11 replies to this topic

[PreDesign]

I am relatively new to the forum, but I find it too slow, there is too few participation. And now the account are gone, it will probably be even slower. It makes the forum quite useless. Maybe I should have posted this in another section, but it is even less crowded down there, I would get even less response. I believe the managment should do something to speed things up. I see many topics unanswered. Maybe there can be competitions prizes etc. for helpful users. I want a more useful forum anyway.
Maybe the users can think of something good. (hmmm. or maybe I should start my own design forum )

[cash68]

That is a good question. I think social networking has resulted in lower forum activity in general; why interact with strangers when you can find people you know on facebook? Secondly, due to the bang up job of transfering over to whatever forum software this is, everyone lost their accounts. No history. Nothing whatsoever was saved. I was a member here for years, and after that, it makes this place really hard to use if I want to reference/find an earlier post. In fact, it kind of ticks me off to the point where I'm not really sure I care if this place sticks around or not. Core77's forums are a lot better than they used to be.

[waikit]

Looking at the forums stats, it is not much slower than before the 'accounts lost' issue. It is slow compared to few years back. We had great activity between 2007-2009, and the decreasing forum activity might have been influenced by social networking and design blogs, as cash68 stated.
Again, I know the 'accounts lost' issue has hurt many of our regular posting members, but I would appreciate if there are some members to be a bit more positive about the fact that the most valuable information can still be found through our search engine, and I am working on updated collections of the best threads, starting with the 'design discussion' forum:
http://productdesign...gn-discussions/

Just to respond on PreDesign's idea of awarding helpful user: the current forum version has a reputation system, in which you can rate user's feedback. On each right corner of each post block, you can find the rating button. The system will keep track of users reputation points.
I still need to figure out how to make use of this system to motivate meaningful interactivity. Any advise is welcome.


Anyways, thanks for sharing your complaint and thoughts though. I am fully responsible for the site's well being and I will do my best to keep this site healthy. Motivating shouts are mostly welcome

[Cyberdemon]

Losing the accounts sucked, but that really isn't the end of the world. I've been on several forums where they've lost the complete database (all original posts) when transferring things over. So when you say "nothing was saved" - everything except your accounts was salvaged. All of the posts, all of the attachments, etc. It stinks to see "guest_cash68" in front of your old content but it's all still there.

It sucks, but accidents happen and the reality is it comes down to a bad situation with a web host who wasn't properly backing up data. Had nothing to do with transferring over the site data, the site data transferred over fine but the member DB was lost after that.

Forums aren't mutually exclusive, if you like Core77 then post there too. But the only way the forum will not be slow is by people contributing. So if you don't contribute because people aren't contributing then it's just a self fulfilling prophecy I'm afraid.

[waikit]

Super good news guys, I think I have found a manual solution to restore your posts history, one by one.
I will start a new thread, in which members can apply to get their posts restored.
Thanks to a helpful person from another forum site for owners of this particular board software.
He will get a reward soon

[Cyberdemon]

Great news...is there any way of automating this so that it automatically pairs up anyone's old account with the new account assuming they haven't changed screen names?

[waikit]

Cyberdemon, on 19 March 2011 - 09:56 PM, said:

Great news...is there any way of automating this so that it automatically pairs up anyone's old account with the new account assuming they haven't changed screen names?

I wish there was, but I have asked the person who helped me with this manual method and told me there is no automated method for this issue.
Anyways, I am willing to do this monk work.

[cash68]

Hell yes! This is fantastic news!

[jj-mo]

I do belong to other forums unrelated to design...and something that is very useful is emails... When i create or contribute to a thread, I am emailed daily about what is going on in that thread. If there are no responses then I am not emailed BUT even if it has been a week without action, it will still email if there is a response.

To whoever runs this forum: the forum i am referring to is thumpertalk, it is a dirt bike forum, i dont know, if you wanted to contact them and ask how they do this they may help you...really helpful guys it seems.


I see a lot of potential on this forum bases on the views!...but i must ask, do none members count as views? if so, it seems you need to entice people do sign up, maybe by restricting what none members can do even more that what you already do.

thats just my 2 cents

[waikit]

Hi jj-mo, there is a 'follow this topic' button at the top right of each topic thread, to get notified on new replies by email.

Non members views do count. Can you clarify your suggestion to restrict non members, in what sense?
And unfortunately, a lot of members do not actively participate in discussions.

There is a reputation system here, but it seems not helping motivate people to be active. There is a 'like this' button in each reply post. Should I start rewarding with other incentives?

Anyways, thanks for your input and that you care about this issue, which I really appreciate!

[jj-mo]

I personally dont feel incentives will work, people should be interested enough that they just must share their opinion on the matter! I do think design is a sensitive subject for some and they either dont want to hurt somebody's feelings or vice versa. SO! i do think this is a scenario where if it seems a lot of people are jumping into the pool everybody will join, but if not many are, the pool wont be used much.

I personally love the idea of a design forum where i can give and get feedback on designs, it is very very useful. Im going to try and get some colleagues in on it though i feel we can all take advantage of this. Especially since you have a sister design site which i think is great.


Ya didnt notice the follow me button, thanks for pointing that out

[jj-mo]

Oh ya, and about none members not being allowed to view certain things, i guess i dont have any insightful advice, i was just throwing it out there without thinking too much. To be honest the fact that i couldnt see posted pictures when i was a none member enticed me enough to join.


Honestly i will try and casually spread the word for this forum cause i think has the potential to be a great tool.