Initial impressions

Another comment: it appears the signature line has a character limit but this isn't noted on the profile page. Would it be possible to either expand the limit or give a character count or something on the profile page so we don't end up with partial sigs? :)

Takes forever to load (dial-up) I think I'll stick to my initial impression and NOT like this.

Well, a very interesting idea.

It looks like a magazine and the layout is quite comfortable.

Kudos to the BAUT/UT team, and I hope the novelty survives. This is certainly a promising tool.

And double thanks for letting me know of this beautiful piece of software.

in regards to the number of hot conversations/recent replies, Fraser can control how long/small that is. We'll continue to tweak what constitutes a 'hot convo' and we're open to any suggestions. We'll be looking at number of replies, frequency of reply, recency of replies, votes, etc.

thanks, will add the char count to the profile editor.

I totally agree that it's interesting. My concerns lie in the way the layout will be affected knowing the speed the current forum runs at. For example, on the home page of this site, there are what appear to be the 4 or 5 most recent conversations/articles. If that is what those truly are, then content will practically scroll down that page if it runs the same as BAUT. We have new posts there every couple seconds at the busier times. Also, unless there are separate discussion headings content will be missed. Think of BABBling, that particular board has 20-30 active threads at a time.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of this site. BA/UT and the Forum on one centralized page sounds very cool. I just hope, if the management moves forward with it, they take into account the amount of traffic the forum currently generates. :)

What are you impressions of a more 'linear' view here: http://universetoday.lefora.com/forum/

You can navigate there by clicking 'Forum' across the menu bar.

The volume question is a concern for me as well. We create about 40 new threads a day, and there are about 500-700 new posts a day. I think the biggest challenge is information architecture. How do you present that volume of new information without hiding it away? How do you present the hottest threads, but still give newer threads a chance. There must be a better way to do it than vBulletin.

Well, I prefer the magazine look.

Our fellow hhEB09´1 at the BAUT forum has asked about DB migration. Is there a migration path from vBulletin to Lefora?

Also, since I´m willing to set up a Portuguese language forum, I´d like to learn about language support. Could it be done?

Yea I saw that yesterday too, it's certainly a little easier but, as Fraser mentions below I would still have concerns regarding the creation of new threads pushing existing content off the page..hm.

I believe if a transfer would be done, it would have to include the full archives (bonus, lefora has strong search capabilities.)

We built out lefora so that it can be localized in other languages. If you would like to help us translate the backend phrases into Portuguese, drop me an email at 'chief' -at- lefora.com

I think that sticking to subfora is still going to the best basic approach. Maybe each subforum could have a menu to the side of the main articles highlighting either new threads or hot topics (just thinking out loud here and it's still very early in my morning for thinking heh) similar to the way this page is layed out, but the threads displayed would be solely for that subforum (CT, ATM, BABBling, etc)

We're open to input from the community, as it's something we will be continuously tweaking. From BAUT, what are your thoughts for balancing new information vs. hot existing threads?

I think they both have some merit, but if I think about how I read stuff on the current forum, I don't really pay attention to the "hot topic" icon. I read the thread title and if it seems interesting I click on it. I would prefer that new topics be stressed more then hot topics.

The hot topics are great for new users coming to the forum for the first time to get a sense of the community. Repeat users will already have a sense of the ongoing conversations, and will much prefer to know what's new and changed, to update their mental picture of the state of the forum.

It might sound insane, but you might want to present a different front end depending on whether it's a new user or a registered user, or even on a cookie basis.

hhEb09'1 here.

Portuguese, is that the native tongue? or is that the port language. How long until we could port?

Do'h

For sake of exploration, I thought I'd come poke around. Since this is called "Initial Impressions"... Well, I like the way articles from UT/BA and the Forum seem to be seamless, instead of two completely seperate websites.

But, like some of the others, I usually use the forum from a less-than-speedy internet connection, and I can tell that some of this is slow to load. Astetically, I'm torn between loving the look, and hating it. With a forum as extensive as BAUT, it's important that it be easy to find the discussions. Also, am not thrilled with the way it shows who started what thread, but not who the last poster was (unless I just haven't found that yet).

If you could do the different front ends for new and regular users, that would indeed be great. I want to be able to keep a running talley of what discussions I've posted in, and which ones have been recently added to and by who.

But again those are my initial impressions. I expect a learning curve, so I'll report back after I've poked around a bit more.

The only thing I see regarding most recent poster is in the text next to the article title eg: "Started by kelfazin 1 day ago. Last reply by [b]evilfazor[/b] 1 hour ago 18 replies | Tags: feedback " (note: attempting to use BB style tags to add bold text)

ETA: Hmm..ok how about HTML <b>bold tags</b>

ETA^2:  I think I found a new feature I would like :) It would be nice if we could use formatting tags