Forum Suggestions

[operaspark]

Hey All,

I thought this would be an interesting topic where we could make suggestions as how to make the forum better (if its not already ).


I'd personally like a separate section for WNO, Glyndebourne and the other main opera companies based in the UK. Also i think an section to discuss opera in general would be good

[Dominic McHugh]

I'm willing to make more sections for companies if we get enough people posting. It's a question of the time:product ratio - if it becomes popular, we can divide.

However, there is a general opera section: it's the master folder at the top of the forum, and the ROH and ENO threads are subfolders. If you post a new topic inside the 'Opera reviews' bit, that's the place for general discussion of opera. I can remove the word 'reviews' if it'll make you happier?

Thanks for your suggestions. Let me know if you have more.

[operaspark]

Yeah...i think it was the use of the word 'reviews' which confused me. Yes it would make me happier if you changed it

[Dominic McHugh]

OK that's done. Happy now?! ;-)

[operaspark]

OK that's done. Happy now?! ;-)

Very happy thanks!

[David Cox]

I think more could be done to make the place look better (not that it looks particularly bad) something more in common with the subject matter.

Dom, I have quite a bit of experience in doing graphics for forum themes and would be happy submit some ideas to you if you were interested. I don't charge for doing this, it is something I enjoy doing

As for the board layout I think what you have so far is good for the size of the membership. My opinion is that less is more. In my experience message boards that contain too many forums and sub-forums hasten toward an early death and what you get is a few people hanging around just one or two forums with the others largely unused. Please don't be tempted to create different forums for different genres - whilst it seems to makes sense and may inspire a burst of posting, this always falls away eventually. I went through this on an official band board I admin'd and myself and the admin team built a very structured board with lots of different sections, it worked for a while and then fell away. Now I am of the view that less rigid structure promotes more posting in the long term.

I think you have it just right for now, and you can always change things as the board grows and evolves around its members.

[Dominic McHugh]

Sure, feel free to make whatever suggestions about appearance you like. Or you can email me at editor@musicalcriticism.com if you can be bothered - thanks!

I agree, no point in endless sub-forums. In fact, I'm half-tempted to remove the specific ROH/ENO ones, since they could all go under opera. It depends what people think. And really, it's only worth spending time working on it if people are going to post more.

Which I really hope they will - I think reviews should be the beginning of a discussion, not the last word.

[operaspark]

I agree, no point in endless sub-forums. In fact, I'm half-tempted to remove the specific ROH/ENO ones, since they could all go under opera. It depends what people think. And really, it's only worth spending time working on it if people are going to post more.

I think that would be a really good idea, so instead of having ROH and ENO under sub-forums, all the opera topics are kept together. You could rename the headings of each topic to make it clear what they are about, for example "La Fanciulla del West ROH" which would get rid of the need for these sub-forums.



I hope we do get more people here, the question is how?

[Dominic McHugh]

OK. I've removed the subfolders and made it simpler. Is that better?

Maybe a News section would be a good idea? Then people could post links to news stories from around the internet and maybe get some discussions going?

[operaspark]

Thanks Dom...i had noticed the change Yeah, its much better.

I think a news section could be a good idea, but you'd have to be careful at separating speculative comments from the factual ones!


Things seem really quiet here at the moment which is a shame We somehow need a way of getting more members on this forum. Any ideas?


It would be great if you could come up with some forum designs David, but maybe you should wait a bit to see if things take off or not, if they don't you could be wasting your time.

[Dominic McHugh]

I think a news section could be a good idea, but you'd have to be careful at separating speculative comments from the factual ones!

Well that's why I suggest posting links...then it's clear that the news comes from somewhere solid.

Things seem really quiet here at the moment which is a shame We somehow need a way of getting more members on this forum. Any ideas?

Not really...every time I log on there are people just looking, but I guess people can't be bothered joining. I would make it an open forum, but I'm afraid of spamming.

[Sponsored content]