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[Feedback Thread] How can WE improve on the PD forum? Suggestions welcome!

So I used my smod powers to fix the Best of PD page... when there is another announcement replacing the usual Best of PD announcement in the forum, the old version of the Best of PD page from 2004 would appear below it when you click the announcement link, rather than the current version, and you would have to click the actual text "Essential Reading: Best of PD" to see the current one. I don't know how many of you noticed considering the number of you who didn't even know there is a Best of PD page (;)), but we mods found it to be an extremely annoying bug. So anyway, now it is showing the up-to-date Best of PD page, due to my magical abilities of badassness.
 
also, I'd like to add that this thread is a really cool idea. I've always felt that our forum is a collaborative thing, not only the moderators have a say in where it goes...more of a community. Making plans/ideas more transparent that the moderators have is really cool for the community.

peace and love! <3
 
Evening!

I think the atmosphere here is terrific, the content very good. The amount of closed threads did initially trouble me, but when you look at some of the other forums which are less gung-ho in thread control, there tends to be a much less informative and friendly ethos. I guess it's for the best.

A few ideas:

1) Too many stickies! Having 6 of 'em plus an announcement sort of defeats the purpose of them in the first place. I don't think the social thread needs to be a sticky, as it's always active anyway. The reminder thread seems a bit pointless too, people read these things but it often won't sink in, especially when the title is not very clear - to someone with limited forum/PD experience, 'What Did I/Should I Take" Threads' may not immediately register as meaning what you intend it too mean, especially the 'should I take bit'.

2) Consistent and, dare I say it, less formatting/highlights. Having certain woods capitalised, and lots of *** looks (to me at least) a bit messy, and doesn't encourage me to read these threads at all! Also I think the 'new' et al, labels in the best of PD thread look a bit (and I mean this in the nicest possible way!) scatty! Also a bracketed (Social Thread) or something besides the funny and random thread name would be helpful!

3) Links to erowid/blueligh/other trip reports that summarise the affects of a compound very well. Maybe at the start of the B&d threads. This sounds time consuming, but I bet if you started a good trip report suggestion thread for a compound every week, a decent list would appear in no time - a lot of posters have already read a lot of trip reports.

I just think reading some experience reports is often the best way to understand a compound, obviously people can do that themselves but there are an awful lot of trip reports about for, say Salvia - I don't think many of these convey a very clear picture though (not surprising).

4) A PD Philosophy Thread. Invariable philosophical ideas get tied up with psychedelic use. There is a whole philosophy forum, but psychedelic linked philosophy topics seem to get discussed very surprisingly little.

That’s just really me being picky though, I think you will have a hard time improving PD because it's fantastic already!
 
^Thanks for your post Mr Frog :) Defintely some good suggestions there....quick note on the ******- it looks messy becuase its meant to be eye catching. Hopefully we are transmitting the correct message, which is no threads about what did I or should I take...

-I think we will clean up the Best of PD- some of the titles aren't all that releveant as you've said....

-As to trip reports; we do try and include a bit of stuff in the first post of a Big and Dandy if neccesary, but do remember there is a Trip Reports forum. That said, we really should have more crosstalk between said forums.

Thanks for your thoughts mate :)

Gaian Planes said:
also, I'd like to add that this thread is a really cool idea. I've always felt that our forum is a collaborative thing, not only the moderators have a say in where it goes...more of a community. Making plans/ideas more transparent that the moderators have is really cool for the community.

peace and love!
Click to expand...

Thats the idea I reckon. The mods just keep it tidy (well, kinda) but certainly its all for the community. You must remember that viewing Bluelight through Mod binoculars is different, and we need reminding of whats the what sometimes. But defintely, I like to think that a lot of us besdes the mods have really shaped this Forum. :) <3
 
Filkins said:
Well A big and Dandy thread directory would be nice so one could simply look at a big list of all the dandys and find what they want,
But this could very well exist and I just missed it....alot
Click to expand...
I came to PD this morning specifically to discuss this subject - I can't believe I missed this thread until now!

Anyway, what I was gonna suggest, and I didn't see it mentioned specifically here or in the "Community Project" thread (I apologize if I missed it - they're both quite long) was an improved version of the Best of PD more along the lines of the The Ecstasy Discussion Directory with individual indexes for each substance.

