Upcoming board changes

[Hawker]

Hi,

Just a quick post to let you know that at some point (I have not decided when just yet!) I'll be taking us offline for a little bit of maintenance.

In preparation, I've been doing a tidy up of the members database - namely, pruning members who have no activity and haven't logged in for several years.  Hopefully, I won't have caught anyone who is using their account - but if you've been lurking and only logging in on occasion, your account may have been picked up as dormant and removed.

Apologies if this is the case - you are, of course, more than welcome to re-join!

I am also having a big think about reordering some of the forums, particularly in the Off Topic areas.  This is primarily because traffic is a little lower these days, and I'm not sure that it's particularly helpful to have several subforums instead of one General Chat forum, perhaps with threads which are tagged by topic (so instead of a sport subforum, the threads which are sport related have a sport tag etc).

I am still pondering this change - so if you have any thoughts on this, please reply and let me know; I'm keen to read what your feelings are.

Additionally, if you have any suggestions about the way the forums are structured, now is a great time to speak.  So, for example, perhaps you feel we should merge polls back in with Neighbours Chat - anything like that, please speak up and let me know and I'll have a think. 

[Hawker]

I've completed the major part of the maintenance now.

You'll see some new features over the coming weeks, and I'm currently running a few rebuilds in the background - so you might see changes to reputation and ranks over the next few days.

As always, drop any questions, comments, concerns, problems etc here and I'll take a look when I get a moment.

And I'm very interested in your thoughts and ideas for what you might want to see in the future, so feel free to shout up if you think you'd like to see something we don't currently offer, or if you think you've got an idea for how we can implement something differently.

Thanks for your patience whilst I took us offline; much appreciated.

Edit:  I realise the reaction button isn't visible in the theme without rolling over the area first.  I'll fix it tomorrow - think I need to do some template digging!

[JimDeeFan]

Thanks Hawker. My account is saying "Your content will need to be approved by a moderator"? I'm assuming it's because of the maintenance?

[Poor Libby]

I've just noticed the new 'achievements' thingy. Is there a complimentary robe that comes with Grand Master status? 

[Benji]

I like the idea of merging the Off Topic subsections, as some of them do seem a little unloved these days. It might also help flag up new threads in areas one might miss when separated as they are. I wonder if it could work having a ‘General Chat’ and ‘Entertainment’ subsections as those seem to have the most traffic? 

With regards to ‘polls’: was that originally created so NChat wasn’t overrun with polls? If merging them together again created more participation with polls then it could be a good idea. 

I’ve seen the ‘achievements/rankings’ feature on other boards, and it’s nice to see that including this hasn’t reset everything like it did on another board. I see I’m in the top 1% which is cool, but I wonder what the next stage is for us Grand Masters? I also wonder if this is what all those billionaires and trillionaires ponder being part of the 1% club.

[JimDeeFan]

Testing. Does this message come through?

[daydreambeliever]

I think a "General" and an "Entertainment" section in OT might work well as they do seem to be where the action is these days.

I mostly want to be able to go about Days Of Our Lives  still.

[Hawker]

29 minutes ago, JimDeeFan said:

Testing. Does this message come through?

It did, mate - are you still seeing the message when you're posting?

[Hawker]

12 minutes ago, daydreambeliever said:

I think a "General" and an "Entertainment" section in OT might work well as they do seem to be where the action is these days.

I mostly want to be able to go about Days Of Our Lives  still.

Don't worry; I won't be taking anything away - just merging areas, so you're still more than welcome to wax lyrical about Days.   

[Hawker]

1 hour ago, Benji said:

I like the idea of merging the Off Topic subsections, as some of them do seem a little unloved these days. It might also help flag up new threads in areas one might miss when separated as they are. I wonder if it could work having a ‘General Chat’ and ‘Entertainment’ subsections as those seem to have the most traffic? 

With regards to ‘polls’: was that originally created so NChat wasn’t overrun with polls? If merging them together again created more participation with polls then it could be a good idea. 

I’ve seen the ‘achievements/rankings’ feature on other boards, and it’s nice to see that including this hasn’t reset everything like it did on another board. I see I’m in the top 1% which is cool, but I wonder what the next stage is for us Grand Masters? I also wonder if this is what all those billionaires and trillionaires ponder being part of the 1% club.

Cheers Benji - the polls suggestion was just an idea of what sort of things I am open to, but I do wonder if there's a better way to drive traffic towards the polls at a certain point (when there's a poll to answer) and/or if allowing polls on threads in Neighbours Chat is enough to encourage use of them when appropriate.  I will keep thinking.

And ha, yeah - we've been around for so long, hitting the default levels is pretty trivial for most of us regulars who like a chat!  I will have to sit down with a pen and paper at some point and expand them further.

[Hawker]

...and I have made some more changes, and now I'm running a few more rebuilds - so apologies if the activity page doesn't populate and/or it feels a little slow.  

[JimDeeFan]

Yep. Thank you. I'd like the last message but the option isn't showing up for me.

[Tracy C]

12 hours ago, Hawker said:

Edit:  I realise the reaction button isn't visible in the theme without rolling over the area first.  I'll fix it tomorrow - think I need to do some template digging!

@JimDeeFan why it’s not there.  

[Hawker]

Fixed now, I think.

[Tracy C]

It is and thanks Sal.  Its amazing how quickly you get used to that feature!

[RamsaySt1]

2 hours ago, Hawker said:

Cheers Benji - the polls suggestion was just an idea of what sort of things I am open to, but I do wonder if there's a better way to drive traffic towards the polls at a certain point (when there's a poll to answer) and/or if allowing polls on threads in Neighbours Chat is enough to encourage use of them when appropriate.  I will keep thinking.

I know you only used it as an example but I agree that I think moving polls to Neighbours Chat could be a good idea. I often forget to look in the polls section and then tend to come across them a couple of weeks after discussion peaked on them. 

[Skylover]

Oh, I'd quite like the polls to stay where they are because I like seeing all the polls together and like going back to look at them. But maybe I'm in the minority with that.

I just hope Character Discussion stays as I like having discussion about characters in a different section too.

4 hours ago, Benji said:

I’ve seen the ‘achievements/rankings’ feature on other boards, and it’s nice to see that including this hasn’t reset everything like it did on another board. I see I’m in the top 1% which is cool, but I wonder what the next stage is for us Grand Masters? I also wonder if this is what all those billionaires and trillionaires ponder being part of the 1% club.

What is this and how do you see it please?

[Benji]

12 minutes ago, Skylover said:

What is this and how do you see it please?

If you click your profile name and scroll down, you should see it towards the bottom. It will tell you your ranking. I’m 100% sure you are a Grand Master. The icon also displays on your avatar, too (we’re the ones with the crown ).

ETA: I see the emojis display in an Android style now. @wizardt™ will be pleased. Bye-bye iPhone style emojis.  

[Skylover]

Thanks. So what does Grand Master mean and what's the significance of 14/14? And what's the top 1% you're talking about, I can't see anything about that?

[Benji]

2 minutes ago, Skylover said:

Thanks. So what does Grand Master mean and what's the significance of 14/14? And what's the top 1% you're talking about, I can't see anything about that?

If you click on the ‘recent badges’ on your profile it will take you to a list of all your badges earned and where you rank. There appears to be 14 posting levels to achieve, and the Grand Master is the highest level (until Sal invents some new ones ). I guess it’s designed to get people posting more to rise in the ranks. We don’t actually win a prize.