Thinking about the Forums Structure

[Admin]

Hi, I am seeking comments on a proposed change to the forms structure...it simply impacts the two categories of Recreational and GA forums and usergroups.

 

Currently we have:

 

Recreational Aviation Category

 

- Recreational Aircraft General Discussion Forum

 

- Avionics, Engines and Props - Rec Forum

 

- Ultralight and LSA Aircraft Usergroups Sub Category

 

- -

 

- Trikes and Microlight Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Rotorcraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Powered Chutes etc Usergroup Forum

 

- Gliders and Soaring Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Flying Model Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

General Aviation Category

 

- GA Aircraft General Discussion Forum

 

- GA Aircraft Avionics, Engines and Props Forum

 

- GA Aircraft Usergroups Sub Category

 

- -

 

- Warbirds, Vintage and Classic Aircraft Forum

 

- Aerobatics Forum

 

- Rotary Wing Usergroup Forum

 

- Air Traffic Control Forum

 

What I am proposing is a more condensed structure bringing ALL aircraft discussions into one category:

 

Aircraft Usergroup Forums

 

- Aircraft General Discussion Forum

 

- Avionics, Engines and Props Forum

 

- GA Aircraft Usergroups Category

 

- -

 

- Ultralight Aircraft Usergroups Sub Category

 

- -

 

- Trikes and Microlight Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Rotorcraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Powered Chutes etc Usergroup Forum

 

- Gliders and Soaring Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Warbirds, Vintage and Classic Aircraft Forum

 

- Aerobatics Forum

 

- Rotary Wing Usergroup Forum

 

- Flying Model Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

Also a forum will be added specifically for Instructors which was discussed in the thread:

 

http://www.recreationalflying.com/threads/instructors-forum.58490/

 

and will be located in the "Other" sub forums in the "General Forums" category as "Aviation Apps", which is not used much, will be removed and its threads placed in the "General Discussion" forum.

 

The only thing I am concerned about is the loss of focus that this site is also for GA Aviation as that is Recreational as well...so please, any comments?

 

 

[Ballpoint 246niner]

Ian, I regularly look at the GA site, but see that it has not grown in the same way as the Rec site, there are no doubt many reasons for this, but I question the two site model.

 

Will the instructor sub group be a closed one- I and many colleagues sometimes refrain from instructor comment in this litigious, finger pointing society. Not all instructors agree, but airing this in public forums is also not wise.

 

 

[Admin]

Will the instructor sub group be a closed one- I and many colleagues sometimes refrain from instructor comment in this litigious, finger pointing society. Not all instructors agree, but airing this in public forums is also not wise.

The Instructor's Forum will be a closed one as mentioned in the thread where it was discussed. Instructors will apply to be a part of the Instructors Usergroup which grants them access to that forum and the only thing non-instructors will be able to see will be thread titles but no posts will be visible outside that usergroup

 

 

[damkia]

"- Rotorcraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Powered Chutes etc Usergroup Forum

 

- Gliders and Soaring Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

- Warbirds, Vintage and Classic Aircraft Forum

 

- Aerobatics Forum

 

- Rotary Wing Usergroup Forum

 

- Flying Model Aircraft Usergroup Forum",

 

and most GA?

 

All <500post under "Miscellaneous" as a similar sub category structure to RA/GA types, as they are not that popular/frequented. If they become more used you could pop them out into their own primary category.

 

 

[eightyknots]

The only thing I am concerned about is the loss of focus that this site is also for GA Aviation as that is Recreational as well...so please, any comments?

Me too.

 

The success of this site is because of its distinct focus on Recreational Flying which in a good number of cases is non-GA.

 

 

[robinsm]

Why fix it when it aint broke mate.

 

 

[Admin]

Why fix it when it aint broke mate.

You are right Mate, but I gotta keep pushing to improve things so I am throwing this out there for comment...some would say for example the current theme aint broke but you should see the new theme that I am in the middle of working on...jeez I like it but in the end, I listen to your feedback and it may never see the light of day here:

 

So I am just asking if we can do things better

 

 

 

[robinsm]

ok

 

 

[eightyknots]

You are right Mate, but I gotta keep pushing to improve things so I am throwing this out there for comment...some would say for example the current theme aint broke but you should see the new theme that I am in the middle of working on...jeez I like it but in the end, I listen to your feedback and it may never see the light of day here:[ATTACH]21588[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]21589[/ATTACH]

So I am just asking if we can do things better

Hi Ian, I take your point that you have always strived to increase the usefulness, speed, looks and appeal of this site. This is hugely appreciated by all who use Rec Flying, I am sure.

