FORUM USABILITY - PLEASE HELP make the Forum EASIER to USE

[Jack]

PLEASE help by posting here details of where EVER you get stuck, confused, frustrated, etc. and make ANY and EVERY suggestion you can think of!

One of my biggest New Year's Resolutions is IMPROVING USABILITY of the Forum.

As you may have noticed - NO DUH - Navigating the Forum and figuring out where things are and how they work can be very frustrating and confusing!

Although vBulletin is a very powerful and feature rich Forum program, its usability SUCKS.

Clearly the folks at Jelsoft never took someone in off the street who isn't a computer wizard like they are and then WATCHED them TRY to figure out how to use the program, and then been willing to change the layout to accommodate the USERS' needs!

I've invested a lot already in trying to make it easier to use, but there's still a LOT of room for improvement - NO DUH - AGAIN!

PLEASE help me live up to my New Year's Resolution by posting your reports and suggestions to this thread... PLEASE! We will ALL be grateful!!!

[mog]

It would be handy to have the current visitors on line shown on all pages as part of the header. Could this be an active line continually refreshed?

Otherwise, the forum looks great.

Mog

[Jack]

Thanks very much, Mog!

Where would you like to see the list? Where it now appears but on every page?

The challenge is that keeping that information refreshed on every page may generate a huge load on the server and slow down overall performance.

I'll check with vbmtor though re: feasibility.

[Jack]

BTW, notice that at the BOTTOM of most pages, you get either a list of who's online, or a list of who is viewing a particular thread.

Maybe we could just put a LINK at the top of the page that says See Who's Online that would hop the user to the bottom where that info already lives (on most pages), and there just adjacent have a link that says Return to the Top.

How about that? That would be a LOT less load on the server!

[Ashlen]

Not sure if it is viable or not, but giving the chatbox more scroll room (how much you can scroll down before the chat is cut off) would be nice. I know there are some conversations I come into the middle of and have to use the archives to catch up.

On the same note, the archives are a bit hard to read. Having a table for each thing said just takes up too much room, perhaps simplifying it down to just a chat log or something without the fancy look would work better?

[Jack]

Thanks for your suggestions Ashlen! Yeah the inverse format of the chat archives really bugs me too!

Again it's an issue about server load for refreshing versus overall performance of the Forum, but I'm going to post your comments to vbmtor and get his ideas on how we can give you what you want.

I want to reassure you that I am not inclined to just tell you why something can't be done, but rather, what's involved in terms of overall Forum performance, and then getting to work thinking about how to give you the functionality you are asking for!

[Valentine]

I think there are too many links at the top.

The search feature doesn't work that great.

I'd like the mini chat box to hold more than 4 lines (6-8 would be great).

I'd like the big chat box to show whose online/chatting.

This one is really for my ego, but I wanna see how many ppl are reading my blog, so a veiw count would be awesome.

I also agree with everything Ashlen said.

I like mog's idea, and I think a way to do it would be to make the mini-chat box show the users on all pages, like on the main page. It wouldn't have to be refreshed constantly, just whenever the user chooses to refresh the page.

Those are my thoughts in list form. I hope they help.

[Valentine]

I would really like to see a bigger 'marketing' for the blog area. I think it is one of the best resources here, other than the forums. It is unfortunate that all the attention it gets on the front page is a small 'blog' link, and a small excerpt of the latest blog/post.

[Buster]

Bolding added by Jack for the benefit of vbmtor and others.

Hey Valentine,

I know what you mean. The chat/blog areas are the only areas that I regularly visit. I dont seem to find the forum area easy to keep track of. Too many categories.

Unless it is "highlighted" under the chat area on the Forum Home Page, I usually dont get around to reading it.

In my simple mind, I think that there should be no categories but have the threads listed with the newest entries on top. Maybe have one thread that is always on top that is just for announcements from Jack (our leader!)

Just some thoughts that I had. I hope it helps.

Buster

[Jack]

Originally Posted by Valentine

I think there are too many links at the top.

Which ones do you want to get rid of?

The search feature doesn't work that great.

What specifically is wrong with it?

What search attempts have you tried that don't work?

How can we fix this?

Should we replace it with Google site search, or???

I'd like the mini chat box to hold more than 4 lines (6-8 would be great).

Why do you prefer that to just clicking on the Chat link to get the ChatBox that shows 18 lines?

I'd like the big chat box to show whose online/chatting.

Me too! We can ask him again but the last time I did he said it would bog the server (overall forum performance).

That's why I suggested the link to where the data is already being shown, then a link BACK to where you just came from so when you want to know who's there you can hop out and hop back.

I realize that's more hassle than just having it magically disappear, but we don't want the system to drive thru a river of molasses as more users at a time are logged in.

Don't give up, just keep working the problem with us! HOW can we give you the information you want in an easy way while not bogging the system?

This one is really for my ego, but I wanna see how many ppl are reading my blog, so a view count would be awesome.

Noted! I'm gonna ask vbmtor to plug in to this discussion (he's in Paris so allow for time differences, and he does have a day job!), so we'll see what he says.

I also agree with everything Ashlen said.

Noted, thanks!!!

Here's what Ashlen said:

Originally Posted by Ashlen

Not sure if it is viable or not, but giving the chatbox more scroll room (how much you can scroll down before the chat is cut off) would be nice. I know there are some conversations I come into the middle of and have to use the archives to catch up.

On the same note, the archives are a bit hard to read. Having a table for each thing said just takes up too much room, perhaps simplifying it down to just a chat log or something without the fancy look would work better?

Originally Posted by Valentine

I like mog's idea, and I think a way to do it would be to make the mini-chat box show the users on all pages, like on the main page. It wouldn't have to be refreshed constantly, just whenever the user chooses to refresh the page.

Do you know for sure it can be handled that way? (Just wondering how much experience you have with coding vb mods...)

AND let's see what vbmtor has to say.

Those are my thoughts in list form. I hope they help.

They help, a TON!

I would simply add that in addition to providing a critique, tell us how you would like things - give details and ideas of how to implement something, as you have already done for some of your points.

Thanks again!!!
Jack