Improving SecretLeeds

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Croggy1
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Post by Croggy1 »

chameleon wrote: Croggy1 wrote: In my experience using and moderating forums (fora?) I find personal messaging a very useful tool to correspond with users. For example, a pm can be sent letting them know why a post has been deleted, without having to have a big 'on site' discussion/argument about it.As for "pm'd you" "ok, thanks" type posts, I wouldn't think you would get many on this type of forum, and if they are deleted by the mods, people should soon get the hint not to do it. Finger's aching with callouses already matey Lol, I didn't mean to suggest you had to correspond with every poster, just the troublesome ones, hehe.

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chameleon
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Post by chameleon »

LS1 wrote: chameleon is emial a new way to make contact (he he just kidding!) Oh! surprised you think so Lee, I'll tell you all about it two weeks Friday if you like - you'll find it absolutely facinating, honest! ps - you'll need one of them 'puter thingamibobles

Phill_dvsn
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Post by Phill_dvsn »

Another good idea I've seen on some forums is to split very long threads to make them manageable, easy to read, and find things at a later date. Threads like the Skulls have 107 pageshttp://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx ... D=1051Lost pubs has 108http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=300Not all topics get so big of course, but the ones that do are very difficult to follow for new comers, or find things at a later date.I've seen these long threads closed after 25-30 pages. The moderator closes the threads and starts a new thread off. The threads are listed Part 1, 2,3,4, 5 e.t.c.Links are added to the new thread on the closed thread, and relevant tags and keywords are added to help find things at a later date. I have to say it does make things so much easier to read and follow.    
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dsco
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Post by dsco »

Quite agree with the above points - I think the site generally is so big that it can be daunting and overwhelming for new users. Was just talking to a friend who used to use the site back when it first started but drifted away - he came back on today after me going on about it recently, but there's so much on here now that he didn't know where to begin. He ended up looking through the sites listed in the Useful Links section instead!A lot of Phill's suggestions would really help with these issues, but I have a couple of other ideas that might go some way to resolve this:i) a "Best of" compilation... "Now That's What I Call SecretLeeds" hehe Basically an intro/summary page aimed at newcomers, with a list of the most interesting/popular threads, each with a synopsis and some pics to get you started. If we could clean up threads to the extent that the major ones all had an intro in one of the first posts, that would be really useful. We could even have a rolling gallery of top hits on the homepage. ii) a separate "wiki" (as in "Wiki"-pedia) section of the site, "SecretLeeds Almanac" or whatever, where worthy threads can be properly edited, cleaned up and put into an article format. (For more information about wikis see here). Obviously it would have community editing in the wiki tradition. The discussion thread and the related article would have to have clear links to each other, but would serve separate purposes - one would enable the community to do the investigating and factfinding, and the other would be written up after a good amount of data has been gathered and the community/mods deemed it worthy of "wiki-ing" (though as with Wikipedia, the articles would continue to evolve and grow over time). It would enable some coherence to be given to each subject, with links of relevant images, evidence, maps, etc to support (God who knows, we could even use a footnote referencing system, like, y'know - academics and stuff!)The first idea would be quite easy to achieve (and Phill's suggestions would lay a great foundation to do so); the second would require a bit more thought and resources but would be entirely do-able, certainly technically speaking. The legwork done on writing up threads in (i) would also feed into (ii).Am I going too far? Just seems to me that whilst a discussion forum is perfect for interested members to come together in an informal "research group", finding and sharing the information, debating the issues, exploring the different documents - it isn't the right way to organise that information in a way that can be easily accessed by others. That's a wiki.    
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BarFly
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Post by BarFly »

I think the wiki is an excellent idea. There are a lot of threads on here I dip in and out of but they're just too long to read in one go. I'm sure many people feel like that when they come across this site.

munki
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Post by munki »

Agreed with the wiki idea definitely - I think that there is some real quality information on here now which is probably difficult to find for all but the most dedicated reader, and which needs to be refined. I think this would also lead on to some good ideas for future projects which might take SL in different directions (exhibitions, a publication... that kind of thing).
'Are we surprised that men perish, when monuments themselves decay? For death comes even to stones and the names they bear.' - Ausonius.

jim
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Post by jim »

I'm afraid I find the new "Street Plan" background very distracting in use, and much preferred the site without it.Could I also ask if it is possible to prevent posts making the content wider than the displayed page? Having to "wind" text from side to side for every line is a pain in the........fingers. (cleaned up version) If this feature could be replaced with an "enlarge" option for appropriate pictures I would regard it as a serious improvement.    

WiggyDiggy
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Post by WiggyDiggy »

I like the idea of a wiki, what would we call it?Leodipedia? Wikileeds?Anymore suggestions lol

dsco
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Post by dsco »

I'll bear that in mind Jim - me mam doesn't like the new background either It was only a temporary measure to be honest, I'll see what I can do to tone it down a bit. It's a big file as well, which slows down the first load of the site.@munki - yes exactly, books, exhibitions, all that good stuff, would be also made radically easier by the development of a wiki. with GPS and mapping functions too. On which note I was contacted recently about helping to produce a book, called "Leeds Now and Then" or similar, which pairs old photos of Leeds with a new photo of the same location. Which all sounds very "What and Where". Do folk think we should get involved? I've emailed asking for more details, will let you know if I hear anything back. Could be a nice first step into real world publishing!    
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dsco
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Post by dsco »

@Jim - good point about the background resizing for long links/big images by the way, it's dead annoying that. I've no idea where the fix might be to that issue, but I'll put it on the (ever-growing) todo list
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