Mahoning Valley Forum

During this month the Mahoning Valley Site will be changing.
The main site is currently closed for maintenance.

The forum will remain open. 

There is now a new forum category.
The RSS feed board pulls in feeds and you can comment on those news items.
WFMJ and WKBN are  first test boards. I  will add more as the week  goes on.
Some local news services don't offer feeds. 

If you know of a local website that offers News Feeds and might welcome exposure and discussion, please let me know via personal message.

Other changes to the forum will be minor. Perhaps a theme change for the new year.

I am considering opening up a stand alone classified ads center. 

Thank you for your patience and continued support.

Do you think you could consolidate some of the forums?  There are way too many and are not justified by the low number of posts made.  Since I am sure that most of us click on the "New posts since last visit" each time we log in, the numerous categories make no sense but only go to confuse people who wish to post.  For example, if I want to post something about Anne Gilliam's stance on road repavings, do I do it in Political News, Youngstown in General, East Side, Downtown, Road News or Construction News?  It it rather silly to have so many categories. 

I think you could get rid of Mass Transit, Fire News, Police News, Road News, Construction News and Airport News as topics posted in those forums would fit under the main forums at the top of the page.  This will certainly help streamline the utility of the site.

BTW the jury is still out on the RSS Feeds.  I went from a half page of new posts to three pages.  I could see this getting out of hand very quickly.  I don't want to go for three days then log in and find ten pages of new posts to wade through.

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the feedback.

I can definitely consolidate the categories...  however the categories were requested.
I think we've had this conversation before. 

Re- RSS feeds.
So far I've gotten 2 positives and you are the second "negative" 
I can remove them and put them on the main site.  They were on the main site originally.

I'll add a few polls.

Rick,
Questions about  usage... hope you can find time to answer.
Do you click the unread posts in the top bar of the main category or do you use another method to see posts? (attached)
Do you subscribe to posts that interest you?
Do you ignore boards that have no relevance?
Just curious.
FM

When I come to the main page I click on "Show Unread Posts since last visit" to see what threads are being dicussed.  I'll then read those threads and comment if I have something to add.   

The only time I really pay attention to the various individual forums is when I want to start a thread as I try to figure out which one it fits into.  Most of the time I just post in "Youngstown in General" rather than try to figure out what forum it fits best into. 

Thanks for responding.

RSS Feeds have been removed.

Perhaps move the lesser used topics down the list.  Keep the active ones near the top.

That's not Rick's complaint, Jay.  He has a difficult  time choosing where to post.

Just try to post where you think it fits the best.  If I wanted to say something about the condition of a road on the west side, I would post on the West Side board.  Something less specific about road conditions could be posted on Road News.

My posts are all over the place depending on the topic, and I must say that the new news feeds right here will save me time, leaving this site to run a search of the newspaper or TV station to get a story, then come back to post here.

Towntalk...I'll put all the feeds on the main site pages... they were there before... not sure that was common knowledge.  There will be a link at the bottom of the forum. Still plugging through getting things back together after a much needed update.

I also thought it was a good idea to bring in local news sources.

F.M. - I agree with Rick, with regard to consolidating the number of forum message
boards.  I do the same thing when I log in.  I click on show unread msgs since last
visit and go from there.

I like the idea of having classified ads in a separate section - these will have many
sub-categories.

By the way,  THANK YOU for the great job you do with this forum.  It's a valuable
resource to the community.

Quote from: AllanY2525 on February 05, 2014, 01:55:42 AM
F.M. - I agree with Rick, with regard to consolidating the number of forum message
boards.  I do the same thing when I log in.  I click on show unread msgs since last
visit and go from there.

You're welcome Alan... please vote... so far, it 3 to 1 against consolidation and I'm assuming Rick is the one vote. I could be wrong...  :)

Hi Folks... those curves that didn't quite line up have been driving me nuts for a couple of hears... have removed them... straight lines all around.. boring colors -- grays are easy on the eyes.

We get 3 RSS feeds on a national board where I'm the Administrator. They never seemed to be a problem and have parked a few conversations. They only post every 4 or 5 hours.

As far as the number of forums...
I suppose a few could be consolidated but i don't really see a need.

I removed the feeds.