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New bitch about the "portal"....

The forum is the meat and potato's of Bogley.... and from the front page it's much to difficult to maneuver into the forum.... yeah, you can click the forum link in the banner.... but most folks will not do that at first. What's going to happen is folks will surf into Bogley.... click a couple buttons that just take them to more pictures or YouTube crap and then leave....

The Portal should channel folks to the forum, at least until you get more worth while and better content else where.

The "Categories" on the right hand side should all link directly into their respective forum.... not to some dumbass dog and pony shows....

YMMV

:cool2:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Iceaxe

New bitch about the "portal"....

The forum is the meat and potato's of Bogley.... and from the front page it's much to difficult to maneuver into the forum.... yeah, you can click the forum link in the banner.... but most folks will not do that at first. What's going to happen is folks will surf into Bogley.... click a couple buttons that just take them to more pictures or YouTube crap and then leave....

The Portal should channel folks to the forum, at least until you get more worth while and better content else where.

The "Categories" on the right hand side should all link directly into their respective forum.... not to some dumbass dog and pony shows....

YMMV

:cool2:

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Yeah there are places to play and you have some good points. However, have you noticed that there are links to the forum from each and every TR post on the homepage? Example (bottom of post, below the trail bunny pic and text :haha:): http://www.bogley.com/?p=803 "CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL POST & COMMENTS" takes you directly to the forum and more importantly it takes you to the specific TR. :cool2:

yeah, tons of links to the forum. we definitely went out of our way to guide everybody to the forum that passed through the home page.

There's the -
*Forum button up top
*a forum link in each featured trip report
*the most recent 7 forum posts
*the trip report indexes

I would drop general, trash, etc.... from the front page where is lists latest posts. Those games and subjects are an okay way for people to get to know each other but I hope we want to draw people that come to the forum/site to talk about the outdoor sports. I would keep the newbie section because that's a big please join us, we like new people thing. Also, maybe show the last post from each different sport, and include all sports. It only takes a few hard core people to come who are rafters for instance to make that section soar. That would entice people like me to post in it as well.

I really love how the portal is looking.
This portal is one super outstanding job Scott and Beech. You guys have it together. I am impressed.

Looking Deep.......

1. First thing I notice is I would remove the name of the poster on the list of last posts. Looks bad when one person (like me) does a bunch of posts in a row. Not a big thing but I will just point out anything I would try and tweak if I were doing it. It's so well done that these will be minor tweaks that probably don't even need to be done, but still things I would notice and when doing something I want honest feedback so I can look and see if I agree and if so then fix it.

2. Get rid of general, political, trash, etc.. on the front page. Even if titles stayed longer for something like [hunting] or [rafting] it would look nicer to see something like: TR to Westwater rather than [Corrupt a Wish] or {Tanya's sexual fantasy] or something.

3. Love the category section! That is classy!

4. The ad on the left is tasteful. It fits and I am glad you guys can make a little back toward the cost of this site. I know it's not enough to pay for it, but it helps.

5. Center photos and trip reports. Incredible. Don't burn out Beech. This is impressive but so much work. I don't know if you can automate it some how. We all get burnt out if we do too much of anything. It's Classy!!! I like the personal posts under this trip report with the posters id linking to the original. Very nice and there is room for 3 such reports. Nice.

6. Link to previous reports - nice touch.

7. Archives? *** Okay... this is something that I would change a bit. I click on it and it is a list of reports from the past. I don't think I would call it achieves. This group has an incredible amount of into in it. Those are your current things, not your old dusty archives. I would give it some upbeat name, something that means this is what you can go and do now. This is cool stuff we did it, we checked it out for you, go and do it or we did this so you don't have to, but here is the info any way.

Also I clicked on a couple of the 'archives' and the lists looks so short?
I would set up a standard format. Short and easy, but that includes location, difficulty and some rating of how good it is since that is why many go to groups is to get a real opinion on something instead of just a report. This might be done elsewhere and probably is, but there is so little I can see that could be better so I am going to mention this. I hate to be a yes person. You know I have to argue something. ;)

Maybe something like:

Water Canyon
Technical Slot Canyon or it can be done as a family hike
Stars - ***** (of out 5)
Locatation - Southern Utah. Hildale - Highway 389 between Fredonia and Hurricane


8. Bogley Network - nice although I would never click on those, but others are big fans of those sites and they will.

9. Bogley photos is very nice. People love photos and this group has some of the best I have seen anywhere on the net that are not all locked up.

10. Shane and my banners are very cool. Thank you so much for those!!! I will make sure and do the same for you!

11. The top menu is easy to use. Some people like to look at a members list. Is it gone? I personally think it should never be visible to the public. I get enough dang spam.

Excellent job guys. I am really behind on reading stuff so I hope this was not all redundant.

You guys have a winner site here!!!!

ps... For those that can't spell try and grab this url someday. I kept getting this site when the name was first changed.
http://www.bogely.com/news.php

Reminder to myself and others!! I need to change my links to include the awesome portal!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sombeech

*the most recent 7 forum posts

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as you have it the section is titled "RECENT POSTS"

perhaps it should read "RECENT FORUM POSTS"


also, is there a way to remove the link to the poster's profile in that RECENT POSTS section? that is, can it be made a single link to the post?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stefan

perhaps it should read "RECENT FORUM POSTS"


also, is there a way to remove the link to the poster's profile in that RECENT POSTS section? that is, can it be made a single link to the post?

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Yeah, we could rename that. Removing the user profile is an option too.

But limiting the posts to just certain forums may be a little tricky, as it's just reading from the database. We'll take a look at it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sombeech

Removing the user profile is an option too.

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i think it's good to keep the poster's name, but i figured it's better kept simple so a new user doesn't click on the name by mistake and needlessly go to the user's profile page, especially since the links are the same font size.


another suggestion: perhaps to help accommodate ice's concerns, maybe the centerfold TR viewer needs a title which indicates that this stuff is posted in a forum and is being highlighted on this page. this would be above the link to "previous posts" but still within that div.

not sure what the title would be, though. want something catchy with the word forum in it. "Highlighted Trip Reports from the Forum" or more simply "Highlights from the Forum" or maybe something kewler

i dunno

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stefan

maybe the centerfold....

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I'm sorry, no nudity is allowed.... yet.


:haha:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tanya

2. Get rid of general, political, trash, etc.. on the front page.

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Yeah, I think the general discussion shows the personality of the website. Bogley attracts users because of the great personalities. If we talked about tent stakes all day it would get dull fast. I think prospective members are attracted to the bogley personalities. Not to mention general discussion topics rule most big forums. It's just the facts, people want to gossip and chat about this and that. I find this chat to be some of the funnest.
Good feedback in general. I will have to re-read it all. :popcorn: