Alternative Board

[Andrew]

Foxpop in the UK has a message board that you may like to to try. Admittedly it's not well used at present....but if everyone heads there....then it will be.

It covers a variety of mobile devices.

Have a look.

http://foxpop.community.everyone.net/

Cheers

Andrew
London

[pdantic]

Likewise, http://www.pdantic.com has recently started up Pocket PC and PalmOS forums that are wide open right now. Like this board, all you need to do is register, then start posting. The webmaster is open to creating new Forums, so it should expand quickly.

Steve

[stormbringer]

No thanks... it's just another rehash. PDA Street was unique and easy to navigate. I don't need another regurgitation. By the way... it tries to load Gator when you visit the site. I really hate intrusive websites!!!

[gvenditto]

A lot of people who are competing with PDAstreet will certainly come in and try to win people over.

But this board will not be running pop-ups, pop-unders or doing anything intrusive.

Once people get used to it, I am confident people will realize this new software is a much better platform for a strong community.

- Gus Venditto
-- editor-in-chief, internet.com Corp.

[Primaz]

You and this site had better bring back ALL of the forums if you want to retain your users and thus your add revenue.

Yes people will always complain about a new software but what disturbs me and others more is the elimination of many forums. This site was great for the fact that it had a forum for vitually every type of hardware by brand with a knowledgeable moderator. You bring that back or loose your userbase. It is that simple. Its not the software soley, the forums are the key and you killed over 1/2 of them.!

:mad:

[gvenditto]

Well, I don't mean to be argumentative but we still have separate boards for every product. And we still have knowledgeable moderators.

What we don't have any more is a lot of off-topic messages that make it hard to use, and we don't have a single-message per page which means you have to click again and again to follow a discussion.

I think we are already seeing the improvement in that more indepth conversations are taking place because the software is easier to use. And the user base did not go away. In less than 1 week, half of the old registered members have joined here (it took a year for us to reach the old member total). And most of the old members posted only a single message.

Also, the old messages are up there for review. See the Administrators message at the top of the thread for the link.

And, in the spirit of trying to keep the message discussion on topic, we are able to do things like move this message thread. Because it is really about the topic of this board and its software, and not on the topic of PocketPC's, it was moved. That helps us make sure people who care to discuss the board can see it.

We're going to keep refining it as best we can. Constructive criticism is welcome.

- Gus

[Primaz]

You state you have forums for all devices, this is not true. There used to be forums for each brand (ie; Casio, Ipaq, NEC, HP, HP Jornada,) There was more than double the amount of forums and they were filled with many postings. I really prefer and became dedicated for that reason. I want to participate in a forum specific to HP 720 users and if there is a board specific to my brand I will also share my knowledge with other forums as I have used virtually all devices.

I am open to use this new interface and software but do not feel that you have aequate forums. Yes I am one of the existing base of customers whom have registered but like the thousands whom have posted disatisfaction are willing to stay if more forums are brought back so that users can find communities very specific to their hardware and uses. Having just one forum for HPC users is not what I would say is benifitial to me. Gus, there are many competitive sites. Many postings have listed alternatives but this site and those are now all the same. What made this site great was the amount of forums specific to hardware. I repeat this and emphasize this as this is what I and what I seem to have been reading in the many dissatsified postings. Yes some will always complain about a new change but taking away forums is the real issue. I want to see all of the old forums and have the management add new forums as new devices are brought to market. This is constructive critisism.

[Primaz]

Gus,

You state that the old software was difficult to use and this new software is better. To me having used both, I do not think one is much better over the other. I do find this slower to create and entry and the other software easier to see in a quick scroll down the discussions and see the threads. The software is not the issue, it is the removal of forums to generic forums.

Again, take a look at the amount of postings of similar comments they are in the thousands. A number of the postings have comments similar from a couple of hundred to over a thousand threads from one original posting.

Even if there was a clear major advantage to this software, the lack of forums is what I and many others want. Listen to our feedback. Why cann't you add the forums back? Each one was self sufficient as a large enough following become dedicated to each.

I appoligize for sounding unprofessional in my posting yesterday but I was very upset at the removal of forums. I still am and want to voice constructive feedback. I am a business user whom has replaced a laptop and Palm for the one HP 728 and purchased software etc. via this site but if I am to continue to do so I want the value. The value is specific forums by brand not general forums. I and others can find that along with all the other news etc. that this site has. I hope you realize that many of us feel the same. Its not the software its the removal of forums and change in direction of this site.

[gvenditto]

The old forums -- the messages that were posted over the years -- are there. We've posted links to them so everyone is free to go back and read them.

There were limitations to the software that we had to fix with this new software. I understand people are upset at the loss of the old message base and we tried to find a way to take the old message base and import it into a better platform. But it couldn't be done -- at least not at a reasonable cost.

It's a matter of opinion as to which one is better. But for me, as a manager, a key problem with the old boards is that in many forums, people asked a question and did not receive an answer.

I am seeing the rate at which people are getting replies going up in just 1 week. It's not perfect -- we can't guarantee people will get answers. But the rate at which that happens is, to me, an important gauge of whether the forums are useful.

Finally, if we need to add more boards to support users of a specific device, we can do that. But we should have a consensus. The moderators, who are members who are volunteering some of their time to set the direction, are the ones who will decide.

The argument against too many model-specific forums is that you can dilute the knowledge of the users. Once again, the goal is to make sure people who ask questions can get an answer. That is the criteria on which we should make the decision to create a new board.

I hope others will chime in and let us know what the think about your idea. All we need is to see there are a number of people who want to use it.

[stormbringer]

When the new forums debuted I hated lumping all of the Palm users together and all of the Pocket PC users together. I was more than happy to see a Brand specific forum.

