Hi everyone. I am looking at the forum and it's clearly showing it's age. I would love to get some feedback from those of you using it (and some of you that aren't) as to what you would like to see change about the way it currently works.

I will be using this feedback to determine if there is something I can do to fix some of the issues.

Example... Text sizes. Are they too small?

Obviously I know things like image and photo integration/uploading would be probably forefront on a lot of your suggestions, but I know that one. Anything else?

I appreciate any feedback.

Thanks!

Jim

Since you're asking ...

• Links from campaigns to their respective thread page would be very useful.
• The search engine could really use some improvement.
• The 'User Info.' panel (graduated fill) seems kind of dated.
• Button styles could use some reworking.
• Emojis could use a revamp.
• Text sizes seem adequate. I'm vision impaired and if needed, I'll enlarge the page through my computer.
• There seems to be a limit of approx. 44 items per the 'My Posts' button, after which the 'Load More Topics' button ceases to function.
• Please fix the apostrophe (') issue in forum titles — you know, the one that kills subscription notifications.

• Oh yeah, there's the uploading thing. ... Fix Photobucket for us, will ya! ... Kidding! Lol!

Thanks for providing this great site!🍺
—mike

Well since you asked

First is the way the forums are displayed from the list. It would be nice to have the forum thread be displayed in a way where when you return to the list, you are still in the same spot you were when you viewed the thread. Clicking lastest post or using the back button is not very useful, as either you are back at the top or the dread "recent viewed list". My thought would be a floating frame (Div tag for nerds) that would show in front of the list, when once closed, you are exactly where you were when you chose to read the thread.

Second, it would be nice to have a more drag and drop system for adding photos to forum threads and for editing news, articles, etc. It would also be nice to have the images embedded into the text of the article. As the image would be better suited next to the text referring to it.

Third, instead of the site taking you to a another page to respond to a thread, it should provide a more option to just type the response on the bottom, similar to replying to an email using Gmail or Yahoo.

I think that is enough for now, hope I am not causing too much work for you Jim

Kevin

One thing: after posting a private message and hitting "submit" you are taken to what I will call a dead end page. To get back to business you have to navigate through the forums button back to the chosen topic. Would be nice to have a "Latest Posts" or "Return to Topic" button added to that so called dead end page.

Jim, looks like the previous posters have summed it up pretty well. THANKS ! for undertaking the upgrade of the system !
Tom

I'll say ditto to most of what has already been mentioned.

Thanks guys. All useful suggestions thus far!

Keep them coming if you think of others. I will make a list after this has run it's course.

Thanks again,
Jim

For the Private Messages, I would like to see a better alert system than the (#) next to the inbox. There were times when I didn't know I even had PMs because the # was so small to see. So, yes, I think that the "login | settings | inbox" text is too small in the upper right corner.

I know that other forums send a personal email notifying that one has received a PM. With those forums, sometimes the email notification system works, for others it doesn't (SPAM), so perhaps that would be too complex for Armorama.

Perhaps a popup, thumbnail bar, or rollover of Features photos would be nice instead of the slide scroll. That way, the first Feature photo won't get all the attention before someone navigates off the homepage.

I also think perhaps a banner or button showing the current moderators and administrators and how to contact them via PM or Kitmaker email would be helpful as there were quite a few posts asking who was in charge of what forum, or how to reach someone (to start a campaign for example). The "About" button doesn't quite work for me in that regard as I have to search or hunt for the moderator's name.

Hi all,
Please excuse if these idea's has been mentioned as I am not good on computers, or know to much tech talk

1) A search box were you type in a subject eg tiger tank & it links you to all old threads, newest to oldest??

2) Could it automatically size your photos to fit the pixel size allowed

3) Is there some way that pics be they in progress or reference "kept" one of the sad & frustrating things is reading through an old & interesting thread, still being able to read what was said but not see the pics as removed for one reason or another?

Cheers Mike

We cannot do anything about the pictures Mike as they are linked from other sites and reliant on the author leaving them there.

Add like and reaction buttons for posts. Similar to what they have on Facebook.And add more emojis.

It may already be there, I just do not know how to access it, first new post.

Hai Jim,

I am not getting into the "capturing all photo's that are on other sites and store them inside the kitmaker environment" again but some posts here do seem to confirm the need.

Some suggestions:

On my screen the forum takes +/- 50% of the width of the screen, the publicity left and right another 20%, the rest of the screenwidth is not used. Letting the forum scale to screen width could be an improvement.

On the "set page Preference": I ave no clue how the favorite forums button works

Further on the "set page Preference" : It would be nice to have an additional option: "Aeroscale + the Network Forums (all sites)"

In general:

the ability for users to mark favorite content (be it forum threads, reviews,...) and store this in their profile would be great.

and allowing users to link content such as a news item, a feature, a build log, a review... and show this at the bottom of an item under a header such like "the community brings under your attention:" could give a completely new way to browse the site.

But of course, here we go again; that is about a decade of programming

Every single part of the network needs to be converted to https.

Links to the gallery and everything else come up with requirement to login again, invariably these are 'insecure'.

why do I have to keep logging in anyway, to look at the gallery or another part of the forum?

Hi Jim,

in my user profile it would be handy to have a list of blogs started, the same way we currently get lists of Features and Reviews.

Also in the "Topics Started" section it would be useful to be able to filter or search them to get past the usual raft of "/news" announcements etc that clog up a staffer's list of topics.

Hope this helps!

And now that the feature list hazs become much broader than the forum anyway:

A blog for each subscribed user linked to a forum thread for each blog entry. The difference with the forum would be that the contributions of the blog owner would remain seperate from the discussion in the forum. It would also give possibility to staff, or site owner to write a "editorial" from time to time. I guess this would improve the sense of "community".

A real home page for subscribed users instead of the current simplistic userid page. It could boost the ambition of subscribed users to put content on the site.

The possibility for subscribed users to mark favorite content and have this content cataloged on their home page

A modelling techniques wiki, made by subscribed users, for subscribed users. The first content could be the howto articles availabel on the site.


and maybe make some publicity banner on the home page to invite people visiting the site to become member, or to subscribe, and explaining the difference.

I know, this is not decades, but maybe centuries of programming