The community board is generally off topic, having nothing to do with general unexplained mysteries. So it fits best within the section it's already it.

And sports are often seen as a hobby, so any sports would be discussed under the Hobbies & Interests section.


I saw someone mention having limited Mods for certain areas, just to clarify, we had those a while back. Called Forum Leaders. If I'm not mistaken, though, they were all promoted to Mods a short while after. Going by that, I don't think we would need them again. Then again, I haven't been around as much as I used to be, and I may not know about any problems when it comes to the forums staying moderated.

I just want to say thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread so far, and to keep the comments and suggestions coming.

Some of the changes that have been suggested here will be included in the update, along with many others designed to improve the design, navigation, speed and efficiency of the site.

I can't give an estimation on when the updates will be implemented just yet, but they are being worked on, and the first series of improvements, some of which based on ideas brought up in this thread, should be appearing in the not too distant future.

neither does chess or games and member stories so its a viable canadante

also Saru when are we going to get a new mod like at a certain number of posts or a certain number of members just wonderin


( maybe we could have a new rank )

Bigfoot..... please do not post in response to this....



The easy and obvious answer is, when its felt the forum needs one (or more) then it would be done.

As for the other two: The chess section is not a discussion forum, it is a competition which would only get participants on the front page. People will go down the page and see it, and if interested join up. its the same with members stories, without the front page exposure it would not be used.

The community forum is not the most necessary forum, it does not need to advertise itself for people to use.... it makes sense to have it where it is.....


Now i think its time you stopped replying to every reply in this thread, as i think you've given over your point of view quite enough... and have had enough ideas. If you come up with anything world shattering , by all means post it... But please stop posting random things like "when will we get another mod"...

Perhaps putting in code for a threadstarter to be able to self moderate the topic that they had started in the event it gets spammed or has to many off topic comments. This way the threadstarter can remove the offending items and not have to run to a moderator for small issues. This would open up a moderator for dealing with more serious issues, like harassment as an example.

If you could encourage more people to use the chat somehow that would reduce the amount of spam around the forum.

That is what the mods are for. If the threadstarter self-moderated a topic, all kinds of information could be deleted if they are not in agreeance with the threadstarter, imo.

Good point Rowan. There's far too much space for member moderation of own topics to be highly abused, it would never fly.

No. No. No.

Because anyone who doesn't believe the silly experiences that the thread starter tells them, has their posts deleted.

Customizable blog wallpaper

no offence but the forum color is boring. maybe you should change it.

We are in the 21st Century. How about a very stylish future look with a merged mysterious theme. That might be pretty hard me thinks.

When a thread gets over 6 pages, I'm too lazy to read through all. I suggest a skin selector. Maybe we can get graphics artists to spice up the visual appeal to UM. You can have custom made skins made all over. Make a few nice looking skins and install code for the skin selector. It does get a little boring seeing the same colors all the time being that I come on this website so much. It's not so visualy appealing.


If I think of anything else, you can bet your buns I'll be back.


EDIT: What if we have a search engine wich is capable of searching for a specific post instead of topic. Like, I can choose a topic to search on, and find a post.

how about a seperate sub-heading just for sports to gather all of those topics together ?

may make them easier to find for some people

i do realize this isnt a sports forum but general writing and art have sub-headings

and hey, diversity breeds goodness eh ?

Pink links? with light pink hovers??

That could be a skin suggestion.

Perhaps a forum dedicated to just general philosophy . Since the forum has gotten larger there may be a part of the community that would be interested in such a thing . Currently if we have a general philosophy section its spread out amongst every other forum ... it would be nice to have a place for members to share their deeper thoughts and may even spawn some cool ideas for the formal debates board .

Or not . Up to you . Personally I like this site alot . Its one of the few good large forums still on the web that hasn't been overrun by Jerks, trolls, and the generally dumbtarded .

PS- bring back quick reply ? Helpfull for 56k .

