This style or feature-overload forum style?

Doing a spot of research for the forums. Not relative to your preference as a person running a site or whatever, but do you think the current style of forums (what you're using now) is best for CoasterBuzz? Or something more like the features in the phpBB/vBulletin? Something somewhere in between?

The new forums are done (with user interfaces at both ends of the above spectrum), but before I undertake the laborious task of integrating them here, which do you prefer?

I personally find less is more so long as it facilitates communication.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Blogs, photo albums - CampusFish
What time does the water show start?

No avatars! The less clutter, the better.

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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"Friendship -- more lasting than love, more legal than stalking."

Yes, no pictures or avatars. I think I would prefer different colors, at first it was pretty cool, but the novelty of the gray/yellow/olive colors have worn off.

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http://coasterplace.web1000.com

I like the forums and the colors how they are. I also wouldn't like pictures or avatars.

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-Sean Newman
*** This post was edited by SFgadvMAN 10/15/2003 9:46:19 PM ***

That reminds me, I need to change my CB color scheme. :)

No avatars, for sure. You have a nice thing going here Jeff, as far as forums go. Keep it as is.

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Missing the Fallen:
King Cobra 1984-2001
The Bat 1981-1983

I prefer this style. If it gets too busy, it takes away from the content and becomes more about the form.

I say keep what you've got.

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Without the chaindog, you'd never get up the lifthill...

I love it just the way it is, but I wouldn't mind if you changed it.

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A story is 10 feet. 10 stories is 100 feet.....................Top Thrill Dragster is 42 stories.

Being the minimalist that I am I would have to say I prefer the site the way it is. Like Rendy said, this is what makes this site superior, more professional and user friendly.

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Lyrically, I'm supposed to represent
I'm not only a client, I'm the playa president!

I like the way the forum is set up now, and I agree with less clutter being better. The one thing I wouldn't mind is one or two new color schemes for the club members to pick from.

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Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do. :)

No Avatars! Like this style, but new colors would make it fresh. Also, I don't know if anybody else has had this problem, but when on the CB message board my enter buttons, Tab, ect. do not work. That's why all my replies are always crunched together. Can anyone help?

I actually prefer Invision Boards, only because they are a little easier to use, and they have more options, plus I am just more familiar with them. And I would actually like to have avitars. allthough they looks ugly on the site, they give every member a look of their own, whereas now, everyone just sorta blends togehter. But the ones running now aren;'t bad wither.

If it ain't broke don't fix it !

I think things are fine just the way they are, fast and easy to read and navigate!

My only suggestion would be to add something to the profiles where the member could tell more about his or herself. Give them a place to list thier favorite coaster or park or something.

Have you ever thought of adding a Private Message type feature into the forums?

I love the forums how they are now, but the right improvements could always make them better I suppose.
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Good day....I said Good day!
Dave
http://www.SFGAmWorld.com

The private message functionality is already in there. A variation of it is running on CampusFish already. You'll also be able to access your most recent posts from one place.

I'm glad most people see it my way. I hate of all the crap myself. Regardless of whether or not I use something like avatars, I already have a switch set up so you can turn off all of the vanity nonsense, i.e., signatures and avatars. Sigs will be here, of course, but you'll have the option to turn them off.

My forums will be better than all of the other packages out there in terms of performance and flexibility for developers. Yeah, that's a big claim, but the architecture is such that you can really build whatever user interface you want in a fairly simple manner with the base libraries, provided of course that you're a .Net developer. What you'll likely get here is the "classic" interface, while customers will also be able to use one that's like the "featured" boards. I'll have a simple one too, mostly for demonstration purposes (likely four pages and less than a hundred lines of code).

Not that any of that is something you care about I'm sure, just thought I'd share. Looks like we'll continue to keep it clean and simple then.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog
Blogs, photo albums - CampusFish
What time does the water show start?

Simple clean text is far superior to all that other nonsense. I avoid sites like (for example) mouseinfo because all the avatars, sixty-seven flavors of smilies, and multi-colored signatures get in the way of reading content.

Heck, I still use xterms, latex, and gnu emacs, and like typing at terminal windows rather than all that pointy-and-clicky nonsense. Thankfully, cygwin allows me to use all my ancient academician tools on a useful operating system. ;)

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http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~bnoble/

*** This post was edited by Brian Noble 10/15/2003 11:19:41 PM ***

vi > emacs. *ducks* j/k. I agree with those who say they prefer a less cluttered forum. I don't believe that avatars and the like bring all that much to the table as far as discussion goes, but I have actually gotten quite a few requests for these things over at KB.

I've seen a few discussion boards (http://forums.gentoo.org/ specifically) use these features without having them become a nuisance, but I've also seen some that care more about cheesy little graphics than actual content. In CoasterBuzz's case, I say keep it like it is. :)

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Joe Cernelli
My CampusFish Blog
*** This post was edited by cernelli 10/15/2003 11:35:55 PM ***

I'd have to say that avatars, user titles, and the like are lots of fun for small communities, but with such a huge userbase like Coasterbuzz it'd be a total pain in the ass.

Plus, seeing all that extra stuff on Da' Buzz would make it seem a lot less like Da' Buzz.

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- John
Homepark: CP Home-away-from-homepark: PKI
My Campusfish Blog

My wishlist: New Colors, Private Messaging, Possibly revamped smileys, but no new ones, and perhaps small (32 x 32?) Avatars, just to keep everyone from looking the same.

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« adix@nedesigns.com »

Raging Bull is best when you're first. [6/16/03]

I actually would like to see small avatars too. I find that I end up reconizing a poster just by the avatar. Private messaging and a member list would be nice too. Also, it would be nice to see an improved search function.

EDIT One other thing, it would be nice to have hyperlinks a different color then the rest of the text. I like mine set without an underline, so it becomes difficult to find hyperlinks in some posts. Most every other site uses a different color for hyperlinks.

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The Phoenix, its Schmecktacular!
*** This post was edited by Black 7 10/16/2003 12:14:29 AM ***

Private messaging and an accessible member list would be great. Whatever you do, please, NO AVATARS! Big waste of space.