Praise for trying
Submitted by tesscawley on Sun 7th Feb 7.01pm
Web master, this is turning into a great web site.
Perhaps some thought could be put to; Archives for closed discussions and topics
A "Search button" within the web site.
Finding old stuff
Thanks for the positive comment Tess.
The older discussions aren't closed, they're still accessible even when they've slipped out of view. Perhaps the heading "Active forum topics" is misleading; maybe someone could suggest a better phrase.
You can see a list of ALL discussions by clicking on 'Discussion' on the top left and it shows you the discussion forum areas with descriptions. Clicking on one will show a list of topics under that heading. I hope this helps.
I've added a search function on the bottom right.
Any more comments - positive or negative?
Finding old stuff
Right, silly me, I did not think of that. But now I have tried it I am disappointed. It does not actually give the topic headings which is what I was looking for. You have to click again to one of the three headings; About this Site; General Discussion; Moan Zone; Perhaps the heading of General Discussion could be broken down into a dozen or so subjects of just one line taking you to the various subjects. I note the Moan Zone one is empty and that’s where I should have put this string … but actually I’m not sure how that works either!
Break down
The discussions could be broken down into more categories as you suggest Tess, but I'm not convinced it would actually be better. There are problems with how to create the categories: how should we divide reality into potential discussion topics? It would also mean more work in policing it to ensure people post a discussion in the right place so it doesn't get messy. I'm not saying 'no, never', just thinking it through.
I've participated on a number of other sites over the last few years and the forums which made the biggest impression on me are those on the Ship of Fools. Most other sites divide things by subject area, while SoF does it by style of discussion which seemed rather odd at first but I soon saw the advantages and after eight years there (!) I still think it's very sensible. SoF has 'Heaven' for frivolity, humour and cheerful banter, 'Purgatory' for serious debate and 'Hell' for no-holds-barred arguments, and it works very well.
I imagined something similar for CMO which is why I separated out the Moan Zone to keep heated discussions about speeding, parking and thoughtless non-poop-scoopers separate from those sharing jam recipes, plant exchanges, lift-shares, and enquiries about local history. Even this division is less important here, since swearing and personal attacks aren't allowed on CMO as they are in 'Hell' on the Ship.
I'm planning to implement a category system which will make it easier to find discussions which refer to a topic, even if the title doesn't make it obvious; see the separate discussion on Tags. I also intend to have an index of past contributed articles and picture collections so all content will be more easily accessible.
Please keep your comments and complaints coming; for the present, any discussion about CMO should go under 'About this site'.
Searching
The search box only seems to be available if you're logged in.
Is that what you intended, or could it also be available to visitors looking at the site?
It's a very good site for visitors and holidaymakers to look at when they're planning to visit the Corfe Mullen area.
Unaware
No Kate, I wasn't aware that the search box is only available to logged-in people. I can't see the reason for this but "casual users" aren't likely to know what to look for so it shouldn't be much of an inconvenience.
CMO wasn't intended for visitors (it's a community site) but if there are any and they get some use out of it, then good!
Aware!
I've just found why the search box is only visible to logged-in people: permission can be set by type of user, and I'd set it like that and forgotten.
I can change it but I don't see a problem with people who visit the site once or twice or those who read it but have no intention of contributing not being able to search. NOT allowing them means that spammers and other trouble-makers can't waste site resources searching when they won't be interested in the results. But if you can make a case for it...
I know from my own experience
I know from my own experience of researching on the internet that sometimes the most unlikely web sites com up on the search and I always delve in if it has something to do with the subject I am trying to find information on. As Kate says, there is a lot of information local to Corfe Mullen on the site which might be of interest to prospective visitors to the area. I don’t see how opening the “search box” would affect “spammers” if a system of “web master” authorization is in place for actually “joining the site” and posting comments. Opening the “search box” would not affect “spammers”. They would not be able to post in the forums unless they join the site. The parameters for authorization would be set by the web master for that. I see this as two separate issues not one.
And... relax
I agree that "spammers" can't actually put anything nasty on the site as you say Tess, due to anonymous comments having to be approved. As both you and Kate point out, some site information might be useful to non-members but normal search engines like Google will find content for them without the site search facility. I was imagining the site event log filling up with failed searches for inappropriate terms just to be silly and cause annoyance but I've enabled the anonymous search for now and we'll see how it goes.
I am being cautious but it's not just about matters which might affect security. It's also much more pleasant to relax a constraint which turns out to be unnecessary, than to impose a limitation later when people have got used it and will complain about its loss.
Anonymous
I am glad you are giving it a try. I had not thought about the control of the site log and I am sure its a problem many web masters have. I would have thought that most people searching the information and topics on this web site would be fairly responsible people. But I do appreciate there are the ones who would do things just for annoyance sake. Good luck anyway I hope it works out.
More rubbish!
There have been quite a few anonymous comments in the last few hours; most people with something to say don't bother to say it but this evening there were 50 anonymous ones, and they're all complete rubbish: just groups of random letters!
This is nothing to do with the 'relaxation' mentioned above.