Improvements you'd like to see for this community

[Bing Chou]

Hello all - Sylvia recently sent out a message that included a note about the two of us working together to give this community a face lift.

 

The bad news first: I'm new to this community.  Shame on me...but Sylvia's been too nice to say no to my requests for help so far, so she's been the only resource I've needed so far!  I'm also new to Ning generally, so I'll be doing some homework on getting up to speed with what can be done.

 

The good news: I know enough HTML, CSS, PHP, and other flavors of the alphabet soup to be able to do some pretty cool things.  I am enthusiastic about helping Sylvia continue to cultivate this community, so I've given her no limits to what she can ask me to do.

 

The content that you create is the heart and soul of this community, so keep it up, and even consider doing more of it!  With that said, any suggestions that you have to improve the other stuff - aesthetics, functions/widgets you'd like to see, how things are organized, etc. - this is your place to voice it.

 

Thanks, and fire away.

[TCLynx]

If you can do something to create some broad segments to the forum discussions so people are better able to pick and choose which sections they need to read first to find answers to their questions, that would be great. Like maybe a section for Basic/useful information. A section for Members to show off their systems and discuss them and then another section for questions and help might be good.

[Bing Chou]

Great suggestion - should be no problem! Thanks, and keep them coming.

TCLynx said:

If you can do something to create some broad segments to the forum discussions so people are better able to pick and choose which sections they need to read first to find answers to their questions, that would be great. Like maybe a section for Basic/useful information. A section for Members to show off their systems and discuss them and then another section for questions and help might be good.

[TCLynx]

Oh here is one that would really help me. Under our little avitar pictures, would it be possible to have a little location info? It can so help a person know what kind of advise to give if we know what kinda climate a person is in. It can also help a person understand advise better if they know the location of the person giving it.

As the community grows it will get harder and harder to remember all the people and where they are.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

I love it! Maybe we could also say how long they have been AP gardening as well...

[TCLynx]

If noting how long they have been doing AP isn't very easy (since not everyone on here has a system yet) the alternative might simply be join date or post count. Unless we some how add a little system profile space to everyone's profile and then use parts of that on the badge?

Sylvia Bernstein said:

I love it! Maybe we could also say how long they have been AP gardening as well...

[Richard Wyman]

The tooltip that shows a persons name when hovering over an avatar would be a great spot for this info.

TCLynx said:

Oh here is one that would really help me. Under our little avitar pictures, would it be possible to have a little location info? It can so help a person know what kind of advise to give if we know what kinda climate a person is in. It can also help a person understand advise better if they know the location of the person giving it.

As the community grows it will get harder and harder to remember all the people and where they are.

[TCLynx]

I wonder if we could add a "system Stats" section to the profile where people could elaborate a little more about their system experience? I don't really want to make it into a pain or anything but sometimes people ask questions and to be able to answer their questions better, it helps to know the basics about their system like
How big-Fish tank
How big-Filtration and plant space
Flows and method (is it flood and drain media, raft, NFT, Vertical, or combination?)
Date started
Date cycled
Date fish added
Number of fish
indoor/greenhouse/outdoor (and of course we want location with their avitar to help us know their climate.)

This way (when some one comes on and asks "why are my fish dieing?" I can check the profile and know more than simply (yes it's a small system.) At least it might help me narrow down the questions I need to ask back to help them.

Now I know the stats might get a bit tedious for some but I think it will really help some of us be able to match system info to pictures to people.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

This was an easy one. I changed the application questionnaire to request this info and asked members to add to their profile. Good suggestion!

TCLynx said:

I wonder if we could add a "system Stats" section to the profile where people could elaborate a little more about their system experience? I don't really want to make it into a pain or anything but sometimes people ask questions and to be able to answer their questions better, it helps to know the basics about their system like
How big-Fish tank
How big-Filtration and plant space
Flows and method (is it flood and drain media, raft, NFT, Vertical, or combination?)
Date started
Date cycled
Date fish added
Number of fish
indoor/greenhouse/outdoor (and of course we want location with their avitar to help us know their climate.)

This way (when some one comes on and asks "why are my fish dieing?" I can check the profile and know more than simply (yes it's a small system.) At least it might help me narrow down the questions I need to ask back to help them.

Now I know the stats might get a bit tedious for some but I think it will really help some of us be able to match system info to pictures to people.

[TCLynx]

I wonder if there might be a way to archive the past events so people could look up past events for ideas or help on planning future events?

[M Cosmo]

I couldn't find a way to send an email to all of the folks in Florida to ask them to join the Florida group and also to come to the event we had. Do you know if there is a way to do this in the future?

[Sylvia Bernstein]

TC and Michael, great thoughts - keep those suggestions coming. I just signed up for the new version of Ning today which is supposed to have a bunch of new features so when I emerge out of my post-vacation sea of email in a few days I'll try to spend some time seeing if they are offering better ways to archive and organize stuff.

[M Cosmo]

Any progress on this question?