Moving to Huddler by 2011

[halcon]

Iacas, I do think that it's a good idea overall and totally understand if you do it. However, I am scared of two things: One, that increased traffic would lead to a bunch more trolling. And two, I really enjoy the community here, and feel like I know most of the regular contributors to some degree from reading their posts. It would be too bad if it expanded to a point where the "small" feel of the place is lost, and kind of turned into golfwrx where you have no idea who anyone is.

I also like the community, and it will be a shame if we lose the familiarity that we have now. Although, I believe that this change is for the best, since the people involved will take good care of us, and they will not accept anything less of what we have. Good luck!

[halcon]

I have a request for the "wish list": I would like to receive a message whenever anybody quotes my posts; right now, I receive a resume of all the new posts for my subscribed threads once every week, but I'd like the option of receive a quicker message if someone is interacting with me.

[iacas]

I have a request for the "wish list": I would like to receive a message whenever anybody quotes my posts; right now, I receive a resume of all the new posts for my subscribed threads once every week, but I'd like the option of receive a quicker message if someone is interacting with me.

Change your thread subscription notices to "instant by email."

There's no way to know in any forum software that I've seen if it's just a response in the thread or if the person has quoted your post(s) specifically. But you can do more than the weekly thing, that's for certain.

[iacas]

I talk with a tech guy from Huddler later today (3pm eastern). Please add anything you can think of to this list. Please do so before 3pm eastern today.

Forum Features
--------------
- Large avatars
- Left side postbit
- Reputation (coming in 60 days)
- User groups (Instructor, Newbie, Established, Registered, Bad Seed, Penalty Box) with auto-promotion/demotion
- Marketplace (??? maybe they can make it more than a regular forum)
- User blogs !!! Important
- Profile Fields (handicap index, online scorecards, righty/lefty, etc.)
- My Scorecard button
- Embedding videos
- Signatures
- Company smilies
- "What's New?"
- Jump to New Post button
- Username + Facebook?
- Quoting in PMs
- Custom BB Codes (HTML Entities, Strike-through, spoiler, superscript, citation, horizontal rule)
- Subscription options
- "Thanks" for individual posts (ties into rep??)
- Threads/Forums read only if you've actually read them or "Mark Forum as Read"
- Pagination keys (hjkl)
- Report posts (spam, someone being a jerk)
- Links to AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, etc.

[Zeph]

- My Posts - A search feature giving you a list of threads with recents posts in, which you have posted in too. Perferably with the option to remove threads from the list you don't want there. This is a feature I use a lot on other forums. Kinda like Subscriptions works now, but listing threads like "New Posts" does, without the left side menu. The button could be placed next to the "New Posts" button.
- Unanswered threads. Search feature listing threads which has no replies.
- A better picture/file upload feature than on vBB.

[kpaulhus]

How did your call go?

[iacas]

Zeph, your posts came in late but I'll send them along.

kpaulhus, I'll update later. 95% of the stuff they can do and some they're implementing.

The one big loss will be user blogs. Still not entirely sure on that - work-arounds or other possible solutions, etc. Might be none. Might have to create a "User Blogs" forum or something - not a full solution but better than nothing.

Dinner with the family. Will update later tonight.

[iacas]

-

Huddler says: We have an edit subscriptions page where you can manage this. You can then use the same tool to look at new posts:



- Unanswered threads. Search feature listing threads which has no replies.

Huddler says: We don’t have this tool today, but could be something that is fairly easy to add if you find users or mods use this a lot

- A better picture/file upload feature than on vBB.

Yes, we have an very intuitive system and ability to create galleries.• You can check this out on Epic or on our partner site Cheftalk:

http://www.cheftalk.com/gallery/album/index/tags

[iacas]

Here's the list and their answers with a bit of my commentary in spots.

Large avatars

Can be as large as we want - 600 x 600 - so maintaining current sizes is fine.

Left side postbit

Yes. No Huddler site that they know of uses it, but it's a configurable option.

Reputation

Coming in 60 days. Goes farther beyond what vBulletin offers.

User groups (Instructor, Newbie, Established, Registered, Bad Seed, Penalty Box) with auto-promotion/demotion

Yep. For now it'll tie into the infractions system (more below) and when reputation is out it'll tie into that.

