It seems to me that the Cemetech forum is well-oriented for Cemetech projects, but makes it fairly difficult to post about your own projects and find topics about other people's projects. I propose reorganizing the forum index in some way to make it easier to post about BASIC and ASM programs and projects in progress. We currently have the following categories:

Announcements: Announcements, Lab, Program Releases, Contents, Suspended. Perhaps merge Announcements and Program Releases?

General Discussion: General Open Topic, Tech Open Topic, EE/HW Dev, Calc Hardware, Community News, Politics, Rants, Reviews, Humor: I think Rants and Politics could possibly be merged somehow, and Community News is the main subforum that probably needs to be expanded somehow, possibly into three different subfora: member features, member projects, and project ideas, perhaps? Please opine.

Cemetech Projects: BASIC Elite. Building with Blocks, Doors CS, mobileTunes, SourceCoder, Other, Website, Suggestions: I think mobileTunes should get merged with some other threads into Other Cemetech Calc Projects, then what should happen with the Elite? Keep, or merge into BASIC?

Member Features: TIFreak8x, Swivelgames, Axe: Merge each of these subfora into the Member Features subforum? Note that there's no way for me to have separate sub-sub-fora for each.

Freebuild: I think these are fine for now, but should get moved below Programming, at least until the project is finished.

Programming: General should probably be at the top, then BASIC, then z80 ASM, then Web, Graphics, Tips?

Please help me figure this out. The goal is to maintain the site focus on Cemetech projects, news-wise and as far as the Projects section goes, but possibly add a Member Features section to the projects tab at the top of the page, and promote people developing and publicizing their projects here more. We have evolved into a somewhat z80-ASM-centric site, so I'd like to build on that without losing the BASIC focus as well. Ideas! Brainstorm! Comment!
Looks good. I suggest renaming "Member Features" to "Member/Community Projects", since that's more clear.

Also, Politics/Rants could be general offtopic.

And also, potentially add a little subforum in that called OTCalc? Wink
(I'd like for some potential sync between Omnimaga and Cemetech, if possible.)
alberthrocks wrote:
Looks good. I suggest renaming "Member Features" to "Member/Community Projects", since that's more clear.

Also, Politics/Rants could be general offtopic.

And also, potentially add a little subforum in that called OTCalc? Wink
(I'd like for some potential sync between Omnimaga and Cemetech, if possible.)
If anything it would be a subfora of Member/Community Projects but like Kerm has said, when he sees more real progress I'm sure he wouldn't mind making a subforum.
TheStorm wrote:
alberthrocks wrote:
Looks good. I suggest renaming "Member Features" to "Member/Community Projects", since that's more clear.

Also, Politics/Rants could be general offtopic.

And also, potentially add a little subforum in that called OTCalc? Wink
(I'd like for some potential sync between Omnimaga and Cemetech, if possible.)
If anything it would be a subfora of Member/Community Projects but like Kerm has said, when he sees more real progress I'm sure he wouldn't mind making a subforum.


That's fine with me. I would still like some slight integration though Smile I don't exactly enjoy crossposting topics. Razz
I propose you Promote active members to admins, or at least Gmods. They'll be able to move topics and create sub-fora for member projects.

I think having a few fora for basic, asm, axe, c, etc then the popular projects can get promoted to their own member sub-fora. I rarely see any admins logged in aside from you Kerm, next is tifreak and I rarely see rivereye. Having more and active gmods and admins can be beneficial I believe.

Post again when I'm on lu ch and or off work
I am on quite a bit comicICIOT, you just don't see me posting quite as often as I used to. I still read many of the topics posted here.
Comic, I have no problem promoting a few more people. Did you have anyone in mind, other than yourself?

