(not really a) Request for New Forums

[Saro Marcarian]

I've seen a couple of requests for new forums. Personally, I'm not too happy with the concept.

As it is, there are MANY issues that cross over between sections. For example, many Shifter posts may be directly applicable to the 2 stroke section or the proposed Rotax section.

I know you guys at EKN probably aren't developers (or are you?), but from a database and development guy's perspective, I'd love to see subject FLAGS on messages and you could elect to see only certain relevant messages.

For example, a post regarding 2 stroke port heights on a 125 rotax shifter would likely have interest in the shifter, 2 stroke, and rotax sections (since the max is very similar to the shifter motor). You could be subscribed to any section and you'd see that specific post.

I doubt UBB works this way, but I've always felt that's what's missing in these BBSes.

Anyway...
-Saro

[Chaz Clover]

I both agree and disagree here.

I think more forums would be okay. That's where I disagree.

Where I agree is in the principal that a forum like this could be much better but the limitations of UBB prevent this.

Many subjects cross over into other interest areas and if a method of accomodating that were available, it would be very cool.

I'd also appreciate a real "threaded" environment.

Discussions such as you find on forums tend to break off into sub-discussions of the general topic. If someone were to pose a question such as "Is Scott Speed the Best Driver" you could have at least two possible answers - Yes and No. Sub-discussions, or threads could take off from there and follow entirely different courses. The threads also have the potential of growing exponentially. It's a natural growth of any group discussion.

UBB doesn't illustrate that at all. It just stacks up the messages as they arrive with no thought given to displaying how one message relates to another, if at all. So, a user has to plow through dozens of messages to find just a few that are of particlular interest.

My forum on KartMonster did just that, and I had recently found another one that would do it even better. Totally awesome product. Fully threaded, open source vailable, tied to a relational database, and a nice interface - a lot like browsing UseNet Newsgroups. The possibilities for information storage and retrieval would be phenomonal.

Too bad I just took it down instead.

quote:

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Originally posted by Saro Marcarian:
I've seen a couple of requests for new forums. Personally, I'm not too happy with the concept.

As it is, there are MANY issues that cross over between sections. For example, many Shifter posts may be directly applicable to the 2 stroke section or the proposed Rotax section.

I know you guys at EKN probably aren't developers (or are you?), but from a database and development guy's perspective, I'd love to see subject FLAGS on messages and you could elect to see only certain relevant messages.

For example, a post regarding 2 stroke port heights on a 125 rotax shifter would likely have interest in the shifter, 2 stroke, and rotax sections (since the max is very similar to the shifter motor). You could be subscribed to any section and you'd see that specific post.

I doubt UBB works this way, but I've always felt that's what's missing in these BBSes.

Anyway...
-Saro

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