Thinking of new forums

What about a place for new folk?
It's kinda intimidating that most people on this board are in the thousands of posts. I've been trying to find a place to say Hi and introduce myself... but, maybe I just can't find it.

Anyway. This is as good a time as any...
Hi. My name is Heather. I've lurked here and searched these forums for the past two years. I thank you all for being so helpful.

Recently, I started writing a column in a newspaper. Because of this I'm trying to take a move active role in the tech community.

 

Welcome to MG. We all had to start with our post #1. That is a good idea.

Most 'noobies' start off with "This is my first post, so be easy on me', and then continue on by describing their problem. Some use the Lounge forum.

But a dedicated spot to introduce oneself would help overcome shyness.
Be warned MG becomes addictive, though. Bazza

===

 

thanks Bazza.

Yea... I haven't had a problem that wasn't answered already. (I am incredibly handy with that search button.) Guess that's why I keep coming back.

 

Hello, Heather and welcome to Major Geeks.

A "Introduce Yourself" forum, or sticky is a great idea.

There are quite a few very knowledgeable folks here; and the moderators do a fantastic job of keeping this a pleseant place.

 

Congrats on the Welcome Center MA! I wish it had been a feature when I joined.

 

Well, the Lounge USED to be the place to say Hi for the first time. Your first suggestion and the boss already implemented it. Congratulations!

Don't worry about the post count numbers. That just means that some of us found this place a long time before you did.

Relax and enjoy yourself.

 

Just found this thread and skimmed through most of it. I believe I have read enough of it to be able to post some feelings and observations that I have concerning this topic so here goes:

Abbey- Teresa, you are one of the most kind and loving people that I know. You are also one of the most fair and considerate moderators I know. Don't ever change girl (ok maybe one change, trade Chris in for a better/newer model

Star - You are right about most people not being able to control their emotions/posts enough to be posting on topics such as religion/politics for long periods of time without losing some control. Sometimes no harm is done, most times hurt feelings equates to fractionalizing a board even up to destroying it. Heavily moderated religious/political discussions are the ONLY answer if one wishes to open up this Pandora's Box (I know from experience)

Bazza - Keep posting in the Interesting Web Links forum! I love going there and seeing yours and others posts and eventually the traffic will be there again. It's cyclical you know

Gal - Love the idea of a cooking forum. Bribe MA with some brownies and I'm sure we can get it done!

Compuroruter - Language filters only go so far. There are many tricks that unscrupulous people use to avoid or circumvent these. Besides, who would define the "dirty words"? What is offensive to one culture may not be to another.

There are others here that have made great suggestions as well. That is what is needed here, suggestions to let the owners know what us, the users, wish to see. They will either implement them or not, those implementations will either succeed or fail. Either way, no real harm is done. If a new forum fails, simply remove it and the topics that it contained will be absorbed into a similar forum such as the lounge.

I have moderated message boards for over 5 years now and know the ins and outs of doing so. It is never an easy decision to edit or remove a post by someone on that board but it is a necessary action on certain posts. Of all the boards I've visited, moderated and participated in, Major Geeks has been the most consistent and enjoyable to me (including my own boards). Traffic on message boards are quite cyclical although to graph it and see a pattern would be difficult. My suggestion is simply this, go ahead and make the new Topical Forums M.A. The worst that can happen is it may get a little out of hand at times and if it does simply deal with that issue when it arises. Be careful to not increase the load on the moderators much more than what it currently is without their input on it.

Now, I step off my soapbox and hand the talking stick to the next member in line.

Jack

p.s. - for all those who I listed above (and no, that is not a complete listing of those I admire and respect here). Please send all gratuities (including brownies and money) to my home address, express mail (I hate stale brownies!!).

 

I personaly still think a pda type sub forum would be a good idea.

 

It would be nice if people would read AND REPLY one way or the other, instead of just READ. I guess I'm as guilty as the others. Must try and change. Bazza
PS: thanks for the mention. Baz

===

 

Gal - Love the idea of a cooking forum. Bribe MA with some brownies and I'm sure we can get it done!Please send all gratuities (including brownies and money) to my home address, express mail (I hate stale brownies!!).

