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 #2 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 19:18 pm How can we make the site better? |
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Hi, T
I have suggesting
May you can put me Site Admin Like you, and I sure will be this web the best Like me 
I'm kidding just
really If I suggest ,do you really take my Ideas ?!
best wishes
Mba
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Dark Magician
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| #3 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 19:28 pm How can we make the site better? |
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Dark magician wrote:
| Quote: | | May you can put me Site Admin Like you |
I sincerely hope TD will shoot a reply!
Englishuser |
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Englishuser
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| #4 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 19:52 pm How can we make the site better? |
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Hi Englishuser, as Mba said his first suggestion was supposed to be a joke. Mba, of course we will consider any of your suggestions -- you are the reason why created this site in the first place so we do want to know what you think.
Regards,
Torsten
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Torsten
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| #5 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 20:11 pm How can we make the site better? |
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Mba, lol
Maybe we could be allowed to vote our admins into/out of office. hehe
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Prezbucky
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| #6 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 20:28 pm How can we make the site better? |
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That's a good idea, Tom. Joke aside, we could add a feature that allows forum users to cast a vote for other users, moderators and admins. I've seen such systems on other forums so let's give it some more thought...
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Torsten
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| #7 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 20:52 pm How can we make the site better? |
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i didn't mean to be an agent of change, but... whatever floats your boat, TD!
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Prezbucky
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| #8 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 22:12 pm How can we make the site better? |
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what about rating system for postings?
just add a couple of buttons near the "quote"-button, so that anyone could rate anyone's post (except his/her own). High rating = interesting post. Also the rating of each post may affect author's overall rating etc... Or it should simply be buttons agree / disagree which show how many people voted for/against the idea in the message.
This will help to:
1. reduce flame
2. identify really interesting messages in large topics
3. encourage users to write good stuff
4. get feedback
if you're interested i'd be happy to discuss different approaches to rating
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Aereal
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| #9 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 22:18 pm How can we make the site better? |
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Hi aereal,
Many thanks for your feedback which sounds quite interesting. How did you come up with your ideas, have you seen a similar system on another forum or website? Where would you display the rating results, inside each message window or on top of each thread? I'm asking because with our current system, popular threads can easily be spotted by the number of posts, the length of replies and the number of visits.
Also, please let me know what you think of the site (in addition to the forum we have a site too -- are you using it?)
Regards,
Torsten
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TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary |
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| #10 (permalink) Tue Mar 20, 2007 23:08 pm How can we make the site better? |
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Hi Torsten, I think there are only few occasions left to make this site better.
Just an idea that comes to my mind were if you would be able to install an audio-visual forum. I don?t know what effort this might need. Like I mentioned just an idea.
Regards
Michael |
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Fan Of Arabian Horses
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Torsten
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| #12 (permalink) Wed Mar 21, 2007 0:52 am How can we make the site better? |
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neat
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Prezbucky
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| #13 (permalink) Wed Mar 21, 2007 8:47 am How can we make the site better? |
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| Torsten wrote: | | Also, please let me know what you think of the site (in addition to the forum we have a site too -- are you using it?) |
Ugh... You may not like what I think of it  sorry! I think its frightening and a bit distracting:
First - there are too many adds which are placed rather chaotically. They are pretty large, take too much accent and, as a result, hinder the informative sections. If the intention was to make user desperately scan the web page searching for the test section he needs, while making him remember the advertisements by heart - then it works fine! It would be great, if the ads were regrouped, or placed to a different place, when possible (say our "products").
The main menu (as i understand - Home TOEIC TOEFL GMAT... section) seems to be too low.
Also, I like the demo-quiz idea on the main page very much! It's fun and beautiful. But, again, it attracts too much attention.
Further, the test sections seem quite fine - the advertisements are mainly on the left, and do not distract from the test section too much. But right below the test there is a great pile of banners/text that one wasn't ordering! Why should one wait for all that to download, especially with limited traffic?
Now back to the forum - actually it is not me who invented this type of rating system - it has been working successfully for quite a while on http://rsdn.ru. You may watch it through Google Translate to gain the basic idea about the ratings: http://66.249.93.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=ru%7Cen&u=http://rsdn.ru/ (just go to forum, and click any message-link). What You will see - is the following:
nickname
a (b) +c -d 
dd.mm.yyyy
m e s s a g e b o d y
m e s s a g e b o d y
m e s s a g e b o d y
here:
a - the overall numerical rating of the message
b - the number of people who rated it numerically
c - the number of people who agree the message
d - the number of people who disagree the message
emoticons - rather new addition to ratings there - you can report that the post is funny that way. The number of smiles grows as more users smile - quite a fun stuff!
The difference between numerical and agree/disagree ratings is that numerical ones affect the overall user rating, viewable from the user private information page. While, agree/disagree simply draw attention to interesting posts, having no impact on user rating.
It is up to You to decide if such system is needed here It is actually not the user rating that matters, but rather the quality of messages, and such system helps to discover and mark the most interesting messages from the hot threads. Rating the entire threads is completely different, and, of course useless, because if there are many messages in the thread - it is probably interesting indeed.
For example, http://www.physicsforums.com uses thread-rating along with medals - they give medals or unique avatars to admins, moderators and users who have had some good recognition in the past. They simply mark people, not messages - this eventually makes the forum hard to read (check any 5-page-long thread  )
Thanks for attention
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Aereal
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Location: England (the new one)
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| #14 (permalink) Wed Mar 21, 2007 10:25 am How can we make the site better? |
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Dear Aereal,
Thanks a lot for your detailed response. As a matter of fact, I like it very much because we do need to know what our users think about our site and how you feel it about. As for the ad placement, we have experimented with it quite a lot and the goal is to create a situation that is best for all parties involved. That's why I'd like to you tell us more. When you say there are too many ads and they are placed chaotically, are you referring to the home page, to other specific pages or to the site in general? How do you think the ads could be placed more systematically (as opposed to chaotically). It would be ideal if you could show us sites that have their ads implemented the way you suggest.
Also, many thanks for posting all the information about that rating system, we'll look it into and get back to you.
Regards,
Torsten
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TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary |
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| #15 (permalink) Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:35 am How can we make the site better? |
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| Torsten wrote: | | When you say there are too many ads and they are placed chaotically, are you referring to the home page, to other specific pages or to the site in general? |
Mainly to the homepage. On other pages there is certain structure: either the ads are together on the left, or they are on the bottom. The ones between questions in the tests look fine, as they are not as attractive as the questions themselves, thus do not distract us. On the homepage, however - they are encountered too often. (that's what I mean chaotically. on the other hand - they are "symmetric" in that they all have centered alignment)
There is probably no way to reducing the number of ads (the more - the better, hehe ), but what about reducing their size or changing color? (well, I don't know if it is possible according to kinda license agreement - if there is any between you and google...)
| Torsten wrote: | | How do you think the ads could be placed more systematically (as opposed to chaotically). It would be ideal if you could show us sites that have their ads implemented the way you suggest. |
Well, the bunch of sites I usually suggest is the same for all occasions
sciam.com - group of ads on the right (including self-references) and single add within each article.
rsdn.ru - no ads at all in the forum, while there are several on the homepage. They are placed so that it is even pleasant to read them! The entire site has excellent color scheme and is very neat overall.
Good Luck!
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