Forum Changes - your opinion wanted

[Hotfoot]

Hi there! You may have noticed some recent changes in the forum. We are experimenting with categories to see if we can find the optimum number of categories to keep the forum as easy as possible to use. We are definitely interested in your opinion about what topic sections you'd like to see. As you may have noticed we have re-introduced a New Members area (if you are a guest or lurker, join up so you can post and tell us what you think!) and a Racing section to talk about races and our racing heroes. Let us know if you are happy to see those categories back, or if you liked the simpler format, and if you think we need additional categories, post up and let us know!

Thanks in advance!

[Cobie Fair]

Hotfoot pointed out (after reviewing forum analytics) that it wasn't as easy to navigate, and use as a reference.  Now's your opportunity to let us know what kinds of items/categories/forum layout you might prefer.

If you like the new categories, let us know (or if not).

Best,

Cobie

[JohnCBoukis]

Can you delete or hide the "Welcome to Pages" article? I have no security access to enter it and so it will show in perpetuity to us users as an unread article.

 

As new content appears I navigate via the "unread content" link. So for brand new content, the organization is moot for me.

To your point about using the site as a reference, I revisit content just like periodically reading TOTW. I would love to have the entire history of technique articles organized into categories such as throttle, braking steering, road conditions, etc. so that there would be an inherent helpful path, like reading through a book. But since articles tend to wander a bit and cross over to different topics, I understand the reality that online forums do not really lend themselves to that level of organization. In that light I think the current form works just fine.

[Hotfoot]

This is really helpful feedback, thank you.

I found the post you are talking about and I can't access it either; whatever it is, it doesn't belong. I'm at the track today and on a mobile device so I couldn't delete it but will do so tomorrow. 

Thanks for the heads up on that. 

[Hotfoot]

Well that "Welcome to Pages" article was something I could not access either, it was apparently some sort of systems announcement on a new feature on the back end of the forum. I did a refresh to clear the cache and on mine it disappeared - John, please take a look and see if it fixed it for your account.

I'll speak with Cobie about rearranging the articles to make them easier to find, see if that is something we can do.

[JohnCBoukis]

"Welcome to Pages" still shows up for me.

Thanks for the effort. If this forum software has the capability of article categories or meta tags, those tools might help group existing articles with minimal effort.

[Hotfoot]

16 hours ago, JohnCBoukis said:

"Welcome to Pages" still shows up for me.

Thanks for the effort. If this forum software has the capability of article categories or meta tags, those tools might help group existing articles with minimal effort.

I escalated this issue, we should have it taken care of very soon.

Tagging articles with keywords is definitely possible, that's a good thought, that would make searches easier, I'll look into ways to group articles.

[Hotfoot]

20 hours ago, JohnCBoukis said:

"Welcome to Pages" still shows up for me.

Thanks for the effort. If this forum software has the capability of article categories or meta tags, those tools might help group existing articles with minimal effort.

 OK, if you don't mind - please look again and see if it is gone now, I am told that it should be and I can't find it anymore under my login...

[JohnCBoukis]

Yes it is gone, thanks a lot Hotfoot.

[Hotfoot]

GREAT, thank you for letting us know about that.

[Cobie Fair]

Next question:

Should we do a separate section for the gear questions, like:

Tires, helmets, leathers, etc.

One more easily searchable?

Any thoughts on this?  All of you can answer on this one, everyone has an opinion even if it's, "uh, leave it alone" or "yeah, get a few more categories up here."

 

CF

[Vic]

Hi Cobie, 

You read my mind!  Please, yes - section on riding gear, boots/leathers, etc would be good.   How about a section on track riding for novices wanting to get into track riding  -  recommended bikes, pitfalls,  set-up? 

New to forums and do find it awkward searching here, although the information is top quality when I find it.

Cheers, 

Victor

[JohnCBoukis]

On 2/14/2019 at 7:27 PM, Cobie Fair said:

Should we do a separate section for the gear questions, like:

Tires, helmets, leathers, etc.

Perhaps separate expendable bike hardware such as tires, brakes, and fluids.

[El Colibri]

Separating School Questions/General Discussion into 2 separate sections would make sense to me as they aren't equivalent and would make reading/searching/posting topics more clearly defined. 

Yes, a separate section for gear (possibly bike and rider prep) would make sense.

Lastly, perhaps a section for specific school/student check-in - a place to post who's coming, carpool/rideshare opportunities, split a hotel and rental car, etc.

[Cobie Fair]

Copy on the above, I'll get with Hotfoot.  Love to see a few more people sound off on these things.

I'm a little nervous on the posting ride/share, split hotel stuff, but maybe that's me just being paranoid about personal info.  

OK, I'll get with Hotfoot, see about bringing another section back in on the hardware stuff (bike/tires/riding gear, etc.)

 

[El Colibri]

15 hours ago, Cobie Fair said:

 

I'm a little nervous on the posting ride/share, split hotel stuff, but maybe that's me just being paranoid about personal info.  

