Is there a way to do this?

I've been talking with guild members about the site and their least favorite part of it is the forums. They're too unfamiliar and people that aren't computer savvy have a hard time figuring things out for themselves that are different than what they are used to. We've tried classic mode, but they still don't seem to like it.

I'm considering switching to phpBB forum software and was wondering if there was a way to convert the forums to phpBB or other forum software? I'm guessing not, but I urge you to consider it so if people have to shut down their sites (for whatever reason, financial, guild collapsing, etc) they can still have a record of the DB and all posts that were made.

--
Followers of Nobility

There are actually plans on implementing a sort of "universal export", but at the moment, it's not really available.

Would you be willing to divulge exactly the complaints your users have against the forums, beyond the complaint that "it's just different"?

I'm always curious about usability issues here, especially with regard to the forums, because they are my baby. The forums have evolved into their way over many years (starting originally as a single forum, with no thread tags, private threads, polls, or anything).

Personally, I hate using any other forums, as they feel like I have to constantly click around to get anywhere.

Here's kind of a wild suggestion, have you tried not using classic mode? Classic mode was originally just a patch to serve as a transition to them using Simple or Advanced filter.

I almost never use anything but [All] on the Simple Filter. There's just not enough posts to warrant having tons of different forums. For a site that garners thousands of posts a day, yeah, having multiple forums makes perfect sense, but for a site that might get at most 20-50 posts a day (not even new topics, just new posts), as a *busy* guild forum garners, I just don't see the need for having so many different forums.

So all that said, what might I ask is the issue your users have? Do they find certain aspects hard to use, and if so, which parts?

--
It's all in the reflexes.

People like/want the organization of having posts in a separate category.

If I'm viewing the main 'Guild only' section, I'm specifically looking for posts pertaining directly to the guild. I don't want to see topics from the joke or politics sections of the board. They don't like the filter options at the top of the board.

Also, the ability to set a second thread tag on a post often makes people think they HAVE to, and posts end up showing up all over the forum, in multiple sections.

While I don't doubt that you are proud of your forum software, you need to remember the forums need to be inviting and familiar to people using them. Needing people to adjust to a different system just to use the guild website both turns people off to using it (it's already hard enough to get people to visit it, other than checking their DKP) and makes it more complicated than it needs to be.

I've forced classic mode on everyone (changing the forum link to forum.php?classic=1) ever since getting the complaints and haven't received many complaints since doing so. However, I think switching to something such as phpBB or vBulletin would get people participating with more frequency and make the forums a more inviting place.

--
Followers of Nobility

Thanks for the detailed response.

I've got some UI changes in the works for the forums to hopefully improve things a bit (including some tweaks to the secondary thread tag options), and hopefully this will help to clear up some of your users' issues.

But as I said, a universal export/import is something in the works.

--
It's all in the reflexes.

Is it possible to disable secondary thread tags as it's a feature often abused by my users based on how we have things split up.

I figure i'll chime in here since its on topic. I've admin'd many a forum from the days of dial up bbs' to the current phpBB and the like and honestly find this forum module the most difficult to work with by far. I think alot of the grumblings are centered on the fact that on most other BB software alot of features and buttons have congregated to a logical location readily identifiable. In this module in both filtered views features and items are in locations not typically thought of. Right off the bat, the new thread link is practically hidden above all the viewing choices as just one example.

Another confusing aspect, but I understand the logic behind it, is the new thread posting in general. Most people are used to coming from a forum where they go to a sub-forum and go to create a new post assuming its going to go in that category and all is done. The whole concept of tagging posts to show up in various sub-forums is a nice feature but at the same time very very confusing to people that are not very adept at forum use.

Another thing that has troubled me as a techy and only now do I have a chance to fix it is with the filtered view blowing out the table layout of the site. Our previous 2 webmasters did not correct or attempt to correct this and it is quite honestly my pet peeve. I've made a few brief attempts and failed so far ( http://www.fleetbritannia.dkpsystem.com ) but aim to fix that issue first before I even attempt to bring our forums back to this host.


My suggestion for the forum module itself would be to perhaps come up with different viewing templates that the admins of the sites can choose and/or provide some means of layout control in the module itself. I think the new topic entry can be taught or assisted with more easily than dealing with general dislike of the interface look and feel. There's only so much you can do with the CSS.

Thank you for your comments on this.

As for the "Different viewing templates", are you running the "Stable" version or are you running the "Beta" version. There are different templates for that, though it doesn't modify the "Control Box" at the top (the one containing the Filter views).

--
It's all in the reflexes.

I tried both and found very little difference between the two. Both at present blow the table out in filtered view.

oh, some more complaints...

Not having a "last post" jump button from the index is annoying. Having the thread default jump to first unread is nice as a setting, but not the preferred manner to read forums. There are times I want to jump to the end of a topic that has been read and I can't because of no button. And of course being a topic that's already marked read it won't jump any further in the thread which is troublesome if there's multiple pages.

Another thing is the forum deciding to revert to a previous setting every time you switch between say viewing favorite threads to only unread regardless if you're in classic mode or filtered. There isn't any consistency in the means by which you're viewing. It's like you're constantly fighting with the interface to find and view topics you might be interested in. I can't tell you how many times I missed posts because they were either tagged wrong or somehow were not coming up in the myriad of filters and whatnot the module uses.

And frankly, I hate the size and layout of the control box.Hell, I hate it in general honestly. There's no reason something that big should dominate a web page the way it does. Give people a new topic button in the left, a filters button to open a filter page to make selections, an apply/remove filters button, then your drop down for the favs, unread, all, etc... and finally the search.


Simple is friendly. You've got the power and the features, you just need to make it ergonomic

Personally, I have to disagree with this. The reason I added it was precisely because finding the first unread post was a pain, especially on a thread that's getting a lot of action - on my guild forum, I get some threads that grow to multiple pages in a single day, and you never know when the last post you read was. Having it take me to the latest unread post spares scrolling through pages. I could see there being a benefit to adding a Last Post button or some sort next to the thread title, sure.

But for a thread in progress, you prefer to jump to the end of the thread without reading the other posts? Just honest curiosity.



Thank you for the expanded feedback. This bit in particular is very helpful.



--
It's all in the reflexes.

I'm not saying jumping to the first unread is a bad feature in and of itself. Simply that there are times when I will re-read a thread in its entirety before getting to the unreads. Maybe a profile option for user preferences or perhaps a "first unread" as well as the "last post" button.

And yes, there are times I just jump to the last post with reading the unreads since my last reading. Again, preference and particular instance. The feature not being there at all is the problem.


Another item I just thought of too, when you're done reading a thread and click the "back to index" link at the bottom, I myself would prefer it to jump to the index the way I was last viewing it with whatever filters in place previously. For instance, unreads only quite commonly. With alot of threads to keep up with, constantly going back to index, reapplying the filter, and going to another thread gets tedious for having to always reapply the filter.


And please, I hope you're not taking this on the chin too hard. It is quite a feat to have coded and I don't want to seem like I'm trying to bash your work. I was a php, cfml, and sql developer at Ford for years. I know the lambasting the dev can get from the peasants.

Yeah, it's a nuisance, I agree. The state information needs to be retained, and it doesn't always do that.



Not at all. I always appreciate such well thought-out criticisms.

--
It's all in the reflexes.