Levina de Ruijter
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- Joined
- 6 Nov 2023
- Posts
- 5,741
- Likes
- 6,973
- Location
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands, EU
- Name
- Levina
- Image Editing
- No
TL;DR
We are going to add a new section to our forum called: Featured Content.
In it will reside three forums:
We will remove the Attic. The threads in it will be moved to Resources.
Dear members,
A while ago we had a discussion on the board about how there isn't a dedicated section for questions on the board. My stance was that there doesn't need to be a dedicated questions section on the board; people can ask questions in the existing forums. And they do.
However.
One of Xenforo's thread options we haven't used so far are - oh irony - question threads. These threads behave the same as regular discussion threads but just as Articles, question threads too have some added functionality.
We have decided to create a dedicated Questions forum, for all photography related questions. The icon of this forum on the Forum list is a question mark in a circle. Every thread created in this forum will automatically be a question thread.
Here's how question threads work.
When somebody opens a thread in a Questions forum, the first post with the question will be displayed at the top of not just the first page but of each consecutive page of the thread, above the replies. Replies to the thread are considered answers to the question, any of which may be a possible solution. Members can vote answers up or down, giving others an indication of which answers are more useful than others. A question is unsolved until the thread starter or a staff member selects an answer as the solution. That answer will then get a green band on the right and it will be displayed (with a green band also) directly below the first post and like that first post be displayed on all pages of the thread. This is very handy as a given solution is immediately available without people having to wade through maybe many pages of discussion. Of course not all questions will be resolved. And that's okay too. Just discuss an issue as you normally would.
Here are two screenshots of what a Question thread looks like.
The post with the right answer, chosen as the solution (I removed the posters' names). This post also had one upvote.
Here's a screenshot of the original post with the question and the solution attached to it. As you can see both stand above and are separate from the thread below it. Replies can be sorted by date or by votes.
Resources:
Another thing that we want to do is bring back Resources. We thought we had no use for it, but it didn't take long to realise that it really is the best place for certain types of content. The main problem with Resources is that it is utterly removed from the board, and this community, coming from POTN, lives on the board. The solution might be to mirror Resources on the board.
Here's how it works.
We have resources in Resources, which can be accessed by the link in the top menu. However, resources can be mirrored on the board with a discussion thread so when viewing a Resource you will see a Discussion tab. Clicking it instantly opens the discussion thread on the board. And that discussion thread on the board is also just a thread that can be accessed on the board. The opening post of a Resource discussion thread has a snippet of the resource with a link to it. So the resource and the discussion thread are linked.
In short: the resource itself is in Resources, the discussion of a resource takes place on the board.
The existing resources will also be mirrored on the board, and the content in the Attic will also be moved to Resources and when done the Attic will be removed. All this will take a bit of time though, as it's a lot of work.
The new "Featured Content" section:
Putting both the new Questions forum and the Resources discussion forum together with Articles in a new, separate section makes sense as they don't really fit anywhere.
For the moment question threads and articles will appear in New Posts as in our version of the XenForo software there is no option to display them as a separate listing on the Homepage or in What's New. But after the software update to version XF 2.3 in January we will have the ability to do just that, which will be nice.
Well, that's it.
As soon as the new section with the forums is in place, I will start a Questions thread so you can all see it in action. And I will also add a sample Resource which can then be discussed on the board.
To sum up: get ready for a change. We think it's a good change. But time will tell.
I'm posting this in Forum Talk and you are most welcome to reply.
Levina
(for the FoP staff)
We are going to add a new section to our forum called: Featured Content.
In it will reside three forums:
- Questions
- Articles
- Resources
We will remove the Attic. The threads in it will be moved to Resources.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Dear members,
A while ago we had a discussion on the board about how there isn't a dedicated section for questions on the board. My stance was that there doesn't need to be a dedicated questions section on the board; people can ask questions in the existing forums. And they do.
However.
One of Xenforo's thread options we haven't used so far are - oh irony - question threads. These threads behave the same as regular discussion threads but just as Articles, question threads too have some added functionality.
We have decided to create a dedicated Questions forum, for all photography related questions. The icon of this forum on the Forum list is a question mark in a circle. Every thread created in this forum will automatically be a question thread.
Here's how question threads work.
When somebody opens a thread in a Questions forum, the first post with the question will be displayed at the top of not just the first page but of each consecutive page of the thread, above the replies. Replies to the thread are considered answers to the question, any of which may be a possible solution. Members can vote answers up or down, giving others an indication of which answers are more useful than others. A question is unsolved until the thread starter or a staff member selects an answer as the solution. That answer will then get a green band on the right and it will be displayed (with a green band also) directly below the first post and like that first post be displayed on all pages of the thread. This is very handy as a given solution is immediately available without people having to wade through maybe many pages of discussion. Of course not all questions will be resolved. And that's okay too. Just discuss an issue as you normally would.
Here are two screenshots of what a Question thread looks like.
The post with the right answer, chosen as the solution (I removed the posters' names). This post also had one upvote.
Here's a screenshot of the original post with the question and the solution attached to it. As you can see both stand above and are separate from the thread below it. Replies can be sorted by date or by votes.
Resources:
Another thing that we want to do is bring back Resources. We thought we had no use for it, but it didn't take long to realise that it really is the best place for certain types of content. The main problem with Resources is that it is utterly removed from the board, and this community, coming from POTN, lives on the board. The solution might be to mirror Resources on the board.
Here's how it works.
We have resources in Resources, which can be accessed by the link in the top menu. However, resources can be mirrored on the board with a discussion thread so when viewing a Resource you will see a Discussion tab. Clicking it instantly opens the discussion thread on the board. And that discussion thread on the board is also just a thread that can be accessed on the board. The opening post of a Resource discussion thread has a snippet of the resource with a link to it. So the resource and the discussion thread are linked.
In short: the resource itself is in Resources, the discussion of a resource takes place on the board.
The existing resources will also be mirrored on the board, and the content in the Attic will also be moved to Resources and when done the Attic will be removed. All this will take a bit of time though, as it's a lot of work.
The new "Featured Content" section:
Putting both the new Questions forum and the Resources discussion forum together with Articles in a new, separate section makes sense as they don't really fit anywhere.
For the moment question threads and articles will appear in New Posts as in our version of the XenForo software there is no option to display them as a separate listing on the Homepage or in What's New. But after the software update to version XF 2.3 in January we will have the ability to do just that, which will be nice.
Well, that's it.
As soon as the new section with the forums is in place, I will start a Questions thread so you can all see it in action. And I will also add a sample Resource which can then be discussed on the board.
To sum up: get ready for a change. We think it's a good change. But time will tell.
I'm posting this in Forum Talk and you are most welcome to reply.
Levina
(for the FoP staff)
