You may have noticed a few changes around the boards; I've just re-organized forums and re-named a couple categories. Take a look at the main page of the boards to see how things are laid out now. As always, your feedback is welcome.

That link led me to a post about Manila.

Whoops, sorry! Link fixed.

Why aren't the details of the latest post displayed in the "Talking Games" forum? As it is now, you can't tell if there's been any action on "Where is This Place?" without actually going into the forum.

I also unearthed another game and bumped it towards the top of the Members Forum for you.

Haci-

Thanks. I moved it.

Here's another game Flag game

and another Geosense

and another Destination Sudoku

Thanks for the game links, Haci. I also fixed the last post thing in the games forum, so thanks for catching that, too.

I think it's ok...With all the new sections and so many forums being pushed down they're at risk of getting missed, but I am glad the actual travel/places have stayed on top.

That said, "Talking About Travel" doesn't really fit as a header. For one, Chit Chat is a forum that pretty much does not talk about travel. Also, many other forums fit very much under "Talking about Travel" (i.e. RTW, $$, etc.). I think the reorg would work if the headers made more sense.

I like it.

It's broken up well enough that it's probably simpler for a newbie to group together at first glance. While I'm still adjusting to the new pattern as I scroll down, I think it works much better than the old organization.

As for the group headers, frankly, it doesn't really matter what they're called. They serve more as line breaks for the eye than anything else. Regular members are probably the only ones who are ever going to scrutinize them, and we already know what goes on in each subforum. So a group title like "Talking About Travel" is probably fine, despite the amount of non-travel rambling that goes on in the Members Forum and ChitChat forum alike.

quote:

As for the group headers, frankly, it doesn't really matter what they're called.

It doesn't to you, but it does to me. Please don't be so dismissive.

She asked for opinions, I gave mine. I work in web; part of what I concentrate on is user experience and logic. Headers are actually quite important. I am trying to come up with other headers, but am hopped up on cold meds so haven't as yet. If they weren't important, they wouldn't have changed them in the first place.

I'm not 100% wild about "Talking About Travel" myself, Annie. Originally, I thought of "Keeping in Touch," because I figured that would cover both the forums where we as a community keep in touch with one another and stuff like travel articles and blogs because that's keeping in touch with one's readers. It was suggested to me that "Keeping in Touch" might be confusing, however, to people who might not see travel writing or blogs as keeping in touch. So, on the spur of the moment last night I called it "Talking About Travel." I was also taking cold meds at the time (as I still am, bloody stupid cold), so I know that there are things which could be tweaked with what I did last night!

I like it Jessie....keep up the good work, and I hope you get better soon hun!!

quote:

Originally posted by anniebanannie:
It doesn't to you, but it does to me. Please don't be so dismissive.

Don't take things so personally, Annie. Since when did disagreeing with you become the same as dismissing you? I too am approaching it from the average user's standpoint.

Since your work entails analyzing web-based GUIs, you know that the white on gray text doesn't really get processed by the undiscerning eye anyway. Most web users tend to scroll down forum pages rather quickly, reading very few snippets of text as they go, gathering a feel for where the content is rather than engaging it logically, and they're more likely to pay attention to the bold purple text of the subforums than anything else.

The gray group titles probably do little more for most viewers than break up the list of subforums and make them a bit more digestible. I'd wager that usually only the first group title (Destinations) actually gets read, as it only takes about two beats worth of scrolling before the average newbie figures out that "the meat and potatoes" on this forum (and most forums for that matter) is in the dark text on light background areas.

Now, from a strictly organizational standpoint, there's a lot that isn't logical on the board. And there's still a lot of overlap as well. (But I am speaking of the Destinations section now, and that comes with the territory. It is difficult to anticipate which group the average user would place Mexico in; much less Azerbaijan.)

In a previous life, I worked as a commercial artist advising corporations on how to transform their print-based design departments into ones more suitable for the then just-developing Internet age. So, bucking what you might see as a trend in my posts, in this case I am not prattling on for prattling on's sake or simply disagreeing with you based on my own narrow user experience.

Now, I'll drop it before Stoo comes in and makes some joke about how the old man simply didn't get his nap today.

quote:

Originally posted by anniebanannie:
The use of the word "frankly" makes it dismissive rather than disagreeable.

Well, quite frankly, it wasn't meant that way. Ma...a ciascuno il suo.

EDIT: The post I was replying to was deleted. I don't make a habit of talking to myself. Well, not usually.

I've never encountered so much 'header rage'. ha!
I suggest you pay hommage to Bonnie Raitt and name the header:
"People Are Talkin: Talkin 'bout People":
Or you could leave the last part off. Whatever. I'll be happy with either

Actually if you ask me I think it's fine to name them simply and not so cutely.
"Community Foums"
"Travel Forums"
"Travel Extras"

To be honest I dont even know how it's laid out now, nor have I noticed the past 5 years or whatever it's been. It's changed a lot yes? We used to use different colors yes? I suppose as long as I can use this as my outlet and ramble on I'm perfectly content with it.