Forum UPGRADE Input!

Like

:lol:

The problem with a Chat room is that it can REALLY slow the site down unless you have a separate server dedicated to chat. It depends on how often Chat gets used, of course, but I’ve seen this happen on another website. That site shares one server for both the BB and the Chat room, and there is never a really “good” time to allot to chat - the East Coasters get going right around the time the West Coast members are getting home and logging on to read the BB. It got really bad at one point, with people sending nasty PMs to the chatters telling them to get lost (in not so polite terms). It also has the potential to be a moderation nightmare; the Moderators would need a substantial raise in pay if COTH had a very active Chat community!:lol:

I work in IT/web development, and a regular ol’ mobile layout for cell phone browsers addresses all platforms… no need to develope a specific app.

I’d love to see the search engine changed so words with 3 letters can be used… currently it says they’re too short and omits them. Also, if there’s a way to integrate “AND” in the advanced search, that’d be awesome… currently it only does the “OR” join. :frowning:

This is a work around, and a good built in search engine would ABSOLUTELY be preferred, but you can use google to search the site, with all the boolean you’d like. Just go here: http://www.google.com/advanced_search

[QUOTE=FrittSkritt;5974787]
I’d love to see the search engine changed so words with 3 letters can be used… currently it says they’re too short and omits them. Also, if there’s a way to integrate “AND” in the advanced search, that’d be awesome… currently it only does the “OR” join. :([/QUOTE]

These go hand in hand for me. Usually I am searching for a thread that I had read in the past but need to reference now. Bookmarks would prevent the need to search.

However, if I do need to search the functionality could be improved. Using wildcards or quotes or something along those lines would help me find the information I need instead of starting a new thread (and prevent the "that topic has been brought up before, do a search replies).

I would rather see an “agree” and a “disagree” button ar a “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” button- but I will happily settle for a “like” button rather than none at all.

I am all FOR inclusion rather than exclusion so I would like to see a Western forum for those interested in Western riding AND I would also like to see a Gaited forum for the same reason.

I have no interest in eventing, hunter/ jumper or racing, but I don’t begrudge those people their forums, so why not have a Western forum and a Gaited forum as well?

INclusion, not EXclusion.

If you click on the number of posts for the thread it will pop up a window of all the people who posted in the thread. To the right is a quantity of posts. If you click on that quantity it will pop up all the posts by that user in that thread.

Is that pretty and easy enough for you?

A cross-platform app already exists for this purpose and that is what would be used. It interfaces with vBulletin at the server level and any COTH member with a newish smartphone or tablet (All the major platforms) gets formatting of content and forum features that is appropriate for their device and full forum functionality. There is nothing to develop and it is very easy to implement. While it is possible to do a mobile layout with vBulletin software and they do have their own customizable mobile app, it is not feasible to do that without moving to the latest and greatest version and it would require significant time and money to re-work things just to get it functional on a basic level.

Totally random - is there any way to get a thread to start at a specific spot when you click on it? What I mean is, when I click to open a thread, I often end up well down a page instead of at the top of a thread…I know all I have to do is scroll up, but it would be nice to go right to the first post…
Dee

I agree with those who said to please make the OP’s name in different color or high-lighted. That way it will make it easier to scroll through pages (of redundancy :rolleyes: ) to locate any important updates by the OP.

[QUOTE=nasalberry;5976846]
I agree with those who said to please make the OP’s name in different color or high-lighted. That way it will make it easier to scroll through pages (of redundancy :rolleyes: ) to locate any important updates by the OP.[/QUOTE]

So let it be written. So let it be done.

Is there any way to go back to being able to download/ view one article at a time for the online premium magazine?

you can do it on the free version of the website. I didn’t re-up my subscription because i can’t download an entire magazine onto a work computer and only have time to read an article or 2 at lunch.

and i don’t read the print version often enough to justify getting a mag every week.

please please please

I belong to another forum which has some features I’d love to see here. One is the ability to reply to individual posts rather than sticking a post onto the end of the thread. I know we have the “Quote” feature, but that is not enough. On the other forum I belong to, each post is assigned a number. When I read a post, I can see its number and the number of the post it was written in response to. I can click on the number and immediately view the post it was written in response to. This is an extremely handy feature. Here, unless one has used the quote feature, it’s a guessing game.

An even nicer feature of the other forum is the “Unread messages to me” feature which is available as soon as I log in. I can click on it and immediately see all the threads in which someone has responded to me. It is a terrific feature…how about it?

Sounds GREAT ``` All of IT ~~~ Thank You !


SOUNDS GREAT ```

ALL OF IT ````

THANK YOU !!!

It would be nice to have the “destination options” at the bottom of each page. That way when someone’s finished the last post in a thread (or the last post they’re interested in), it saves them scrolling all the way back up the page to go back to the menus.

[QUOTE=Mara;5996048]
It would be nice to have the “destination options” at the bottom of each page. That way when someone’s finished the last post in a thread (or the last post they’re interested in), it saves them scrolling all the way back up the page to go back to the menus.[/QUOTE]

We do have the “Forum Jump” drop-down menu below the quick reply box – or is that not what you’re after?

Just a heads up that we’ll be doing a final process of the input in the thread over the weekend and discussing things again on Monday and starting to move forward on figuring out what we want to/can implement.

Thank you again for all of your thoughtful feedback! We’ll check back with you if we need to run something by the community. We’ll also be doing Beta testing with users to help catch any glitches, etc. before we go live with the updated version of the software, etc. We don’t have firm timetable yet for the updates, but we’ll try to give plenty of advanced notice so folks aren’t caught by surprise.

Thanks!
Mod 1

I vote for a like agree or this button. ag

Reader-merits on posts – like used on slashdot forum. Readers grade responses – and viewers can choose how they want to read the forum – for the most liked posts or all posts. That weeds out some of the trolls and posters on either extreme – readers can sort them out. Posters also get more “credits” when their posts receive more “likes” and that grading is shown for everyone to see. Again, it gives those with more respected and knowledgeable posts more leverage – if readers want to use the forum that way.

The like button is a great first step!

I vote for tracking IP addresses or computers and red flags pop up if user already has an account from that IP address. I know that can be circumvented, but it will end some of the nonsense!

I would LOVE a permanent OT day for Premium Members!