Regarding the subfora for Member Features and Member Projects (the former being things Cemetech/me/its admins think are really cool and awesome projects, and the latter being anything that members want to post about that they're working on), it sounds like sub-sub fora would be the best option, but at this point that's not feasible unless I did some annoyingly non-trivial modding to the forum. Would the effort be worth it, do you think? I don't want to have tons and tons of subfora cluttering up the forum index is my main concern.

Excellent feedback! Keep it coming, please. Smile
Kerm, I would like to vote against myself. I think having a non [calc] programmer as an admin would be a little odd. I think someone who programs on or for the calculator and also shows signs of maturity and premeditated posts would be ideal. Talking about who to choose is best suited for private chat Wink

rivereye wrote:
I am on quite a bit comicICIOT, you just don't see me posting quite as often as I used to. I still read many of the topics posted here.
Ah, aight. Smile
Comic, fair enough, although we have indeed expanded to general hardware modding and technology and programming, so someone preeminent in any of those domains would be suitable. I think Merth shows promise as someone who might merit promoting, and there's a few others that I have my eye on. So what do people think about the structure, and the idea of sub-sub-fora?
Hmm.... sounds as if this forum is either phpBB2, heavily modded, or phpBB3 themed and slightly modded. Razz I'm pretty sure you could do layered forums in phpBB3?

For the suggested structure, it looks good!
alberthrocks wrote:
Hmm.... sounds as if this forum is either phpBB2, heavily modded, or phpBB3 themed and slightly modded. Razz I'm pretty sure you could do layered forums in phpBB3?

For the suggested structure, it looks good!
Its phpBB2 heavily modded, very heavily modded. Razz
TheStorm wrote:
alberthrocks wrote:
Hmm.... sounds as if this forum is either phpBB2, heavily modded, or phpBB3 themed and slightly modded. Razz I'm pretty sure you could do layered forums in phpBB3?

For the suggested structure, it looks good!
Its phpBB2 heavily modded, very heavily modded. Razz
Very extremely heavily modified. Very Happy Deep down it started as phpBB, but grew and grew in terms of complexity and modding, to the point where the day when I need to upgrade it to phpBB3 is going to be mind-boggling difficult.

Edit: So topics for feature projects in the Member Features subforum, at least until I get the downtime to implement something more complex, wouldn't be the end of the world for anyone?
KermMartian wrote:
Comic, fair enough, although we have indeed expanded to general hardware modding and technology and programming, so someone preeminent in any of those domains would be suitable.
Seconded. While not every member brings programming experience *coughcoughme* to the community they may bring other insights, traits and other beneficial traits for that community.

Quote:
I think Merth shows promise as someone who might merit promoting,
Again, something I think that should be taken through private channels.

Though I do think that members should have a certain number of posts on an active forum like this. Whether it be 100 or 1000. But setting some standard will help drive better posts in current and future users who wish to be any type of administrator.

Quote:
and there's a few others that I have my eye on.
Same here as well. One of these days - via IM, Skype & a UT Session or TXT - we should converse.

Quote:
So what do people think about the structure, and the idea of sub-sub-fora?
I like it. I think if we get more member forums up, the more experience they'll have being an admin. Even if it is in their own small fora. And when you look for admins again you and the admins can judge how well they have administered their fora as well as their post quality.

Some nifty things I think we should look should be (mostly) recent memory. Has the user posted with quality, do they detail problems/bugs or questions so other members are stalled on fixing or answering. Do they post with decent punctuation? Do they know they're theirs from there, or how two count too to? Have they been good in the past? The last thing we need is an old member who had a history for trouble getting drunk on power and making the forum no fun for people. Also, was the members posts beneficial: Did the topic starter or other members benefit from any content generated by the user?

But I'm sure you know to account for all that.

As for number of posts. It's great in theory: promotes activity, the user matures and gets familiar with the rules and other small side affects. 100 posts may be too low and 1000 posts may be slightly too high, but if you do go with a post limit, it should be upwards of 700, 800. I wouldn't complain much if it was 1000.