Marketplace

As y'all know it's just a forum for now. They're pushing what they call "Buy/Sell/Trade" out soon though and it'll have reputation limited to the Marketplace and other features which will turn our current Marketplace into a relic, so the Marketplace will be advanced with Huddler.

User blogs

Nope. No such thing. It's a sticking point, but we'll see what we can do via a combination of threads in the forum (perhaps a new forum) as well as wikis. For example, the post I link to as "terms I use" in my sig will be good as a wiki post. Yes, we'll lose things like practice diaries, etc. Maybe we can have a forum for "Individual User Diaries" or something, kind of like the ongoing threads for "My Swing (Username)". A loss, but perhaps not a

huge one...

Profile Fields (handicap index, online scorecards, righty/lefty, etc.)

Yep.

My Scorecard button

Nothing they've done before but they'll look into it.

Embedding videos

Just as easy if not easier than vBulletin.

Signatures Company smilies "What's New?" Jump to New Post button

Yes to all.

Username + Facebook?

Yes if you sign up to the forum with a username first. No if you sign up using Facebook (you just have your real name then). All current members would obviously be covered here, but they're upgrading their API and this is a big thing to me - I want new users who sign up via Facebook to be able to still have a username and not be forced to use their real name.

Quoting in PMs

Not currently in place. PMs are more like conversations - like Facebook where you see all the responses above yours, like a little forum thread - but they're going to look to add this feature soon.

Custom BB Codes (HTML Entities, Strike-through, spoiler, superscript, citation, horizontal rule)

They'll investigate this possibility and see how ours map over.

Subscription options

Same.

"Thanks" for individual posts

Implemented via thumbs up, and yes, it's in there. It may or may not tie into the reputation system.

Threads/Forums read only if you've actually read them or "Mark Forum as Read"

Yep, pretty much works the same as what we have now.

Pagination keys (hjkl)

Not implemented but he liked the idea and will look to add it to not only our site but every Huddler site.

Users report posts (spam, someone being a jerk)

Yep.

Links to AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, etc.

They'll investigate it. It's a custom profile field in Huddler and they'd just have to add a little button.

Some of the things they have include an infraction system. So until reputation is developed (which should likely be before our site re-launches under Huddler), they use the infraction system. Users are given infractions by mods and admins, and then auto-promoted or demoted based on this and other characteristics (post count, membership duration, etc.). As I said, Buy/Sell/Trade Feature is in development that should knock the socks off our current Marketplace implementation. 90% certain we're moving forward. We may sign the contracts on Monday. Within a few weeks from that date they'll have mockups showing the redesigned site (they like our design and colors so the changes will be minimal). Rememer to look at things like this: http://www.epicski.com/products/ We'll have that too. Shafts, clubs, grips, courses, resorts, bags, apparel, training aids, instructors, etc. All will be listed there so you can thoroughly check out all golf stuff. If something's not there, you can add it. Plus the main site will basically exist as it always has. I was hoping they could integrate into the forum a bit more, but they may have some ways to do that - new posts would direct people to the forum for participation rather than comment on the existing thread. As I said before, too, anyone who is a Forum Leader will be invited to participate in the process. We'll have a sandbox (ha ha) we can play in and tweak and so on. You'll have early access and can help us to shape the way The Sand Trap looks and behaves on Huddler. I'm going to try to involve as many people as possible in this, and if you don't want to help, let me know and I can remove the Forum Leader designation. If you do want to help, great - we'll welcome your input. The process will take a few months.

[Shorty]

Not sure if the following comments are worth anything or are the kind of feedback that is going to be useful but....
I think that the "look and feel" of this site is pretty much second to none in terms of design and general appearance. Very elegant.
I would expect that any changes will leave the site looking pretty much the same.
In terms of individual preferences and styles, I like the way Iacas has his equipment listed across the page in very small type. Maybe I would like that to be the defacto standard. I do not like signatures that run to fifteen or twenty lines. What about something like the file system in OSX where a little arrow can be clicked to hide or reveal the extra folders or albums or whatever. So...an arrow for "What I play" that can be clicked to reveal the information. I prefer not see twelve lines that say "In my X year old daughter's Brand Y bag" thirty times a day (Especially when that person hasn't been x years old for a year or more.) But there might be occasions where I would like to click on the arrow to have information revealed. For example, "I wonder if Iacas is still using the Mizuno wedges" he liked so much in that review."
Personal preference perhaps, too, but I think the feature where the manufacturers' logos come up in these sigs is a little on the tacky side.
I notice how a lot of members prefer the "less is more" approach.

