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Hi everyone,
So to make this short, I have volunteered to help upgrade and update the site in whatever way possible. I will be posting updates when I can on my progress but I also hope to hear your input on what the site needs or a feature you may want.
Current Progress:
- Connected to FTP and transferred theme data
- Created a new local MySQL Database for Testing
- Working on integration of LEGO mini-fig head emojis
- Sketching out a new front page layout
Suggested Ideas:
- Redesign of website front page
- Icons next to topic names to see who posted last
- Search feature for old posts (user specific)
One feature that used to exist was that a tiny avatar of the last poster appeared beside each Topic heading in the “Recently active topics”. You could then see if anyone had responded to your last post without actually clicking on the topic. If you saw your own avatar, there were (obviously) no further updates. If there was an easy way to bring that back, that would be great.
Another discussion is that the front page needs to be updated. Josh did a great job when originally throwing up the site, but it would be neat to have some of our groups awesome photos on the front page at the top. The text could use a bit of refreshing as well, although there will probably be much debate on the exact text to be used.
but it would be neat to have some of our groups awesome photos on the front page
Agreed! The LUG main page should be more visually inviting to people interested in becoming new members or to people who are curious about what we do. There should be photos of SteelCity MOC’s covering the home page.
One feature that used to exist was that a tiny avatar of the last poster appeared beside each Topic heading in the “Recently active topics”. You could then see if anyone had responded to your last post without actually clicking on the topic. If you saw your own avatar, there were (obviously) no further updates. If there was an easy way to bring that back, that would be great.
I imagine this feature may have been removed to help increase loading time. Maybe I can do something like a mouse roll over where when you put your mouse over a topic it’ll show you that information
but it would be neat to have some of our groups awesome photos on the front page
Agreed! The LUG main page should be more visually inviting to people interested in becoming new members or to people who are curious about what we do. There should be photos of SteelCity MOC’s covering the home page.
This was a topic of discussion when I proposed my help to Josh, so since this seems important to not just me I’ll make this my first priority. Considering its not a small upgrade but a redesign I’ll be taking my time with it.
Also quick note this section of the forum (Site Admin) doesnt seem to be private.
Also quick note this section of the forum (Site Admin) doesnt seem to be private.
Oh noes!
#subbed
I made this comment elsewhere, but thought I’d bring it over for clarity:
IDEA: could we put a link to the Activity & Challenge thread‘s first pos on the homepage, so it’s always easy to find?
Actually, it might be nice to have certain key / longstanding threads highlighted, outside of the “10 most recently active threads” list, so we can keep things on the radar even if they haven’t been commented on lately. I’m thinking of how when we have several events upcoming, plus other “noise” threads (#threadjacking) going on, sometimes one or more slip out of the most recents and get forgotten for a while… So the list could include Next LUG Meeting, LUGBulk 20XX, Build Challenges (could be quickly pulled up from anywhere you have people and bricks and need ideas), and Upcoming Events & Displays. And maybe something else I’m forgetting…
I made this comment elsewhere, but thought I’d bring it over for clarity:
IDEA: could we put a link to the Activity & Challenge thread‘s first pos on the homepage, so it’s always easy to find?
Actually, it might be nice to have certain key / longstanding threads highlighted, outside of the “10 most recently active threads” list, so we can keep things on the radar even if they haven’t been commented on lately. I’m thinking of how when we have several events upcoming, plus other “noise” threads (#threadjacking) going on, sometimes one or more slip out of the most recents and get forgotten for a while… So the list could include Next LUG Meeting, LUGBulk 20XX, Build Challenges (could be quickly pulled up from anywhere you have people and bricks and need ideas), and Upcoming Events & Displays. And maybe something else I’m forgetting…
I saw your Tag and yeah its possible. My only concern is how to identify those key topics as everyone has their own idea of what maybe important. Maybe we should do a Favorite or Bookmark type of thing. This way we could give everyone the ability to choose what is important to them.
My only concern is how to identify those key topics as everyone has their own idea of what maybe important. Maybe we should do a Favorite or Bookmark type of thing. This way we could give everyone the ability to choose what is important to them.
