Forum Maintenance & Technical Issues

[Tyler]

Minnescraper lost some good regulars with the virus crap before DC took over. I don't really think activity is much different now compared to final days there. But maybe lancestar wants to hit the skyways with a sandwich board? I'll chip in a couple rusty hinges and some markers.

[Shawn]

I'd say, if possible, throw the ads above the breadcrumbs. Right now they get in the way of navigation a bit.

That looking better?

[Tyler]

Perfect, IMO.

[Lancestar2]

Minnescraper lost some good regulars with the virus crap before DC took over. I don't really think activity is much different now compared to final days there. But maybe lancestar wants to hit the skyways with a sandwich board? I'll chip in a couple rusty hinges and some markers.

haha the religious nuts have really turned sandwich boards into more of a public nuisance. Although if your serious I'd volunteer to wear a nice Urban Msp T-Shirt downtown, thought I doubt many people would really get the connection.

[gahwi003]

I was thinking it may be helpful to start new development thread titles in color. For example: A yellow title means the project is under construction, green indicates it is complete, blue means proposed, red is cancelled, brown is demolished, and so on.... We could use the same colors that are used on the development map, I simply used the ones above, because I forgot which ones corresponded to which. I think this will help everyone understand what projects are at what stage. I'm thinking out loud. What does everyone else think?

[Nick]

Hey gang,

So we're a couple months into this whole adventure now. For the most part, everything has gone pretty well. Now that we have good content and lots of threads put together, let's try to think of ways to clean up a little and improve the site.

One thing I want to do is keep things consolidated. If you have an article or something to post, try to find an existing topic and post it there instead of starting a new one. That will cut down on clutter a lot. Also try to keep in mind what subforum you're posting in. If it's something only taking place in Downtown Minneapolis, it probably belongs in the Downtown Minneapolis subforum, otherwise it can probably go in Anything Goes. Neither of these things are world-ending problems but I've had to do some merging and splitting every week or so to keep things organized.

Does anyone else have any other thoughts about this? There's a mysterious line between unusably unorganized and oppressively organized.

Thanks,
Nick

P.S. Some time, probably tomorrow, I'm going to roll a lot of the threads in the Admin forum into this one.

[mulad]

Personally I don't mind the clutter very much -- I'm happy to just have old threads fall off onto the 2nd or 3rd or whatever page of the particular forum area. If there's obviously a duplicate topic or if you get a bunch of things with only one or two posts, then it's fine to consolidate. But I'm a slight pack-rat and I'm accustomed to places like Wikipedia that have tons of stuff. I'm happy to just use the built-in search or search engines to find things.

But if the website is using too much CPU, disk space, and bandwidth, then I suppose you gotta do what you gotta do.

[PhilmerPhil]

I agree with mulad. I wouldn't say that this forum is cluttered. There are good categories and when projects are finished, they simply move down the list and can be dug up again if needed.

[Didier]

I don't know if anybody else has discovered the "View unread posts" button on the upper right, but it is brilliant.

[seanrichardryan]

That's all I've ever used since Minnescraper. Just bookmark that link and reading is a breeze.

[Nick]

General request: Could people take more photos? I feel like we used to have so many more construction photos back on Minnescraper. I'm thinking about going out this weekend and taking a bunch like I did a couple months ago at the U, but other than that we only have a few folks who upload shots regularly. I don't get outside Downtown/the U of M area very often and would like to see some of the work going on in Uptown!

Just a thought, it's not like it'll be a condition of registration or anything

[Tcmetro]

Thanks for all the pics, elf! I didn't realize there were so many under construction now!

[MNdible]

Ditto -- I've been too busy this summer to get out and see all of the action. Thanks for taking the time to shoot and upload!

[Nick]

I'm out doing more today. It's been good walking weather this weekend

[MSPtoMKE]

I consider myself quite the pedestrian, but this explosion of photos from you is making even my feet hurt. I shall try to pull my weight with posting some photos as well...

[FISHMANPET]

General request: Could people take more photos? I feel like we used to have so many more construction photos back on Minnescraper. I'm thinking about going out this weekend and taking a bunch like I did a couple months ago at the U, but other than that we only have a few folks who upload shots regularly. I don't get outside Downtown/the U of M area very often and would like to see some of the work going on in Uptown!

Just a thought, it's not like it'll be a condition of registration or anything

Well I'm about to spend way more money on a camera than I really should, and I need the practice, so maybe I can help photify this forum, though it looks like you've done a damn good job already.

[Shawn]

I'm out doing more today. It's been good walking weather this weekend

I'm holding you responsible for our bandwidth doubling in the past 48 hours! The pictures look great though, thank you!

[Le Sueur]

General request: Could people take more photos? I feel like we used to have so many more construction photos back on Minnescraper.

Hope your example sets the bar high for the rest of us! The pics look great, thanks for encouraging more on the site!

I don't get outside Downtown/the U of M area very often and would like to see some of the work going on in Uptown!

I don't get into downtown all that often but crave updates on the doings of construction downtown! Those of us who can't see the stuff up close with any frequency really appreciate the pics.

[Lancestar2]

I had a question/suggestion

every time I go to check the new posts in a thread and I click the last page only to figure out that their might also be another new post on the 2nd to last page as well. Then when click that page none of the posts are listed as new because I technically saw the latest posts. I was just wondering if there was a solution that could be fixed or if it's even needed for a fix. Also I don't use the New post feature as I don't stay up to date with all projects. I'm mostly concerned about projects that affect areas inside my bubble of interest

Also now that I have took the time to make a post what do you think about being able to add a post to a favorite list for later reference. It would be nice to be able to kinda bookmark the post when somebody posts information to a nice pdf file about a project, though I hate to clog up my internet bookmarks. Also it might be a nice feature.

[seanrichardryan]

By using the view unread posts button at the top of the home page, it will take you to the most recent post you have not read, even if there are several pages.