I agree with Gus, the majority of the postings in the old forums applied across models for a specific brand. Most questions were general iPAQ or Palm or Sony or Handspring or HP or... which applied to all models.

I did have a problem with one forum for all Palm OS devices. Each brand has it's own feature set and problems... I didn't like the idea of having to sift through all of the Handspring and Palm posts to find something that applied to my Clie.

Thanks, Gus, for adding the brand specific forums and leaving the models out of it.

Look and feel has never been a big issue for me... hey... some of us remember a world before Windows... I even used Compuserve when it was a command line client. As long as the info is there I don't care what it looks like... okay... maybe yellow text on purple background would keep me away...

Thanks again!

[Primaz]

Gus,

I thank you for elaborating your opinions as a person behind the scenes. I am familiar with this type of software as I am on the board of directors for a non profit facility group and helped them create a secure intranet with threaded message forums using a software called Sitescape.

The software we use can allow us to create unlimited forums and unlimited summits to divide areas if they are that separate. The software does list entries with the first posting, whom posted, time/date, title of posting and lists the threads related, the posting is numbered automatically and each thread is numbered automatically (ie I make new posting #4 and gus replies and the system then automatically labeled my entry 4.0 with Gus as 4.1 If I reply to Gus's reply, then it is automatically numbered 4.1.1, it even give options to post attachments, urls etc. and the security can eliminate or secure features individually. We also own the software so there is no ASP fee per user and thus you can create a unlimited size community of forums and the only cost is increasing your server ram/processing power. Once you click that entry you see the entire threaded discussion tree down which is nice as you have to jump back and forth in this system as you can not view by scrolling and seeing all of the entries. Anyway enough about other systems as I am not here to bash a software.

My suggestion is that you bring back hardware specific forums for current model devices and make a point of having a forum for current devices. I am ok with combining older hardware into grouped forums if there is not enough support to keep up with entries. I also suggest that you offer say a free licenced copy of a CE software for a volunteer to moderate and share his or her knowledge say for a one or two month period, where that person agrees to go on line daily and respond to a posting or e-mail your staff if they are unable or need help with a posting. As long as that person was able to say answer or respond to at least 75% of the postings that person gets a software licenced of his or her choosing from some list. This way you tap your advertisers for some free software, you get the forum moderated for peanuts from volunteers, and the advertiser may also get some extra exposure recognition for the donation of the software to that forum. If you had this available I see no reason why you could not create an amount of forums that may even surpass the old amount yet the postings get answered promptly all the time.

I would volunteer to moderate any of the following as I am very knowledgeable: HP 680, 690, 720, 728, NEC 750C, Casio E200. I would be very interested in doing a 728 as that is my current device and moderate or help for two month daily checks for a free software and helping the site get back to the roots that made it successful.

[bettyboop]

I feel you are moving in the right direction by offerring to
moderate. Until users take a stance to help out and take charge,
things will never get better. The Editors can only do so much.
At the end of the day, they need to be working on issues that
generate revenue and affect the Corporate image.

Hope you push to become a moderator instead of just asking
and leaving this issue in the hands of the editors.

[Primaz]

I did and am still offering being a volunteer moderator in exchange for a free software so that this site has the manpower to increase the amount of forums to what was here before. This is a win win and solves your problem thus I will wait for a reply. I believe if you offer this arrangement you will have moderators without a problem to man these and the old forums

[DScott]

Greetings;

As bettyboop has pointed out in the past and in this thread "Until users take a stance to help out and take charge,
things will never get better".
I believe in that and have now became a moderator on the PocketPC City forums. I asked for nothing, just to help.

Thanks
Scott

[netBookBabe]

I question the wisdom of offering "perks" to potential moderators - can't help thinking this could attract people to "volunteer" for the wrong reasons.

I don't have any tangible perks with my position as moderator at EpocChat - quite the reverse in fact - there are some costs involved. The rewards come from being involved in a topic which fascinates me, making friends, learning, laughing and assisting people along the way.

I believe lots of people would be willing to volunteer, but don't feel they have a sufficient level of knowledge. Maybe they should be encouraged. Whilst it's great to have an expert moderator where possible, I don't believe it's essential, and a good measure of thought, common sense and willingness can go a long way. If I don't know the answer to a particular technical question, then I very often know someone who will, or I'm prepared to research to try and find out. And then I have learned something too.

Anway, I think volunteering should be exactly that - voluntary!

Just my two cents - getting ready for the flames! ;)

Julie

[Primaz]

Time is a persons most valuable item. I devoted a lot of time and free volunteering but that was when the site had model specific forums. I do not feel inclined to spend time on forums that do not match my interests. Some areas of interest are common but many are to me and others from the amount of similar postings regard questions specific to their device and they want feedback from user of that device.

There are great differences between HPC models as some are ARM processors, some MIPS, or SH3, also some are on older OS, etc which create needs specific to models. Some models have CF, PCMIA, SD slots and some do not have all of those, some have accessories available for special uses and some do not.

I made the suggestion and it still holds to offer sometype of compensation to volunteer to bring the site back to its former glory as repeatly I hear reasons being lack of manpower, etc. If the forms were not eliminated I would still be contributing often but until then I am still on the fence as this site quality has gone down regarding value of forums. If the managment can not adequately man increased forums with their own resources then I see providing minimal compensation as far as token software for the valuable time of volunteers to help out.

[bettyboop]

I agree with you 100 % Julie.

At the end of the day though, it's nice to show some
appreciation by providing perks once in awhile.
Specially when the owners/webmasters provide something
to the moderators. Not the other way around

:D

[netBookBabe]

I agree with you 110%, betty! :D :D :D

Julie