I was just wandering if there is a easy way to change the forums to the more traditional Forum layouts. My entire kinship loves the website but can't seem to get a hang of the forums at all. So no one ever posts on them.
If there is a quick fix for this plz let me know if not still let me know
There is not, however, it's worth having your members read http://www.dkpsystem.com/dynpage.php?id=13 so that they understand the philosophy that went into designing the forums. They are different, but I argue that over time, your guild will not only "get used" to them, but actually will learn to prefer them.
There is not, however, it's worth having your members read http://www.dkpsystem.com/dynpage.php?id=13 so that they understand the philosophy that went into designing the forums. They are different, but I argue that over time, your guild will not only "get used" to them, but actually will learn to prefer them.
Unfortunately after having this site for the past 4 months or so my guild has not grown used to them. I have posted the guide you have made on how to learn and understand the forums but they still do not like them. Its actually to the point now where the guild avoids the forums. Is there any way to embed our own forums? I would rather be able to embed a forum on our site rather than redirecting the forum link to another site hosting our forums.
Many of our members are avid forum junkies, but just can not get used to how the layout is here. As I consider an active guild forum a very important part of a guild, we'll be seriously considering other sites as alternatives to dkpsystem - despite that other sites are lacking a lot in other regards to what we got here. Forums are just that important that we're willing to give up on other features. Having double registration for website and forums adds another obstacle to those that aren't too big a fan of forums to begin with and isn't a good solution for us.
If we could get a page the emulated the "common" forum behavior with a front page that showed each thread tag as a "sub forum" and some "last posted" info for each tag, that would solve a lot. It would not change the underlaying structure of the DKPSystem forums, and those that prefer the current way of browsing could still do that, but those that favor how other forums work could get much of that from just a new front page to the forums.
Do they actually LIKE having to go from forum to forum to see one or two new posts?
Or is it more aesthetic: do they dislike how it looks?
Yes, they prefer going from forum to forum and they prefer seeing the "summary" page with info about which forums got new posts. This is probably a lot due to habit, but the fact of the matter is that most won't have their guild forums as the only web forum they visit and as long as that is the one not looking like the other ones, it remains hard to use.
Yes, they prefer going from forum to forum and they prefer seeing the "summary" page with info about which forums got new posts. This is probably a lot due to habit, but the fact of the matter is that most won't have their guild forums as the only web forum they visit and as long as that is the one not looking like the other ones, it remains hard to use.
That's just not a feeling I can relate to.
I've got an idea in the works here to try to appease those who have not yet gotten the feeling for it...a transition stage between the two, since this remains (as far as I know) the lone forum system to utilize this mechanism (one could argue that slashdot and fark also use this style of tagging for their "threads", as they are based on categories).
I see the shift of this similarly to the shift from Yahoo's Directory service to Google's searching mechanism. Yahoo's search just used to be links to the main pages, rather than spidering the entire internet to get every reference of every word. A more general overview, if you will. But Google eventually took over because rather than taking you to someone's home page, it actually took you straight to what you are looking for.
This is how I view the difference. Thread tags show you everything you need to see, and allows you to filter what you don't want to see, all the while, saving you clicks.
I know on other forums that I participate on, I absolutely HATE having to go from forum to forum. They have a "Most recent 15 threads" page which is pretty much where I stay, simply because I have no interest in sifting between 20 different forums, when I can see all the activity right in front of me.
There is, however, a line where thread tags looses it's practicality. That line is on forums as busy as the WoW forums. It would be devastatingly impractical to rely purely on thread tags for the WoW forums because they get so many posts per second, that it would become unmanagable (hell, "General" is unmanagable enough as it is).
But within each forum, they could benefit massively by implementing thread tags. As a simple example, on each class forum, they could have tags for: Gear, Talent Builds, Professions, Abilities, Lore, Balance.
It would be rather silly to break those up into their own forums, but it would make sense to show them all and allow you to filter out "Lore" discussions if you didn't care about the Lore. IT really does make life easier.
So the general rule is, if your forum only gets 100 posts per day, then Thread Tags is the ideal solution, while if you're getting something like 50,000 posts per day, it's time to break up those forums.
