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Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:12 pm
by goose_man
Well, the site does advertise that it has plans (under the Google search result) so expecting them isn't that unreasonable. Perhaps that should be changed, or simple to follow plans added. I wouldn't mind writing up some plans if it would get people to not ask for them.

-goose_man

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:19 pm
by MrCrowley
Ok I think we all agree on:
  • Making the wiki more obvious(bigger button/stand out more/better location)
  • Having a plans section/a button linking to a plans only section(seperate from how-to section. We could compile a bunch of plans and/or make some of our own.
  • Moving the How-to section further up the page or to a more visible location where it's right in front of you and not at the bottom of a page or in the top corner
And we are still deciding on a section just for new members, the wiki idea and a few new features(i'm discussing with the mods).

Which includes a feature that searches for similar topics when you type the title in for a new topic, it will bring up topics with similar titles.

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 9:45 pm
by silverdooty
post.

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:01 pm
by MrCrowley
silverdooty wrote:the content matter of this website draws a lot of young people. young people asks questions,older more knowledgeable people answer them. that is how it has worked for centuries. it doesn't matter how much information or access to it there is. some people get it, some don't. some require more than is offered or than they could find. it's human nature. i would be surprised if any one person on this site has all the knowledge.
Yes, we have already established that, we are just trying to make the process of going from no0b to knowledgeable member a lot quicker and easier for us and them.
silverdooty wrote:if you limit the amount a new person can post, he/she won't post. they might have something helpful, insightful, ingenious, but you will never find it on this forum.
We're not limiting them from posting, they could post all they want if they had their own section, it could even go un-moderated. They will have acess to the rest of the forum, they just can't post in it.
silverdooty wrote:the wiki contains a lot of information. unfortunately after the first couple of pages it is not the most organized. you can't expect someone to fully understand everything in the wiki if you have 23 dead-end pages and 13 orphaned pages, or titled like 'Howto1' or 'Best'. 2 pages of 'pneumatic cannon' or 'pneumatic cannons'. same with the hybrid cannon and hybrid cannons.
We have also already established that, hence some people volunteering to do it up a bit.
silverdooty wrote:the search feature of this board, plain and simple, sucks. this is a free forum script. it can be improved upon, many sites use this board and modify to their liking. without knowing the way to get results from the search engine it is almost impossible to find any real useful info.
Are you using the 'quick search' if so that's your problem. This search function on spudfiles is just as good as any other I have used.

If you know what to type in and have some common sense you can find any information on the site, it just may take up 5 minutes of your life. Think logically don't type in 'piston valve' if you are looking for a how-to on making them. Limit the search to the how-to section then try it but type ' piston AND valve' or something similar.
silverdooty wrote:organizing the front page and fixing the wiki should be the main concern. bring more focus to the wiki and how-to section on the front page. fix the quick search to 'search for all terms'.
Again we have been over this, did you read this whole thread?
silverdooty wrote:a lot of the information found on this site can be found elsewhere on the internet. spudfiles is one of the top results, but not the only result. all this information in one place would lead people to believe it is a good place to ask questions. is it or isn't it?
Spudfiles is the biggest spud gun web site after SGTC shut down, it has probably 95% of all spud gun information on it, only a few 'rogue' people with crappy free web sites aren't on spudfiles or don't have their stuff on it. Because SF is the biggest spud gun resource web site, it does take time to look for things because of the over-whelming information.
silverdooty wrote:when you over-mod a forum, the forum dies. new forums sprout and eventually the same thing happens, people want more modding. this is a forum about building spudguns. there are many different scenarios for assembling PVC and making it go boom, but they are not limitless. if you modded every post to useful info there would be very little left.
We're defiantly not over-modding this forum, there is a lot of stuff we let slide, and no not all forums die from over-modding. The only reason SGTC went down was because of hackers and Joels occupation, not because of their wonderful modding team. We don't mod every post, only crap ones made by no0bs, that's what we are trying to limit, I only mod a small percentage of the new topics, the rest are perfectly fine.
silverdooty wrote:have you ever wondered how many members are more spudgun knowledgeable than you, but just don't post? i would guess more than those who post.
No, if they are more knowledgeable chances are they are on this web site, I don't see someone just thinking of how to build some extreme valve better then a piston valve without coming across a site like this, that's if it is spud gun related. I'm sure there are loads of homemade firearms web sites out their with great info, they're just not interested in spud guns.

