News

[Rob]

Maybe toooo much for a forum such as ours however would really like to see a user driven dashboard that becomes my home screen. On this screen there would be various area's you can customise to your own ID.
As an example:

1. An area that shows a diary hosted by Reefuge that show both upcoming tasks/events and past specific for your DT. Kind of a log for your tank.

2. Inhabitant entry area what-when-why-dead for fish and coral selection

2. Parameter entry for water tests. As well as #1 above this would be able to show history for the tank in the form of tables or trend lines. Some GUI systems can show both parameter trends and events for that time period where you can start to look at events and tank details.

3. My own tank journal / linking to friendTJ's

4. Conversations / Feeds / subscription to specific forums, I suppose its just a list of subscribed threads ?

and then Standard interface to all forum sections.

I really think a user driven dashboard style display with logs / tank parameters would separate reefuge from ALL other forums. You can share your log / tank params with friends so I could for instance look at user xx log and tank parameters and learn from others whilst sharing my own experience.

Rob

 

[The Reefuge]

Maybe toooo much for a forum such as ours however would really like to see a user driven dashboard that becomes my home screen. On this screen there would be various area's you can customise to your own i.d.
As an example:

1. An area that shows a diary hosted by Reefuge that show both upcoming tasks/events and past specific for your DT. Kind of a log for your tank.

2. Inhabitant entry area what-when-why-dead for fish and coral selection

2. Parameter entry for water tests. As well as #1 above this would be able to show history for the tank in the form of tables or trend lines. Some GUI systems can show both parameter trends and events for that time period where you can start to look at events and tank details.

3. My own tank journal / linking to friendTJ's

4. Conversations / Feeds / subscription to specific forums, I suppose its just a list of subscribed threads ?

and then Standard interface to all forum sections.

I really think a user driven dashboard style display with logs / tank parameters would separate reefuge from ALL other forums. You can share your log / tank params with friends so I could for instance look at user xx log and tank parameters and learn from others whilst sharing my own experience.

Rob

Hi @Rob,

I am loving these ideas. A widget style site sounds great. We will most definitely takes these on board.

Thanks.

 

[VaultBoy]

Maybe toooo much for a forum such as ours however would really like to see a user driven dashboard that becomes my home screen. On this screen there would be various area's you can customise to your own i.d.
As an example:

1. An area that shows a diary hosted by Reefuge that show both upcoming tasks/events and past specific for your DT. Kind of a log for your tank.

2. Inhabitant entry area what-when-why-dead for fish and coral selection

2. Parameter entry for water tests. As well as #1 above this would be able to show history for the tank in the form of tables or trend lines. Some GUI systems can show both parameter trends and events for that time period where you can start to look at events and tank details.

3. My own tank journal / linking to friendTJ's

4. Conversations / Feeds / subscription to specific forums, I suppose its just a list of subscribed threads ?

and then Standard interface to all forum sections.

I really think a user driven dashboard style display with logs / tank parameters would separate reefuge from ALL other forums. You can share your log / tank params with friends so I could for instance look at user xx log and tank parameters and learn from others whilst sharing my own experience.

Rob

I really like these ideas but think that I would hardly use them! I mostly just check my alerts and new posts and thats it.... I think they would be great for a lot of people just not me!

 

[Ian G]

Another thought re framework. Personally I prefer clicking on a link in a post, to open a new tab so I can retain where I was on the original post.

 

[Luke]

Any chance we could save messages ? by the time im ready to send whatever it is im sending ,
I've lost their address , I could mark as unread but ....A save message option would be good , You could then UN-save after you send things , Would help keep track of whats send to who

 

[Ian G]

I was just at another forum and it occurred to me that you/we might have an opportunity to provide a much better newbies forum in terms of help and friendliness. It could potentially be a real standout feature of the Reefuge. Also, I don't know if this is even possible with the software but if there was a newbie forum, one way to keep the tone of that forum as it should be might be to set it up so that only new users (based on date, posts, something) can post and only an appointed team respond.

After all too many responses might just confuse newbies anyway. Of course nobody knows it all except maybe my wife, but say a team of 5 could offer balanced viewpoints and experience. Just a thought but I remember vividly some of the less than ideal responses I got as a newbie elsewhere a few years back.

Anyway just a thought. I guess we are brainstorming this thread after all.

 

[Ian G]

Any chance we could save messages ? by the time im ready to send whatever it is im sending ,
I've lost their address , I could mark as unread but ....A save message option would be good , You could then UN-save after you send things , Would help keep track of whats send to who

Great idea...& being able to save drafts of our own messages. I write an extensive TJ including lots of DIY How To & not being able save drafts of such long entries is a real drawback.

 

[chimaera]

One thing I was thinking on your TJ, @ijg3956 is having a page of contents linking to key posts. Have seen this on other forums and really helps navigation. Plus when a post is updated, link to it on the most recent post.

 

[Ian G]

One thing I was thinking on your TJ, @ijg3956 is having a page of contents linking to key posts. Have seen this on other forums and really helps navigation. Plus when a post is updated, link to it on the most recent post.

Yes that would be good, particularly for mine as you say, with quite a few DIY areas and many more planned, it would be so much easier.

 

[mfmonstah]

Perhaps a mobile optimized version of the site?

