[megaspaz]

Post your “this site would be cooler if…” list here.

1. ads at the bottom of the page instead of inline around other page elements. the ads detract from the flow of the page.

2. Bigger sizes for avatars!

3. Search? used to be there, now it isn’t.

4. Email notification option for private messages.

KTHNXBAI.

>^.^<

[Clay Dowling]

The email thing is handled by a module called “notifications.” I’ve got it on a site I run, where posting will be sporadic by design and you need to be told that someone has made an update. You might get annoyed by it here, but typically you’re allowed to choose whether you want to be notified or not in the account settings page.

I wouldn’t make the avatars bigger, but I’d love it if we could link it to a bigger picture. That’s definitely not something that Drupal does by default though. Possibly add user profiles (there’s a Profiles module Ben), with a field for homepage or picks of your ride.

Signatures, they’re okay, but inlined pictures in the signature is a bad idea. There’s a bike-specific forum where I go sometimes and there’s way too much visual clutter from oversized signatures with pictures of bikes. A 640×480 picture in the signature is overkill, but unfortunately common. Moderately annoying too, since we all obviously ride the same model of bike.

[SantaCruzRider]

Here’s my short list of suggestions for an already great site:
1. Search
2. Ability for moderators to make some threads evergreen and at top, or perhaps an FAQ folder with copies of threads that answers those questions that seem to come up again and again and again…
3. The ability to link to all a poster’s comments so you can see if they are for real.

[owlie]

This is a great site with lots of information and friendly (even you, Elwood) people. I appreciate that everyone is open with their experiences and knowledge.

Two things might make it easier to use for the newbie.

1) Split the “General” forum into three parts: about the bikes, riding advice and gear
2) Add a glossary of bike slang. (I’ve found some on other sites, but they are more technical than slang; two that it took me awhile to figure out were ATGATT and squid).

Thanks for everything, Ben and all!

[BouncingRadical]

I like the first idea alot.

[WeaponZero]

email notification on thread responses

email notification on messages

chat

option for non-admins to submit properly formatted product reviews

[BouncingRadical]

When reading a post, a link back to the board the post was on, not back to the beginning of the board list.

[MaxDadAK]

All valid ideas except for chat I think. Forums allow concise responses because of the open ended time for them. Chat is nice and can be fun but often times becomes a mess of conversations overlapping eachother. If you think junk posting is crap wait till someone decides to spam a whole chat room.

[gsmurfette]

I don’t even know what ATGATT means……….sounds like something my two year old would say to my 1 year old….haha. Sometimes I feel like my mom, you know totally clueless to the new “hip” slang, and whatever else. totally off topic though.

I would like to see a bread crumb trail so that you don’t have to try and figure out what discussion you were in after you post, without having to always hit back. Just click a link to which part you want to go to and ta-da! You’re there! The search for sure. I think I remember it being there when I was a lurker. I don’t care too much about pictures and all that jazz, but that’s just me. I know lots of people love to show their bike. Half the people on here have my bike, so what’s the point? lol. I like the idea of breaking up the general forum into 3 sections.

[owlie]

ATGATT = All The Gear, All The Time

BTW, there is a nice article on outfitting inexpensively elsewhere on the site: Inexpensive Gear Guide

[WeaponZero]

A chat room.

[owlie]

Thank you, Ben! We now have email notifications!

So let me add another suggestion for your consideration…

Every now and then someone drops off the face of the planet for vacation or life just catches up to them. Could you maybe add a feature where when someone who hasn’t been active in a while gets a “we miss you and are a little worried that we might have read about you somewhere, could you check in but you don’t really ever have to come back if you don’t wanna” email? Maybe just have them reply and have a canned system note on their profile saying that they have checked in, and might be back someday… Just a thought…

[Ben]

Ughhhhhhhh!!!!! If you give a mouse a cookie…

Haha, in all seriousness great suggestions guys, and I’m glad it seems like you are all agreeing on a lot of key features. Thanks for the tips Clay, I think I have the profile module installed but I haven’t bothered setting it up at all. I will check into that notifications module.

As for the premier membership although that is a good idea, I don’t think I will be doing it. I like the idea of BBM being free, although I might start posting the ‘donation’ paypal link in the sidebar again.

Megaspaz haha, although the ads ARE annoying, they wouldn’t get too many clicks if they were posted at the page footer One thing I might do though is set up a special type of user roll so you can opt out of seeing the ads. Maybe this is what the ‘membership’ would be, although I would probably just ask for a 1 time donation. Honestly though it isn’t you guys that click on the ads, its the anonymous users that are searching for one specific thing. If the ads are pretty annoying for you guys I might try turning them off for anyone who is logged into BBM. I’ll explore with that and see how much it effects things.

I’m going to be going on vacation to idaho next week, but after I get back I will start to impliment some changes. I already have a better WYSIWYG editor on the way, as well as an easier way for users to upload photos. A review on some saddlebags is in the pipe and I will definitely add a way for members to submit their own gear reviews (although I will probably check them to make sure they are BBM worthy… and that they have been spell checked! lol)

Thanks again for all your interest guys Expect an update in 2 weeks!

Ben

[Elias]

WTF Ben, I’ll be in Boise and then McCall on the weekend of Aug 21…

Maybe I’m shaykai…

[eon]

An iphone browser mode would be nice. Another site I visit has it and it works really well. This is just me wanting my cake and eating it though.

[Author]

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