But, the downside is that new members will strive to meet the post limit then eventually give up and likely leave the forum for another that will promote them easier, faster view the site as "rank" based and not stay for multiple discussions. Having an open post count policy makes the whole game a little more fair to users who meet the requirements aside from the post count. If the post limit is 800, we may have a member with 600 posts that have no form of structure and effort then 200 posts that have more and more structure with more and more effort while a member from the start has 300 posts with steady structure and effort in every post.
comicIDIOT wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
Comic, fair enough, although we have indeed expanded to general hardware modding and technology and programming, so someone preeminent in any of those domains would be suitable.
Seconded. While not every member brings programming experience *coughcoughme* to the community they may bring other insights, traits and other beneficial traits for that community.
Definitely, and I'm always willing to have the forum expand to new area if a gmod/admin and many members are interested or passionate about that area.

comicIDIOT wrote:
Though I do think that members should have a certain number of posts on an active forum like this. Whether it be 100 or 1000. But setting some standard will help drive better posts in current and future users who wish to be any type of administrator.
I think those considered for promotion should indeed have a certain number of posts and have been on the forum for a while (as well as having posted with proper spelling and grammar the majority of the time Razz ), but I don't want to set any hard-and-fast limits and minimums on one hand, nor guarantees of promotion at certain numbers on the other hand.

comicIDIOT wrote:
Quote:
So what do people think about the structure, and the idea of sub-sub-fora?
I like it. I think if we get more member forums up, the more experience they'll have being an admin. Even if it is in their own small fora. And when you look for admins again you and the admins can judge how well they have administered their fora as well as their post quality.

Some nifty things I think we should look should be (mostly) recent memory. Has the user posted with quality, do they detail problems/bugs or questions so other members are stalled on fixing or answering. Do they post with decent punctuation? Do they know they're theirs from there, or how two count too to? Have they been good in the past? The last thing we need is an old member who had a history for trouble getting drunk on power and making the forum no fun for people. Also, was the members posts beneficial: Did the topic starter or other members benefit from any content generated by the user?
No arguments from me. After I try the reorganization and see how it looks, I'll glance through the users list, have a few discussions with various admins and gmods and members, and see where we stand.
*bump* In preparation for some minor upgrades, I have over several days spent five minutes at a time breaking Cemetech by switching it from PHP4 to PHP5. I have been able to track down the known issues, so Cemetech is now running fully under PHP5. Please test out all the normal forum features, plus SourceCoder, the mobileTunes converter, SAX, the Document DE converter, and all our other features to make sure everything still works.
Wish I had seen this a bit sooner before you went to all that work.

I think things look ok, though I always thought it was nice for the featured people to show on the index, mainly because of getting more exposure. I am not sure how many people bother to look at 'posts since last visit' but I for one mainly just glance over the index page to see what new posts I haven't looked at yet. There are probably a lot of people like that. Something I noticed on Omnimaga and Revsoft, things could be quiet for quite a while, but when I go to make a post, suddenly someone else has activity to post as well, like it is some sort of competition.

At the end of the day though, this -is- your site, so if you like it, then go with it. :p

Also, the icon needs to be changed over to Cemetech format, and lined up with the others. Is it also possible to move the listing of subforums to be under the description, as how it shows moderators for subforums? Just a thought.
tifreak8x wrote:
Wish I had seen this a bit sooner before you went to all that work.

I think things look ok, though I always thought it was nice for the featured people to show on the index, mainly because of getting more exposure. I am not sure how many people bother to look at 'posts since last visit' but I for one mainly just glance over the index page to see what new posts I haven't looked at yet. There are probably a lot of people like that. Something I noticed on Omnimaga and Revsoft, things could be quiet for quite a while, but when I go to make a post, suddenly someone else has activity to post as well, like it is some sort of competition.