I don't argue what is the "ideal" solution, I argue what people prefer. Not all prefer the recent topic list, I know I never tend to use it. And many people do prefer to see forums the "old fashioned" way. Personally I don't care much either way and have tried persuading my guild that this way works too. They aren't convinced to put it that way
The fact still remains that people seem to like a front page of sorts where they can see which tags got new posts, which tags are available (since they're sub forums), etc. If you don't plan on implementing any of the kind then that's really your choice as the manager here. As a customer I can tell you what our wishes and needs are, but in the end we're just one of many paying customers here. It will at least be good for us to know that the forum is what it is and what it will be here.
u could also just use a free forum like this and make the forum link in your menu refer to your new forum
Yeah, but he stated that that's not something he wants to do, and understandably so. Having multiple logins for what should be the same site is a huge turnoff, and in general a bad design move.
I don't argue what is the "ideal" solution, I argue what people prefer.
The pragmatic approach, and one that is typically applied to politicians and businessmen: Give them what they ask for, rather than trying to change the philosophy. Unfortunately, I'm not a pragmatist, I try to change the philosophy and methods of my customers.
But I feel I may have taken my idealism a little far, and in turn, gone with what I stand against: trying to protect people from themselves.
In an attempt to rectify this flawed position of mine, I intend on implementing something to appease people until they realize their mistake
The pragmatic approach, and one that is typically applied to politicians and businessmen: Give them what they ask for, rather than trying to change the philosophy. Unfortunately, I'm not a pragmatist, I try to change the philosophy and methods of my customers.
And by all means you should, this being your professional life. It is however not mine, so I got very limited energy available for educating people in forum philosophy. One gotta figure out where such energy is best spent and for me, trying to convince people that a forum software they don't like is actually better than what they want is not my best place to spend it. I'm a software engineer by trade, and convincing customers that their idea of some functionality is best implemented some other way than they envision is part of what I do every day.
You'll just anger those of us who love this style forum now!
I think (and hope ) that the idea was to provide some means for those infidels that have not yet been swayed by the True Way(tm) to have a less rough transition over to the DKPsystem way of having forums.
I think (and hope ) that the idea was to provide some means for those infidels that have not yet been swayed by the True Way(tm) to have a less rough transition over to the DKPsystem way of having forums.
Correct. In no way will be I taking away from the current functionality, merely adding on.
I noticed that you've given us the ability to import from phpbb. I'm quite nubby in a lot of these things, so could you explain, when you have the time, how it will affect our current forums if I were to do that import?
Will we lose all the threads that are currently here? Will the format of the forums take on the phpbb formatting? Will I have to import info all the time? Could I just make it so that the link to the forums on my menu leads to the phpbb site?
I know I have other questions in my head, but I forget. Either way, I personally don't care whether we have the "old" or the "new" system, as I'm used to them and don't freak out because they're different. I'm looking at different options, however, because guildies have asked about using the old style foarumz. /sigh. Work, work, work.
Could I just make it so that the link to the forums on my menu leads to the phpbb site?
~ Q
this is easy:
go to admin-menu administration there you will see the whole menu layout heres what you do
under Menu you will see 'forum' -> click edit select disable and click submit now under menu make a new forum line by clicking 'Add new item to this menu'
there under label write: Forum check Is this just a link to another page? and where it says: IF this is a link or frame, enter the URL u have to give the url to the phpbb forums
Will we lose all the threads that are currently here?
Nope.
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Will the format of the forums take on the phpbb formatting?
Nope.
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Will I have to import info all the time?
The import is designed to be a one time thing: You import, and then you use the DKPSystem.com forums from then on.
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Could I just make it so that the link to the forums on my menu leads to the phpbb site?
Yep, and Bork answered that for you.
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I know I have other questions in my head, but I forget. Either way, I personally don't care whether we have the "old" or the "new" system, as I'm used to them and don't freak out because they're different. I'm looking at different options, however, because guildies have asked about using the old style foarumz. /sigh. Work, work, work.
Give me a bit of time. I have the changes done for the "Classic Look" I just need to deploy. I'm going to try to deploy them while I'm waiting in line for Harry Potter tonight (Bringing my laptop, since otherwise I'll be sitting there for 3 hours just talking, when I'd rather be working)
