General Suggestions

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November 3, 2009 - 1:27pm

khoisi

Joined: Oct 28 2009

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These were sent by user hoisingm. Def agree with much of what he said. I think we are trying to create an "oasis" where skiers and boarders can connect

I would think about taking the "Technique" stuff off of the web site. Maybe think of replacing it with something like, "Ask an Expert." If you ask me, a bunch of kids who have no technique giving advice to others without technique is going to get messy and lead to Joey-dom. I like the idea of posting pictures doing certain things - but other than that the technique stuff could go. Just a suggestion.

Other than that, the site seems to operate pretty well. For me, I would say the most important thing is simplicity, ease of use. To the farthest extent possible, I would try to limit clutter and make each page as "clean as possible" (just like untracked powder ). Skiing is great because it is quiet and relaxing, yet exhilarating at the same time. Maybe try to pattern your website design after that idea. Lots of white backgrounds, limited interference, etc. Right now it is kind of like that, but the first page has quite a bit going on. Maybe think of allowing the user to maximize or minimize each the "what's new" "newest members" and "who's online" fields instead of just making them large. Also, in the "forums" homepage, think of just listing the topic and person who started it, instead of putting their avatar there as well. It would be less bulky that way.

One more suggestion: maybe a few more photos of (white, snow capped) mountains in the background. Skiers love mountains.

As for the usability, I think it's working well. Building my profile was easy enough. Most of my suggestions are aesthetic, not operational.

Shred it

November 4, 2009 - 5:28pm

#1 [permalink]

friolator

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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Quote:

I would think about taking the "Technique" stuff off of the web site. Maybe think of replacing it with something like, "Ask an Expert."

I like this Ask an Expert idea. Is hoisingm volunteering to be our ski expert?

I think the biggest problem with this idea though, is that we don't have paid staff to handle something like this, so it's always going to be about users helping users, and to some degree it's going to be up to the reader to decide who's worth listening to and who isn't. We may be implementing a user rating system once there's some more content on the site, and that will help in determining who is really helpful.

There will be plenty of yahoos who don't know what they're talking about, but then again, that's the case on any web site that's centered around a common topic. There will be people who genuinely know what they're talking about and are quiet, and there will be people who don't have a clue and will be loud, and vice versa. It's just kind of the nature of the beast, and those conversations will happen in another forum if there's not a dedicated one.

But I'd love to see some instructors step up in both Skiing and Snowboarding to critique video and photos that people post. I've seen this work on other sites.

Quote:

One more suggestion: maybe a few more photos of (white, snow capped) mountains in the background. Skiers love mountains.

ahh, yes. this was part of the original design, wasn't it? I'll have to dig up that background photo and get it in there at some point!

-perry

I am friolator. I am a dead cat.

November 12, 2009 - 1:21pm

#2 [permalink]

therealrico

Joined: Oct 31 2009

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OK so I just noticed this while trying to get in, but Kara said it was because it was in beta. But I assumed when I went to chinease-downhill.com and then clicked forum I would be able to log in, and nothing happened. Finally I found the log in button, but I realized it is really small and hard to see, so I would make it a little more obvious. Also if I want to go to the forums from the main page shouldn't it prompt me to log in when I click on it instead of doing nothing. Again this might have something to do with it being in beta so if that is the case than I guess no big deal.

Also I have been looking for plug ins to add to my blog site www.sofaball.com to allow digging, and tweeting and facebooking, and so far have only found share this. My point is all your pages should probably have some social buttons that users can push that will help spread the site through social media.

Also are you guys planning on utilizing facebook connect in the future, might be something to consider.

November 12, 2009 - 1:33pm

#3 [permalink]

friolator

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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Kara is correct - while we're in Beta, the main navigation links at the top of the page just redirect you to the top of the page. Once we open up the site to the general public, the navigation at the top of the page will function normally. The current setup is a little ugly, but it's the simplest way to keep the site closed off during Beta, without making major modifications to the navigation.

We will be using ShareThis, most likely. The buttons and everything are actually in place, but are hidden while we're in Beta. It didn't seem like a good idea to be sharing content that the average person can't see. Once we open up, you'll be able to use a standard ShareThis widget (or one like it) to share pages on all of the major social networking sites and via email.

Facebook Connect is planned in the future, yes. It's something we're working on, but is very buggy at the moment. We plan to allow you to publish content directly to your Facebook Wall as well.

-perry

I am friolator. I am a dead cat.

November 12, 2009 - 1:54pm

#4 [permalink]

therealrico

Joined: Oct 31 2009

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Cool, I also just noticed this one when I received the e-mail that you responded.

