Proposed Forum Layout
Hi Guys,
We've taken on board the feedback from the previous discussion here regarding our new forum structure and we're now proposing something which hopefully accommodates all the points made. With the approval of the community via a vote in this post, we'd like to make these changes on the 1st October. This can either be permanent or if people prefer we'd be happy to trial it for a period of 1 month, at which point we will have another review and further vote.
We think this structure is about right, although we don't believe it can ever be perfect. There will always be a need to add further boards and remove or merge others as things progress. We've proposed a process for that too below, which we'd also appreciate your feedback on.
We'll let the voting run until Sunday 28th September and if the second and third options add up to more votes than the first option, we'll go ahead with the change on the 1st.
So, onwards to what we've come up with.... Hopefully these will be fairly self-explanatory, but we've added some notes underneath to clarify a couple of bits. Please do ask if its not as clear as it could be - having worked on this for some time what is obvious to us might not be to everyone else.
And there you have it - A plan that will take us from over 20 forums to 12, but which hopefully will also be better organised and easier to user as well as them being easier for us to moderate.
Notes:
Section1:
Hopefully fairly clear: this section is for feedback about Plusnet - the good, bad and ugly can go here. You will be able to post directly into the feedback main board, or into one of the three sub forums.
Section2:
Very similar to the current demarcations which seem to be working well.
Section3:
Initially a single board with the option that we can later split into newly created sub-boards if there is demand.
Section4:
A single board, with a single sub-board initially.
Anybody can post into the main 'Business Forum' as they can now.
The new partner subforums will only be visible to Plusnet Partners (managed by Mark Kelly from Plusnet currently)
Section5:
As now - bugs and suggestions for ways to improve the Community Site and Forums.
Section6:
A selection of boards, each one dedicated to a specific trial being run by Plusnet. Primarily moderated and run by the Plusnet Usergroup.
Generally these are 'invitation only' boards - if you are taking part in a trial, you get to see and participate in the board relevant to the trial(s) you are taking part in.
Section7 & section8:
A potential home for UserGroup and UserTools discussion boards.
We haven't included any specifics in our plan, as its entirely up to the UserGroup as a whole to make the decisions as to what might appear here.
Section9 & section10:
Fairly self-explanatory, can be expanded in future if there is sufficient demand for greater granularity.
Section11:
A place for the random mutterings and musings of passers-by!
Section12:
All of the archived boards from pre-migration to community site will end up here as there will no longer be a direct 1:1 relationship with the layout after the change.
Section13:
This section is inherantly a private one, with different boards for different types of discussions.
This is where we log our actions as moderators, as well as having discussions like how the layout might look in future.
Many will never see these boards, but they aren't a secret.
Policy for forum changes
The following is aimed at keeping the forums fresh and relevant.
1. We will add a forum if one person from the community proposes it in the Community Site Forum and one other person seconds it. At this pointa mod will create a poll lasting for 2 weeks. At least 0.4% of registered users (Currently that would be 38 people from 9310) need to vote in favour of creation, and there must be a majority of yes vs no responses within that for the new board to be approved. It will then be created when next possible. Both the mods and Plusnet reserve the right to veto board suggestions at their discretion, although we'd expect to have a very good reason for doing that which would be made clear.
2. A forum will be removed if there are no valid posts from more than one person for a period of 1 month, or if it's clearly no longer required. A proposed removal notice will be posted in the community site forum by the mods and if there are more than two objections a vote will be posted where a straight majority must vote in favour of keeping the forum against removing it. No posts would ever be removed, but they may be moved if appropriate.
3. All registered forum members are entitled to vote once only etc and if foul play is suspected (eg multiple votes from newly registered free accounts, these votes may be discounted).
Do people think that proposal makes sense, and in terms of the whole suggestion we'd be very grateful for your votes. We are keen to keep this community strong and we believe these changes will go a long way to achieving that. If anyone does have any questions before voting, please fire away.
Regards
Barry
on behalf of the Community Moderators
EDIT James_G - added <|--|--Sub2: Resolved Bugs> in section 5
We've taken on board the feedback from the previous discussion here regarding our new forum structure and we're now proposing something which hopefully accommodates all the points made. With the approval of the community via a vote in this post, we'd like to make these changes on the 1st October. This can either be permanent or if people prefer we'd be happy to trial it for a period of 1 month, at which point we will have another review and further vote.
We think this structure is about right, although we don't believe it can ever be perfect. There will always be a need to add further boards and remove or merge others as things progress. We've proposed a process for that too below, which we'd also appreciate your feedback on.
We'll let the voting run until Sunday 28th September and if the second and third options add up to more votes than the first option, we'll go ahead with the change on the 1st.
So, onwards to what we've come up with.... Hopefully these will be fairly self-explanatory, but we've added some notes underneath to clarify a couple of bits. Please do ask if its not as clear as it could be - having worked on this for some time what is obvious to us might not be to everyone else.