 

I am also certain that there will never be an iteration of your site that will result in a backward step (with the only exception that a couple of years ago, we lost the ability to highlight words with an electronic highlighter). Continuous improvement is what makes this modern world so interesting and I, for one, would like to encourage you in this in recreationalflying.com... ...with the proviso that this push for improvements does not impact greatly on your personal health and wellbeing.

 

Go for it, mate!

 

 

[frank marriott]

Ian

 

Small point but I thought I would mention it anyway - I find I put "creative" in posts when I am just looking and trying to go back to the "top" - large finger and only on iPad.

 

I have very basic computer skills and have no idea what would be involved but if the buttons were on the left instead of the right this would be eliminated.

 

No idea what is involved but just thought I would mention it for your information. Maybe it is just me.

 

 

[rgmwa]

I don't know if I'm a typical forum user or not, but the only place I go to, well 99% of the time anyway, is `What's New (24 hrs)'. If I post something new, I'll put it in the category where I think it fits best. I rarely search for anything, and although I'm a GA pilot, I don't bother with the GA site. Maybe I'm just too old and simple minded to use all the features of the site, but it works fine for what I'm interested in, which is Recreational Flying - GA or RAA, it doesn't matter to me. This is probably not much help in answering the question about the forum structure, but I guess `keep it simple' would be my suggestion.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Admin]

Recreational Flying is for both recreational pilots (RAAus, HGFA, SAAA, GFA etc) and also GA pilots (PPL) as they are still flying recreationally...Aircraft Pilots is for Professional Pilots as in CPL, ATPL etc

 

Then again, we could always go down that route again of Recreational Flying or Aircraft Pilots...you say potato, I say patato...

 

Also we could split the General Forums up to include Country specific forums seeing we are starting to get a lot of International users but then that brings a whole lot of other issues to the site that would need to be addressed but then again we could have separate country specific site as linked sister sites but then how do we leverage off the knowledge contained in each other when it comes to anything to do with specific aircraft types.

 

How do we have available to all recreational aviators a world wide club room where we can swap stories and experiences, helping each other and learning from them, whilst enabling you to only be in the part of the club room that you want to be in...THAT is the question I have been wrestling with for years?

 

 

[rgmwa]

How do we have available to all recreational aviators a world wide club room where we can swap stories and experiences, helping each other and learning from them, whilst enabling you to only be in the part of the club room that you want to be in...THAT is the question I have been wrestling with for years?

Easy - just have one world-wide club room. We're all recreational aviators and can all learn from each other. One other forum that I use a lot because I'm building an RV is the VAF forum. Granted that it's essentially a special interest group, but the way that's set up works well. By default my browser is set to go to the RV-12 part of the site. Each RV type has it's own section. However, if I want to see what is happening elsewhere I go to `today's posts' or `home', which includes all the posts in the RV-12 section as well. No different to here really, I suppose. There are also general sections on safety, engines, glass cockpits etc. Its contributors are also a worldwide group and include all kinds of pilots - amateur, commercial, military etc. They all have something to contribute. I just wonder if you're over-thinking the problem by trying to cater too many groups of people. I would just focus on setting up a structure for the hardware and let the people follow, if you see what I mean.

 

rgmwa

 

 

[Admin]

How do we have available to all recreational aviators a world wide club room where we can swap stories and experiences, helping each other and learning from them, whilst enabling you to only be in the part of the club room that you want to be in...THAT is the question I have been wrestling with for years?

Easy - just have one world-wide club room. We're all recreational aviators and can all learn from each other. One other forum that I use a lot because I'm building an RV is the VAF forum. Granted that it's essentially a special interest group, but the way that's set up works well. By default my browser is set to go to the RV-12 part of the site. Each RV type has it's own section. However, if I want to see what is happening elsewhere I go to `today's posts' or `home', which includes all the posts in the RV-12 section as well. No different to here really, I suppose. There are also general sections on safety, engines, glass cockpits etc. Its contributors are also a worldwide group and include all kinds of pilots - amateur, commercial, military etc. They all have something to contribute. I just wonder if you're over-thinking the problem by trying to cater too many groups of people. I would just focus on setting up a structure for the hardware and let the people follow, if you see what I mean.rgmwa

Sorry I should have expanded on that...

