Various forum issues: Signatures, Board Index, ...

[jacob]

First,

Please don't sign your name at the bottom of each post. This [ban] is an ancient tradition that dates back to a time when bandwidth was precious and 200 extra bytes actually mattered. However, it also takes up extra lines and makes it annoying to skim while really contributing nothing. Your name is already in the header and sidebar. If you do it anyway, I'm going to go ahead and manually delete it, but ... I'd rather not spend time doing that, so

Second,

I occurs to me that the Topic names in the Board Index aren't really optimal. It's really hard to make a split so that threads are evenly distributed and everything doesn't end up in one or two threads. I can make new ones if so desired. It seems like Health is a popular topic, but it doesn't have it's own forum. Conversely, money questions are hugely popular (ARGH!), so maybe that should be split up. Only 8 threads have ever been started in Joint Projects so maybe that should be merged with Classifieds which could also merge with meetups. Suggestions?

[black_son_of_gray]

Just a suggestion for a name: Joint Projects + Classifieds + Meetups = "ERE community" topic? Seems like these are the topics where forum members interact directly.

[jennypenny]

I like the idea of combining all of the ERE Community categories together. Where would dating questions go -- into Community or Friends and Family? That should be made clear.

We definitely need a health and fitness category. Would/should this include questions about medicine and health insurance? I'm never sure if a question about medical insurance is a health question or a money question. Maybe all insurance questions should be in one category?

I'd also like to see a food category that's separate from DIY. Maybe combine food and gardening? It's one of the 'big 3' for ERE, so it probably warrants its own category. As a community (myself included), I think we've done a mediocre job at best of addressing this topic.

Maybe the Introduce Yourself category should include "where to start" questions?

I hate breaking up categories, but I can see how splitting the money category up might help. Maybe ...
-- Management and Budgeting (could include insurance questions, tax questions, etc)
-- Savings and Investing (geared more towards the accumulation phase) <-- Would this include RE investing? Or should there be another category for non-traditional investments and income sources?
-- Post-ERE issues (SWR, income strategies, tax questions related to stuff like 72(t), etc)


I'd add or change Miscellaneous to include topics that are Just For Fun, but that might be considered anathema to INTJs.

[fiby41]

Bring ERE Journals to spot 3 on the index. It has the highest chance of getting new visitors who are interested in the forum involved and make an account.

[m741]

I never browse by category. I'd say that "active topics" should be given more prominence. If you visit every day or two, you're likely to see all active threads on a single page. It shouldn't be hidden under "quick links".

[henrik]

I agree with m741. I have no idea what category anything is posted under.
The forum history is huge, any manual browsing by category is unlikely to be useful to anyone searching for anything.

[jacob]

@m741, henrik - This has come up before. I believe the previous answer was that it's "sort of hard" because the forums use the default template which hides active topics under quick links.

I only check active topics as well.

[DSKla]

I always use "active topics".

[rube]

'Unread posts' is what I use 98% of the time

[m741]

After some quick research, I believe that making Active Topics (and Unread Posts) more prominent is pretty straightforward with FTP access, a matter of updating the template file. Displaying embedded active topics on the index page, or something like that, is more difficult. But personally, I'd be happy with those as some kind of bold link at the top of the index, and would be happy to help out.

[Natha]

One could also use the following extension to add an active topics link to the forum: https://github.com/nfillmore/phpbb-activetopicslink

[GandK]

I agree about Active Topics. I go there, look at any random topic I'm interested in, and read journals if I have time. Then I click on Board Index and "Mark forums read."

My only request is that we be able to "Mark (all) forums read" from Active Topics, if possible. It would save me a step.

[slsdly]

I just bookmark "Active Topics" so that it floats to the top of the URL bar when I start to type. I hate changing templates because when it comes to upgrading the forum software, you need to merge in your changes, instead of just "blow it away, the database has everything important." But I'm not the one responsible for that .

[bryan]

I agree about Active Topics. I go there, look at any random topic I'm interested in, and read journals if I have time. Then I click on Board Index and "Mark forums read."

My only request is that we be able to "Mark (all) forums read" from Active Topics, if possible. It would save me a step.

Came here to type this.

Also add to "Unread posts"

[1taskaday]

I would love if there was a Topic on the Board Index for people who have transitioned to retirement/FI and the challenges they encountered.

This information is critical for all of us on the journey...probably still not that many to make it an active topic.

[jacob]

Okay ppl, all requests for convenient links denied

... because bigato's and my convenience supersede yours. If you want a convenient link, just bookmark it and put it in the toolbar of your browser already. The main priority of "management" is to keep the forum software administration at an absolute minimum.

However, should anyone (m741?) be interested and capable of messing around, I'll consider it. The thing that's on my mind is that "I" will probably have to maintain this show for another 5-10-20 years ... whereas the probability of any given person to stay around [this forum] for that timeframe is---my guess---slim. Hence, ease of maintenance and transition from one admin to the next is of high priority.

[JamesR]

I find some of the topic names awkward. Specifically the ones that end in "Questions". Why? Because often when I make a post in that topic, it's not a question

[Tyler9000]

I notice this morning that the Quick Links drop down has lost most of its options. Has the Active Topic option been moved elsewhere? It makes the forum so much easier to browse.

[rube]

Tyler9000, I noticed earlier today (Europe time) that the website gave an error, so maybe some work is going on and the links will be back soon. At least I hope so because otherwise it is indeed difficult to find active topics fast.

[theanimal]

Jacob posted some updates on facebook. Apparently the site went down this morning and some functions are temporarily and/or permanently lost. Besides the quick links, the search bar is gone too.