Like I said - these are just a few random thoughts. If they help, great, if not it's still feedback!
Regards.

[halcon]

If you do want to help, great - we'll welcome your input.

Where do I sign?

[iacas]

Not sure if the following comments are worth anything or are the kind of feedback that is going to be useful but....

The colors will remain (though I think we'll ditch or tone down the blue - that's just left over from vBulletin). The look and feel of the site WILL change, and from what Huddler tells me, THIS is the biggest issue people have with the move. Buttons are in different places and/or look different, sizes of things change and shift around a bit, etc. They will minimize that by keeping the colors AND they like the look of the site as it is right now, so no problems there.

They have a fairly common theme they seem to apply - look at denimblog.com (you'll see their blog front end, like our site has, and can click through to the "forum" part of it), hometheaterforum.com, epicski.com, head-fi.org, etc. I think the look is clean and comfortable. Certainly no worse than vBulletin.

In terms of individual preferences and styles, I like the way Iacas has his equipment listed across the page in very small type. Maybe I would like that to be the defacto standard. I do not like signatures that run to fifteen or twenty lines. What about something like the file system in OSX where a little arrow can be clicked to hide or reveal the extra folders or albums or whatever. So...an arrow for "What I play" that can be clicked to reveal the information.

Users can create lists and link to those in their signature. For example:

http://www.epicski.com/lists/display/view/id/48077 That's someone named "huhh"'s list of gear. And here's someone named "Bazzer"'s list of resorts (courses for us): http://www.epicski.com/lists/display/view/id/65530 We can't mandate how people list items in their sigs, but as with vBulletin we can control how many lines a user has to put things in and strongly suggest they use the "What's In My Bag" and "Where I Play" buttons in their signature.

I prefer not see twelve lines that say "In my X year old daughter's Brand Y bag" thirty times a day (Especially when that person hasn't been x years old for a year or more.) But there might be occasions where I would like to click on the arrow to have information revealed. For example, "I wonder if Iacas is still using the Mizuno wedges" he liked so much in that review."

Yep, you'd click the button if we go that route.

Personal preference perhaps, too, but I think the feature where the manufacturers' logos come up in these sigs is a little on the tacky side. I notice how a lot of members prefer the "less is more" approach.

I don't think that will change. Most people like how they have a ready list of logos to plug in. But if it's all replaced by two buttons and signatures are limited to a few lines, people will have to use "What's In My Bag?" buttons.

Where do I sign?

That was directed more at the Forum Leaders we have currently.

[Maverick]

I talk with a tech guy from Huddler later today (3pm eastern).

I like it all Erik, BUT I never got into the whole personal "blog"ging on a forum..I dunno..I guess if you want to blog you'd get your own personal/private blog going and not contained within a forum. To be honest I really don't read personally blogs, inside a forum, as there is plenty to read already. I figure if you have something to "blog" about -- post it in the appropriate forum. I'd be curious how many people here read other's "blogs"..to be honest..and far from being rude..I don't.

I also like possibly having a "Seller Feedback Forum", this would be where members could give feedback on the other members on how their transaction went. But anyway, I like the look of Huddler and if we keep the above mentioned items in it I think we're going to be alright..I wait to see how we look in a year. :)

[Valleygolfer]

It has been a few months and I am wondering if the Huddler thing has be shelfed or still a go.

[iacas]

It has been a few months and I am wondering if the Huddler thing has be shelfed or still a go.

Still a go.

[dmnoland]

Still a go.

Honestly, I have not read this whole thread but I would like to see the signature lines stay (including the company logos, they are pretty cool) along with the info to the left of each poster, especially handicap. Maybe I'm just shallow but I like to use that info to evaluate the wisdom of some posts. Thanks!

[masayo]

Looking forward to it! (I'm a designer so I'm biased)

[RC]

I'm neutral since the forum approach is such a success. But who knows? How would you discover new things unless you try them? The pre-Forum days certainly did not know what success they might become.