Something like this:

2c-e

obviously anything people agree to be pertinent can be included, but I think that would more complete than what we currently have.

my 2 cents
 
I do like your idea, although I worry that there are so many substances that it would create too long a post (wouldn't you know it, I wrote a trip report so long that it wouldn't all fit in a single post).

What do you think about the idea of each substance's link on the Best of PD page linking to a thread with a single post that has something like what you posted? Along with all archived old versions of the Big and Dandy, and of course the current version.

Also an idea I recently had that I'd like to run by the forum... we all know that sometimes the Big and Dandy threads can get cluttered. If there is more than one conversation going on at once, the posts will start to intertwine with each other and it's hard to follow both. Or when threads are merged in, the same thing happens. Well, what if we broke off significant discussions, like certain kinds of combos, methods of administration, dosage, etc, off of the main B&D and created their own threads for it, and then had a list of specialized topics links at the beginning of the main B&D thread? That way all of the information could be found in the same place but the discussions would be isolated to a specific spot. And then general discussion of the effects of the substance and the like would remain in the main B&D. I think it would make for less confusion. But it would also be a good bit of work for the mods, so I want to get peoples' thoughts on it first.
 
Xorkoth said:
I do like your idea, although I worry that there are so many substances that it would create too long a post (wouldn't you know it, I wrote a trip report so long that it wouldn't all fit in a single post).
Click to expand...
Do it like the ED folks do and have one post per subject.

Like one post for phens, another for tryptamines another for, well I don't know what. :D

Then the first Phen post can have some general info on the category, next post down could be a "class," say 2c-s (since that one will be longer) and then one more post with the rest.

Something to consider, maybe.
Also an idea I recently had that I'd like to run by the forum... we all know that sometimes the Big and Dandy threads can get cluttered. If there is more than one conversation going on at once, the posts will start to intertwine with each other and it's hard to follow both. Or when threads are merged in, the same thing happens. Well, what if we broke off significant discussions, like certain kinds of combos, methods of administration, dosage, etc, off of the main B&D and created their own threads for it, and then had a list of specialized topics links at the beginning of the main B&D thread? That way all of the information could be found in the same place but the discussions would be isolated to a specific spot. And then general discussion of the effects of the substance and the like would remain in the main B&D. I think it would make for less confusion. But it would also be a good bit of work for the mods, so I want to get peoples' thoughts on it first.
Click to expand...
This is the exactly why I was hoping to do something along these lines. The B & D Threads, while useful, are disorganized and somewhat random. Maybe you went to the substance you wanted to learn about and found a few, more-focused threads on what you want to know specifically (or at least more specifically) then folks could get the information faster and more accurately.

And I realize that it would take some work. I'd take on a substance and when I finished ask for another (project - not dose!). I bet a couple others would too. That way the mods can really do more proof-reading than anything else.

Shit, I've thrown in 4 cents now!
 
Well the problem is that the only way to move threads around and move posts from one thread to another is if you're a moderator (the idea being we'll have to go through all of the B&Ds to move posts to appropriate threads). But anyone should feel free (and feel encouraged) to write guides or information or FAQs or anything at all of that nature. We will be glad to use them. :)
 
I personally think the organization is fine. Remember you can use google to search for an answer on Bluelight (its better than using BL search engine) and there are other sources than Bluelight (PIHKAL/TIHKAL, erowid, etc).
 
Yeah, this is true. My dream for PD is to bring this idea to life though. With the idea being to make it as easy and user-friendly to find information as possible. I've had more time for BL in the past couple of weeks which is good because I was worried while I was moving and stuff that I would have to phase out altogether, but I still don't have THAT much time. And I still feel a bit guilty for spending time here rather than trying to drum up clients for my web design business.
 
Gaian Planes said:
I personally think the organization is fine. Remember you can use google to search for an answer on Bluelight (its better than using BL search engine) and there are other sources than Bluelight (PIHKAL/TIHKAL, erowid, etc).
Click to expand...
I used to use a fairly clever college student during the summer. Then he vacation ended and he went back to school. So I'm hoping this improves a little bit since he's not under a tree reading Hesse all the time now.

