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Discussion in 'Empty Closets Help and Feedback' started by Martin, Mar 3, 2013.

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  1. DeanIsHome

    DeanIsHome
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    Re: Very cool

    I totally agree! It's so much more organized and easier to use.
     
    #21 DeanIsHome, Mar 3, 2013
  2. photoguy93

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    I think that the new layout is great for people who need to start a forum or seek specific advice. However, as someone who replies a lot, it's a bit over-whelming and I feel like I'm going to end up ignoring more posts. But - just my opinion. I understand why it was done and it is nice to have things organized better!
     
    #22 photoguy93, Mar 3, 2013
  3. FemCasanova

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    Wow, yeah, it feels really new, and a bit weird, lol, but I am a terrible creature of habit, and anything new is always weird and slightly angst-causing to me. Great job, Martin, I am sure this is going to be a lot better! Thank you for the hard work :grin:
     
    #23 FemCasanova, Mar 4, 2013
  4. Clown

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    Ooh! I see my name in the League of Legends post! I shall go down in history!
     
    #24 Clown, Mar 4, 2013
  5. Fiddledeedee

    Fiddledeedee
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    Suggestions:

    The Support Area section descriptors on the forum index page are very long, making it less space-efficient if you're not on a widescreen and making them contrast with the descriptors in the General Chat area. After people have gotten used to what goes where, it might be a good idea to shorten them and then have a more comprehensive "What goes here" stickied post in the subforum itself.

    The thread tags for "Sexual orientation" or "Gender identity" are longer than they need to be, again taking up more space -- why not make them "Sexuality" and "Gender"?

    Grammar! Some of the forum names use the Oxford comma (the difference between "bacon, eggs and cheese" (without the Oxford comma) and "bacon, eggs, and cheese" (with it)) but some don't. This is a minor thing, but it should probably be consistant, and I'd suggest changing Current Events, World News & LGBT News and Mental, Physical and Sexual Health to include that extra comma.
     
    #25 Fiddledeedee, Mar 4, 2013
  6. FemCasanova

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    Hm, the only issue I am experiencing thus far, is that for me who used to try to get all over the place, to reply to as many as possible of the posts with few replies, it is getting harder keep an overview over where I have gone, when there are so many sub-forums.
    Sure, not all are relevant, but I am an "all over" kind of girl, lol.

    Other than that, I agree with FDD

    Suggestions:

    The Support Area section descriptors on the forum index page are very long, making it less space-efficient if you're not on a widescreen and making them contrast with the descriptors in the General Chat area. After people have gotten used to what goes where, it might be a good idea to shorten them and then have a more comprehensive "What goes here" stickied post in the subforum itself.

    The thread tags for "Sexual orientation" or "Gender identity" are longer than they need to be, again taking up more space -- why not make them "Sexuality" and "Gender"?

    More free space might make my issue easier to handle. Also, the "new post" tab, which I never used before, but because of my issue with getting all over the place now tried out, it seems to only get 2 pages long, and only include very recent posts (like 24 hours). If I wanted to see posts that are new since I logged on last, is that possible in some way?

    Hope the mods and Martin don`t take my questions or opinion as criticism, you have done an amazing job with this, and I do see that it is better this way for people to get their posts replied when it`s sorted more, less generic, and it is easy to see what is relevant. I particularly found the "green mark" and "purple mark" for gender issues and sexuality issues useful, as I am not very useful when the issue is gender related, so it is better for me to focus on replying to stuff that relates to sexuality issues. So, it made my going through that forum a lot easier!
     
    #26 FemCasanova, Mar 4, 2013
  7. TwoMethod

    TwoMethod
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    Actually, despite my complaints about vBulletin, it still remains the best and most reliable forum software. It has been consistently updated since it was created.

    bbPress is great, but I doubt it could handle the volume that Empty Closets receives. And XenForo... I know an admin who switched from vBulletin to XenForo and has regretted it. I'm not sure what the story is now, but I know for a while that there was huge uncertainty about its future.

