Some Changes Thus Far & Suggestions

[rocket88]

i want everyone to take a look at what i did in the contributions section. let me know how it looks, and if i'm missing anything. if everyone thinks it looks good, i can start moving stuff around. i warn you it will take awhile to do the same to the request section. i'm thinking about leaving the unverified thread unorganized as we shouldn't, fingers crossed, have a lot of unverified layouts there. my goal, just like on the main page, is to have us verify everything that gets posted.

i also started making some new sections based on some suggestions i saw.

i don't want to make a ton of sections, and threads in them, like what you see on DIYSB or FSB, as what makes this community great is being able to have everything in one place. but if we start to move things around, then the open chat section should become a place for us to just bs and hang around. just a thought.

so please, leave some feedback, whether it be positive or negative. you know i want to community input to ensure we move in the right direction.

[ξεναγος νεκροπολης]

Hi Zach!
i totally agree with your thoughts.
i love the new look of our forum.
i would also like to see what Ciaran Haslett suggested in open chat about requests folder and schematics.
my extra thought is that you should write a tagged post in the top of library and debugging sections as Miro did in request section, that would explain what someone should post there.
for example in debugging it could say what we must check first and then post, it could say that we need photos to help debug, how we measure voltages on ic's and stuff like that.
also i'm thinking about demos of our builds. i've missed  Geiri's videos. i don't know why they are gone from the main site. i've found them very helpful and i would like it if people could make demos of their builds and post them after a verification.

side note: if everything goes ok and you'll start moving around things, i could re-draw some of my old layouts to look better and sent them to you.

keep on good work mate!
cheers
Savvas

[Beaker]

Totally agree Zach - too many sections, and it just gets confusing.

Looks good so far though.

[Beaker]

Hi Zach,

I have just tried to upload this massive transistor comparison chart: http://www.transkommunikation.ch/dateien/schaltungen/diverse_schaltungen/electronics_infos/Transistor%20Handbook.pdf to The Library, and found that it is closed, and needs to to be approved before posting.

This is a really fantastic idea, as it means anything submitted, can be peer approved before it is posted up. It will reduce the chances of these sections getting clogged up with random posts and possibly duff information.

   

[rocket88]

Thanks guys. Great feedback

Yea, I left all the new sections closed until I got some feedback that it should stay. Savvas's, if you want you can change some of your layouts on your own if you want, there's no way I can do all that and move everything around in an acceptable time.

I plan on going through the requests and weeding things out. And moving those with layouts to the appropriate place. I noticed it's been like a freaking jungle in there and some stuff is so burried that it won't get done since we don't know it's even there.

I was thinking of having a thread "Build Reports and Demos" this way we can just leave comments about your thoughts on effects and give a demo if you can, or we can just leave it to the contributions section and the comments on the main page. If anyone has a demo for something on the main page if they send me a link I can post it up. I think Gieri took his demos down or changed accounts, which is why they all disappeared. I can't agree more, they were great.

I'm trying to think where to move some of the stuff we use a lot, like the build pics, coupons, germanium.

Any other new sections?

[Silver Blues]

I think the build pics, coupons and germanium are fine where they are. The build pics is just a place for people to show off, gawk and maybe learn something about interior organization, etc. they all fit the theme of "open chat" I think.

Also, I feel your notice above the new Amps section could use some attention-drawing characteristics, e.g. make it a little bigger, put it in red, and so on. It's a very important warning that needs to be read in full and understood before ever clicking on a link in there.

[rocket88]

ok, first things first. the library and debugging section is officially open, so anyone can post stuff and i've got to start moving stuff over. my question is should i break it down into different sections? maybe into something like the four below:

1 - Beginner's Corner
2 - How To's & Guides
3 - References
4 - Mods

silver: i wish i could make it bigger but there's no way, just bold, but what i did instead was place a nice warning sticker at the top. i think that should be a good enough warning, no?

