Forum Features

Hey guys,

We are currently making a list of potential forum improvements and feature additions.

I'm keen to hear what you would like. If you have a few put them in order of importance to you. The more detail the better.

Cheers.

Ben

I manage a couple different automotive websites/forums. I would encourage you to switch to a true forum software. The add-ons for WordPress/Drupal/Joomla interface well with their parent program but really suck as a forum. Your IT company may promote they can develop, modify or tweak this board, but in the end, the likelyhood of having what you are looking for may be in doubt.

vBulletin, Xenforo, Simple Machines all are well accepted and proven packages and will allow as much as you want. Searching, graphics, links, posting of pictures, moderation, User Profiles, PM (private mail), etc; they offer all of these. With a little tweaking, anyone of them will interface with your website and provide an overall package we users are looking for. Have the IT guys spend the time/money to learn and support these packages and most of your site issues will go away.

I understand the intent of your forum however it really hampers the interaction of your community. I bet you'll be surprised at the increased traffic you will generate with a new interface

Thanks, I'll get down off the soapbox now.

Paul

ps: if you want to discuss further, feel free to email or pm me, unless you prefer an open discussion here on the forum.

Paul

Totally understand. We will be investigating other forum platforms Paul. This is a call out for features rather than the platform suggestions. Let me know what you like about those specific systems :)

I want to see "new since my last visit". It should look across all sub-forums.

If that can't be done, then when a thread is opened, I would like to be able to start at the first "new" post I haven't seen (sometimes there is an icon on the thread title allowing that).

I think it would be useful to have a private message, or way to email a user.

-) private messaging and/or email

-) displaying the number of pages a post has next to that specific thread

-) new threads since last visits

-) improving the forums search function as it lists like everything when using it :)

-) private messaging and/or email

-) displaying the number of pages a post has next to that specific thread

-) new threads since last visits

-) improving the forums search function as it lists like everything when using it :)

As with the others on this topic Ben,

- PM function

- Search improvements

- Show users posts in their profile

- Go to new post in topic link

- Show posts since last visits

- Fix the timestamps between the different levels of the forums

- I have a lot of login issues with the forums, in that I can open a link to a subforum or topic, and then find that I have been logged out in the process of doing so.

Positives

- I do like the clean look of this design, a lot of new forum software have buttons and icons all over the place, making it difficult to find what you want.

- The Subscribe to topic function, it is the first forum that I have used (including the ones that I administer) that doesn't require multiple clicks and/or different windows opening up.

I'm sure that there will be more added!

Ben

BlackRex pretty much outlined it all.

Paul

To what was previously said, I would add the "stay on top" function (Sticky Thread)

Honestly the list is endless... even simple tasks like being able to quote other posts so others know you're answering their question directly.

I'm with what was said earlier... I have my own automotive discussion forum for 14 years, I've tried many different platforms and have always just fell behind on the features and options that some of the better known forums have to offer. Not to mention the cost involved each time trying to switch to a different platform. I'll finally be switching to vBulletin this year and can't wait for all the things it brings to the table.

I know you don't want to hear it, but honestly, don't fight it. lol Start off on the right foot, or you will be upset down the road you didn't... just like I am.

You guys are the professional tuners.. we would take your advice to save us headaches.... now take our advice to save yours. ;)

Great thanks for the ideas team.

@Dave - Totally understand mate, I'm not actually a tuner at all, but I get your gist. I too grew up running forums, I'm well aware of the positives of running an out of the box forum software. This forum now is a very simple out of the box forum solution. But I'm also aware of the downsides of using a more complex forum system and the changing landscape of online communities.

You will have noticed that forums that were popular and growing fast are now being replaced with other social platforms.

The aim is to keep the forum useful, simple, clean and easy to use. :)

Some good suggestions already mentioned. I'd also like to see more detailed user profiles, perhaps allowing members to show whether they're a professional tuner or amateur. And slightly more detailed location such as state/province and country.

I want to say this was available on the old site, but maybe I am not remembering correctly.

On each video in a course, there is the form at the bottom to start a thread in the forum. Having a listing of forum topics that were created from that video would help to answer questions, cut down on duplicate threads about the same topic, etc.

A rambling way to say some sort of reverse association of forum threads to course videos would be nice.

I thought Toxin had quite a few great ideas in his post from awhile ago, but I can't seem to find it now.

I think the idea above are all grand, but one thing that would really make me happy is to have links open in a new tab, instead of taking me off of HPA's site. Most of the time it's easy enough to remember to right click and select it, but it would be lovely if it was automatic.

Yes Ben FB has ruined forums no question... however forums are documented information, where as social media like FB and IG just simply get lost hours after their posted. This will sound corny but it's that reason that people like us need to keep that information document and easy for google to find, not to mention because of that it brings traffic. I also believe as folks get older and less interested in getting likes or peoples attention they will resort to forums for answers as well.

Part of the reason I plan on going to vbulletin is because of the integration options with FB... people can post and easily share to FB if they choose.

I belong to the Guild of EFI Tuners Facebook group (as does Ben!).

It is trying to act like a forum but doesn't work very well. Fine for posting something and getting quick replies but for anything in depth or historical it is awful.

Unfortunately that is how people seem to want to operate today. Would love to know how many posts on that group are repeats of something a few days ago but it is almost impossible to look back over that number of posts.

Ben

Put up a post the other day, questioning if a timeline has been set for these upgrades - but now it doesn't display.

Did it get edited off or is the forum acting up?

Paul