Forum Features: Your Opinion Wanted!

[tomjasz]

I don't see the upside in rating up/down. Maybe offer the thread creator the option to label an answer to their question with *Resolved/Answered*
All in all, I guess it's not a big deal. I can't see me sorting a thread by a rating, as most threads the answer evolves over time and posts. Reading posts in order seems really important.

actually the system didn’t rate the thread. Rather a post and poster. But here it seems far tamer.

 

[PatriciaK]

In addition to resolved, the thread creator might have a Lock option afterwards, but not up/down votes.

I like the idea of a poster being able to lock a thread once the issue is successfully addressed!

 

[BigNerd]

Rating answers to a question is different from just rating any posts. But then again, the places I've seen that type of rating is up only... so basically posts that don't answer the question have a 0 rating while others that appropriately address the question are rated accordingly.

 

[Asher]

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!

Some sort of optional wiki functionality to make valuable information easier to find at the beginning of a thread. Slickdeals first instance has a wiki below each first post that users can edit, that seems useful.

I like the idea of a poster being able to lock a thread once the issue is successfully addressed!

Often other users will face the same issue, and may have other questions.

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These brand headers are really dumb, and take up the whole page on the mobile version. At the very least, remove them from the mobile version. Regular visitors don't need to see the same info every time they visit a forum. The logo is enough.

From the Juiced Forum

 

[BigNerd]

Is there a way to sticky threads? I couldn't find this one and had to search for it.

It would also be good if there was a thread called "The Hitch Bike Rack Recommendations Thread" and it was stickied in the Parts/Accessories forum (or maybe I guess that's what subforums are for.

I'm trying to get some recs on either a platform or hanging hitch rack and search give me old threads or threads in specific brands so I'm not sure if I should start one in the Parts/Accessories forum. I don't want it to be another "best helmet" thread.

 

[troehrkasse]

Some sort of optional wiki functionality to make valuable information easier to find at the beginning of a thread. Slickdeals first instance has a wiki below each first post that users can edit, that seems useful.

Great suggestion! I'll check theirs out. I agree, it can get frustrating to sift through pages and pages of replies to find the most relevant stuff.

These brand headers are really dumb, and take up the whole page on the mobile version. At the very least, remove them from the mobile version. Regular visitors don't need to see the same info every time they visit a forum. The logo is enough.

Thanks for the feedback on this. I'll see what I can do to make this section less obnoxious - perhaps making it collapsed down with a "show details" button or something like that.

Is there a way to sticky threads? I couldn't find this one and had to search for it.

Threads no, but you can bookmark replies (kind of a hidden feature, would be more useful for threads in my opinion). Each reply has a little bookmark icon on the right:

Then your bookmarks will show up on your user tab accessible at the top:

For hitch bike racks (and other accessories) I agree, some stickied threads would help to cut down on reposts. I'm not sure how we're going to tackle it yet, but I really like the wiki idea that has been suggested by @Asher and others. We have such a wealth of info on the forums here, just need to make it a bit easier to find

 

[BarryS]

Sticky's great I suppose adding a filter feature right into the pop-up feature where Bold and links etc are Might work to some degree . Giving the Commenter the option of attaching a specific search filter in the format of a drop down into their comment. In the advanced search a spot for specific forum as well as a sub category

 

[BigNerd]

@troehrkasse (How do you pronounce that?)

Yes, bookmarking *threads* would suffice if we can't have stickies.

The nice thing about stickies is if a new person visits a sub-forum, they can see immediately a thread that might answer any question they have. The only issue with accessories is how many sticky threads would you do to cover the most asked questions?

Helmet
Car Rack
Bike Rack (on the bike)
Bike Maintenance Rack
Bike Storage Rack
Bike Lock
Pedals
Shoes
Bike Wear
Lights
... and on and on.

So that's when Search should work... but then you get tons of thread you have to comb through. You could probably help focus that by allowing search within a sub-forum but people post about accessories everywhere, especially the brand-specific ones.

That's hard to balance and maybe the Wiki might be a better way.

 

[Asher]

There are too many forums. Case in point: same topic in a day, comes up in five different threads.

Some forums should be combined, and people should be discouraged from starting threads in brand forums that aren't specifically brand related. Empower a couple people to move threads if needed.

New E-BIKE act proposes 30% US federal tax credit for electric bicycle purchases

Big changes are proposed for the US Ebike market by our local CA Congressman... let's hope this legislation is passed. ;) https://electrek.co/2021/02/09/new-e-bike-act-introduces-30-us-federal-tax-credit-for-electric-bicycle-purchases/ Federal legislation was introduced today to create a...

electricbikereview.com

US Congress to consider tax break for e-bikes

https://boingboing.net/2021/02/11/us-congress-to-consider-tax-break-for-e-bikes.html Maybe why the prices went up?

electricbikereview.com

House Representatives Panetta & Blumenauer introduce "e-bike Act" federal tax credit

Interesting tweet, Congressman Panetta's 'E-Bike Act' proposal as written would provide for a 30% tax credit on the purchase of one Class 1-3 ebike (two for joint filers) up to $1,500 ($3,000 for joint filers) for each tax year.

electricbikereview.com

USA E-BIKE TAX CREDIT ACT

On February 9th, 2021, Congressman Jimmy Panetta and Congressional Bike Caucus Chairman Earl Blumenaur introduced the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstarter for the Environment Act to the United States House of Representatives. The proposed E-BIKE act has been submitted in order to kickstart and...

electricbikereview.com

Stumbled across this! Sure hope its true!

