The nuts and bolts of this board... time for an MOT?

[The Divine One]

So, I've been thinking about this for a while and have wondered if I should start a discussion or just shut up. But I've decided to start a discussion...

It's been pointed out by various members that things have been a bit slow round these parts for a while. It could be due to members dropping away (maybe because it's a bit slow) and a relatively slow sign-up of new members - perhaps because the message board is hard to find, because it's not anchored to a real website, and is just drifting through the interweb after being cut-off from VinylVulture.

But I wonder if a bigger problem is the actual format of the board. Facebook seems to be buzzing with new finds, people posting tracks and photos - and Fuz's recent issues with Photobucket brought things into sharp focus for me. Namely, I buy records nearly every day of my life and almost NEVER post any on here. I simply cannot be arsed - with taking a photo, re-scaling it, uploading it onto Photobucket, copying a link, pasting it into a post on here, typing up a load of blurb. And then clicking "submit" to find I've been logged out and have lost the entire thing.

So my question to the moderators, and contributors is, are we shackled to the vBulletin design - or are there better versions out there? I use Soul Source and you can upload photos directly into posts, you can build up ratings since people can "like" posts (how many times have I heard people moaning that they upload finds and wonder why they bother, since nobody comments. I LOVE seeing "finds" but amn't going to comment on each and every one with a "nice score" or an "ooft!"). And do these fancier boards cost money? Do they need to attract advertising to work? Can users on here chip in a fiver each and cover the costs for a year?

This has become a bit more rambling and negative than intended, but I think the format is pretty dated - and broken. The whole "double-posting" thing, and people not being able to edit posts needs to be fixed. Despite my moaning, I still love the forum dearly and all the people on it - strewth, I've been posting for about 15 years (???!!!), and would contribute a lot more if it was just.. easier.

So... What does everyone else think?

[The Divine One]

Phew! Lucky I remembered to copy and paste that huge rant, since I got logged out before I clicked "submit new thread", ha!

[moecurlythanu]

I'm on another vBulletin board where it is possible to upload pics directly, so it must be down to admins' settings or something like that.

[Agnes_Guano]

Facebook would ruin this chat, just kill it.

[Whisky Stephen]

I'm new and not the brightest/soberest, but i just tried to upload a picture to see if it was easy. I failed. That tells us nothing.

[treeboy]

I didn't think it was negative Mr Divine, I think it's a discussion which needs to take place. To be honest, I barely keep up with what's going on here. I've noticed things slowing down, and a few interesting members all but abandoning the forum in the comparatively short time I've been a member. If Facebook is an easier platform to communicate on, so be it. I'm not on it myself, so a lot is obviously passing me by. That's my choice though.
It will be a shame if this site slowly fizzles out, but it does seem that people are spending more time elsewhere for whatever reasons, probably the very ones you outlined.
I don't know how it can be "fixed", and I wonder if that would actually make that much difference to the amount of traffic.
Now I'm the one being negative!

[george]

Completely agree with you Divine, The uploading photos thing really freaks with me. Have got lots of recent finds that i haven't documented on here yet which i really regret because the thing i like best about this place is ogling all the finds.

Assume its a necessity to have them hosted somewhere other than here or we would need to run some servers (£) ?

G

[Shere Khan]

The thing I like about this board is it's a friendly place with a good mix of subjects covered. People can talk about whatever they like and you don't get, "Oi, this is just for soul/ Reggae/ metal music, you know. If you really want to say how great 'Detectorists' is then piss off to a TV board'. Some people post a lot in one thread and others post more often in other threads but that seems to keep the whole thing going. I don't have access to the charities, and record shops of major cities so I don't post finds, because I simply don't have them. I'm more likely to post in the new releases thread. I have been buying records for 40 years, though, so I hope I've got something to offer elsewhere. Knowledge and advice is freely given and even though I don't post in the finds thread I always check it just so I can marvel at what can still be turned up. There heaps of stuff on here but If I was just interested in looking at photos of rare records I'd probably be elsewhere. I just think this site is very 'English' in it's understatedness, and that's something I like. I think some people on here don't even buy records anymore- I'm sure Ian T has said he barely does yet almost everything he says is of interest to people who have an interest in music. I'm waffling here- I've no idea what I want to say- the site is about an interest in music, not just pictures of fab records. If it has to be a site about 'look what I got' I'll be buggered. I hope people aren't put off by posting finds and getting very little feedback. I'm looking, and enjoying it and I'm sure everyone else is. I'm waffling- I should probably have sat and thought about what I was going to say. The facebook option seems a bit fast-food to me. This site is more tea and toast, maybe Marmalade if you like it, perhaps you're a cereal eater, it doesn't matter; you can sit down at the table and take as long as you like. What the hell am I talking about? I really am waffling. Anyway, who else would have the double post phenomenon and say, 'so what, we'll just live with it'

[cratedigger]

I'm a member of a Facebook group that mainly does Finds, and honestly it is kinda boring. Most fall into these categories:
- MOJO stuff
- Picture of three moving boxes/shopping bags full of records. "Bought these for 40 Euro from an old lady".
- And the one who virtually every day posts his latest rare prog/psych/blues find from the charity/thrift shop. I see only two possibilities, either he is blagging, or he has a few shops tied down to save everything for him to look at first. He has hinted at the latter.

