Posted By: LennykatzIs anyone "maintaining" the forum. Maybe we can post some guidelines or suggestions to make it more efficient and user friendly. For example, there are 3 or 4 discussions regarding weekend rides. I don't think we need a new discussion for every weekend. I think it would be better if we had one discussion for weekend rides and the latest info for that weekend would be there. Michelle or anyone have thoughts about this?

i hear you lenny

that's what i was trying to do in my message at the top of this thread

maintaining it: i'm keeping it tidy. gui, eloy, michelle, clayton, and I all have ADMIN status, so we make changes (within our/the software's ability) as needed

i agree about the redundant threads - i'm all for keeping discussions on topic in a consolidated thread, both to cut down on the number of threads people have to search through, and also to keep similar information in the same place

I agree, it would be nice to upgrade to Vanilla 2.0 especially for mobile users, but we can't run it in our current environment which costs $0/month. Vanillaforums.com looks like a pretty good place to get setup, bear in mind we'd have to try and import all of the existing data + images and also a bunch of the plugins we're using with vanilla 1.0, hopefully find the same updated plugins available for version 2.0. The board has a complete list of what we're using.

I would like to see us use twitter for quick announcements rather than the listserv. Twitter can broadcast by email and text message, I see this is a big advantage especially when trying to coordinate things like whether a Tuesday night race is canceled or not due to weather, or if someone is near/far away from a group ride location, etc., etc.

Sorry I haven't been able to make it to races, rides, sicx, or the holiday party. Time has been precious this year though I still read the messages when I can. :)

Yes, please delete my old account. Not sure if you saw my post yesterday regarding forum guidelines, but there seem to be several threads on the same topic which make the forum cluttered and disorganized. Hard to know where to go for info. There are 4 threads on weekend rides. There should probably 1 group ride discussion, not 1 for each weekend. There should be 1 discussion for each category on race preparation (who's showing up, strategy, etc.), IMO, though we haven't hit racing season yet. It's only a few weeks old, but it already seems bit out of control to me. People like it, and it may be a better form of communication for the club, but we should come up with some guidelines and try to get everyone to use the forum more efficiently sooner rather than later.

yes

i agree with you about these things

in many ways, the forum is like email, in that once a topic/thread becomes old or cold or irrelevant, it slips out of sight, so not much difference there

i am encouraging (and badgering) people to use certain threads for certain topics, such as "group rides" or "stuff for sale/trade" etc, but it boils down to people actually using it. if they do, that's great. if they don't, people will see it while it's relevant, and in a week or a month, it will slip to the bottom or the second page.

Posted By: GuiI agree, it would be nice to upgrade to Vanilla 2.0 especially for mobile users, but we can't run it in our current environment which costs $0/month. Vanillaforums.com looks like a pretty good place to get setup, bear in mind we'd have to try and import all of the existing data + images and also a bunch of the plugins we're using with vanilla 1.0, hopefully find the same updated plugins available for version 2.0. The board has a complete list of what we're using.

Nod, understood. Porting the data is pretty easy; There's a "Vanilla Porter" (hehe) tool to export the existing data from 1.x and import to 2.x. Plugins would have to be evaluated individually.

I would like to see us use twitter for quick announcements rather than the listserv. Twitter can broadcast by email and text message, I see this is a big advantage especially when trying to coordinate things like whether a Tuesday night race is canceled or not due to weather, or if someone is near/far away from a group ride location, etc., etc.

Absolute agreement! Twitter for announcements is a great idea. There's a tiny bit of a learning curve but the membership can consume the info in whatever way they like. Seems like the more open communication channels are the more involvement and timely feedback we're likely to get from all members.

I don't have the "Format Comments" option below the comments box. Any suggestions?

damn

i'll look into this

Other thoughts, in response to a thread about Sponsorship Info:

Posted By: ian ellisHopefully this is not totally off topic, but could we have a sticky with the details of ALL of the 2011 sponsorship deals and how to access them.

Agreed that we need a list of all sponsorship deals and their terms. May I suggest that persistent information such as sponsorship deals, training plans, and other documentation be stored in Google Docs? I think Michelle already has this set up... We can store a link to that info within the forum but we're going to have more sticky threads than we know what to do with soon.

When any one category has more than a handful of sticky threads, they lose significance. Perhaps a single "FAQ/HOWTO" sticky thread that tells members where to go find all this stuff in Kissena's corner of the Webbernet would help. There's no authoritative place to _start_ looking for information and that's confusing.

Thinking something along the lines of:
* A "Community Forums" link to http://kissena.info/forum/ on the main Kissena webpage
* A sticky FAQ/Help thread that contains info about where to get documents for sponsorship deals, how to submit your race results, info on USAC stuff like getting/renewing a license, clothing order forms, dues forms, etc.

