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.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Yes, actually. I discovered last night that I can organize forum topics by category. Just need to set up the categories. Any ideas? Opinions on categories?

Michael Cosmo said:

Any progress on this question?

[TCLynx]

I think Michael was probably talking about being able to e-mail all members in a group or all members from a particular state.

As to Categories for the forum topics. Here are the ones I think would be most useful to implement right away.
Basic and Useful Info
Aquaponic Discussions
Member Systems
off topic

Sylvia Bernstein said:

Yes, actually. I discovered last night that I can organize forum topics by category. Just need to set up the categories. Any ideas? Opinions on categories?

Michael Cosmo said:

Any progress on this question?

[Sylvia Bernstein]

I think you are right about that, TC. He emailed the same questions to me and I've sent them on the the Ning folks. Hopefully they will get to us with some answers a little sooner than they did with your issues a few months ago! Anyway, thanks for the category thoughts. those are good starts, and I would probably add System Problems/Issues and Product Reviews (these would include classes, educational materials, pumps, etc)...and we will probably think of a bunch more before the night is out

[TCLynx]

There are plenty more like fish, plants, materials, media, DWC Systems, NFT Systems, Media Systems, and HELP with problems (but this one I would usually want to refer back to the person's system Discussion for more info anyway.)

Sylvia Bernstein said:

I think you are right about that, TC. He emailed the same questions to me and I've sent them on the the Ning folks. Hopefully they will get to us with some answers a little sooner than they did with your issues a few months ago! Anyway, thanks for the category thoughts. those are good starts, and I would probably add System Problems/Issues and Product Reviews (these would include classes, educational materials, pumps, etc)...and we will probably think of a bunch more before the night is out

[M Cosmo]

I would suggest a category for Plumbing - Pumps and one for Aeration

[M Cosmo]

A category for Greenhouses - cold frames etc

[Sylvia Bernstein]

Done! Also added a Media Topics category. Thanks for the suggestions, Michael

[TCLynx]

ya know how most other forums have signatures you can have each time you comment or add a post to a discussion? I would like to see that here.

I would also still like to see a little tag of info below people's pictures like at least their location. So helps me to keep in mind where some one is so I don't have to go clicking to their page to find the info before answering their questions. (choice being either it takes longer to go looking for info before I answer a question or I forgo the info and might not answer the question as appropriately or not having time to go looking to their page and their question requiring the location info to be answered, I might not answer at all.

[TCLynx]

Also, a new content search feature might be helpful. This site is quickly becoming a bit large and I haven't played much with the search feature.

I use the view new posts function over on other forums often. Something similar here would be good

[Sylvia Bernstein]

I'll look into content search, TC. For new posts just check the right side of the home page for now, but I'll also look and see if there is a snazzy app for it.

[Sylvia Bernstein]

TC, I just spent some time poking around in the Ning Creators site (as evidenced by finding out how to access the network via smart phone!..yahoo!) to see if I could find something more to offer you, but to no avail. They show new content on the home page, where I have the left column boxes that say Forum, Blogs, and Groups. I've set these all so they show the latest content...plus you can look at the Activity stream down the middle column, and if you go to the Forums tab it shows what Categories have had the most recent activity.


TCLynx said:

Also, a new content search feature might be helpful. This site is quickly becoming a bit large and I haven't played much with the search feature.

I use the view new posts function over on other forums often. Something similar here would be good

[TCLynx]

Thanks Sylvia, Yea I was hoping for something that might give a bit deeper details into say new forum discussions because I've found if I don't get online every day, I'll miss some new ones if they are not really active since I only get the e-mails about the ones I've commented on.
Oh well.

Sylvia Bernstein said:

TC, I just spent some time poking around in the Ning Creators site (as evidenced by finding out how to access the network via smart phone!..yahoo!) to see if I could find something more to offer you, but to no avail. They show new content on the home page, where I have the left column boxes that say Forum, Blogs, and Groups. I've set these all so they show the latest content...plus you can look at the Activity stream down the middle column, and if you go to the Forums tab it shows what Categories have had the most recent activity.


TCLynx said:

Also, a new content search feature might be helpful. This site is quickly becoming a bit large and I haven't played much with the search feature.

I use the view new posts function over on other forums often. Something similar here would be good