I'd like to see a FAQ section at the top of the thread list..
One that is about Vegas issues...I know there is a FAQ section regarding the forum.

bStro wrote:
<<Wouldn't it be even easier just to click "Ignore This User"? >>

I'm currently using that particular feature...though it can be a little confusing when you read rebuttals to their posts :~)

BillyBoy wrote:
<<A forum section especially one that Sony insisits is a peer to peer format should not be plastered wall to wall with links to Sony products>>

Personally, I think the Sony links are done in a non-obtrusive manner.

John

I would reply to a certain individuals typically negative opinions, but I would, no doubt, get crucified by this individual. Therefore, I will just say that I don't believe that the forum software is the least bit amateurish. It appears that the only two suggestions that have any sort of universal support are easier hyperlinking and having a link to someone's e-mail address. It really doesn't seem that it would be that difficult to implement these two features.

John

> click on your own handle

Yep, that’s what I use now. It's just that as you make more posts that page takes longer and longer to load ;-) and sometimes I still miss one or two because I think I’ve seen them but there is still one below that I haven’t. Thanks anyway.

~jr

Having the option to include your email address and allow embedded HTML without having to hand code it is common in forum software. Sony (back in the days it was SonicFoundy) made the mistake of attempting to write their own home brew web page and the result is tag soup of not very well written Java script which is part is the reason the forum is often sluggish.

I'm by no means suggesting that Sony can't advertise, after all its their web site. Simply they shouldn't advertise in a high traffic area only adding to the bloat.

For example Matrox's forums load very fast and are uncluttered in spite of far more features allowed to users. Take a look: You'll notice they only have a single text link back to their home page. Aside from that the forum is purely USER based, just forums, FAQ, chat, etc...

http://forums.matroxusers.com/

Even Mac does it better. One banner ad space at the top, that's all

http://forums.macrumors.com/

So does AOL of all companies:

http://forums.theideaweb.com/f35/s

As long as there seems to be an informal poll...

I say leave it as is.

However, some things I like in other forums...
- DV Info Net: requires an actual name rather than a handle. I prefer to know who I am dealing with as much as possible,
- E-mail links,
- Easier link insertion,
- E-mail notification of responses to your posts.

Regarding advert clutter: compared to the Cow and DMN, Sony's is uncluttered and unobtrusive. Furthermore, when the assertion was made that there was too many Sony "fluff and trinkets" I had to look to see what I had missed. Their inclusion is seemless and, duh, Sony is in the business of selling things. If anything, I would say that there restraint in this department is laudible.

Unless I am mistaken, most people here appreciate the announcements regarding goods, services and tour plans by 3rd parties. I know I do. By the way, when is VASST coming to Minnesota (not that I can afford it). It's not as inhospitable up here as you might think. Or, as I like to put it, MN weather weeds out the weak ones who scurry off to Arizona or Florida, so, if you come here, you'd meet nothing but fine, hard-working folks.

But to get back on topic... I find the forum simple and elegant not amatuerish. Sony, only change it if you can keep this aesthetic intact.

Thanks,
Matt

Say huh?

I don't think those are the official forums for Matrox nor Apple. Apple's actual forum has a similar amount of Apple adverts insomuch as it does what Sony does, which is retain the same header/navigation structure for the entire site. Matrox's actual discussion board has no adverts that I noticed similar to the MatroxUsers forum but it would probably be good to cite the companys' official forums if you are going to make the comparison (or claim to have).

(I couldn't find an official AOL forum; however, the one you cited is not an official forum.)

The links (sorry, I don't feell like HTML-ing right now...)


http://discussions.info.apple.com/
http://forum.matrox.com/mga/index.php
http://www.aol.com/support/index.adp (let me know if you find a forum here...)

Matt

Great thread. Thanks for all the suggestions.

There are some easy additions I'll make ASAP:
1. A way to allow you to email each other - without exposing email addresses. We used to show email addresses on the site, but received many complaints from forum users.
2. Some easy way to add links. Can you guys direct me to sites that do this particularly well? I've seen it done a few different ways. Like javascript popups that ask you for the URL, and what you want the link to say. Another way would be to just detect the characters http:// and turn that and anything after it into a link. Sort of the way Outlook handles links. Either can be a little cludgy though. Any better suggestion?

