to respond to peoples posts.

But I will try to respond to anything that is directed at me. Be it abuse or a serious question / discussion.

urbanfatboy

Gavin Weeks wrote:

Sorry for the slow response, I have been busy this morning getting some more bits done to the site and forums.

Nothing I said was patronizing in the slightest, and it wasn't aimed specifically at you, a lot of people here genuinely think there is nothing beyond the forums. My apologies if it did offend, its wasn't the intention, thats not how I "get off" as you put it!

I am neither annoyed or fed up with whats being said, I do in fact enjoy dealing with people be it to complain or compliment (Although this isn't part of my job!). But you must understand the frustration of the same recycling complaints and problems popping up in different threads,

End of the day, I know things are being sorted because I'm the one doing a lot of it, I wish I could set a date for it to be finished but that would only discredit my word if I get delayed in delivering. I do have other projects to work on, which is why I unfortunately cannot afford to sit on here 24hours a day to respond to peoples posts.

But I will try to respond to anything that is directed at me. Be it abuse or a serious question / discussion.

I think it would be fair to say that implying that I was close-minded was patronising.Not aimed at me? That is perhaps being a touch disingenuous. But if you apology is sincere, then I will accept in in good faith. Thank you.