We are in the planning stages of a required upgrade to the Forums’ software that will take place in the next couple of months. As part of this upgrade, we’re taking a gander at the features the site offers and are looking for your input.
First off, we want to assure you that we’re not planning any monumental changes in terms of appearance, though there is some discussion regarding widening the entire site, particularly to give us some more layout flexibility on the main site in terms of articles, etc. The main style changes anticipated will be a function of new features added (adding a new button for a new feature, for example.)
There shouldn’t be a vastly different style and design to absorb like last time, and we want to do a better job of getting more users’ input at all stages of the operation so it goes as smoothly as possible.
A lot of the main changes will be behind-the-scenes stuff that you won’t even see, but while we’re addressing those technical issues, we also want to take the opportunity to offer some new goodies!
Sooooo…let’s hear your thoughts.
Let’s please try to avoid turning the thread into a rehashing of what you didn’t like about the last site revamping. You’re welcome to comment on things from that redesign that you’d like us to reconsider, now that everyone has had a lot of time to work within the “new” site. Again, this isn’t slated to be a big change in terms of layout or design; it’ll be more focused on tweaking the features we offer.
We have some ideas of new things we’re thinking of implementing already, which we think will be nice additions that will work within our existing framework, with the resources we have available and within the overall plan for the magazine and company. I’ll run some of them past you later on in this post.
We promise that we’ll read every post here, but can’t promise how much we’ll be posting here in response to individual suggestions. We want to be sure we’re addressing as many of your wants/needs as we can within our constraints, and have been listening to suggestions as they come in throughout the year(s), but here’s another opportunity to provide feedback/input.
The following are a few of the ideas we’ve been considering; there are some other things we’re contemplating, but this will give you a sense of what’s rattling around our heads. They’re not guaranteed to show up, but feel free to rank them by your interest level and/or provide your thoughts on any or all of them.
Also, please don’t hesitate to share any other features or improvements you’d like to see, whether based on your user experience here, or from other discussion forums you may use. Again, various ideas may not work for us due to the particular characteristics of our company, resources or community, but we’re happy to hear them! Once we get a better handle on things folks are interested in seeing, we can work some more on the feasibility and implementation issues related to them.
Potential new features for all users:
- COTH mobile app
- New smilies :)
- "Like" button for posts
- Reining/Western forum
- Universal log-in system for all Chronicle sites (this will be implemented after initial upgrade is complete)
Potential new features for Premium users:
- New forum allowing discussion of business-related questions, brags, market research, employment opportunities and some other "borderline" topics previously restricted due to advertising policies.
- Permanent Off Topic forum (also open to rest of community on occasion as we do currently)
- Photo Albums
- Embedded video in posts
We appreciate your input and ongoing interest in the site—you make it what it is!
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