Page 1 of 2

Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 5:32 pm
by Holger
Hi,

CMN is now in its 11th year and I am looking into ways to make the forum more attractive.
Do you have any suggestions?
Can we merge some of the forums/categories? Do we need more of them?
Are you missing anything?

:rockon:

/Holger

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 5:41 pm
by essexpete
TBH Holger I tend to look at new posts rather than different categories.
Thank you for all your work.
Peter

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 7:37 pm
by hair bear
Hi Holger,
My bookmarked landing page is 'new posts' too. That said, the categories are good if you're looking for something specific.
I do have problems with pictures though, they load up nice and big then there's a message saying 'loading notes' and the picture shrinks a bit and won't magnify. A minor gripe really for a site which I'm not sure could be improved!
Rob.

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 10:39 pm
by allistairc123
I used to live on forums , but sadly since the dawn of Facebook and now the advent of Facebook groups ...fourums have died a death. It’s such a shame as Facebook groups do not archive or categorise topics. Forums are still much better , just such a shame user numbers are down so much.
My suggestion would be to create a Facebook page for the forum , you may pick up a lot more users from Facebook as that’s where all the web traffic seems to live now.
I love this forum and hope to see it continue

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 4:25 am
by Mrsmackpaul
allistairc123 wrote:I used to live on forums , but sadly since the dawn of Facebook and now the advent of Facebook groups ...fourums have died a death. It’s such a shame as Facebook groups do not archive or categorise topics. Forums are still much better , just such a shame user numbers are down so much.
My suggestion would be to create a Facebook page for the forum , you may pick up a lot more users from Facebook as that’s where all the web traffic seems to live now.
I love this forum and hope to see it continue


I gotta agree
I dont like FB as much but like it or not it appears to be the trend at the moment

I know the HCVC forum in Australia is linked to FB and it appears some how stuff gets linked across, dunno how but not all stuff appears on both

That been said I think a lot of FB pages have fallen by the way side as well

On a Australian forum I have had a thread going for years called "down on the farm" which just reports on my constant blunders and flukes as the years roll on thru

Paul

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Wed May 23, 2018 2:23 pm
by Holger
It is not a question if the forum will continue or not. There is no way I would ever use FB.
And we wont cross post to FB as many users dont like to see their stuff on FB.
FB is not usefull in this sector, as mentioned, you cannot read as a guest and the content is not searchable and not categories. I dont understand why I would use FB groups at all.

What I rather would like to know is if we need to re-organize the categories, maybe include some newer stuff, not only "Classic Machinery". Also we might merge (or separate) categories?

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Thu May 24, 2018 9:58 pm
by Jeremy Rowland
Must say I do agree with the comments above but like Holger I will never use FB myself just can't be bothered with it and happy to plug away at CMN :thumbup:

Jeremy

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2018 10:12 pm
by Orion
Holger and mods, my 2 suggestions:
1.Can you get the advanced search to cover all sections of the forum in one hit - including downloads. For example I was searching for M4500 but it doesn't appear unless you select downloads. The downloads section has a powerful pull for new users, that's how I found this forum, and because it has such a good manuals section I plan to contribute to it too. So this should help the strength of the forum.
2. Don't bother with FB as it has a short attention span. I expect people who want real in-depth useful information gleaned and communicated over years will stick with - or come back to - this forum. :claphands:

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 8:11 pm
by le.maisonniau
Holger, I am very happy with the site 'as is'. The only problem I have are when I have been trying to upload manuals , never quite managed it and still have a couple of manuals that are not listed that I would like to add to the collection, which as pointed out is "impressive" - thank you.

I personally, am more than happy NOT to see FB here, I have to use it to keep in touch with family back in UK, but could easily do without it.

I have just searched the FAQ's for uploading manuals and cannot find anything to help, perhaps I am missing something :doh:

Re: Need your input: categories and general development of the site

Posted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 5:51 pm
by Holger
Thank you for your very helpful feedback!

John (Orion): Good idea, I will implement the search to cover also suggestions for hits in the downloads!

John (le.maisonniau): Uploading files is a bit of a hassle if they are to large in file-size!
Normally you go to the category in the downloads where you want to add a file, then you click on the button "Upload a file" and add the details and choose the file.
This only works if the file is no larger then lets say 20MB or so.
If the file is larger, please use dropbox, Google Drive, Onedrive or some similar cloud-service. Or contact me via PM and I can give you a FTP-address where you can upload the files with a program like FileZilla.