[X] My Assistant

[nprev]

Hey, everybody. Members of the admin/mod team met this week with The Planetary Society (at their request), and the bottom line is that the Forum will be transforming in several ways in the near future. As those of you who are TPS members probably already know they've rolled out a new interactive interface recently and their initial thought was to incorporate us into this in some way. During our discussions we made it clear that above all else we must preserve the high quality of discourse here and accessiblity of same to both the amateur and professional spaceflight communities at large. We feel very strongly that this unique synthesis benefits both communities substantially.

That said, we are also painfully aware that our current Forum software & interface is, in the words of one member of our team, "very 00s". We badly need a more modern, functional, accessible and sustainable platform, and there was considerable discussion as to what the best options for that might be. TPS agreed to investigate a bit from their side...but more importantly, this is where you the Forum members come in.

We respectfully ask all of you to please share your thoughts and suggestions on this issue. In particular, we would like to know your ideas in the following areas:

1. What aspects/functions of the current incarnation of UMSF do you feel are the most important to preserve? By this we mean things like topic searchability, opportunity to engage with subject matter experts. etc. It is likely that the current site will be archived with reachback capability, so this is the perfect time to tell us what you like & what you don't about the way the place functions now so V2 will hopefully be a significant improvement in as many ways as we can do that.

2. What things would you like to see in a future version of the Forum? Should mention up front that years ago we decided to change the name to RoboticSpaceflight.com but for various reasons that was too difficult for us to implement in practical terms with our limited time & skill sets (stuff like link migration, etc.). However, with this new major revamp that change will finally occur. Aside from that, we'd like to know what sort of modernized interface(s) you would like to see, and especially any recommendations in that regard based on your own experiences elsewhere on the web.

And of course any other relevant ideas anybody may have would be most welcome. This is your time to shine; let's hear it!

Thanks to you all for your help, and as always for your superb contributions to our special little corner of the net.

[fredk]

I agree with most here about not sacrificing S/N ratio, keeping it in a forum rather than feed format, and, crucially I think, keeping older threads (including posted images) "alive", so they can be relived or added to. I also agree with many that the current format "ain't broke", and I've seen little functionality at other sites that I'd like to see here.

One of my few complaints is about large embedded images. Of course, being hosted on external servers, loading them doesn't affect the UMSF server, but loading a large image before javascript reduces it to a thumbnail is still inefficient. I don't know how to deal with that though, apart from encouraging people to post thumbnail links to the full-size images or somehow auto-generating thumbs on the UMSF server. Maybe somehow the UMSF server could enforce an image-size limit for embedded images?

No-one's mentioned threaded vs flat format. In my experience (eg with dpreview) a threaded forum wouldn't make sense for UM/RSF.

And if it means "going it alone" I too would be willing to help however I can...

(And I have no problem with a dark option, but it won't save energy on ordinary LCD monitors without backlight dimming zones...)

[stevesliva]

No-one's mentioned threaded vs flat format. In my experience (eg with dpreview) a threaded forum wouldn't make sense for UM/RSF.

There is an "Options" dropdown upper right that would allow you to see the "Outline" view of this topic. (You will see that this post is a reply to yours)

Google search results for this site seem to use that view.

FWIW the forums at dpreview appear to support a "flat" view. That software seems to waste acres and acres of screen space, though. A compact flat view is essential. I agree.

mcaplinger provides some good data on cost and our apparently proprietary forum software. With "free" like phpbb, honestly the costs of maintenance and admin might outstrip what IPS charges. Tough nut.

[MahFL]

Sadly change is inevitable...