Homepage of this forum (boards.ie)

Adviser

No offence meant, but the front page of this site (www.boards.ie) is a mess! I would like to suggest you use a Content Management System (CMS) aka portal.

grimloch

Post over here stuff like that.

Welcome to Boards.

Adviser

This forum is so big! It'll take me a bit to find everything.....

zAbbo

CMS or Portal, super idea.

Any more major changes you'd like to implement, or are you waiting until you are here more than 5mins?

Sparky

well make sure you enjoy it there are a lot of areas here

CuLT

bazH wrote:

CMS or Portal, super idea.

Any more major changes you'd like to implement, or are you waiting until you are here more than 5mins?

seconded.

Sparky

yeah atleast loose your noob status before you start making suggestions.

grimloch

He's gone now. Bullies.

Talliesin

Maybe he went to google and found out what a CMS is and what a portal is.

Mutant_Fruit

CMS
Why would we need one of those?

Adviser

Actually I probably know much more than you do about them. I own multiple sites and admin a few aswell. I was offering my opinion about the boards, but it seems I have to gain some sort of status before I can post my opinion. A CMS or Portal is easy to install. You can get VBportal from vbulletin.org for free. Personally I don't us it. There are much better portals available, free of charge of course.

I was simply suggesting that if this site had a CMS it's make it easier to direct users to news e.t.c...

All you have as the homepage is latest posts?

Talliesin wrote:

Maybe he went to google and found out what a CMS is and what a portal is.

Adviser

Wrong CMS you got thier bud!

Click Me

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

CMS
Why would we need one of those?

danniemcq

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

CMS
Why would we need one of those?

haha!

Mutant_Fruit

Adviser wrote:

Wrong CMS you got thier bud!

Click Me

Yeah, i know. I was taking the pi$$ I know nothing about CMS's or Portals. i prefer to poke fun at em

danniemcq

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Yeah, i know. I was taking the pi$$ I know nothing about CMS's or Portals. i prefer to poke fun at em

hee hee poke poke. POKE HIM FRANK!

Rollo Tamasi

I don't understand the need for a cms especially when vBulletin can manage its own content and is all automated by the users anyway. If boards wanted to intergrate the Forum with a CMS then they would probably have to splash the cash to remaster something that isn't nessecarily needed. And what would a CMS do for boards anyway? The navigation is simple (although the tacky animation at the homepage do it no favours)
VBulletin is an easily recoignised and easy to use Forum application, if you have a problem using it you must have more problems than your letting on.

Capt'n Midnight

Adviser wrote:

I was simply suggesting that if this site had a CMS it's make it easier to direct users to news e.t.c...

All you have as the homepage is latest posts?

Here is the news - Your post was number 3,052,252

Adviser

Your missing the point. The first page of any site is the most important. Would you not like to goto this site and see a portal page with all the latest news, Poll's, downloads e.t.c nicely laid out?? probably not, because you don't seem to see how it would benifit. I didn't say vbulletin didn't manage its own content. What forum doesn't? All ya have to do is add a few categories & forums, post a few subjects and the members do the rest!

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

I don't understand the need for a cms especially when vBulletin can manage its own content and is all automated by the users anyway.

Anyone with a bit of sense can intergrate a forum with a CMS. All you do is upload the files to the specified directory on the server. The perform some edits. You don't have to do any code. It's all supplied with the CMS. copy and paste is all ya need! It will show up in the Admin CP with the rest of the VB options

Here is how it looks in the admin cp

If boards wanted to intergrate the Forum with a CMS then they would probably have to splash the cash to remaster something that isn't nessecarily needed.

I've explained what a CMS would do for the forums. True the navigation is simple, but to who?? not everyone is as computer literate as ourselves! I wouldn't worry about the graphic's there are a few skins to chose from....
I didn't say vbulletin wasn't easly recognised or a hard forum to use, did I?? The software is easy enough to use. It's the way the content is organised within it. Not by vbulletin, but by the people who set the forum up! Im talking about all forums in general here. Not just boards.ie

Lastly, I don't have any problems using it, and im not "letting on" Instead of taking my opinion into account, I get criticised. Do opinions not count on this board??? Isn't it the users that make a forum what it is? after all there wouldn't be one without them!

If I had have posted this in the feedback section would it have made a difference? would my feedback be taken seriously?? I doubt it.....

