Forum website problem

quote:

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Originally posted by Paul Hutchings:
Adam,

Do you have any sort of SLA with them (I appreciate that having one is different from enforcing it )


Paul

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Ah Paul, SLAs. Is there anything else that's tied up so many staff hours in the form of committees, working groups, user surveys etc, and enabled so many managers to tick the "accomplished" box on their objectives sheet, while achieving absolutely bugger all in real terms. Or am I just an old cynic?

If nothing else the Naim situation has been instructive. A client has just approached me about a discussion board. Never my first choice in any case, Infopop is now on my list of vendors to avoid. What comes round goes round.

Thanks for the reply Martin. I'd never thought in terms of groups within groups speaking with one voice - probably because we're so inclined to chat anyway.

Cheers

Harry

quote:

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Originally posted by matthewr:
...Try asking them if they have any experience of migrating Infopop communities to externally hosted vBulletin solutions and see if they get a lot more responsive

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Excellent idea.

I might be wrong but as this is an area which I am professionally interested in, I've spent some time looking at what the commercial options offer, and most of the 'big boys' offer migration facilities.

ISTR if you can export to a comma-delimited textfile from the Infopop option you're probably more than half way to being able to import it directly into a fresh vBulletin.

I still don't rate either vBulletin or Infopop in terms of useful features*, but they are always adding new bits and if I had to choose between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (or, a Rock and a Hard Place) I'd suggest vBulletin.

On the other hand, if punitative licensing is your bag, then there's an emergent .NET option from Telligent Systems called "Community Server :: Forums" which is probably the most fully-featured option out there right now.

I still think the bespoke route can make a lot of sense (especially as it can be integrated into the main Naim Audio website, rather than bolted on as a kind of 'appendage' - and even more so when you consider that it's easier to brand a bespoke community to fit with the look and feel of the main Naim site (of which it would form part).

However, that's a development thing - and runs its own set of risks and costs.

John

I'm sure nostalgia is influencing my preference, but this forum worked rather well.

Joe

Basically this forum is a NAIM product and you have a certain expectation off quality of those products and if they don't come up to scratch you complain. Where and how you complain is another story.

Howard

Joe what does that format look like with several hundred threads?

Joe that is so un-userfriendly, only computer nerds could posibly get along with it.

Regards,

Steve.

Howard,

quote:

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Joe what does that format look like with several hundred threads?

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It's
a
bit
hard
to
con-
vey
the
old
forum's
limita-
tions
on
this
forum,
but
most
users
found
a
way
around
it.

_____________________________________________

Steve,

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that is so un-userfriendly, only computer nerds could posibly get along with it.

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Precisely my implied point. The old forum's structure acted a bit like that sign at the fair that says you must be so tall to ride the ride.

Joe

That's the point. A good forum is designed specifically to be hard to use so that people below a certain basic intelligence level can't work out how to post.

The rot really set in here when the forum upgrade let the village idiots in.

Matthew

Well I rather like this Forum - simplistically designed and easy (for me) to follow.

IMO.

jon (village idiot extraordinaire - I thank you! )

Oh wait, its about that time where all the old school bemone the loss of the old forum, when Vuk used to post and stuff was so much better...

Thanks Joe.

Hey Steve!!! You've finally had your name changed!!

quote:

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Originally posted by matthewr:
That's the point. A good forum is designed specifically to be hard to use so that people below a certain basic intelligence level can't work out how to post.

The rot really set in here when the forum upgrade let the village idiots in.

Matthew

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Possibly so. Unfortunately it didn't drive any of the aggorant arseholes out either.

So it's a draw

Cheers

Harry

Gary,

quote:

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Oh wait, its about that time where all the old school bemone the loss of the old forum, when Vuk used to post and stuff was so much better...

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Jeez, youz guys are sensitive. ;-) You know you'd be just as welcome on the old forum as you are here, as would any other poster, novice or experienced, as far as I'm concerned. (Far be it for me, an über nerd, to judge who be cool enough to post on a hi-fi forum.)

