"Social Groups" vs. the forums

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

How do the "Social Groups" and the regular forums interact?

E.g.,

I am interested in Model A's. I like to see ALL of the posts that folks are making about them. In the old FordBarn, everything that was said was in the giant list of threads and posts. I could easily scan through and read those threads that interested me, and ignore the others. With all of its warts and blemishes, it was a comfortable environment.

Here, on the new FordBarn, I have the A forum. I can easily see the threads that have been made, even (now) can easily identify the ones which have new content since my last log in. I can scan the threads and read those of interest and ignore the others. It is rapidly also becoming a comfortable environment.

But.....

Am I missing the posts on the "Social Groups"? Do I now have to go to (right now) ten (10!) other forums to see all of the Model A posts?

I sure don't like having meaningful content scattered all over h*ll and back!

Regards,

Bill Lee

[Woogeroo]

Social Groups are separate from the main forums.

They are generally for very specific areas of interest... such as a local car club. A way for the local ford people to interact.

someone might make one for a certain type of body... whatever.

As for viewing options in the forums...

User CP ---> your control panel ---> settings & options ----> Edit Options

scroll down to:

thread display options

experiment and adjust those settings until you find something that you like.

for default thread cutoff, I always select 'show all threads'.

-W

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

Originally Posted by Woogeroo

Social Groups are separate from the main forums.

Yes, and that's the problem!

Originally Posted by Woogeroo

They are generally for very specific areas of interest... such as a local car club. A way for the local ford people to interact.

But that's NOT the way they're being used, at least currently. Of the 10 or so A-related Social Groups" that have been formed, all but one are specific to one or another type of A, and not "A way for the local ford people to interact." This causes information that most A-folks want to see to be scattered all over the map and difficult to keep up with.

Originally Posted by Woogeroo

As for viewing options in the forums...

User CP ---> your control panel ---> settings & options ----> Edit Options

scroll down to:

thread display options

experiment and adjust those settings until you find something that you like.

for default thread cutoff, I always select 'show all threads'.

-W

I will look more closely at the options there and see if I can make it work.

Regards,

Bill Lee

Edit to add:

Looked at the CP as you suggested and do NOT see any way of gathering together in one place all of the A-related forums that are rapidly appearing in the "Social networking" groups along with the actual A forum. If there is a way to do this, I need an explanation.

[Woogeroo]

Well, the social groups are made by members, so people make whatever crazy kinda social group that they want. The main admins do not create, run them or keep up with them. Whichever member created the group is responsible for it as far and editing and deleting posts and threads.

As far as keeping track of the social groups, if you join a group, the groups ya have joined will appear under 'social groups' under the heading of 'your groups'.

Also, any social groups that you join will show on your profile under 'group memberships' on the right hand side column.

-W

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

All well and good...and totally understood.

Bottom line: If I want to keep up with all of the Model A banter, I have to wander all over the place looking 10-12 different forums.

Oh, well....

Regards,

Bill Lee

[Ryan]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

Originally Posted by BillLee/Chandler, TX

All well and good...and totally understood.

Bottom line: If I want to keep up with all of the Model A banter, I have to wander all over the place looking 10-12 different forums.

Oh, well....

Regards,

Bill Lee

No... in time it won't work that way... you'll see that social groups are either:

1. Ignored entirely

or

2. Used as a localization tool

In either case, you can pretty much stay fully abreast just by viewing the main forum.

The social groups are a bit of an experiment at this point. If they become a distraction, I'll get rid of them.

[296 V8]

You could group all your social and forum pages separately on your favorites list.
Then you can roll up there no matter were you are (without going to your profile page) and go were you want.

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

Originally Posted by 296 V8

You could group all your social and forum pages separately on your favorites list.
Then you can roll up there no matter were you are (without going to your profile page) and go were you want.

Willing to try....

In looking around the forum's various links, I simply cannot see where I can group several different forums into a logically single entity. Not sure where to find a "favorites list".

What I would LIKE is to be able to say

"Here's a list of forums. For my viewing, treat them as if they were all one single forum. Display all the threads in order of most recent post, highlight those since I last visited the site."

Can't see how that would be done.

Regards,

Bill Lee

[296 V8]

Bill
Not real computer savvy here, Iv just kinda figured it out as I go (stone on a stick style)
So listening to what you were saying it came to me that you could use the favorites list for that.
On my computer and I think on all there’s a thing up at the top of the screen called the tool bar. Mine has a star that when clicked on drops a list of all the web sites I go to ( I put them there).
So I was thinking you could save all the separate barn pages on there grouped together (you can drag/move them into whatever order).

When you save something on there it always go's back to that exact page


Greg

[BillLee/Chandler, TX]

Greg, thanks for the response.

Yes, the browser "favorites" is where all of my websites are book marked, and I DO have the various forums there. But that's not the problem I am fussing about.

What I am trying to get is a way to have ALL of the FordBarn forums that talk about a Model A (as an example) to be combined into a single display so I don't have to go chasing around to 10 or 12 (or more ) different forums to see all of what folks are talking about. I am seeing a proliferation of "social groups" that are fragmenting the information flow for my favorite (i.e., the Model A), and I am trying to see if there is a way to get it all back together.

Regards,

Bill Lee