Edited now that Ive read something that caught my eye:


ughhh... I could see that being abused . A better idea may be allowing users to delete their own posts/lock their own threads once they reach a certain point in the sommunity ( 1 month/250 posts ..some simple requirement like that ) and even that may be abuseable .

It seems a lot of the suggestions are more cosmetic changes than anything, but to address a few of the other points:

The current search engine is quite versatile if you use it properly. You can narrow the search to specific forums and have it display results as posts in chronological order. If you really want to search a specific ‘post’, then if you’re using IE, you can use the ‘find on this page’ feature. I’m sure the other browsers have the same feature.


We always try to avoid deleting posts as it disturbs the continuity of the threads. Also I don’t think limiting the time-frame for a thread to be open for, or by the number of posts would be beneficial either.

A forum for philosophy would be nice as well. Where others can feel more secure discussing topics of philosophy. Instead of posting in a section where most debates happen instead of discussions.


So I agree with Xenojjin.





Ok, thanks. Although I hate IE and will never use it, I'll see if firefox can do this as well.

I like that idea I was actually thinking about it before hand and was going to mention it



YES!!! I would like to see the Debates section better advertised...its stuck in near the bottom of the list and it is one of my fav places to vist



Yea bigfoot, Subbys right ...you are just posting for the sake of it

To add - I think there is enough Mods in this forum that seem to know how to handle it well, we don't need anymore, I am sure SurMan is well pleased with the ones he has

Could the crytozoology myths sect. be split into things/creatures proven to exist through cryptozoologoy and ones waiting to be confirmed or simply myth?

P.S Hey BM not seen you around latley

Miss me huh LOL
Oh take a look at my post count I have been around..every day in fact (hope that doesn't sound sad lol) but I speand 90% of my time on the Spirituality V's Skepticism boards I made it my home...feet well under the table lol

Update

Just to keep you informed on whats going to happen, the site updates are going to be applied to the site in stages. Each stage will apply a series of updates to a certain area of Unexplained Mysteries, as oppose to everything being applied all at once.

The first stage, a series of updates to the design and functionality of the main front page and associated sections is almost complete and should be appearing within a day or two. I will post a couple of threads just before this stage of updates goes live which will outline the changes that have been made and to report on the progress of the updates overall.

Note that some features, such as the front page poll and documents section will be temporarily removed, as they will be getting replaced with new versions as part of a later update stage.

I'll post more details just before the first stage goes up within a couple of day's time.

The first stage of updates for UM 8 are now live on the site.

Full details and a list of changes can be found here:
Updates Progress

Cool

The mainpage is going ot take some getting used to. But it looks pretty sweet.

Regards, PA

I don't like the new UM text with the bevel, might be hard to read for newcomers and isn't the cleanest. Other than that I'd say its the complete opposite! Getting cleaner. I like the new search feature a lot. This will be useful.

Looking good, I'm sure evryone will agree the new logo is pretty cool.

Roll on Stage 2

I think it all looks fab! Well done!

lol did you do that bit dazzy? I'm impressed.

I particularly like this bitty....




yes indeed we ARE the biggest and the best lol

Keep up the good work saru (and dazzy)

Yes indeed, especially if the mysterious dAz approves of it.

I would like to take credit - however 'twas not me. Tis Saru's handywork.

Yes that's right....

I did NOT do it!

everything is lookin right snazzy and ...what!? u didnt do any of this dAz? lol only joking

I like the new front page pic but how come theres no cryptids there unexplanied right?

I think daz and Saruman are one in the same. Alteregos...

Oooo I likey! Now, back to work and make the forum look as cool as the front page.

For the record, I don't post under any other username than my own. Daz has been an admin here since the forum began and we are not one in the same, as i'm sure those members who have met both of us will attest to.


Look a little closer, there's one in there somewhere.


Yeah I was wondering about that, I might have a go at making the text brighter, as it tends to disappear into the background on darker moniters.

