Re: Forum improvements/requests

Morning all

I too agree with your requests and am making every attempt to get the forum changes through.

Robby1977 - there is the option after the first forum page that you can click on the latest page number this will take you straight through to the latest post. A solution for the meantime?

must get on

thanks

SJ

Re: Forum improvements/requests

I take it that the website itself is not forum-oriented (perhaps an afterthought?) and doesn't seem to use standard forum-based protocols, hence the issues many are experiencing? I am not a web-genius, but it seems as if the site does not use php or sql as the core source code for the forum. Both protocols are bulletin-based and have been in development for years, if not decades and are extremely reliable.
 

Moderating on other forums exposes me to certain issues around functions and ease-of-use. I am not clear on how many members this forum has or what sort of activity it currently enjoys or even for how long it has been around. But I do know that the core functions of any forum must be user-friendly, must be quick and accessible and must be reliable. Regrettably, this forum caters for none of the aformementioned qualities.

I was expecting a very active community when I first decided to check out this part of the website and have been somewhat surprised to find the discussion and many threads being supported by a dedicated few. Having said that, the quality of many of the posts are excellent and there is a genuine feel of camaraderie here that is linked through passion and the magazine.

The online medium is becoming an increasingly profitable way for publishers to reach an exceptionally wide audience and opens up new avenues of marketing revenue. It is a shame to see many publications completely missing the mark when it comes to dipping their toes into the triple dubs. Whilst the rest of the site seems navigable enough, the forum, around which the website itself will generate most of its hits, appears to be a tough challenge.

A "few months" is an unacceptable timeframe. I apologise for being so direct, but the economics of the matter should be driven by the potential revenue to be gained from having a lively,10,000 hits per day website. The development team seem to have too much work to cope with (I read there were 10 other sites to be fixed?), so perhaps the issue of funding the CAR forum should be looked at in other ways?

Does a subscription to the magazine entitle you to print only? Are there not extra benefits to be gained? Should a subscription to the website entitle you to an online edition?

Sorry about the rant, its just my two cents.

Cheers for reading!

Re: Forum improvements/requests

When i first started using Forums 7 years ago,everyone and their dog all used the same forum design which i think was done by a crowd called spitz. I think even the old car forum used this. .Although most of those forums have since updated,the basic operation is still the same l.Car seem to have had the framework built from scratch and it really hasn't worked well for them.Autocar also tried to be clever and changed their old forum to a new custom one and it was a complete disaster from which the forum never recovered.

I think we are doing really well on here.Luckily we have some very imaginative guys  who constantly come up with new avenues of discussion, guys like Batty, Bert and just recently kubrick. Its very hard work to keep things going whilst still keeping on general topic.I do know that on other forums,the parent companies arent too impressed that  by far the most successful section is often the NON-MOTORING section where more discussion is about TV's, politics religeon and anything else.We seem to be going in the opposite direction  which is spot on,but creaky Forum mechanics wont be doing much for the cause.

Re: Forum improvements/requests

Cheers Sonny for the comments around the forum, and particularly here. I can't add much on the underlying architectural issues of the site but I agree with all the usability issues others have pointed out.

Regards the membership issue - I first registered to enter competitions, way back in December 06. Subsequently CAR's parent company shifted most of their competition activities to their subscription sales site. More recently, I started commenting on the articles 'out front' - I think that most of the members you see in the stats are registered to post comments there, or to get the newsletter. That lead me to adding an avatar (the whole social networking aspect of the site could fill many more pages of comments because it's even more neglected than the forum).

I only started using the forum over the xmas/new yr break this year and I've been really impressed by the quality of discussion and the contributions of the users here. I was getting tired of reading the website articles and then seeing look-at-me rants or strident criticism of the site, the journalists, or the other users.  The forum users here seem to have made the most of the space and created a worthwhile community in spite of all the limitations mentioned on this thread.  Now I pretty much bypass the homepage and come straight here. 

I think constructive comments like yours are potentially helpful to SJ and Tim in trying to gain some more resources to develop the site and forums - we can only hope that with the April revamp of the print edition that there is an opportunity to significantly revamp the website also.  

Re: Forum improvements/requests

Morning farmersboy

Unfortuantely i wish it were that simple. A lot of our 'other' websites are not on this cms platform. This is why their forums will look different. They are still on the old versions. Admittadely the older more common forums are the best but sadly as of yet they do not work within the current structure.

Ads...well they have to be there same as they do in magazines.

thanks SJ