Forum Changes Coming (Opinions Requested)

[M II A II R II K]

Maybe a setup like this, click the thread type and you get a listing of all the threads in that category only.


http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/hot-deals-f9/

 

[urbandreamer]

How about provide status updates? Like facebook.

 

[DSC]

Any possibility of making it possible for registered Users to create a set of "favourite threads" so that you could either "See all threads" or "See favourite threads"?

 

[CityPlaceN1]

An iphone app of some sort?

 

[M II A II R II K]

An iphone app of some sort?

You can already make one with Urbantoronto's URL, and it will go straight to this forum.

 

[junctionist]

Video embedding could be positive, and some V-Bulletin sites have a built-in feature that let's you search the site through Google, which is quite useful.

 

[Edward Skira]

^ examples?

 

[M II A II R II K]

He must be referring to a Google Box on the main page that gives you the option of searching either just the forum or the entire web.

 

[junctionist]

^ examples?

I don't remember now, but it's a feature the you see when you click "search". On this forum the text box appears with the words "show threads | show posts" and the feature I'm thinking of has a second text box underneath that one which says "search site with Google" or something to that effect.

 

[khris]

It would even be very easy to make your own search box which searches Google or any search engine for that matter.

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&as_q=test&as_sitesearch=urbantoronto.ca

There is a search on UT for the word "test".

Personally I prefer the on site search, because you can search by topic title, which is what I always use, and what I also think should be the default setting for search on a forum.

 

[DSC]

When you mouse-over the Creator of a Thread in the thread lists you see the start of the first post in that thread. Any chance a similar feature could appear if you mouse-over the latest contributor name in the listing? Sometimes it would be good to see that poster X is only saying "Cool, great post" rather than more useful comments that add information.

 

[khris]

There could be multiple posts before that, that you have not seen, which do contain something more substantial though.

 

[DSC]

There could be multiple posts before that, that you have not seen, which do contain something more substantial though.

True, but I still think it would be helpful. If one wants to look at everything in an updated thread you can simply not pay any attention to the mouse-over text.

 

[Canuck]

Oh ya, I forgot about this feature. I remember it having quite a viral effect - one member would sit in it for a while, but once a second and a third joined it shot up to usually 6-10+ participants. Good times.


My dream for UrbanToronto is to be host to a icon-filled clickable map of Toronto (perhaps using Google Maps). The map will be filled with various icons denoting new buildings, proposals, transit initiatives, etc. Clicking on a icon will bring up a small popup window giving the quick facts on a project and a few pictures (e.g., floors, height, architect) and a link to the related thread topic(s). Perhaps even adding filters to only see new proposals, tallest buildings, or transit improvements.

Just like this website does it:
http://www.suitebase.com/core/view/map.html

 

[khris]

I've always wanted something like that for UT, but I would not want to load the home page and see that. I'd like to see it as an additional page.
It would be nice if UT was not just forums, but the forums were only an aspect of the site.