Just recently we have been contacted by a few members of the forum who have been having issues with the home page and we have also noted a few threads and comments on the same topic. The main concerns are that interesting topics may get buried and questions may go unanswered. As we cannot make any technical changes to the forum, we wanted to run a suggestion by you to see what you think about an idea that may help to improve things.
On the home page you will notice that we can make certain threads sticky. What we are proposing is that the moderators during their daily patrols around the forums select interesting threads from around the site and make them sticky for a day to allow ease of viewing. We would welcome your feedback on this idea.
Best wishes
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
I say leave LG as it is, the reason it is so sucessful is there are specific threads for good reasons.
As Keith Rogers points out it is an Encyclopedia of Osprey information at your finger tips.
I did suggest maybe on the Community starting some specific threads e.g "Identification", "What have you seen in your Garden today" etc only an idea. I am not saying that others should not be started. Having some general topics will make for interesting discussions and more interaction.
Thanks to TIGER for mentioning this Thread. I have read all its posts so far.
As a member of the LG Group, I never use the Home Page. I have the LG Forum in my Favourites and go there direct when I want to see what's happening - on which different threads give different aspects, as well as informing about Ospreys in general. Other Groups I might viist less often are listed on my profile page, which I also have in Favourites. Changes to the Home Page would not affect me at all, but I hope that the LG followers will not be penalised for their success in raising international interest in Ospreys!
Ospreys Rule OK, but Goldfinches come a close second!
madpenguin said: I was wondering if there was some way we could 'ignore' threads listed on the home page. I don't mean that in a nasty way. I do use the 'unread' and 'my disscussions' but there are still some threads I would like to see taken off the list that I see,not that these threads are uninteresting to many people but that I do not always want to see them. Maybe the full list could still be shown elsewhere. Not sure if I have explained myself very well but hope you get the gist! :)
I was wondering if there was some way we could 'ignore' threads listed on the home page.
I don't mean that in a nasty way.
I do use the 'unread' and 'my disscussions' but there are still some threads I would like to see taken off the list that I see,not that these threads are uninteresting to many people but that I do not always want to see them.
Maybe the full list could still be shown elsewhere.
Not sure if I have explained myself very well but hope you get the gist! :)
This would be the ideal solution. You can do this already in a way by using the <my discussions> button.
So what one really needs to do is toggle between the <my discussions> button and the <all recent> button.
I personally cannot see why that does not solve the problem.
Tiger Signature
Hazel b said: This is the link for the community home page: www.rspb.org.uk/.../default.aspx It lists all threads across all of the RSPB forums including all groups, the ones most recently posted to at the top as usual. It's a convenient way to find the newest and most active threads.
This is the link for the community home page: www.rspb.org.uk/.../default.aspx
It lists all threads across all of the RSPB forums including all groups, the ones most recently posted to at the top as usual. It's a convenient way to find the newest and most active threads.
I use the home page and there are lots of small threads on it. Each of the Loch Garten thread are huge. Do you seriously want the Loch Garten posters who are already reponsible for 95 of the 100 longest threads in the forum to make even longer threads?
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Fewer threads on the home page from the LG group would leave more space for other threads from elsewhere. It doesn't really matter how long each thread is, a 2,000-post thread still only takes up one 'slot'.At the moment, newbies who come to the community via the home page at the moment will get the impression that this is a forum mostly about Ospreys. If they came wanting to talk about birds/wildlife in general they may well choose not to post.BUT at the same time I don't see why LG activity should be restricted. It's the design of the forum that is the problem.
ETA - ooh, my font's gone all funny!
My blog: http://mazzaswildside.blogspot.co.uk/
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aiki If you click the <my discussion> button all the the Loch Garten threads should diappear? Is that correct?
Hazel b said: aiki If you click the <my discussion> button all the the Loch Garten threads should diappear? Is that correct?
Yes, indeed. Pressing that button displays only the threads to which I've already posted. It's not going to help me find new threads that I may want to post to in the future, though.
I don't have any trouble navigating the forums. I'm thinking of new people with general interests.
aiki said: aiki If you click the <my discussion> button all the the Loch Garten threads should diappear? Is that correct?
Well then you toggle bettwen the two.
Yoou have four options
<all recent> <unanswered> <unread> and <your discussions> These give four different ways of looking at the forum. Now in a system like vBulletin you can subscribe to a thread but that is very little different to <my discussions>
By definition any new thread which is newly posted to will be at the top of the stack.
I do use the 'my discussions' tab but this only shows threads to which I have already posted.
I would still like to see an 'ignore' button on threads' (in a way that we can ignore some posters etc)
A lot of threads are interesting to a lot of people but if for instance a thread is started on say the latest camera gizmo,I might read that thread decide it is not for me and 'ignore' it,but if the thread is very popular I will see it time and time again in the list 'all recent' and 'unread'.
It's not always easy to hug a hedgehog.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
madpenguin said: I do use the 'my discussions' tab but this only shows threads to which I have already posted. I would still like to see an 'ignore' button on threads' (in a way that we can ignore some posters etc) A lot of threads are interesting to a lot of people but if for instance a thread is started on say the latest camera gizmo,I might read that thread decide it is not for me and 'ignore' it,but if the thread is very popular I will see it time and time again in the list 'all recent' and 'unread'.
But is that not a bit like saying "I hate going shoping at "well known supermarket" because they are too many people there?
The fact is that every time a thread is bumped it means that someone is intertested in it. At the end of the day you ca always scroll down to find the thread you are interested in.
I think you will find that threads disappearing quickly off the home page is a problem in every forum.
Some deal with it like VBulletin by giving people their own way of selecting the threads that they are interested in.
There is also a very efficient search function on this forum.
Hazel b said: Well then you toggle bettwen the two. Yoou have four options <all recent> <unanswered> <unread> and <your discussions> These give four different ways of looking at the forum. Now in a system like vBulletin you can subscribe to a thread but that is very little different to <my discussions> By definition any new thread which is newly posted to will be at the top of the stack.
Thank you, but as I said I'm OK with using the forums, been here long enough to know how to find what I want. I just think that the home page as it stands does not give newbies a balanced impression of what the site has to offer. If the RSPB see this is a problem then I think it's really up to them rather than the LG group or any other forumites to solve it, though there are small things that all of us can do to help. For established forumites wanting to find new/interesting threads more quickly, an 'ignore thread' option would definitely help too.