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:08 pm
by HaiThar
Maybe someone with PHP knowledge could construct a forum bot that looks for certain strings of words, or key words and can either lock a thread and answer it or possibly remove it, and send the person a PM about where to find the information??

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:12 pm
by MrCrowley
It would be a safer option doing it manually, it would lock/delete so many threads that are actually perfectly fine.

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:15 pm
by HaiThar
Of course it would have to be fine tuned, so as not to be hypersensitive...And it obviously wouldnt catch all the threads...What if it only looked at users who have less than 20 posts for example and didn't lock, just answered?

Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 10:18 pm
by MrCrowley
Answer with what? That still doesn't solve anything, me and the other mods have no problem answering to the postee, we're trying to stop the postee from posting that topic in the first place, not dealing with it after he has posted it which we already do.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:06 am
by super spuder
i kinda like the idea of having a section just for new people, how ever it may make some newbs mad, such as a 30 year old that has just decided to join that knows allot about spud guns. i like the idea about being able to flag posts that are "stupid" kinda like on youtube. i don't like the idea about no being able to post for 24 hours, then someone might join, realize they cant post for 24 hours, and either just close the window and never come back, or just come back in 24 hours and not have read anything. pretty much the bottom line is, spud gun websites will always attract you people, and you people ask allot of questions. one other idea i have seen on other sites (which i hate) is having to put in an Email address that is not free (including hotmail, camail, ecad) you need one from your ISP, i only have my Hotmail Email , so i just don't bother joining them :!:

sorry if i have any stupid mistakes in this post, its 1 am and im going to bed

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 12:14 am
by MrCrowley
Yeah flaggin posts isn't a bad idea, I can think of a few complications though.

It shouldn't make them mad if they're an experienced spudder because they can still post and read the rest of the forum, it's more or less a section where you can ask anything you want as a new member and learn the rules and post precedures while you're at it.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:43 am
by PCGUY
Woah guys, alright.

Yes phpBB is a free forum software, however it does not make it any worse than others out there. phpBB is used more than any of the pay forums out there, combined. The worlds largest forum is a phpBB forum.

Also yes boards can be modified, this is one of the many highly modified boards online. The search function works just as good as any other board.

There are many things to be added and changed, however to do it right now would ruin the point. phpBB 3 is just right around the corner, all that is needed for SpudFiles to move to it is a little while for people to develop more for phpbb3.

Theopia will be my testing grounds for converting over to 3, since it's much simpler and doesn't have as much traffic so minor downtime isn't as big of a deal as it is for SpudFiles to have downtime.

So far we have a small list assembled of requests, many of them sounding good. Keep working on the list. However we must remember that the forum can not be "too" controlling towards new members, since if you think about it... if you had your posts read by a bot, had to read something or pass a test to post, and was limited to 1 section till you were "older"... would you really have stuck around? Most people would find it bull, and that would only hurt SpudFiles.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:05 am
by silverdooty
PCGUY
i meant free as in open source. many forums are not so modifying them is 'illegal'.

MrCrowley
i read the entire thread and got something totally different than you. maybe you meant i should read the correspondence between you and the other mods you have been discussing this with. you might want to re-read my post with an open mind.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:32 pm
by MrCrowley
silverdooty wrote:PCGUY
i meant free as in open source. many forums are not so modifying them is 'illegal'.

MrCrowley
i read the entire thread and got something totally different than you. maybe you meant i should read the correspondence between you and the other mods you have been discussing this with. you might want to re-read my post with an open mind.
No I didn't mean that, I meant read all the posts where we had summed everything up and uncondtionally agreed what was good and what wasn't going to work.