User Experiences

[Scythe13]

(17 April 2014, 11:42)Rush2112 Wrote: how bout thumbs up/down instead of a thanks button?

Nah. I get where you're coming from, Facebook styleee. But I'm not a fan of that idea. I'll explain why.

I want people to know I appreciate the post. If loads of people do a thumbs down thing, then my appreciation isn't recognised and the person feels bad. Even though the post might be 100% useless for 95% of people, for that 5% that it really helps, the democracy of emotion would not benefit the poster. Does that make sense? Sounds selfish, but if you appreciated a post, and everyone else put thumbs down, then that person would be discouraged. Granted some people need discouraging, haha, but it's not always condusive to an openly active forum and not neccessarily helpful for newer members.

If someone comes up and says stuff that has no relevence, they get told so...literally. But the ease with which people could anonymously put a thumbs down post could lead down a slippery slope. I think a thumbs up or a thank you would be enough.

Damn, I sound like a hippie, trying to ward off negative vibes now! haha

[Devonian]

I'm not a fan of the thanks or thumbs up/down etc etc

It's all a bit too lovey dovey and for me, it you appreciate something that has been posted, then say so, don't be lazy about it.

Also with the thanks button, I think a lot of people once they see someone has clicked it, then just click it themselves as well without really knowing why thanks have been given.

[Rush2112]

I see your points. I dont like the thanks button much either, for the same reasons S13 doesnt like the thumbs. If you want to avoid making someone feel bad then you have to say thanks to each post and whats the point in that. Also becomes like a club- I'll thank your posts and you thank mine kinda thing.

[Scythe13]

The 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' club would be an issue.

However, I do like the lazy "Thank you" button, because if you're checking on new info via the search feature, you might think there are loads of new comments on a thread, but then find out it's loads of people saying thanks.

In my experience, many people have used the thank you button and said so in the comments too. But I do recognise what you're saying with the "you thanked me so I'll thank you" problem. With that in mind, I think we're mature enough to not fall into that issue.

[Lightspeed]

What I'd like:

Tread Hijacked Smiley

Off Topic Smiley

Tone down the colour scheme as per Beardy Man suggestion

Bring back the Thank you button

[Little Lou]

Sneaking in a last one under the wire...

Just to say I do think the forum's been better lately, which does suggest that a lot of the problems are down to us rather than anything to do with the structure of the forum itself. It's what we make it, isn't it?

But briefly on the main things:

I'm another supporter of the Thanks button. It was really valuable to me as an encouragement to post, because every time I received a 'thanks' it made me feel that posting was worthwhile. Something I'd hesitated over, and thought 'yeah, but everyone knows that, why bother' was actually of use to someone, and that made all the difference.

It was also good to be able to give Thanks. Not as a 'tit for tat', but as at least a way of acknowledging something when I didn't have a single useful thing to add to the discussion. I know we have 'Reputation', but that should be a big thing, a useful way to identify the posters others have found most helpful, and I suspect I've had undeserved Reputation lately when all people meant to say was 'good post'. (You can always take them back, guys. Just give me a negative on this one, and I promise not to really break your legs).

It was also good just to see them. Those lists of 'thanks' were a reminder that this still is a vibrant community, even if not all of us have the time to post that we'd like. It was a way of seeing 'hey, Grumpy Grandpa's still here' and feeling good about the whole experience.

The mod issue is also a good one. Scythe and others are right, and there's been a real problem of discussions moving away from the original post, so that many times I've thought I had something to contribute, but then seen the debate run on for two pages about something else so there was no longer any point. The usual way of dealing with this is for a mod to 'split threads' - ie cut out the off-topic posts and use them to start a new thread - but this is very hard when there's only SD and we're so rubbish at policing ourselves. If we can't have another mod, then maybe SD just needs to read us the riot act so we can tell each other off instead.

News/politics - I too would like to see more of this. Of course it needs to be relevant to prepping, but a good prepper has always got their eye out for where the danger may be coming from or any hints as to how to deal with it. Even if it doesn't affect us directly, I think we can often learn from how other people have dealt with things. We just need to be sufficiently sensible to notice when we're veering right away from the original point to discuss how much we hate America/Russia/Iran/NR/BP instead.*

Articles - I see SD has asked for more of these for the main site, but I'm not actually sure how we contribute them. Do we just PM SD or what? Could it be clearly shown somewhere for Super-Dense Posters like me?

Otherwise, I think it's down to us. I've got a real cheek saying that when I contribute so little, but Scythe and Midnitemo in particular have made a big difference lately, and the rest of us could do so much more.

So thanks for bearing with us, SD, and we await with patience your verdict on our efforts.

Lou

* It's a joke, guys. A JOKE. You know I love you really.

[NorthernRaider]

An awful lot of people on various threads taking the opportunity to express outright dislike and hostility to me and my apparently wasted efforts, I get the message.
NR

[Steve]

(17 April 2014, 20:13)NorthernRaider Wrote: An awful lot of people on various threads taking the opportunity to express outright dislike and hostility to me and my apparently wasted efforts, I get the message.
NR

Then you are getting the wrong message. Most of your posts are genuinely useful, and I for one appreciate the effort you make.

As to improving the forum, then I agree with changing the colour scheme for something bland, and I like the option to thank a member who has made an effort to post something good.

[Scythe13]

(17 April 2014, 20:13)NorthernRaider Wrote: An awful lot of people on various threads taking the opportunity to express outright dislike and hostility to me and my apparently wasted efforts, I get the message.
NR

Personally, I think you have some really useful information, but you dilute it with list after list or a chunk of 'interesting-but-eventually-useless' posts. Sometimes you come out with some real diamonds that stick with me. If you did more like that, I would probably be pretty civil (but not too much, we can't have people thinking we're best mates). Other times, it's another list that I've read before or some info that would help in a pub-quiz. If you put more work on creating high quality posts, you'd POSSIBLY even get a positive rep point from me. Even that post about the story of the guy prepping, that I made into a comedy version (it genuinely was just done as a bit of fun and not to mock your efforts), I thought was really good and I wanted to read more. Yes I would probably have modified it to a silly version for a little fun, but that isn't to take away from your initial post's high quality.