BackStage at RB

RB has really put a lot of work into revamping the forums. It looks like there will something there for just about everyone.

Woohoo chat is a good idea too

For starters – great! :)

My concern would be in posting about art across styles.. so for example if I wanted to post some new tee I had created, I’m not sure whether it would go in tees, illustration or digital art.. and I suspect there will be some cross posting because of that. I would be tempted to keep the subforums less.. maybe “hot goss”, “freeform” and then something more about general techniques, that allows people to post regardless of their media.. and then if one particular method is taking over (such as photography) pop it into a new subforum.

I guess the danger with having lots of subforums is that you will end up with less content in each, which will make the forums seem quieter and less used.

Sounds wonderful! Love the ‘round table” idea.

I really like the cafe idea….:)

i am so happy, i’m doing a jig :)
I just love these ideas, i can see where I’d fit in there and it would be a lot of fun
thank you for the attention you’re paying to things to make RB even better all the time

Starting to look good :) In the “It’s all about art” section, it really needs an “Image Editing Software” section …... see how I refrained from just saying Photoshop :) LOL

I like this approach, it would make me look again at forums and do some ‘forum surfing’ even…
Damien, not sure why you couldn’t ask for critique in a tee’s forum as well as a digital art forum, it may give you interestingly different perspectives. :o)

Sounds good. Not sure about a lounge area – just seems like a place where people can get angry with each other as they rant on about things that are not even remotely related to art.
think about giving the layout a little bit of cross-linking so you can move easily from one forum to another – e.g. photography -> equipment.
A way to signal new topics would be useful when ever it can be fitted into a roadmap of development.

sounds awesome guys, especially the cafe part, and the round table, good thinking there. i like the fact you reminded people about the critique also, nice going guys

kind of liking your brain storming ideas..could be a nice little hideaway for RB to settle in and have some chat time !!

I particularly like the idea of more help for new people to RB and also the Critique section.
The splitting of forums into filing cabinets and separate drawers sounds much more organised and professional.
Forums is my least favourite section of RB at the moment, I may, as Jane above says, ‘surf’ it a bit more than I do now.

Good to see this change, but I’ll watch with interest to see how this is implemented.

Especially glad to see RB finally willing to take responsibility for acting on inappropriate posting, instead of leaving it to volunteers.

Good luck.

sounds good … looks like it would be a little more easy to find what one wants to discuss rather than try to find the right tags to search with (smile)

question … where’s the sales/marketing area? seems that would be an important area of discussion … the advice center?

am curious .. if one wanted to discuss software used (pros/cons) to do digital art would that fall into advice or the Pixalette forum?

what I think is needed is more specific descriptions of what kind of discussion is allowed in each category …

otherwise I think the idea is fantastic (big smile)

How about including a bookmarking facility for specific forums within the overview page? it would be handy to have one-click access to a few favourites and/or remember threads you might want to follow.

I think it all sounds great, I’m looking forward to the changes.
I’m pleased you’re working on it….. at the moment from one forum to the next everything is different, & really confusing!

Sounds very well thought out to me. I look forward to seeing these ideas implemented.

sounds good.

I’d echo Damien’s comments about the subforums. Overall though, sounds great.

It sounds like segregation to me. I thought the group forums were supposed to be where people “congregated” to talk about specific areas of art.

Well, it is just a forum and maybe the sections will bring other members to the forums a little more.

No complaint I guess it’s more of an observation. Separating people into little groups…

I’d like a sacrificial pit where we can burn offerings to the gods to protect us from bad art, people and opinions.
ooops I may be first.

Looks good to me.

As to the point that Gracey makes just above: it can’t be about separating people because it’s about separating themes (as the forum does now) and making it easier to find things. People are not themes so it’s not about segregation of people.

It could only be about segregation of people if you think that people are one idea and only one idea.

Another thought about the new forums. How about taking the forum link out of the community page and adding a link to the forums in our quick links section of mybubble ?

LOVE IT!!!
Does the Chat tell me it will be Instant messaging one day?
Love the idea of the “watch this topic button” already so this will make that viewfinder work it’s little blinking off!
2 Questions
1/ Will our journals become mini forums?
2/ How do you entice people to actually use them?

