VOTE in the Fastlane Poll!

[Russ H]

OK, fellow fastlaners-- time to tell us how you feel.

One of our newer members (Dustin) did an analysis outlining a host of problems he sees w/these forums.

Some (most?) forums would just laugh Dustin off as a troll or seriously deluded newbie.

But this is the fastlane.

We thrive on constructive feedback. And ideas.

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So, read the above 10 poll items-- and vote for any/all that you feel strongly about.

You can vote for more than one item.

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If you like these forums, don't be afraid to say that! (and vote for #10)

The 10-question poll is located above this post.

Please vote! Thanks from all of us.

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Looking forward to the feedback-- and results!

-Russ H.




Dustin's original critique:

First, I want to say that I love the information on this site/forum, and think there's a great community of people on here. I know haven't posted much, but Ihave been a long-time reader of this forum.

MJ - Have you given any thought to changing the layout of this site a bit? This forum is honestly quite a mess.

A few thoughts:

-There are numerous navigation menus on the top of the page, with way too many tabs.

-There are way too many pinned threads. It makes it inconvenient to have to constantly scroll far down to get to actual new threads.

-The whole 'Community Activity' section of the home page really isn't needed, IMO.

-Too many ads and widgets. I completely undersand monetizing this site through ads, but I often feel like I have to dig around them to get to actual threads. The amounts of adds, widgets pinned threads etc makes this site take forever to load on my iPad (and I assume other mobile devices). Also, it seems like a good majority of the ads on here have absolutely nothing to do with the type of content discussed on here.

-There are bugs in the software (ie reply to posts doesn't always work).

-The Google Custom Search box doesn't seem to even work at all - searching just refreshes the home page. Seems to just be taking up space.

-Is the large yellow box promoting the book really needed (or can it at least be smaller?)?

All of this being said, MJ, I want to sincerely thank you for everything you do on/for this site and forum, and hope you understand that I intend this post to be constructive, and I can only assume that there are other members of this forum with a similar opinion.

This place is a great source of information and a valuable community of people looking to help each other. I know I'd personally come on here much more if this site was much more 'clean' and simple. I honestly almost dread coming here sometimes due to all the clutter.

[biophase]

The biggest issue I and others have had is the box saying to "grab 3 chapters right now" promoting the book when you visit without logging in. This box is centered on a large screen and turns the rest of the screen black.

When you view the site on a phone or smaller screen and you are zoomed in, you only see the left front of the page and it's completely black and there's no way to navigate until you zoom out and see the green ad. You just think the site is down or something weird is happening. I had this happen a few times and while I know better a few of my friends would tell me that the site was down when they went to it because it was all black.

I've been to many blogs and landing pages that do the same thing and many times I've just left because it felt like the site never came up, when in reality that box is sitting there outside the view of my phone browser.

Uploaded screen shot of what I usually see below:

[Inphinity]

Yup, the book popup is a pain - especially when I'm auto-signed in and already have the book Not sure if vBulletin lets you do those popups based on usergroup or anything, but yeah on my windows mobile device it is a pain - randomly crashes it in fact when that box pops up, not so bad on my android phone. Other than that, the menu structure is a bit unclear/daunting, but usable - I don't really have much need for the menus since most of the main stuff is easy enough to find anyway.

I can see where most of the comments / points come from, but none of them are really issues for me. Many of the forums I use are far worse in these areas hehe

[mrhahn]

Ah yeah, that popup can be quite a pain. Not sure if it integrates with vbulletin somehow.

Also, I suggested it in the suggestions thread, but the Groups section could use a bit more exposure via a front page widget of some sort.

[Tristan Perry]

Have voted. In short, I agree with a lot of what Dustin says. From a usability perspective, there is a LOT of clutter at the moment to be honest

As an example, I have a decent sized monitor (21.5" widescreen; so it's 1080 pixels high).

