Scientology Discussion Topics: Pending Reorganization

[Gizmo]

I really understand and appreciate the "reorganization" of the website and why it was necessary to split up certain jumbo threads (i.e. The Stupid Thread).

And I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into all this behind the scenes.

But, I do want to make a suggestion. It is meant as support of the website not as a criticism.

I don't think the NEW way things are sequenced is good. I mean when someone first visits the website.

They now have to literally slog their way through tons of reference materials and other stuff before they see the discussions way down the page.

And some of the fun drawing cards to the message board are now buried way down the page and inside of sub categories. If I was a new person, I might never discover some of the really entertaining and hilarious threads. I hate to use the STUPID THREAD as an example again but it makes the point. It used to be on general discussions, meaning it quickly showed up for anyone arriving at the website.

Now it is buried 3/4ths of the way down the page of sections. And even then it is buried in a sub-category ("criticizing Scientology).

I think people arriving at the site need to first and foremost have fun. Not be plowed into all the books and reference materials and a lot of really inactive/academic threads.

If I came here and didn't find the fun part, I wouldn't stay long. In fact for a very long time after I came to ESMB I only was on the "GENERAL DISCUSSION" page and didn't know about all the other sections and sub-threads. LOL

I think it hurts the site to bury the fun threads and make the new viewers work too hard.

Just my thought du jour.

In business, I always try to lead with the most demanded and popular items. That way "customers" at least come in the "store" and browse around a bit. Why hide/bury all the more fun parts instead of using those to attract visitors and make the message board a more fun place to hang out? I can't count the number of people, for example, that have told me they stayed on ESMB because of some of the fun threads like "Top 100 Stupid Moments" et al.

I think it is something to really consider when re-mapping how people are "greeted" when they first visit the site.

For my vote, I would say that fun/entertainment is a major factor to not discount or just file away in some subcategory where it might never be found.

Well, I just can't " snip " any HH post so I'll just say I also think FUN is very important. I confess, I love to read the fun stuff, it is uplifting, period.

Most of us have already waded through enough heavy stuff to last more than a few lifetimes.

Speaking of heavy, Thank you HH for putting in a plug for fun. In my opinion, HH is one of the heavy weights posting on ESMB ( along with Emma, Face, Cowboy & a few others )

gizmo 17

 

[Gizmo]

This reorganization effort strangely gives me a vision of re-arranging the chairs on the Titanic.

LOL ! I view it as shuffling the deck of a wonderful game !

It remains a truth that a person looking through their own perception & perspective with their own life experiences see something that is unique to them.


gizmo 17

 

[freethinker]

But you didn't know where anything other than General Discussion section was LOL?

Like with the posts you post I'm supposed to believe that?

Nice job, you got your spot.

I really understand and appreciate the "reorganization" of the website and why it was necessary to split up certain jumbo threads (i.e. The Stupid Thread).

And I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into all this behind the scenes.

But, I do want to make a suggestion. It is meant as support of the website not as a criticism.

I don't think the NEW way things are sequenced is good. I mean when someone first visits the website.

They now have to literally slog their way through tons of reference materials and other stuff before they see the discussions way down the page.

And some of the fun drawing cards to the message board are now buried way down the page and inside of sub categories. If I was a new person, I might never discover some of the really entertaining and hilarious threads. I hate to use the STUPID THREAD as an example again but it makes the point. It used to be on general discussions, meaning it quickly showed up for anyone arriving at the website.

Now it is buried 3/4ths of the way down the page of sections. And even then it is buried in a sub-category ("criticizing Scientology).

I think people arriving at the site need to first and foremost have fun. Not be plowed into all the books and reference materials and a lot of really inactive/academic threads.

If I came here and didn't find the fun part, I wouldn't stay long. In fact for a very long time after I came to ESMB I only was on the "GENERAL DISCUSSION" page and didn't know about all the other sections and sub-threads. LOL

I think it hurts the site to bury the fun threads and make the new viewers work too hard.

Just my thought du jour.

In business, I always try to lead with the most demanded and popular items. That way "customers" at least come in the "store" and browse around a bit. Why hide/bury all the more fun parts instead of using those to attract visitors and make the message board a more fun place to hang out? I can't count the number of people, for example, that have told me they stayed on ESMB because of some of the fun threads like "Top 100 Stupid Moments" et al.

I think it is something to really consider when re-mapping how people are "greeted" when they first visit the site.

For my vote, I would say that fun/entertainment is a major factor to not discount or just file away in some subcategory where it might never be found.

 

[Free to shine]

I’d like to add my opinion on the books and media. As I’ve done an awful lot of copying links here over the years, it often has been hard to know where to put things. It’s like the problem with the ‘Breaking News’ forum - when you put something in the Media section, news there also goes stale. And many of the media reports are about ‘breaking news’ which as time passes would be better off in a forum the subject is about. Makes my head spin!

