I vote for no more that 2. 1 for general and 1 for tech., with the ability to view all.

I think 2 is too limiting. You might as well not do it. I prefer something along the lines of Frogboy's 6 or so categories and no more than that.

Chris, usability guidelines show no penalty for 3 options, some penalty for 5 options, and serious penalty for 7+ options.

I think those numbers come from Neilson, I forget exactly where.

(read penalty as increased difficulty which results in less traffic, which lowers the interest in the messageboard.)

Don't know if those stats are correct Job., but I'll agree with ya anyway.If there are to many, I won't be looking at most of them if that matters or not.

Let's keep it as simple as possible, too many categories become too confusing to the uninitiated...

I can see the crossposters spamming each section already...

About the only thing I would get excited about is being able to view a thread from the last message read. That is, if I'm following a thread (not the marathon - I don't have the nerve to go there), I would like to jump straight to the last message I've read in that thread.

Personally, I find personal icons distracting at best and often annoying, especially the active ones. Other than that, have at it.

personal icons?
nah you don't want to add those here cuz I can be very annoying w/ bouncy coffee cups and all that stuff... hehe

what no newbie only section

hmmmm The way we expanded our boards was more as needed. Suddenly we found ourselves with many, many of a certain kind of post and so we made a board for that. Months later, we had swarms of another kind of things and so we made a board for that. That also gave our members time to get used to the new format.

Graphic intensive html friendly boards can be fast if you work them right. The thing to consider is that you need to figure how someone is going to be "charged" for the uploads. In MSN it was ok since initially hotmail accounts all included 30 mbs space. Essentially, once people start uploading you will be hit with a big "bill" unless you find a way to cap it and make folks accountable for the uploads.

Moderation of porn uploads is something that got out of hand. I wish I had never, ever seen some of the things I have. I think accountability would not only help contain the storage problems, but would also curtail much of that. Lately it has not been such a problem.

Our boards display the original and 15 posts at a time. You page back 15 at a time or can go to the initial response ad page forward 15 at a time. That significantly decreased the download time allowing more use of graphics.

Oh, another nice feature is to have each post numbered.. one of thirty or something. That way there is a way to identify each specific post (we can identify that specific post with its own URL but that is just fluff) which makes it easy to refer to something.

As long as you have the oprion to view all of the most recent posts I think it is a decent idea

Chef Garry - About the only thing I would get excited about is being able to view a thread from the last message read.

this already exists, and is reason number 2 for why i don't use the SB.

opening this thread in IE, the address end's:

id=80725#81196

80725 = the thread id

#81196 = jump to the last post in this thread i read.

it doesn't always work in IE, it seems IE is prone to getting upset while loading the page, so forgets to jump to the marker point at the end


Chef Garry - not the marathon - I don't have the nerve to go there

/me considers dragging you there, kicking and screaming if necessary


Chef Garry - Personally, I find personal icons distracting at best and often annoying, especially the active ones.

the few that exist here tend not to distract to much, and are rather cute, as Doreen has so kindly demonstrated *giggles*

JamMeister33 - Let's keep it as simple as possible, too many categories become too confusing to the uninitiated...

agreed

perhaps even default the board to not using categories? most posters seem to prefer the single list view


/me *wonders*
"the uninitiated"

/me starts thinking about initiation ceremonies involving chocolate!

goodmorphing - Oh, another nice feature is to have each post numbered.. one of thirty or something.

for a while we had this on the marathon thread, it was nice while we were chaising after post 1,000

T-man has since said that this isnt easy anymore due to changes in the message board.

however, it would be nice to have the option once more, if possible.

Feline - I can't remember the last time I viewed this board through IE. SB doesn't (at least not that I've seen) go to the last message in a thread. I see your point here.

By personal icons, I'm not talking about the ones that Doreen, Chinagirl and Boxxi have. Those are pretty cool. But if you go to the Winamp boards (a thing I avoid almost as religiously as the marathon), you got all kinds of "dancing coffee cups" and the like. Big damn cups at that. That's the kind of thing I'd like to avoid here.

Agreed re the numbering - especially useful in tracking the last message read in a long thread.

When you go into a thread, at the top right of the window is a "Go To Bottom" link. It's very easy to get to the last post made. It would be nice to be able to get to the last post *read*.

Hmmm what? Winamp boards have dancing coffee cups?
/me goes run over there! hehe
oh don't worry Chef wincusto will never have big dancing coffee cups, the atmosphere here is much too conservative for that, it would not fit in here at all...
(actually I was shocked we even got the lil icons but those don't really throw the site out of it's charactor too much)

maybe if the new changes are incorporated and members don't want sections/catagories or whatever happens, those could be checked off in the members profile preferences? so they can have the board as it was originally? that's an idea, then you can please everyone that way?

werewolf - It would be nice to be able to get to the last post *read*.

/me *jumps up and down on werewolf*

if you read my earlier post on this, you *already* get this in IE.

hense the absense of SB icon under my posts. i can make one appear, but it is to much hastle

Well, maybe just little user-icons?

feline *jumps up and down on werewolf*

I did understand your post, I just didn't present my suggestion very clearly. I would like to be able to do that in SB also

I do like the idea of threaded threads and numbered posts.

/me concedes the point to werewolf

it does seem totally bizarre that since SB is loading the message board in (what seems to be) an IE control, it cannot do the jump to last viewed tag, the way IE can *confused*

as for jumping up and down on you, /me thinks it was fun, so will do some more later

"as for jumping up and down on you, feline thinks it was fun, so will do some more later"

Interesting, I've seen a bunch of new goodies appear on the messageboard when viewed by the WC Browser that don't appear when I look at it in Netscape.