Forum Migration - General Q&A

Switches things on and off again
Joined 2000
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Members can reply to threads in this New diyAudio Platform Q&A forum but not start new ones. The idea is that over time we'll build a library of topics, one per thread, that address specific questions and issues.

If you have a question, please ask it by posting a message in this general Q&A thread.

Depending on the topic, your question might then be turned into a separate dedicated Q&A thread to address that specific topic comprehensively.
 
Switches things on and off again
Joined 2000
Paid Member
When the server had its last round of glitches, we spent several days looking for the culprit, identifying exactly when the server load spikes were occurring, and going through New Relic logs until it turned out TapaTalk was causing the load spikes.

I don't know what it was doing but it doesn't make sense to have the majority of users at risk of poor performance due to TapaTalk's code / infrastructure issues. Currently it's enabled only because we don't have a viable option at the moment for mobile users and we don't want to force members to use current site on mobile if they don't want to (it's not a great experience). So we limp along.

As we move to XenForo I think it's the right move for us to just focus on making our mobile experience great so there isn't a need to rely on the whims of 3rd party mobile transformation services.
 
Will there be an option within the new website for each new topic to have a summary section? Many topics involve wading through pages and pages of posts, and often the author doesn't give some key information upfront (e.g. gain of an amplifier design, or sensitivity of a speaker) - not a very efficient use of time. If moderators could include this then I would happily summarise the content of threads, you can see in this example that the moderator has helped people within this 700+page thread... we need more of this to make the site accessible and bring in new people.

A novel way to massively improve the SQ of computer audio streaming - Music Servers - Audiophile Style

Also, any introduction of 'like' buttons? Might be helpful to find popular posts within a thread if these could be searched for.
 
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I second the above suggestion for a ‘like’ button, or some way to offer a positive affirmation of a post without having to junk up the thread. In the spirit of this thread, I’ll post as a question:

Will the new platform give users the ability to ‘react’ to posts?
 
Switches things on and off again
Joined 2000
Paid Member
Will there be an option within the new website for each new topic to have a summary section? Many topics involve wading through pages and pages of posts, and often the author doesn't give some key information upfront (e.g. gain of an amplifier design, or sensitivity of a speaker) - not a very efficient use of time.

This topic is definitely at the front of our minds. Launching the migration with feature parity to the current site is "phase 1", solving this problem will be addressed in a subsequent phase. Trying to find the wheat amongst the chaff of a 100k post thread has been diyAudio's bugbear for a long time, and we are very much looking forward to finding the best solution possible.

Some kind of signal/noise identifier has been suggested, and I have seen other sites where you can use a slider to dial in the level of noise you would like to see. I'm not suggesting that will be our solution, but just giving an example of how another site has tried to address this.

I second the above suggestion for a ‘like’ button, or some way to offer a positive affirmation of a post without having to junk up the thread. In the spirit of this thread, I’ll post as a question:

Will the new platform give users the ability to ‘react’ to posts?

In a word, yes!

It's very often I want to like a post to let someone know I've read it, let them know I concur, or to say "thanks". Having such a button means a lot less "me too" posts that add noise to a thread.

Some background: We did have this for a week or two about 10 years ago. The system was quickly gamed for the wrong purposes by warring factions and was disabled pending a better implementation.

We'll be slowly introducing reactions and see how the community uses them. If we can find a way to make them work without them creating negative vibes they'll stay :)
 
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Reactions: 1 user
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The challenge is that we want to implement a reactions system which encourages good behaviours and does not become an end in itself.

Some way to acknowledge useful / informative or practical content would be great. On the new site I have set up for direct messages three reactions, thanks, "got it" and "informative". as an experiment.

Much of the conversation regarding reactions is based on people describing what other sites do / have done. However for the most part the reaction systems on other sites are broken IMHO.
 
This topic is definitely at the front of our minds. Launching the migration with feature parity to the current site is "phase 1", solving this problem will be addressed in a subsequent phase. Trying to find the wheat amongst the chaff of a 100k post thread has been diyAudio's bugbear for a long time, and we are very much looking forward to finding the best solution possible.

Some kind of signal/noise identifier has been suggested, and I have seen other sites where you can use a slider to dial in the level of noise you would like to see. I'm not suggesting that will be our solution, but just giving an example of how another site has tried to address this.



In a word, yes!

It's very often I want to like a post to let someone know I've read it, let them know I concur, or to say "thanks". Having such a button means a lot less "me too" posts that add noise to a thread.

Some background: We did have this for a week or two about 10 years ago. The system was quickly gamed for the wrong purposes by warring factions and was disabled pending a better implementation.

We'll be slowly introducing reactions and see how the community uses them. If we can find a way to make them work without them creating negative vibes they'll stay :)

Signal / noise identifier is a great idea
 
You say it works like that now? Not for me. Is there some switch I need to toggle to apply this feature?


So I'm clear, if I come back to a thread and click the main title it will take me to the post last read. Right now, I have to shuffle through posts to do that.
 
I’d like to provide some feedback based on usage of forums over the years.

Mobile vs Desktop
One thing I love about DIYaudio is the desktop layout, even when I’m on a mobile device. The layouts of mobile versions of websites seem to be designed to waste as much screen space as possible with huge font, massive buttons and promote too much scrolling. Important tools and buttons are always missing and I have to request the desktop version of the page to regain functionality, and most won’t acknowledge that request.

Like/Upvote/Downvote Buttons
This just turns a forum into a popularity contest. The repeat problem I’ve witnessed is it gives onlookers the impression that certain posts or posters are more correct than others, which is often wrong. If someone agrees or disagrees with a post, they should have to say so and explain why. On a technical forum like DIYaudio, that promotes thinking and evidence-based posts. Voting undoes this.
 
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