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The Blackbus has been kluged together in a very organic manner for over 2 years. There's never been an overarching plan or goal. I've just tried a few things here and a few things there. Some have worked and some haven't.
What we're going to do in "Discuss the BUS" is look at how the site is put together and try to improve it.
So tell me in this thread, or start your own - what do you like? What do you hate?
__________________ Peter Gulka
Chief Bus Driver
Blackbaud User Society www.blackbus.org
No complaints - but suggestions. I have a bare-bones antique version of RE - no modules, no net community.... I would like the option (or perhaps it exists and I am just not clever enough to figure it out) to stop having those forums show up on my "unread" section.
Also - is there any way to ban the spam posters? I see in my unread column about 4 postings for ipods.
As you can see - I only have teensy ideas to improve - and not implementing them would not affect the incredible value of this forum.
__________________ Andrea Shlasko
Database Manager
Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sun Coast Inc.
"Just another day in Paradise, where every meal's a banquet and every day's a holiday"
No complaints - but suggestions. I have a bare-bones antique version of RE - no modules, no net community.... I would like the option (or perhaps it exists and I am just not clever enough to figure it out) to stop having those forums show up on my "unread" section.
Another vote for that one! Ta!
__________________ Simon Stacey Database Officer Centrepoint
No complaints - but suggestions. I have a bare-bones antique version of RE - no modules, no net community.... I would like the option (or perhaps it exists and I am just not clever enough to figure it out) to stop having those forums show up on my "unread" section.
FWIW in every web forum i've ever been on (and that's been quite a few), people have requested this 'ignore certain forums when updating' feature. and i've never seen it implemented. i mean, i would love it too, but it doesn't seem to exist...
i'm just being snarky... we already had a poll, the choices were blue ORANGE and green.. i lost spectacularly.. but it's fun to rise from the ashes occasionally.
__________________ things haven't been the same since that house fell on my sister.
You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. I think that the site is really good. There are definitely things that work well and things that have not worked and as soon as you recognise that they don't work you remove them (or fix them)
Things I like:
1. I like seeing how many unread messages there are and seeing how many I have to read. I rarely search the forums but look at all the new unread messages. One improvement to this would be to allow users to ignore their current visit so that I can see how many I have unread and if it is too daunting a number to go through in a short time I can choose to ignore this visit and come back later and work my way through them.
2. I like to be able to mark some subforums as read so that they are removed from my unread count.
3. I like reading the reputation comments (shame people don't use this more)
Improvements?
Not sure really. How about a wiki with a glossary of terms used?
No complaints - but suggestions. I have a bare-bones antique version of RE - no modules, no net community.... I would like the option (or perhaps it exists and I am just not clever enough to figure it out) to stop having those forums show up on my "unread" section.
And here I thought I was the only one who wanted this feature.
__________________ Angie
Wycliffe Bible Translators
Advancement - Operations Manager "Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
Personally, I would like for the passwords to have a longer lifespan, and maybe to remove the YouTube thing from the standard pages.
Regarding the spam - the simplest course of action is to report the post, which then alerts via email the moderators / admins of the spam postings.
Currently, the spam users are actual users, as they are getting past the Captcha system (I know that can be broken, but have not yet seen a mass break registration in the wild), and generally get hammered when they are seen.
Please keep in mind that the mods have a life as well, and we get to them when we can.
Also this reminds me... I still need to fix the FAQ. Sorry people, I've dropped the ball on that one.
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
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