what makes a good forum ?

[jenny571]

So what makes the difference between a good forum and a bad one ?

Easy. Bad forums.......people give up!! Cos they expect far too much and too soon. Give it time!!

Good forums ? Peeps you got to keep at it. Soon newer members can enjoy a wealth of knowledge from our experiences and equally we too can look back on some of the postings as refreshers. Lets be civil to one another and lets help as much as we can to make this forum work.

Give it a try.

Regards

Jenny

[gvenditto]

My definition of a good forum is one where you can go to get answers.

As editor-in-chief of internet.com, I was one of the people who pushed to make this change. The reason is that I thought the old software did not work as well as it needed to. I didn't feel the software helped people exchange information. It required the members to do too much work to log in. It did not make it easy to follow threads. And it did not have tools to help people get to know each other (like counting posts and archiving each member's bio).

So the goal of this change was to make it essier for people to learn from each other. And I think that will happen.

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

[radams36]

I wasn't aware of some of these new features, Gus. Maybe it would be a good idea to set up a page on the site that explains how the new forums work and how to get the most out of the new setup.

Thanks,

Richard

[DScott]

Greetings;

jenny571 you have the perfect answer to the question. I think the sudden change here and temporary loss of the archives made the answer cloudy to the users here.
I think the upgraded feature outweight the sudden change, for the most part all I have seen lately is a more positve attitude. I see people asking and recieving help and an exchange of information. As for myself as a manager I like to see the data available with this new upgrage, I can see who's online in the forums and where they are at, I can call up just the new postings.
You can see who the top posting user is, at this time it's pdafan with 853, ya and I thought I was doing good breaking 10.

C-Ya
Scott

[jenny571]

Scott

Fully agree and echo the same sentiment.

Keep to it.

We'll make it a success like we have in the past !!!

Jenny

[pmshah]

I for one do not cater to the idea of change for the sake of change or that I must have the latest & the best at all times.

People as a rule resist anything that would change their operating method.

In today's times we have seen a lot of dotcoms go bust. IT budgets are tight. I am pretty sure internet.com have undertaken a study to check out the pros & cons of the new forum format before taking on this expensive excercise.

This forum has helped me n number of times & do not plan to simply abandon it. I also believe in Loyalty.

I plan to continue with it until I do not need it any more or feel other readers do not need my inputs - however insignificant these may be.

However I feel this day may be far away in future when I am longer able to sit in front of my computer & type or read from the monitor - say 10 to 15 years from now !!!

[Retread316]

I belong to several forums for R/C Vehicles...you must be VERY patient on those sometimes. The vast majority of the users are very young, have horrible grammar and spelling and are tremendously immature.

I joined this forum only last week and it's refreshing to see just about 100% valid, honest and to the point posts that stick to the subject.

How long has this forum been around?

I helped a new R/C Forum get off the ground last month, we just passed 100 members. The goal was to start a very tech oriented R/C forum with valid content and helpful contributors. The whining, bragging and superfluous posts have already begun.

See: http://www.rcnitrotalk.com

What's it take? Maturity and dedication from the members themselves. I'm hooked here, you'll see me around!

[Primaz]

I came to cecity specifically for the forums. The reason, is simple they had a forum for every brand with a knowledgable moderator to ensure that virtually every posting had a response in a day or so. This enabled anyone to go find device specific information with others whom use that device and get the information fast with a lot of collaboration. The word of the huge array of forums spread to the point I and many others made it a part of our lives to go to the site and help people like Bob Katanya and other moderators so that every reply had a minimum of one reply.

I checked a month ago and counted well over 14000 entries in forums only relating to keyboard based ce devices. You look and count the postings of all of your few (12) forums and see if you are close to the old amounts, NOT. The site had well over two dozen forums and when a new device came out a new forum was created. That is a quality forum. It is the huge diversity of managed moderated forums that makes a forum successful.

It is extremely difficult to create what ce city has done; yet in one fast non democratic decision you have virtually eliminated the tens of thousands of users with your decison to eliminate the forum variety and along with that change you change the software? Now that is really poor management. Why would an advertiser pay dollars for that? Before your brilliant ideas advertisers could see that the ce section had a active user group well into the tens of thousands and you are successfuly bringing the site down the tubes.

I took time to review the limited forums and am loosing interest fast as the lack of moderators and the forums being too general are a big turn off.