Stafford Forum 2.0 is coming! Help & suggestions needed...

Admin

Admin

You there; behave!
Staff member
Stafford Forum was created in 2006 as a bit of a laugh amongst friends. We honestly never expected it to become as successful as is has done, and for that we only have you to thank. :)

Due to our continued success, and the constant influx of new users, the time has come to drag ourselves into the 21st century and move away from the "Web 1.0 look" that some of you occasionally joke about.

I've toyed with the idea of just buying a new forum platform and migrating to that, but I've recently started thinking about taking the opportunity to really push the boat out and make this place cutting edge. Facebook integration, a choice of radio stations to listen to, personal profiles, Twitter integration, RSS - all of those shenanigans!

Trouble is, I'm a luddite. I can hack my way through a bit of PHP, MySQL, HTML, etc. but when it comes to design, and what is "de facto" or "now" in terms of platforms (Wordpress, vBulletin, etc.), I haven't got a clue.

Can anyone help? MyCult, gdavies, db, tek-monkey, wmrcomputers, Andreas Rex, EUDesignStudio, Wormella, et al, I'm looking at you. ;)

Ideally, I'm after someone who does this sort of thing for a living/hobby, and so knows all about it and can really make it shine. However, even if you don't have the technical know-how, if anyone has any ideas for what they would like to see from Stafford Forum 2.0, please post them in this thread! :D

Thanks!
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I find the way that the current forum system works to be quite adequate, personally speaking - certainly vastly superior to the only other one that I frequent which is on Yuku. An email alert for a PM was suggested some time ago and might be useful. Also an alert that your message memory is more than 3/4 full, perhaps. The 'show new posts' and 'mark all read' could be further apart to avoid inadvertant clearing - although the 'last 24hrs-worth' button is very useful. The current search function works very well.
 
Admin

Admin

You there; behave!
Staff member
Gramaisc said:
I find the way that the current forum system works to be quite adequate, personally speaking - certainly vastly superior to the only other one that I frequent which is on Yuku. An email alert for a PM was suggested some time ago and might be useful. Also an alert that your message memory is more than 3/4 full, perhaps. The 'show new posts' and 'mark all read' could be further apart to avoid inadvertant clearing - although the 'last 24hrs-worth' button is very useful. The current search function works very well.
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All good suggestions, and all will definitely be included in the overhaul. I'm thinking bigger & better than that, though. As in, the front page shows our Twitter feed, along with recent Facebook comments, most popular threads, most recently posted pictures (along with an integrated image uploading/hosting service), etc. - that sort of thing. From there, you can link to The Forum in its more familiar, classic form (albeit on a different, better supported platform).

As I say, I am not a Web Designer, so my main problems are:

1) Ideas
2) Software platforms, how to implement them, integration, etc.

I'm OK with getting my hands dirty, and I am looking to retain full control and keep our existing host and things like that; I just want help creating the new site. :)
 
gdavies

gdavies

Well-Known Forumite
I will help for sure, I have played with online radio myself that streams personal mp3's and have toyed with a few other things web orientated, be good as a whole joint effort.
 
speak65

speak65

Well-Known Forumite
As a relative newbie, can I just add my penn'th worth.
I agree with Gramaisc's points but I can understand the desire to update.
Please dont make it too much "bells and whistles", the simplistic format is one great appeal of the site.

Also, thanks admin for your time and effort on the site, you are doing a great job here.
:clap:
 
gdavies

gdavies

Well-Known Forumite
I agree with the if it isn't broke don't fix it, however I also like the idea of something more updated. Imagine those links to stafford radio on the side been a button to click and your already listening while posting updates on here, Having a box below that show recent activity of twitter or facebook, social peeps get fed everything from one website. Too many bells and whistles can be bad but with this many members i can't see the harm in adding a few things.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
I'm no good with design as such, but if you need anything database related doing I'm your man. In particular if you move platforms and need the current data moving across I'm pretty good at translation shiz.

