Growing this site

[Ian]

Hi folks! Hope you are all doing well and the preparations for Christmas are well under way :Cheers:

This site has grown hugely in the past couple of years, and I'm determined that 2010 will be the best yet for the forums :D. So I've come to ask you all if you have any ideas for things that we can do to help grow Living Reefs?

If you have any thoughts on what we can do to make LR an even bigger and better place next year then post your ideas in here :)

 

[chiqui bb]

This is the only site that I am a member of but I have found alot of information on the reefkeeping.com site, in particular, the articles in the online magazine. I see that LR has some articles but it would be nice if someone would continue to add to this. Also, for us newbies, the list of acronyms would be helpful. Maybe post the link on the home page. Othewise, the site is great, everyone is helpful and friendly. Especially love the humor in the posts!

 

[Ian]

Thanks! I'll see if it's possible to add a user-submitted article forum, where we can move high quality posts to the articles menu above. A list of acronyms is also a great idea, I think that this is now possible with the new forum upgrade.

I'll keep compiling these ideas and start work on the popular ones in January :)

 

[Bifferwine]

I know the "old" site had a list of acronyms linked from the front page (there was a link called "Glossary"). Do we still have that list?

 

[Ian]

I know the "old" site had a list of acronyms linked from the front page (there was a link called "Glossary"). Do we still have that list?

Yep I rememeber that too - I have a feeling that the software used to provide it was only compatible with the old forum software. I'm going to see if I can get it back somehow though. :)

edit: I've just checked and that software has been discontinued and isn't compatible with vb 3.8x... Hmmm... I might need to custom code something similar to the article system to get it working.

 

[dcantucson]

What if we recruited people from our local reef clubs and somehow other sites. I tried that once on Reef Central but it didn't go over very well.

What is we designed a standardized 8 1/2 X 11 flyer we could print out from here and take to our LFSs and ask if they could hand them out or even just post one?

 

[Bifferwine]

What if we recruited people from our local reef clubs and somehow other sites. I tried that once on Reef Central but it didn't go over very well.

Hahaha! Captain Obvious is...obvious.

 

[andysgirl8800]

Just my little 2 cents...if we could expand on the "Database" link in the forum and link it up to the identification forum, that may help with some of us newer folks. :D

 

[Ian]

Just my little 2 cents...if we could expand on the "Database" link in the forum and link it up to the identification forum, that may help with some of us newer folks. :D

That's a good idea, and something that we'll do once the database is complete. At the moment, it's a work-in-progress, but still open as it contains loads of useful information. John has done a fantastic job :Cheers:

 

[sen5241b]

I'd like to be able to search back farther for posts. It seems like now you can only search back 6 months. Disk space is cheap.

 

[Ian]

I'd like to be able to search back farther for posts. It seems like now you can only search back 6 months. Disk space is cheap.

There shouldn't be a limit on how far back you can search (just checked and it threw up results from 06). However, there is a limit on the number of results returned at 100 threads as it takes up a lot of processing power. If you specifically want old results you can choose the "older than 1 year" option under advanced search :)

It's not ideal, but it's a quite powerful way to search if you tweak some of the options on advanced search.

 

[sen5241b]

There shouldn't be a limit on how far back you can search (just checked and it threw up results from 06). However, there is a limit on the number of results returned at 100 threads as it takes up a lot of processing power. If you specifically want old results you can choose the "older than 1 year" option under advanced search :)

It's not ideal, but it's a quite powerful way to search if you tweak some of the options on advanced search.

I did not know that. thx!

 

[Navarchus]

It would be great to get a search with logical modifiers. For example, it would be nice to search for the word "majestic" within 10 words of "acropora" in posts in the last three months. The DT Search tool may be an option. If price is a factor, i can renew my membership early :-)

 

[Ian]

It would be great to get a search with logical modifiers. For example, it would be nice to search for the word "majestic" within 10 words of "acropora" in posts in the last three months. The DT Search tool may be an option. If price is a factor, i can renew my membership early :-)

I'm not sure if I would be able to integrate something like that within vbulletin, but I'll have a look round and see if there is anything more powerful that the current solution out there :).

 

[Altohombre]

The people who run the site probably want the site to be larger for financial reasons, but I am sure there are other posters like myself who like having a smaller community. 6 months ago I knew most of the people on the site and now new people are popping up out of no where and I can't keep up with them.

 

[dcantucson]

It does take a bit of time to keep up with everyone and everything. If you miss a day, then it's almost impossible to get caught up now! :) It's nice having new members.