Things You Want Changed

[EliteRetard]

^^This lead to even more suggestions.

Why not allow them and be able to deactivate them in the control panel for other people with poor connection.

Why pay for the others with crap internet connection?

I like this idea, but it should default to off. I figure the people who want embedded videos will have an easier time turning it on than people who don't want it trying to figure out how to turn it off (if they even know they can).

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Cease locking necro posts solely for being necro posts, and lock only when the reviving post is a troll, or truly isn't related enough to the original post. Protect revivals of threads where the new addition is well-thought and enhances the thread.

Edit:

Also, add a Movies, TV shows, Books subforum (Maybe music too? if not a separate one for that)

 

[Jaskalas]

I'm in the "quit making so many sub-forums" crowd. We don't need to make OT even more boring than it already is. Keep talking sports there, and everything else. We don't need to fragment things even further... our community isn't strong enough on any of these topics to support it.

This could be resolved if the forum software allowed you to view the entire "Social" subforum Category. I mean we could be empowered to make this choice for ourselves, and I'm sure a lot of viewers would flip back and forth between crowded categories and individual forums.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Personally, I don't get the objections to all the "sub" forums. Is it because users want to randomly browse all of the different forums and feel that there are too many? Surely, nobody really browses forums when they can use the "New Posts" link.

As to the objection that this is a tech site... It's not. Anandtech is a tech site. This is just a user forum. Frankly, there are better and much more active tech forums for pretty much any technical area discussed here. I'll bet the OT stuff accounts for at least 3/4 of the traffic in these forums.

 

[Anubis]

has this turned into another "Ban all those that don't like shit" threads like the last one yet?

 

[EliteRetard]

I also agree with making the sub forum sidebar an option, as well as allowing it to follow down the page as you scroll. A simple min/max button could be used, perhaps in the bar with the quick links etc so it's easy to find. Or maybe it turns into a small button that fits in the notch under the "view first unread" and still slides down the page like when expanded (this way you could open/close it at any time easily).

 

[EliteRetard]

Personally, I don't get the objections to all the "sub" forums. Is it because users want to randomly browse all of the different forums and feel that there are too many? Surely, nobody really browses forums when they can use the "New Posts" link.

As to the objection that this is a tech site... It's not. Anandtech is a tech site. This is just a user forum. Frankly, there are better and much more active tech forums for pretty much any technical area discussed here. I'll bet the OT stuff accounts for at least 3/4 of the traffic in these forums.

I always browse the forum and never use the new post link. That said I don't think we need to eliminate all the sub forums...but combining a few does have benefits. As somebody else said it reduces post confusion and increases traffic to less visited sub forums.

I think a hybrid solution like my tag suggestion would be a good option. We can still have several sub forums, but combine some of them with a simple and obvious sorting solution. Less clutter, less confusion, more traffic, more views, and more answers.

I started with some hardware sub topic suggestions, but here's another:

Why not combine the OS sub forums...Mac, *nix, and Windows could all go in one sub forum with a simple tag when you create a thread. People who enter the OS sub forum would see all the flavors at once. If any user wishes, they can simply sort for one of the three tags and only see threads for the OS they selected (and possibly threads with no tags).

I think many people who use Mac, also have some experience with Windows or *nix, and *nix users tend to have experience with one of the other OS's as well. In this way they could come to a single sub forum to ask or answer questions where they can. And if there happened to be a cross OS question or whatever it can simply go in without a tag and no confusion where to ask.

 

[Red Squirrel]

(in no particular priority order)

1: Allow image sigs/bigger sigs, but still restrict the height so it does not go out of control, ex: don't allow images more than 160px high. Maybe add an option to disable images in sigs or sigs altogether, for those who don't want to see them.

2: I second the maintenance stuff, it's silly and really not needed, whatever goes on during that time, there's got to be a better way of doing it. If there really is not a way around it, make it at another time, like Monday or Tuesday at 3am or something. Oh I just realized that's already being worked on, awesome!

3: Don't allow personal attacks. Things often get out of hand where everybody decides to jump on one person and attack them. I see it happen all the time especially in off topic. Maybe only allow it in P&N where it's expected.

4: I second idea for embeded videos, just don't make them auto play!

5: There are certain rules that seem a bit unneeded such as no necros, no reposts (or at least, pick one, having both rules is silly). Parody threads I don't really see a problem with, sometimes they're just stupid or silly but they don't harm anyone and are sometimes funny.

