I love Cubits format. I find it easy to get around and I enjoy the individuality of each cubit. I think that ATP's format is similar to many websites and therefore not as intimidating to most people. People don't like change and Cubits is a definite change to what people are use to. There are a lot of empty cubits but there are also many with tons of interesting topics. If I had the time I could spend all day reading information from different cubits.

I kind of like the long list of old threads. On Cubits I could never figure out how to find the older threads if I wanted to re-read a comment made on it, or see a photo. I think this gives folks that are new a chance to catch up.

I kind of believe in the KISS principle...Keep It Simple Stupid...although I think Keep It Simple Smart would be a better name for that. Organization is the key in life. Now, if I could just achieve such a state of organization with my ADD mind, I'd be happy!

Dave and Trish, I have to add my voice to those seeking the ability to better organize within the forums >>>Please<<<?

Also, I hate the icons on the upper right hand side of the page. Could we not have words? Icons can mean different things. I have to hover over the icon until the word pops up to know what they are. It's simple now because they are few, but the strategy will become more awkward for me as we grow. The are also too big. In general the appearance here strikes me as dull and boring. I know its new, but I miss the polish/appearance of the Cubits UI.

Dave & Trish, same here. Here's an example I think of the organization requested by myself and others here:

Currently (just using chief Mike's coop as an example):
Click on co-ops
You see an order thread for his coop (mixed with all of the others)
You see an interest thred for his coop (mixed)
Soon, I'm sure you'll see a shipping thread, and possibly a chat thread...4 threads (or more) will show up there relating to one specific coop mixed throughout sorted by last reply dates.

What might would be more organized to see....
Click on Coops....see subject adenium (sp) coop, click on that
and within that....you will see the threads that are specifically related to THAT coop. It will keep all of his threads grouped together.

Another suggestion......Add or rename column headings
Here are current column headings:
New/subject/Thread starter/last reply/replies

To maybe something like this:
New/Subject/Thread Starter/Open Date/Close Date

At a glance this gives shoppers immediate information on important timelines. The threadstarter puts this info in. There were coops at cubits that were drug out over the course of a year and a half.

Palomino33 said:
What might would be more organized to see....
Click on Coops....see subject adenium (sp) coop, click on that
and within that....you will see the threads that are specifically related to THAT coop. It will keep all of his threads grouped together.

I love this idea. It would work very well in many of the forums. Would love to see it in mine. Right now all the threads, because of the move and format, are just a big long line of topics. It would be more useful to have them separated into threads on topic.
Chat
Succulent Nurseries
---1.
---2.
---3.
Ways to Use Succulents
---1. Raised Beds, Containers and Borders
---2. Wreaths, Topiary and Walls
Web Specials
---1.
---2.

I don't want to discourage anyone from giving great ideas, such as is happening in this thread, but I wanted to say that I have some ideas on improving this system, but I'm not ready to do anything with it yet. For right now, I'm not going to add any extra layers to the forum system.

But we will have some ideas coming at some point in the future.

Dave I can't wait to see them.

just watching and listening.

Please don't change this from the one Forum Concept as per the entire topic. Like they are now.

Dave said:
>> I have some ideas on improving this system, but I'm not ready to do anything with it yet. ...
>> But we will have some ideas coming at some point in the future.

I'm eager to see what Dave comes up with: clearly he knows how to design websites to incline them toward particular purposes.

I had an idea, wacky and probably not simple enough to be usable, but I want to toss it out there. (I like keywords and filters.)

Give each large forum a short kist of keywords, maintained by the moderator to keep it short and relevant. Probably one keyword would be 'general' or 'all' that matches any filter. Probably one keyword would mean "mostly chat". Another might mean "gardening-related but off-topic to this forum".

When a thread is started, give the poster the option of specifying certain keywords for that thread. (Default to "general" or "all".)

Let the moderator add or subtract keywords from each thread (for example, to handle thread drift and new keyword additions).

Give each ATP member a persistent filter for each forum.
This would be the list of keywords, with a checkbox for each keyword.

Usually a user would set her filter once for each large forum of interest, and edit it only seldom.

One button in each forum would turn my filter on and off for that forum ("See All Threads in this forum" vs. "See My Filtered Threads").

When entering a forum, OR-filter the thread titles displayed by keyword.
Either hide non-matching thread titles, or just move them below the matching titles.

I had to get that off my chest even if it adds too much complexity for too little benfit. But it would let one go into the "Seeds" forum and filter on collecting, trading or germinating. Or go into an "everything" forum and filter on soil, compost and bio-organic.

Besides an aid to daily browsing, it would let one hunt through many forums for a topic of interest, keyword-based instead of plain text-searching.

There might also be a forum-wide search feature where you could check any keyword from any forum, and display threads from any forum that contained any of those keywords. (That would make it desirable for forums themsleves to select most of their keywords from a site-wide-list of sugegsted keywords.)

Text-searching is so seldom practical unless the search tool jumps you right TOO the matches. Finding 50 threads with a phrase of interest is not that practical if you have to scroll through the whole thread or use a browser 'find on this page' when the thread has multiple pages.

Corey

Geez, when I post a message I just post a message. I don't want to have to answer a quizz about my post

Here's another wacky or impractical idea.

Perhaps users could turn some columns on or off in the list of forums, or list of threads within a forum. I never care about the date-of-last-post or who posted the first or last msg. If there were fewer columns, each row could be one line long instead of wrapping to two lines.

More difficult would be forcing the display to show two whole columns of thread titles on each page, if they fit. Or perhaps give the user a button to display "concise titles".

Often I make my browser text size larger, but only seem able to find "too small" and "too big". Thus I'm either squinting or very little fits on each screen.


Corey

Rita,

>> I don't want to have to answer a quizz about my post

Was that directed to me? I wasn't asking you anything or commenting on your post.

I was just throwing some ideas out there because they occured to me. I doubt Dave needs suggestions, but I like tossing around "what-if" ideas.

Corey

Rita, I'm sure whatever Dave rolls out will be intuitive and very easy to use. So far bopping around ATP is very intuitively done with very ittle learning curve. Just great old and new forums to explore.

I think brainstorming (throwing ideas out) are a great way for us all to learn and find new innovative ways to do things.
My brain is trying to wrap itself around what your ideas would look like Corey. I'm one of those people that has to see something to understand it.

I also understand how Rita feels, many people just want to come read and post in the simplest possible way they can, just for the pure joy of participating.

Change has always been difficult for me, as it may be for many others. But I am finding, late in life, that in challenging myself to learn all the new things Dave presents brings such a great feeling of accomplishment. Now I look forward to being challenged to learn more.

Dave's new Sandbox forum is a fantastic innovation. What a great place to feel free trying out new features of ATP without goofing up your post someplace else. Heck your expected to goof up! All the great advice and jocularity (got that from Father Mulcahey on MASH) helps as well.

I just don't want it to be changed from easy which it is now. I do realise that everyone has a different view of what might be best but want to keep it simple. I am sure Dave will take care of things so that all of us are pleased with the results.

He always does, that's for sure. : )

Corey, love your suggestion about text search.