It says it comes from Donotreply in my box, wouldn't you want that to instead say Chinese Downhill? For example when I get an update from Facebook the message says Facebook, and then in the subject tells you what it is. Right now you tells what the e-mail is in your subject along with the site name. I guess my first thought when I see it is is that spam when I see DoNotReply, and I wonder if other e-mail providers would automatically put that in spam because of that? I think you should change it so it says Chinese Downhill instead of Donotreply, that way there is no possible way people will confuse it for junk mail.

PS thank god for spell check I keep spelling Chinese Chinease!

November 12, 2009 - 1:57pm

#5 [permalink]

friolator

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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Thanks - that's actually something that bugs me too. "DoNotReply" is actually pretty standard on a lot of major web sites, so I'm not too worried about that. Right now, the email is being sent out by a script that doesn't allow for a username to be inserted in the from address. the correct format would be something like:

"Chinese Downhill"

but the first part of that doesn't work with the emailer we're using. I'm looking into redoing that so that it has an actual sender name .

I am friolator. I am a dead cat.

November 12, 2009 - 2:08pm

#6 [permalink]

therealrico

Joined: Oct 31 2009

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I know it is standard on some sites, but like you said it bugs you, and it just looks better the other way.

2 other things I just noticed is:
1 I got an e-mail saying I received a reply on my post, but it was my own reply that prompted an e-mail. You should make it so it doesn't notify you when you do something on the site.

2 And this might be something that once out of beta you fix, or make it an option, but when I receive the e-mail notifying that someone responded, shouldn't it automatically log me in since I am clicking a link from my personal e-mail? At the very least it should bring me to a login page, and than to the forum.

Currently the path was I get an e-mail notifying, click the link to reply, brings me tot he main page, login. brings me to my account page, and I then click on the conversation in the forum.

EDIT: I just tried to do it again,and it immediately brought me to the conversation, so that is kinda strange no?

November 12, 2009 - 2:18pm

#7 [permalink]

perry (Webmaster)

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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If you don't explicitly click on the "logout" link when you leave the site, you remain logged in (on that machine, in that browser). So clicking on a link to a post from the email would bring you right to the post itself.

For Now, while we're in beta, if you're not logged into the site, clicking on that link will redirect you to the front page. When the site is live, even if you're not logged in, it will take you to the page directly. You won't be able to post anything until you log in, but you'll go directly to the page.

The exception to this would be in a group. if you're not logged in, you can't see inside of groups.

November 12, 2009 - 2:32pm

#8 [permalink]

friolator

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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hah. I realized that what I typed didn't come through properly. After "Chinese Downhill" should be 'donotreply@chinese-downhill.com' inside of an HTML-style tag. That's the correct format for an email. the site thought I was trying to inject HTML into the post, and stripped it out.

(still getting used to my normal user account, not one that lets me do anything!)

the net result is that the donotreply email address is still there, and replying to it won't go to anyone. But the From field should also show the name Chinese Downhill, to make it look better in your inbox. Working on this...

I am friolator. I am a dead cat.

November 20, 2009 - 12:40pm

#9 [permalink]

friolator

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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We have now added the "AddThis" service to the newly redesigned block under the search box. It functions in a way that's similar to ShareThis, but it's a nicer user interface, and the ShareThis code was really problematic on some browsers for us. AddThis seems to work everywhere I've tested so far.

It covers all the major social networks, and also allows you to share via email

-perry

I am friolator. I am a dead cat.

November 20, 2009 - 2:00pm

#10 [permalink]

tracylee

Joined: Nov 19 2009

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I am hoping this is the right thread to post this in since I don't see any way to add a new thread to the topic.

1) I really like the Ask the Experts idea, but only if it is open to whatever experts are around. Given the power of community, someone who gives poor advice will be fleshed out soon enough by real experts. This is sort of in the same vein as you stating in the registration not to fake your level of expertise.

2) It would be great to be able to contact other members through the site. If it is here, I am missing it.

3) I have quite a few winter sports photographs. Will there be a way to share photos? I think this will be a cool addition. Again, maybe I am missing something or it is in the plans as you move forward.

~Tracy
@StarrGazr

November 20, 2009 - 2:18pm

#11 [permalink]

friolator

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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Quote:

1) I really like the Ask the Experts idea, but only if it is open to whatever experts are around. Given the power of community, someone who gives poor advice will be fleshed out soon enough by real experts. This is sort of in the same vein as you stating in the registration not to fake your level of expertise.

This is kind of how I feel as well. Part of the problem with establishing "experts" is that even among experts there will be disagreement. I think it's a matter of determining a given user's credibility. We have some ideas for how to do that, but for now, it's a matter of reading for yourself if the person seems to know what they're talking about. Another gauge is their post count, which appears in the little block above all their posts. While a high post count is not an indicator of expertise, a low post count might be something to be wary of. Though, we all start with a count of zero, so it comes down to figuring out for yourself if that person is credible.

