blonde poker forum

As a team of moderators and administrators we have been wondering whether it was now appropriate to divide the board into more sections.

You may remember that a while ago this was mooted and a majority was against it.

Since then things have moved on. Traffic on the board has grown apace:


 MonthlySummary   NewTopics   New Posts   New Members   Most Online
 October 2005            341           8187            169                 161
 September 2005        652         18204            286                 159
 August 2005              398           9931           250                 261
 July 2005                   339           7838           283                 142
 June 2005                  278           7370            94                 106
 May 2005                   154           2464            49                   55
 April 2005                   120           3652          100                   66
 March 2005                  98           2986          118                  309
 February 2005              65             955            87                  326
 January 2005                 7               95            37                    36

This is great, but creates challenges. One is that the General discussion board in particular is hectic, you can out a post up in the morning and have to scroll way down to find it when you come back in the evening.

However it is fair to say that there are some different views on the subject, some like the random feel, some would like order


So it's over to you...what do you feel? would you like more sections? If so, what would they be? any other comments?


One possible set of boards might be:

Live tournament updates
Online poker discussion and tournament updates
General poker discussion (strategy, viewpoints etc)
Off Topic (Red-dog's twin, storymakers etc etc)

but I'm sure you can come up with better......


We might not do anything, but if we do, we'd like the best possible way forward....

 
 

 

A statement of the very obvious, but in the stats reproduced above, the October figures are up to the 13th only, & to "month-ise" them, you need to, approximately, double them.

The "most online" column means Members logged in at at any given moment.

I have mixed views on the subject (bloody hell, I can't decide myself so God knows how we get a consensus on the forum!)

2+2 has grown and divided many times since I started posting there and its now almost overwhelming.  Instead of having one or two boards to keep up with you have to go through each one of interest to you.

In addition, you run the risk of the 'wrong forum' Nazi's taking over.

Personally, any split should keep things as simple as possible.  It might be worth simply splitting the general discussion board between poker and non-poker (effectively creating an 'Other Topics' board) to keep things manageable.  However, I'm not sure if this would detract from the overall feel of the place.  After all, its nice to stumble across a bit of RED-DOG humour when your head is spinning from a post such as the min-raise thread.

A better option might be to look to improve the navigation of the site by letting people opt how many threads they see on one page.  Also, it'd be great if the forum didn't automatically revert back to page 1 after you've come out of a thread on page 2.

Basically, this is a long-winded way of saying 'I can see both sides'.  >:D

Sheriff

better sticky management would help, count 'em!!!
i still feel 1 extra section is needed just for news on value comps, qualifiers etc.
can also do the internet comp updates in there as someone moves those from the live update section for some reason ???

you see, I don't mind the number of stickies (althoguh I try not to add wherever possible)  especially now page 1 has grown in length.

Sub-question: am I in a minority on this?

Ifm, as an aside...the titan and Grosvenor Gp stickies disappear down the list after tomorrow.... :)up

I'd be in favour of a structure change. It's hard to keep track of things and as the site continues to grow it will only get harder.

It might also be an idea to have a section for "information" threads, ie ones that aren't likely to be regularly updated but still contain relevant information - things like Rob's notts information thread.

I don't know if this forum software has one but most boards have a "new posts" feature which allows people to see all the new posts on one page - much like just having one forum. This means that you can please all parties.

We manage the "stickys" on a daily basis ifm, & yes, there are too many some days. This week happens to be particularly "busy" sticky-wise, with some very important & interesting threads, plus the Titan jobbie, & the Live Update ptromo.

Which is precisely why we need to make the changes we are proposing......

The thing has grown to a point where it's very difficult to keep it user-friendly. So, we are seeking everyone's input as to views on how to manage it better. so bear with us please. We are getting there, & with your help we will.

This is not spam but if you want to look at a split board with not crazy ammount of members (like 2+2) you should look at the aworldofpoker forum. I dont think its as good as here and will be one of the ones voting for "leave it as it is". With a split board it is too tricky imo to keep your eyes on numerous threads without going in and out of different sections. Here you click refresh and you can see which ones have been updated. If something aint broke it dont need fixing.

As far as I'm concerned, once a thread falls off the bottom of the first page of the General Discussion board, it's gone. At the moment, we're just about OK in that all the 'active' threads (ones in which people have posted something in the last day or so) are on the first page. Once threads start falling off the bottom within a couple of hours of being posted (as happens in other forums) you end up with the self-perpetuating problem of people not being able to find a thread on a particular subject, and so starting a new one, which pushes another thread onto page 2, which leads to someone else starting a thread and so on, and before long the first page consists of 30 threads, on 6 subjects, with 4 posts in each thread.