[Silver Blues]

Lol yeah I hope so. Just a bit of cynicism on my end because you know how people tend to not read stuff or follow instructions even when directly presented with them

[iggy]

I have a suggestion. You have some brilliant folks here that can trace and/or layout designs. Why not add the layouts to the official home page layouts. Maybe have them verified by a few folks. And if they are interesting enough post them right up front. Be kinda nice for someone putting in that effort to have their work show on the home page. And the site will look more active. I know some folks don't click on the forums. Just look to see if any things new has posted.

BTW. Already looks like great happenings here. Looking forward to seeing how things grow into the future.

[moda]

The beginers corner section will be quite useful ( we all started the same )
Maybe kick it off with the usual 3pdt wiring, pot wiring general switch wiring etc.
A capacitor comparison type of info would be a handy thing for noviceS

An enclosure finishing guide? Dont know. We all have different methods. Might be useful.
Im more than happy to throw in my illustrator files if needed. Although these are just modded mad bean versions.

Tidy work guys. Very happy with the new direction.

[rocket88]

definitely moda. i myself have promised for awhile to do a guide on how i etch my enclosures, but haven't had time to write it all up. definitely going to see stuff like that posted. i'm also hoping to see people post how they do their builds, so we have more then just the original one on the main page, since we all have our own way of doing things and i think it's good to see more then one way of building.

nice of you to offer to post your illustrator files, and would be a welcome addition.

i now created three different subforums in the library, so whenever anyone wants they can start posting in the correct sections now. i also want to add that for the verified layouts section i made it so that only admins can start new threads, but registered users can reply. i figure the way it will work is once a layout is verified shoot one of the admins a message about it and we'll just move the whole thread from the unverified section to the verified. should prevent double posts, and help prevent the need to have to go through and weed things out.

i'm thinking we should do the same thing with requests. just shoot an admin a message and we can delete the request once its been done. should help keep things nice and neat, since a lot of suggestions have been to refine the organization and make navigation easier.

iggy: not sure about posting community members layouts on the main page. in the past it's been brought up and there have been a lot of concerns about it. not only that, i think that with the crew we've got, i don't see a shortage of layouts going to the main page. i mean we've got alex on the team. but, seriously i know people just check the main page and not go to the forum, but i think the more we direct people here from the main page the better. btw, so now i'm the Dark Overlord of the Germanium Deathstar? how can i be a dark overload, i enjoy tea time courtesy of beaker

[iggy]

Dark OverLord. ahahaha. Couldn't help myself with that one. But, I'm surprised you were able to see through my cleverly disguised dig. I think Mark and Miro thought I was serious. Ooops. Guess I need to work on some new material.


Seriously, congrats to you and the others that are charged with continuing the great work of this site and moving it forward. I think the community is in good hands. If I can be of any assistance just drop me a note.

Oh crap. Just saw on the news a report of a death star siting in my area. Gotta good. Remember i was just kidding.

[Beaker]

Zach, I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far. I know it's a work in progress, with more work to be done, but I have two suggestions for you.

I think we need one more sub-category in the layouts section - Bass effects or possibly Bass Friendly Effects. I realise that this would mean the same effect could end up being posted in more than one category.

A sub heading would help show what the main folders contain.. For example:

Layouts. (possibly change to un-verified layouts?).
This is where you will find all layouts that are un-verified layouts, and layouts that are still work in progress.

Verified Layouts.
This is where you will find all layouts that are proven to work.

What do you think?

I think this will be of use to all new users to help navigate the new sections.

[Chris60601]

Agreed. I might also go as far as combining several subs that generally fall under "modulation" instead if single subs like phase, octave, etc. Thoughts?

[Silver Blues]

I third the motion of a "Bass Friendly Effects" category. Sounds like a great idea.

