To the owner.

zixcreator · Post by **zixcreator** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 1:26 pm

Hi my name is Joe and I'm known to some as the zixcreator. I hope you don't mind but I'd like to offer you a friendly suggestion. I think you would be better off with a forum posting system similar to the regrowth forum. That way the thread most recently responded to gets bumped to the top. People like "action" and immediate gratification. That was one of the biggest reasons why the regrowth forum had so many posters. When you put up a post...it would usually get responded to rather quickly and thus a thorough discussion would begin. I see where you have forum access on your main page....that's great! But in my humble opinion you need to make the change I just spoke about to really get the board romping.

People want action...they want discussion....immediate discussion. If they don't get it, they will end up posting somewhere else. Right now the regrowth forum is all screwed by conflict and many...if not most of the heavy posters are coming here. This is a TREMENDOUS opportunity to dramatically increase the traffic to your site. You need to "strike while the iron is hot" and make the change I suggest before you miss out on your window. You need to make the change as quickly as possible. Don't wait!

Just my humble opinion for what it's worth. Now I'll crawl back in my hole and shut up. Joe

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 2:22 pm

It already does that here. The problem is those "sticky's" that IMO should be put in a section above the regular threads and/or given a separate color..or SOMEthing.

I'd also like the option to be able to have it like it was...page #'s to click on instead of one whole page. When pages get long, it makes it much easier for me to go back to where I left off.

p__ · Post by **p__** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:00 pm

Jacob wrote:The problem is those "sticky's" that IMO should be put in a section above the regular threads and/or given a separate color..or SOMEthing.

Yup, I agree. Also, I think one should be careful with the use of sticky threads altogether. Some sites get cluttered with a million stickies which makes them really ineffective to navigate. And stickies have a tendency to be more permanent than they should. They should be reviewed more often and "unstickied" as soon as there is no reason to keep them as stickies. Often they are sort of forgotten and just left there, making the site (seem) less active.

Jacob wrote:I'd also like the option to be able to have it like it was...page #'s to click on instead of one whole page. When pages get long, it makes it much easier for me to go back to where I left off.

I agree with that as well to some extent. I think there are still multiple pages as it is now, but they are much longer than before. I'm guessing about 5 times as long. The best solution would no doubt be a per user setting for maximum page length. Sam, any chance you could pull off a litte PHP hack like that?

zixcreator · Post by **zixcreator** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:12 pm

I just added a post to the "thinning Galea + blood flow" and it didn't bump up to the top. What am I missing here?

zixcreator · Post by **zixcreator** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:12 pm

Nor did my previous post bump this thread up to the top.

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:17 pm

It won't go to the VERY top..it'll be under the two "sticky's". Maybe there's some setting you have to change..will look quick.

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:22 pm

Try this...

Click on "User Control Panel" toward the upper left.
Go go to "Board Preferences".
On the left there are 3 option..click on "Edit Display Options"

See if "Display topics ordering by:" is set at "Post time"
Same for "Display posts...."

p__ · Post by **p__** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:23 pm

zixcreator wrote:I just added a post to the "thinning Galea + blood flow" and it didn't bump up to the top. What am I missing here?

It did go up to the top. The top of the non-sticky threads, that is. You see, there are some threads which are "sticky", as indicated by a special icon before the thread name. That means that those threads always show up above all the regular threads, even though the regular threads are updated/bumped after that. Threads are made sticky by a moderator/administrator/owner when they are deemed extra important or are of a "lasting" nature.

Well, I see Jacob beat me to the answer, sort of.

zixcreator · Post by **zixcreator** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:25 pm

But I mean to the top of the list on the main page of the site. That's the way to regrowth system was set up.

p__ · Post by **p__** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:28 pm

I see what you are saying now. The "Latest Forum Topics" pane to the left at http://www.hairlossfight.com/

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:33 pm

Argh...

I guess I'd prefer it like it is..seeing the newest threads..not the latest one that's been bumped up

p__ · Post by **p__** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:39 pm

Jacob wrote:seeing the newest threads..not the latest one that's been bumped up

Ah, so it is by design! I guess that since it says "Newest Topics" it makes sense. Then again, I think zix has a point. Is it really a good design decision to value new threads over new posts?

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:45 pm

I really don't think it matters for ppl who just stumble upon the site and see those there. Either way they're going to see something they've never seen before..well, you know what I mean.

I don't go to the homepage to see what's the latest..and I don't understand why anyone would when you can go directly to the forums section instead of navigating from the home page..to the forums section.

zixcreator · Post by **zixcreator** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 3:51 pm

The main page is where you want your regular traffic to get in the habit of going. That's where the advertising is and also any new articles etc. That's where you want your posters going. On the regrowth forum I always went to the main page to do my posting. I rarely ever went into the forum and chose a category. I merely responded to what someone else recently posted.

Having everyone view the latest posts generates more responses which generates further responses and so on and so forth.

