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dogsbody

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Important: Cskate v2.0 - 17:50 22 Dec 10 I would like your honest feedback please! I also want to see opinions from those of you that read this site but don't post or take part in discussions, that's 90% of you! Use the contact us page if you like, you don't have to login.

This website is now six years old and is getting rather long in the tooth. The software that runs it is now obsolete and things have changed a lot since it was built, both locally in Camberley and virtually on the web.

I would therefore like to solicit your suggestions over a version 2 of this site! There is no timeframe, and I'm making no promises but unless I know what you want I can't build anything!

So, knowing what you know about the Camberley Skaters, your friends, fellow skaters, things you have seen online, things that you think would be awesome etc. What would you like from a v2 site?

Some ideas for inspiration...

The busiest part of the site is by far the forums. Perhaps we should just be a fully fledged forum site like serpentineroad.com and dump everything else? All good forum software now allows you to PM between members and embed pictures and video so it maybe all we need?

Do we want or need a Gallery? It seems that everyone posts pictures in Facebook or Flickr now? Perhaps we just need a way to link to those?

It seems no one uses the FAQ although having pages like that are useful for the Goodwood minutes and pages for the Arena, Sandhurst, Calendar, Waether etc. that we can point people too?

Another idea is a Blog format such as skatefurther.com. As most of the forum threads are around a topic or event. We could allow any "known member" to write posts on the site and we can discuss them in the comments. I'm weary of this though as countless requests for help writing FAQ entries have fallen flat and it would need people to start posts.

Another option (for the techies to decide maybe) is an out of the box site such as NING used by http://community.inlineplanet.com/ or BuddyPress (non skate example) or dare I say just moving the whole site to Facebook! It would give us less control but the hard part of integrating with social networks for pictures etc would be done for us.

And of course we can stay the same. We do really need to upgrade the core software which will probably break the layout and template which means a new look and fixing lots of broken bits of the site. You can see why a fresh start would actually be just as much work as renewing this site!

If we were to upgrade this site, what would you want to keep? What would you want to loose? And what would you want to add?

There is no time limit on this as I can't start work on this immediately but I would REALLY like to hear your ideas as this site is for YOU.

PLEASE don't feel you are offending me by criticising this site. I would MUCH rather know what you feel works or doesn't work than spend a load of my time energy and money on something that you're all not going to use!

Thank you

Sorry for a long post

Still grinning from an awesome @LondonSkate last night :-D Such a party atmosphere

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lemming

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Posts: 3308

Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 08:04 23 Dec 10 I'd rather stick with the forum idea than switch to a blog. Not too worried about losing anything else - I only use the forums anyway. ! Skate Monkey !

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rog

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Posts: 586

Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 11:06 23 Dec 10 I think moving everything to a generic forum site would be the best option. You can leave a legacy link somewhere if we think it's useful to have any archives available. As you say DB, most of the well known implementations have all the necessary hooks into other sites. Using something like Joomla I guess would be the kind of thing you would try?

An ability to link to other photo sharing sites that people use should be enough - I don't see that it's that useful to have our own photo gallery when most people post on flikr and fb anyway.

The calendar of events is a useful place to check all the events etc that we are likely to want to go to though so it would be good to preserve that in some form.

Rog

Post edited by: rog, at: 11:06 23 Dec 10

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Merry

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Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 11:44 23 Dec 10 dogsbody wrote:

Ok so I am no techie so have responded to the inspiration ideas below:

The busiest part of the site is by far the forums. Perhaps we should just be a fully fledged forum site like serpentineroad.com and dump everything else? All good forum software now allows you to PM between members and embed pictures and video so it maybe all we need?

If this would be an easier option then I would be happy to go with this, Like people say the Forum is where most people go!

Do we want or need a Gallery? It seems that everyone posts pictures in Facebook or Flickr now? Perhaps we just need a way to link to those?

Sounds like a good idea either way as I know the gallery is a pain lol Plus I tend to look at the picture once and never really again (unless I am trying to find something for something ;-p )

It seems no one uses the FAQ although having pages like that are useful for the Goodwood minutes and pages for the Arena, Sandhurst, Calendar, weather etc. that we can point people too?