I remember the excitement, back when ESMB was a baby, about Andrew Morton’s book on Tom Cruise. Wow, we were so excited, never dreaming how small that would seem in view of current events like an Emmy Award winning doco. Now does that go in Media, Breaking News or Essential Reading? I don't think Emma or anyone realised just how much media would be generated over the years.

I think that the really big events, say ‘Going Clear’ and Leah Remini for example, need their own subforums. But where? Going Clear threads include not only news and discussion about the movie, but also the book, the many, many interviews both Lawrence Wright and Alex Gibney gave and so on. They should be all together so a researcher or member can easily find the relevant threads ... Just not sure where to suggest, as it covers the areas of breaking news/media/books!

Perhaps as the forum is now Breaking and Major News, the sub forums could be there?

Or a new forum under Media for Books and Documentaries with sub forums for each big subject?

I don’t envy Ethercat working it out, just throwing out ideas.

 

[freethinker]

The off topic section being split up like that hasn't been a problem so I don't see why it wouldn't work for other sections.

One will still have to learn which cupboard things are kept in though.

I’d like to add my opinion on the books and media. As I’ve done an awful lot of copying links here over the years, it often has been hard to know where to put things. It’s like the problem with the ‘Breaking News’ forum - when you put something in the Media section, news there also goes stale. And many of the media reports are about ‘breaking news’ which as time passes would be better off in a forum the subject is about. Makes my head spin!

I remember the excitement, back when ESMB was a baby, about Andrew Morton’s book on Tom Cruise. Wow, we were so excited, never dreaming how small that would seem in view of current events like an Emmy Award winning doco. Now does that go in Media, Breaking News or Essential Reading? I don't think Emma or anyone realised just how much media would be generated over the years.

I think that the really big events, say ‘Going Clear’ and Leah Remini for example, need their own subforums. But where? Going Clear threads include not only news and discussion about the movie, but also the book, the many, many interviews both Lawrence Wright and Alex Gibney gave and so on. They should be all together so a researcher or member can easily find the relevant threads ... Just not sure where to suggest, as it covers the areas of breaking news/media/books!

Perhaps as the forum is now Breaking and Major News, the sub forums could be there?

Or a new forum under Media for Books and Documentaries with sub forums for each big subject?

I don’t envy Ethercat working it out, just throwing out ideas.

 

[Gizmo]

Well, one of the things I like most about decisions is that the person who make a particular decision can also see it different, want it another way & just make a new decision to change the previous decision.

While I appreciate the rank & file being asked for input ( ain't that a sweet change considering where we were once ! ) IF the changes don't work as planned then other changes can be made ( OK, I'm a tinker at heart ).

Perhaps with a little tweaking here & there this joint will be as good as can be.

I loved ESMB before.

I'll love ESMB after, too.

 

[Helena Handbasket]

... So your best bet is using the Advanced Search and the fields there to limit your results. One of the fields is user name, and you can limit by forums, dates, keywords; and display them as threads or posts. ...

It would be nice if we could search by "contains the words" AND "poster name". That way we could just get search results from a given individual who included those words in their post. Currently, if you enter a poster name it ignores "containing the words" (or is it the other way around?) and you get too many results.

Helena

 

[ethercat]

I am going to think about what to do with Breaking and Major News, Media, books, etc. Maybe they need different names and/or descriptions to clarify what their purpose is, or subforums made, or perhaps some merging, or something. Right now, there seem to be a lot of fuzzy lines between them.

Also:
I hate to burst anyone's bubble about the high visitor counts, but they were not all from individual people visiting. Many were from web server IP addresses, which, with a few exceptions, have no business viewing threads on a forum, especially not massive numbers of threads simultaneously. Most real people connect to ESMB through their ISP, and those would be the IP addresses that would visit, not web hosting server IP addresses. I mean, who's going to pay for a web hosting server to read a forum through? Using only a text-based interface?

Legitimate exceptions would be if they provide a VPN, TOR exit node, or are pulling an RSS feed to display on a website, and maybe some I'm not thinking of right now. Some other uses might be content scraping, attempts to DDoS or slow down the server, monitoring content posted for copyright infringement or trademark infringement, link checking, or some other reason for pulling an enormous number of threads simultaneously.

They were driving the server load up tremendously until I blocked large swaths of IP addresses that belong to web hosting companies in the server's firewall. So if anyone noticed ESMB had been slow, that was probably why. If any real people have ended up being blocked as a result of this, they need to find a non-abusive server or method to do whatever they're doing.

It would be nice if we could search by "contains the words" AND "poster name". That way we could just get search results from a given individual who included those words in their post. Currently, if you enter a poster name it ignores "containing the words" (or is it the other way around?) and you get too many results.

That's the way it's working for me, Helena. For instance, one word I have infrequently used here before is "malware", and when I search using "ethercat" as the username, and "malware" as the keyword, it only shows me a few posts. I didn't do anything special besides using the Advanced Search from the link on the menu bar. Can someone else try it and verify?