Im not here to start sh*t, just for the "discussion"

And what would a CMS do for boards anyway? The navigation is simple (although the tacky animation at the homepage do it no favours)
VBulletin is an easily recoignised and easy to use Forum application, if you have a problem using it you must have more problems than your letting on.

Chalk

what content does boards have besides posts?

the_syco

Adviser wrote:

Would you not like to goto this site and see a portal page with all the latest news, Poll's, downloads e.t.c nicely laid out??

Of which thread? Alot of people only visit certain forums, and not others. Thus the recent posts thing is perfect.

Adviser wrote:

Actually I probably know much more than you do about them. I own multiple sites and admin a few aswell. I was offering my opinion about the boards, but it seems I have to gain some sort of status before I can post my opinion.

Firstly, you say that you know more than us, your sites are better than this, just as you come on. Thus you get a status of a newbie who thinks that whatever site he visited for the last few months is somehow better than this one.

Secondly, you don't give any examples (like the sites you made), so how are we to know? Seriosly, how? If you want to get someone to take notice of what you're saying, then please give examples.

Adviser

The news of a portal is pulled via a thread id. You can add what you wish. Recent posts also appear on the portal. One of the portals im using is VBadvanced you can see what it looks like at the link. Its easly customised too...

the_syco wrote:

Of which thread? Alot of people only visit certain forums, and not others. Thus the recent posts thing is perfect.

My knowledge was questioned. I only said I probably knew more than the single member that questioned me. I have never said my sites are better. can you quote this for me?? I never said any sites are better than this one! I actually quite like it here. I never once said this site is rubbish and will continue to be unless you get a CMS! I never even said you have to get a CMS! I simply suggested that one may be of help.

Firstly, you say that you know more than us, your sites are better than this, just as you come on. Thus you get a status of a newbie who thinks that whatever site he visited for the last few months is somehow better than this one.

Should I have to? I have nothing to prove! I have given an example link of 2 different portals. VBadvanced is in this post. VBportal is in another in this thread...

Secondly, you don't give any examples (like the sites you made), so how are we to know? Seriosly, how? If you want to get someone to take notice of what you're saying, then please give examples.

Im enjoing this! I love a good debate!! More smilies would be good too!! j/k

WizZard

The Feedback forum is where the admins look for people to make suggestions for the site. How on earth can you even think of being taken seriously with your 'advice' when you can't even follow simple advice yourself. This is the wrong place for this thread.

Either PM a mod of Computers to get it moved, or post your advice in the Feedback forum.
Here is a handy link so you don't have to do too much to get there!

For the record and FYI (etc) that vBAdvanced site is difficult to look at. Very ugly and the newest threads section is too small, and too far out of the way for a site like this whose main content is user posts.

axer

Chalk wrote:

what content does boards have besides posts?

Exactly.

A CMS would not be needed on this type of website. It a group of forums not a news site or a community information site.

Chalk

axer wrote:

Exactly.

A CMS would not be needed on this type of website. It a group of forums not a news site or a community information site.

indeed,
i dont think this chap even knows what boards is,
were not a site based around an app or a game / sport or anything else.

its just an irish comunity.

since this is obviously where this is going,
how much money do you want us to give you to add this feature to our cmmunity?

jaggeh

adviser i think you are missing the point, boards.ie is huge.
we dont need your new fangled shiney bits to slow us down, weve had them, we got rid of them. the way it is now means the first page is fast, to the point and you can access every forum from it.

thats all we need.

Inspector Gadget

Hmm.

First of all, Adviser, welcome to boards.ie - I hope you enjoy it and benefit from it as much as many of the rest of us do. (Based on the way you spelled that, I'm guessing it's possible you're of American/Canadian descent?)

Second, try to understand where the rest of us are coming from here. Okay, there are some jibes, and a little bit of rib-poking, but what we're getting at is this: if someone came on to one of the sites you managed, with a nick that suggested that this person felt they had some form of self-perceived intellectual or wisdom-based superiority over the other users of the system (or perhaps people in general), who (not long after signing up for an account) reinforces this conviction by suggesting that the design of your existing site is somehow flawed, lacking, or both, and proposing relatively significant changes to the system you've put in place, having spent a long period of time doing what is (let's face it) mostly relatively thankless work, wouldn't you be a little, erm, irked?

