Suggestions and improvements

Hey team,

So as mentioned in my earlier post, I'm looking for ways we can improve the forum. I've noticed there's a bit of a jumble when it comes to general chat and announcements so ill be working to fix and tidy that up in the coming days, however I would also love to know what improvements you guys think we should be making too. I'm going to be looking into the admin panel to see if there is a way to extend the time people remain logged in to try and reduce the amount of lost posts we get. With this in mind, it's still best to write your posts and copy the entire thing into word or writer to ensure it survives even if the forum freaks out of you lose connection. Another method I've been informed of is to write it in Google docs, and then paste it into the forum.

Besides that however, if you've got any suggestions as to how I can make your lives easier or any ideas to tidy the forum up or make it more user friendly, throw them in here and let's get the discussion going!

All the best!

Placeholder post to remind myself to paste some of the notes and scribble i've accumulated.
(Basically, everything boils down to "describe the purpose a given forum part fulfils"; all else stems from that.)

Oh, two specific suggestions right off the bat.
1) Create "sample readings" topic/section in the forum too, until that function is added to the website.
2) create 'archived' part into each forum section, and move the old and inactive threads in those there.

Archives might work instead of deleting all the old posts but I'm worried this might result in a large amount of topics, ill look into sub folders within categories when I can use WiFi. Same with the sample reading section ill add that as soon as I can use the laptop. Besides picking up trash, what else did you have in mind? Ill get it prepared. Also need to add a section in creators area for feedback on upcoming bits. Hope you well!

For the 'sample readings" i meant exactly the same stories, exactly the same preparations that we've so far selected for the website. Basically what i mean is, if we get the excerpts tidied up before we get to finalize the website tweaks, then display them over here until the site is sorted; once that section of the wesite is up, and especially once the forums are moved to the new format and become part of the website, then this temporary 'samples' place is no longer necessary. Until then it might be useful. (Now that i'm explaining this it doesn't sound as great of an idea anymore, lol)

Personally I think we should do this, it's only temporary until we add it to the website and set up the new forum so even if it turns out to be a bad idea here, no damage is done. Perhaps we could even use the posts with the stories for feedback too? Although because this one is temporary, might still be best to put sample and Feedback sections in the creators section instead/as well? We'll figure this out then I'll put it into effect! =D

Okay, what you're describing is two distinctly different functions/goals - 1) to display selected samples to a wider audience, and b) to create a feedback-chat-opinion-sharing-space for our own crew. I agree that the latter belongs to the creators section, and could start right away.
However.
The first goal - to put some selected (and tidied-up) work on display so that all the people out there in the whole wide internet would be able to get a glimpse of what we actually do, and would get a taste of the fictional universe - that goal includes "public display" in its very definition. And i maintain that the preparing edits for the materials going on display would be the very same preparation/editing we're doing for the exerpts meant for the website. The only difference from "official" display would be that the (temporary) display-space here will make the two tasks (preparing texts and website restructuring) independent from each other, meaning a bit more wiggle room.
Still, the tidying-editing task on each text would have to happen first, and at the moment most of these exerpts are still waiting their tidy-up. (I'm quite certain i won't be able to dedicate the necessary time and attention for my own excerpts this week, btw.) The main question now would be, whether to put them up one by one, or hold on until the whole batch is prepared and then put them out there all at once.

ED:
Oh, ooh, speaking of the for-the-crew "feedback chamber" - in the meantime that could easily serve as a buffer area for collecting and reviewing suggested exerpts too (regardless of other actions).

I've added the feedback section to the creators section of the forum. If you'd like me to make some changes to the text/descriptions, let me know. I'm not sure if we should add a 'Samples' section to the 'public' area until, A. We've got more than just Picking up Trash to put in there, and B. We've got a little feedback from the Creators section on the stories we put in there.
I'll spend some time when I get home organizing things like 'Little Warrior', 'Split Personality 1, Chapter 1', 'The Seeker', 'Space Junk', etc and possibly look into adding some sample chapters from Black-Star, SP2, and speak to Kay about potential Pilgrim samples after they've all been run through editing. Adding the sample section to Public area will also give us a little more time to really nail down what we wanna do with the website. Looking forward to sharing our work =D

Yep, i like the plan of rounding up the stories in the "feedback chamber" first, and holding off with the initial "public bundle" until they're all sorted.
ONNNWAAARD! .

Starting to mass-spam my paper-notes; let's start with website & forum related ...
These are basically random snippets of half-formed ideas scribbled down, not definitive suggestions or anything.

 

Oh, wow, after the topics&thread housekeeping stuff's soooo much easier to find! Me likey