Forums or no forums? Sound off

Just a quick bit of housekeeping here. Not a week goes by of late where either James or I (or both of us) are asked about starting up some jkOnTheRun forums. Truth be told, I think there are already some great platform-based forums out there. Howard Forums, Pocket PC Thoughts and Gotta Be Mobile come to mind for cellphone, Windows Mobile and Tablet PC communities. Having a jkOnTheRun forum almost seems redundant with what's already out there in my mind.

But I'm not the community. You are. And James made a great point during a conversation we had this afternoon. Sometimes a post will generate upwards of 20 more comments; wouldn't it be nice to have that information categorized and easy to find in a forum? I can't argue with that, but we certainly don't want to reinvent the wheel as it were. So, the floor is open. Share your thoughts in the comments on this one and we'll see what the community wants. We've got other site changes in the works as well (like our new menu buttons, next page navigation at the bottom of the main page, plus more items TBA), so let us know if we should add forums on our "to do" list. Thanks!

Comments

[Nate]

I spend the majority of my time on Hofo, but I could probably squeeze you guys in.

I guess my only question would be, do you guys have the traffic to support an active forum? I'm not expecting an answer (it's none of my business), just a thought for you and James to discuss.

Regardless, if there's a jkOnTheRun forum, I'll be there. You guys are a good read. I'd assume the discussion would be entertaining.

[GoodThings2Life]

I gotta be honest, I think you'd be better off partnering with GottaBeMobile for forums. :)

[Hip Gnosis]

You definitely don't want to reinvent the wheel as it were. You want to reinvent it as it will be.

[scoobie]

I'd prefer you to concentrate on h/w reviews , software reviews and improving the navigation and searching of the existing site first. I do find the existing site hard to search and find things

[Aaron J. Walker]

Even though I am a member of the GBM forums, I don't really frequent them unless it is specifically pointed out that a topic continues in the forum. So I would vote no.

The only time I use forums is if I have a question that I think someone on the forum can answer. But, for general reading, a chuckle or two, and information, I tend to stick to the main page and comments.

I don't think you guys need a forum.

[Nate the great]

Before you start a forum, you need to ask yourselves this: Do you guys have the time or inclination to be forum moderators? If not, then who would you ask to do it for you?

I second the GottaBeMobile suggestion.

[Jeff]

Nah... I couldnt swing it here. Right now things are very hard to find on JKONTHERUN as the front page currently is very busy.This site isnt a forum type of site that I would consider posting. I normally will spend 2-3 min a day reading your 3 stories a day you poat and then I am off.....

Its like engadget doesnt need forums...

[Dave Zatz]

Better to add threaded blog comments (and improved search) I think. That's what I want to do on my blog anyway...

[Mel Buckpitt]

I vote no forums. The use of threaded comments is a good idea though.

[James]

I also vote for not adding forums.

[Kevin C. Tofel]

All good comments; thanks! I'd lean towards not doing them myself due to the reasons I stated and the time / effort compared to the value.

I should also point out that since we're on a hosted platform for the blog, all of the tweaks we've done have been cobbled together CSS and HTML hacks that I've figured out along the way. What should be easy (and is on other platforms) is not always possible here. Doesn't mean we're not working on them, but I wanted to point that out. Thanks!

[Mickey Segal]

This blog and GottaBeMobile overlap a lot, and having two sets of forums would fragment the discussions without an obvious benefit to the community. I think the comments here work fine as they are.

[Toby]

I like the fact that the comments here are the only place to discuss the story/post. This means we know JK and KCT often/always read them. And indeed respond to us readers' comments (I like the improvement in your comments being in a yellow box).

Otherwise with a separate forum you get problem (as at Gottabemobile) that the comments left on the front posts don't always get a response, and double up related posts on the forum.

Keep up the good work! Cheers, Toby from London, England.

[Jason Johnson]

Personally I would love to see some forums here but I understand it would take additional strain on your time.

[Woadan]

Adding forums might add some value. But only if they don't detract from you guys gathering , evaluating, and theorizing. Otherwise, they're just a distraction.

Woadan

[PJE]

I'd vote for no forum, but think a seconf page where anyone (within reason) could post items of interest without needing to email JK or KCT. Items from this second page could be promoted to the main page if they were deamed worthy.

I second a couple of the comments about possible improvements to the front page layout. I only really look at the main column (mainly as I visit so frequently I don't need to see what you posted in the past!) I would like a simplified layout for the posts of the last day.

[Pete]

When you had a forum I was signed in. Sad to say it never really took off, and since its demise there has certainly been no loss of quality in the posts here, so - as they say - if it aint broke......... :)

[David]

I'd vote no. There's GBM, and even TabletPCBuzz, for that matter.

D.

[Pam T.]

Not sure you NEED forums, but the Pocket PC thoughts guys do a front end that reads much like jkontherun does now - article posting, and I only go into the forums to post comments. Done like that it wouldn't be terribly difficult, might be easier to manage (or not), and no one says you have to open up forums for anything and everything. It could still just be for your article posts and their comments.