If you think there is anything I can help with just ask.
 
wmrcomputers

wmrcomputers

Stafford PC & laptop repair specialist
I wish I could give you the input you need but I can't I'm affraid - but as others have said, keep up your great work. The forum has been good to me in many ways and wish we could do more to thank you for your efforts. :)
 
shoes

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
I love the vBulletin engine which overclockers forums use - is that an off-the-shelf package?
 
MyCult

MyCult

SEO to the FACE
I'm down Admin - just let me know what you need.

Mostly agree w/ all points made about features.

I think the thing only real thing that I miss from other forums I visit is a shoutbox. I have no doubt that certian members of the forum (Marwood, Gramaisc, Withnail) would be playing pun bingo in there 2minutes after launch.

FB/Twitter integration might be nice but I'm getting kind of sick of sites doing that tbh. Just because I'm on your site doesn't mean you have to be all up in in my shit.

Another other one off the top of my head would be the ability to embed youtube videos directly in posts. I'm not suggesting you allow all HTML/Java as that would be bad (people like me would abuse it) but the youtube post in-particular would benefit from the videos being viewable on the forum.

Other stuff that might be nice would be some AJAX functionality - don't know what though.

The share this / like / +1 / tweet functionality you hint at would be beneficial.

Oh yus anb finarly a spall chackar.
 
tek-monkey

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
MyCult said:
FB/Twitter integration might be nice but I'm getting kind of sick of sites doing that tbh. Just because I'm on your site doesn't mean you have to be all up in in my shit.
Click to expand...
TBH I'm not a big FB user, its not my bag baby. What exactly would be integrated, my FB shiz here or this shiz on my face?

MyCult said:
Another other one off the top of my head would be the ability to embed youtube videos directly in posts. I'm not suggesting you allow all HTML/Java as that would be bad (people like me would abuse it) but the youtube post in-particular would benefit from the videos being viewable on the forum.
Click to expand...
Agreed, and something I always forget as other forums I use do it. I've probably asked several times now why I can't embed, as I just assume I can!

MyCult said:
Other stuff that might be nice would be some AJAX functionality - don't know what though.
Click to expand...
Minor points, but things like the back button after a post taking you back to your post, then back to the thread, then back to the list of threads is quite longwinded. An ajax posting method would solve this, I can do ajax but not PHP really but pretty sure I can help.

MyCult said:
The share this / like / +1 / tweet functionality you hint at would be beneficial.
Click to expand...
Could be interesting, as you lot have similar tastes in things to me. Well, mostly. Sort of.

MyCult said:
Oh yus anb finarly a spall chackar.
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Indeedly do! But we'd want one we can add words to ;)
 
MyCult

MyCult

SEO to the FACE
tek-monkey said:
MyCult said:
FB/Twitter integration might be nice but I'm getting kind of sick of sites doing that tbh. Just because I'm on your site doesn't mean you have to be all up in in my shit.
Click to expand...
TBH I'm not a big FB user, its not my bag baby. What exactly would be integrated, my FB shiz here or this shiz on my face?
Click to expand...
Yes - that is the exact kind of integration that annoys me (I may be in the minority here). If I wanted to say/share something on FB - I would have - and vice versa. I am capable of using two sites at once (whore) so don't go throwing my lyrics all over the place automagically - I don't like it.


tek-monkey said:
MyCult said:
Oh yus anb finarly a spall chackar.
Click to expand...
Indeedly do! But we'd want one we can add words to ;)
Click to expand...
Cuffy & Fucktard being among the first - then the nice words we use like... er.... the... you know what I mean.
 
MyCult

MyCult

SEO to the FACE
Agreed the chat/shoutbox should be for registered users only. Admin would probably be well placed choosing some forumers to be mods of the shoutbox too.

Mods having the ability to ban users from chat for set periods of time if they are being abusive, spammy or are John Marwood.

I think the a shoutbox could be fun.
 
Gramaisc

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I'm not really a 'chat' fan where there's more than two people involved, and so would probably self-regulate on that one.

I don't really understand the benefits of the 'shout-box' concept - it sounds like it might be a particularly unpleasant toilet experience.

The buttons could be a little bigger and/or better laid out. I'm probably not the only person who has quoted themselves when they meant to edit a post - and there have been instances of people being cuffied when it was intended to skill them, etc.
 
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