But on (e.g.) http://www.thefastlaneforum.com/foru...-updates-faqs/ , I have to scroll down two full screenlengths before I actually see any non-stickied threads.

On the first screen ('above the fold') I see a menu bar, then the advert for the book in the header, then the tabbed menu bar, then the advert, then another advert, then 2 stickied threads.

So I scroll down onto the second screen. I see that 75% of my screen is full of stickied threads.

I scroll down a bit more (onto the 3rd screenful) and I finally see some threads.

Am not bashing these forums; they have great content. It'd just be nice to be able to find the content easier/quicker

[CEBenz]

I don't see the issue with the ads personally.

Sometimes the mail is finnicky but I do wonder, how much of what Dustin was critiquing is more of a vBulletin issue.

I seem to recall MJ's post about vBulletin before.

[kwerner]

The only issue I have is with the Advanced Search box (not the google custom search). I wish it were able to deliver search results with multiple words together, when you use "quotes" around them; just like google's "exact match" search results.

Other than that, this is one of the best forums I've been on, with priceless information from a great group of people. Thanks for creating it MJ.

[CEBenz]

The only issue I have is with the Advanced Search box (not the google custom search). I wish it were able to deliver search results with multiple words together, when you use "quotes" around them; just like google's "exact match" search results.

Other than that, this is one of the best forums I've been on, with priceless information from a great group of people. Thanks for creating it MJ.

x2 on this

[Russ H]

bump.

Please vote!

-Russ H.

[mrhahn]

The only issue I have is with the Advanced Search box (not the google custom search). I wish it were able to deliver search results with multiple words together, when you use "quotes" around them; just like google's "exact match" search results.

x2. Unfortunately it's a vbulletin thing and there's no addons that I found that does it. So I guess the answer is getting google search working.

[LightHouse]

The only things i would really change are the in post ad's (solution would be to have ad's auto posted in their own replies vs stuck in the OP where it skews the text/video) and the news results in the new posts view (this was fixed before but is now back.

I can agree on the amount of sticky threads and all the clutter to get to the content, but i come in, hit the settings tab, then hit new posts so i bypass most of it.

[tchandy]

The biggest issue I and others have had is the box saying to "grab 3 chapters right now" promoting the book when you visit without logging in. This box is centered on a large screen and turns the rest of the screen black.

When you view the site on a phone or smaller screen and you are zoomed in, you only see the left front of the page and it's completely black and there's no way to navigate until you zoom out and see the green ad. You just think the site is down or something weird is happening. I had this happen a few times and while I know better a few of my friends would tell me that the site was down when they went to it because it was all black.

I've been to many blogs and landing pages that do the same thing and many times I've just left because it felt like the site never came up, when in reality that box is sitting there outside the view of my phone browser.

Uploaded screen shot of what I usually see below:

There may be a program that limits the number of pop-ups once a person visits the site. I'm not sure what it's called but it's out there somewhere.

I think the forum needs to get back to the basics. Relook at what worked when the forum first came online almost four years ago. I didn't see anythingwrong with it then.

For the adsense, limit the ads to what this sites about. I experimented with adsense and noticed it was off topic for my blog. So I took adsense down and started over again for these ads.

My two cents.

[FastNAwesome]

Forums as a format are outdated, there are better and faster alternatives now, but this one is really an exception, very very cool, and I'm here daily.

I love the design, the way reputation is built, the fact that the owner is active on forum (with real posts, not sales pitches), the community of success thirsty people + some who are already there, and generously sharing wisdom.

Also, the forum has one of the coolest TOS I've ever seen, and is extraordinarily free from junk and useless threads.


I can see why many people votes that there's too many stuff - 3 navbars are a bit too much, but doesn't bother me, I usually just read or write posts (what else to do on forum?)


About ads, I'd say they're embedded with taste, and don't affect user experience.

[DustinG]

ETA: Actually, the New Posts feature seems to be working correctly now. Not sure why it wasn't working for me earlier. Carry on.

