Suggestions?

Articles

>BTW, what happened to the Woodcentral Articles & Shop Shots? I can't seem to just view them like the old days. I'm not interested in searching them, just perusing the list to find what I'm looking for

Re: Stop sniveling, make something, take photos, post them.......

That may be impossible on the full-size wooden statue...

with the hand-rubbed oil finish. 

Re: Suggestions?

>I suppose you already know your platform is mobile phone unfriendly. Instagram, twitter, FB, etc. would see a 90% drop in their traffic if they became not phone friendly tomorrow.

 As far as layout (page content not rendering outside the available display size and all fonts and buttons sized for ease of use on small displays), it is "mobile friendly" and meets Google's requirements for indexing. Any page that doesn't results in an email from them alerting me it is not complient, tells me what needs to be fixed, then lets me resubmit it for indexing. 

It doesn't do things like sent text alerts about new messages or sync things between all your devices. I personally find text alerts annoying and many resent their phone being "blown up" with alerts. As for sync'ing the "cookies" that store your profile, that cannot be done. Cookies cannot be sync'd by design for security reasons.

>Other forums also have their threads collapsed, making them easier to browse and get to, with minimal scrolling forth or back.

Try using the Set Preferences link listed on the forum index pages to the following:

List Style Simple ListAlphabetical ListThreaded ListCompressed List
Display Style Single MessageGuestbook
Sort Order Oldest FirstNewest FirstMixed OrderUBB Order

Re: So far, my summary observations...

>My initial thought was to plaster other forum sites with WC references. That's how I ended up here. [Maybe, not so good an idea...?]

That is the #1 way to drive traffic, far more effective than paid ads. And because of the way search engines determine ranking largely based on links, it creates sort of a rising tide (links) lifts all boats (websites) effect.

Of course, one cannot be blatant about it lest it appears spamming. But discussing a topic on another site, then including a link to something related on WC for "more details" is not only acceptable but using the web as it was designed to be used--linking to other sites.

Jim DeLaney, Austintown, Ohio wrote:

Re: Suggestions?

"If we have to reimagine the concept of "forum," maybe expanding it beyond strictly topical exchanges is part of the picture."

I'm in the opposite camp.  I think consolidating the Feedback, Getting Started, and Off Topic sections back into the 'Main' section will encourage more postings.  Just have "Woodworking" (or rename it 'MAIN'), Turning, and Handtools (maybe rename it 'Hand Work').  Simpler and more all inclusive.

Reflecting on past discussions about switching forum software when our previous platform failed, dividing content into separate forums is no longer confusing. Unlike before, when users had to manually check each forum for updates, the current system simplifies this process.

The "Latest Active Topics" link delivers exactly what it promises: a single click displays all recent activity across every forum. For logged-in users, icons clearly indicate which forums and topics have unread posts or replies.

This setup effectively combines all forums into one streamlined experience for tracking new content, regardless of how many forums exist—even if there were millions. Additionally, organizing content into distinct forums makes it easier to locate specific topics as the volume of discussions grows into the thousands or hundreds of thousands.

That said, it is possible there may be a thing as too many forums.

How about a contest. The subject could be - My Favorite project. Scoring could be established for Creativity, Cost Effectiveness, Environmental Friendliness, etc, etc, etc. Maybe 3 subject areas: Hand Tool Projects, Power Tool Projects and projects using both hand and power tools.

@Ralph Lipeles,

Great idea. Ellis had mentioned not having any interest in contests because they were very time consuming to administer. But things have changed since then, and it occurred to me perhaps we can use features of our new forums to automate it.