To the administrator

[Sgtbiro]

Hi i have put a post on requesting information about parts for my Dragonfly but it has been twice moved be the administrator  to the parts wanted section, the reason i have put the in the general Douglas chat section was to get greater exposure and not hidden away in the lower parts wanted section so can you please leave this post were i put it thank you.

Regards Kevin...     

[Dave]

Kevin,

I understand how frustrating it can be when no-one responds to your posts. Unfortunately, this happens to almost everyone who posts in any forum on any subject.
At the time of writing, your two posts have had 32 and 54 views. So quite a few people have read them less than eight hours after they were posted.

In the forum world, some participants choose a practice known as "bumping". This is where the original poster replies to his own post to make it rise to the top of the heap again.
We have no objection to an occasional bit of "bumping".

But a more effective way to gain attention is to create interesting content in the first place. This way, people get mentally involved with your project and want to help.
To make your post more interesting, include some photos of the project, tell the story of your machine and describe what you are trying to achieve.

If you have drawings or diagrams of the parts needed, scan or take a photo of those too, so people can see exactly what you need.
Ask for other ideas. Is it possible to make one? Has anyone done this? Does anyone know anyone who has done this kind of job?

Almost every forum sorts their posts into broad categories for an important reason.
If everything goes in the one pile, how do you find all the advertisements of parts for sale, or on special events, or books and manuals?
After a while, a forum with everything lumped in the one pile, just degenerates into an unnavigable, jumbled mess.

Returning to the subject of "bumping", posting an advert into an inappropriate forum in an endeavour to gain attention, is a little extreme.
Administrators have to act in the interest of all the members, not just the ones who seek the most attention.

Have a go at creating some interesting content. Your ads are being read, maybe they need to create more interest in order to produce a response.

Meanwhile, this topic belongs in the "Forum Issues" section and I'll be moving it there now.

Dave

[eddie]

Sorry Dave, but I fall in the same camp as Kevin. The main category is 'Douglas - General Discussion' - so anything 'Douglas' is entitled to be in that category. Hiding items away where they are less likely to be seen will deter members from bothering - and that could result in the downfall of this superb forum. At least, leave them for a week before shifting them.

  Regards,
                 Eddie.

[Doug]

Eddie,

General Discussion could in theory cover anything Douglas related. However we have other boards for more specific Douglas topics; like adverts, model identification, Douglas events, etc. General Discussion would be for those thing that don't quite fit a specific board or range over several categories. I.e., more general in nature.

Posting everything in General Discussion and then after an interval moving it to a more appropriate board is a lot of maintenance. Also, I am not sure excessive moving is healthy for the underlying database and it creates a lot of redirect posts. It will also flood the general Discussion board decreasing visibility of posts by category. Unless you keep up to date reading all new posts. New members will have all posts marked as unread. It is not just about the member making posts, but also about members being able to home in on the posts they want to read.  It is sort of like a library or bookstore. New authors want their books just inside the door where everyone will see them, but readers want to go directly to the catalog section of their interest.

Hence most all forums have multiple boards or categories to organizes posts by subject matter.

-Doug

[Eric S]

Kevin,
as far as I am concerned, I used mainly the "Show unread posts since last visit" so I am sure I don't miss anything new.
The drawback is that you don't get used to the structure of the forum and don't know the miscellaneous sections but it's fast and easy to check what's up.
When I post then I suppose most people are doing the same so my posts (mainly questions and requests) are read (there is also on some forums a number of reads shown but I usually don't pay attention to that and am not sure if it's the case here)
But of course when you get no replies it's quite frustrating and you have to convince yourself that maybe nobody has a reply for you, not just that nobody don't want to reply...

[Dave]

Some options to consider.

- We could move the "Advertising and Classifieds" category up higher so it sits underneath the "General" category.

- Then within the "Advertising and Classifieds" category, we could move the "Douglas Motorcycles and Parts Wanted" forum to the top so it sits above "Douglas Motorcycles and Parts For Sale - Private".

Either or both options is a possibility. Below is what it would look like with both options.