PPXers talking about other stuff

I am one of the few who still believe it can be fixed but I am waiting like the rest of everybody. I miss the old forums. I joined just a couple of weeks before they switched sites. This site is cool in the sense that people can talk about science and join that with whatever is going on in your life. It makes a person feel like he got somebody to talk outside the family and local friends.

Thanks admins and popsci friends.

Brian, I believe Popsci is behind me but may not know what needs to be fixed, and what it'll take. That's cool, though, because we have the resources, so you are all major contributors in helping to point out the major areas that need improving, and we're doing that.

People here feel that the old forums were better, too-- upgrading to the new site gave us some great things that we desperately needed, but the forums admittedly suffered. I'm going to be doing some forums reorganizing and we might switch to a different forums platform (perhaps the old one?) but I want to do make these changes in collaboration with all of you-- getting the community's thoughts on everything as we go. Absolutely all of this will be taken a step at a time.

Thunderstorm-- I'm so glad his community has been a fun place for you to hang out. Make yourself at home here. Glad to have you.

t.

I agree the forum platform needs to be changed back to the VB style.

who doesn't agree with that??!?

I know, I'm such a crowd pleaser.

Yay, mike! my hero!

go to www.ppxchat.com or feel milkweed's infamous wrath! Y'dig?

Everyone here agrees that the old forums were more functional. They were switched out b/c they were ugly. Does anyone know anything about the latest drupal forums? We're operating in Drupal (since last January)... I think it may be possible to plug the old forums platform into our current site, if that's what you want, but do you know of any other platforms that are swank AND functional, or anything about the new Drupal forums?

If, before getting another forums platform in place (like the old one), for which we'll have to wait a little while, we were to reorganize the forums a bit, what do you think the overall forum topics should be?

Could we get all PPX discussion under one banner? Or, could we merge some of the PPX topics so there are fewer of them? I don;t mean the number of threads within the topics (like under PPX general discussion... the # of different threads people start is not capped), but I want to create more forums that are not PPX-specific. I know you all have an interest in science, and sometimes the props get you talking about the science behind stuff. I'd like to get a place for popsci members who don't play ppx to talk about science, and other stuff. I'd like to create some forums for this type of dicussion. I'm thinking out loud here (or, well, thinking while typing), so I'd love your brainstorming powers to contribute. How do you see a popsci.com community structured? Should there be a forum for each of our main categories (i.e. ppx, scitech, environment, etc.) or something even more broad? I'll definitely include a "general community chatter" type of forum... I think that's really fun and useful... but what would you want to see in this?

Thanks!

t

Well, PPX categories are divided basically into the same categories as the site is (except Popsci doesn't have a Web Trends section). So it would be possible to set up the forums according to each of those categories, then for PPX stock threads, have the stock symbol as the subject (as has mostly been done here), along with the PPX icon.

I think, if you are going to try to get more users into the forums, you should add just a tad more functionality. I think it would be very nice if we had some links that would enable us to get back to the forum list or the particular forum we were in without having to hit the back button several times.

Popular Science Forums > PPX Forums > General Chat

Something like that at the top of each page, with each being a link back to either the Popular Science forum, the PPX forum, and the General Chat subforum (or whichever subforum the post being read is located).

Also, it'd be nice not to have to preview my comment before I posted it.

EDIT: I just noticed the link bar. Please disregard that portion of my previous post.

Actually, those links are already there.

BUT, I think they're in a bad spot (they weren't easily noticeable, even to me for quite a while). Put them in a place that everyone can easily find them, definitely NOT above the Popsci.com image (below that ad at the top). By the way, I hate the little bar ads that expand into a big picture or movie. They've had a tendency to lock things up on here.

I also like not having to preview my comment.

i agree with scojac!

Scojac I like that idea-- so would you all help foster some non-ppx conversation according to those categories? I'm wondering, too, if that's too many categories? Forums are best kept simple...

Hey guys,

I know the forums functionality isn't great. We'll improve upon that, but probably with a forums platform change. I'm thinking of re-arranging as I've mentioned first.

I hear you on the previewing thing. It's lame-- I'll see what I can do, but it may just be part and parcel with the platform.

Thanks for your suggestions!

t

Something with the current system that bugs me is that when you click on the (NEW) link to see a new message it only takes you to a new message if it is on the first page. If the new message is several pages in you get the first message in the thread.

Not sure if that is fixable, but worth a mention perhaps.

Agree with Kubie, rather annoying to have to click the next page link...maybe it'd be less annoying if the next link and each page link were at the top of the thread as well as bottom...that way you don't have to scroll all the way down...just a thought.

i like both of yalls ideas
i agree with both of your complaints

Howdy Taylor,

Nice to see we have a new Sheriff in these parts. I
see that you have been cleaning up the place, good job, it
was high time.
What I find annoying about the forums is that I can
get here directly from My Portfolio but the only return
route is through PPX tab and the home page. However, I
can get to Your Profile (which I've used once in the last
year) from under the Welcome Rayman. This is a pain when
you get deep into threads and decide to change your
position on a stock in a hurry. Just change the Your Profile
tab to your Your Portfolio and I'd use the forums more.
I also agree there should be an option to go to the end
of a thread at the top level. It gets to be tedious.

Hey Guys,

Great suggestions! It would be great if we could click through directly to new posts, but I think the forums aren't designed this way. Maybe, though-- I'll definitely look into it. As for the capability for at least clicking to subsequent pages without having to scroll to the bottom of the first page-- that's a good one, and should be easy enough for our developers to implement. I've put a request in.

Rayman, would it be easier if there was a "Your Portfolio" tab next to "your profile"? The redirects in these here parts are totally clumsy, and I want to make them more elegant. Note to all: if you can spell out for me, as Rayman has done, the clicking sequences that suck, and even how you'd like it to work (click here, get here), that speeds the process up significantly.

In this case, though, I want users to use their profiles (more than once a year!) for creating their popsci.com identity (we'll soon have photo and video uploading capabilities and other fun stuff). But I see your point on the portfolio problem. So, would it work to just put the link up there next to the profile one instead of replacing it altogether? Lemme know what you think will work best.

t

Actually, I think having both links would work much better Taylor, especially since there are other people that have accounts besides PPX players. This way, we can get where we want to go most of the time, but other users still can get to their profile easily if they wish to do so.

Taylor,
Adding functionality is not a problem with me. I, like
Ed, Mark and many others think that the wetware fixes are
far more important than the software changes. And I agree
with Kevin that you are awesome and a breath of fresh air.
I for one welcome our new hot female overlord...

Cool, sounds like a consensus on the "Your Profile" and "Your Portfolio" links in the upper left. I'll have to enter the request and see how we'll make it happen. PPX actually exists in a different cyberspace location than popsci.com, which is why some of the redirects and click-through sequences are a little clumsy, but I know it can all get smoothed out.

Rayman-- thanks for the compliments! Good to know you all are happy even though some glitches remain.

FYI-- so sorry about the popup situation these last couple of days. We're getting rid of it (it'll only appear when you exit the site, instead of every time you click on a popsci.com page). I got a couple of emails about it so figured I'd let you all know we're scrapping it. Annoying, and not our style.

Thanks!

Taylor