The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to digittante For This Useful Post: | ||
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2010-03-23
, 22:14
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Posts: 1,341 |
Thanked: 708 times |
Joined on Feb 2010
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#2
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2010-03-24
, 00:35
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Posts: 11,700 |
Thanked: 10,045 times |
Joined on Jun 2006
@ North Texas, USA
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#3
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I've thought in many forums, a huge improvement might be a system like this:
1) When new thread is started, it first asks about the topic, and won't let to write anything to the body of the message.
2) After author has written the topic, and press the "Make new thread on this topic"-button, the system will execute a search using those words on the topic and will show them in some relevance order to author.
3) Author then can choose either entering to some already existing talk-thread, or push "Yes, I really need to make a new thread"-button.
Also unmercifully moderators would delete threads which has misleading or "bad" topic.
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2010-03-24
, 00:47
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Posts: 94 |
Thanked: 44 times |
Joined on Feb 2010
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#4
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2010-03-24
, 00:52
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Posts: 1,341 |
Thanked: 708 times |
Joined on Feb 2010
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#5
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Actually this forum does that one better: when you start a new thread, the forum engine searches existing threads based on keywords in the title, letting you see upfront before you commit your post if there are possible threads on the topic already. Demonstrating once again the value of a well-thought title.
Notice: When you enter a thread title the system will search for similar threads which have already been posted. That should help you to find answers.
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2010-03-24
, 01:28
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Posts: 149 |
Thanked: 140 times |
Joined on Sep 2009
@ YUL
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#7
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Could the total number of "thanks" given in a thread separate helpfull-threads from flame-wars?
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2010-03-24
, 01:34
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Posts: 579 |
Thanked: 286 times |
Joined on Oct 2009
@ Australia
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#8
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2010-03-24
, 01:50
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Posts: 94 |
Thanked: 44 times |
Joined on Feb 2010
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#9
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2010-03-24
, 06:27
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Posts: 466 |
Thanked: 180 times |
Joined on Feb 2010
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#10
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Chiming in with an observation/suggestion about the page layout of the TMO top-level page:
OBSERVATIONS:
As our community has grown, so has the number of new members initiating duplicate threads on common topics like "when's this new firmware due?" and "WTF Nokia?!". At the same time, there's a ton of wisdom emerging here from the community that's perhaps not as easy to find as we could make it.
I've been in TMO for a year now, and when I visit each day, I take these steps:
In other words, I ignore virtually 90% of the top-level page content. Why? For me, it's a nearly static menu of 5 top-level Forum headings & 30 sub-forum headings (a great scheme that only makes sense once you've been here a while). Despite the high real-estate cost, it provides little currency or 'newness' except for the 1st ~24-characters of the post title of the last post in each of 30 sub-forums.
And the "Active Topics" sidebar contents are only slightly better at revealing active threads. With 500,000+ posts & 1500+ concurrent users on TMO any afternoon, the sidebar should really be called "The Last 12 Topics in Which Someone Posted Anything Just Before Your Browser Loaded This Page".
I imagine that for newer members to our community who seek answers (like all those great 'sticky' posts one-level down), this static landing page presents a challenge to discovering it. In short, the barrier to discovering a meaningful thread is higher than the barrier to starting a new one. (And somewhere in between those two options lays the seasoned forum-navigator's retort, "Use the Search function, noob!")
We're already surfacing on the top-level page the # of current viewers in each of the sub-forums. The top five sub-forums (based on current users as of this writing - an albeit better representation of 'active topics') includes in descending order:
Notice how the sub-forum sort-order above is different from the static sort-order on the top-level TMO page.
SUGGESTION:
Would it be possible to insert atop the main landing page (between the "Intro/Downloads/Community/etc" global menu and the "Talk" header) the following content:
The long list of 5 Forums and 30 sub-forums would remain on the main landing page, below the above content. But the impact of doing something like the above is that the truly active/top/current 25 - 50 threads/stickies in this community would be visible right on the top-level page to new visitors and seasoned forum-navigators alike.
Enabling discovery like that might ease the burden for new members, reduce the number of duplicate threads that drive others bonkers, and accelerate learning.
Just my humble offering to more easily surface the great wisdom of this community for all.
Kind regards,
digittante
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Joined TMO in February, 2009 with an N810. I'm not a dev.
I'm just an active user who blogs about my N900 sometimes.
Happy to field questions where I can help.
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