10/2012 - Consolidating & Cleaning Up the Forums

Some of the regular users may have noticed that some forums have been moved or consolidated. Actually I forgot to turn off the moderator PM when your thread was changed (moved, sticky'ed, opened, etc.) so I apologize for forgetting and the PM spam I sent some of you. We were getting a little crazy with the forums and had some redundancy.

Some crazy examples:
We had two "The Master Professor" forums!
We had two forums for "Life of an ex-Pat"!
We had forums for a single thread!

The progress is good but there is more to do. I have made some changes and came up with some ideas with Jimmy to make things better.

One way is through the use of Thread Prefixes. The nice thing about Thread Prefixes is you can sort/filter with them, just go to the bottom of the page where "Thread Display Options" is and select the appropriate Thread Prefix.

In Medellin sections there are now Thread Prefixes for the barrios of Medellin, so you can choose "Laureles" if you are talking about a hotel in Laureles Medellin. We didn't need 10 sub-forums for the different areas of Medellin.

Another major cleanup is the individual country sections. I originally wanted continuity so I made the same sub-forums for each country, the problem is many of them are empty or contain less than 10 threads. It's confusing and wasteful. So I added another set of Thread Prefixes and now there will be only 2 sections for basic countries.

My plan for other countries is as follows. If the country contains less than 300 threads it will be as follows:

• Country - Topics
• Country - Trip Reports & Pictures

Exception: If the country has specific cities people write about (e.g. Bankok & Pattaya, Thailand) it will be as follows:

• Country - Topics
• Country - Trip Reports & Pictures
• City 1 - Topics
• City 2 - Topics
• Other Cities - Topics

If the country has more than 300 threads, has specific cities, or is a HOT Topic with a board member running it (e.g. Philippines) it will be given it's own section outside of "Other Countries" but still following the rules above. As of right now this will be for the following countries; the DR, Colombia, Philippines, & Thailand. I am considering adding Brazil and/or Cuba to the list, if you have input let me know.

The Thread Prefixes are as follows, I added a description in brackets just for this thread. The Thread Prefix drops the wording in the parentheses and makes the prefix Bold.
(e.g. Customs & Immigration My Thread about immigration at the airport)

• (Info) Customs & Immigration [Obvious]
• (Info) Daily Living [Living there or wanting to move there]
• (Info) FAQs/Info [Obvious]
• (Info) General Question [Obvious]
• (Info) History [Obvious]
• (Info) Places of Interest [Obvious]
• (Info) Maps [Obvious]
• (Info) News [Obvious]
• (Info) Roll Call [Obvious]
• (Info) Safety [Obvious]
• (Info) Weather [Obvious]
• (Transport) Airlines [Airline and airfare discussion]
• (Transport) Car Rental [Obvious]
• (Transport) Public Transportation [Obvious]
• (Transport) Taxis [Obvious]
• (Businesses) Other Services [Laundry, haircuts, etc.]
• (Businesses) Recreation [Obvious]
• (Businesses) Restaurant [Obvious]
• (Businesses) Shopping [Obvious]
• (Money) Budget & Costs [Obvious]
• (Money) Money Exchange [Obvious]
• (Hotel) Condos/Apt [Obvious]
• (Hotel) Hotel [Obvious]
• (Entertainment) Chicas [Chicas in general, escort sites, or a specific chica]
• (Entertainment) Festivals [Obvious]
• (Entertainment) Music [Obvious]
• (Entertainment) Regular Club [Obvious]
• (Entertainment) Sex Club [Obvious]
• (Investing) Investing [Obvious]
• (Investing) Real Estate [Obvious]
• Mixed Topic [A thread with some/all of the above topics]
• Trip Report [Obvious]

If anyone has a suggestion for more/different Thread Prefixes let me know but I added them first based on the sub-forums we had before (e.g. Airlines, Chicas, Music, etc.) and then added some more as I went through each post to add a prefix.