Another thing to bear in mind here is that (as others have pointed out) most of the content on the system is _already_ managed - by vBulletin. Also, you have to remember that the sheer volume of throughput on a site like boards.ie does quite a lot to limit how much information you mine from the database and how much effort you go to present that data on any given page, in particular the home page (you may find this interesting, even if it is a little bit out of date). Suffice it to say that many functionality tweaks have been tried (including, I'm sure, some of the features that your suggested approach would provide), some have stayed, some have been rejected, and this has been for many reasons; most of it boils down to how much the average user gets out of it compared to the extra load it puts on the system. Anyway, I'll shut up now

Gadget.

Adviser

Hehehe words of wisdom there Gadget!

I have taken no offence from any of this and neither should anyone else!

I have made my "grand entrance". On a board this size it's nice to make an impact within a few posts, good or bad! Over time people can decide what you are, rather than base it on first impressions.

The amount of replies to this thread shows that the discussion is good!

I've said why I think may or may not benifit the board. To be honest I don't really care if it was implemented of not! All boards are different, thats what makes them special.

I had been viewing the boards for a while before I decided to register. I just wanted to poke a little fun at ya's. To be completly honest im surprised I wasn't banned, or criticised by more members than what I was.

To take on the task of registering at a board with 40,000+ members and tell them how to run it, in a intelligent way was just insane.

But hey, I got the entrance I wanted! Make of me what you wish from here on in....

WizZard

Gadget, very well worded reply.

I wish to subscribe to your newsletter!

dearg_doom

bazH wrote:

CMS or Portal, super idea.

Any more major changes you'd like to implement, or are you waiting until you are here more than 5mins?

Oooh.. handbags!


He has a point though, this place is soo big, covering such a huge number of forums it is quite intimidating for n00bs.

But that is one of the things that makes here so unique imho, it really is an Irish forum for (and by) Irish people and it has grown in such an Irish way (ie. overcomplicatedly!).

In a perfect world, I'd prefer a smaller number of broader-topic fora and the old front page back but this is how the majority prefer it, so meh. Oh and less of that txtspk ****e:)

But on the whole, Boardsie rox!!1 I'd give it a pint/10.

tomED

eeerrrrmmmm..... yeah.....

Welcome to boards.ie Adviser.... and I'm probably the first person here to agree with you.... The new homepage IS a mess...

However me, and I guess like everyone else on this forum, know exactly where we want to go - we tend to bypass the homepage and go right to the topics we like.

In most cases the homepage is the most important page of the site - but it's just not the case for boards.ie - I'm guessing, and I'm sure the mods can help us out here, but I reckon the homepage is probably one of the lesser used pages on this website.

A CMS would be not beneficial for these boards either as - as said before there is no other content really!

my 2 cents!

WizZard

Most suggestions went here at the time.

Rollo Tamasi

tomED wrote:

eeerrrrmmmm..... yeah.....

Welcome to boards.ie Adviser.... and I'm probably the first person here to agree with you.... The new homepage IS a mess...

However me, and I guess like everyone else on this forum, know exactly where we want to go - we tend to bypass the homepage and go right to the topics we like.

In most cases the homepage is the most important page of the site - but it's just not the case for boards.ie - I'm guessing, and I'm sure the mods can help us out here, but I reckon the homepage is probably one of the lesser used pages on this website.

A CMS would be not beneficial for these boards either as - as said before there is no other content really!

my 2 cents!

I agree ^

The homepage is as basic as it gets, but what does it need? What could make it better...
Flashy lights?
Go Faster Stickers?
Alloys?

I spend about 5 seconds on the homepage and thats just deciding what forum to visit first.

Adviser, there are better ways than this to make an entrance onto a Forum. Do you think boards is going to make you famous or something? Do what every one else does and post replys and start threads that contain genuine discussions and not just fabricated comments so you can feel more important than any other newbie with less than 10 comments. Things take time. Be a bit patient.

Adviser

I know that, but I wanted this one to be special! I've went the normal way about things to many times!!

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

Adviser, there are better ways than this to make an entrance onto a Forum. Do you think boards is going to make you famous or something? Do what every one else does and post replys and start threads that contain genuine discussions and not just fabricated comments so you can feel more important than any other newbie with less than 10 comments. Things take time. Be a bit patient.

Mutant_Fruit

Personally, i can count the number of times i viewed the homepage in the last 6 months on the fingers of one hand. I got my regular forums bookmarked, and i navigate to the rest of em from there.

Most of those times i've viewed it have been since this thread started

CuLT

The only people who aren't noobs on boards.ie are those who registered in 1998.