    The only thing bad about vBulletin is how difficult it is to update, and E.C. hasn't been updated in quite a while. But the site functions perfectly well now, and I'm not sure I like the finish on the newer versions, either.
     
    #27 TwoMethod, Mar 4, 2013
  8. Martin

    Martin
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    That is something that will be a bit tricky to do as it will be rather difficult to condense things down anywhere close to what the General Chat forum titles have, especially given the need for clarity in some areas. The reason some of them are particularly longer is because some forums cover a broader topic area than the title suggests (Family, Friends, and Relationships) so it needed to be specificed that it was also a one-stop shop for Friends and Family Members who post for support regarding somebody they know who is LGBT. There's also a case with Mental, Physical, and Sexual Health in which we have to have a disclaimer that is highly visible to make it known that the forum has a very clear boundary on what it can do, otherwise we risk operating in a manner that is highly liable and unethical.

    I do appreciate that they are rather wordy, especially when you understand perfectly well what each forum is aiming to cover. However, what we also have to remember is that there's a continuous stream of new members who won't have the same clear understanding of the forums that we have, and those forum descriptions can significantly help keep things running smoothly and ease people into the community. I would absolutely love to have stickied posts that explain it in better detail, but the question I then ask myself is whether it's appropriate or even realistic to expect vulnerable members to join the site and then start reading a variety of guides (or a singular lengthy one) before they can understand how to post. The explanation of staff roles, security etc already contributes to the information overload for new peeps, so explaining the forum dynamic structure would only add further pressure onto them. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

    Regarding the prefixes in Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, I can't properly remember how we reached the decision on the naming of that forum and its prefixes, but I seem to recall that the 'labels' used in there had to be done rather carefully because of some situations in which the shorter forms suggested wouldn't actually be entirely appropriate. I just can't for the life of me remember what those points were that got addressed when that forum was being consulted on. :eusa_doh:

    Voila. :slight_smile:

    If I remember correctly, the New Posts tab only shows threads that have had activity since you last signed. For example, right now my New Posts has 6 pages in it, which displays threads right up until 1:30pm my time as that's when I last had activity. What you'll find as you use the New Posts page regularly is that it becomes much better at keeping you updated on threads, especially if you also familiarise yourself with the various images that are displayed on the left hand side and what they mean. Unfortunately, it still has the flaw in cutting off any threads you didn't get round to during your first visit, so that is perhaps something we'll have to look into. Hopefully as we work towards upgrading vB we'll get features that much better integrate and update people on threads and posts, and a 'Who quoted me?' feature is certainly up there on my list of features to get too.

    It was updated about a year or so ago to vB3.8, albeit entirely unexpectedly without planning. Our intention was to jump straight from 3.7 (installed around Mid-2008) to 4, but a database issue had us upgrade for some reason. Quite a bit of work has been done on EC's DEV that has vB4 installed, but as we were getting that sorted vB5 was announced. :rolleyes: The new version does look like it could be promising and save us a lot of money on designs and customising etc, so we're looking to see how that develops and keeping our options open before moving forward. Hopefully it won't take ages though!
     
    #28 Martin, Mar 4, 2013
  9. UndercoverGypsy

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    Fair enough, I've never actually had to deal with vbulletin before, so I don't know how it works very well, but I've seen things on this forum like that thread asking about getting notifications for quotes and now this, which kinda led me to believe it's crap. I have screwed around with phpbb and bbpress before, and I liked bbpress mostly because wordpress has such a great user base that bbpress gets similar people, and a guy I know uses XenForo and likes it, which is why I suggested those two.
     
    #29 UndercoverGypsy, Mar 4, 2013
  10. Fiddledeedee

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    Fair enough; thanks for explaining!

    The nitpicker in me rests happy. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
     
    #30 Fiddledeedee, Mar 4, 2013
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