Hmmm

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I love the forums and it looks like you have ever gadget going they offer. I can see the hard work you've put into them and I know how hard it really is. The colors are easy on the eyes and (thank goodness) you haven't had to submit yourself to reliance on google ads. I don't mean to be negative but hopefully you'll appreciate some honesty as I go. I've been on or around bulletin boards for years. Each one is a little different. There are even negative aspects to my own boards I can't get worked out. That being said, I find these boards a little confusing and hard to navigate. I guess if I was around enough I could breeze through them like Mama Cass after a ham sandwich. But since I'm not, I could see them being quite frightening (if not completely overwhelming) to a Bulletin Board novice. Overall I give you  three rums up out of four. I also plan on stealing a couple emoticons - so turn your head. 

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3 out of 4...Not too bad for a first effort at a forum! 

Organization....that was a tricky one.
Trying to set things up for long-term use.. 
Maybe a START HERE section that tells the purpose of each main board?

I see it one way...would like to know what about the outline was confusing or possibly frightening to someone else...

I have spent time going up and down boards and not gotten anywhere on some forums. Sub boards are sometimes hard for me to find on forums so I made more main boards on this one because that is MY preference when I go to a forum.  Maybe that makes it look like we have too many boards?

STEALING the EMOTICONS? GACK!    How outrageous.    But of course!  Help yourself.  I made some, and got others from free sites that offered them.  I am pretty happy with my emoticon grouping but when you get yours up, I want to see if there are any I want!    I have TONS of the silly things and always looking for others.

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Sammy I had to come in and give you 4 out of 4 on the Safari scale for your forum. I am a member of I don't even know how many forums and yours is one of the easiest to navigate that I am in. I have spent hours and hours even using the search feature to find things I am interested in on other forums.

Search feature -- so many people forget to use that but on some forums it doesn't matter because the subjects are written about and worse replied to in ways that the words you use to search with might not even show up in a relative post. It sounds weird but its really a problem on lots of forums.

I haven't seen the first sign of a bad attitude in here or of a response that belittles the asker of a question because they missed the answer in another post somewhere before posting.

I think no forum is ever perfect but yours is really really good! 

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I have quite a selection of emoticons you're welcome to. half you will have seen but the other half ought to offer some fun retaliations.

I'm stealing this guy  and this guy 

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Thank you for the kind words Wanda!  The PEOPLE make the FORUM. 

I understand what you mean about the search hitting topics that you were not intending because of blending of topics, etc. 

Besides SPAMMERS, I have three pet peeves and so far they have not been a problem:
1) nasty attitude you mention where you are put down for not knowing something (whether answered in the FAQ or not!).  Some forums are full of smartA** people that find it beneath them to answer questions from newbies. It is very intimidating to new folks and I am thankful that the people here and at GS forum are more giving and forgiving than that.
2) Posts that have no understandable topic subject. Example:  "I have a question"  "Hope you can help"  So far, most people have said the topic....missing photos, borders, etc. so you have an understanding of the content.  I have tweaked a few subjects and of course have moved some posts for better organization but that is normal.
3) Hijacking threads.... a thread will be about one particular topic...everyone on that topic.  Then someone will jump in and change the topic.... " oh, I have a different problem.  When I do...I get blah.  How do I fix that issue".   I want to shout START A NEW THREAD!!! POST YOUR OWN.   

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Thank you for the kind words Wanda!  The PEOPLE make the FORUM. 


2) Posts that have no understandable topic subject. Example:  "I have a question"  "Hope you can help"  So far, most people have said the topic....missing photos, borders, etc. so you have an understanding of the content.  I have tweaked a few subjects and of course have moved some posts for better organization but that is normal.

ok I have to chuckle here... does that include topics like Hmmm       

hehe

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heee heee     Caught that did you!      

Since the post was made specifically on the FORUM comments area, I was not offended by HMMM because all
posts in this area are of the same general topic.  If that was in the CSB area it would have irritated because the topic there could be ANYTHING dealing with a CSB website!

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.... I was just pulling lake pirates leg on that one ( hope it wasn't his wooden leg! ) just to see if I could get an ARG out of him. 

Forgot to say that what you said about the smart ...es is so true. I always wonder if they remember when they were a newbie and also what the heck they are doing responding on a public forum where people are bound to be inexperienced forum users and inexperienced in the program being discussed if they have such big heads about it. I understand the frustration of dozens of people coming in asking the same questions over and over without even checking a FAQ or using the search. But they could offer a gentle reminder that the answers could be found there rather than making a person feel embarrassed about it. I guess rude people are everywhere.

Recently I searched for 5 hours for a phrase that I just knew had to be on a forum and found a couple of replies that were meaningless in that they just said Oh I figured it out never mind or something like that. and GRR!

Finally I took one word out of the error I was getting and searched to find over 300 posts and only by looking through those did I find on about the 40th page part of the answer I was looking for. I kept seeing people asking the same question dozens of times with no answer given. Then more pages of posts later I found another part of it and was able to figure out the rest. So I made a new post using the error code as the subject and posted the total fix for it saying that it was being posted due to how long it took me to find the resolution and because it seemed to be a common problem.

The next day that post was gone!    So, I won't be adding much to that forum I don't think. I don't know if it was because the answer was in parts already there even though they were buried deep- or what. I just thought the removal of it was really strange. I mean could it have hurt to have it as a fresh post? The answer wasn't in a faq or in whole in any other post I found. Oh well.. just to say thanks for the great forum Sam!

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So I made a new post using the error code as the subject and posted the total fix for it saying that it was being posted due to how long it took me to find the resolution and because it seemed to be a common problem.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Sounds like I would have done the same thing. Can't imagine why it was removed.. Maybe they don't like the all-in-one type post.

Oh well.. just to say thanks for the great forum Sam!

NOPE...it is the COMMUNITY that makes the forum, not me. Without you folks, there is no forum! I just provide the place and keep it on track.