Are the new forums deterring new participants?

 I realise creating a forum etc is hard work and credit to the people who go out of their way in the name of Yellow Fever to give the fans somewhere to discuss games etc.

However I can't help but feel that because of the layout of the forum, that it makes it particularly difficult for new users to get involved, particularly users who have no previous forum experiences. I'm a frequent user of other forums and find that the new forum format here is difficult to use and is visually a touch overwhelming.

I've never been a hugely active participant on here, but for any forums it's always important to make things as user friendly as possible for new users.

Here is a couple of examples of forums that I believe are easier to use:

http://www.gpforums.co.nz

http://forums.toyspeed.org.nz

This is all my personal opinion however, just think this needs some fresh discussion.

If you changed your avatar it wouldn`t be visually overwhelming

More posts Chopper !  please !

I think the new forum is deterring a lot of old participants.

I know a lot went into upgrading it so I really don't want to hammer the new forums too much - but I know it stopped me from posting for a good few months; even now I find it a lot harder to get into than I used to. The layout is not user-friendly at all.

I thought the first one was for medical doctors.

The other one got me thinking what sort of toys needed a forum to discuss speed...

It's still got glitches (i.e: doesnt recognise a return key and hence no paragraphs) but is workable for me at least - I don't know about others and those whom it is very bad, I guess we will never hear from (old and new). Come on Gareth get with the Christmas spirt and give the boys some resources to make it mint!!

Or you could buy a T-Shirt.

 wait for the results to continue on an upward slope and the crowds to grow again and the traffic here will grow too. gotta love the fairweather fans.

For what it's worth I'm a fan.

The last one was shyte....stopped me from joining up....this one is pretty good.....please change avatar.

I'm happy with the new forum.

 Needs emoticons, but pretty good otherwise. PM's would be useful too.

Do miss one or two features from the old one, but this one is quite good too. Doubt it's putting people off. I think the amount of whinging is putting more people off.

I like the new Forum. Needs Emoticons but its way nicer looking than the old. I haven't had any real functional problems.

If anything deters new members its the in house bickering, pessimism, inside jokes and occasional faction warfare between the old YF guard and the ACFC/"sack Ricki" crowd. I mean I like to come on here to talk about tactics and formation, keep an eye on recruitment rumors ect. Mass despair is a bit if a turn off. More constructive discussion please.

I think there are a number of reasons for the downturn in forum viewership and posts but, with the greatest respect to the YF  team that give of their time to maintain and run the forum, I think the drop in moderation standard is a significant contributing factor. In the early days of the forum there was a focus by moderators on ensuring posters adhered to the forum rules - in particular playing the ball not the man.

I think the loss of focus on moderation has burnt a lot of posters off and left a hard core of those with largely opposite views - unfortunately some of those who are in, what I assume to be positions of forum responsibility, are just as guilty as the members. There have been numerous occassions I have seen a new / newish member get shot down and piled on by a series of smartarse put downs and, sure enough, they have disappeared from the forum.

My advice would be for moderators to get back to moderating and for all, including moderators, to respect that forums are invariably made up of a diversity of views and, as long as posters are adhering to the rules, that makes for a more vibrant, albeit sometimes frustrating, forum.

Stop labelling people with a different view to your own might be a good place to start.

That's my 5 cents worth. 

From a mate of mine who used to use the forum, the biggest turn off was the constant derailment of threads through inside jokes from the same 5 or so people every time.

I'm not going to through stones at anyone because without someones gratuity, we would be posting in the ACFC forums and no offence, but fuck that.

I stopped coming on here when the forum changed to the new format initially because I could no longer access it through internet explorer. Now that I can, I'm on more regularly. I'm not sure if others had the same problem and just haven't bothered coming back.

As for the current forum, I have no problem with its layout. The only thing I would like to see return is the PM function.

Yeh, on reading the posts, I'd be happy to have the mods blocking those who repeatedly make personal insults against others, yep and the PM would be good. But, well, we're talking to the converted anyway. Those who don;t user the forum won't be reading it!

Even though it looks the same, this forum system is very different to the one that appeared in May when the website redesign occurred. Nik did a great job at fixing a completely flawed site, and I don't think enough people realise that he did it all for free, in his own time!

It is my belief that the site itself isn't putting many people off at all. If someone gets turned away by the layout, then tough cookies. Not all sites are the same, and nor should they be. If they really want to become a part of the community, then they should keep using the site and get used to it.

I don't mind the laid back approach to moderating, but one thing I would like to see in the future is a karma system, where the community upvotes and downvotes posts, effectively moderating itself. Much like reddit.

Not a bad idea. A lot of people take a post or two that someone disagree with them in, and say "oh everyone shoots me down" when really it was just one person. And other such similar situations. A thumbs up or thumbs down would be cool to reflect how posts are really perceived. 

My problem is that I couldn't get my old log in to work (Homer Simpson)

Plus the team has been so shit that each time I have come in after a game i have left because it will be emotional, irrational shit!

Correct, but why should we.

realise.

^ that stuff does annoy me, have learnt to mentally stream out posts from certain people

Does make it difficult when they occasionally post something really good though...

You seem oddly interested in me aucklandphoenix, its disturbing and I think we need to have a little chat. 

FYI I don't give 2 shits. Sorry to break it to you like that,but it had to be done. 

and here we go ...

The forums are what they are. There are people whom I have well and truly pissed off with my opinion (and I am quick to fire back) but at the end of it, are we really playing the man or a passionate opinion? We don't know each other (or we would use real names) so it makes it open season on who we think we are. End of the day, 99% of the mud slinging would not happen if it was in person and hence this is why forums exist - because its not personal.

this version is 100 times better than the last attempt.

Anyone who is complaining about the forums can bugger off, quite simply. Do we pay for this? No. 

It's a great site, the YF guys put a lot of time into it, If you have problems with it then don't bother the people who appreciate the efforts of everyone involved.

I could go further but this is as ranty as I'm gonna get ;-)

Sounds like AJ13's mate has.