[kwerner]

Dustin - Imagine for a second that you are hosting a FREE party at your house with 5,704 of your closest friends...

Now imagine that you had ONE guest in particular that kept antagonizing YOU, the host of the party, that your party just isn't up to par with the rest of the house parties they've been to because the decor at your house is soooo 2007, and that your party is soooo LAME because it's not serving top shelf liquor, a live band, and dancing girls for the partygoers.

Would you be willing to bend over backwards to accomodate that guest or would you tell him "take a hike if you don't like it."?

In case you didn't realize it, YOU are being "THAT GUY".

There's a heck of a lot more to this forum than just the design and layout of it. There's PRICELESS information and advice here from successful people in just about any area of business that you could be interested in learning. So please, try and see the forest that is the wealth of information here, rather than just focusing on the trees, such as the layout of the site. And good luck to you!

[MJDeMarco]

I apologize that this forum is not up to some people's expectations -- if anyone is dissatisfied, please email me and I will refund your money.

Oh wait...

I forgot...

This is a free service.

Let me repeat that.

FREE.

The consideration provided for you to use it, FREE, is nothing but a few ads and some promotional book ads.

While I understand this place isn't the best in terms of organization and function (and it could be better) I think people need to understand that it THIS FORUM IS NOT MY BUSINESS.

My time isn't FREE.

What is my ROI (and ROTI) on spending countless hours debugging vBulletin and hacking into it's BS architecture? Virtually nothing. If this service can help create a great community to help people pursue their dreams while helping me sell a few more books, well, hey, that's great.

In fact this thread reminds me of a story I heard last time I was in Vegas ...

While in Vegas, we ate at a sushi restaurant off the strip. Spectacular. Ordered far too much. Had the left-overs boxed. While returning to the strip area, we noticed a bum with a sign "will work for food". We offered him our free, left-over sushi (not even 30 minutes old) to which he replied , "Man, I don't eat sushi!"

Now with that said, I appreciate the feedback on how to make this a better place, and rest assured when I have some surplus time worth wasting (or investing) I will attack the concerns here.

I made notice is another thread somewhere else that I hate vBulletin because it simply isn't customizable or brandable unless a considerable effort or time is put into it. When I did their last update, many of my customizations where botched and lost. If this was "the business" and I was taking your money for its use, you'd betcha I'd be on the problems/concerns -- of course, if it was the breadwinning business, that last software "partner" Id want would be vBulletin.

So making changes to the forum is definitely on my list -- it just is happens to be near the bottom.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

[Brootal]

First let me say that this place kicks ass. I very rarely have any issues with the forum. Also, for the few forums that I do participate in, I have NEVER seen the owner ask the community what needs work. So props to you guys for that.

My one gripe didn't really fit anywhere so I'll post it here:

Sometimes the ads that show in the threads (in the top RH corner of random posts) cover up the text that the author wrote.

That's the only thing about this forum stopping me from becoming a millionaire

[DustinG]

ok guys...your points are taken. I didn't mean for this to get blown out of proportion.

[MJDeMarco]

ETA: Actually, the New Posts feature seems to be working correctly now.

Ha Ha - and I swear I didn't touch a thing. That's vBulletin for ya ... one day it works, one day it doesn't.

ok guys...your points are taken. I didn't mean for this to get blown out of proportion.

No worries -- the feedback is great.

[CarrieW]

I sometimes get the glitch that was posted about the google ads covering some of the text. only sometimes tho.

also I dont know why but when you log in on the first page theres the latest posts box. theres sometimes a whole page of new things there sometimes only one or 2 but no matter whats posted there even if its only 2 things if you go to the new posts tab search feature I will get pages and pages of new posts. So basically I always use that new post tab rather then just depending on that latest post box on the homepage.

Honestly neither of those things bother me that much. If you reload the page most times the google ads change and that fixes the problem and as I said the new post tab works great for me so Im all good lol!