Too many forum categories

Continuation of this discussion...

greylingr said:

Dave......"too many categories", but you still went ahead and created your own building tips category......just pulling your leg...

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True. My point was that the main page of this forum has 52 categories, most of which have less than 10 threads. 80% of the posts are in 20% of the categories. Normally I wouldn't care, but the "new posts" link seems unreliable. The clock for counting "new" posts seems to get reset at random times. Then the only way to find new posts is to look through the dozens of categories... tedious.

And another complaint is that the search function doesn't index any words shorter than 4 letters. Try to search for "HS".

These are just minor nits. I still much prefer the forum format over Yahoo Groups.

Dave

Afternoon Dave,

Good points all (and I'll look into that 4 character search issue). I'll be the first to admit it's not a perfect setup, my thought on starting with a LOT of catagories was to try to get the ball rolling - showing the potential of what could be. Over the past couple of years I've come to see the whole site as a kind of 'living thing' that changes and morphs into different areas of popularity. (ex. The adding photos part seems to be much more active in the last couple of weeks).

My prediction is that over the next year the catories will change to better reflect the group's interests.

In RE: to the New Posts link quirks..... I'm starting to use the 'Today's Posts' link feature a lot more these days: http://www.vansairforce.com/community/search.php?do=getdaily

Anyway, thanks always for input on how to make it all better.

Wishing all a great weekend,
DR

Davepar said:

Continuation of this discussion...

True. My point was that the main page of this forum has 52 categories, most of which have less than 10 threads. 80% of the posts are in 20% of the categories. Normally I wouldn't care, but the "new posts" link seems unreliable. The clock for counting "new" posts seems to get reset at random times. Then the only way to find new posts is to look through the dozens of categories... tedious.

And another complaint is that the search function doesn't index any words shorter than 4 letters. Try to search for "HS".

These are just minor nits. I still much prefer the forum format over Yahoo Groups.

Dave

Click to expand...

The "clock" on new posts, I believe, is actually a cookie. It's all I use and it seems the most efficient. It shows me threaeds I haven't read -- actually threads that it has not told me before have new posts in them. But it will only show them once. If you don't view them that time, it won't flag you next time unless there's a subsequent post in that thread.

Comments on Categories and New Posts

Hi Guys,

a couple of comments from my side...

On Categories and this Forum:
I like this forum format much better, pictures tell a 1000 words.

We received some excellent general building tips and how to's especially from F1Rocket that is currently hidden in the general discussion forum. These post stand a change to get 'lost in time', since a lot of posts go into the general discussion forum, flooding these important and useful posts. That is why I asked for a building tips forum not connected to any specific model.

DeltaRomeo: I Agree 100% I like this format better, photos in your post is what makes it Great . Able to use and format your post is fantastic, makes reading much easier. Categories, what a life saver!!!

Sure you have to keep a tab on the categories, if it does not get traffic, you need to consolidate them...Also keep a pulse on what happens in the General discussion for hints if a 'new' category is required, like "General building tips"


Some useful information about the 'New Post' Feature:
Bob: You are correct...

Typically 'New Post' clock (time & date stamp) is kept, either by your web browser in a cookie or it is stored by the forum when you log in.

The 'New Post' time & date stamp is reset when you close your browser showing the vans airforce forum pages, or when you log out & log back into the page.

When you log back into the forum web page the system uses the time & date stamp it stored from your previous visit, compares it to the current time & date, and display any new posts that happened in-between those 2 times.

So it is more of "New posts, since last visit" feature, because it stores the time you last visited the website, and assumes you have read everything up to that point, and only shows the new post since your last visit.

Try it out, if you open this website for the first time the day there will be a lot of "new posts". Close everything, log out and back in. If you open it again and try the 'new post' feature there will be none or very few, only the ones that got posted since you closed your browser.

So if you missed some new posts or you could not finish reading them all before you had to close your browser, use the "Today's post" feature.

I use both the "New Posts" And "Today's Post" quite reliably.
It is just a matter of understanding how they work, and using them as such.

Kind Regards
Rudi

greylingr said:

So it is more of "New posts, since last visit" feature, because it stores the time you last visited the website, and assumes you have read everything up to that point, and only shows the new post since your last visit.

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Exactly. Sometimes I don't check the forum every day (like over a busy RV building weekend ). I'd like to check out the post about the first RV-10 customer flight, but only if I have a half hour right then to read the rest of the "new posts". Otherwise they are gone. In addition to "today's posts" it would be nice to have "the last 3 day's posts".