Currently I am about a third of the way through the Other Countries and cleaning up Thailand at the same time. I hope to complete this by the end of the week. We will reduce the number of sub-forums by over a 100 which will make things cleaner.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Tomas

One way is through the use of Thread Prefixes. The nice thing about Thread Prefixes is you can sort/filter with them, just go to the bottom of the page where "Thread Display Options" is and select the appropriate Thread Prefix.

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Was that always available or is it new with this upgrade. I looked at it and its very good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Señor JDR of Medellin

Was that always available or is it new with this upgrade. I looked at it and its very good.

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Thread Prefixes were around since the upgrade to 4.0 when the old style went away and I had to find Blue Senseless. Just never had a reason to use them before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Tomas

Thread Prefixes were around since the upgrade to 4.0 when the old style went away and I had to find Blue Senseless. Just never had a reason to use them before.

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They are excellant. It will give us cleaner sections.

Great stuff DT.

I noticed that the new posts were no longer coming up on the right hand side. In its place I see that the blogged posts are now the only ones coming up.

I like the thread prefixes too. Will have to play with that a little more today.

Can you thread prefix a thread that already exists or can only thread prefixes be applied to new threads??

Who classifies the threads prefix?? Is it the poster or a mod??

I seen some new threads popping up and they have those brackets you listed which I am assuming is the prefixes. If i'm mistaken i'm sorry, not really all that tech saavy.

Good idea, DT. I've heard new members who come on here (who are longtime residents of other boards) complain that ISOC is confusing and "hard to navigate." From the perspective of a new, or occasional, user, I can appreciate their perspective. Hopefully, thse improvements will make the board more user-friendly, and entice more members to use and contribute to the board.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BlueDevil

Good idea, DT. I've heard new members who come on here (who are longtime residents of other boards) complain that ISOC is confusing and "hard to navigate." From the perspective of a new, or occasional, user, I can appreciate their perspective. Hopefully, thse improvements will make the board more user-friendly, and entice more members to use and contribute to the board.

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You are right! I hear the same thing and experience it as well. And one of the biggest things we are guilty of, is telling new members to just "do a search" for the information they are looking for. And they almost never find that info. They end up getting more info from just talking to a member. Searching for info is next to impossible. So yes, hopefully moving forward the board will become more user-friendly.

Recommended new section:

US Stateside Mongering Trip Reports

Once place for the USA ho stories...

for example:

Coolie Highs latest Las Vegas Story
My Sugar Babe stories
Iries Asian conquest
Uncles stateside exploits

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BlueDevil

Good idea, DT. I've heard new members who come on here (who are longtime residents of other boards) complain that ISOC is confusing and "hard to navigate." From the perspective of a new, or occasional, user, I can appreciate their perspective. Hopefully, thse improvements will make the board more user-friendly, and entice more members to use and contribute to the board.

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Honestly I feel the exact opposite. I posted on other monger boards before this one when I found out about DR and I hate their format. 1 thread just long running?? Its like our jetblue thread with all the specials dating back to 2006. How are people not confused by stuff like that?? I like that this forum has everything all sectioned off. Whats confusing when you first get here is how many different sections there are, so finding your way around can take some time to figure out.

Then you have things like the search option (which I don't know how to use or care enough to learn really) and the tag cloud which i feel is absolutely awesome but not everyone uses it. If you could just click on a tag cloud and all the threads related to that would come up that would be awesome. I like this idea though as it makes things more visual having some kind of classification in the thread subject title.

These additions are great though. DT needs to take more vacations. The guy goes to Thailand and he's all business when he gets back. :rofl::rofl: Kidding. DT always works hard on the site, I think everyone knows that.

Thanks DT.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dominican dave

Great stuff DT.

I noticed that the new posts were no longer coming up on the right hand side. In its place I see that the blogged posts are now the only ones coming up.

I like the thread prefixes too. Will have to play with that a little more today.

Can you thread prefix a thread that already exists or can only thread prefixes be applied to new threads??

Who classifies the threads prefix?? Is it the poster or a mod??

I seen some new threads popping up and they have those brackets you listed which I am assuming is the prefixes. If i'm mistaken i'm sorry, not really all that tech saavy.

