Forum Features: Your Opinion Wanted!

[Stefan Mikes]

I've just ignored the "Help Choosing an Ebike" subforum. Newbies coming there basically already know what they want, and only need to confirm their choices...

 

[E-Wheels]

Howdy folks! For those of you who use other ebike forums or Facebook/Reddit, I would love to hear what you like about those communities. Are there any features you really like that you want added to the EBR forums? Community events? Access to special sales and deals? In a nutshell, what do you want out of your online community for ebikes?

This is an open space for suggestions and comments on the EBR forums, how they work, and discussing possible improvements. Please be respectful and constructive with any feedback and thank you for being here!

What about the ability to be able to vote if a thread should be locked
If the mods receive enough votes from forum members who meet predetermined criteria i.e. have tenure or trophy points etc, then admin is respectfully obliged to shut it down
I recall the recent train wreck R&M thread where a lot of established members were drawn in and contributed to the carnage, and no doubt now regret some of the posts made in the heat of the moment

 

[J.R.]

First time posters, who pose a problem-solving question, receive several plausibly useful answers, and never respond with what did or did not work for them. Perhaps they could be encouraged to follow up and give a little back to the community they just dipped from?

I've thought that as well. We have so many helpful, knowledgeable members here that go out of their way to post long, detailed info and the thread too often just dies. A simple update like 'it worked', 'it's fixed- see photo' or 'checkout my new bike' would be nice to see.

One thing I like to do every now and then is check the "Unanswered Threads" list.


Way too many orphan threads. I doubt many know the option to view unanswered threads exists. I generally look for threads where a person needs help with a repair or opinions on a part or accessory I've owned.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

How would I lock a thread I started, please?

I don't like the idea of an OP being able to lock a thread. Threads have a life of their own and sometimes, probably often, go off tangent to the point that they are no longer of any interest to the OP. Nevertheless, the other participants may be adding value to each other. I don't think a thread belongs to the OP. This is a public forum and one of the great features of it is the knowledge that's sometimes shared inadvertently as threads wander.

Now, if a thread drifts too far into people insulting each other, for example, that may be a different matter, but even there, maybe deleting certain posts or certain members would be better if the thread has any value.

TT

 

[onlineaddy]

Wow, this admin request for help in making this forum a better place for all members has turned into a prime candidate for the new ignore-thread function. How ironic.

Can we all try to be a little more positive and understanding and open to different points of view, some of which we may not agree with? Life would be so boring if we’re all just carbon copies of one another. It should not be a competition of who is right and who is wrong just because we have differing opinions.

Okay, off my soapbox. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

[PatriciaK]

It was just a thought... I've been in other forums where the OP had the ability to delete a post, and was wondering if it could be possible here. Did not mean to poke a hornets nest ... Never mind, no biggie!

 

[troehrkasse]

I would like the ability to be able to delete a thread I begin, in case it becomes redundant or goes off the rails , thanks!

We try not to delete anything unless necessary, as other folks may still find it useful. As @Art Deco and @BigNerd mentioned, if a thread is going off the rails it is better to lock it so that the earlier useful stuff is still around.

How would I lock a thread I started, please?

Only forum admins can lock threads as well as delete, so you can message me or @Angela M. or @mitchhackleman and we'll get it locked down

@PatriciaK and @Stefan Mikes ... These are issues for @troehrkasse or someone who isn't an old dinosaur, but every thread is stored in a database ( like rows in a spreadsheet) and those entries are also stored in indexes ( like the index in an old fashioned textbook ) . When an entry is deleted, every index must be updated or every record thereafter is now pointing to the wrong row number.
"Locking" doesn't require reindexing just "freezing" the record and is an admin function subject to the way the forum software assigns permissions.
Clear as mud, I know.

Fortunately things aren't so bad anymore, everything is set up with foreign keys so deleting a thread will cascade delete posts and anything else that was associated with that threads. The index ID for the deleted thread is forever unavailable for new threads to use though, they will continue to increment higher as if the deleted thread were still holding that spot.

And this particular forum does seem to support deletions because mods do it to offensive posts/threads.

We can permanently delete stuff, but we actually most often soft-delete, so the content is gone from public view but still in the database. This makes it easier to identify problem members if they have a huge trail of content that was deleted for breaking rules, also very handy if something gets deleted incorrectly and needs to be resurrected (without me having to dig it out of a database backup).

