[Chad]

We're always looking for ways to improve our forums and features to make it easier for you to discuss a variety of interesting topics, post questions to the MI community, and read up on the latest news.

A few changes have just been implemented that will hopefully help to better organize our quickly growing forums. We hope you like the changes!


1. Better organized FORUMS menu
Clicking the FORUMS menu in the global navigation at the top you'll see we've streamlined the forums menu to be easier to use. You'll also notice that if you click "Show all forums" you will be brought to a page showing all our forums with neatly organized sub-forums to quickly jump to. You'll also see different folder icons beside the names of the forums to indicate if there are posts in that forum you haven't read yet since your last visit! Look for icons like (no new threads) or (new posts). Also look for green PLUS icons showing new posts since your last visit in the sub forums.


2. New general discussion sub-forums NEW!
MacInsiders is not just about McMaster and academia, we're a destination for discussion on a wide variety of topics and questions. Our general discussion forum has grown so large we've decided to organize it better for you by introducing a wide range of new sub-forum categories to put your threads into. We've already started by moving some existing threads into the new categories. You can see them below:

Automotive (3)
Anime & Comic Books (1)
Computers & Tech (21)
Dating & Relationships (9)
Gaming (11)
Jobs & Careers (23)
Movies (12)
Music (6)
Politics (14)
Sports (2)
Television (8)


3. New Financial Aid forum NEW!
OSAP and scholarships are very popular discussion topics on MacInsiders, and there are a lot of questions regarding financial aid. Now you can post your question in our new Financial Aid forum to keep all those type of questions organized and easy to find for reference.


4. New Residence Forums! NEW!
View them all here, or click a specific one below and start introducing yourself to your fellow rez mates!

Bates Forum (4)
Brandon Hall Forum (4)
Edwards Hall Forum (4)
Hedden Hall Forum (4)
Les Prince Forum (4)
Mary Keyes Forum (4)
Matthews Hall Forum (5)
McKay Hall Forum (4)
Wallingford Hall Forum (4)
Moulton Hall Forum (4)
Whidden Hall Forum (5)
Woodstock Hall Forum (4)

Off-Campus Housing (SOCS) (6) *ADDED!*


5. Quick email subscribe/unsubscribe buttons NEW!
Now when you go into a thread you'll see beside the reply button a button that lets you quickly access e-mail subscription options. This allows you to set it up so MacInsiders e-mails you when new replies are posted in that specific thread, or you can set it up to give you a daily update of all the new replies to that topic. Once subscribed, you can also easily unsubscribe yourself with 1 click.

ADDED JULY 1st, 2010:

6. Course reviews - Browse by letter NEW!
You can now filter course reviews by first letter of the course name for easier access


7. Better Facebook Integration NEW!
Check out our Fan Widget on the homepage, as well as new Facebook SHARE buttons on all our forum and article pages. Read or see something you like? Click the button to instantly post it on your Facebook wall and share it with your friends!!



Regards,
Chad Fullerton
MacInsiders Student Community

Lookin' good. It'll be nice to see all the OSAP questions and stuff all concentrated into one forum.

Any chance you'd be able to reroute the "Academics" tab in the home page to the "Academics" discussion forum instead of the "Academics" articles? Or was this an intentional thing you did?

Fixed. It now shows both.

terrible. one of the good things this forum had going for it was that it wasn't fragmented to hell like so many others.

Making a ton of subforums only makes sense when you have a massive amount of posts per day. Macinsiders does not have that criterion.

Doing this just makes the forum ugly and annoying to navigate/browse.

Hopefully with sub-categories we can get more users posting on topics they love. We tried to not segment the forums too much, the general discussion forum was the only one segmented. You can still quickly glance at all new recent posts in the 'general' category (including sub-forums) all at once by going to the homepage and clicking the 'general' tab.

If we find that the sub-forums don't get a lot of activity, we will decommission them and merge everything back into the 'general discussion' forum, but personally I think having these sub-categories opens up more room for off-topic discussion

Fantastic. One of the great things about this forum is all the different subjects and helpful opinions that get posted. Its a close knit community, unlike all the others.

Making a ton of new improvements and opportunities for people to feel heard is perfect for a place like Macisiders.

Doing everything you've done is the reason I come back even just to browse!

Thanks Chad

Originally Posted by Abid.Hasan

Doing this just makes the forum ugly and annoying to navigate/browse.

I've added a link on the general discussion forum that will let you view it in the same manner as it used to be (showing new threads across all categories at once).

Click here to view all new unread threads across all sub-categories

I like the changes. Although breaking it into a lot of subforums can become complicated, it's great for finding specific threads (assuming people put things where they belong). Also, I like how profile info is right below avatars now-- very helpful!

Originally Posted by eullwm

I like the changes. Although breaking it into a lot of subforums can become complicated, it's great for finding specific threads (assuming people put things where they belong). Also, I like how profile info is right below avatars now-- very helpful!

As of now, you can factor your post count into your thanked and liked count. Good stuff.

I don't know why I think like this.

I like the profile info beneath the avatar too, though I must admit I smile a little when I'm recognized/referred to as Entropy.

I like calling people by their first name (real first name that is) when replying to them in the forum.. instead of addressing them as "sexychick2950". That's why I put in the real first name below avatars. While I think, and hope, we'll continue to call ourselves by our usernames (its especially fun at events we run to discover who's who!) I think its useful to have in the posts... Thoughts?

It can be so awkward trying to figure out what to call someone in the forums, haha. Spesh if they have a crazy username.

ALSO love the new emoticons!!!


Ooooh I dont even need my signature anymore.... Hmmm wonder if I can part with it!! ^^;

somehow make a Kafkaesque subforum maze that has to be followed to get to the birdcourse threads. (:


altho i see they are off general : D which is kickass

Originally Posted by eullwm

I like the changes. Although breaking it into a lot of subforums can become complicated, it's great for finding specific threads (assuming people put things where they belong). Also, I like how profile info is right below avatars now-- very helpful!

We have people that will be moving threads if they are in the wrong location. But Chad has done a great job trying to get people to post in the right location (with the tour, notices and you also get a notice when your thread has been moved).

Originally Posted by micadjems

It can be so awkward trying to figure out what to call someone in the forums, haha. Spesh if they have a crazy username.

ALSO love the new emoticons!!!


Ooooh I dont even need my signature anymore.... Hmmm wonder if I can part with it!! ^^;

I never even thought about the fact that my signature isn't needed... but I think I'll keep it there anyways. It gives some colour to my posts XD

Whoa I leave for a few days and everything is changed (and pretty amazing). Thanks Chad!

I said it in the General Discussion thread, and I'll say it here again

I don't like it. I have to do a TON more scrolling and a few more clicks just to see the same content. And believe me, I'm usually not a Debbie Downer, but this is really, REALLY annoying.