I didn't know any of the posters on here pre CCE (not sure how I feel about that :D)
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
The FUTURE of CCE
(89 posts)- Started 4 years ago by chdot
- Latest reply from gembo
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Posted 4 years ago #
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@steveo you feel proud and honoured to know us, innit
Posted 4 years ago # -
For the record -
I knew g but not s.
Posted 4 years ago # -
I knew chdot, LB, WC and Tulyar before CCE (and before .citycycling). A few others like DaveC I knew of from elsewhere.
A Venn diagram of cycle forums and members would be entertaining, but I am not a datamonger.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Don't judge a book by it's cover. The content of CCE is what makes it work. I would vote for an updated software as I suspect the cover puts people off.
I personally use Kenny's rather excellent CCEfeed tool to read the site. I only visit CCE itself to post. It allows to pick up topics where you last read them.
If/when the software requires updated I would advise against 3rd party hosting (eg proboards). I have seen too many forums disappear abruptly when their hosts stopped trading. Having said that I do like the Proboards setup so if a way to auto archive the content was available it may be an option.
My one firm request is please don't introduce signatures. They are even worse than avatars.
Posted 4 years ago # -
The rules also seem to have worked quite well
Posted 4 years ago # -
Occasionally I do need a prompt when I fail to recognise a forumite IRL but in some ways our identities here provide the glorious charm of CCE
One frustration is that I need to put any files into a URL link rather than post direct. So most of the time this means from my Flickr account - and excludes documents of various types.
It may be that direct file posting carries issues/risks, and a 'translator' option might be useful to convert a file to a CCE URL.
BTW my Flickr posts are as A V Lowe & include far too many pictures of Edinburgh tram tracks falling apart (a growing album), & wonky bike stowage on trains. I tweet as @BCCletts....
Posted 4 years ago # -
Goodness @chdot, I'd actually forgotten about the conversations we had pre-launch, but it's all come flooding back (though I'm hazy on location - Filmhouse?). It's interesting that one thing I really remember was a frustration at the very old-fashioned style and nature of the Spokes website and document launches / links. That still really hasn't changed, and yet, I wouldn't actually now want to change anything in CCE.
I keep threatening to relaunch .citycycling, but not finding the time. I've often pondered doing it as a blog, but I preferred the pseudo-magazine monthliness of it. Maybe I can work something out over the summer.
I've come and gone as a poster over the years, mainly for the same reason I don't get involved in as many Twitter spats as I used to - I get frustrated by black and white arguments or reasoning. But that's my hang-up, and actually, as has been pointed out, keeping ALL items on certain topics into one area works well - I'm particularly proud of starting 'THE Helmet Thread' (I think I started it, again memory may not be serving me well).
My well-hidden-but-oh-so-rampant introversion meant once I got out of the habit of coming to PY coffee meets, I've found it virtually impossible to get back into that, much to my detriment, but the undoubted gain of others.
As for the forum itself? As hinted above, don't change anything. Simple. I've been plenty of places online that did change, even just in small ways, and lost their essence. Spokes does still need to meander into the 21st century though....
Posted 4 years ago # -
“Filmhouse?” here?
“I keep threatening to relaunch .citycycling”
Please do. Doesn’t have to be regular.
“one thing I really remember was a frustration at the very old-fashioned style and nature of the Spokes website and document launches / links”
That’s true, though not a reason for starting CCE, as such.
Posted 4 years ago # -
@wilmer, come to PY next Friday and In will buy you a coffee
Posted 4 years ago # -
“next Friday”
Posted 4 years ago # -
Just Mr Parker, which was frikin hilarious!
Blimey. I’d forgotten all about that. I just re-read the thread.
“I’ve just drawn a picture of a spaceship. I have coloured it blue & red. All it needs is for NASA to build it and we can start colonising Mars. Of course I would expect a cut of all Martian income tax. I’m not doing this for free you know. “
I’m not sure whether it reflects well on CCE that people were open minded enough to treat him seriously at first or whether alarm bells should have rung a bit earlier as his posts were a bit wierd from the very start.Posted 4 years ago # -
I think ‘we’ assumed he had a good idea, but was a bit unrealistic and might bend to CCE ‘wisdom’...
Posted 4 years ago # -
I thought that thread was buried under chdot's patio?
Posted 4 years ago # -
@chdot, yeah not this Friday, next Friday, 26th July not 19th
Posted 4 years ago # -
@gembo
Corrected link above.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Don't change a thing.
Please.
Posted 4 years ago # -
NO change is never an option!
Thanks for compliment.
Posted 4 years ago # -
What's the hivemind's view on interesting Twitter posts by CCErs or selected local accounts relevant to Edinburgh Active Travel?
