Feedback Request Re: Forum layout feedback...

[Aviador]

It looks like the result is already fixed and predetermined

 

[Silvercity]

These are my thoughts.

One aspect that I haven’t seen mentioned is how we can refer back to historical posts if threads are merged. Not everyone does it but I am someone who is interested in seeing historical schedules and route development/rumours.

There’s also the issue of simultaneous discussions in different forums on the same airline. merged threads couldn’t simply be arranged in chronological order without say, posts from LBA and BHX followers being mixed up.

I.am not keen on the merged threads. If I post something in a subject, then I discover something else about it later, it gets.merged so no one is aware something new has been added.. it might be ok if a forum has a lot of posters, but my local airport does not.

Dried Fruit forum around here

And thar is a pretty unpleasant forum, I find.

 

[Ray Finkle]

it might be ok if a forum has a lot of posters, but my local airport does not.

I joined FFA back in 2012 when the BHX forum wasn't exactly lively but over the years it has has steadily grown and we now have a pretty fantastic and wide ranging variety of posters.

Sometimes it may feel as if you are talking to yourself but please keep on posting your invaluable LPL updates here on FFA, it only takes one or two more to get involved and things can quickly snowball

 

[CM.]

Sometimes it may feel as if you are talking to yourself but please keep on posting your invaluable LPL updates here on FFA, it only takes one or two more to get involved and things can quickly snowball

I agree I post in quite forums (Heathrow for example) but generally put the info there for Intrest

 

[Matt995]

Having been a member for over 7 years now, my go to page has always been the Birmingham forum, as I compile my own BHX airport flight timetables for too many years to mention (which I share on this forum), its very useful for me to pop in the BHX airlines threads to see of any changes, new route news etc.

If most of this will now been shared in the airline forum or other parts of the forum, it means having to scroll through other airports post in the airline forum to find what I am looking for, & thus having to navigate away from the BHX forum, which all takes time.

The current joy of F4A is being able to find what you are looking for quickly, being able to post any new threads in any of the sections on here that your are interested in, and in effect having freedom to express ourselves on F4A. Not all members are interest in all the UK airports on here, and that's fine, we should all be able to pick and chose where we want to contribute/view on here.

Would these new changes also, ultimately mean the current members will actually post less now, and even stop visiting the forum? We don't want to lose valuable members on here, who are the life blood of this community.

We should be encouraging more members to contribute, and also trying to encourage new members to join this wonderful community.

If the new changes you are preposing are for financial reasons etc, I can understand stand it, but I don't believe this is the case.

Just maybe the old saying, "if it ain't broken, don't fix it?" is relevant?

 

[Kevin Farnell]

The current joy of F4A is being able to find what you are looking for quickly, being able to post any new threads in any of the sections on here that your are interested in,

I think you've hit the nail on the head there, Matt. Currently everything is neatly categorised into 'Airport > Airline' and easy to navigate. Under the proposed change, it will become a complex jumbled list from which to try to find relevant information. There are however cases when airline news should be posted in the 'Airline' forum rather than the 'Airport > Airline' forum, for example when the news affects more than one airport.

Would these new changes also, ultimately mean the current members will actually post less now, and even stop visiting the forum?

I think that there is a strong chance that the proposed change could alienate many forum members, who are possibly only interested in one airport. I visit most of the airport forums (I feel it is a duty as a Moderator), and find the current system easy to follow.

 

[Severn]

@Aviador - I really appreciate that you are looking to the future of the forum and are open to making changes. As members, we're also very fortunate that you are asking for our feedback first, rather than pushing through any changes - so thank you very much!

I think my views echo others on here - I like how the forum is currently set up. I joined originally as a member to follow my local airports (Bristol & Cardiff) years ago, and from there, given the ease of navigating around the forum, I have now become interested in other airports and enjoy following them all.

Fast forward another year and we may see increasing traffic across this great forum. I think that merging these threads and creating 'mega-threads' could make it very difficult to find the information you're looking for. Also, most airports seem to have their own local experts and this knowledge would be lost in a giant thread.

I think that the current system of categorisation ('Airport > Airline'), makes it more inviting to new members to post to any thread, be it busy or quiet. Hopefully airport forums like LPL, LHR, LGW and EDI continue to develop into thriving ones like BHX and LBA for example.

With continued 'education', we can all make sure that members are posting to the correct threads going forward.

 

[Coathanger16]

I joined F4A seven years ago (had to go and check - can't believe its been that long!) to keep up on what was happening at my local: BHX. Over the years I also started following other airports, and now follow news related predominantly related to MAN & LBA (unsurprisingly 2 of the most commented airports) and occasionally pop into LPL, BRS (before TLY stepped down) & CWL.

Besides BHX, I don't check all the sub-threads of each forum - I'm not fussed about whether Aer Lingus will add rotations to LBA (sorry LBA guys/gals), but I do like to keep up with their ongoing terminal developments and any new airlines they get for example.

By the sounds of things, @Aviador is trying to reduce duplication to say stop news of a new easyJet route being posted in the BHX>easyJet thread and the generic Airlines>easyJet thread. But even with the new system, what's to stop people posting in BHX>Route Development and Airlines>easyJet threads? Basically the multiple airport specific airline threads just become one big thread with exactly the same duplication happening - so what's the point?

I'm not sure if F4A IT supports it, but if the change does go ahead, in the generic airline threads, would it be possible to "tag" posts as to what airports they are relevant to? If it was possible, it would be helpful to then be able to sort/filter by airport, but if not, members could still quickly skip over airports they aren't interested in and just view posts about the airports they want to see?

