Proposed Forum Changes...

MSE_Martin

redmandarin wrote: »

Hi Martin,

I think that this is a fantastic site - I applaud all your hard work and I believe that generally speaking your proposed changes are good.

However, I have a problem with the statement "If you spot a spam, illegal, offensive, racist, libelous (sic) post or PM please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]"

I am disturbed that "sexism" is not included in this list. Please can you tell me why it is not?

There seems to be a double standard at work here. Please can you explain why, according to site rules, the posting of racist posts is deemed to be bad (quite rightly), yet sexist posts are considered to be perfectly acceptable?

I've always found sexism offensive - and its covered by that. You could also say isn't 'racism' offensive so why pick it out. The reason's simple, we've had sadly major racism problems here, we havent thankfully had it with sexism.

Martin

tiptoe_mouse

I love MSE but am new enough to be happy with all changes you decide to make, but I do have one itsy-bitsy suggestion:

For the last 5 years I've been on another forum which seems to use the exact same format as MSE -- it;s vBulletin -- and so I'm wondering if one feature of that forum could be adopted here: posting on a thread is an automatic subscription to that thread.

Perhaps I'm spoiled from that forum, but I often forget to subscribe when I post on MSE, and then I wonder why there have been no follow-ups, and then the penny drops and I go and look for the thread. It's no big deal, but this is such a huge forum threads do get buried very quickly so it means a search for my own posts.

I don't know if other people forget to subscribe, but I think that many newbies probably don't realise they have to if they want to find a thread easily after posting.

What do others think? And is this at all possible? That other forum is identical in format to MSE in almost every other way...

PS and yes, I remembered to subscribe to this thread!

shelly wrote: »

When you post on a thread you do automatically subscribe to it.

To find the threads quickly you can click on UserCP and the most recently posted on threads will be listed there. To find older threads click List subscriptions on the left hand side once in UserCP.

HTH

Actually, you can choose whether you are automatically subscribed to a thread when you post to it. You need to go into the User CP, click on Edit Options, and then look under Messaging & Notification. The relevant part is the drop-down box next to this part:

When you post a new thread, or reply to a topic, you can choose to automatically add that thread to your list of subscribed threads, with the option to receive email notification of new replies to that thread.
Default Thread Subscription Mode:

The options are:

• Do not subscribe
• No email notification
• Instant email notification
• Daily email notification
• Weekly email notification

HTH

tiptoe

Edinburghlass_2

rog2 wrote: »

Okay, ssa - I agree 100% with what you are saying, and would like to take it one stage further:

At the moment, DFW comes under the general section of 'Pure Money' as do credit cards, insurance, mortgages etc.
DFW is, undoubtedly, one of the largest and most visited, boards in this section. The whole reason for debating any changes to DFW is, in my opinion, due to the high usage and, as we all know, the current economic climate is only going to 'add' to that usage.
So - is it time that DFW becomes a 'section in its own right'? Maybe under a General Heading of 'Debt and Dealing with it'

That way, instead of 'sub boards' each category could have its own, dedicated board, including a DMP Board, Bankruptcy Board, IVA Board - even, possibly a Debt Diary Board.

I hasten to add that I am not going back on my earlier comments - I feel, very strongly, that the 'diaries' are, and should remain, an integral part of DFW, but if the whole area of 'DFW' were to be reviewed, there could be a solution which will satisfy both of the emerging points of view,

This I like and better to give some good alternative solutions rather than say, no change please.

dunstonh

pensions should be left where it is. Its a good forum with good contributers who would not look for it if it was moved away. I for one would stop contributing to it if it did as it would cease to be in the money section where the only boards I contribute to are.

The vast majority of questions asked in the pensions forum are about money purchase schemes (investment linked). So, it makes sense to leave it in the same section as savings and investments.

As I understand, there isnt any misposts on pensions in the Work, Home & Play section so moving pensions there seems pointless. I would guess you would just end up with more posts being made to the investments forum when people cant find pensions.

Also, pensions dont have to be related to work. Children can have them as can pensioners, unemployed, non working etc. Just today we got a thread from someone not working about paying into pensions. We have had threads with grandparents wanting to pay into newborn children's pensions. The pensions forum also covers annuities and income drawdown, immediate vesting personal pensions. All of these are investments.

dunstonh

If I was to suggest one area to look at it would be splitting the savings and investments forum. It gets a lot of traffic and posts drop down very quickly. The ISA/tax free sub-forum doesnt get a lot of traffic and quite a few mispost ISA questions to the main savings and investment forum.

I would propose splitting savings and investments as that would be a clear way to help prevent posts dropping down the pages so quickly. A lot of the posts on the board are asking about savings rates and they can swamp the more detailed threads.

Savings would be cash savings, fixed term deposits and cash ISAs.
Investments would involve any investment that involves risk, including stocks and share ISAs, guaranteed equity bonds, unit trusts, investment trusts, investment bonds etc.

taplady

claireabelle wrote: »

I agree with splitting the diaries from the DFW board, would be clearer...
the proposed changes look good!

I agree with this too, there are just too many diaries now which make it hard to find the other posts that I want to read. In fact it has stopped me checking out the board so much now as all it is is diaries, yes the diaries are interesting but we need other posts too.

taplady

eternal_sunshine wrote: »

agree 100% about separating the diaries-i don't think it would harm the community by being put somewhere separate, in fact I think it means people would be more inclined to look at diaries they'd not previously ventured into before. Having lots of diaries on the main board definitely makes it a lot more difficult to see the non-diary threads and they end up getting pushed off the front page

just what i was trying to say but put much better:D :T

Mellika

arunadasi wrote: »

For the last 5 years I've been on another forum which seems to use the exact same format as MSE -- it;s vBulletin -- and so I'm wondering if one feature of that forum could be adopted here: posting on a thread is an automatic subscription to that thread.

The option is there in your User CP. Just go to Edit Options on the left and choose the type of notification you would like from the drop-down menu.

Meli

Edited to add: oops, tiptoe has already said this. Ignore me!

Mellika

rog2 wrote: »

So - is it time that DFW becomes a 'section in its own right'? Maybe under a General Heading of 'Debt and Dealing with it'

The users who DON'T want to split the board say it's mainly because while surfing through the diaries, they'll miss the new threads with questions from newbies. Wouldn't this make it worse?
I prefer the idea of having a Diaries sub-forum because the sheer size of the DFW board is off-putting. It certainly put ME off for a year.
But I am also new enough to that board that I may be wrong about the way it functions.

The_Golden_Goose

I agree with eternal_sunshine in that threads asking for help often get lost amongst the DFW diaries.

I love the diaries and I would personally prefer to have all the diaries in one easy accessible place and any other DFW queries/questions/challenges/yells for help to be on a sub board - eg: keep the diaries as the main part of the board or something.

Just a thought.

Just cos it changes and if it changes to a way that doesnt suit me, does not mean that I will stop using MSE, cos I won't. So there! LOL.