Forum Facelift

Please put your thoughts, ideas and suggestions here -- a wish list for new, improved Second Life forums.

free snacks



Uhm...hmm... well by default having private messaging turned on would be nice. Wanting to send one to someone without them being able to (And them often not knowing it) sucks. Sure, allow them to be turned off, but by default I think on is better.

ETA:: I second Ordinal's post, about the bbcode enabled.

 is used tons for scripts, and URLs not working right is just silly.

_BBCode enabled_. Particularly the

 tag (which is more use than 
CODE
).

You beat me to it.

Off the top of my head:

1. Keep vbulletin.
2. Concern yourselves with maintaining it (ie. patch it immediately whenever patches become available).
3. NEVER disable BBCODE again.
4. Bring back General Discussion.
5. Bring back Lindens to play with, such as your good self, Jeska, Guy and Torley.

I was going to post, but this says everything I was thinking.

How about dividing what is now 'Resident Answers' into two parts:

(1) 'Rants and Raves' (something like on Craigslist), and

(2) 'Resident Answers' that are really resident answers!

Make them readable by anyone with a SL login.

Close it and move everything in-world.

ewww no. THen I wouldn't be able to do anything fun while at school >.<

*chimes in with BBcode*

Appointing/overseeing more (active) resmods would be nice too .

Robin, first, I'd like to thank you for asking. There's been a lot of talk here about how to improve/fix/change/ruin the forums and it's nice to know there are Lindens interested in what we think.

I think opening up a General Discussions area is a good idea. Resident Answers works but is prone to fits of navel-gazing that might be better suited to a GD area.

Working BBC code would make the forums easier to read, and easier to use as well since answers often lie in snips of LSL or helpful URLs posted by residents.

Finally, a moderator or team of moderators with a clear directive and a robust presence would help a lot.

Those are the biggies I can think of at the moment. Again, thanks for asking.

Maybe get some of the other Lindens to volunteer to help your new Forums boss every now and then when times are busy.

If we are returning to Linden Moderation, it would be a shame for her to get discouraged like other Mods have.

My vote would be for these forums to remain strictly support oriented and "community/social" networking take place on 3rd party sites. This is an opinionated group and unless you are willing to provide 24/7 active moderation it turns into drama central - which reflects badly on both LL and SL.

- Make the forums read only without a login, so everyone can read them.
- Give us a skinning forum. I already have a classic skin for Dazzle and another one I'm working on just to create something new, but I'm not sure where to post them, and a forum section would be great for feedback.

My $0.02.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!

Suuuuuuure they do...

Tops on every ones list I’m sure are more shiny emotes

I think there will always be a need for community/social networking on these forums,

Because if theres no outlet provided people will do it here anyway.

Resident Answers proved that.

---------------------

Its like your parents trying to tell you who not to date ..

When you are 35.

I see my name on the list of volunteers, I'm awaiting eagerly further instructions.

My thoughts?

I'd add....

1) The ability for non-payment residents to read the forums, if not post. I'd also considering extending this ability to non-logged in users. I can't be alone in, before deciding whether to sign up to something, wanting to check out the official forums to see what's going on in that place.

2) Definitely fix the php stuff so tags work properly.

3) A "let off steam" forum that is loosely moderated, with people KNOWING that they are likely to get flamed, attacked etc, and 'reported posts' only acted on in case of a few extreme cases such as giving out real life information.

4) Break the link between forum and in-world bans.

5) When issuing warnings etc, make sure the person receiving it actually gets told what it is they've done, with the part(s) of the post(s) that warranted that action. I've seen so much frustration from people receiving warnings only to have no clue why.

6) An in-world location for "forumites" to meet and discuss things - a bit like a more advanced version of Help Island.

7) A "first life" forum where people can talk about non-SL related issues.

10 Free regions for life for every volunteer... well... I can try can't I?

No! no! no!

The forum is the place to go when SL is down, if it's in-world, we can not complain when we need to.

At the risk of saying "me too."

BBCode re-enabled

Additional resident moderation or some nature, at least to help keep things from going off the tracks.

Integration with the blog in some fashion.

Some forum area which allows more of an SL-focused but still general discussion.

Keep the classified section as is.

Mari

My comments about the interactivity of the forums in world rather then what you can/cannot do in the forum itself.

From a purley interactive point of view in world, my first thought was issue everyone with a hud that they can choose to wear or not. This hud can be tucked away to any of the sides of the screen when not in use. leaving visible a power switch, a new message icon, and a support blog icon. If the hud is opened onto the screen, it should take up 2/3 of the screen from the right to left, leaving a gap to see any in world messages that may be coming in to you in real time. Also when the hud is opened, the actual avatar will then bring out a PC tablet and start to write on it , to indicate to others that they are looking at the forums.

Thats the visual side of things

When the hud is opened, there should be selections available to the resident, being :
FORUMS
SUPPORT BLOG
Even with this setup Video messages from residents to other residents in a video mail effect

If the hud is closed and there is an update to a forum you are watching, then the 'new message icon' should flash, if a new critical alert is released from a linden (perhaps tie in a RSS reader or something in to the hud) then it alarms point out there is a system issue ( though it already be apparent to the resident before the message ( lol )


Thats my idea anyway... ) if it cant be done, oh well, I had a go )


Thanks

Bring back a more general discussion area.

Feed blog entries into the forums so we can debate blogs between ourselves.

Don't bring too many Lindens into the forums, you'll get flamed to hell and that's not a constructive communication channel.

Do more of what you're doing in this very thread and ask for responses to suggestions and new features before they happen, Livejournal are doing it. This may sound lile it contradicts the above point but there's a logic there honest.

Say hello to Katt for us and tell her we don't all bite.

ya put back the features for smiles and other formatting XD haveing none of those options are like totally lame without them

Wow, I actually agree with most everything Broccoli has listed.

I suggest closing the forums completely. They serve no purpose other than to give a small but very vocal minority a place to push their agendas. The resident answers section is heavily abused by these same people.