'Sub Forums'??

[trickrick]

Maybe this has been elsewhere but I apologise if I havent seen it..However I am confused about the introduction of 'Sub-forums'..Is this an attempt to dilute away certain forums that particular individuals don't want? Tiny wording underneath the main headings to avoid attention? WHats it about??

The latest example is 'Novelty bets' being demoted as a League 2 version of the main 'Other sports' forum. Why? What is the point of hiding away what a few obviously view as less interesting section of the forums..

Rags to Riches and Tipster proofing are also being hived away..Ok I admit not everyone's cup of tea, but still popular in their own way. What makes me laugh with this is the fact that something that is more obscure and clichey as the 'Eurovision Song Contest' (more a novelty betting medium than anything else) is given two headlining forum sections?!?! WTF?!? I presume that the viewing traffic must dictate this??

Just find it all a bit strange that you can't just enlarge the whole main forum site so that all forums are given equal attention and publicity..

[Winrew]

We are trying a few things out Rick , nothings set in stone at the moment and your feedback is welcomed .....God that sounds wank doesnt it ?

Er , i`ll get back to you......

[kompressaur]

Thanks for the feedback Rick. Subforums are all about offering our members more choice and to allow for more discussion. Some are essential and some are on trial. Don't think of it as dilution more of an expansion. The tiny wording is more than readable and is not to avoid attention. If you want i'll look at making them bigger. None of the subforums detract from the original forum they only compliment them and allow for us to look at things in more detail.

The latest example is 'Novelty bets' being demoted as a League 2 version of the main 'Other sports' forum. Why?

As the test thing suggests Rick it's just a test that im looking at running by the mods. It would be easier for me to quote myself i think-

I know we discussed this before but that was way back when we had to have forums on the front of the forum. Ive also went into some detail of why i still like the idea and think its almost essential for us on the Forum Descriptions thread. As i say i dont think people talking about rugby and cricket should be mixing it with the Big Brother and Im a Celebrity Get Me out of here crowd and also things like Who Will Be the Next Pope could be posted another 6 times in the next 2-3 years and will be well hid in the Other SPORTS forum. To me there's some great chat available in there with all the political bets and the celebrities etc. All i need to do is post it and someone WILL talk about it. We cant have all these threads in Other SPORTS so surely giving it a wee home to itself is probably a great idea really.

Ok enough of the sale. Can i keep my novelty bet forum? Paddy Power would love it too

[kompressaur]

Novelty bets will not be a second division forum Rick. It will be a forum in it's own right where people can sit and discuss things at their leisure in a rightfull place. We aint hiding it away we're giving it it's own window. I can read the words Novelty Bets quite fine and my eyes are terrible Rick. If i want to discuss Novelty Bets then i go to the novelty bet forum. If i want to discuss the next darts championship i go to the Other sports forum. I don't see Im a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here as being a Sport. does anyone?

It's well known people don't like change. I remember when i opened up the Horse Racing forum on June '02 on PL. I had to fight to get that opened would you believe. People saw no need for that. Now i believe its pretty popular. I see the novelty bets forum in the same way. We could still be keeping the Who's gonna be the new pope thread going in 4 years time. If it was mashed in with all the rugby, cricket, NFL, NHL etc im pretty sure that the thread/s will be long forgotten about.

Nothing is being 'hived' away Rick. It's just that we're looking at trying to keep the forum more compact so as people can see more forums on their screen at one time. this is why fforum descriptions have been cut as well who really reads them 2 weeks after joining? Having to scroll down an endless list of forums just to get to poker for instance isnt good for folks. If we give people more to see on one screen then they are more likely to get involved. It's all about tightening up and optomising rick.

Eurovision gets it's own front page forum as Paddy Power are sponsoring our euroision competition once i sort a few things out with them. thats why it needs to be on the front page as we'll need to add a banner to it etc. Rags to Riches and tipster proofing are under Bet, help chat and links as because ...well i don't like them and no one has said otherwise to me yet so if i can get away with taking them off being a front page forum then i will. Sorry. Its a seperate issue but to me r2r is almost a joke forum. 'lets play at being gamblers yyeeeahhhhh'

As i say Rick i just want to make the place the best for you all as i can and yes there will be a few teething problems with everything. I like your suggestion that the subforum's text could be bigger and i'll look at improving on that. As i say the bottom line is Rick is that we need to have the forum as compact as we can and we need to offer as much as we can as people are easily bored especially if they have to sit around waiting on you lot to post anything (that wasn't a vote winner was it? )

I hope i have answered most of your questions so far Rick and keep the comments and critism coming folks. If everyone posts on here that the subforums are not to their liking and they want less choice and bigger forums to scroll down then i suppose i'm screwed.