Which would gain you very little over the current design, I think. And tweaking the forums templates/design and membership dbs can suck time away from playing with new gadgets.

So, why mess with a good thing?

[Kevin C. Tofel]

PJE, we used to have our archives listed by day but they required too much navigation, i.e.: you only got one post per page and had to hit next / previous. Kind of defeated the purpose in the way that Typepad implemented it. I'll think about how to cobble up a better implementation. Meanwhile, try hitting up the Mobile Edition link in the right sidebar. Although it's meant for reading on a mobile device, it provides a nice list of post titles on the "big" screen. A quick hit of the most recent posts in a simple list.

[Rodfather]

Sure why not.
Or perhaps threaded comments or the comments section replaced with a forum threads.

[Gerardo]

I vote for having a forum. The problem with the site right now is that if anybody checks an article posted two months ago about a certain bag that is used for a P1610 and they have a question about it, how can anybody read and answer the question? There is no easy way. With a forum, you can make an old forum thread live again if you ask a question of that old article.
Engadget is a gadget news site, where it doesn't matter what you comment and the article lives for only one day max. If you were late to the party and asked a question, nobody will be reading your question nor the article again. This is not the case with jkOnTheRun, where you have a small amount of articles everyday and it may be manageable to handle a small forum. If you need help moderating it, I'm pretty sure you will have plenty of helping hands if you ask for help running the forum.
jkOnTheRun is more and more visited everyday I guess. I think you can try a forum and wait for the results.

gb

[Dave Zatz]

Gerardo, but what if you could subscribe to comments? Not sure if that's an option on TypePad, but I find it useful on WordPress so the conversation can carry on and be followed.

[Hoot Gibson]

An article + comments = Forum Topics and Answers.

Based on the above observation, I would recommend trying to find a way to make the articles/comments more searchable AND sortable.
If not possible, then perhaps a forum may be helpful.

For example, I was looking for a reference the other day, and the "hits" came up all over the map. I knew the article was written in mid-2007, but the list was all over the map.

=-= Hoot

[BLiF]

Why fiddle with perfection? Your site is great as is.

[James Morman]

You definitely need a "Notify me of new comments by email" check box.

I vote no for a forum.

[Jamie Poster]

I think it's time for GottaBeOnTheRun. :)

[Badcam]

No need for a forum.

[Jezlyn]

It would be interesting if you had a forum, but I probably would not visit it that often. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the online content I already keep track of. But yes, improving comments on articles (threading, e-mail notifications) would be nice.

Incidentally, I completely skipped over Kevin's comments in this thread because my brain thought they were inline ads... Wow, no wonder I don't mind most banner ads; I don't see them anymore. :)

[Kip]

I have to say no to a forum only because I'm certain James would come up with a corny or embarrassing forum handle that would make Kevin's life a misery.

[tnkgrl]

Don't do it.

[Rick Lobrecht]

To me a forum means that other's can start the conversation. I come here for the commentary from Kevin and James, and the discussion it creates. That said I agree with several of the other posters that comment subscription/notification, better search, comment threading would all be welcome improvements.

Good luck with the site redesign.

Rick

[Mike Cane]

No forum.

The WordPress template I use does something different than the last one. When I click on a date, it shows just a *summary* of that day's posts and I can quickly see the one I'm looking for (it usually tries to squish them onto one page). Maybe you can investigate if that's possible here? Otherwise, the search feature really bites (oh, you know how many times I've emailed you, jk, asking, Where's THIS?!).

[ArchiMark]

Bit surprised by everyone here not wanting forums...I actually have thought for a long time that it would be much easier to have forums here...but if there was an option for getting email regarding replies that would be good...

Great site regardless!

Mark
Silicone Valley Digerati

[James Kendrick]

Mike, try the mobile edition in the right sidebar.

[nomo]

I echo the previous comments regarding formatting and searching. I like the current article + comments format, but would like to see it catalogued (perhaps as a second page) and sorted by most recent date. This would allow old topics to be revived as new comments are added. Also, the search tool would be better if it could be sorted by date in addition to relevance. In summary, I recommend that you continue to drive the article content but incorporate the organizational features of a forum (leog.net, for example).

[Kevin C. Tofel]

What an awesome set of feedback! This is great! We're in agreement on the commenting; Typepad natively doesn't offer anything fancy, so we've researched a few third-party comment systems. I've been a little code monkey all morning as we've been testing each potential solution and while they all offer nicey-nice features like threaded comments, RSS and e-mail for comments, they all seem to have their drawbacks as well. 3rd party solutions tend to slow page loads, have their own login credential systems, etc...

We're still researching and testing, but I wanted to thank everyone who took the time to provide feedback!

[Moi]

i think you guys should do as Brighthand, they have implemented this to perfection.