A system like regrowth maximizes the visitors it receives because a poster will get more responses to their post....that's what people want. They want action!

p__ · Post by **p__** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:03 pm

Jacob wrote:I don't go to the homepage to see what's the latest..

Me neither. I go directly to the forums as well. In fact, I hardly ever visit the main page. So for us it really doesn't matter, we really don't use the feature anyway. Consequently it wouldn't matter if it were "latest posts" instead.

And the point is that there are many people who - like zix - would like to use the first page actively, the way regrowth dot com works. I think it would be wise to cater for those users.
(Zix, good post btw!)

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:05 pm

But Regrowth isn't the only one with that system..and I've never bothered going to the homepage on ANY of them. I do check them out from time to time..but there's really nothing for someone who regularly participates in the forums to see on the homepages..that they wouldn't see eventually in the forums or via a newsletter update. Heck...a lot of the stuff hits the forums FIRST

It's just like with Sam's my.hairlossfight.com that he's set up. If ppl would really get into that..I can't see them bothering with the homepage..with all due respect to Sam

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:06 pm

Yeah..I guess it's best to ask those who actually start out at the homepage for whatever reason

I guess Sam could put two of them up there..one for newest threads..one for the latest...

zixcreator · Post by **zixcreator** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:12 pm

As the owner you want to encourage people to visit the main page. However even if you go to the forum section it is divided up into categories. If someone posts in an obscure category he may wait a week for a response! But if it pops up on the main page he will get a response much more quickly because more eyes will be viewing it. Hence this person gets a response and tends to come back because he received "faster gratification".

Posters will tend to gravitate to the forums that give them the fastest answers or viewpoints.

Post by **HairLossFight.com** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:26 pm

Hi all,

Thanks for the suggestions. I am in the process of reviewing all the suggestions, including ones that have been e-mailed to me and ones I've been PM'ed with. I will work to get some of them (if not all of them) implemented as soon as possible.

I am going to try to revamp the main page of the site with the following sections:

- Latest threads (already there)
- Latest posts (not there yet)

Also will try to position these closer to the top of the main page.

As for stickies, I will review all of them to see if any can be removed for being old, outdated, or just inactive. Time for an all-around cleanup.

Also, will try to implement a pagination by user preference. Don't know if this exists as a feature of the forums that I need to enable, or as a mod, but will see what I can do.

Thanks for the suggestions! I will work hard to make this the #1 stop for your hair loss discussions.

Regards,
Sam

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:35 pm

zixcreator wrote:As the owner you want to encourage people to visit the main page. However even if you go to the forum section it is divided up into categories. If someone posts in an obscure category he may wait a week for a response! But if it pops up on the main page he will get a response much more quickly because more eyes will be viewing it. Hence this person gets a response and tends to come back because he received "faster gratification".

Posters will tend to gravitate to the forums that give them the fastest answers or viewpoints.

I think a person is going to get a response from current posters faster than from all those eyes that are checking out the homepage

...but I guess having the forum/discussions more prominently displayed would also help. I won't name the site..but there's one where it's hard to see there even is a forum.

Also notice the "View your posts" up above..can see what threads you've posted in. Actually I think it does show your posts...maybe another option allowing you to see what threads you participated in would be nice....

Post by **HairLossFight.com** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:59 pm

By the way, not sure if you noticed, but there is a link, View new posts at the top of the page, under the banner ad. See the pic below. If you click on that, you'll get a list of the latest threads that have new posts in them sorted with the newest at the top.

: forum_main_page.png (150.25 KiB) Viewed 19392 times

I'm still going to add a section for this on the the main page of the site... for now however you can use this link.

Cheers.

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:46 pm

Is there going to be a section for companies to post..answer questions...give discounts $\:D/$ ...etc?

CPIO · Post by **CPIO** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:30 am

Move those ANNOUNCEMENTS, nobody replies to them so they dont belong at the top

Also remove the save button.

OverMachoGrande · Post by **OverMachoGrande** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 8:46 am

With everything that I'm presenting, there will be a place on the main page for site announcements -and you will be able to comment under them there- so they won't have to be in the forum anymore. They'll be a place for ALL of our announcements if we want them! lol... A "local twitter stream", if you will. Frustrated by shills? Say so and it'll go on the main page!

Also, you'll have the option to see the MOST RECENT POSTS or the MOST RECENTLY CREATED THREADS by clicking a tab. It'll be a BIG SECTION, right on the front page/right side. It'll be a java function that for the life of me I can't remember what it's called, but when you click on the tab, the info will just "change" and the page won't have to be refreshed. What the hell is that called again? Someone help! It's a type of code (no, it's not 'flash'), and I'm going crazy trying to remember that term.

We've got ideas that are going to make everyone happy -it's just a matter of time implementing them. Saber28 has suggested a great way to overcome the "advertiser" obsticle as well, and we'll go into that later.

So... what we *do* need still is a lot of people willing to make ORIGINAL CONTENT for the main page. I'm talking about "proactively getting information or posting it in a new, media rich, journalistic form", not just talking about it. So, please send me an PM if you want to do that! You'd make Sam smile if you did.