I would love to send you some Jack. Even made some Delicious ones yesterday. Alas, you have to wait. I have made those and few other bars and froze them for my daughter's graduation party on the 10th of June. There might be a few crumbs left after that.
Take care

 

Here are my ideas for subforums (overlapping other ideas, of course):

Technology (new concepts and such)
Electronics (gadgets and whatnot, could be merged with Technology)
Arts & Crafts
Cooking
Hobbies
Entertainment (TV, movies, music, etc)
Sports
Auto
(Recent) News
Suggestions (where people can suggest things to improve the forum and/or site, although I don't think it can get much better )
Spam-board? (not garbage, but threads like word games and things like "what are you listening to right now?", could be a forum that doesn't add to your post count)
RPG? (you know, the thread RPGs you've probably seen everywhere, but I don't know how popular this might or might not be)

I suppose we don't exactly have a use for Announcements, but I guess I should throw that out there anyway.

 

Live Chat
Posts are so .... permanent!
<g>
abri

 

How bout the "How to use a computer" forum that I can send people to. You know, little things like why Word makes 29,000 normal.dot copies.

 

Thread #1 - Where to find a typewriter.

 

Yeah LOL!
Like ... Thread #2 ... "How to turn on the computer"
Thread #3 ... "What is a setting"
<g>
abri

 

in my side
computer trick too, something like tweaking the pc for fast performance because there is already the MALWARE section, virus, software
why not Tweaking the PC

 

Hmmmm. I was thinking along other lines. Alot of people (me) come in here initially because of some sort of crisis. Once the crisis has been resolved, (and I speak only for myself), I want to know more about my computer, why I couldn't protect myself in the first place, what this or that term means. When you are visiting a Major Geeks website, the name alone is intimidating enough to scare you away from asking the most basic questions, like, what is tweaking, so you float around aimlessly hoping to absorb something useful and end up in the cooking section which will hopefully benefit someone's stomach even if it does nothing for your computer, or in the politics/religion section where you can work on fine-tuning your argument skills. I can tune out several of the computer forums, because they're too advanced. I've heard of the word tweaking, I have an idea what it means, but like with your "Read this first!" webpage, it would be nice if there was something like that as an orientation point for better understanding what people in the forum are talking about, rather than having to go out and look for all the computer-related stuff first. It's quite possible that I'm hitting the minority as children grow up having gained this knowledge along the way. I'm still in that generation that has to look everything up. Why not a forum for Minor Geeks?
lol
abri ... senior member

 

where not all the same
when a people first touch a pc. does he know what is software?
thats why assisting each other and sharing knowledge is the good thing here

 

We already have that, it's called the Macintosh Forum.

 

i came here not knowing even how to turn mine off! i was terrified of touching anything in case something went wrong. all those 'f' buttons have still never been used. however people quickly realized that i didn't have a clue, and i was given immediate instructions on what to download, how and why. i think it all works just fine the way it is.

 

Hey fellow Geeks, like most of you I need at least one chuckle a day, and have been trying to keep abri's "Joke" thread alive by trying to post a joke every day or so. So I would like to see a "JOKE FORUM" so we could have different type of jokes threads. Hey anybody who plays with these mindless contraptions called computers needs a joke a day Right!!!!

 

Problem with having individual subject forums is they wouldn't get the traffic to make them viable, and it would make the site too complex and messy.

We have the lounge, and it's almost dead.

I suppose we could have a Jokes thread here, or whatever, as a sticky for a while and see how that goes?


The above is just my opinion, and no animals or children were harmed.

 

Can't resist trying but I can't sorry Tim, "Does that mean she thinks your a joke" Sorry Tim I did try to resist!!!!!!!!

 

How to demolish a good idea ... choose a name like "evil" LOLOL

I love your idea. Unfortunately, like with World Cup soccer, when things get really hot, people's tempers flare, however, if there's never any flaring, you don't ever learn how to redirect that energy into becoming a better argue-er. The very fact that some topics cause emotional responses is interesting in itself. It shows strong dedication to something. Exploring why some topics create such strong responses would be an interesting thread in itself, because this emotional dedication to an idea would be along Mr. Pewty's lines, that there are some things worth having wars over. < sorry, Mr. Pewty, I couldn't resist that one ... >

abri

 

oh, p.s.
my wish for a forum area...
a glossary!
a thread that's just a glossary about computers.

abri

 

I like disscussing Religion,politics,foriegn policy, I admit it does get me excited and interested they're a couple of the most important issues in our world,I will never be offended or make personal remarks about someones character because of their choice or opinion, anyone can call me what they want and decide they dont like me for my opinion thats thier problem,that it isnt me,after every heated thread if anything I like other people more for enticing me into the discussion away from games and TV for a while

Emotion and disscussion are two seperate entities to me,if your not prepared to accept you could be wrong or the discussion is becoming too emotionally involving for you,or an opinion offends your belief,leave the thread,your not ready for it

A seperate Forum that breaks down the barrier between rational discussion and emotional attack wouldnt be something I'd be interested in