The problem I have been wrestling with for years is how to incorporate it all...for example at the moment the Events Calendar doesn't allow for events to be segregated into into say Countries and when you go to the Events etc Forum, you get to see what events are upcoming in the next 21 days, currently for Australia:

 

 

Now people in Australia are not interested in seeing upcoming events for say a Breakfast Flyin at abc airfield on the Isle of Man BUT UK users are...AND UK users are interested in reading about events, flyins etc so that means the removal of the upcoming events being displayed at the top of the Events Forum...and the Home page as well...so what is the point of having an Events Calendar...it wouldn't get used OR get swamped with say upcoming events in the US.

 

Also the Airfield Database currently displays Australia...what about airfields in the USA, UK or South Africa...the database of Airfields would be massive and cumbersome/slow if you just want Australia...some extra money spent to develop a solution for this would be needed but still a slow and cumbersome feature to use...so that might as well go as well.

 

Aviation News is another area or though not so bad as users are mostly interested in reading news local to their country...there would be extra steps needed to use and view the Weather Page. We would need extra forums targeting geographic specific regions so then that impacts the "What's New" and Search functions of the site...how frustrating would that be...I am sure there is a very little amount of people interested in the RAAus Feb General Meeting or how many aircraft have been grounded when they are in the US or Canada or the UK.

 

There is also the currently high Australian specific content and user base which I have found deters International visitors and they don't return unless they fly a Jabiru...for example, and just come here for the huge amount of Jabiru discussions.

 

This is what I have been wrestling with for years and how to successfully do it and really when you think about it, Australia is such a small market in terms of recreational aviators so withdrawing to a more specialised separate sites specific to geographic region allows for the sites to provide more but limits participation just to that region...that's what I have been wrestling with for years

 

 

[rgmwa]

Ah yes, I can see the problem when you explain it like that. Australia is just a small market, and comprehensively catering to the world would be another ball game. Even so, I'm clearly a very simple user with modest ambitions. My mobile phone is a Nokia 3310. What more can I say?

 

rgmwa

 

 

[eightyknots]

I live in New Zealand but I am still interested in what is happening in Australia. However, I am very biased because I am an Australian living overseas AND have close links with family and friends in Australia, traveling there on average 4 times per year.

 

I do wish that there was a New Zealand angle to Rec Flying (perhaps Corinne could advise?) as there is no decent recreational flying forum in this country. The main reason is airfield info and possibly weather. Recreational flying is done by many and, as a proportion of the population has an even larger following than Australia. The problem is that the market here is still about one-fifth compared to Oz.

 

 

[Admin]

Thanks 80kts...if I created a dedicated site to NZ (I do own www.recreationalflying.co.nz) then NZ could have their own site with dedicated Events listings, Airfield Information, Weather, Aircraft lists and distributors etc, which would be great BUT then there is the loss of information exchange on experiences etc...this is the problem...if only there was some way to have a site structure that could incorporate both...that would be the answer...I have been wracking my brain for years on how I could do it and just when I think I have it, a problem arises with the concept like having to have separate logins or something else.

 

At one stage with the old software I experimented with having the News, Photos, Videos etc on .org and then just separate forums for each location using separate domains but single login...what a management nightmare...I haven't given up yet though

 

 

[Jabiru Phil]

If it looks simple it probably isn't

 

How would you go if you had sub-categories I.e EVENTS then Aust, NZ, UK etc

 

Likewise with Rec, GA, roto etc

 

Just thought

 

Phil

 

 

[Admin]

If it looks simple it probably isn'tHow would you go if you had sub-categories I.e EVENTS then Aust, NZ, UK etc

 

Likewise with Rec, GA, roto etc

 

Just thought

 

Phil

That is one idea and will work...trade off is having extra forums in the forum list

 

 

[Jabiru Phil]

What about a drop down list

 

One of the headers, say forums, then select the country on the drop down

 

Works well with my banking site

 

Cheers

 

 

[Admin]

Thanks JP, thought of that but would there be an issue with the "What's New" and Search which would show entries for all forums...search wouldn't be that bad but What's New could end up with loads of entries you may not be interested in...this is why I have the part in your settings where you can select which forums you want to have in your "What's New"...but the average user is wouldn't know its there.

 

The thing that I think helps many users here is its simplicity...apart from some necessary extras like adding images to posts etc, it really is a very simple and easy to navigate around site...and that's another thing that I am scared of damaging

 

 

[Jabiru Phil]

The thing that I think helps many users here is its simplicity...apart from some necessary extras like adding images to posts etc, it really is a very simple and easy to navigate around site...and that's another thing that I am scared of damaging

 

Hit the nail on the head Ian