End rant...

these are good ideas

what is teh best way to post/host the "Kissena Membership Handbook" i wrote (and emailed to all of you) that contains much of this information?

should i use a google doc, or just paste the text in here?

input please!

My 2 cents- when I joined kissena this past January I was not (I believe, not 100% sure) informed of any handbook, hence being a junior I paid my dues not knowing I didn't have to (I got refunded so all is good)

I also was not aware of the many perks for cat 3/2/1 members until it was posted a few months ago.

My idea... Some type of written matterial when one joins kissena on the basics of the club, it took me quite a while to get used to how training rides, orders (clothing/ equip) were set up and what kind of help as a cat 5 I could expect.

This might have been due to my ignorance and I may be way off, but something to refer to when joining the club would have been great to receive.

I should also add that Clayton was nothing but helpful, he told me all about the club and answered all my questions when I picked up my jersey/bib back then.

I think it would just be easier receiving something like that as well, not that I'm saying you guys should print out the handbook and give it to everyone who joins, just sum it up with a link to it on the "intro to kissena" thing I mentioned before

Clayton is awesome indeed. I didn't know about the U23 program either, so I paid as well. I opted for "credit" for clothing instead, but without the knowledge of clothing orders and all that, it hasn't done me much good. I don't think I got a handbook email either. I say put it in googledocs for the sake of keeping the board uncluttered.

this fall, in response to the lack of consolidated info about our club that you guys identify, i wrote up our "Membership Handbook," which i sent out to everyone on October 30.

i'm figuring out the best way to host it or link it (or whatever) off of this site, but in the meantime, check your inboxes

best,

-wm

Google docs is a pretty good idea. You can set it so that the only people who can open it are people who have the link. Post the link here.

Whoops I didn't know it was just written up this fall, my bad

I think it was a great idea and surely made understanding the club easier for me.

My photo and icon aren't coming up - are they just too big?

And a quick suggestion about reducing the clog of threads - before you start a new thread, use the Search function at the top (between Categories and Account), type in what you want to talk about (e.g. "tubular tires") and see what pops up. There may already be an existing thread for your topic/question/passion/confession.

Posted By: titoAnd a quick suggestion about reducing the clog of threads - before you start a new thread, use the Search function at the top (between Categories and Account), type in what you want to talk about (e.g. "tubular tires") and see what pops up. There may already be an existing thread for your topic/question/passion/confession.

quoted for truth!

this forum has a very good SEARCH function

use it!

hmmmm. anyone have any idea why to forum is showing up in some ghetto text format in firefox, but perfectly fine in Safari?

looks fine in my firefox. Maybe you just need to reboot or update it?

Spuytin Dyvil @ 4:30 ya'll! I'm going to try and dehydrate myself prior to Housatonic, in an attempt to accurately create some similar sensations I will have tomorrow....minus the pleasurable side-effects.

Has anyone else received "too many users" errors trying to get to the forum?

Posted By: John MalcolmsonHas anyone else received "too many users" errors trying to get to the forum?

yeah, it's a mysql resource limit problem that affects our webhost once in a while. sorry for the inconvenience.

fyi all:

forum admins (Eloy, Clayton, Myself) can read everything that's written, including whispers. i always try to skip over those yellow text boxes when i'm scrolling down, but it is theoretically possible that i will catch something that has been written for "private eyes".

so if you really really really need to talk shit about my haircut/codpiece/rash, take it off-forum. everyone's email can be found in the "members" tab.

just a friendly "letting you know"

-William "Full Transparency" Doyle-Capitman

edit: and Gui - he is the fourth Full Admin

p.s. No one has talked shit about me (that i've noticed, anyway!).

I was made a full admin recently and just want everyone to know that the four of us can see whispers. as with any Admin situation in a system/network, seeing it all is important for full maintenance and control purposes and this forum software is no different. These powers are being used strictly for "good" purposes; no "evil" setting is tolerated.

Whispers are still a great way to coordinate with specific people or have conversations that aren't relevant to everyone, so please continue!

-William "Disclosure" Doyle-Capitman

Anyone else notice that they are getting messages posted to the forum emailed to them much later than they are posted to the board? At least a lot later than they used to be?

@ Marc,

Yes. I get them about 24 hours late. I'm just turning them off.

Me too - actually looking forward to fewer emails clogging my inbox.

Why am I unable to use the quote function that everyone else seems to be able to use?

Make sure to select "HTML" above the text box

forum automatically shuts off functionality for users above a certain watts/kg....