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An old thread is usually way past it's edit date so the original poster will not be able to do it since there is a limit of 1 week to edit a post.

I believe a moderator can prefix an old thread but right now I am doing it, a super mod could definitely do it. If you want to try in the PI section to test it just do the following:

1. Go to a sub-forum and select a post(s) with the checkboxes on the right.
2. Then click "Moderation Tools" below the threads.
3. If a big long list of Thread Prefixes comes up select one and then click "Proceed" at the bottom of that long list.

The list won't stay forever, I added an addon to make my life easier, it allows me to mass edit the Thread Prefixes on multiple threads. So when I go to a Hotel section I can select most threads (skip apartments) change the Prefix and then repeat with apartments, and then move them. Otherwise I would have to first open each thread, admin edit it, apply Prefix, go back to the sub-forum, and repeat!

As for classifying the Thread Prefix, that is why I made a list, if someone suggests a new/good Prefix I will add it, but I believe that list encompasses all of the threads I have seen so far.

As for deciding what Prefix is applied the poster will when making a new Thread, actually in the forums I have cleaned up already it is required to choose one when making a new thread. As for old threads I already mentioned the edit timer so that is what I am doing.

To see examples just go to any Country where it has been renamed "Country - Topics"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BlueDevil

Good idea, DT. I've heard new members who come on here (who are longtime residents of other boards) complain that ISOC is confusing and "hard to navigate." From the perspective of a new, or occasional, user, I can appreciate their perspective. Hopefully, thse improvements will make the board more user-friendly, and entice more members to use and contribute to the board.

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Yes we were getting a little crazy I agree.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by psriches

You are right! I hear the same thing and experience it as well. And one of the biggest things we are guilty of, is telling new members to just "do a search" for the information they are looking for. And they almost never find that info. They end up getting more info from just talking to a member. Searching for info is next to impossible. So yes, hopefully moving forward the board will become more user-friendly.

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Most other boards don't have a fraction of the info that we have here.

FYI Another feature that will be implemented soon is automated tags to ease searching! I know some use the tag feature and add them to threads but this will automate tagging. I will assign key tags to forums and it will also scan the thread to apply tags automatically. This will be after I get the forums straight, no point in assigning tags to sub-forums that will disappear.

It will also eliminate bad or misspelled tags.

I will also write up a long post with pictures and force all new users to read before they get started, think of it as a welcome post with an user guide.

Thailand & the Philippines are done!

I am done through Ecuador and going to finish up the individual countries.

I believe I will cleanup "lesser" cities in Colombia & even 1 in the DR!

• Other Cities, DR has 78 threads, we don't need 8 sub-forums for it, Santiago could be an option also with 188 threads. Maybe even Boca Chica with 264.
• As for Colombia, Only Medellin will stay as is with it's sub-forums, the other cities all have less than 100 threads! Thread Prefixes within a single forum!

I will finish the "minor" countries first and come back to Colombia and the DR.

I also added a new Thread Prefix "(Info) Debates" for the threads about City1 vs City2 or Bar1 vs Bar2.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Tomas

An old thread is usually way past it's edit date so the original poster will not be able to do it since there is a limit of 1 week to edit a post.

I believe a moderator can prefix an old thread but right now I am doing it, a super mod could definitely do it. If you want to try in the PI section to test it just do the following:

1. Go to a sub-forum and select a post(s) with the checkboxes on the right.
2. Then click "Moderation Tools" below the threads.
3. If a big long list of Thread Prefixes comes up select one and then click "Proceed" at the bottom of that long list.

The list won't stay forever, I added an addon to make my life easier, it allows me to mass edit the Thread Prefixes on multiple threads. So when I go to a Hotel section I can select most threads (skip apartments) change the Prefix and then repeat with apartments, and then move them. Otherwise I would have to first open each thread, admin edit it, apply Prefix, go back to the sub-forum, and repeat!

As for classifying the Thread Prefix, that is why I made a list, if someone suggests a new/good Prefix I will add it, but I believe that list encompasses all of the threads I have seen so far.