We can assign certain users "titles" which would appear next to their name. So bona fide industry experts might be tagged as such, and that would to determine their credibility.

Quote:

2) It would be great to be able to contact other members through the site. If it is here, I am missing it.

You can send private messages to any user. If you click on the Messages Icon next to the search form, or the messages link in the pulldown user dashboard, you can send messages to any site user from the "Write a new message" tab. Just start typing their name in the To: field, and it'll autocomplete.

We'll probably add in links to write messages to users directly from their posts, and directly from their user profile pages.

Quote:

3) I have quite a few winter sports photographs. Will there be a way to share photos? I think this will be a cool addition. Again, maybe I am missing something or it is in the plans as you move forward.

The initial design of the site did have a photo section, and it's something we'd like to add in at some point. (In Trip Reports, you do actually upload photos to the site, so there's a mechanism for this). That said, linking to these from forum posts is complicated, so we've found that the simplest way to handle it is to recommend that people set up a free Flickr account (or a similar site, like Picasa), and simply embed the photos from there, using the photo icon at the top of most textarea form fields.

-perry

I am friolator. I am a dead cat.

November 20, 2009 - 6:25pm

#12 [permalink]

tracylee

Joined: Nov 19 2009

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Quote:

Quote:
1) I really like the Ask the Experts idea, but only if it is open to whatever experts are around. Given the power of community, someone who gives poor advice will be fleshed out soon enough by real experts. This is sort of in the same vein as you stating in the registration not to fake your level of expertise.

This is kind of how I feel as well. Part of the problem with establishing "experts" is that even among experts there will be disagreement. I think it's a matter of determining a given user's credibility. We have some ideas for how to do that, but for now, it's a matter of reading for yourself if the person seems to know what they're talking about. Another gauge is their post count, which appears in the little block above all their posts. While a high post count is not an indicator of expertise, a low post count might be something to be wary of. Though, we all start with a count of zero, so it comes down to figuring out for yourself if that person is credible.

We can assign certain users "titles" which would appear next to their name. So bona fide industry experts might be tagged as such, and that would to determine their credibility.

Funny, we were just talking about this kind of thing at the #CRLive lunch today (http://community-roundtable.com/about/). I think having differences of opinions is a good thing as long as the community leaders keep it in check. A post count can also help verify, but not really. People will look at it as such, but someone may not be as vocal as another, but have more knowledge. Titles for bona fide experts would help. Empowering your community to govern itself is a great tool if done correctly.

Quote:

You can send private messages to any user. If you click on the Messages Icon next to the search form, or the messages link in the pulldown user dashboard, you can send messages to any site user from the "Write a new message" tab. Just start typing their name in the To: field, and it'll autocomplete.

We'll probably add in links to write messages to users directly from their posts, and directly from their user profile pages.

Cool! I somehow totally missed this before. I think it should be easy to add a "mailto"button on the user profile page. That would be extremely beneficial.

Quote:

The initial design of the site did have a photo section, and it's something we'd like to add in at some point. (In Trip Reports, you do actually upload photos to the site, so there's a mechanism for this). That said, linking to these from forum posts is complicated, so we've found that the simplest way to handle it is to recommend that people set up a free Flickr account (or a similar site, like Picasa), and simply embed the photos from there, using the photo icon at the top of most textarea form fields.

Are you going to get a Flickr API key to make pulling photos over from Flickr easy? As you can see, I have just a few photos...

~Tracy

(BTW - what happened to your sig?

~Tracy
@StarrGazr

November 20, 2009 - 6:26pm

#13 [permalink]

tracylee

Joined: Nov 19 2009

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Opps, never mind. It is there. It just isn't visible when relying.

~Tracy
@StarrGazr

November 20, 2009 - 6:27pm

#14 [permalink]

tracylee

Joined: Nov 19 2009

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Crap! And where is the "Edit the stupid typo I just made" link?

~Tracy
@StarrGazr

February 4, 2010 - 4:51pm

#15 [permalink]

friolator

Joined: Feb 12 2009

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khoisi wrote:

One more suggestion: maybe a few more photos of (white, snow capped) mountains in the background. Skiers love mountains.

Done!

I am friolator. I am a dead cat.

February 4, 2010 - 5:07pm

#16 [permalink]

tracylee

Joined: Nov 19 2009

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Just a quick UI request. When clicking on the link from email, I always get an error message that says:

Whoa, there Cowboy!
Sorry, but you don't have permission to access this page.

It would be great if the links either automatically identified you and logged you in, or you are allowed to stay logged in.

The error message is annoying.

~Tracy
@StarrGazr