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/new-us-congress-bill-proposes-a-tax-rebate-for-e-bike-purchases.html?fbclid=IwAR3PDcn-V-jYDlMh_o7I15e6yksQnQ4_98sz0Y1k1P-23rOxj2PSXX3RwGE

electricbikereview.com

 

[FlatSix911]

Agreed... I would volunteer to help move/combine threads if helpful.

 

[Art Deco]

@troehrkasse Another idea for location info from @ChezCheese:) in this thread . She has a work around idea that might work well because you just post to the geographic area of interest.

Let's Ride Together (Ebike gangs 😉)

Anyone riding in the Clinton or Essex County New York area. Very rural but a lot of cyclists, and more and more ebikes I know I am

electricbikereview.com

 

[troehrkasse]

There are too many forums. Case in point: same topic in a day, comes up in five different threads.

Some forums should be combined, and people should be discouraged from starting threads in brand forums that aren't specifically brand related. Empower a couple people to move threads if needed.

I fully agree! We try to encourage people to post in the right area, but us having so many different subforums doesn't help.

Let me discuss with Court a bit more, we've been talking about slimming down our number of subforums for a few months now. Having separate forums for each brand makes sense, but many of the other ones could be combined... we've even talked about having just one big forum, improving our search and suggestion tools to prevent reposts, and empowering some of our frequent contributors to help with merging conversations and even editing thread titles to make them more helpful and less clickbaitey. Thanks for the offer to help out @FlatSix911 !

@troehrkasse Another idea for location info from @ChezCheese:) in this thread . She has a work around idea that might work well because you just post to the geographic area of interest.

Let's Ride Together (Ebike gangs 😉)

Anyone riding in the Clinton or Essex County New York area. Very rural but a lot of cyclists, and more and more ebikes I know I am

electricbikereview.com

@ChezCheese:) Love it! Will chat with Court on implementing this as well

 

[Art Deco]

I fully agree! We try to encourage people to post in the right area, but us having so many different subforums doesn't help.

Let me discuss with Court a bit more, we've been talking about slimming down our number of subforums for a few months now. Having separate forums for each brand makes sense, but many of the other ones could be combined... we've even talked about having just one big forum, improving our search and suggestion tools to prevent reposts, and empowering some of our frequent contributors to help with merging conversations and even editing thread titles to make them more helpful and less clickbaitey. Thanks for the offer to help out @FlatSix911 !


@ChezCheese:) Love it! Will chat with Court on implementing this as well

The location topic for group rides and ebike advice isn't going to go away. Came up again on this morning activity with another approach aimed at group rides .You will want to try something before spring or listen to a lot more whining...

 

[Art Deco]

The 1st 'boilerplate' post for example: New Jersey or Pennsylvania should probably have a link to that state's ebike laws as well.

 

[onlineaddy]

Ability to report duplicate posts, so that they may be merged by the admins.

 

[Akrotiri]

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!

My suggestion for EBR is to convert the “off-topics” thread section of EBR into a section for analog non-electric bike discussion only.

Quite a few of us still have and ride our analog bikes and discussion about those often overlap with our e-bikes.

 

[kmccune]

Would like to see the "post page
" icon a different or more distinct color for the current one( I just realized why that may not work out so well, would be nice if current "page" we were veiwing would be a contrast that is sharper)

 

[troehrkasse]

My suggestion for EBR is to convert the “off-topics” thread section of EBR into a section for analog non-electric bike discussion only.

Quite a few of us still have and ride our analog bikes and discussion about those often overlap with our e-bikes.

Ooh, I like this idea a lot!

Would like to see the "post page
" icon a different or more distinct color for the current one( I just realized why that may not work out so well, would be nice if current "page" we were veiwing would be a contrast that is sharper)

Also a great suggestion, the current shade is hard to distinguish. I'll play around with it - updated to invert colors, much more visible

 

[Art Deco]

Ooh, I like this idea a lot!


Also a great suggestion, the current shade is hard to distinguish. I'll play around with it - updated to invert colors, much more visible

BTW emoticons? Don't work on my Samsung tablet, they used to work months ago. I don't care, but others may. I also don't ever intend to ride a manual bike again, but others may.

 

[Asher]

I think new posts should be replaced with new threads, see pic. I don't want to see every new post except with threads I'm already following , and those I can see in 'your threads' or 'threads with your posts.' if a see new thread that interests me, I click on it and follow it/reply to it.