At the end of the day though, this -is- your site, so if you like it, then go with it. :p
I hear your concerns, and they're certainly valid. I think it's worth it to give this a try, see how it works out, and I'm more than happy to revert or try something even more different if it doesn't work out. Smile

tifreak8x wrote:
Also, the icon needs to be changed over to Cemetech format, and lined up with the others. Is it also possible to move the listing of subforums to be under the description, as how it shows moderators for subforums? Just a thought.
Done and done with the icon; I agree that the subforums should be lined up under the description (and have their font size fixed, as well).

Edit: I have made AdonisTech a subsubforum of Suspended, merged Admin Sauce into Suspended, updated the descriptions of Cemetech Announcements and Cemetech Labs, merged Program Releases into Cemetech announcements, fixed permissions on the Member Features subforum, fixed the Programming->General subforum's description and moved it to the top of Programming, renamed Programming to Programming & Design, and merged Politics into Rants, now renamed Politics & Rants and with an updated description. How does this strike everyone so far? Any comments, suggestions, questions, and concerns?
I read through the changes and checked out the feel of the new layout, and I must say I like it, good work. One suggestion I have: have subforums in each programming category for stuff like "Projects in Progress", "Completed Projects", "Help", etc...

It might take a while, but would make each of those categories less broad, good idea?
xXEpicxXXxFailXx wrote:
I read through the changes and checked out the feel of the new layout, and I must say I like it, good work. One suggestion I have: have subforums in each programming category for stuff like "Projects in Progress", "Completed Projects", "Help", etc...

It might take a while, but would make each of those categories less broad, good idea?
I think it's definitely an interesting idea! What do others think of this idea?

BTW, I made some more changes, including making BASIC Elite and MobileTunes subsubfora of Other, now called Other, Upcoming, and Defunct.
tifreak8x wrote:
...though I always thought it was nice for the featured people to show on the index, mainly because of getting more exposure.
A valid point indeed. The member features never got that many views anyways when they aren't active. Whenever the author posted, there would be activity for a while. So the chances of the topic appearing in SAX or in the recent posts on the front page is pretty likely. To spur more views on topic, KermMartian, the recent posts should be changed to "Recent Topics?" As I'm writing this post, "Same Sex Marriage" popped up six times in a row.

Quote:
I am not sure how many people bother to look at 'posts since last visit'
I do every time I visit. I've gotten into the habit, though.

Quote:
but I for one mainly just glance over the index page to see what new posts I haven't looked at yet. There are probably a lot of people like that.
Another idea, would be to have small text links underneath the topic, like now, but instead of a run-on list, it'd be a fully <ul><li> list with a recent post thread and time by it. Bold if there was a new post since last visit, non-bold otherwise.

Quote:
Something I noticed on Omnimaga and Revsoft, things could be quiet for quite a while, but when I go to make a post, suddenly someone else has activity to post as well, like it is some sort of competition.
Cemetech feels like that from time to time, but for the most part we have other topics that are active.

KermMartian wrote:
xXEpicxXXxFailXx wrote:
One suggestion I have: have subforums in each programming category for stuff like "Projects in Progress", "Completed Projects", "Help", etc...

It might take a while, but would make each of those categories less broad, good idea?
I think it's definitely an interesting idea! What do others think of this idea?
Hm. Having a broad range for a topic isn't a bad idea. If you nest things inside of sub-forums people aren't going to know where to look and just start mis-categorizing topics. I deal with the similar with a photo group I lead that has ~2,500 members. So it's a real challenge to make the categories intuitive and easy to navigate.

Here, with the Progress, Completed & Help topics, it'd be best to leave the parent topics as they are. No sub-forums. Once a project is compeleted an Admin, Mod or GMod would have to move the topic. And that's petty work I don't think anyone really wants to do. Anyone who reads the last page of a topic should know if it's completed. Or if the OP updates the first post so new readers can follow knowing the project is completed or not (and the current status).

I don't think having those topics would be directly beneficial and the extra work makes that idea less appealing.
  
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