I think the FAQ's are good to point people too rather than repeat ourselves in forum posts, not sure how that work in the new scheme of things - Like you say we need somewhere to Publish Goodwood Minutes and Cskate Minutes as we are an open organisation. Weather you could probably scrap if you want to reduce the site at bit. Calender is good but you could make it more basic without link to pictures etc

Another idea is a Blog format such as skatefurther.com. As most of the forum threads are around a topic or event. We could allow any "known member" to write posts on the site and we can discuss them in the comments. I'm weary of this though as countless requests for help writing FAQ entries have fallen flat and it would need people to start posts.

Um no don't like this idea :-P

Another option (for the techies to decide maybe) is an out of the box site such as NING used by http://community.inlineplanet.com/ or BuddyPress (non skate example) or dare I say just moving the whole site to Facebook! It would give us less control but the hard part of integrating with social networks for pictures etc would be done for us.

Um no don't like this idea :-P I don't think we should jump on the Facebook wagon (and I have nothing against Facebook I am a member)

Oh but most importantly.....It will still be Orange right

I\'ll NEVER post on the forums

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dogsbody

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Posts: 7871

Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 21:59 25 Dec 10 Thank you for your feedback so far. It's a conversation so please do bounce ideas off each other.

One thing I realised is the shop! While I think it's OK to dump the Ads and Affiliates (!?) Do we want to dump the shop too?

rog wrote:
Using something like Joomla I guess would be the kind of thing you would try?Rog, just so I understand, can you clarify please? This existing site is Joomla

Still grinning from an awesome @LondonSkate last night :-D Such a party atmosphere

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rog

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Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 10:14 04 Jan 11 Hi Dogsbody - Oh - I thought you had said that the Goodwood site used Joomla not this one......
Well - you probably know a great deal more about it than me then

I had just assumed that a framework like Joomla would allow you a site that is more easy to maintain than with all your Perl scripts....I guess with all things web you can pretty much mash up everything together anyway

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Red

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Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 15:12 04 Jan 11 Been thinking about my reply... so here goes.

Keep
Calendar
Forums
Web links
PM
Weather forecast - I use them ALL the time.
Shop - but we really need to change it / update the stuff available.
FAQ's I point newbies there all the time, especially locstion maps etc.
Goodwood minutes ??? poss move to Goodwood website?

I agree that the Gallery is quite often also used / linked to on Facebook etc., however there are some early stuff that I think we should keep.

I have ocassionally looked at Web links but not overly often. What do others think.

The rest I can't say I look at / use except as one offs.

Anyhoo that's my feedback. Red.

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dogsbody

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Posts: 7871

Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 15:32 04 Jan 11 Red wrote:
The rest I can't say I look at / use except as one offs.The rest!? That's pretty much everything! :-p

rog wrote:
I thought you had said that the Goodwood site used Joomla not this one.Other way around

rog wrote:
I had just assumed that a framework like Joomla would allow you a site that is more easy to maintain than with all your Perl scripts.In essence you are absolutely right and I use Joomla of other sites without any problems at all. Unfortunately it's not quite as easy for this type of community site as it has so many modules and plugins that break every time I do an update. The forums, gallery, PM, directory, downloads and even the HTML template itself breaks and takes loads of work to fix each time. This is one of the reasons I wanted to pear the site back a bit if possible. It's not a problem and this is exactly why I wanted to have this conversation with everyone to find out what people need, use and want.

I just want to add that I am not attached to this site by a chain. If anyone else wants to take it and run with it they are more than welcome. I wouldn't mind a copy of the keys but I'm happy for someone else to take it and turn it into something that everyone wants. Still grinning from an awesome @LondonSkate last night :-D Such a party atmosphere

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dogsbody

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Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 15:41 26 Mar 11 We have had a number of new people to this site recently and a few comments saying that this site is hard to use. Can I PLEASE PLEASE ask people to let me know what the problems are and what I can do to make it better.

You WON'T offend me at all and I would MUCH rather like to know

Thank you Still grinning from an awesome @LondonSkate last night :-D Such a party atmosphere

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padrino

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Re:Important: Cskate v2.0 - 16:23 26 Mar 11 its probably best for new users to say what could be improved... I've been using this site for so many years it has become second nature, I would find it quite difficult to suggest improvements

So - all you new users, please say what could be improved

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