Yeah, Google helps, as does Erowid, but I'm really into sorting and managing data, so when I can't find things exceptionally well, it bugs me. The cool thing is, I'm willing to do some of the work to make it better.

I'll put a few together and PM it to Xorkoth and then he can see if it's worth pursuing further. But not this weekend - I'm seeing Clutch 3x. ;)
 
Amberthefrog said:
Evening!

I think the atmosphere here is terrific, the content very good. The amount of closed threads did initially trouble me, but when you look at some of the other forums which are less gung-ho in thread control, there tends to be a much less informative and friendly ethos. I guess it's for the best.

A few ideas:

1) Too many stickies! Having 6 of 'em plus an announcement sort of defeats the purpose of them in the first place. I don't think the social thread needs to be a sticky, as it's always active anyway. The reminder thread seems a bit pointless too, people read these things but it often won't sink in, especially when the title is not very clear - to someone with limited forum/PD experience, 'What Did I/Should I Take" Threads' may not immediately register as meaning what you intend it too mean, especially the 'should I take bit'.

2) Consistent and, dare I say it, less formatting/highlights. Having certain woods capitalised, and lots of *** looks (to me at least) a bit messy, and doesn't encourage me to read these threads at all! Also I think the 'new' et al, labels in the best of PD thread look a bit (and I mean this in the nicest possible way!) scatty! Also a bracketed (Social Thread) or something besides the funny and random thread name would be helpful!

3) Links to erowid/blueligh/other trip reports that summarise the affects of a compound very well. Maybe at the start of the B&d threads. This sounds time consuming, but I bet if you started a good trip report suggestion thread for a compound every week, a decent list would appear in no time - a lot of posters have already read a lot of trip reports.

I just think reading some experience reports is often the best way to understand a compound, obviously people can do that themselves but there are an awful lot of trip reports about for, say Salvia - I don't think many of these convey a very clear picture though (not surprising).

4) A PD Philosophy Thread. Invariable philosophical ideas get tied up with psychedelic use. There is a whole philosophy forum, but psychedelic linked philosophy topics seem to get discussed very surprisingly little.
Click to expand...

On number one -
Also a bracketed (Social Thread) or something besides the funny and random thread name would be helpful!
Click to expand...
yeah fair comment IMO. - [Edit] - Done :)

On number two -
labels in the best of PD thread look a bit (and I mean this in the nicest possible way!) scatty!
Click to expand...
:D

0n number three -
Links to erowid/blueligh/other trip reports that summarise the affects of a compound very well.
Click to expand...

I don't know exactly how much effort (something I'm allergic to) this would involve but it sounds good in principle.

On number four -
A PD Philosophy Thread.
Click to expand...
I could see that P&S might be less than delighted at a high traffic forum stealing their material so to speak. If you wanted responses from PD forum users then you could start a thread & link it to P&S...maybe?
 
The philosphy discussion issue has been raised before. We are a high -traffic forum... usually the 5th busiest at Bluelight. And of course, many of us love to discuss philosophy. At times, the Philosophy and Spirituality forum gets a bit upset about this, and rightly so. Their forum is much lower-traffic and they're always looking for ways to increase that traffic, as traffic is, as B9 so elegantly mentioned, the lifeblood of a forum. Now of course, there is no way I am going to move any and all spirituality talk away, because we here are a community, and we like to discuss amongst ourselves rather than in a different community. But I think to have an entire thread dedicated to purely philosophical discussion would be stepping on P&S's toes.

It's kind of a fine line. A lot of the subject matter of this forum overlaps with theirs.
 
I would like to extend my hand to impose a -job well done-, to the moderators here for making an attemt to acknowledge all sides on the perspective qube of responsibility, if I may?
A damn fine job!
 
Why, thank you for the compliments! But really it is the quality bunch of people we have here at PD that make it such a great place to be, both on and off staff. :) <3

Everything works better when you reflect it off of other like-minded people. And without like-minded people to receive a reflection back from, the moderators would be hard-pressed to maintain a quality forum.
 
The link at the top of the page is awesome, nice pilot wings style geometry too. Xorkoth that was your doing right? Quality.
 
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