So I'm going to be upgrading the forum code pretty soon.  It's partly a want-to-do and partly a need-to-do thing.  Some amount of tweaking will be required and this is one of my annual hack away at the site periods anyway, so if you guys have any requests or suggestions regarding the forums or the site in general now is a good time!

There was plenty of -ahem- feedback the last time I upgraded and if any of you feel certain suggestions from then still need to be implemented please re-suggest them   New ideas and suggestions are also welcome!

Constructive criticism please.  I won't make any major-major changes this time without giving everyone a chance to test them out first but still the earlier something gets suggested the more likely it is to happen.

I just want to reiterate that I miss the polls forum of old. But you said you were implementing site-wide polls, so...

It's just that a lot of the better threads before seemed to spark in the polls forum for some reason.

I really only have the same suggestion as last time. Add a "review" forum where people can submit reviews of games and soundtracks. Yes, people already do that, but it would be nice to have them all in one place!

cheers,

-avatar!

Is there a way to make the menu bar at the top static, so it's always there no matter where you are on a given page? It'd be convenient for navigation without having to scroll to the top each time. Not a make-or-break feature, just an idea.

I'm pretty satisfied with the forums over all, though!

GoldfishX:
When/if I do get the poll system going, polls will probably still be integrated into the existing forum categories, but designated with special text or an icon.  I'll keep an eye on the response the new polls get and promise to consider giving them their own category.

Avatar:
Actually there is a designated area for reviews already.  I would be ecstatic if people sent their reviews to be posted there

Virtual Boot:
That's one of the tweaks I've considered adding - having the nav bar at the top locked in place.  I'm a bit worried about the reaction it might get from other members though.  Could possibly make it optional depending on user preference.

Here are a few of the other tweaks I'm considering:

-Ability to relocate posts to new/other thread
-Small links below each post's header for the user's profile, e-mail, web site, etc
-Pretty up the forum page headers (not so happy with the large centered text)
-CD pages: move tracklists and artist credits to the main column, move related links to the left.  Instead of the first review being shown by default you have to click a review link.

Well, there's one thing that has been constantly irking me, I don't know if anyone else has the same problem, but unread threads remain unread until some time has passed which is odd, and it has the added disadvantage that when you read/write a particularly long post, or follow a link to some other long article, then when you come back everything is marked unread because too much time has passed.

So what I'm trying to say is, I would like it if the unmarking of unread threads would be triggered by actually reading the posts, not by the passage of time after login.

I'm all for this one, actually.  Having to scroll back to the top just to get to the bar was always a subtle aggravation.

To be fair, all you have to do is press the "Home" button on your computer and it takes up all the way back up

Now, a question about the review page for Adam: Can we also add reviews for games? Movies? I value the opinion's of people around here (even if I don't always agree with them), and many people submit game/movie reviews which I really enjoy. It would be great if there was someplace to put them. It looks like the page you showed was entirely for soundtracks.

cheers,

-avatar!

Here's a couple of things I do when browsing that may help. This isn't to discourage Adam from implementing these suggestions though:

I open each thread that interests me and has new posts in a new tab - middle-clicking on the link is easiest for me, although holding ctrl while left-clicking, or right-clicking then selecting "open in new tab" will also work.

For this I use the "home" key to bring the focus back to the top of the page without scrolling.

Amazingu:
Lucky you, marking threads read by "actually reading them" is one of the improvements of the upgrade

Avatar:
Yeah the review section is limited to soundtracks.  I guess it might be possible to mark certain posts as reviews and have them specially designated as such or searchable, but I'm not sure I see the point in that or a review forum.  Isn't it pretty clear just from browsing over threads when and where someone is reviewing something?  And how would you determine what constitutes a review and what doesn't?