-O.M.G.

Jacob · Post by **Jacob** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:26 am

Jacob wrote:Is there going to be a section for companies to post..answer questions...give discounts $\:D/$ ...etc?

bump.........

OverMachoGrande · Post by **OverMachoGrande** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:39 am

Jacob wrote:
Jacob wrote:Is there going to be a section for companies to post..answer questions...give discounts $\:D/$ ...etc?
bump.........

I TOTALLY agree that should happen! In fact, I think we should move the A&G thread into that section, and go out and invite other companies to do that! I think the rules should be simple... you can say what you want about your product, but you can't get angry if people confront you on it! Free promotion has it's consequences, and you agree to assume that risk if you post. If you can back it up and defend yourself... you have nothing to fear! ...and you MUST at least have some level of responding to questions or the moderators like Jacob can say "You're not being responsive, you are just 'hit and run posting', and therefore you aren't playing by the rules, buh-bye."

I also think the name of the section should be "Commercial Product Reps Forum", so there is no false pretense about what you are getting when you read their posts.

Also, it needs to be stated that if anytime if the forum owner thinks the section is "getting out of hand", he can chose to eliminate it, and eliminate all the threads within it. In other words, if it turns out to be a BAD IDEA, we can fix it.

I just sent you an email, by the way, Jacob.

Anxious1 · Post by **Anxious1** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:18 pm

hey hairlossfight owner,

just wanted to say that for starters ur site is great, free of bugs and has alot of options which r great, and thank you for considering these suggestions, put to u by others , which i also agree with by the way, its great that u r listening and want to co-operate with us, as u can see we r all very passionate about this, as the more info we can get out to the public, the better, and some subtle changes will greatly improve the traffic to this site, to help the public more.

also my only other suggestion other than wat has already been said by others, is to do ur best to identify potential companies trying to advertise thru pretending to be the public, as im sure u already do. anything u can do to protect free speech is tops in my opinion. However i appreaciate that sponsors r needed to pay costs, all i ask is that people working for companies identify themselves as working for that company, so we can judge there comments appropriately. as all our problems have been created from ppl crossing the line between advertising and infiltrating our forums, which r our last sanctuary of free speech.

the reason i think hairloss warrants so much discussion, is obviously the physcological ramifications such as depression and suicide, but also healthy hair is a good indicator of health, but many of us, while treating our hairloss, manage to fix every other health problem in the process.

I truly believe humans can accomplish most things when enough bright minds join forces. so many medical conditions r fixed after they were required to be fixed because they were afftecting a countries position in a War, this is because suddenly a country commits a large number of scientists and money to that cause. so the more brainiacs we get here, the better options as treatments we will create.

Great job on the site, and look forward to sharing some great info and discussions with u, and forgeting the unfortunate set of circumstances that brought us all to this site.

ps i know im lame, but i love the smiley faces. $\:D/$

Anxious1.

CPIO · Post by **CPIO** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:01 am

This forum format sucks .. way too many sections, header announcements, sticky threads etc

p__ · Post by **p__** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:12 am

CPIO wrote:This forum format sucks .. way too many sections

I don't agree. I think it's really nice have a decent set of sections. That way, I can easily sort out the stuff that I'm personally not interested in. Saves me a lot of time and effort. In fact, I wouldn't mind a section for "celebrity hair loss" so that I don't have to read about it

It also helps people who are searching for information about a specific topic, like LLLT or HT.

CPIO wrote:header announcements, sticky threads etc

Yes, maybe the announcements and stickies could be cleaned up a bit.

Post by **HairLossFight.com** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:17 am

Hi everybody,

I'm taking note of all the suggestions people are making. What I'd like to do is come up with a 'Requirements List' for the site. Some of the functionality can be done rather quickly, and some of it will take a bit more time.

Once I come up with the list, I will setup an online meeting of some sort, and anyone who is interested can attend. We can discuss the requirements list and you will have a final chance to provide your input. It will probably be difficult to please everyone 100%, but I think we can deliver on some functionality that most if not all of you will find useful.

In the meantime, please be patient, but know that some great changes are on the way that will make this site the best hair loss site on the net bar none.

Stay Tuned.

nidhogge · Post by **nidhogge** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:37 am

Hey Sam,

Great to be regularly posting here now.

If I may, some suggestions.

I find that there are a lot of forums, and that usually less is better. This is especially true when you have a smaller amount of visitors before the site grows more, at which point, you may consider slowly adding an extra forum here or there. For example, I think it'd be great to have the Experimental and General section merged. People tend to float towards the general forum on sites, and will often neglect information that is dispersed throughout other, less visited forums.

Also, stickies in general I'd keep to 1 to 2 per page at most. Just some suggestions from a fellow web designer.

zixcreator · Post by **zixcreator** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 11:40 am

"I find that there are a lot of forums, and that usually less is better."

Yes! Exactly! Start out with things very simple!

But I have no doubt this is gonna be a great forum.

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