I am member at several boards. TSM, WSA, .. Only this one at Club Hombre I rarely visit. Maybe I just cannot get used to it or I am too dumb to understand how it works


a) I spent 15 minutes searching where I could post this topic. Could not find a place, so I put this off-topic here. On TSM, for example, all threads on all topics and countries are just posted mixed up together, so no question where to post this.


b) generally, if I stayed away for longer than 3 days, I have a very hard time to find out what new discussions have happened. Even the 3 Day search seems very confusing to me.

At WSA, all Brazil discussion is one thread. Here I cannot find out easily if someone said something on Termas xxx or on Termas yyy.


c) I need to always remember my password, as Internet Explorer will not fill out the password form. At TSM and WSA the password feature is organized differently, I never need to remember it. It is probably stored in cookies!?


d)I like to right click on a post and open it in another window. I like to do this with a series of posts. So I dont need to hit the return key and wait for an eternity until the big search page loads again.

This does not work at Hombre. If I right click and open in new window, it brings me right to the password/signin page.


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This organization of the board is very good if one quickly wants to read up on a certain very specific topic.

I think it is very cumbersome, if one wants to follow a regular discussion.

Or am I doing something wrong??

Maybe this thread will be moved or deleted for being off topic, so here is my email if someone wants to write me directly

1234567 at innocent dot com

Maybe I just cannot get used to it or I am too dumb to understand how it works

After reading your post, I conclude it's the latter.

-Superman-

You actually bring up some good points and cover organization/navigation aspects we think about often. If you are used to another web site, it may take a little getting used to. We believe the presentation we've chosen is better than the others when everything is taken into consideration.

Brazil Specialist: I suppose we all have our preferences and for some of us they are different. Personally, I find TSM the most difficult to navigate, and the Chat Board there totally chaotic since it is not divided into different destinations. For me WSA is somewhere in between and Club Hombre the one I feel most comfortable with in terms of navigating. The one thing I would like here though is a 1 week option rather than the 3 day option for searching new material.

Nice response to a wordy complaint -- great customer-service attitude, Hombre! I have to admit I agree with item D, because I too would like to open various posts concurrently each in its own separate window, but I understand if programming for security precludes that. And also, I'm one of those "qualified guests" who doesn't contribute as much as he uses, so ... take with as much salt as you see fit! Thanks for being a sensitive and reasonable moderator, Hombre!

BG

Sure, the organization is great! If I want to go to Iguaçu falls, I find it in a pop. No doubt about the advantages of this board setup

But most other boards have search options which also allow to easily find posts to a certain topic

Maybe one category would be good: "I dont know where to post this, admin please put it in the correct category".

Or another quick search 1 week, 2 weeks button.

Keyword Search can accomplish finding posts in a certain topic or posts within x# of days, or both. For example, you can run searches on any of the following and more:

1. "Iguazu Falls" in topic "All Topics"
2. "Mimosa" in topic "South America"
3. "Help" in topic "South America" in the last "7" "days"
4. "Waldo" in topic "All Topics" search in "Name of Author" in the last "24" "hours"
*see note below

We assume people will use "Off-Topic" as a category when they can't find one. Off-topic or improperly organized postings can and do take place anywhere, though. Discus message board organization is a big administrative task that we try to keep up on.

[One note about doing topic specific searches...limiting searches to say "South America" will generate results that ignore "TripReports". TripReports is our most comprehensive section. We have an administrative task of transferring TripReports snippets to corresponding topics, but it is currently a challenging task to keep up with. It may take a third employee before we can really get caught up on this particular activity.]

CH has some excellent organizational ideas (e.g., trip reports and venue threads). I find the organization of regional chats less friendly. I prefer what nanaplaza uses:

1. Only the thread title is displayed, together with the number of replies, number of views, and number of new replies (since your last login).

2. The thread that has the most recent reply gets posted first, so an active thread doesn't become old.

3. Within a thread, the messages are chronological (with a pointer to who the reply is for). A tree structure can also be requested.