NO. I’m the Ambassador, and what I say goes. Set in stone. #jokesnewguyswillnotget
Maybe a blend – certain things we keep visible for everyone, then allow for bookmarks too?
>> as everyone has their own idea of what maybe important.
True. But one thing that’s always important – and is also especially important for people coming to the website for the first time – is when the next quarterly meeting is. Off the top of my head, every other LUG website I’ve ever been to has had ‘Next scheduled meeting’ information prominently displayed, and we should do the same.
NO. I’m the Ambassador, and what I say goes. Set in stone. #jokesnewguyswillnotget
Yep, way over my head.
Maybe a blend – certain things we keep visible for everyone, then allow for bookmarks too?
True. But one thing that’s always important – and is also especially important for people coming to the website for the first time – is when the next quarterly meeting is. Off the top of my head, every other LUG website I’ve ever been to has had ‘Next scheduled meeting’ information prominently displayed, and we should do the same.
OK so this means we would need two sections. One for Events the LUG is doing and one for Bookmarked topics.
Yep, way over my head.
You’ll learn, padawan. You’ll learn…
So… there are 5 pages of “set in stone” posts on our forums. But this is the first one, the one that started them all. I think it spawned our first LUG fight…? Luckily, it was quickly resolved once people recognized typos for what they were…
#threadjacking – hey, there’s another inside joke!
One thing I really dislike here is the limit on scrolling through my own old posts. I don’t know if this a WordPress limitation or not, so I don’t know if we can do anything about it. For example, tonight I was scrolling through old posts (yes, I was looking for something specific; no, it wasn’t a trip through memory lane, dorks; no, I didn’t find what I was looking for), and you scroll down to the bottom, and then if you want more, you click ‘Load More’ and it brings them up, and you keep doing that… to a certain point. Then it reverts back to the beginning and lists the most recent posts again. I don’t know if the limit is set by time or by number of posts – I clicked ‘Load More’ multiple times and the posts went back about 2 months. So if I want any post older than that, I would have to manually search through the forums to find it.
Because I was searching through the forums today though, it did occur to me that another change that can be made is redoing how the topics are organized. Things are somewhat messy now, certain topics can be difficult to find, and people creating redundant threads is a problem. I assume that Josh laid everything out the best he could in 2012, but with 4.5 years of hindsight, I think it can now be done better. I can certainly propose something.
One issue would be what to do with old topics though, since presumably moving them would break all the links that connect them. So I’m guessing they’d have to be filed off somewhere under ‘Old Forums’ and then have a new system going forward. But I don’t know enough about the technical side of things to say for sure.
I’ve been sick the last few days and before that i was taking care of my family cause they were sick so sorry for the late reply. I can look into a search feature for old post that shouldn’t be hard. As far as archiving old outdated posts we would need to manually have each topic archived. And with 4.5 years of data on the site i would believe changing forum systems now would be a real pain. possible but work intensive and in the end cause more problems than it would solve until everything was integrated.
Seems like I may be reviving a long dead forum, But I was wondering if it would be possible for us to extend the number of threads listed in the ” active recently tab”. 12 feels like too few and that we often lose threads that are still semi active when a lot is going on at the same time.
Also I feel that the LUG buddy thread should be easily accessed for newbies, as I talked with multiple people at ross park that said they had joined over a year ago but never did anything because they got lost in the forum. I think Lug buddies would really solve this but I didn’t know about it until I didn’t really need one anymore.
Not sure if any of this is easy/possible but just ideas I had and thought this was the best place to plop them
>> But I was wondering if it would be possible for us to extend the number of threads listed in the ” active recently tab”. 12 feels like too few and that we often lose threads that are still semi active when a lot is going on at the same time.
It came up in the past year, I think in Threadjacking, but this is a better place for it. Unfortunately nothing ever came of it, but I’m not sure why. It’s possible that it was overlooked, but it’s also possible that Word Press won’t allow for it, I know the platform has limitations. It’s certainly an idea worth pursuing if we can.
