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Quote from Gunn :

and any warning pop-ups suggesting to use the search feature

...it's just that I thought you understood that it was a simple "Search Please" popup...I was'nt trying to be whitty, I was just pointing it out.

Quote from Gunn :

I think if the section is left as it is the problem won't get any better or worse and any changes that people are suggesting here won't make the problem any better or worse.
Yesterday 03:13

Quote from Gunn :

You might think that I have misunderstood but that would be because you don't understand.

..well managing forums is not something I have done before and all the suggestions in here by various members was just an attempt to help...

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XCNuse's suggestion - Automatic post thread creation search of new thread title.

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Duke_toaster's suggestion - Pre-moderated threads

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CSU's suggestion - subsections

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Bob Smith's - Close the IS forum

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ajp71's suggestion - see csu's sig

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Dawedust_12's suggestion - thread status indicators

Quote from Gunn :

Pre-moderation is not feasible, sub forums would be unnecessary clutter and wouldn't stop newcomers from posting in the main area anyway, and any warning pop-ups suggesting to use the search feature would be heeded by perhaps one in a hundred visitors.

Thats 100% clear Gunn...what do you think I dont understand Im sure whatever the mods decide is best...just please please dont let the locksmith loose aaaargh! I can hear them keys

Sorry to disagree with you, Gunn, but I like the subforums idea, personally. I don't think it would add clutter, because there are several of these subforum that I'd never visit (like track or car requests). So for me it would actually reduce the clutter.

It would probably be easy and not so time consuming for the mods to move to the right subforum the messages that have been posted at the first level. And I'm sure that people posting in the wrong place would be flamed often enough to make them think twice about it the next time. And that's on the assumption that you cannot make it impossible to post at the first level (which I'm sure you could).

Some people like posting their ideas, even if they already have been discussed to death, and others like to flame the former ones. Fine, let them do it. I think there's no way to prevent it anyway. But make it easy for those who aren't interested to ignore it.

IMO the search feature could also be improved by restricting the basic search to the current subforum, and by selecting automatically the subforum you came from in the advanced search screen instead of the current "Search All Open Forums". Without this change, I think the advanced search would be the only place where such subforums would add clutter.

Edit: I voted no, BTW.

Flip

Yes, something needs to be done!

1. Search2post (it needed a catchy name) - Yes it would be excellent, however I dont think its enough.

2. Sticky the common perpetual threads (those that duplicate every time they fall off the first page). - I think this is the most efficient of all suggestions (best effect from least amount of work). Preferably combined with creating a start post with a brief description and a few comon arguments. This would create a full page of stickies, which is bad, see next idea for a sollution.

3. IS.moderated & IS.public (old usenet idea). Create a new locked subforum IS.moderated, move unique suggestions there, put the unlocked IS as a subforum to this one. - I dont know how much work it would be for the mods, maybe its easy to create an "aprove" button. Variant of this would be to create a subforum IS.trash and move all bad posts there (with a comment on why ofcourse)

4. Lock all spam immediately, with a simple comment like "learn to use search", "learn to put usable subject" etc. - Ive seen this work quite well in similar forums it takes awhile for ppl to learn and TS has a high newb-factor so it might not work at all.

5. Edit the subject immediately when needed, I realy hate those "I got an idea"/"We need this"/"Please devs"/"Scawen!!!!!11oneone" -posts. - I beleve this would be too much work for the mods tough.

6. Rework the "Suggested improvements log" imho it´s useless since it should prevent the current mess and it doesnt, maybe split it up into threads in a subforum (and combine with 2,3 and 5) - This would be alot of initial work, I can volunteer to threadify a coupple of pages if needed.

Quote from heson :

6. Rework the "Suggested improvements log" imho it´s useless since it should prevent the current mess and it doesnt, maybe split it up into threads in a subforum (and combine with 2,3 and 5) - This would be alot of initial work, I can volunteer to threadify a coupple of pages if needed.

If you have any specific ideas how to make the suggested improvements log more useful or clearer, please tell me . Dividing the thread into 3 or more threads will just make it harder to look for already suggested ideas, browse through the ideas and especially make it just more work to keep the threads up to date. An how to divide the threads in the first place?

What about making a locked thread where to all new threads are moved if the subject is old. Kinda like the Cleanup : Posts moved here after processing -thread. Although it requires some moderation work and obviously some whining will occur when peoples' precious ideas are thrown there...

If you want the sticky log thread cleaning up, drop me a PM with post numbers to remove and I'll tidy them away. I've not read the thread in ages, might drop in an do it all myself. Perhaps a few beers will stop it getting boring.

I found this little gem through a friend, a vB mod that automatically searches for similar threads when you try and create a new one, can be turned on only for certain forums as well...

http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=151714

Certainly worth considering I think

Hmm, cool. Will point Vic in this direction.