Upcoming forum upgrade: ideas and discussion

[Wesley]

Hey community! Based on the upcoming forum upgrade announcement I posted earlier, I'm opening this discussion to openly talk about the upgrade process.

In short, we're looking for ideas and feedback on existing and potentially new features for the forum. If you have any quirks that are currently bothering you, now would be the perfect moment to share them! This community is our shared village after all 

If you have any specific questions, we will try to answer them too. 

[Fishandchips]

If I come on and see the new topics and I intend to check one out and reply later it disappears. It doesn’t show later on in ‘show new replies to your posts’ because I hadn’t posted on it. I somehow accidentally stumbled on an option to view ‘All unread topics’ a while back but haven’t been able to find it on the site since. I’ve got is saved to bookmarks so I don’t loose it though but could the function be added under unread posts and unread replies?

This is the url
https://internationalyn.org/forum/index.php?action=unread;all;start=0

[Delta]

The link is at the botzom of the unread page. I tend to use the "latest post" feed myself:
 https://internationalyn.org/forum/index.php?action=recent;start=0

[Wesley]

To clarify the location Delta mentioned:


It's a bit hidden away currently. Perhaps we can add a menu option for it in the new layout

[Naturalguy87]

A more streamlined mailbox that's more mobile-friendly.  For examples, when viewing my messages, I have to rotate my phone to landscape orientation to have everything appear properly.  It's a small tweak, but it would make messaging easier.

Some new profile features?  Not to make it look like a dating site by any means, but maybe the option to add more than a tiny profile photo (or multiple photos), and a short Q&A section related to the person's experience with naturism.  I often find myself reading through a post, and I'll see someone's post (or reply), but then I'll find myself trying to remember "was this person raised a nudist from birth, or how did they get into it"?  And the only way to figure that out is to dig through their post history, or look to see if they have an AMA topic somewhere.

Granted, many users would probably not fill it out even if it was there, but just an idea to get the ball rolling.

[Fishandchips]

@Delta @Wesley thanks, I have no idea how I’ve been missing that all this time. @Naturalguy87 raises a good point about mailbox and agree that it would be better to have the option to add more info to our profiles.

[theyarecoming]

Just make it like any other social media platform... Where you can post anytime you want about anything and people can write comments easily... Also making it easier to make friends etc etc. Essentially our very own Facebook/Instagram page except it's neither of them so we have to make our own.

[swede]

Just make it like any other social media platform... Where you can post anytime you want about anything and people can write comments easily... Also making it easier to make friends etc etc. Essentially our very own Facebook/Instagram page except it's neither of them so we have to make our own.

I don't really agree. The forum style promotes more discussion. For me it's also very nostalgic of the old school forums. But yeah, maybe there is a point in implementing some more standard social media components to lower the threshold to starting a conversation. But not turning it into Facebook. I like the fact that you can talk to all our members easily, something you cannot do on Instagram or Facebook

[Jman071]

I like this forum style because I had a Minecraft community that I used to be a part of that was very similar but I agree that some modern upgrades especially for mobile would be nice

[NudeKiu]

A messenger like that would be cool.

[Octavia]

I kinda prefer the more retro forum feel, I think turning this site into more of a modern social media would be doing it a disservice. I think it could use a visual revamp for sure, and navigating the private messages is a bit of a pain, but other than that I like the forum how it is and I wouldn't want it to turn into something else entirely.

[Infinity Biscuit]

the thing about turning it into a full web2.0 social media site is, from what I can tell, that just wouldn't work at all?

the social media websites I'm aware of are all large scale ones (I know there's an innate bias involved in that knowledge, but if people know of social media sites that thrive with userbases in the dozens let me know!) and nearly every aspect of how they are set up differently than forums is made for the sake working with large, amorphous webs of people in the hundreds of thousands or more

the other issue is that the basic template of social media websites is set up to extract value from users, either in raw data or in more nebulous connections with companies etc. there are some exceptions here I'm aware of (mastodon seems to not be set up in this way? I think?) but facebook and instagram and twitter are for sure set up for that and not for the benefit of the users. not something I see literally any reason to emulate unless the forum is in desperate need of cash (and even then I'd very much oppose a move, even if it would have a reason now)

edit: it would also take a complete total overhaul at which point it's kinda just an entirely new website now...

edit 2: one small change that I think about sometimes is the "Show Likes Notification" button up top. maybe I'm missing something, but for me I thought that, if it is up front like that, should be a "show likes to my posts", and not "show every like that everyone on the forum has made on any post". I'm not sure what purpose the latter has, and if anything it makes me a little self-conscious of liking posts on here

[odcaf]

edit 2: one small change that I think about sometimes is the "Show Likes Notification" button up top. maybe I'm missing something, but for me I thought that, if it is up front like that, should be a "show likes to my posts", and not "show every like that everyone on the forum has made on any post". I'm not sure what purpose the latter has, and if anything it makes me a little self-conscious of liking posts on here

I've think about this too. It makes more sense to show the likes to your own posts.

[shynudeboy]

I have a couple ideas to make the forums better:


Better Messaging:

I find it really difficult to go through any messages I receive as they are all in a list unsorted. And it makes it difficult to follow a conversation with people. It would be really cool if we had FB style messaging where each conversation is in it's own thread. It would also be cool if, like facebook, it updated in real time.


Better Alerts / Notifications:

If you're tagged in a photo or receive a message you'll only receive an alert when you navigate to a new page and there is little information as to what it is. It would be really cool if we could have real time alerts / notifications, that display in the corner of the screen to show what's happening (i.e 'X has sent you a message' or 'X has liked your post).


Global Chatbox:


I'm not 100% sure about this idea but I've seen it on other forums. Some forums have a global chatbox to allow members to talk to each other. Sort of like discord but on the forums itself. It might be an easier way to allow people to communicate without going to a third-party program.




Apart from that, I think the forums need a bit of a theme update to make it look modern. As well as making it a bit more dynamic.

[theyarecoming]

Sooo when is this "update" rolling out exactly?