>> Also I feel that the LUG buddy thread should be easily accessed for newbies, as I talked with multiple people at ross park that said they had joined over a year ago but never did anything because they got lost in the forum.
Rachel and I have been talking about this recently too, because we’ve been looking at other LUG websites and noting what we like and don’t like about them. Steel City LUG has way more going on than any other LUG site I’ve ever seen, and it’s great, but Mitch is correct in that one drawback is that there’s no real obvious place to start when you’re here for the first time. The Home page suggests going to the forums and creating a thread to introduce yourself, and clearly that’s worked because it has been used frequently. But I have to think there’s a way we could supplement that, with a clear link to something that provides additional information. I noticed when I scrolled through this thread that I posted years ago that there’s no easy way to find when the next quarterly meeting is, and we really need that. It would be helpful for everybody in the group, but it would be especially helpful for new members – there’s no better way to get introduced to the group than at a quarterly meeting, which doesn’t have the pressures and chaos that often come with an event out in the public. I think I’d suggested that not only should we extend the recently active topics list, but also have a list of ones that never go away at all until they are manually removed, such as the current quarterly meeting thread, and the current quarterly build challenge thread.
I may have also mentioned elsewhere in the past that we need some kind of Upcoming Events list, it could just be a single webpage on the site. The calendar is fine, but it involves a lot of scrolling through the months and you’re never sure where it ends. It would be nice if we simply had a written list, in a single column. It would not be a forum, where people post a new event when it comes up, because that will become a mess really quickly, and stuff will be out of order. The Upcoming Events list could be something anybody could edit, or we could have somebody in charge of it. Once an event is over, it would promptly be removed from the list. It could either be deleted outright, or we could have a second list at the bottom of Recent Events, which I would suggest goes back a minimum of one month and a maximum of three months.
It’s possible that it was overlooked, but it’s also possible that Word Press won’t allow for it, I know the platform has limitations. It’s certainly an idea worth pursuing if we can.
In the one meeting I brought up the idea of either expanding the number of Recently active threads or creating a “Pinned thread” section for threads such as the next meeting/build challenge, next events, things of that nature. @joshhall said he was not sure on the limitations of the host site and would investigate.
Also I feel that the LUG buddy thread should be easily accessed for newbies, as I talked with multiple people at ross park that said they had joined over a year ago but never did anything because they got lost in the forum. I think Lug buddies would really solve this but I didn’t know about it until I didn’t really need one anymore.
This I completely understand and agree with. The general LUG consensus was the same as well. We made a big push to revamp our LUG Buddy program when we saw the massive uptick in membership following the Home and Garden show. We made some really good progress but I think over the summer months and the time around the 10th Birthday party celebration is where things got lost. For sure something we should push for and revamp.
The calendar is fine, but it involves a lot of scrolling through the months and you’re never sure where it ends. It would be nice if we simply had a written list, in a single column. It would not be a forum, where people post a new event when it comes up, because that will become a mess really quickly, and stuff will be out of order.
See I personally feel like this would be more messy and more of a pain than the calendar. I think one public list that anyone can edit will lead to multiple tabs for the same event, things getting out of order just due to the fact that anyone and everyone can edit it, and will just be more chaotic. Now something I would like to see (and it may even already do this and I just don’t know) is for us to be able to click on the event on the calendar and it automatically shunt us to the main forum for the event. I think that would solve a huge bit of our problems because we know if we cant find the thread we at least know where we can find it. I think it is also worth noting too that Josh does put out a wonderful monthly newsletter with upcoming events and links to said forums. That has helped me a time or two to find the correct thread.
Just want to follow up on changing the way topics on the sidebar are displayed and seeing if we can expand it? I don’t know how to code but I am familiar with designing websites so I could potentially take a look at it if no one else has time 🙂 @joshhall what do you think?
Just want to follow up on changing the way topics on the sidebar are displayed and seeing if we can expand it? I don’t know how to code but I am familiar with designing websites so I could potentially take a look at it if no one else has time
@joshhall what do you think?good now?
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