I've also been thinking about making the non-threaded view the default. It seems like a lot of people are missing this feature, and that most of the people that have discovered it, prefer it. It would probably be pretty easy to let you switch views from within a thread.

Email subscriptions to threads/search terms is a great idea, but it will take some time to pull off in a way that doesn't slow the site down. I'll keep that and other suggestions in mind the next time we make a pass at major improvements to the forums.

Thanks all, and keep 'em coming.

Hey, Kevin, thanks for being so patient and your willingness to be so accommodating.

As I mentioned early on, and got hammered, just as I expected, was the color. Now, I'm used to it. But I think the forum is fine. The other forums mentioned above are proof, in the case of this forum, that "less is more."

The only concern I have regarding all this is the reference to e-mail addresses. Can it be done in such a way that it will foil the bots that scour the web looking for e-mail addresses for spammers? I have no objection to anyone here having my e-mail address, I just don't want it to fall into the "wrong hands" as it were!

Oh, and one more thing, I think it was Matt's suggestion... In the for what's it's worth department, I also like the idea of being required to use our real names. I always click on the person's handle to see if they input their real name, and I use that whenever I can. This, I think, is one of the best ideas mentioned so far. Thanks Matt!

Jay

I was thinking about doing something similar to our site contact form. Your email address is never exposed - even to the sender. That way, no one gets your email address unless you reply to an email that is sent to you.

As for using people's real names instead of handles, I'd like to hear from a few more people. If everyone likes that idea, it would be quite simple to change.

I really like the Sonar website. You'd have to register and login to see all of the options you have (like being able to turn off images) but it seems very fast loading even with the images and icons turned on.
Actually I would be very happy if I could just flag a thread or be able to select e-mail notification when someone replies to a thread.
My 2,
Randy

My vote: I like the forum exactly the way it is.

I enjoy the forum in its current form. Slow, subtle improvements are always worth trying. Be wary of sweeping, across the board changes.

As for using real names in the forum, everyone has the option to introduce themselves at any time. Personally, I've found that a degree of anonymity in these forums fosters participation. Identifying users could possibly alienate participants that felt that they were less knowledgable or too new to the subject to offer there ideas and experience. Every post by everyone is important. Even the most inane comments usually bring about a piece of usable info for someone.

My forums use the 'detect the http://... string' method. It works pretty well, as long as people put a space or newline character at the end. The one suggestion i would make (which, *blush*, i haven't implemented myself yet) is that if the URL is longer than some amount of characters, say ... 45, then the link string will be abbreviated in some fashion. The link itself will still be all there, but what is displayed on the screen will be short enough so that it doesn't push the forum width out way past the right edge of the window. It's very annoying when someone posts a very long link and then the entire thread spreads out to that width too.

In my chat room, the link is displayed merely as "WebLink". In both my chat and my forum, links automatically open in new windows using 'target=_new'.

Real Names? It might be nice, but i wouldn't require it. You may get a lot of people who won't want to post anymore. For that matter, i have no idea how you would enforce it other than doing a background check on each user when they register before activating their forum account.

A minimal profile might be nice. Give us a few more fields where we can voluntarily list our public email address, phone number, other contact information, etc. The contact form is good too. I just implemented one of these at work and everyone likes it a lot. No email addresses are visible, and the number of new customer contacts coming in is growing already.

TheHappyFriar wrote:

What I mean is if you list all the threads at once, you just see everything. If you list them in the other format (threaded" you can ignore whole conservations.

Ah. Okay. Sorry.

But your other post didn't say anything about skipping threads. You said you wanted to skip a user. :)

Rob

Kevin, I'd LOVE to see the forums change to using real names instead of handles. DVInfo.net works this way, it keeps the flaming to a minimum. Full names are used there.
DMN auto-creates html when you type in http
DVInfonet uses a different format, one merely inserts before html and after html, keeping it clean.
For me, I don't know that I care about accessing email addys, remember how spammed things got when the mail was available?