 

[macca_75]

One thing I was thinking on your TJ, @ijg3956 is having a page of contents linking to key posts. Have seen this on other forums and really helps navigation. Plus when a post is updated, link to it on the most recent post.

Do you mean have 1 Sticky article, which is a link to other articles as opposed to lots of Sticky articles at the top?

 

[chimaera]

Do you mean have 1 Sticky article, which is a link to other articles as opposed to lots of Sticky articles at the top?

No was thinking more of a TJ contents page, so edit post 1 to keep track of key posts.

But yours isn't a bad idea either!

 

[The Reefuge]

I think the home page needs simplifying. There are a lot of choices to choose from and a few can be condensed. On the whole it is a pretty sweet site.

Thanks for the compliment. The home page will be a user dashboard and will feature various information found on the site / forum. The new framework will most likely not rely so heavily on the "forum" structure so to speak.

One thing that @VaultBoy just jigged in my mysterious mind is perhaps having a pinned post somehwere of the staff members and what they do/look after. Since most of us (i.e. the staff) have been around since (or near enough too) the conception of TR we know eachother and what we're doing. New members wouldn't have a clue who does what and who to contact about which. I know there is the "moderator" tag at the side in our info panel, but if none of us posted comments in a thread (so it would come up), then the person/people viewing the thread wouldn't know we exist

The new website will have a complete list of staff members and what they do.

Another thought re framework. Personally I prefer clicking on a link in a post, to open a new tab so I can retain where I was on the original post.

This already is the case, and will also be the case in the future.

Any chance we could save messages ? by the time im ready to send whatever it is im sending ,
I've lost their address , I could mark as unread but ....A save message option would be good , You could then UN-save after you send things , Would help keep track of whats send to who

This will be looked into as it seems like a feature that is being requested more and more.

I was just at another forum and it occurred to me that you/we might have an opportunity to provide a much better newbies forum in terms of help and friendliness. It could potentially be a real standout feature of the Reefuge. Also, I don't know if this is even possible with the software but if there was a newbie forum, one way to keep the tone of that forum as it should be might be to set it up so that only new users (based on date, posts, something) can post and only an appointed team respond.

After all too many responses might just confuse newbies anyway. Of course nobody knows it all except maybe my wife, but say a team of 5 could offer balanced viewpoints and experience. Just a thought but I remember vividly some of the less than ideal responses I got as a newbie elsewhere a few years back.

Anyway just a thought. I guess we are brainstorming this thread after all.[/quote]

The site currently prides itself on friendlyness. I like to keep an organised information structure, so this will not be happening. I am not sure what it is like on other communities but it seems like the community has failed if they need a forum where people are being nice to them. Especially if only certain members are allowed to reply to them.

[quote="mfmonstah, post: 85124, member: 973"]Perhaps a mobile optimized version of the site?[/quote]

The Reefuge is currently optimised for mobile devices. It is based on a responsive code that automatically adjusts template files to fit mobile devices. The new platform will also be mobile friendly.

[quote="chimaera, post: 85153, member: 572"]No was thinking more of a TJ contents page, so edit post 1 to keep track of key posts.

But yours isn't a bad idea either![/quote]

Tank journals will all be laid out as blogs. If anyone is familiar with sites like "Blogger, Wordpress, etc" they will automatically know exactly how to use them. I will so what I can do about key points. Perhaps an editable splash page for all users or something similar.

 

[Ian G]

re links opening in tabs.

Yes it opens in a tab if the link is within a thread but lets say for example I'm reading a long post, TJ or something and alerts come up in the header bar. If I click on those they don't open in a tab, they redirect the page. I know that on most browsers I can right click & select open in new tab, I'm just looking for a lazier way.:)

There was another example too but I can't recall at the moment. Unless the missus gets frisky (fat chance

says my dancing banana) I hope to sit down with a cuppa tonight and read through some reefuge tank journals so if I spot it again I'll post it.

 

[DavidS]

re links opening in tabs.

Yes it opens in a tab if the link is within a thread but lets say for example I'm reading a long post, TJ or something and alerts come up in the header bar. If I click on those they don't open in a tab, they redirect the page. I know that on most browsers I can right click & select open in new tab, I'm just looking for a lazier way.:)

Hahaha, there's a bit of work to save one extra mouse click :D

 

[MTG]

Perhaps a mobile optimized version of the site?

already operational, visit the reefuge website on your mobile browser!

 

[Ian G]

I think the search box for the wiki should be at top of screen. At present, unless you scroll right down the only visible search box returns results from threads, not the wiki.

I was also wondering if the new framework will speed up looking at images by clicking on thumbnails within threads. there is nearly always a lag of 6 seconds minimum.

 

[Buddy]

already operational, visit the reefuge website on your mobile browser!

How about the option to view the desktop site on your mobile?

 

[Ian G]

I've not seen this on many forums but the ability to pin a post within a thread would be great. I can best explain with an example.

@chimaera & I (plus others signing up to the deal) are propagating and sharing a specific macro. Link HERE.
It would be extremely helpful if for example, we could pin the waiting list to appear at the end of each page of the thread, or even at the end of the total thread. Instead of forever reposting an updated list & filling the thread.

Another example would be pinning the first post of a thread to the top of each page in the thread.

 

[MTG]

How about the option to view the desktop site on your mobile?

I can do that on my galaxy by clicking option menu and view this site as desktop, you shouldn't need to do that tho as the desktop site won't work well on the mobile,