 

Agreed, I was just thinking something like, Going to Barber XX-XX dates. Rented a car, PM me if interested in sharing. 

Just thought it might help people reduce some of the cost of school. 

[Cobie Fair]

Let's see if we get others interested in this.  I don't want to promise something we can't do really well, or half-ass it

 

[JohnCBoukis]

I do not see the "sort" option until after I do a search. It would be nice to set the sort up front rather than as a second step (I could be missing something here.)

If there are choices for the default sorting of search results then I would prefer oldest posts to newest posts. Many searches today prioritize the relevance of the results. However, if you can accurately group posts by topic and return a high percentage of relevant results, the "relevant" part may already be taken care of. 

Also, the built in forum search engines tend to be terrible. When I search this site today I many times use a search engine, and put in "site:forums.superbikeschool.com TOPIC HERE". That issue might be solved with meta tags or other changes. Otherwise you may be able to insert a search engine plugin or apply a script which does this same thing

[Hotfoot]

Thank you all for all of this GREAT input. I have had multiple requests now to separate School Questions and General Discussion, because it is a little confusing to have them together, and multiple requests for Tire and Gear areas. Here is my question - and I really need some input on this, please - post your preference even if you don't feel really strongly about it, I'd like to get a good sample of opinions to work from:

If we have (for example):

• New Members Area
• Articles by Keith
• School Questions
• Cornering and Techniques
• Tires, Tuning, Suspension
• Riding Gear and Equipment
• Racing

as categories, do we still need a "General Discussion" area? Or do those categories pretty well cover it?

[JohnCBoukis]

"Racing" could refer to racing techniques, but I think it means discussions of races and riders. If so, I would use this opportunity to rename it to something more meaningful like "Racing League", or "Professional & Amateur Racing Leagues", or such.

I do not feel strongly about the whole naming list. The Techniques forum is the big one for me to revisit and search. I will be ecstatic with any improvement in research capability.

 

[Vic]

I agree with JohnC that the search function needs an overhaul - there's so much to filter through to finally find what you're looking for - and also on the Racing front, whether it's people's personal successes, or how long it takes for Marquez and Lorenzo to take each other out!  

Apart from saying 'hey', and 'hey back' I personally don't  see the need for a New Member area - just jump in and get chatting.  

Articles is good, likewise School Questions. 

Techniques is a great place to clarify or pick up on extra information  

Riding gear, great for those like me that are still relatively new to biking and even newer to tracks.

A Tech and Tuning/Set-up one is good one to have, otherwise I feel it could overlap heavily into Equipment.  

I would say that covers general discussion...

[El Colibri]

21 hours ago, Hotfoot said:

as categories, do we still need a "General Discussion" area? Or do those categories pretty well cover it?

Hotfoot, I'll try to make my opinion a data driven one...  Looking over the first three (most recent) pages of School Questions/General Discussion, it appears that roughly 1/4 topics would not fall under one of the new categories.  Thus, seems reasonable to still include a General section.  For example, where would a future, "Forum Changes - Opinions Wanted," and/or a hypothetical future "Fleet Break-In" fall under? My $0.02 anyway

Edited February 21, 2019 by El Colibri
clarity

[Hotfoot]

1 hour ago, El Colibri said:

Hotfoot, I'll try to make my opinion a data driven one...  Looking over the first three (most recent) pages of School Questions/General Discussion, it appears that roughly 1/4 topics would not fall under one of the new categories.  Thus, seems reasonable to still include a General section.  For example, where would a future, "Forum Changes - Opinions Wanted," and/or a hypothetical future "Fleet Break-In" fall under? My $0.02 anyway

Good point. We used to have a News/Announcements section and that is where those would have gone in the past, but that topic didn't get a lot of traffic so we removed it in an effort to streamline the layout. Per your comment I will look through current posts in the section and see how they would be classified, that is a good way to determine needed categories.

[Apollo]

• Quote

   

  • New Members Area
  • Articles by Keith
  • School Questions
  • Cornering and Techniques
  • Tires, Tuning, Suspension
  • Riding Gear and Equipment
  • Racing

   

In terms of traffic, maybe it would help simplify things by combining school questions and cornering/techniques, since the school is focused on technique and discussion of technique would probably relate back to school drills anyways. 

It might be useful to separate out club racing (by students) versus discussion of professional racing.  In that regard, a General or Miscellaneous category may include the professional racing threads.  Discussion in the pro racing threads would keep the general category active.  Students who are racing might find a student racing category to be useful to isolate racing specific threads.  Or maybe just all racing, student and professional, should be in the general category.

Gear related questions seem fairly few and far between, so maybe it could also fit into the General/Misc category instead of having its own category

So maybe:

• New Members Area
• Articles by Keith
• School Questions / Cornering and Techniques
• Tires, Tuning, Suspension
• Student Racing
• General/Kitchen Sink/Everything Else