Miscellaneous suggestions/thoughts

Discussion in 'Technical Issues & Suggestions' started by Peregrinus, Jul 4, 2014.

  1. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Any chance of adding to the banner logo for the forum to convey a little of the forum's actual purpose? Like put a couple language based images with the dogs as bookends for the whole? Despite HTLAL's older looking forum software, the logo is very cool from a language perspective.

    Also, is there vertical space for important messages, or just changing regular messages at the top? A lot of forums seem to have that capability.

    If someone of the stature of Dr. Arguelles or linguamor were to start posting here, would there be a possibility to let them have their own sub-forum, providing there were no commercial intent on their part? Getting a famous polyglot, who is actually one (Iversen is famous to us but not to the world since he doesn't self-promote), might be quite a draw. Or even an academic linguist perhaps.
  2. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    1) I'd like to hear what others think.
    2) It might be possible, but I don't see the need for it. What do you have in mind?
    3) Sure. If you or others can convince such polyglots, I can give them their own forums
  3. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Re #2, sometimes I have seen forums use a banner across the top for emergencies, as in being hacked in some way, usually via SQL injection (though I realize that is mostly sloppy admin or outdated software that is responsible - so hopefully unlikely here). As a result, users are sometimes urged to change passwords.

    For non-emergency purposes, perhaps just a welcome message, an invite to stop lurking and register, or such.

    Perhaps all of that is not needed, but I have seen such uses on other forums. But if the current software does not allow it, then it is moot anyway.

    BTW, I like the current logo, it is just that it conveys no hint of the forum purpose if one does not intuit the meaning of "poly" in "polydog". And hey, we need a youtube vid by a polydog! Like some dog giving examples of how he speaks umpteen different doggie dialects! (Bow wow wow. I bark 38 different dog dialects. And I learned each of them in 3 months.)
    Bob and Big_Dog like this.
  4. luke

    luke Member VIP member

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    It makes sense to me that a graphic and text indicating that this is a language learning forum would be helpful for both humans and robots and web-crawlers. Metadata and keywords may also help some search engine algorithms boost the site's search standings.
  5. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    You might be right for humans, but robots are taken care of by the page title. Thanks for bringing this up, because I realize the homepage title got toggled back to "feature threads" when I updated the software. I'll change it back tonight. Grr!
  6. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    I thought I would just tag on this thread for other miscellaneous questions/suggestions. Does one have to be logged in to download an attachment from a thread? I realize I could logout and back in and test this, but I'm too lazy :). The reason I ask is that I noticed that thread with the Russian TV show transcripts has gotten an awful lot of hits, meaning a lot of people, possibly mainly lurkers, find it of value (and its value as far as SEO to the forum is that it is a long-tail search item). If login is not required to download, perhaps it should be to encourage sign-ups.
  7. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    it's required
  8. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    OK. Once again your choice of forum software is validated. It really is fairly comprehensive, easy to use and fast.
  9. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    I wonder if badges could be made for things other than VIP, like "I love anki"
  10. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Checking on this. To the best of my knowledge, I would have to create a user group for each individual who wants a unique banner, and I'd rather not go through that. So I submitted a ticket to see if there is another way.
  11. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Sorry for the delay. Unfortunately, it's as I expected. So for now, there will be no customized banners.
  12. hrhenry

    hrhenry Member VIP member

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    I would think that stuff like "I love Anki" would be better served in a signature, anyway. Leave it to the user so as not to burden admins and/or mods with it.

    R.
    ==
  13. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Seeing a reference to FSI courses in Bob's log thread got me thinking about the FSI Languages Courses site. For some time now their forums have been offline due to performance issues according to the notice when you click on it. There is a suggestion to ask questions on HTLAL and a link to same. Perhaps they could be offered a set of sub-forums here for their site, maybe even porting their previous forums to same. Would be a lot of work no doubt, but also very likely to drive traffic and new members here. Perhaps whoever runs it is wedded to HTLAL, or they just got tired of answering questions and trying to find new material, but who knows.
  14. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    How much space do they need?
  15. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    I'm not sure. I was suggesting that you contact them with an offer if you were interested and willing to do the work. However remember that they replaced another forum that went dark, so their posting history isn't very long, and they never really had huge traffic, and I would be surprised if they had more than a few hundred total posts. Their real space and bandwidth hog is of course the courses. Their forum primarily served as a place to discuss problems with the courses as in audio quality or missing pieces, or regarding upcoming new material or material members wanted to donate.
  16. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    This is a really good idea. When I have more time, I'll look into it.
  17. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Not sure if there is any utility for the method for this forum or if the software even allows it, but LingQ's forums now seem to only let one to read the OP without registering and not the entire thread. Of course they have something to sell which this forum does not. Without something to sell and thus the need to constantly send sales pitches, I don't know that this forum would benefit from encouraging more lurker registrations, but who knows? I guess it's kind of like a "working girl" showing just enough cleavage to get someone interested without showing so much that nothing is left to the imagination of what one is missing.
  18. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Off topic, but is "working girl" code for "push-up bra" or something? Not sure I've heard the term used this way.
  19. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    I meant "proz", "hooker", "wh**e", etc. You obviously have not watched enough cop dramas over the years :). I could have chosen a less lascivious example like Amazon offering a free peek at the first chapter of a book, to get someone interested in the whole thing.
    Last edited: Sep 9, 2014
    Big_Dog likes this.
  20. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    lol - I must be brain dead today. Thanks for reminding me.

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