Do we assume that you must be following the poster and therefore no need to repeat it on CCE?
Or should we repeat it as it will be of interest to CCErs?
I've often pondered this, when my twitter posts take a matter of seconds but to copy and paste and comment to CCE takes longer and I wonder if it is worth the effort.
Posted 4 years ago # -
“
Do we assume that you must be following the poster and therefore no need to repeat it on CCE?
“
No
“
Or should we repeat it as it will be of interest to CCErs?
“
Personal choice...
Always easier if it fits with existing thread.
Sometimes I just post the link, sometimes the text too.
Depends...
Posted 4 years ago # -
Social-media style interfaces do tend to encourage shorter engagement and the forking nature of comments means things fizzle out pretty quickly. I think CCE's single-threaded topics are actually a strength and I'd be sorry to lose that.
I tend to read using http://www.irreverence.co.uk/ccefeed and just click through if I want to respond. It's even more stripped back and I like that look too. (Basic interfaces are good, I was a MUD fanatic in the early 90s...)
Mobile-friendly might be good but we seem to be ok without it...
Posted 4 years ago # -
Having kicked off this tread with my something will need to change email from a campsite on Normandy, I didn't have a chance to properly follow it. But I've finally had a chance to go through and summarise things.
First some quotes that I think have nailed things quote well:
"I like the pared-back style and the limited options for formatting and content. It's the contributors who make CCE what it is, and with the current format those contributions shine through without the distraction of animated emojis and silly avatars."
Greenroofer
IWRATS
"The retro-austerity is a big deal. No recommends, no emojis, no logging in with Facebook."I have to admit, I had no idea about CCEFeed - this looks really good, my daily habit is using a RSS feed reader (newsblur) but for compleists this is a great options for following along.
I think that chdot has fixed the links on the right sidebar.
Favicon - I agree, any volunteers for designing one or thoughts of what it should look like?
In considering alternative software, I've noted the following as a set of requirements:
Basic Principles:
* Keep simple
* Change as little as possible
* Allow username/password login
* Keep RSS Feeds.
* Keep all content.Okay/possible changes:
* Give option of other media as logins(?) (not facebook?)
* Make more mobile friendly
* Easy to add images.
* Move "Latest Discussions to top of page"Don't
* No signatures
* No recommends
* no emojis :(
* no logging in with Facebook.and the following software has been suggested:
* nodeBB
* wordpress with BBpress
* phpBB
* discourse
* simple machinesHave I missed anything?
Nothing is going to happen fast, I'm viewing this as a something over the next few years. Which is still very much in phase one, which is getting everyone used to the idea that something unfortunately is going to have to change. Maybe moving into thinking about how that might look.
On the subject of images, I think we can probably deal with images better by setting the stylesheet to resize them to fit them into the column. I've often found myself not posing things because it's just far too hard to link to images. So much of what we discuss is visual, that I think more images would add rather than detract from discussions?
Also on a related vein, what would people think of combining the left and right hand columns?
for mobile usability - without having any google tracking on CCE itself, google provide some tools, where I can see how many people clicked on the site and how many times CCE appeared in searches. If we look over the last 12 months there were a total of 1.66 Million appearances in searches and 53k clicks through to CCE from google. Of the clicks 24 411 were on desktops, 23 156 on Mobile and 5 595 on Tablets. So a huge number of people are looking at CCE from mobiles.
Predictably lots of the searches are for things like citycyclingedinburgh, "edinburgh cycle forum", "city cycling edinburgh", but also things like "milk delivery edinburgh", "scottish government e bike loan", "cycle routes edinburgh and lothians", and even "overlander".
I will (slowly) start to look at the forum various options and consider if we can theme then to keep the retro look and feel as well as importing exising data.
Posted 4 years ago # -
“I'm viewing this as a something over the next few years.“
Panic over then.
Posted 4 years ago # -
So who will be first?
Saving the planet, or revamping CCE?
Posted 4 years ago # -
I like the idea that CCE might survive the end of the world. I bet gembo would be the first to post following the apocalypse.
Posted 4 years ago # -
Gembo's report would centre around the condition of the West Lothian drumlin fields and the level of tarmac degradation of the Whang.
Posted 4 years ago # -
You're making me look forward to the apocalypse...
Posted 4 years ago # -
The Carstairs Esker snakes from below Braehead and finishes towards Thankerton. The Lang Whang tarmac currently peters out after Douglas but picks up on the new Glespin Bypass.
Just been out Grantchester Meadows for a swim in The River Cam. The heat here is apocalyptic fo’ shu’
Posted 4 years ago #
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