6: I second less sub forums, or perhaps some reorganization.

Just a few ideas:

Combine:
CPUs
Motherboards
Video Cards
Memory
Power supplies
Cases
Periperals
into: General Hardware

Or maybe a bit less aggressive, only combine CPUs, Motherboards and Ram into one category.

Combine Home Theatre PCs and SFF, Notebooks, perhaps?

For software, I find it's kind of a mess, maybe have the following sub forums:
General Software
Linux Software and OSes
Windows Software and OSes
Apple Software and OSes

then everything programming and below is probably fine.

Maybe combine security and networking?

Combine highly technical with OT, maybe?


On the other hand, people probably have different views and it is probably hard to agree on a structure so may be easier to just leave it as is as everyone is used to it.

7: Add a shout/nef box. Though not sure how smart it is for a forum this size, but just an idea.

8: Unban Theflyingpig

 

[JEDIYoda]

More lifers need to have directions to the Lifer Restrooms......

 

[JEDIYoda]

8: Unban Theflyingpig

I agree!!! Just make it so what ever he posts is invisible to others...

 

[Gillbot]

More lifers need to have directions to the Lifer Restrooms......

You really dont want to go in there.

 

[HOSED]

I certainly have my share of violations and shudder when I get a PM. But I always try to avoid foul language. I feel POINTS CAN BE $%#%& made without the use of words that are generally considered curses or dirty. I will not do any example lists here.

 

[GarfieldtheCat]

Just delete outright P&N. Anandtech is a tech website and forum, and allowing all the racism and other bigotry on these forums is just sad.

I know it probably is too big a job to moderate it into some sort of decency, so just close it outright. It won't be missed and doesn't effect the mission of Anandtech.

 

[Thebobo]

Just delete outright P&N. Anandtech is a tech website and forum, and allowing all the racism and other bigotry on these forums is just sad.

I know it probably is too big a job to moderate it into some sort of decency, so just close it outright. It won't be missed and doesn't effect the mission of Anandtech.

There is already a "Decent" P&N. Why would you want to deny folks who enjoy P&N the opportunity to have some fun. Its Simple if you dont like it then don't visit it, that way you cant be offended or outraged by whatever.

 

[shortylickens]

FREEDOM!!!

Or not.

 

[shortylickens]

I'm in the "quit making so many sub-forums" crowd. We don't need to make OT even more boring than it already is. Keep talking sports there, and everything else. We don't need to fragment things even further... our community isn't strong enough on any of these topics to support it.

The main reason for splitting things off from OT is that assholes would deliberately troll serious threads.

Maybe we can have a true off topic forum and then something else for all the other sub forums.

"Serious Discussions" ?

 

[dullard]

Personally, I don't get the objections to all the "sub" forums. Is it because users want to randomly browse all of the different forums and feel that there are too many? Surely, nobody really browses forums when they can use the "New Posts" link.

Honestly, I never saw the New Posts link. I'll use it now. It is buried amongst items that I just skip past. I mean "User CP" is poorly named and duplicates functionality elsewhere, few people ever read the "FAQ", the "Community" never really developed, the "Calendar" is disabled, "Search" barely functions, and I have little need for the "Log Out" (I either don't log in if on a public computer or stay logged in at home). So, I just skipped past that bar. "New Posts" should be made more prominent.

Other than "New Posts" the only real useful part of that bar is "Subscribed threads" in "Quick Links". The "Subscribed threads" takes you to all of your posts to see if anyone responded. But the idea of clicking multiple times to get a "Quick Link" does seem a bit backwards. The quick links should be quickly visible instead of being buried.

That said, "New Posts" doesn't quite do what I would like. A few subforums is a good thing. You are new to Anandtech, but I recall the good old days of just a small number of forums, each thriving with posts unique to that forum. I really don't want to see ALL posts. But I would love to see all posts in "Hardware and Technology" in one spot or all posts in "Social" in one spot.

A good compromise, as someone mentioned above, would be just to make the main categories like "Software" clickable to show everything in all of the sub-forums within that category.