Aside from all the "look" issues the email address should be a option of each user just like its his choice if he adds a URL or not to his profile

I don't see why anyone would object to having their email show if its the indvidual that's giving it in the first place. If a indvidual doesn't want to give his email or URL that's his choice of course. The issue many times is one member or another would like to contact each other and can't the way things are now without one starting a thread for the express purpose of saying what his email address is like I did yesterday for someone to send me something. That in my view is clumsy. The whole point of having a user profile is for each user to share as much about himself as HE wants with anyone being able to view that information.

Michael,
Your point is exactly as I felt about the DVInfo forums at first, feeling that the use of real names would cause folks to feel intimidated and unwilling to post or visit.
Just the opposite, and even though I had told Chris Hurd (operater of Info.net) that I thought it was a weak idea, that it would limit his traffic...his forums are amongst the busiest on the net, and lots of beginner/amateur, etc questions are asked every couple of hours. I've been proven wrong in my assertion in that community.
That said, I personally DO like how these forums work, with one minor exception of posting html links. I'd like to have a means of automatically inserting those links, or doing so with just a click or something. But otherwise, I too, enjoy these forums the way they are. Simple, elegant, and certainly anything BUT clumsy. A single ad at the bottom of the page is no big deal at all, and if an occasional ad showed up at the top of the page, no big thing either. Sony provides them, they are certainly entitled to use them to notify community members of special opportunities. It's an extension of their marketing, engineering, and customer support programs, after all.

I don't see why anyone would object to having their email show. . .

Like I said, having the e-mail showing opens you up to bots that crawl the web looking for e-mail addresses to add to spam lists.

Jay

sony - glad you are listening! haha.

but...

the thing about hte UBB forums i was initially suggesting, is that the administrater, as well as the individual user, can set his/her options to fit them perfectly. AKA, if I like big graphics and annoying smilies...i can turn them on. If I want TEXT ONLY, and simply font color changes to tell me what posts i've posted in, viewed, or are brand new to me - i can do that as well! That's the beauty of them..they give you the OPTIONS to do everything, but you don't have to take it. With a lot of the boards, its even SO SIMPLE to design your own template for them - and impliment it. so, if somebody really wanted to they could make the new one look damn near the same as it does now! haha.

EDIT:
OH! and one last thing:
IT would be great to have "go to first unread post" as well, so that in this NON-THREADED view, we can just click a button and it scrolls to where we last left off...that is ALWAYS a real nice feature, especially when a thread is as long as this one!

EDIT2:
I thought of something else...haha.
ok, so everyone doesn't like big huge pain in the butt graphics...but how can your 56K modems handle a HUGE page of text, with over 50 posts!? haha.. The other forums split huge threads into seperate pages.

>> "go to first unread post"

Love that idea. I've been using the HTPCNews.com forums a lot lately (on my own time of course), and like that feature there.

I think that the way they do it, is they time stamp your last visit to the forum, and then bookmark link to any posts on individual threads after that date. It doesn't seem like they keep track of your last visit to an individual threads (which would be a lot more resource intensive), but it still works pretty nicely.

As for 56k modem loads of long threads, is this really a problem for anyone? I personally prefer a long page with everything, but this is a democracy after all.

Kelly, Thanks for the tips. Some good ideas I wouldn't have thought of until we had some ugly threads from those long URLs.

I think that the way they do it, is they time stamp your last visit to the forum

DVInfo offers the same capability. One thing you need to do is keep track of that information on the server. For example, I can check DVInfo on this computer and it remembers fine. I then go home and check on another computer and it still remembers fine. So, I know the "last checked" information is NOT being stored in a local cookie.

As for 56k modem loads of long threads, is this really a problem for anyone?

It can be - especially when there are more than 50 posts are a bunch of really long posts. Also, at home my "56k" modem connects at "26.4" - makes it even worse. However, it DOES seem to be faster now than a few months ago. A real time killer is downloading around 70 pictures on EACH page. Granted they're small but they each take a little time.


While we're looking at updates: I'd like to be able to set my timezone so that a post that happens a 2:00pm really happened at 2:00pm MY TIME instead of 4:00pm.