VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION Forum Questions Format change

Is there a way for me to change the way this program displays information. Now, when I login, I see all the main headers, 1912-1928,1929-1932, etc., etc. Next to the headers are the number of topics, then the number of posts and last posted. I don't care how many posts have been made since they may not apply to a topic of interest to me nor do I want to know who made the last post for the same reason. What I would like to do is click on the number of topics number, say 4, and have that expand into a list that displays all topic descriptions and the number of posts to each topic. It would be real nice if after I see a topic of interest to me, when I click on it it expands to show all the posts and the date of the post in an outline format. Then I could look at each post in the sequence and respond to any post I wish.

I didn't see any way to setup my view of the forum in the help files but it has been my experience that help files are all but useless when it comes to solving a problem.

Thanks for the help,
Brian

If I understand what you are saying, that is available now. Try clicking on Ideas & Suggestions on the header portion, it should list all of the topics that are with-in the number of days you have set up to view the topics. Then you can click on the one of your choice and it should expand down.

Actually there is one other change that I can easily make... but I'm not sure that most people would like it any better. I can have the first page that you see, only show the main categories. Then you have to click on the category and it expands to list all of the forums under it.

I've shyed away from this since it causes you to have to click an extra time.... but it also reduces the clutter when you have lots and lots of categories...

So, if we continue to add categories, we might want to invoke this reduced view...

Finally, I may turn it on in the future for a 48 hour test and ask for feedback... the unfortunate thing is that we're not going to please everybody... ever! ha! So, we'll try to please as many as possible. :confused:

Thanks for the help. That makes it a lot easier. I never really liked the way Infopop makes their forum operate, to much junk that really just slows the system down and doesn't help me find what I need.

I wouldn't change the opening screen yet. If the screen becomes so large that it starts to take a long time to download, then I would try the other format. That way your not sitting there waiting for a bunch of stuff to download that isn't relavent to your needs.

Next questions - Why do I have icons at the bottom of my screen that are only functional for administrators/moderators, of which I think there are less than 15? Also, why do you show me forums that only they can use?

Brian

I'm not aware of any icons that are restricted to only moderators & administrators. Can you give me an example?

Also, I'm not aware of a simple way to "hide" forums that you are not privledged to see (eg. moderator forums). If you know of a way to improve on InfoPop, I'd sure be happy to experiment!

Thanks!

You might call them targets. At the bottom of the thread screen there are 7 targets/icons you can use New Topic, Post Reply, Close topic, etc. and of the seven, three are for administrators/moderators only.

I suppose your feeling for Infopop is based on how you use it. When I use this type of forum I am looking for help to solve a problem which means I'm confused or frustrated because something is not going the way I thought it would. I want to exchange information and if I see little greamlins all over the response I wonder how much I can trust the information. If I went to a doctor because I was sick I would not want him to use little graemlins or tell me about other diseases I don't have before he tells me what I need to know.

I've been thinking about this topic for a while, but I wasn't sure how to address it. I guess we are restricted within the "infopop" format? Some of you are familiar with the old classiccar.com site. It was very simple to get around in, mostly because all the topics under, say, "pre war" were clearly visible all at one glance along with the number of posts. Maybe I'm getting old (not THAT old), but this format is a little confusing, and seems like the long way around the block just to get next door. I, like a lot of you, are interested in ALL Chevrolets, and having to click on each separate heading to catch up on all the posts takes a lot of time, and it really takes a lot away from the close, club-like feel that I got from the classiccar site. Would it make sense to form maybe three sections in the main topic page: PREWAR, POSTWAR, and TRUCKS. Or maybe it could be divided into 6 CYLINDER, 8 CYLINDER, and TRUCKS. That's the beauty of Chevrolets- with a few exceptions they can be categorized very simply. In that way we are all more unified instead of divided by a certain year.
I would also like to see a GENERAL CHATTER section for not so technical topics and general friendly BS (the AACA has a section like this and it is very effective at kicking new ideas around).
Any thoughts?

Right now the requests are running about 10 to 1 for the addition of even more (and MORE) categories. Seems that people want their information already sliced and diced for them before they ever hit the forum homepage.

I predict that after we add another 5 to 10 categories, that we'll have to collapse the welcome page so that it only shows the major category headings and then you'll have to click to go down into the specific forums under that category (eg. 29-32).

Now, one feature that I've supported is the one that shows the last 25 postings (for the day) regardless of category. You can see it on the homepage in the upper right corner... if you want to get a listing of the active traffic, then that's the best single-click on the page.

Lastly, I think that you'll find a liberal quantity of what you called GENERAL CHATTER sprinkled thoroughout the forums... this will be more apparent as we get more postings... right now people are being pretty techie but it'll ease up as they get more comfortable with the format.

--bb
:rolleyes: