DVR Chatter

One of the things that's very handy about the current format is the ability to tell at a glance when something new has been added.  I hope that any new format will retain that feature (hard to tell from looking at the 3 examples that I could access).

I vote against allowing anonymous posters, to discourage frivolous posts and provide some continuity for discussions.

I would hope that the regulars do stick around too.  That's why I'm asking if there are any strong objections to changing the format before changing it.

To be clear in addressing your concerns, my reference to anonymous posters was in regard to news article comments, not the in the forum section and not the ability for anonymous users to post news articles.  And, my reference to it was to point out that any user could BLOCK viewing anonymous posts in their user preferences.  Any registered user can set the threshold for the types of comments they wish to see (Viewing all, blocking anonymous, or only viewing those from members with a certain level of posting history).

My goal in that respect is to get more participants from all these viewers we have.  I wasn't sure if I was going to allow it, and from what you guys are saying I should think about not doing so.

As far as the News Sections, they would no longer be a part of the forum.  Apart from the DVR stuff, we would make the forum whatever we wanted at that point.  What are the News Sections of the current forums would be news articles in descending chronological order on the front page.  The number of reads and comments would be listed there.  If you found one of the articles interesting, you would click "Read More" to read the full article followed by all the comments on that article.  You can chose in your preferences whether you wanted to view the comments flat (like they are here) or threaded (replies to a comment are under that specific comment) and what level of comment you want to see according to what level of commenter posted it.

Maybe the best course of action would be for me to set up an installation with some dummy data in a subdirectory here so you can see what I'm talking about.  Maybe I'll be able to do that this week.  The hardest work is getting all the data from the old format to the new format, but just sticking it up there for you guys to poke around should be pretty simple.  That way, you can say "I don't like x" or "I think Y could be done better" and I'll be able to change it right there.

Providing you have the resources to do it, I would make a duplicate backup of the current format, install your new CMS, then merge over the backup system to see what you come up with and exactly how easily the current data will convert over.  I've managed many forums and CMS' over the years and let me tell you, its the worst feeling in the world when you think you're doing something great until something horrible goes wrong and all of sudden all old data has been lost lol. I wouldn't mind seeing a new face, but I wouldn't put it at the cost of possily losing old data.  By resources to do this, i mean available space on your host server and of course, the time to do it. If you need some assistance with either of these, I might be able to help out. In either case, all i can say is good luck

OK - I threw something up real quick this morning as a way to kind of visualize what all this talk is about.  It's at http://www.dvrchatter.com/temp . Feel free to poke around.  It's not really configured right - I just turned all the stuff on so you can see what's available and (hopefully) the benefits.  It's a temporary install and a temporary database that will be destroyed when (if) we go forward to making it a reality. 

The one caveat is that I don't think registration emails are being sent.  The other applicable functions are working, but I wasn't getting verification emails. I'll check periodically and activate any inactive users so you can poke around as a registered user.  A lot of stuff is hidden and inactive for anon users.

Let me know what you think.

I got a "404 Not found" when I first clicked on the link, and it was caused by the period at the end of the sentence being included in the url.  It should be http://www.dvrchatter.com/temp

I like it Frank... change is good and I encourage the expansion.

Looks good to me too.

You guys poke around in there as much as you want.  Like I said, the database will be destroyed before I put anything up for real.  It's just a temporary installation to get to know the features.  Create accounts, post stuff, write reviews - - whatever you want.  I wouldn't give it my best writing or anything, though, cause like I said whatever is there is going to be gone eventually.

The problem I'm having is that I know what I like and don't like for my purposes and my functions, but I really have no idea how other folks use the site or like to look for information.  I just know this "forum only" format (that I decided on purely based on the original function of the site) does not present the full extent of the content we've built up here in its best light and it doesn't encourage participation by the many folks who come here as readers but never think of jumping in as posters.

If every visitor registered and posted, this place would seem much more lively than it does as purely a flat forum.

So what's the latest on this Frank ? Is it a go ?

So, we're still on this one Frank... still have plans for a change ?