[trickrick]

Ok - Thanks for the feedback Komp.. Part of the reason why I posted this I guess is self motivated as I probably bet more on novelty bets than most sports..:wasntme and still view this as some kind of demotion. Same for Rags to Riches..I know you hate it with a vengence Komp but it has it's followers.. I don't use it to 'play at gambling' - I actually use it to discipline (!!) myself to place bets for an targetted outcome without a particular system, and this forum is a way of recording the effort, but I can understand where you're coming from.

I'm all for change if it's for the better but imho I don't think this improves the layout of TDP. For the sake of an extra 5 or 5 forums, does it really make the site un-navigatable?? I mean we have to scroll down the page now anyhow..

Gawd - never thought I'd be winging about something that most other people porbably don't give a toss about..!!

[kompressaur]

Nah Rick i need people to winge at me or else i just do what i think best either wrongly or rightly. Don't you see Rick that Novelty bets could be a great forum for you? All the novelty bets in the world being discussed. From the next prime minister to is it going to snow at Christmas etc. I only want it to have a forum in itself away from other sports as i want folks to have more threads and discussion on offer. (well that and Novelty bets not being a Sport i suppose) We couldnt have all the threads ive put on offer in Other Sports as im sure those that like a bit of rugby or american sports wouldnt like the place to turn into just folks chatting about Big Brother and Popes and Whats the name of Mel b's new baby gonna be. I was wanting it to have a frontpage space 6 months ago but people told me they thought it was a bad idea having too many forums to scroll down. this i believe was the only reason they didnt want a novelty bet forum. Now ive almost sussed out the basics of subforums i brought it back up as to me it makes perfect sense to have a forum for this. I'm all for putting it on front of form too Rick but as i say im treading warily as thats the reason my plans got knocked back before.

Everything is open to change Rick to make things better for us all. Im glad you started this thread really as i can sometimes get a little bit lost in myself. Im all for looking at better ways to implement the subforums and also with the decriptions cut i would like to think we could have more forums back on the front page. I would also like to thnk that we can have as many sub -forums as is nnmessesscary to make the place teeming with info. In my own defence the only sub forum i've got a problem with working at the mo is the WW one and that was the only one i never added Again though i suppose its nessesscary too but it just needs to be implemented better and thats why threads like this are something i need.

[kompressaur]

Here i'll try and egg you all on a bit. Lets get the Novelty bet forum opened for business and we can get novelty bet chatting. Rick and Stereoman can mod it if they want too. I'll look at ways to make the subforums stand out more even if its just a bit of bold and larger font.

What we all saying? This is your Daily Punt we're talking about here. I just try and and offer improvments as i see fit along the line. Everything is subject to change till we sort things out.

[kompressaur]

no but i like things the way it was. I even dont like all these new people as it was just nice and cosy before, im a luddite by nature you know etc etc



Shit that aint a vote winner either

[kompressaur]

ps i aint getting involved in this thread again till at least kick off tomorrow and nor am i gonna try and sort anything else out with the new forums we have.

Feel free to watch some great Sports clips (forum rename req) or even just some entertaining stuff. Maybe you like music and you'll enjoy all this too. As i say its all just out the box so please try and give me a bit of time to get it all configured and fine tuned. there's a wealth of opportunity and i'm hoping the days of people sitting staring at the forum on a saturday night with nothing to read and no one replying to their posts as being a thing of the past. You'll always find something of interests on TDP but at the mo you might just have to look a little.

[kompressaur]

I must mention that a big factor in it all is that sub forums showing on the 'latest reply' bit on the front of the forum. I dont mean 'New Posts' I mean when you look at a forum on the main forum index. Ive been at solving it for days now and there's still a bit of work to be done on it. Once i sort it it will allow for greater flexability and also improved looks. I want it all nice and blocked and smart looking too. Just for the moment there's work going on.

Here's some of my posts on a forum software forum-

Sorry can i be a pest and ask if anyone knows? Im sorry but ive just been sitting waiting to try and fix this so as i can crack on. Ive been through the forum 5 times over and all i see is people asking the same old question on how to put subforums on the index and they all got replies too. I can't find anything simliar to my problem which makes me think that its something really simple and im just being stupid.

My Forum listing options are set as

2
2
1

Ive also tried-
2
0
1

and other things. Is there anyone at all that can suggest something? Thanks and i'm sorry for reposting

still no reply so after a few more 'try to get folks interested posts' i think i broke down. Lemme look..

Go on someone tell me i can't do it and i can go to bed. Thats 24hrs ive been sitting here smoking cigs searching here there and everywhere for an answer and all i see are twats who can't be bothered using the search facility asking 'oooo how can i have forums on the forum index like this forum' and nothing on my problem. If i'm being a right noob then i'm sorry. I have tried i reallly have. If it's not possible i'll just forget the idea i had and go to my bed.

Again thanks in anticipation and i'm sorry about this. I'm just a man in despair. It's sent me stir crazy. When i finally do go to sleep today i will have dreams of replies etc and then i'll wake up and there will be nothing. again

[kompressaur]

I got told no so Slick's looking into some possible modifications for me. As i say if we can exclude forum's latest posts (possible bot driven) from showing on the main forum then it will let us tidy things up a bit. Till then i'm open to offers of advice etc. As you may or not know the bot posting not only give me a great help around the forum automating things a bit for me with regards to getting the best of it to post up for you but it also seems like great 'google food' to me. I aint up on all that but by my reckoning TDP should be well impregnated into a fair chunk of the interenet soon at the rate its going. This gives us a wider audience and thus more posters. More posters means more people for you to talk with and give us all more opinion and views on the things we bet on.

Yeah we have fancy wee extras such as TDP Radio (great for Football shows and relaxing too * are the bookmaker stations working for folks? ) the Arcade (just somewhere to take a break) and all the Sports Vids, Concerts and Entertainment forums but their just to give us all a better online experience. We aint all betting machines.

[kompressaur]

Also ive never been a fan of the Non Betting forums appearing on the NEW POSTS list but others seem to like it. Ive got something there that will solve all this in that people can chose their own forums for this list. I just need the time to do it.

See how helpful and considerate i am?

[traeth]

Just making a few comments , not having a moan.

I navigate my way through tdp by first going to New Post , British Football , General Chat , Talk Sport and back to New Post.
Having the bots posts in New Posts was annoying but I realise it was teething problems and tolerated it ,even read a few of them that otherwise I would have ignored.
I do like the front page , only rarely go there but been there a few times recently as the link with Betbase is on the top of front page but not on the top of any other pages.
I like the link for the bookies at the top of the pages which I use a lot. A link with mansions would be useful for me as it one I use a lot , I suppose this is me being selfish as they cover Welsh football recently.
I can see that a lot of work has been done recently and received the newsletter from kegman today , it has been read.
Thanks

[kompressaur]

Cheers Traeth. I feared the worst then when i started reading your post there. These subforurms are turning me into a nervous wreck I'm glad you see that the New Post probs were just teething probs and no more. Some people seemed to let themselves believe that thats just the way we liked it and threatened to never come back. I did try to explain that thats not the way but everytime i might move a forum and then forget to turn it off there is a chance there could be bots posting on the New Posts page again. Again though it's not the way we want it it's just an accident.

We've been trying to find the time to update that list Traeth and i will ensure that Slick knows the urgency about it. I might actually go and have a wee look yself as i think it should be easy enough to do.

I might as well mention this as it's another thing im gonna endeavor to push upon you all as soon as i finish up all this work. Me and Mickey have been looking at adding a side column to the forum. Nothing too wide (about the size of your avatar) in that column we were wanting to put all the links that we can fit in there so as everything is just a click away. What you all think about that then? We might as well talk about it now.

We had to remove betbase etc from the top to put in our partner links. Our deal with these sites was a forum link and thats what we give them. The banners that used to be in the forum were unsightly so we moved the partners up top for now. Soon i will have to look at all the partner's TDP has and the perfomance of the inbound links etc and renegotiate on some poss though i can't comment on any as i have no idea due to time restraints.

aye there's alot been done and a hell of a lot more to do. All we can ask is for some constructive feedback from all our valued members as we do it and we can all make The Daily Punt a happy home on the net for a lot of people.

[traeth]

thanks for your reply komp , sorry to take you away from your coupon as today is Friday ...good luck