* Products and Services Discussions
===================================
Description: Give us your feedback about anything relating to Plusnet. Note the rants sub-forum if you want to get something off your chest.
|- 1. Your Feedback
||-- Sub: Testimonials
||-- Sub: Rants and Raves
||-- Sub: Product Ideas and Suggestions [Note: Will be closely managed in line with PUGIT comments]
|- 2. Community Support
|Get help with any aspect of the service provided
||-- Sub: Broadband Speed
||-- Sub: Email and Webmail
||-- Sub: Web Hosting (including PAYH)
||-- Sub: Home Phone
||-- Sub: Broadband Phone
||-- Sub: Referrers Forum
||-- Sub: Internet Event Calendar
|- 3. Gamers Forum
|-- Later sub groups possible for different games / clans?
|- 4. Business Forum
|-- Sub: Partners [Note: Only available to partners]
|- 5. The Community Site Forum
|-- Sub: Suggestions (Community Site & Forums)
|-- Sub: Report Bugs
|--|--Sub2: Resolved Bugs
* Usergroup Discussion (Rules and Modded by PUG Co-ordinators)
==================================================
|- 6. Community Trials
|-- Sub: <Example board for Trial> [Note: Each trial board perms managed seperately so we can grant access to each trial individually]
|-- Sub: <Example board for Trial> [Note: Each trial board perms managed seperately so we can grant access to each trial individually]
|-- More Added / Removed on Demand
| 7. Usergroup and Usertools Discussions
|-- Sub forums on request - full control of PUG
| 8. PUGIT
* Technology Discussions
=======================
|- 9 Computers and Networking
|-- Sub: Hardware
|-- Sub: Microsoft Windows
|-- Sub: Apple Mac
|-- Sub: Linux and Other *nix
|- 10 Web and Internet (Including security)
* General Discusssion
============================
| 11. Friendly Discussion and Chat
Description: New or old - all welcome here
* Archives
=============
| 12. Forum Archives
|-- All Archive Forums with posts since migration
* Trusted Users Forums [Note:Only available to users with correct permissions]
================
|- Moderators Lounge
|-- Sub: Thread Storage
|- Sub-Moderators Lounge [Note: Sub mod include PUG + any others who agree to mod subsections of the forums]
|-- Sub: Thread Storage
|- PlusNet Staff
|- PUG NDA forums as needed
And there you have it - A plan that will take us from over 20 forums to 12, but which hopefully will also be better organised and easier to user as well as them being easier for us to moderate.
Notes:
Section1:
Hopefully fairly clear: this section is for feedback about Plusnet - the good, bad and ugly can go here. You will be able to post directly into the feedback main board, or into one of the three sub forums.
Section2:
Very similar to the current demarcations which seem to be working well.
Section3:
Initially a single board with the option that we can later split into newly created sub-boards if there is demand.
Section4:
A single board, with a single sub-board initially.
Anybody can post into the main 'Business Forum' as they can now.
The new partner subforums will only be visible to Plusnet Partners (managed by Mark Kelly from Plusnet currently)
Section5:
As now - bugs and suggestions for ways to improve the Community Site and Forums.
Section6:
A selection of boards, each one dedicated to a specific trial being run by Plusnet. Primarily moderated and run by the Plusnet Usergroup.
Generally these are 'invitation only' boards - if you are taking part in a trial, you get to see and participate in the board relevant to the trial(s) you are taking part in.
Section7 & section8:
A potential home for UserGroup and UserTools discussion boards.
We haven't included any specifics in our plan, as its entirely up to the UserGroup as a whole to make the decisions as to what might appear here.
Section9 & section10:
Fairly self-explanatory, can be expanded in future if there is sufficient demand for greater granularity.
Section11:
A place for the random mutterings and musings of passers-by!
Section12:
All of the archived boards from pre-migration to community site will end up here as there will no longer be a direct 1:1 relationship with the layout after the change.
Section13:
This section is inherantly a private one, with different boards for different types of discussions.
This is where we log our actions as moderators, as well as having discussions like how the layout might look in future.
Many will never see these boards, but they aren't a secret.
Policy for forum changes
The following is aimed at keeping the forums fresh and relevant.
1. We will add a forum if one person from the community proposes it in the Community Site Forum and one other person seconds it. At this pointa mod will create a poll lasting for 2 weeks. At least 0.4% of registered users (Currently that would be 38 people from 9310) need to vote in favour of creation, and there must be a majority of yes vs no responses within that for the new board to be approved. It will then be created when next possible. Both the mods and Plusnet reserve the right to veto board suggestions at their discretion, although we'd expect to have a very good reason for doing that which would be made clear.
2. A forum will be removed if there are no valid posts from more than one person for a period of 1 month, or if it's clearly no longer required. A proposed removal notice will be posted in the community site forum by the mods and if there are more than two objections a vote will be posted where a straight majority must vote in favour of keeping the forum against removing it. No posts would ever be removed, but they may be moved if appropriate.
3. All registered forum members are entitled to vote once only etc and if foul play is suspected (eg multiple votes from newly registered free accounts, these votes may be discounted).
Do people think that proposal makes sense, and in terms of the whole suggestion we'd be very grateful for your votes. We are keen to keep this community strong and we believe these changes will go a long way to achieving that. If anyone does have any questions before voting, please fire away.
Regards
Barry
on behalf of the Community Moderators
EDIT James_G - added <|--|--Sub2: Resolved Bugs> in section 5