As long as posters have a good think before starting a new thread on a subject, I think we should be OK. I think we do need a News section, so people know where to go for information on tournaments events, rather than posting a 'Does anyone know about event X?' thread. Also, I don't think we need a "'Welcome 'New Poster X', tell us a bit about yourself" thread for everyone who joins up - maybe there should be a separate section for these?

I prefer forums with different sections so I dont have to wade through loads of stuff I am not really interested in.

I think this is the boards version of the feature I was talking about.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?action=unread

The only problem seems to be that threads disapear if you have read them which means it behaves differently to a standard forum.

I agree that as the forum gets busier there may be a need to change the structure.  However I like it the way it is, everyone in the same place posting about all sorts gives the place a great family feel and I for one would be dissapointed to lose that. Have to say I agree with Ariston "if it ain't broke.....

Just a suggestion, but is there anyway to colour code the posts...? Blondite who makes the initial post selects the colour.

e.g. red = poker related, blue = off topic, green = railbird requests/news etc...

That way, all the threads stay on one section.

And perhaps a function so you could sort the posts by colour when you log into to view the 'General Discussions' section (i.e. select only 'red' posts), but if no selection is made, you view the board as it is now...

Yet in your original post you mention posts dropping down the page after a few hours, do you not think that shortening the first page with 6, 7 or 8 sticky's contributes hugely towards this?
Anyway just a pet hate of mine, how about a sticky section?
Ariston mentions worldofpoker, which is a great forum but the amount of sections is really off putting.
How many times have we had this discussion about sections?
Maybe they should be relooked at

Ooooh, I like that idea. Obviously I have no idea how feasible it is with the forum software.

yes Ian, but 8 stickies are atypical!  moving on ......

moving on?
why?
has a ruling been made?
am i not allowed to mention them?

I think the auto forward off thread after making a reply needs to be changed, and could do with an off topic thread, as theres some threads in general discussion that could fit in there.

If I may put my input in here. (just going from my HCI knowledge)

One thing that makes the multiple sections easier to read (for example with the PHPBB forum AWOP) is that it flags the topics that you haven't read so you don't have to go through all sections. If you are not interested in topics you can press a link that will mark them all as read.

This forum seems to only highlight hot topics and topics that you have posted in (just the way it has been developed), meaning that you would have to keep going through all sections to find new threads.

Hi kaibobble,

Thanks for your input. This is not easy - as you well know!

I don't quite understand your point about highlighting new posts. On blonde, ALL unread posts are marked with a blue "NEW" sticker, assuming that's how you have set it up in your Profle. I believe Members have the ability to have this "flag" on or off.

of course you are....no offence meant

Where is that in the profile I can't find it?

It may be an idea to automatically enable it when people join as it's not an obvious thing to do and it is a really nifty little feature.

You got me there Kaibobble, I have no idea how to enable/disable it. I am sure someone will come on & tell us.

But I can assure you that EVERY new post is highlighted with a blue "NEW" icon, & I believe that almost everyone has that enabled.

oh yeah just noticed the "New" button. Sorry me being a muppet  >:?

Phew, I thought I was going mad. (der....)

going?

Ah you see whats confusing is (not dissing you here, dissing SMF) they don't keep consistancy from page to page.

On the main forum page they represent a new post similar to PHPBB forums where they change the icon from a light blue/grey to a darker blue.

Then you go into the forum and they change their method of feedback to the user to represent the same thing by putting the "new" button at the end of the subject line.

That took you about half a nanasecond to respond to ifm!

I did add "der", in an attempt to head off your response......

Youi joining us for a bite to eat on Saturday? You would be very welcome.

Not sure Mr Tikay sir, i dunno if i could handle watching the "troops" head off to battle without being involved :'(
I was gonna have just 1 pop at qualifying last night but the nature of my exit makes me wanna make ammends, so may try again tonight :-\

Did the big boss qualify, we started on the same table

is there still qualifying going on? where where

walsall again tonight, and i think salford. absolutely last chance though

The last chances to qualify are TONIGHT at....

Walsall

The Vic

Cardiff. I beleve Cardiff is in Wales.......

Did Dave qualify last night? Dunno, not spoken to him this morning. But my gut feel is "no". Maybe he'll try again tonight, or maybe I'm wrong. Not good form to ring him & ask, especially if he's got a curly lip because he missed out.....

Kaibobble,

You have got my head spinning here.

