What does Swaylock's need?

Hey all,

I’m back in the saddle, ideating around new features and or improvements for Swaylock’s…

Please take a moment answer the following question:

What features would you like to see on Swaylock's? 

Can be anything that comes to mind. Improvement, new feature, whatever!

Thanks!

Mike

There are two or three things I’d like to see changed, all profile related.

  1. show photos of people’s work on their profile. If I click on someone’s profile, I’d like to see something they’ve done, any project, boards they’ve built, etc…

  2. show which posts someone has created or contributed to on their profile, and make them click-able.

  3. include a location on the profile page. This will allow us to see who is in our area or in a place we might be traveling to.

I’d hate for swaylocks to become instagram, and I dont think it will if it remains just a website (no app), but I realize that it will be an inevitable turn if certain “imrovements” are made. dont turn on direct photo sharing to the profile, but just show photos that have been shared in a thread either as new or as a contribution to another thread. These are simple changes that I think will make the site more interactive.

Cheers,

Tim

 

 

Great feedback Tim. Thanks for kicking it off…

As far as the actual site function, one thing I find slightly annoying is that links in comments do not open in a new window. So if you forget to use the ‘back’ button on your browser closing that window closes the browser altogether. Most other forums open links externally.

Thanks @SammyA

I assume you mean links to external sites? What about if the link is to another thread or comment on Swaylock’s?

I wish posts would appear in order of posting oldest to newest rather then helter skelter in response to other posts. 

Allow the upload of photo files larger than 300kb

–Could be good to know what thread is really interesting for the people reading. Know the hits of that thread for example.

I think that was a feature in the past (before 2004) but I do not remember right now

 

Thanks

Those are all pretty good ideas.  Lowel

It might take some paid content to get the ball rolling again.    It’s no small effort to get a good write-up posted.  A lot of work for just a couple of replies, not really a conversation. 

And the other fix is going to be a more active moderation.  The site really fell off a while back, when a handful of posters were bullies.  Post something they disagreed with, or post something that was their special secret, and negativity was their tool.  Posters talking about “secret special sauce” or challenging whether another poster “was worthy”  of sharing knowledge with.

Either the moderators delete negativity,  or add  Reddit style upvote/ downvote, " block this user" options to let the user base do it.

I know for me, the stoke of posting died from that.

Appreciate this. Moderation is one of the more complex problems of running a public discussion forum.

IMO this forum hit the rocks with the “down vote.”  It allowed a clique of haters to drive people off the forum.  They behaved as if Sways was their own personal BB.  Some even started retro-actively down-voting old posts on old threads.  As a result, I decided to significantly cut back my participation during the down-vote epoch.  Several others did too.

Swaylocks has never recovered from the Down-Vote era.

Standup Zone has a nice layout with sections for recent posts and recent topics grouped together. It makes it easy to do a quick check of the site for changes.

 

https://www.standupzone.com/forum/index.php?board=9.0

 

As far as site functionality that would be the #1 thing I hate.   That and having to hit Ctrl-V to paste something. 

More than anything Swaylocks needs time to go backwards to the days before social media.  The sad truth is web forums like this one are dying these days in favor of “Groups” on Facebook where conversations are had using for the most part real identities and where posting pictures and feedback from any device is simple.

SammyA wrote:

As far as the actual site function, one thing I find slightly annoying is that links in comments do not open in a new window. So if you forget to use the ‘back’ button on your browser closing that window closes the browser altogether. Most other forums open links externally.


As far as site functionality that would be the #1 thing I hate.   That and having to hit Ctrl-V to paste something. 

More than anything Swaylocks needs time to go backwards to the days before social media.  The sad truth is web forums like this one are dying these days in favor of “Groups” on Facebook where conversations are had using for the most part real identities and where posting pictures and feedback from any device is simple.

Stoneburner,

Honestly, I can’t remember the “down vote” era – I’ve been running this site for so long. FWIW, some of the best knowledge sites out there have up and down voting (see. stack overflow) so I wouldn’t immediatly discount it’s utility. Sounds like there needs to be more social structure around it’s implementation…but that’s another discussion. 

But that is all looking backwards. Looking forward, are there any features you would like to see on Swaylock’s to make it better for you?

I haven’t seen the problem lately, perhaps because it has been fixed, but we’ve had annoying security/hacker issues in the past.  Remedy?

As a member for thirteen years i don’t really think there is anything wrong with Sways , I agree with all the suggestions so far , I think it is a shame that everysurfer no longer shares his very unique and clever builds  but we live in a world where some people are bullies and it is very easy for them to get there jollies by cyberbullying  , a long time ago at the begining of the internet someone much smarter than me  told me ,arguing on the internet is like banging your head against a brick wall , it feels great when you stop .  The world has changed and now many peoples idea of building a new board is to design it on a computer then hand it off to a buddy that has built a shaping machine in his garage for a few thousand bucks who then hands the blank off to be glassed there you go the new back yard build , Sways not needed . the participation of Sways has shrunken dramatically since the advent of the shaping machine ,just as  the number of custom board builders has shrunken since the shaping machine . You have big well known board builders hyping there new flat to concave with inverted vee thru spiral channel tail board while JOB is ripping up giant pipe on a pink soft top , we have all seen the amount of Costco boards in the water I was in Hi a couple of weeks ago during the big south swell and I saw so many guys paddling out on those things , as I said times have changed we are a bit like dinosaurs , less and less folks think we are relevent but we are relevent to those few who want to build boards the right way and I hope you all keep reading and posting and sharing and thank you . 

Haven’t looked at this place in quite some time. 

 

As much as you may not want to hear it, this place is a ghost town because contributing members were tired of getting shit on and personally attacked by internet know it alls. 

why would anyone contribute to or be a part of a negative place like that. 

 

im sure you know who the offenders are. If you don’t… you should and the damage is done. your not getting high quality, seasoned board builders to contribute to a place like this any longer because it’s a waste of time - just to be called out by a hack. 

everything you could ever want to know about surfboard building is pretty much available, just do a little diggin, study those who are doing it.  

the present is gone and not coming back, I’d suggest figuring out a way to capture the up and coming. 

 

my 2 pennies  

ps. Internet forums are certainly not dead. I’m a member of a few vintage motorcycle building forums and they are highly contributed to, very inviting, informative and respectful places. 

 

 

 

I’m seeing a pattern here. 

Clearly better/fairer moderation is one of the hot items.

Definitely adding it to my list of high priority improvements…


And to those who have been burned by shitty governance around here in the past, please accept my apologies.

I know this forum has suffered from my neglect. My only excuse is that life got in the way for months, perhaps even years at a time. I simply don’t have the time or resources to fix or improve things given the amount of revenue Swaylock’s currently throws off. It doesn’t even cover server expenses. 

And that leads me to the here and now and why I really started this thread. From where I sit, I see a fork in the road for Swaylock’s. Unplug it and call it day or end of an era…or sink some time and money into it with the goal of 1. improving it (functionality, new features, etc) 2. bringing some life & excitement back to the community and 3. Generating enough revenue to make it all worth while.

This thread is all about helping me decide which road to go down…

Please keep the feedback and ideas coming…it all helps. Once I have enough ideas, feedback, etc. I’ll post  report of my thoughts and what I’m thinking…