 

[Aviador]

It looks safe to say the proposed changes wouldn't be welcome. We can stick with the current layout. What is clear is everyone is proud to have their own individual local forum, a corner of the site that is unique to them. That is what I initially set out to create. What everyone needs to understand though is without continued growth of the wider forum, the local forums that are successful are put at risk. This means I have to look at ways to encourage new members to join the other forums.The sad departure of TheLocalYokel had left the Bristol forum in decline. The Manchester forum isn't as busy as it once was.

If I can ask that everyone is mindful that their posts are in the correct forum and when something is relevant in another forum they should post it there too. This way we can ensure those forums are able to grow. If something is relevant in more than one other forum then copy it into the main airline forum. This way we should be able to secure the forum for years to come.

@Coathanger16 we used to have something similar. I will see if it's something we can do.

 

[mullion]

My thoughts would be to keep as they are, I read MAN as main but also look and and post on say BHX and LPL but in general
I am not interested in what Ryanair or Wizz are doing at other airports as I think there will be just too much info to look at and I spend
enough time scanning

Thanks Aviador. There is certainly nothing wrong in looking to other ideas which may or may not work, I think it probably
the way that use the site that influences people as not everybody wants the same thing which is the great thing.

 

[Silvercity]

I joined FFA back in 2012 when the BHX forum wasn't exactly lively but over the years it has has steadily grown and we now have a pretty fantastic and wide ranging variety of posters.

Sometimes it may feel as if you are talking to yourself but please keep on posting your invaluable LPL updates here on FFA, it only takes one or two more to get involved and things can quickly snowball

It does feel like im talking to myself at times, but am happy to post info if people find it of interest.

 

[Aviador]

It does feel like im talking to myself at times, but am happy to post info if people find it of interest.

It is how the entire forum started out. Perseverance does pay off eventually. Its so much easier if you understand the local area and have a little insight. If your further away it makes it so much harder.

 

[Ashley.S.]

would it be possible to "tag" posts as to what airports they are relevant to?

When we were using XenForo V1.X.x we had #Hashtags I can investigate to see if something similar is available for our current software version XenForo 2.X.x. Tags can also be placed onto a thread, but sadly not individual posts.

Two other changes are coming, with one already implemented. The homepage with the news has gone, and the default page is now the forums, with contents moving to https://forums4airports.com/latest-news/. I will also be reducing the cooldown time before posts get merged together if you are the last poster in a thread.

@Aviador has also added a featured thread slider to the forum index to help feature some of the discussions ongoing around the forums. It is also hoped for those using the newer layout forum index that we'll be able to colour or add backgrounds to each individual forum so they can stand out a bit more

Also, if this was implemented (which is now looking unlikely) a redirection thread link can be placed for a specified amount of time so users are looking from an airport thread for example, they would click on the old thread there and be redirected to the main airline thread in the airline forum.

 

[Len Fish]

“If I can ask that everyone is mindful that their posts are in the correct forum and when something is relevant in another forum they should post it there too. This way we can ensure those forums are able to grow. If something is relevant in more than one other forum then copy it into the main airline forum. This way we should be able to secure the forum for years to come.”
I must admit to being guilty of not doing this. I follow and comment in the LBA forum and it’s easy to forget that sometimes information posted there may also be relevant and of interest to others following different forums. I shall endeavour to do better in the future. As regards the proposed changes I prefer to stay as we are.

 

[Brum X]

Thanks Aviador for listening to the forum members, greatly appreciated. And in return I will make an effort to start supporting the other forums, especially BRS (Bristol) and get it going again. Bristol is one of our fastest growing regional airports so it is only right it should be supported.

;-)

 

[Kevin Farnell]

It does feel like im talking to myself at times, but am happy to post info if people find it of interest.

You're doing a great job and I now regularly check in on the LPL forum (I'll try and post there where I can). Keep up the good work and I'm sure more members will post there.

 

[Stagman]

I quite like how the forum is, nice and easy to navigate round.

One request. Would it be possible for Teesside to have its own sub forum now.
The amount of investment and expansion that has occured this past couple of years at the airport, as just one thread doesn't do it justice. I think could do with its own sub forum to be able to have various threads about different things happening and help with the dynamics of discussion flow bit easier.

 

[Kevin Farnell]

Teesside does have it's own forum, but it's under the 'Other UK Airports' list. Perhaps it could be moved to the main list.

 

[Aviador]

I quite like how the forum is, nice and easy to navigate round.

One request. Would it be possible for Teesside to have its own sub forum now.
The amount of investment and expansion that has occured this past couple of years at the airport, as just one thread doesn't do it justice. I think could do with its own sub forum to be able to have various threads about different things happening and help with the dynamics of discussion flow bit easier.

It's easy enough for a fully fledged forum to be added into the main section if you think you can maintain it and keep it up to date? Sometimes on a quieter forum it can feel like your talking to yourself sometimes as mentioned earlier, so it's worth noting that it takes regular posting and perseverance to get people to join in.

 

[Stagman]

Teesside does have it's own forum, but it's under the 'Other UK Airports' list. Perhaps it could be moved to the main list.

That is just a thread.
I was thinking a sub forum where can have multiple threads, bit like Heathrow, Doncaster, Leeds/ Bradford etc.

It's easy enough for a fully fledged forum to be added into the main section if you think you can maintain it and keep it up to date? Sometimes on a quieter forum it can feel like your talking to yourself sometimes as mentioned earlier, so it's worth noting that it takes regular posting and perseverance to get people to join in.

Would that have to be made by an admin/ moderator, or would myslelf just a normal could do.