As for deciding what Prefix is applied the poster will when making a new Thread, actually in the forums I have cleaned up already it is required to choose one when making a new thread. As for old threads I already mentioned the edit timer so that is what I am doing.

To see examples just go to any Country where it has been renamed "Country - Topics"



Yes we were getting a little crazy I agree.

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You are the man. I actually just tried it following your instructions and I was able to make and see the changes just like you said. Enjoying the new ideas and it makes a lot of sense to categorize it the way that you are.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Tomas

FYI Another feature that will be implemented soon is automated tags to ease searching! I know some use the tag feature and add them to threads but this will automate tagging. I will assign key tags to forums and it will also scan the thread to apply tags automatically. This will be after I get the forums straight, no point in assigning tags to sub-forums that will disappear.

It will also eliminate bad or misspelled tags.

I will also write up a long post with pictures and force all new users to read before they get started, think of it as a welcome post with an user guide.

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Another Great idea. The tag cloud should be much MUCHHHH more useful. I don't know of any other board that has anything like that. But it will be much more useful with Automatic tagging from a list of assigned tags. That will make searching much easier but also when a more experienced member instructs a newer member he can reference a tag and the member can use that for search. Instead of trying the mission impossible search of using the search feature.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Tomas

Thailand & the Philippines are done!

I am done through Ecuador and going to finish up the individual countries.

I believe I will cleanup "lesser" cities in Colombia & even 1 in the DR!

• Other Cities, DR has 78 threads, we don't need 8 sub-forums for it, Santiago could be an option also with 188 threads. Maybe even Boca Chica with 264.
• As for Colombia, Only Medellin will stay as is with it's sub-forums, the other cities all have less than 100 threads! Thread Prefixes within a single forum!

I will finish the "minor" countries first and come back to Colombia and the DR.

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In regards to Philippines I noticed the forum structure changes, many sub forums were removed. Granted many of the subforums were not necessary, like the bars (the reason why is many bars no longer allow pictures, so what once was is no longer in terms to that and the wild parties inside the bars...so I hear) But there are subforums that are kind of necessary. I only say that because Angeles city has a bunch of things in it now and it is all in one forum.

I had a couple ideas for subforums in that section.

Transportation - You could have Taxi's, airlines, ferries and buses. All those things being exclusive to Philippines and SEA in terms of Airlines (we have the airlines we have here and the ones we have there for inner SEA travel).

Hotels - There are many hotel threads and I think there will be a lot of different places opening up. The hotel forum was pretty good in that it allowed you search for a hotel pretty easy just by going to the sub forum. I did a master thread on the hotels (varying different price scales) with links to existing hotel threads. There probably isn't enough threads for hotels though to justify a sub forum.

Information - Could include Maps, Daily Living, Faqs/Info and Restaurants.

Mongers shooting the breeze - Roll calls and just general discussion on stuff regarding Philippines. Debates could go here too.

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And this is just on another note. I think we have a Sticky Problem, like a serious addiction. I was looking for this thread and I didn't know whether it was at the top of under all the stickies (even though it is a new thread). I must be the only person that goes crazy over that :rofl: I know we want to keep the threads from closing but Jesus christ guys if we post in the thread we keep it current and relevant. If 60 days go by and no one posts in the thread then it isn't so relevant. If it is a mod can always reopen it.

Having stuff as Stickies I think takes away from the newer posts being posted because instead of being at the top of their forum they are under all the stickies, which may not have had any new posts in quite some time. I know some stuff is epic and should always stay open for discussion but isn't that what those top 200 forums are for?? Not sure if we still have that. I try to unsticky everything from the Philippines forum just because it makes things clearer for me, hope that doesn't bother anyone who follows and contributes to that forum. But I am curious with all these new category additions like the prefixes and tagging if we really need to sticky everything.

Thats all for me. Great job DT

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dominican dave

In regards to Philippines I noticed the forum structure changes, many sub forums were removed. Granted many of the subforums were not necessary, like the bars (the reason why is many bars no longer allow pictures, so what once was is no longer in terms to that and the wild parties inside the bars...so I hear) But there are subforums that are kind of necessary. I only say that because Angeles city has a bunch of things in it now and it is all in one forum.