Imagine what sort of a reaction you'd recieve if on your first visit to Slashdot if you started telling them how to make their site better...

To be completly honest im surprised I wasn't banned, or criticised by more members than what I was.

You'll find that boards.ie tends to lean towards ridicule rather than banning.

Anyway, Ireland is like one big sport in itself, of which boards.ie is the Internet fan forum. hence why something similar in other countries has never - to my knowledge (not that I've actually looked into it) - taken off quite the way this did.

jaggeh

some of us have been around that long but have since lost our old accounts CulT

Adviser

Im from Ireland too, to be honest I cant even remember how i found this place. I just lurked for a few months before I registered......

Hagar

CuLT wrote:

You'll find that boards.ie tends to lean towards ridicule rather than banning.

Good thinking. Ridicule him first, then ban him.

Hobbes

Adviser wrote:

Actually I probably know much more than you do about them. I own multiple sites and admin a few aswell. I was offering my opinion about the boards, but it seems I have to gain some sort of status before I can post my opinion. A CMS or Portal is easy to install. You can get VBportal from vbulletin.org for free. Personally I don't us it. There are much better portals available, free of charge of course.

I was simply suggesting that if this site had a CMS it's make it easier to direct users to news e.t.c...

All you have as the homepage is latest posts?

Erm, having worked on portals for a few years now all I can say is.. wtf? o_O

Hobbes

Oh and I say wtf because you don't get it. It already has a portal of sorts. "UserCP". Has all the functions I require. The front page is generally for newbies.

CuLT

Hagar wrote:

Good thinking. Ridicule him first, then ban him.

Now, now, we're not SomethingAwful

Rollo Tamasi

CuLT wrote:

The only people who aren't noobs on boards.ie are those who registered in 1998.

Thats a bit harsh CuLT. What are your reasons for thinking that the thousands of users post 1998 are noobs? Did you have a bad experience with all those individuals! :eek: lol

Talliesin

Incidentally, all but one of the admins worked for a company that produced a CMS, so I think they're aware of the concept.

CuLT

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

Thats a bit harsh CuLT. What are your reasons for thinking that the thousands of users post 1998 are noobs? Did you have a bad experience with all those individuals! :eek: lol

Yes, I am a bitter, twisted old man whose only joy in life is in causing suffering to others.


Actually, if you notice, I registered in 2001, thus including myself in the noob category.
Oh, and ecksor.

the_syco

Thought for today: someone visits boards. The first thing they see is a collection of threads, ranging from planting a tree, to modding a car, to fixing a PC, to last nights goal of the match.

They don't see one thing, they see many. Its cluttered, but its the only way a new person will have any idea what goes on.

I usually spend a couple of seconds on the homepage, before I click Battelfield, Games, Computers, FS Computer Hardware, or maybe even After Hours.

To truely get the scale of things, I'll tell you a story of the last boards beers. I met a well known mod. Except, I didn't know him. Why? Because he modded some weird forum, and never visted anywhere else, so our paths never crossed.

Basiclly, there's so many forums, some people have never crossed paths with others.

Thus the recent posts will allow that. Upon going to the homepage, they may see a topic of intrest, in a forum that they didn't know existed (maybe a new forum), and expand their forum intrest.

AdMMM

The homepage is fine. That Dropdown menu is all you'll ever need. I would even go as far to say that it's fantastic. Also you have the ability to filter out forums on the homepage, an ability that I learned only now because boards.ie/vbulletin has been my homepage for the past 2 years and I never saw the homepage

the_syco

|.Murderer.| wrote:

now because boards.ie/vbulletin has been my homepage for the past 2 years and I never saw the homepage

Eh, I though "www.boards.ie" is the homepage... unless there is some super-secret-ninja-style "homepage"?

Rollo Tamasi

the_syco wrote:

To truely get the scale of things, I'll tell you a story of the last boards beers. I met a well known mod. Except, I didn't know him. Why? Because he modded some weird forum, and never visted anywhere else, so our paths never crossed.

To tell you the truth Syco i'm not all that impressed with that story. Where's the climax the punchline. It gets fairly predicateble near the end and is only 4 sentences long, not much of a story at all i would even venture to add. I certainly wont be reading it again or recommending it to any of my noob friends. Have you smokin the good sh t!







(a ninja forum...that would be wicked)

Ciaran500

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

(a ninja forum...that would be wicked)

http://www.boards.ie/wiki/index.php/Boards_Ninjas

Rollo Tamasi

wicked!