 

[Gerry Rzeppa]

Grant the author of each thread sole responsibility for moderating it. This would eliminate the need for "professional" moderators, and would allow each thread to develop it's own "flavor" based on the personality and goals of the individual who started the thread -- and the audience his topics and style of moderation would naturally attract. The site would thus become more diverse and more complete, attracting even more participants. AnandTech would, of course, reserve the right to remove offensive threads in their entirety, but would be freed from the micro-management of each individual thread.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Honestly, I never saw the New Posts link. I'll use it now. It is buried amongst items that I just skip past. I mean "User CP" is poorly named and duplicates functionality elsewhere

Short for "User Control Panel." Visit it just once and then you should know it. Also keep in mind that many other forums run vBulletin, so many people will know it from frequenting other sites. I don't really see what other functionality it duplicates.

Other than "New Posts" the only real useful part of that bar is "Subscribed threads" in "Quick Links". The "Subscribed threads" takes you to all of your posts to see if anyone responded. But the idea of clicking multiple times to get a "Quick Link" does seem a bit backwards. The quick links should be quickly visible instead of being buried.

Note that "User CP" takes you directly to the most recent activity in "Subscribed Threads".

But I would love to see all posts in "Hardware and Technology" in one spot or all posts in "Social" in one spot.

A good compromise, as someone mentioned above, would be just to make the main categories like "Software" clickable to show everything in all of the sub-forums within that category.

Some forum software works like that. I'm not that familiar with vBulletin's options, but perhaps it's possible to configure it to do the same. Frankly, I always find that organization to be somewhat confusing. The current one is more straightforward.

 

[Gerry Rzeppa]

A wysisyg post editor would also be nice. This edit-here-preview-there-make-corrections-back-here design is not very convenient.

 

[Chaotic42]

It's not a terribly important thing, but... the ability for forum users to pick from different vBulletin themes (colors, etc) would be pretty neat.



While I certainly wouldn't mind having more emoticons, animated emoticons are pretty tacky and should be kept to a minimum IMO.

I agree with both of these and I'm against embedded videos and video links.

 

[SickBeast]

jpishgar I sent you a PM seeing as people clearly do not appreciate honest feedback out in the open. I do have some useful ideas for the forum.

I wouldn't worry about the interface and stuff like that. There are much deeper issues that need to be addressed. The interface here is dated but it's clean and it works well.

I do hope that you consider my PM. Like I said, I have been here a long time, pretty much since the beginning.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Stop with all the useless sub-forums. Virtually no one posts in many forums, meaning virtually no one browses them, meaning the few posts that do go there just languish often unread. Plus it is really hard to determine the proper place to post. If your video card is not working on a motherboard in Windows 7 is this a post for "Video Cards and Graphics", "Motherboards", "Computer Help", "General Hardware", or "Operating Systems"?

I would look back over the last few months and eliminate any sub-forum with fewer than an average of 5 new threads/day. Merge them into forums with actual traffic so users get their questions answered and their thoughts seen.

For example, when I click on Power Supplies, I get on the first page posts that are 1 month old (that doesn't count the 6 stickies). That sub-forum just isn't used. Same goes for "Cases and Cooling" and "Peripherals" which all really belong in "General Hardware".

For example, what is the difference between SFF and HTPC? They are essentially one and the same with just a slight tweak in usage.

For example, the "*nix Software" sub-forum only shows 19 threads TOTAL in the last month.

Deleting the useless sub-forums would really help with making the site more clean, give more users more threads to view without having to click on dozens of pages, and give more visibility to new users who put posts in unused sub-forums then quit the site disappointed. And for the dedicated long-term posters, it would help us from loading a page 6 hours later and seeing nothing new (boring). I cut back my posting about 95% when all these sub-forums popped up since it is too boring to see nothing new and too tedious to click on 20 forums that might interest me.

I absolutely agree with this. The various sub forums such as Home and Garden sound nice in concept, but it just results in less views, less posts, less interaction. Off Topic is vibrant and creating the various sub forums just takes away from that while resulting in less views on the posts that do go in the sub forums. Just have OT, P&N, and maybe the Discussion Club and call it a day. And like dullard said, the same issues with the tech forums.

Simple is better.

 

[Ken g6]

A wysisyg post editor would also be nice. This edit-here-preview-there-make-corrections-back-here design is not very convenient.

Already exists. Go here, scroll to near the bottom, and select the Enhanced Interface from "Message Editor Interface".

 

[norseamd]

Also, add a Movies, TV shows, Books subforum (Maybe music too? if not a separate one for that)

That is what the entertainment and media forum would include and also other forms of entertainment like memes and other web culture.