Well, it looks like Bozeman Talks ...

Is it time to bury Bozeman Talks?
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...has gone full circle. Since its inception it covered alot of immedite issues and had some pretty dumb discussions. But with nothing new in the passed days, it seems to be not worth checking in on anymore.

It was fun, now it's time it get's revamped or dropped,
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tags: Bozeman, Talks + add tags
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posted on Fri, May 09, 2008 06:02 AM
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Poor Organization bybcmontana1 month ago (2 votes) (report abuse) (reply)
A week or so ago, berrymountain complained about the lack of organization. I think that is a main contributor to the lack of success of this forum.

The fact that it was popular at first seems to indicate a desire of many to have a place to discuss local issues, plug their business, and spout off without having to write a letter to the editor.

But now that the number of new posts and comments is dwindling makes me believe that people aren't motivated to participate because to do so takes too much effort and searching. I know myself that I look at the few "featured discussions" (who picks these to be "featured" anyway?) and rarely look much further.

The other day I did see a post that talked about Community Supported Agriculture, and I would be very interested to hear others' views on this. However, it had been posted WAY back in April, and as such was now buried. I made a new comment on this post, but that was probably not seen by many, due to the poor organization.

Does anyone from the Chronicle read this forum, and do they see what's happening? Do they really care? Was this just a test to see if they could sell Ad space here? Whose decision was it to launch a community forum with new software from Instant Journalist? There's a lot of great forum software out there with many more features which is much more mature (Instant Journalist was just released in November, 2007). I dunno, it seems to me like immature software is lacking in features that could make this a popular site.
Organization byArt1 month ago (1 votes) (report abuse) (reply)
Well let us hope this is a work in progress. It really is the case that things are really hard to find, especially if something comes up that makes one want to comment on an old existing post. All posts may have value and each has their own clientle in terms of interest. But I really don't want to have to wade thru a lot of posts on recipe ideas if I want to add something or even read something about illegal immigrants who don't recycle or pick up their dog's poop. Listen up, Chronicle. Steal ideas from other papers' websites if you have to.
navigation bycwrite1 month ago (1 votes) (report abuse) (reply)
If you want to return to a post daily, click on "discussions" in the top toolbar, rather than "home." On the left is a category box. Choose the one which was used to label the original post such as environment, just asking or education, etc. If you don't think the topics are interesting enough, think up your own. I've only posted a few but I notice they are read way more often than commented on. Are alot of people just reading, too timid to make a remark?
RE: navigation bybcmontana1 month ago (0 votes) (report abuse)
It's not whether or not the topics are interesting enough... I think there's been plenty of interesting topics. However, these interesting topics have received only a handful of replies. I attributed this to a difficult and unfriendly interface--on this I may be right or wrong.

However, what you suggest is not all that easy either. If I click on "Discussions" and then choose "Just Asking", I see a page full of partial posts. At this time, there are 67 of them, and it takes three pagefuls to get them. Imagine how much harder it could be if we had 250 "Just Asking" posts!

Most forum software organizes the discussions in major topics, and them sub-topics. Then, discussion threads are listed only by title or subject so that at least 50 - 100 fit on the page. Statistics on each thread are also displayed on one line, which makes it easy to quickly scan the latest discussions. Most forums still have to have multiple pages of threads, but at least a thread will bubble up to the top if it is recently active, rather than remain stagnant due to an old original date.

I'm not trying to be too hard on this new venture. However, I do question the use of new software which is not nearly as feature-rich as lots of other software that's been tried and tested for years. Besides, the Instant Journalist costs about $200 per month, and most of the best mature forum software is free.
as for me.. bytiredofbeingjudged1 month ago (0 votes) (report abuse) (reply)
i got a taste of summer, and decided to put the laptop away and go play outside!
next winter, im sure this place will be all the rage once more ;)
Summer? You have summer??? bybcmontana1 month ago (0 votes) (report abuse)
Yeah, I keep waiting for summer... got 3" of snow on my deck this morning (5/10/8). So that's why I'm here rather than out hiking or fishing!

Dang global warming!!!
What was the subject here? byberrymountain1 month ago (0 votes) (report abuse) (reply)
ADHD for sure! "Pooter" from the Chronicle is working on it. I agree with the poster above, this is a great idea...Just not such a great forum.

We need buttons! To the left, "Most Viewed" (top 3) "Most Commented" (top 3) and "Newest Postings"

C'mon Pooter, help us out here. REDESIGN PLEASE!