[rocket88]

definitely beaker, the plan is the "layouts" sections will become the unverified section once i finish moving stuff around. i figured it wouldn't be a smart to make that change when there's still verified layouts there. lol

i can do more subcatagories, i was just trying to keep the number down a little, cause i could and in my head should have boosters, fuzz, od, and distortion separated since even though they may sound similar and have a similar liniage they're really different. i'll see if i can put one post in multiple subcatagories, because i agree it would be nice to have one for bass friendly effects. i'm also going to make two categories one for preamps, an the other for utility effects, for things like loopers, tonestacks, etc.

lets do this. put up a list of categories everyone thinks there should be and i'll work on it. for now i'll keep moving everything into the categories i've got and we can tweak it more when it's done. i got a lot done last night, but its taking longer then i expected, because i have to go through each post and check to see what it is and if it's verified.

good suggestions so far

[Neil mcNasty]

I have to admit that I truly dislike the recent forum changes, and I specially dislike the contribution section now! It has become horrible to use!

Previously I could go there and see all the latest activity, just by looking at the list.
One place for all contribution activities, no matter what category or what kind pedal it was.

Now I have to look trough every catergory folder with a recently changed date on it, in order to see what is new.
On top of that I also now have to look trough both the "verified" and "un-verified" folders (+ remember which of them It was from time to time)
In my words: These latest changes, destroyed the user-flow of the forum by rushing ahead, not thinking about how the changes to the forum affected changes in workflow and behaviour of the forum-user.
The forum now demands about 10 times more mouse-clicking than before, just in order to get an overview (or something that merely resembles an overview).
This information/overview used to be 1 or 2 clicks away from the main page!!!

Think about that for a second, and how that affects your time consumption and navigational rutines on the forum, when you check in to see what is new...

Now here´s my point:
Use "Tags" instead of sub folders to categorize stuff, just like the main section of this site.
The same goes for dividing it into "verified" and "un-verifired". You do that with tags, not by dividing stuff into sub-folders! The tags are allways avalible in the side-menu on your right side.
The new category system works great if it is a presonal folder/website, but it is very annoying and confusing as an active forum system.

But it´s really, really great...!
...If I just remember where I posted that god damn layout again...
If I just remember which category/section I posted it...
Was it a verified one? Was it defined as an EQ or a Filter? Fuzz, Distortion, OD? Booster or Preamp?
Where did I see that weird pedal that defies every category, you know that weird pink one...? I remember the name of the posting, but where did he put it... What category did he give it...?
Can´t find it... Maybe Google will find it... I know I saw it around here somewhere yesterday...

You see what I mean...?
The new sub-folder layout demands so much memory and insight from us, that we looses the discovery aspect of the forum, as we now have to click on 10-15 links, just to get an overview of the latest posts.

It allready worked!
So why did you fix it?

PLEASE RECONSIDER THE RECENT CHANGES!
THIS CAN BE DONE WAY MUCH BETTER WITH TAGS!

[Freppo]

I agree with Neil.

The contributions section is lacking overview. I don't even know where to start looking now, so I just don't visit it any more... Especially the unverified section.. I don't feel that there's any reason that it should be divided into groups.

Using tags would be much better, or to have some kind of Contributions MAP page insted that would link to the posts, insted of moving them into different categories.

Just my 2 cents..
/ Fredrik

[Frank_NH]

I also agree.  Now, you can locate threads by using the search function, but it's nice to see the latest contributions as a flat, time-sorted list and use tags to identify attributes (like type of effect).

I also hope that a lot of the good, verified layouts will eventually be migrated to the main page.  That way, you can search for them among the other verified layouts.

Another final suggestion/question.  Would it be possible for verified layouts to be made to look consistent?  I don't know if this can be done with DIY Layout Creator through scripting or some other means.  It's not a show stopper but it would provide some consistency to the contributions. A BOM would be nice too, but it's not essential.

If someone wanted to take on a really cool project, how about taking the popular layouts and putting them into a book form (e.g. MS Word), complete with a table of contents and index?  I'm always aware that blogs are fragile and thus something more permanent would be good to preserve all of the hard work that has gone into creating (and verifying!) these effects layouts.

[Synsound]

I also agree with Neil and Freppo. What could have been done in a glance now has become a bit frustrating. Also I am one who tends to peek in without necessarily looking for a particular type of circuit and it was nice to just see what was topical.

Please don't take any offense, I know the intentions are to further the site and I appreciate the time your putting in. Just friendly feedback.