First time posters, who pose a problem-solving question, receive several plausibly useful answers, and never respond with what did or did not work for them. Perhaps they could be encouraged to follow up and give a little back to the community they just dipped from?

Good idea! I've been thinking about what would be a good way to encourage this. I did create a new section where people can ask for help in how to use our forum software, and it's using a new Q/A forum type that Xenforo recently released. It behaves similar to other Q/A type forums around the interwebs, someone can ask a question, others can vote on answers or submit their own, and the OP can mark a correct or most helpful answer. I'm testing it out in just that section, but I may roll the Q/A type feature out to other subforums on here if it works well and people find it useful!

What about the ability to be able to vote if a thread should be locked

Not a bad idea, but I think just messaging a moderator is a bit more simple. You can also use the "report" function to report a thread and suggest that it be locked, which will drop it into the moderation queue for all staff so it will be seen more quickly.

Voting to lock a thread would be a neat feature, but I think it runs the risk of cluttering up our interface with too many features. Things are already confusing enough for new members and we really try to keep things as simple and content-focused as we can!

 

[troehrkasse]

Wow, this admin request for help in making this forum a better place for all members has turned into a prime candidate for the new ignore-thread function. How ironic.

Can we all try to be a little more positive and understanding and open to different points of view, some of which we may not agree with? Life would be so boring if we’re all just carbon copies of one another. It should not be a competition of who is right and who is wrong just because we have differing opinions.

Okay, off my soapbox. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I think we're okay here, there are differing viewpoints but everyone is sharing them respectfully - which I appreciate!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

(I just wonder why a post in which a user named me an "elitist horse manure" -- and I reported it -- is still there).

 

[Al P]

How about a dark mode option to give our eyes a break?

 

[E-Wheels]

(I just wonder why a post in which a user named me an "elitist horse manure" -- and I reported it -- is still there).

It didn’t get enough member votes to lock it

 

[Art Deco]

How about a dark mode option to give our eyes a break?

No Dark Mode please. It doesn't work right on phone or tablet for me.

 

[Art Deco]

Back on topic maybe ...
It does not appear that EBR has any real competition among the votes anyway. An EMTB forum, maybe REDDIT, but none of the Strava ? or competitive bike forums ... and some folks still use Facepalm although I will never understand why ...

 

[legsofbeer]

> First time posters, who pose a problem-solving question, receive several plausibly useful answers, and never respond with what did or did not work for them. Perhaps they could be encouraged to follow up and give a little back to the community they just dipped from?

Good idea! I've been thinking about what would be a good way to encourage this.

Maybe model it as, first time poster starts a thread, receives N replies, then if a week later they haven't yet posted again on the thread, send them a nudge email?

 

[Al P]

No Dark Mode please. It doesn't work right on phone or tablet for me.

The suggestion was for a dark mode "option", which is now standard on other forums.

 

[Art Deco]

More feedback ... "ignore" both user and thread is Huge. Extream slowdown on upload image in comment hasn't recurred. Others experience?

 

[J.R.]

More feedback ... "ignore" both user and thread is Huge. Extream slowdown on upload image in comment hasn't recurred. Others experience?

I occasionally get a slowdown, I wonder if it's just comcast sometimes. They don't think us country folk need high speed... all the time. <insert slow country bumpkin emoji>

 

[Stefan Mikes]

More feedback ... "ignore" both user and thread is Huge. Extream slowdown on upload image in comment hasn't recurred. Others experience?

I don't care. I love having the unwanted content filtered out even at the cost of speed.

I love the clean looks of my Newsfeed now...

 

[troehrkasse]

(I just wonder why a post in which a user named me an "elitist horse manure" -- and I reported it -- is still there).

Message me a link to that thread/post and I'll take a look!

The suggestion was for a dark mode "option", which is now standard on other forums.

Believe me, I'd like that as well... it's not high up on the to-do list, but it's on there

I did have a Chrome extension once that could make any website dark mode. I don't recall the exact extension, unfortunately... so good luck finding it amid the many similar extensions that don't work well

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Message me a link to that thread/post and I'll take a look!

It seems a moderator has already found and edited the post, thank you.