I'd also like to ask anyone who experiences any unusual bugs or problems with any of the modified site areas to let me know. Thanks.

And break his own forum rules:

Forum rules <--this is a link by the way.

10. No multiple identities - No registering multiple usernames and engaging in 'multiple personality' activities; i.e. pretending to be several different people. Anyone caught doing this will have all related usernames disabled and their posting privileges removed.

Although the greatest hypocrisy often comes from the top

I rest my case.

Back to the topic at hand, i've moved the threads relating to the site updates around, pinned a thread in the support board which will be updated with every stage that is completed and merged these comments with the comments and suggestions thread.

At this stage i'm still open to suggestions and ideas, and thanks to those who have offered feedback relating to the first stage of updates.

The second stage is currently in the works, and should be appearing in the near future.

I think you mean bestest, thisty.

It still needs some pink though

I have to disagree, i LOVE the new text, I think it looks fantastic. What about changing the colour? Maybe to similar to the log on the forum, gold glowing? It would link in weith the header text colour for "Main Menu", "Multimedia", "Discussion".

p.s. saru and dazbag are most definately not the same person *giggles*

Perhaps I missed it...not unusual actually, however; did the Admin. delete the "anonymous" option for our SN's, on board? I can see myself on the list of members that are here and that's new to me.

Thank you for your attention to this inquiry.
G.

Oops, forgot this bit: Regarding multiple SN's. (discussed above). I respect the policy of refusing to allow one person multiple personalities on board. However I was curious how one would determine that to be the case in the event more than one person in a household is a member!? Consequently, I would presume, the same computer that everyone shares IP would appear each time each person & their SN logged into the site.

As far as I know you can always see your own username on the list, but if you are set to anonymous then nobody else can. If you are anonymous your name will appear to you with an asterisk next to it.

Edit - Thanks to Lottie for pointing this out, as it turns out you cannot see your own name on the users list if you are set to anonymous. On saying that, no changes have been made to the anonymous login system. Remember to check the aproproate checkbox on the login screen to set yourself as invisible.


We do have ways of determing that, people who are trying to abuse the system with multiple identities are usually very easy to spot. Several people in the same household are quite welcome to register and use seperate accounts however, the 'muliple identities' rule doesn't apply in those situations.

I still wish he included bigfoot

but other than that Great work saru

Oh and, a place where adult topics can be discussed. I'm not talking about anything perverted, just adult topics that aren't normaly allowed around here.

PLEASE.......stopping using this thread as a place to post whore.




I don't know if this can go in any of the existing forums, but perhapes one to discuss medical mysteries, and other things regarding the human body.

Just a quick note to say that i'm currently working on updates to the discussion forum, which will include many of the improvements and additions mentioned in this thread.

More will be posted about what will be included in the near future.

How about a list of banned thread topics.

Like... I get annoyed while cruising through the boards, and finding topics, where people claim to be vampires, werewolves and such.
It's silly and immature, the least they could give us is video evidence.

Also, skeptics in the Psychic forum are i nthe process of debunking certain 'abilities' that members say they have. One of them is Electrokinesis, however, despite the fact that it's debunked, more people claim to have it..


Just a thought

In any individual forum, at the bottom you can arrange threads by their current status, so you can look just at the ‘locked’ topics if that’s what you wanted to do…

Here’s a possible suggestion for the debates forum; maybe there could be an open sub-forum where people can link to a specific debate that took place and discuss it further, so the discussion doesn’t have to be cut off at the end of the official debate..?

How about more advertising for the Debates and Team Debates? Some people are just left there with no opponent. Especially Team Debates, because it's in a Subforum.

I have a good idea,

A Languages Section
to discuss languages of course.

But I can see where that would be challenging considering you dont know what people are saying, and they may say some "bad" things.

Maybe you should have a designated mod that knows a language, like a Mod for Spanish, a Mod for French, a Mod for Italian ext ext, and languages that didnt have a mod couldn't be discussed to keep things "G"