I agree that it's a pain to go through Photobucket with the pictures. Then again, maybe it saves me from posting a lot of stupid stuff. I know I'm not posting the most curious records, and if I could send off pics directly from car booter they could very well be mundane and just add to the noise. There is some thought put into the matter before posting here, and that can be a useful filter. I've gotten so many useful tips and clues here.

But, maybe a Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Whathaveyou group would be a complement? For shooting off the quick finds without a lot of commentary, maybe a quick bout of discussion, which anyway sometimes is hard to follow in the Finds threads. It gets a bit disjointed when you post a Finds in the middle of a tangential discussion.

[treeboy]

It's obvious that some people have an affection for this site. I too like the fact that it's a very broad coverage of musical genres. The only other forum I post on (rarely) nowadays is G45. The traffic on there is a lot slower than here, but obviously it is genre specific. The others that people on here seem to mention are Soul Source and Waxidermy, neither of which I've had much of a look at. I just don't know how people find the time to cover so many bases to be honest. Maybe if I entered the smartphone world, I'd understand a bit better. I seem to be surviving without one, so until I have to have one to pay for and control absolutely everything (including myself) , I'll take a raincheck.
Tea toast and Marmalade....I like that SK.

[Paul-K]

i love this place, I come here about 10 times a day. I don't post as much as I used too, but that's because I don't dig as much since I bought a house. I haven't posted finds for ages as I just cant get photos to upload, plus I don't think my finds are that interesting. I only seem to buy new records now, and I haven't done any mixes for about 3 years.

coming here also looks like im researching while at work. if it was a facebook type thing then I couldn't come here at work at all, and I only come here while at work.

[Sonovox]

Some good questions and thoughts here. I've been through discussion via USENET, mailing lists, forums and social media. The social media platforms win because: a) immediate upload of photos from a mobile device; b) non-verbal reactivity. I think the value of a) is obvious to anyone who has struggled to get photos embedded in this site - I use Flickr for hosting, and when on a mobile device it's practically impossible to get a BBCode for embedding, and even if it was there's still a load more fossicking around compared to "Photos > Send To Whatever". And by b) I mean the ability and willingness of people to react on social media by pressing "Like" or "Heart" or "+1" or whatever it is and get tallied up - as opposed to here, where brilliant posts may get zero reaction, because verbally saying "Like" or "Heart" or "+1" or "great post" or "oooof" seems facile and inane.

But I do love the board. The value of the history, community and overall goodwill is invaluable. Some kind of overhaul of usability to encourage posting would go a long way. I don't know what the answer is, although I would imagine sticking with vBulletin in some form is the easiest option if we want to migrate over all the existing content. From the footer I can see we are on v4.1.12 - it looks like there are two newer options, going to vBulletin v5 or to vBulletin cloud. Have we looked at those options before?

I'm sure there are other platform options for hosting but there's presumably a metric buttload of graft in migrating across to something new, setting up accounts, troubleshooting everything, addressing the fallout and/or whingeing from people who don't like the change, etc. etc. etc.

[Shere Khan]

Looks like posting photos is one of the main bugbears. I use photobucket. It's crap, to be sure, but it does work. I don't have a smartphone so it's easy for me to live with things being a bit slow, but I realise a lot of people need stuff to happen NOW!
Ian T has just posted a super new CSC thread. Really it has very little to do with records- there are a few there but there are just as many photos of people eating chips- but that's what I like about this site. The post is nothing to do with collecting records at the same time as being everything to do with collecting records- at least that's how it seems to me. I don't think you'd get that on Facebook.

[Taze]

Good shout Mr Divine. As previously stated a few peeps have been feeling the same for a while. To be honest Im not really a forum person, I only started some recent threads to try and keep things going. I like it being compared to tea, toast and marmalade and think thats how it should be kept. The only thread I didnt like was the brexit one and felt there were other platforms to discuss that on and not on a music forum.
I think it just needs to be more user friendly. Downloading pics to site should be as easy and as quick as possible. I tried to do it a few times but could never master it. Annoying too when it posts itself twice and you cant re edit it. New members should be encouraged and it would be great to see some of the old characters posting from time to time.
If the forum needs some money spent on it, im sure we could raise it with donations or how about a vg+ t shirt ? (with web site address on)
It would raise some money for re vamp and promote the forum by wearing it

[The Divine One]

Thanks for all the responses and comments so far, interesting points of view as I suspected there would be.

I wasn't suggesting this place should become like Facebook, far from it - I'm not even sure it could. I'm not of the "I want everything to happen NOW" persuasion, I just want them to happen... eventually. And, as has been pointed out, it's not ALL about the "finds" - and for the record, I don't really give a shit if you bought your records off eBay, found them at the local church fete or whatever - I just like looking at and discussing interesting records. I'm not convinced that the sheer hassle of using photobucket is a built-in "filter" to keep pictures of shand off the board. It keeps the shand off, but it keeps the good stuff off too...

I totally loved IanT's latest reportage Charity Shop Challenge - but I'll bet that took quite a bit of preparation to post up here. And I love the fact that he did!