Suggestion for Improving the Naim Forum

My small attempt to broaden it was the Thread, "What DVD have you just watched?" This is probably the most active [and certainly most long lived] Thread in the section, but I would also suspect that as an area, Home Entertainment is less prone to tweakery of all sorts than the Gramophone Section! So the number of posts and threads is likely to be less than on classical Hifi.

I bet that nothing much gets changed, but it depends what the company wants disused in there. It might!

I would start Threads on Rodin, Michealangelo and so forth if it changed along the lines of your suggestion!

ATB from Fredrik

non-stop,
nothing preventing you starting such threads in the Padded Cell.

Just my 2p.

/dl

i have thought of starting a thread on sacd m.c. but not sure where to put it. probably nowhere, as naim doesn't make a player (but their dvd player apparently does play dvd-audio m.c.). i have a 5.1 audio-only sacd rig and i love it, it's fun!!

Turn of the function that automatically locks threads after a month or so. Whilst I can appreciate the argument for this, is frustrating (and utterly pointless) in the music room.

regards, Tam

Locking the usually very good threads in the Music Room is a great shame in my view. Perhaps their open life could be twelve months from the last posting, before locking, rather than 48 days. Perhaps we could have a two week amnesty to resusitate some of the best of the old Threads there, and then a new longer limit applied? There are some threads that repeat and adding to them [in some cases at least] would be much better than re-iterating them, perhaps...

I think locking threads in the other sections is quite a good idea!

Kindest regards from Fredrik

Locking Threads

I agree with you guys, it just doesn't make any sense in the Music Room, where I believe many of the threads are essentially timeless.

I raised this with Adam today when he kindly re-opened the Jellyfish thread for me. He explained that in the past very old threads have been resurrected causing confusion when people don't read the original dates. I'm not sure how much of a problem this has been.

Unfortunately the locking process applies across the site and can't be tweaked at the Forum level.

I have asked him if he can extend the time allowed. I think 6 months is reasonable if we can't have indefinite thread life.

I'll add a plea for PMs but I know it isn't going to happen.

All posts over 10 lines in length should have a précis at the beginning.

To précis some posts would tke more than ten lines, however, so perhaps a précis of the précis?

Of course the length of a post may be seen without reading it, so if the reader's attention span is too short to cncentrate for the necessary period, he or she can always jump down one post.

Fredrik

There is no chance PMs will be allowed now, I would think. Fredrik

The forum software is starting to look a bit tired these days as it hasn't changed in any significant way in a number of years. Time to look at other solutions?
John

At first I thought you were talking about the forum, and then I re-read and realised you were talking about the software solution! Good point, John.

off topic, how did you get on with all that wedding photography?!

best

Rico

quote:

Originally posted by John Channing:
The forum software is starting to look a bit tired these days as it hasn't changed in any significant way in a number of years. Time to look at other solutions?
John

I think it increasingly stands out as one of the few forums where you can still follow a thread without silly distractions.

The Search Engine (now) works

- all pretty good for a forum although, perhaps, a little dull for a video game.

quote:

off topic, how did you get on with all that wedding photography?!

Really well, doing another two in the next twelve months!
John

quote:

I think it increasingly stands out as one of the few forums where you can still follow a thread without silly distractions.

Arguably though, it still isn't as good as the original (circa 1997) forum in that respect.

quote:

The Search Engine (now) works

That obviously is essential and was a big hindrance in the early days of the infopop based forum when it barely worked at all.

Social networking (essentially what the forum is) has come a long way in recent years and so has the technology that enables it. If you just consider for a few minutes the reasons why people come to the forum and why it is also useful to Naim, I think you would find that there is still a huge amount of scope for improving it.
John

quote:

Arguably though, it still isn't as good as the original (circa 1997) forum in that respect.

no argument here. the old solution was exceptional for that.

The Forum is only as good as its members. Sadly, many of the better ones have departed over the last couple of years.

On the other hand there haven't been many arguements about stands recently.

quote:

Originally posted by seagull:
The Forum is only as good as its members. Sadly, many of the better ones have departed over the last couple of years.

On the other hand there haven't been many arguements about stands recently.

I'm beginning to form a theory (though it might be somewhat early-Pimms induced) that there was something of a golden age for Forums - when the concept was new and people had lots of new things to say.

I know I've suffered from Forum Fatigue where I've either become sick of the sight of my own words or can't summon up the energy to contribute another <insert hackneyed topic here> thread often dominated by those with the most extreme views.

Where I've tried not to flag is in the music areas - I've gained so much from various sources that I still feel in debt and therefore have something to repay.