When I am on the blonde Forum, there is just ONE shade of blue "NEW" icon, and it's in the same place on every page.

We are clearly at cross-purposes. Can someone more articulate, or able to take a screenshot, help resolve this dilemma?

she is referring to the front forum page, the icon next to the section title changes colour when a new post is within.

OI I will make your head spin in a minute ;)

the front page when you first land on blonde forum has two forums. One Tournaments update and two genaral chat.

to the left there is a picture of erm weighing scales? or something. they go from dark to light blue depending on new posts. then the format changes when you click in one to that "new" button.

Just pointing out the way they have developed it is a bit confusing.

Oh, NOW I see. I am referring to the actual General Discussion, or Live Tournament Page, where the bright blue "NEW" Icons appear. Surely, these suffice, no?

now they do as I have only just noticed them .

See because I noticed the colour change ones first on the front page, when I went to the next page you automatically look to the little speech bubble icons to see if they go lighter and darker. In other words following the example that was set on the first page.

Blimey I gonna keep my mouth shut from now on  ;) (but I doubt thats gonna happen)

We got there in the end......

And for the avoidance of doubt, because I can see I've inadvertently given offence, when I said "someone more articulate", I did of course infer & mean "someone more articulate THAN ME".....!

Have to be soooooo careful with these Northeners........

Trouble makers the lot of us Tikay ;)

LOL no offense taken Tikay.

You learn to put up with things playing with the likes of Howard Plant every week. (don't tell him I said that he might throw a roulette table at me, plus he already gave me a tongue lashing the other week).

Anyway just trying to give you a point of view from a very critical (<- well I am a bird) "techy, geek, anorak" what ever you wanna call it.

She still wants me

 :D HA HA HA You're the only reason I come on here Red Dog  :-*

too easy :)up

Speak for yourself Mr!  lol


Tikay/et al   I think a separate section for "What's on?", may just suffice then everything else could stay where it was.

T

I don't know where it was, perhaps it should stay where it is

Okay Mr Pedantic - point made, point taken and post changed!    (And to think I ignored your misspelling of Avatar on another thread!  TUT)  lol

for those wanting to remain on topic after posting goto

your profile and click on Preferences on the left hand side of the page

and you can check to remain ontopic after posting

stickies are a bug bear of mine there should rarely be more than 2-3 stickys on a board

i believe that if we split the tourny news section into 4 sections then it we relieve alot of the problems
and after that we could see f there is still a need for an OTF in the general section

the 4 topics i would have in tourny news is

live updates
internet updates
trip reports
forth coming events (where we can tell each other about value events and cardroom staff can also keep us informed)

I think a structure change is necessary. At least one more category is needed.

We need an off topic IMO.

I agree, we definitely need an off topic category and a welcome to blonde category.

Oh and a Bad Beat section, 50p a go!  ;D :D ;D :D ;D :D

Only joking!

You'll want a poll next  ::)  ;D

I
I brought it back! you can see it in the lobby.

I agree, anything that dosn't involve food or sex should go on the 'off topic' thread

I know, hence the attempt at a joke

Nice Avarar Robert. Where you get that?

His face set on fire and someone put it out with a shovel

Okay. I'm a little bit freaked out by robert and his floating head.  :-\ :-\ :-\

I proud of it and it's an improvement on the real thing

TK, I believe the blonde forums need restucturing urgently mate. People I have spoken who have given up reading here, are put off the boards due to the sheer intimidating amount of posts to keep up with, especially the new recruits. For the current level of traffic I would really reccommend the following categories:

   

• General Discussion
• Poker Discussion
• Live Updates

There's no need for any more just now - keep it really simple for the moment. This might not strike you immediately as enough, but for the current traffic levels it would be just about right to maintain an optimum level of activity. Assign a set of moderators to each category. And of course, as the site becomes even more popular this can be reassessed.

All best, J. ;)

Agreed. I have friends who after 2 or 3 topics just give up. If you miss a weekend, due to whatever reason, catching up is hellish.

only suggestion i have is another two sections - certainly an off poker one where all the generally funny stuff can be put, and what about a newbie section where they could be introduced, welcomed and ask the sort of questions that they feel uncomfortable asking on a general section- all the basic stuff which to be fair you dont want to read on a normal forum but realise that these questions need answering

Brilliant idea.

guys, I'll mention this to the rest of the team today.

Jammers suggestion sits cnmfy with me. I wonder if we should be brave/stupid & "just do it?...........

The sheer volume of Posts IS a problem to navigate, & Jammer sems to have a "feel" for this subject.