"The forum design is a complete and utter mess and you can't find anything"

[Graham Smith]

Earlier on, I had a member of the Club contact me by telephone, and told me that he finds our forum design a complete mess and that's he's unable to find anything.

This I'm particularly interested in, because I'd like to know if other people suffer the same problem?

Halfway though the conversation, he did mention to me that he has a bookmark that he uses to access the forum and that bookmark links to 'What's New' rather than the homepage.

This is what he sees every time he visits…


As I explained to him, the trouble with doing this is that it's a bit like opening an encyclopaedia - if you open it right in the middle and don't bother looking at the contents or index, it should come as no surprise that you'll never be able to find what you're looking for.

I've gone to great lengths to ensure at the bottom of each page is a big black footer with a load of links broken down into three distinct categories:
Technical / The Club / Miscellaneous. This footer appears at the bottom of EVERY page wherever you are.



Interestingly, during our conversation, this guy mentioned that he could't find the Club's Riders' Roll of Honour recipients, but when I visited the Home Page, I'm presented with a certificate which links to all of our recipients.




I'm not sure how much longer our forum will last as it currently stands, but if any one has any suggestions on what I can tell this guy, or how I can improve the navigation, then I'd really appreciate it.

 

[Bobv07662]

Graham, no website or forum is perfect. I do find the VOC forum one of the easiest to navigate compared to some of the other club forums to which I'm a part of. Tell the new guy to reset his access to the forum so that he starts at the opening page rather than the "What's new" section.

 

[Michael Vane-Hunt]

No problems for me. I put Borrani into the search today and the thred I wanted popped right up. I find the forum easy to use. Just remember, Graham, you will never please everyone.

 

[Bazlerker]

Could it be that the gentleman has a wetware issue?

 

[b'knighted]

My bookmark takes me to New Posts. It always tells me that there are no new posts until I refresh it.

The new posts list used to include humour but now I have a separate bookmark for that.

 

[Bill Thomas]

I go to the Forum, If there is anything new, That I have not read, It is highlighted.
I like it the way it is, Cheers Bill.

 

[Gene Nehring]

The forum certainly has more bells and whistles. It took me a while to find things that i was looking for.

Search function is what I use when I am looking for something and i usually only look at the new posts to see what others are asking.

The riders roll etc is the extras i dont really pay attention to.

Over all happy just have to deep dive to find the odd thing.

 

[timetraveller]

Ignoring the original complaints contained in the title as they are so clearly at odds with what most of us find and considering only the search function I just did a test. The problem with all search engines is to find the correct words or phrase to put into it. Google makes an excellent job of interpreting what one has put in but still cannot act as though it is telepathic. I just typed in 'paint for shadow engine' as this was mentioned a day or two ago and a large number of relevant articles were found. I then typed in 'oil containers for camshafts'. This is the idea of making a small container below each camshaft which will hold enough oil to lubricate the cams at start up. Nothing relevant came up. The fault is almost certainly that my phraseology is inadequate, not the search engine. I then typed something similar into Google except that I added 'Vincent Motorcycles' into the question. It came up with relevant information from the Ariel Owners Club Forum but without the design details. However, despite being on the Ariel Forum it was Vincent specific. Whatever failings one finds in our club forum I think most of us find it a really useful thing enabling the rapid passage of both technical information and social contacts. Our world would be worse off without it.

 

[Bill Thomas]

Trouble is some of us talk as we think, I know I do,
We had one the other day, It went from a small spacer to a Clutch and now Springs !!,
I like it, But it's hard to "Search ", But it's all to do with Vincent,
So all good !.

 

[Dave61]

Got to agree with Norman, most problems will be with user error rather than any inherent fault in the Forum.
Got to say it's been invaluable to me, along with the advice I've had from very knowledgeable people on here.
You can please some of the people all of the time & all the people some of the time, but you'll never do all of the people all of the time.
Cheers
Dave