I had a couple ideas for subforums in that section.

Transportation - You could have Taxi's, airlines, ferries and buses. All those things being exclusive to Philippines and SEA in terms of Airlines (we have the airlines we have here and the ones we have there for inner SEA travel).

Hotels - There are many hotel threads and I think there will be a lot of different places opening up. The hotel forum was pretty good in that it allowed you search for a hotel pretty easy just by going to the sub forum. I did a master thread on the hotels (varying different price scales) with links to existing hotel threads. There probably isn't enough threads for hotels though to justify a sub forum.

Information - Could include Maps, Daily Living, Faqs/Info and Restaurants.

Mongers shooting the breeze - Roll calls and just general discussion on stuff regarding Philippines. Debates could go here too.

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That is what the Thread Prefixes are for, so we don't have 10 sub-forums with only a few posts each in them. I am raping and pillaging the sub-forums, countries are only first on the agenda, wait until I get to the chat sections. If a sub-forum has less then 2 pages of topics (50) honestly it should not exist and only if a forum gets more then 500+ posts should it be considered sub-forum material.

As I mentioned before I will make a required to read post explaining how Thread Prefixes work and the Tag Cloud after I am done. But as I mentioned before you can filter based on Thread Prefix in the forum so if you are interested in Maps, you can see only posts that have to do with maps.

We got way to crazy with sub-forums which made our board confusing and awkward.

One thing I am considering is differentiating the Thread Prefixes, I can use any HTML language to spruce them up. Right now all I am using is Bold tags, but I can add colors, highlighting, etc. I am thinking of categorizing them with colors so for example Information related Prefixes would beone color, etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dominican dave

And this is just on another note. I think we have a Sticky Problem, like a serious addiction. I was looking for this thread and I didn't know whether it was at the top of under all the stickies (even though it is a new thread). I must be the only person that goes crazy over that :rofl: I know we want to keep the threads from closing but Jesus christ guys if we post in the thread we keep it current and relevant. If 60 days go by and no one posts in the thread then it isn't so relevant. If it is a mod can always reopen it.

Having stuff as Stickies I think takes away from the newer posts being posted because instead of being at the top of their forum they are under all the stickies, which may not have had any new posts in quite some time. I know some stuff is epic and should always stay open for discussion but isn't that what those top 200 forums are for?? Not sure if we still have that. I try to unsticky everything from the Philippines forum just because it makes things clearer for me, hope that doesn't bother anyone who follows and contributes to that forum. But I am curious with all these new category additions like the prefixes and tagging if we really need to sticky everything.

Thats all for me. Great job DT

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You can un-sticky as a mod, I just dumped the threads in after applying a prefix. Yes I agree we sticky way too much.

Right now the auto-close works for threads older then 1 year a little longer then 60 days with no replies. And if it's a year since someone replied it's probably outdated to begin with.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Don Tomas

You can un-sticky as a mod, I just dumped the threads in after applying a prefix. Yes I agree we sticky way too much.

Right now the auto-close works for threads older then 1 year a little longer then 60 days with no replies. And if it's a year since someone replied it's probably outdated to begin with.

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I'm working on unsticking and moving stuff inbetween the 2 information forums now in the philippines section. Anything older than 1 year I am giving a post just to revive the thread so it doesn't automatically close when I unstick it. From them the thread has to float or sink on its own.

I have to get used to it a little more but I can already see threads that can be moved to make things clearer.

I also like the idea about the colors to the prefixes. Should look great when it is all done. Until then work your magic DT :ilike:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hunter

Recommended new section:

US Stateside Mongering Trip Reports

Once place for the USA ho stories...

for example:

Coolie Highs latest Las Vegas Story
My Sugar Babe stories
Iries Asian conquest
Uncles stateside exploits

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There are a general discussion sections for HQ/BOD members but we came under scrutiny in the past about stateside reports so, No. We don't need to start making up "dreams" we had in the states. I will have to look into where those posts are now...