There's no doubt in my mind that the early years of the Naim Forum (obviously in my opinion) were something special. Nothing I've participated in since comes close, and that's not meant as a slight to current members here or anywhere else.

Edit: The Chameleons are rubbish ;-)

yes, i have to grudgingly admit to actually learning a few things in the music room. i am grateful for that.

quote:

Originally posted by seagull:


On the other hand there haven't been many arguements about stands recently.

Ah yes.. the one with the redundantly slavic name...starts with V... In love with their own opinions, reviews of speaker supports in 15 different categories except how they might play MUSIC. I'm not sentimental myself....

quote:

Originally posted by Gary Shaw:


There's no doubt in my mind that the early years of the Naim Forum (obviously in my opinion) were something special.

I've been following the forums since 97'. While the fun and humor are in shorter supply, this is more a reflection of the times than anything else. The current forums may have less sparkle, yet to my mind they are more interesting. Have you read the Classical Music threads and compared them with those of bygone years ? No contest. Padded Cell may have one or two belligerent Trolls, who surface the waters like sharks going in for the kill, but the political threads are more thoughtful and less silly. All In My Humble Opinion, of course.



I Am Your Humble Servant (as always)



Unstoppable

Dear Unstoppable,

I agree that the forum has become less sparkling, but also more reflective [in parts], and also generally more interesting. If you can ignore the nth Thread on whether an 82 is much nicer than a 72, or whatever the modern equivalents are today, there are often intersting things from which an open mind can learn even in the Hifi Corner. The best of the posting there still applies to musical values in replay.

Even the Padded Cell has some good [if occasionally eccentric] Threads, but the star for me is the Music Room, where the standard of discussion has continued to improve continually, in my view. In this regard my one sadness is that the Threads are automatically locked after 48 days. I know this is inevtiable, but some of those threads are actually timeless, and locking them in an archive without an index is a great shame. Still nothing is perfect. Tam's link Thread is very good, but perhaps there is room for an Index, made [and it would be a lot of work] by the Moderators, which links to the best of the old Threads. Perhaps this could be a sticky and as individual members we could ask for the most memorable to be linked there. This might be a good work round [given the inevitability of the locking process], and rescue some of the posts, produced with considerable work, from oblivion?

Kindest regards from Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Unstoppable:
Have you read the Classical Music threads and compared them with those of bygone years ? No contest.

I'd agree with you on the number and quality of Classical threads - there's certainly less "dead Germans in mono" didacticism that was prevalent previously. In other areas there's a little lack of strength in depth, but as I say that's not confined to here. With the choices now available that weren't there in previous times there are more sites with specialist leanings and it's harder to get critical mass on more generalist forums.

But again, that's not to say that there isn't plenty of new stuff to be discovered here musically and I promise to try and contribute more (because if I don't, what right do I have to comment?), though I doubt I can reach previous levels - which for many will probably be a good thing.

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

Originally posted by John Channing:
The forum software is starting to look a bit tired these days as it hasn't changed in any significant way in a number of years. Time to look at other solutions?
John

I think it increasingly stands out as one of the few forums where you can still follow a thread without silly distractions.

The Search Engine (now) works

- all pretty good for a forum although, perhaps, a little dull for a video game.

i have to agree - it's very functional, and one can actually post a topic and enjoy responses by a few non-psychotic persons, even at times w/ alacrity. although we all have different size axes to grind, at least here it doesn't get wildy out of hand (unless adam is on a trip or moving somewhere).

A site like http://slashdot.org has branching trees of replies. Because replies are easier to track there are less formatting problems with quoting other posts.

A compromise on smileys could be to tone them down. Less colourful and not animated. And more of them of course. They're not very imaginative.

quote:

Originally posted by AlexanderVH:
A site like slashdot....

Just took a look ... a wandered away confused. With practice it may be easier but I couldn't even work out how to simply read a thread. (I did did give it 47 nanoseconds and I have yet to finish my first cup of coffee).

NOT sure I like that any better than the set-up here.

I like the forum the way it is. Infact one of the useful features is that you can click on the name of the last person to post on a thread and go directly to their post. A similar action on other forums takes you into the poster's details and there is no means of going directly to the last post.

Then again I do wonder if there is any way of reminding posters of new threads that there is a comprehensive find function. It would be nice to have a prompt added to the software asking the would be poster if they have done a search before they post.

Another useful feature would be a prompt to ask a would be poster if they have actually read the previous posts on a thread properly before they put finger to keyboard

Cheers

Rob