Finally the Forums are back

Is it just me or does there seem to be less forum activity than previously (with the old forums)? I know they go through periods, or cycles...on again, off again increase and decreased activity. Maybe it’s just a learning curve and users just need to get used to the new. ???

Dan 

Is it just me or does there seem to be less forum activity than previously (with the old forums)? I know they go through periods, or cycles...on again, off again increase and decreased activity. Maybe it’s just a learning curve and users just need to get used to the new. ???

Dan 

No, I made that observation in another thread.  Which I think exemplifies part of the problem.  There just isn't enough traffic to justify all the different forums (IMHO).  I appreciate what they are trying to do, but the transition isn't going to be fun.  I realyl dislike this layout.  Much prefer chronological.

community.usms.org/.../291113

Also, non-USMS members are not able to post.

I agree. I was one of the beta testers, and I was hoping this new format would be something I could be positive about; however, that's not the case.  The new format is more complicated, and I really dislike having to look in all of the different areas for new threads.  Before, I would just look in the General Swimming section and see which threads were in bold, so I would know which ones had new posts.  I would click on last and be able to easily find the new posts.  Next, I would do the same for the non-swimming section, if I saw there were new threads.  Now, I'm looking all over the place, and some of the threads have multiple branches of replies rather than them just being listed chronologically.

In my opinion, the forums have become needlessly compartmentalized, and, therefore, complicated.  I thought I would get used to it, but I haven't.

I also am not happy that I have lost all of my "friends" contacts!  It was nice to be able to easily find them and send PM's.  My photo albums are gone, too.

Most of all, I am irked that my beloved "Smilies" are gone!  Now, if I want to use one, I have to insert it as an image from my folder of "Smilies" I lifted from the old forums.  Nobody else has access to them, though. 

I think it is a mistake to not let non- members post. I agree that it can be a member perq, What about letting non-members have a certain number of posts or one month free or something. Newspapers do that for reading online articles, you get so many then you have to pay. I think that might increase interest in the forums and then people could decide it was worth it to join. 

Allen and Elaine — I concur with you sentiments. I liked the chrono style of the old forums. It was so much easier. And WRT USMS members...after a few years of being active on the forums I finally decided to join USMS in large part due to the forums.

Dan

Allen Stark Thanks for the suggestion on letting non-members have limited access. Its something we're considering for the future. The time and resources to create that functionality aren't realistic in the near term but over the next year or so we should have that type of capability available and will be discussing further. 

Elaine Krugman - The former forums were rapidly becoming unmanageable and obsolete. To keep USMS discussion alive online, moving to a new software was necessary. The alternative would have ultimately been shutting down the old forums.  While it would have been nice to bring over 'everything' it simply wasn't possible in most cases. We understand learning a new platform takes some time and I hope you'll continue to explore all that the new community has to offer. We'll be continuing to make updates and fine tune functionality as we learn about user preferences and challenges, something that we also couldn't do in the old platform. 

I really appreciate that you are there responding to our concerns. Thank you

I'm not going anywhere!  Like Allen, I, too, appreciate everything you all are doing with the forums and responding to our concerns. 

I understand the former forums had to be replaced, and I appreciate your efforts!

Hopefully, the bugs will get worked out, such as I explained in my post to Tim Waud and Allen Stark.  It was frustrating to write a post, insert a photo, and then have it be rejected with an error message.  Have you tested that function?  It doesn't seem to like photos, although it will take my .gif Smilies! 

67King, Allen Stark, Elaine Krugman, ForceDJ each parent group has its own set of chronological forum threads in it (i.e. non-swimming has a list right under its group titles with all the threads). If you are looking for a chronological forum thread for the entire Community that you have access to, I have added that to the home page under all the parent groups. 

Note that part of the reason for the structure is that you can combine groups and threads later on if you want but you can't separate them if you want to provide more structure in the future.