Forum Improvements suggestion

**fullbenefit** · 5 January 2020, 4:33 am

Hi guys,

What minor changes do you think should be implemented on GPWA?

I believe these would be beneficial:

Tagging usernames with @
Top recent thanked content list on the main forum page
Money-Making, Sports/Fitness, Motivation and Video Game forum sections (Private Hobby forum section should branch out and should be made public)
Seasonal competitions with prizes
Less similar sub-forums like General Chatter/Freshman forum and those which aren't active like Affiliate Tracking Audits, Member Site Reviews
Tech Talk, Poker & Sports Betting Sections are useful and should be made public (more content for everyone + would be picked up by Google)
You should be able to see members who are viewing the topic
Some Silver Partner Brands don't even have any topics there and the list takes too much valuable space, so the full list should only be shown once expanded with a mouse click + it would be a reason for brands to go for Gold/Platinum.

**universal4** · 5 January 2020, 4:52 pm

Usernames will not get an @ added, and in fact usernames are not supposed to have domain names, a plugin we used to use stopped that but something changed with an update that messed that up. Also, the simple addition of the @ symbol would likely cause similar issues as some bots would immediately expect an email address, not sure how that would affect things.

Adding the @ is not logical as some use a brand name, some a site name, some a personal name so it doesn't really fit many thousands of current members. The method that other forum software using the @ seems completely illogical since linking to forum member profiles provides far more information then most forum allows.

We likely will not be adding the basic money-making forums, we are a gambling affiliate forum for 20 years, there are plenty of the basic money-making forums and sites scattered across the net. Adding a large variety of forums and topics or trying to reach additional niche's is not appealing since we do want to stay focused on our current niche.

The suggestion for a video game section has been discussed previously, so that is not entirely out of the scope, but a section that simply targeted games and gamers and not gambling does not fit the niche. (although some members may have sites that do)

Any forums that are Private will stay private at all times, at no point are threads or posts that were made by someone expecting it to be private be made public. Exceptions to this are when a single post is made with no other input are requested to be moved, or at least when ALL participants of the thread agree to the single thread being moved.

As for tech talk and other subsections that are in private, those topics are always acceptable in public also, but based on many suggestion in previous years it was decided fewer top level subsections were always requested by the members, but we could certainly consider additional subsections in public after we do some restructuring later this quarter. (I will make sure your suggestions are saved for our discussions)

Based on privacy, those viewing threads are not listed, and in fact some members that visit even set their personal privacy to not even show when they are online.

All threads that are public are always shown as available, even when empty, as this at least shows visitors the forums are there if they chose to want to post in them. While I agree completely with you it would be better to have more involvement, we do not feel turning off the showing of the empty forums will not do that, but we hope to move toward better ways to get more sponsors involved in more public discussions.

As for the top, recent and thanked being on main, we considered that but a number of members thought that was spammy and also suggested it would lead to more, less constructive posts in order to make that list (not sure if that is true but maybe)

As for moving some forums around, we actually have plans to do such, but have not had a chance to get that completed, but we will be working on that during this new quarter most likely. We will be mostly moving some of the threads where the motivation is a product or service to be sold traded etc will be restructured. During our restructuring discussions we are also studying if any other forums might be needed.

Rick
Universal4

**fullbenefit** · 5 February 2020, 3:16 pm

Anymore opinions?

Also, should forum have a different theme?

**universal4** · 5 February 2020, 5:22 pm

We are actually working a number of forum improvements to be released soon, most likely during the 2nd quarter.

Rick
Universal4

**Renee** · 13 February 2020, 12:57 am

Rick if the @ suggestion has been binned already, do you guys have another option to tag someone in a thread so they are notified?
That is the only way I've seen it happen so far. I agree that it would be a handy option, especially if an affiliate was trying to get a reps attention in a thread.

**universal4** · 13 February 2020, 12:23 pm

I have been reading up a bit more on username tagging, and that actually might be something that in fact possibly could be added. (I originally thought the request was that usernames themselves could contain the @ which is not possible)

This is not a built-in function it appears, so I will have to research the mods more fully. I think enabling content tagging itself would not be used, but for user tagging itself I certainly think this can be added to the list of future feature add-ons.

Thank you pokcas for the suggestions and subsequent follow up from Renee.