 

Thanks Halo!
You're an angel!
In terms of new forums, I'm thinking out loud, but I'm happy it led to the glossary link. I'm not at all unhappy with Major Geeks. It's a fabulous website and I wish I had more time to spend roaming all the threads.
abri

 

Breaking this barrier down is not what I was thinking of, rather looking at why some discussions have such strong emotions attached to them, since this is a problem often encountered in both forums and sports.
abri

 

That would be great! That's where I'd look for a glossary.
abri

 

Ofcourse, start a thread then I was commenting on evilvets idea to let discussions to get more heated,they're fine as they are if you ask me,mods do a great job,I wouldnt mind if threads were slightly more strict any comment that relates to someones overall character,life,personality would be deleted,theres just no need for it

 

oh dear... that would put me on the side of evil.
lol
abri

 

Tips and Tricks would be the only one I would vote for.
Most of the rest could use the Lounge.
Keeping all the tips and tricks in one place would be of use to all, IMHO.
Bazza

 

Tips and tricks are a great Idea,one major problem which I'v seen on many other boards is how they are arranged,most dump all the tips and tricks into one forum,each tip and trick has its own thread like in the frequently asked questions forum,this is fine as long as the total amount of T+T are a single page and you can quickly glance over them all for something of relevance but once you start having tens of pages of tips and tricks you'd have to search them all or use the search feature to find what you need,one solution could be having a seperate search feature for the T+T forum without a time limit or auto alphabetical arrangement in the section,either of which I'm not sure is possible with the VB software

T+T sections can end up huge,for the most part would be windows T+T all bunched into 'W' to then find anything in there, this section would then have to be broken down alphabetically THEN 'R' REGISTRY would have to broken down even further alphabetically as it too would be huge

I guess you can see where I'm going...

 

I guess I'm honing in on a question here ... getting closer ... whatever started this forum has kept my mind busy ...

Is there a way, when I hit the search button for all the forums to put in the words "what is" first? or will I simply get a list of everything that has the word "what" in it? I tried the simple search and the advanced for the entry "what is overclocking" and both gave me 11 pages of threads.

There are pages in here which are dedicated to the explanation of a computer word, much more than a glossary, but I don't know how to find them without stumbling upon them.

Could there be a "More Than a Glossary" forum which houses all the links to explanations people have written for "What is a *?

Of course, this is a long ways from cooking. lol

abri

 

oh, and I have one more idea...

there are some occasions where I'd like to respond to a post with lol or ty, but don't want to take up a whole window with it, especially if it's a thread which is closed and can't be commented on. Would it be possible to put a response check box where the quote and post icons are at the bottom of the posts to check either lol or thanks, where the poster could just accumulate thanks and laughs in some numerical way? 192 lol's and 56 ty's

abri

 

oh. and I think there should be a "Gushing" Thread, where hopeless people can express their gratefulness for all the help they've gotten here. Something for the Major Geeks to read before they sleep and dream of tweaks.

 

it will be also okey

things here is going looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnggggggg

 

I'm only new and don't profess to know a lot, but that's why i signed up....

MG already has one of the best forum lounges going and in my short time here, i have managed to learn more than i thought i was capable of (without the usual forum garb on a lot of other sites). But how do you make a great forum better?

From a private's point of view, i love Matacumbie's idea of perhaps adding a tips/tutorials section. This would almost certainly enhance the willingness of newcomers especially, to participate more productively in forum discussion and continue to visit MG, rather than getting their infections cured and disappearing until next time they catch something.

Teach a man to fish and..........

Regards

 

Agree, the indexing of the T+T could become a major problem. You'd have to set them up by Operating system, probably, and then by subsections like Registry, etc.
Another idea down the tubes, I guess. Damn. Bazza

===

 

Flea-market mentality. A little can go a long ways. Would it be worth it to do something like "Tip of the Month" or "A Tip a Day..." or is the administration too difficult?
abri

 

I don't know if this is still on topic, but I've been thinking about orientation and how to get the most out of the forum in the least amount of time. I keep flipping back and forth in my settings between putting the original post to be the first thing I see, or to save time, putting the most recent post first, thereby not knowing what's going on if it's an older thread I haven't looked at before. I thought how nice it would be to have the original post at the top - first, always, no matter what other structure you chose for all the posts after that one.
abri

 

I find I keep looking for the date of the posts, I'm reading. Didn't there used to be a date and time directly on the posts of when they were posted? I respond sometimes to a post, only to realize afterwards that it's already several years old.
abri

 

oops ... had a senior moment ...
I see the date now
abri