users/Swaylurkers/Swaylockers/random visitors speak up! my 2 cents worth
PROGRAMMING
I find the archives to be hard to read due to formatting weirdness… so much good stuff there, but hard to follow now.
USER HABITS
why don’t people put any info in their profiles? location, some personal tidbit, or anything…
NEW FOLKS/NEW STUFF
Ok, there are a lot of you (over 4000 users) lurking out there, post something. We’d like to hear from you!
What do you think? How could this place improve?
Yep…Archives are nearly impossible to use…It would be nice to keep an unedited archive just for history sake, but maybe an edited archive that would remove posts that are not on topic or don’t add any info. Just clean out the clutter. The posts would still be in the unedited archive if you want to read them. Edit by deletion only, that would make things fairly painless and fast too.
Personally , I most enjoy the posts where people post photos and reports on boards they are making / have made .
Surfboard design stuff , practical stuff .
And , for the thousands of people who don’t post … don’t feel intimidated , you’ve all got something good to contribute ! This is a friendly place for people of all ages .
cheers !
ben
maybe this is too much to ask
alot of websites I visit try to use the context of my inquiry to direct me to things that might be of help or interest. Kind of like what’s happening on the periphery here.
it would be neat if an automatic search was performed based on the context of the title of your subject line and a google search of the forum is performed and results are brought back in a sub-window with possible threads that might be of use in either showing you how the topic may have been dealt with in the past.
kind of like performing the search for those who don’t to nip the question in the bud so to speak…
in my product offerings it’s called contextual help…
that is where ever and what ever you are doing in the application when you click on the help button you get precisely the info you need versus a table of contents to hunt through.
Amazon, ebay and a host of others use click thru to do the same. I think a command to execute a search off the subject line with an option to view the results might be a big help… Especially if the subject including a “?” in the phrase.
the archives can be cleaned up somewhat with some text/format swapping to make it more readable but I’m not sure if implanted carriiage returns are supported in this world or not…
what Mike’s doing at no cost to his growing user base is remarkable so what ever we get is a blessing.
My online systems run multi millions of dollars and cost my customers a significant penny to play in so I really have to tip my hat to all you guys for what’s being achieved here…
Oh yea getting rid of that google placed surfer singles ad on the bottom banner would be nice though
Thanks for all the hard work!
USER HABITS
why don’t people put any info in their profiles? location, some personal tidbit, or anything…
i agree with speedneedle, if someone doesnt have a real name and a user profile they are not to be trusted…
I don’t know if this is just a firefox thing, but whenever you go to a post that has pictures it doesn’t go to the last post that you haven’t read but instead stops at the pictures posted much earlier in the post.
I think the archives are most in need of improvement. Although there is something to be said for their treasure hunt present state - in which you might find something better then what you started out looking for - if I was King with a lot of time on my hands in no particular order I would:
Organize the archive worthy threads under broader catagories, much like the RESOURCE section is divided. Right now a search for something as straight forward as FIN REPAIR will get you every thread in which either word was used. Much better to go to a REPAIRS catagory and look at the various threads under that. Of course sub catagories would help even more but maybe a little treasure hunting isn’t too bad.
Edit all the “Nice work. Wish my first repair looked like that!” kind of posts from threads that are archive worthy.
Do something about the really old threads wherein everybody seems to have been cutting and pasteing the previous posts into their replies. Not sure why they were doing it but they are hard to sift through.
List the most recent posts first when searched. More often then not I’m searching for something from 2 months ago and the search finds start in 2002.
More events with photos.
Big Organized events like Cerritos College and the Big Sur Camp Out
And small informal events like the ones at Keith’s house and Hicky’s house.
Maybe we could do a beach clean up day
Thanks for having us over Keith!
Got Foam?
Ray Meek
more talking! share the stoke! it stokes other people too. share you enjoyment if you’ve been on a great trip or for a great surf!
I think in the (sticky) rules topic, there could be a couple of additions:
There should be a special, agreed-upon font to be used for sarcasm & satire…no need to get offended when someone else was joking. That kind of nuance can be so hard to convey in Arial.
Anyone who doesn’t at least provide the ocean or continent upon which they live should not be allowed to post.
We need more stories & photos of dramatic mistakes and dangerous ideas. How else are those of us with low impulse control going to learn anything?
Once somebody responds with “check the archives”, the next (automatic) post should be search results & then the thread should be automatically locked.
I will write on the blackboard 100 times, “I will not again answer the most rudimentary EPS questions” and everyone else should too.
Once a thread hits 100 words only found in obscure scientific reference manuals, it should be converted into German. All the best engineering books are in German anyway, so anybody that dedicated to the study of the neutral axis or the base chord AOA coefficient should make the full commitment.
Maybe Google can help with a weighted search function? About time those guys started earning their keep around here, what?
More prizes! Everyone loves prizes.
Can you please make it stop raining up here in Nor Cal? Its getting a little old.
Thanks 
Awesome website. Helped no end in ordering last board. One day will build one. Ditto archives.
more posts by …
CarveNalu
dower
overboard
rubberlove
ambrose
shipman
‘sir W.A.L.’
and , the french board builders …photos !
less posts by …
benny1 [joking mate!]
chipfish61
leeDD
anonymous people
cheeeers !
ben
afterthought …more "look how much I f***ed up this board " threads …gotta agree with young benny1 on THAT one ! [ … where is "Skeletor " ??!!]
and the german idea ?..jah , das is goot ein benny !!
Hey Keith,
-Better searching features (to be able to streamline searching by “search by title” or “search by message body”)
-A fin review section where we can see all different fins by different manufacturers and reviews by actual users and favored fin combos. no discussions, just reviews.
-ability to embed videos.
peace.
Rio
I just tried it on Swaylocks since it makes a difference on search feature on some of the other sites . How you arrange your key words definitely affects the result. Actual test results - Fin Box or fin+box (7,306 hits), (fin box) or (fin+box) (5 hits) , “fin box” or “fin+box”(2,634 hits), etc.
Hard to get a handle on things when so much info is being processed so rapidly!
(Sweating and trembling) Must… get… handle… on… things…
one mac post a pic pipe
esplained for kook computer
right brainers.
I would become a dangerous organism
chip would plead for me to stop
…ambrose…
or not
an- archy
is an island
of contained madness.
There should be a special, agreed-upon font to be used for sarcasm & satire…no need to get offended when someone else was joking. That kind of nuance can be so hard to convey in Arial.
Once a thread hits 100 words only found in obscure scientific reference manuals, it should be converted into German. All the best engineering books are in German anyway, so anybody that dedicated to the study of the neutral axis or the base chord AOA coefficient should make the full commitment.
My family most likely is of German origins and I feel VERY offended by your words…
vous avez une bananae dans le gauche region de ton brain , balsa …c’est la raison d’etre …
Tsss-tsss-tsss…
“TU AS une banane dans L’HEMISPHERE gauche de ton CERVEAU, Balsa… C’EST POUR CA…”
Chip, is that what you mean by “VW Citroen Drivers”?
nice bus …yours ?
ben