Rick
Universal4

**ddm** · 13 February 2020, 8:43 pm

a "dark-mode" skin option would be nice tbh.
i use it on twitter, reddit etc. huge screen + lots of white just burns my eyes tbh.

**Renee** · 13 February 2020, 8:54 pm

Originally Posted by ddm

a "dark-mode" skin option would be nice tbh.
i use it on twitter, reddit etc. huge screen + lots of white just burns my eyes tbh.

+1
I have everything possible set on dark mode. Phone, PC. Life. XD

Rick - yep, the @ symbol is just used in a post to send a notification to a user that someone has mentioned them. Saves having to send a private message to someone to tell them about a thread.

**universal4** · 13 February 2020, 10:10 pm

I have seen many forums that have skin options, and although it's nice to have options like that, I have my doubts those options can be offered with as much customization as our templates have to go through.

We can't just click a change theme button.

However all suggestions will make a list.

Rick
Universal4

**WBM** · 24 March 2020, 6:58 am

I think making the forum responsive should be the first step !

Trying to view on my phone is horrible & I hate using Tapatalk

**fullbenefit** · 28 March 2020, 5:54 am

Originally Posted by WBM

I think making the forum responsive should be the first step !

Trying to view on my phone is horrible & I hate using Tapatalk

Oh! This should be improved! Didn't even realise it.

**Robbie Billiams** · 28 March 2020, 12:01 pm

Adaptation for mobile devices is very important, personally I and many of my colleagues often watch the forum from a smartphone. I think so most of the participants do.

**Former Member 14** · 28 March 2020, 2:29 pm

Originally Posted by WBM

I think making the forum responsive should be the first step !

Trying to view on my phone is horrible & I hate using Tapatalk

The BIG problem is the forum software.
Unlike vBulletin 5... vBulletin which powers the GPWA, was designed when mobiles weren't even on the radar.

Instead of adding more and more hacks to the old software, the logical solution would be upgrade to vBulletin 5.

We've been waiting 3+ years for SSL, and given varied excuses of why, the simple process of SSL, hasn't been implemented. I'll be very surprised if any of the above suggestions are followed thru this year. No offence meant to you Rick, but you can only implement/action what has been approved.

AGD and CasinoMeister made the transition to XenForo because vBulletin was outdated. CM's site is just as large, if not larger, than the GPWA. And, I'd dare say, he had less staff to implement that change-over

**Cash Bonus** · 28 March 2020, 3:33 pm

It doesn’t seem oriented for mobiles and I usually view the GPWA forum through my iPhone and I’m always finding that I have to zoom in frequently because the font seems a little small which hurts my eyes and sometimes the pages either stay stuck on loading up or take sometime to open. Definitely a lot of people use their smartphone to surf the web and not just for seeing the forums

**Robbie Billiams** · 28 March 2020, 4:42 pm

Hello!

It can be done in few ways:
1. Make a new skin for current software responsive for different devices: one UX designer, one Frontend developer and one QA engineer.
2. Migrate to another modern software or forum platform such as discource: one developer needed, or maybe hosting support can do this on their own.
3. Make a new software one Software Architect, one UX designer, one Frontend developer, one Bacvkend developer and one QA engineer. Also it depends on new required functionality.

**ddm** · 7 April 2020, 10:52 am

can we have a "block" button to stop seeing interactions with some members?

**Renee** · 7 April 2020, 8:13 pm

Originally Posted by ddm

can we have a "block" button to stop seeing interactions with some members?

There's an ignore button... but you still see that they posted and can just show the hidden post with a click.
If there was a way to just not see those posts all together that would be awesome.

**DaftDog** · 8 April 2020, 5:42 am

Originally Posted by Renee

There's an ignore button... but you still see that they posted and can just show the hidden post with a click.
If there was a way to just not see those posts all together that would be awesome.

I agree, that would be really f****n awesome.

**Former Member 14** · 9 April 2020, 12:49 pm

Originally Posted by Renee

There's an ignore button... but you still see that they posted and can just show the hidden post with a click.
If there was a way to just not see those posts all together that would be awesome.

Totally agree with both yourself and Daftdog. Outa sight outa mind.

**fullbenefit** · 14 May 2020, 9:08 am

Still nothing has been done.

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