But if Adam is serious about setting up a new Naim forum, now seems an opportune time to let him know how we feel. Gary, you’ve mentioned a few times how Infopoop sucks. I agree. Although the software Tony uses for Pink Fish seems better, personally, I prefer a simple, threaded forum (like the old one) so that replies are easier to spot and the inevitable tangents don't hijack the poster's original question.

That said, I have to say that some of the best discussions are the tangents, as the original questions, usually of the variety "Ummm, I have a 72 and 140... should I buy a Hi-Cap?," could be answered via a quick search -- or, better yet, a quick dem.

Joe

Only chain pulling Joe.

Yes I think that Infopop sucks, however I also think naim should look for software different to the other offerings.

I know it will be deeply unpopular of me to say, but I think the layout and style of a forum very much dictates how it operates and who uses it.

I think naim need to be separate from the pack is all, going with the flow in such a tight knit community will leave us all with the feeling we are on the same forum.

Any dimwit could install and run a phpBB forum - I know, I run one.

quote:

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Originally posted by garyi:
however I also think naim should look for software different to the other offerings.

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Gary,

a really custom application would take ages to put together and cost a bomb.

Other than TC customising his existing offering, I can't see that being practical. It will also need to be installed & maintained by someone, and will need expensive help when it goes wrong.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

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That's the point. A good forum is designed specifically to be hard to use so that people below a certain basic intelligence level can't work out how to post.

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Further to Joe Petrick's fairground ride analogy, few people would be refused admission on the basis of not being sufficiently tall, but many tall people would find the tree-threading structure tedious, amateurish, and just so internet-from-the-nineties when only the nerds actually used it.

As a music and hi-fi lover with a reasonable command of two languages I'd be looking for a different ride...

quote:

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Originally posted by Mick Parry:
The rot really set in here when the forum upgrade let the village idiots in.

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Regards,

Steve.

quote:

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Hey Steve!!! You've finally had your name changed!!

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Aye, and I'm grateful.

I wonder how the snotty-nosed old-timers will get on with addressing me as Steve?

Regards,

Steve.

Congratulations Stephen.

-- Ian

Personally I think 'Steve Toy' looks odd and is harder to say than 'Steven Toy' which, in my humble opinion, really flows....

Perhaps a useful compromise would have been:-

'Steve N. Toy' leaving us neatly with the option of pronouncing it either with or without the N.

I personally favour the above change and will be lobbying the mods accordingly

jon

quote:

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Originally posted by Steve Toy:
but many tall people would find the tree-threading structure tedious, amateurish, and just so _ internet-from-the-nineties _ when only the nerds actually used it.

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Steven,

I use a few threaded discussion forums at work, and I am quite convinced that that you end up with a wider range of discussion, and when a thread goes off at a tangent both the original and the new happily co-exist.

cheers, Martin

E-mail:- MartinPayne (at) Dial.Pipex.com. Put "Naim" in the title.

Martin said "and when a thread goes off at a tangent both the original and the new happily co-exist"

And can allow 'split' and 'join' functonality by the mods as well.

Personally, I'd also have forums set up like Wikipedia with full moderation rights (including editing posts, deleting posts, etc.) all policed by an oversight committe of users.

"Personally I think 'Steve Toy' looks odd"

One imagines that doll specialist woman on Antiques Roadshow saying "Actually it's what's known as a 'steve toy' and would be used by children in the 19th C. in a game of 'Steving' where one of them attempts to subvert the Ramblers Association into a Marxist-Lennist counter-revolutionary organisation and the other is Senator George McCarthy." Children had so much more imagination in those days before TV.

"Further to Joe Petrick's"

That'll be Petrik, Stephen.

Matthew

Steve,

quote:

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Further to Joe Petrick's fairground ride analogy, few people would be refused admission on the basis of not being sufficiently tall, but many tall people would find the tree-threading structure tedious, amateurish, and just so internet-from-the-nineties when only the nerds actually used it.

As a music and hi-fi lover with a reasonable command of two languages I'd be looking for a different ride...

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Few things are more pathetic than being a nerd in denial.

Joe

i dont like monkeys anymore