We need a general reply button, not one that forces folks to make a specific reply tied to a given specific post.
The other thing, which is quite important to forum health and involvement, is very much like the bull and red cape thing..but it is essential to a healthy thriving forum.
Thread listings, in a given forum, must be tied to DATE, and not to PAGE SIZE.
Page size allows folks to miss threads that have recently been responded to, as they have fallen of the opening page, on busy days.
People are inherently lazy and can't respond to an activity that is out of their sight. Meaning, you cannot count on, or expect them to click and look at 'page two'. The threads that have been active, in any way, for lets say, the past two weeks, must be on page one.
Even if this means that there ends up being 50 to 100 thread listings in the opening page.
Right now, the limit seems to be about 10-15 threads. this is too limiting It must be adjusted as the forum grows, but the date sensitive instead of page size thread listing is critical to forum growth and getting the essentially lazy forum users to participate.
Sadly, two steps of clicking to see the next page is actually too much to expect.
Seriously.
What you have right now, is like attempting to compartmentalize the NYSE trading floor.
If one where to walk out to the existing NYSE trading floor, and then see how many people where trading and how animated they were..this could give them a single glance capacity to 'take it all in'.
Imagine if they were limited to rooms that were each 50 traders..and folks had to walk from room to room to see all of what was going on. This is what you have now.
Make the default page set up for users to be by DATE of last response, and limit to, oh, 50 threads listed, before the system flips to 'page two.
Participation WILL go up. This exact tactic was instituted early in the AVSForum system development, and it noticeably increased participation.
We need a general reply button, not one that forces folks to make a specific reply tied to a given specific post.
The other thing, which is quite important to forum health and involvement, is very much like the bull and red cape thing..but it is essential to a healthy thriving forum.
Thread listings, in a given forum, must be tied to DATE, and not to PAGE SIZE.
Page size allows folks to miss threads that have recently been responded to, as they have fallen of the opening page, on busy days.
People are inherently lazy and can't respond to an activity that is out of their sight. Meaning, you cannot count on, or expect them to click and look at 'page two'. The threads that have been active, in any way, for lets say, the past two weeks, must be on page one.
Even if this means that there ends up being 50 to 100 thread listings in the opening page.
Right now, the limit seems to be about 10-15 threads. this is too limiting It must be adjusted as the forum grows, but the date sensitive instead of page size thread listing is critical to forum growth and getting the essentially lazy forum users to participate.
Sadly, two steps of clicking to see the next page is actually too much to expect.
Seriously.
What you have right now, is like attempting to compartmentalize the NYSE trading floor.
If one where to walk out to the existing NYSE trading floor, and then see how many people where trading and how animated they were..this could give them a single glance capacity to 'take it all in'.
Imagine if they were limited to rooms that were each 50 traders..and folks had to walk from room to room to see all of what was going on. This is what you have now.
Make the default page set up for users to be by DATE of last response, and limit to, oh, 50 threads listed, before the system flips to 'page two.
Participation WILL go up. This exact tactic was instituted early in the AVSForum system development, and it noticeably increased participation.