Chookas Bubble! You guys do so much for us we love you to pieces!! xX♥☼♥Xx

PS Thanks for the warning before you shock us with it either tomorrow or next week! lol
PPS – I hope by ”... for Staff to deal with…” is not just Jo – she’s awesome but she’ll never get the mail sorted on time too! ... and she’ll never eat and she does NOT need to lose weight! :O)
Love ya Jo! xX♥Xx

Sounds good to me :)

what i noticed when reading the comments here is that they are the same names that currently dominate the general forums… which would indicate several things to me…....
RB is probably not getting a general censensus of opinion here…. that a major portion of RB users will still not venture into the forums… and renaming and categorizing them will have little effect…. it will still be the same small vocal group using them…....

This is a lot of precious RB manpower hours commited to an aspect of RB that is utilized by very few. I’m not sure a revamp..not matter how much time and care is applied…will not end up with the same results.

Forums… what is forum? I am being facetious, but I am a late bloomer, and it was not until about a year ago that I jioned any cyber-community. So I have tried to participate in a few forums only to discover it was no longer a topic of discussion. I guess I need to look for the date or time it was written.

I do like how the current forum section offers a “save to watch” option. That gives me way to see if ANYONE else is currently participating in the discussion.

Thanks for all your hard work! I’m looking forward to these new formats!

Alison’s idea of putting the link to the forums on the overview page .. good idea … having it buried as it is now .. well as they say out of sight out of mind … (grin) ... might help with participation …

adgray had two questions .. the first …’1/ Will our journals become mini forums?’ ...

my answer is that they already are … and I’d like to add that the individual image gallery pages also do the same .. comments turning into conversations … this isn’t particular to RB .. I’ve seen it happen elsewhere … “keeping on topic” has been an ongoing ‘problem’ within forums since the days of usenet (grin) ... the solution? hehe don’t have one .. would take a very disciplined group of people to ‘keep on topic’ (grin) ... having a separate section for “other discussions” – Redbubble Cafe – is a great idea and IMHO will help with the off topic drift in the other areas …as for the ‘conversations’ in the journals and other areas IMHO I think they’re a great happening (big smile) ..

what I think is that the forums could be a great place to congregate when they’re open (smile)

2/ How do you entice people to actually use them?

twist their virutal appendages and offer a cartload of chocolate to the most prolific poster LOL ….

there will always be a core group of posters with others swimming in and out … however easier access to the forum ie link on overview page, would entice a few more to participate and the ‘save to watch’ option has already gotten me to participate more big smile)

RB is probably not getting a general censensus of opinion here…. that a major portion of RB users will still not venture into the forums… and renaming and categorizing them will have little effect…. it will still be the same small vocal group using them…….

What it also might indicate butchart, is that people haven’t got the Backstage account their watchlists and miss half of the stuff that gets written. Some folks just don’t give a monkeys about these things anyway, for those of us that do, we get to have a say :)

Sounds really good, but, wont the forums, any of them, be dominated by the cliques that are in abundance here on RB??

This looks fabulous, the structure would be much better for those that are searching for something specific! :)

Love the cafe idea, especially the gamesroom….and the advice and critique forums sound really helpful!! Great ideas! =)

This is great!

I don’t use the forums that much, it’s more a time issue and one does have to prioritize what one does with the time they have available. I like the segration ideas put forth so far, but I think you also need some for people who want to address issues effecting the community. I think that has (perhaps deliberately) been left out of this. But it’s where the community gets a chance to voice their concerns about the bubble..

I do like the learning tutorials, critiques, and forums of that type. They are the ones I mostly visit.

IMO a little plastic surgery isn’t going to bring more activity to the forums. Making new forums and dividing them in subforums might have the effect things look slower.

For the Critique and Advice Centre to work I think some more surgery is needed. These suggestions could also help in people participating in the other forums.
- improve searching so you can find stuff by title, (sub)forum, user etc.
- make it easier to link images into a post and add editing (bold, italic etc.) possibilities and preview in the edit field
- keep track of users entries by providing a history
- a threaded forum might work better than the flat one we have now

But you probably want to keep things light….

- a threaded forum might work better than the flat one we have now

I hate threaded forums Jo LMAO :)

What I would like to see in the forums, and it could be one or the other

Have number posts – or – have a reply with quote button.

One of the reasons that people may participate in the forums is that they are not really as user friendly as phpbb or vbulletin etc.,

One of the reasons that people may participate in the forums is that they are not really as user friendly as phpbb or vbulletin etc.,

Should read

One of the reasons that people may not participate in the forums is that they are not really as user friendly as phpbb or vbulletin etc.,

Whilst on the outside yes some of these ideas look like they will be advantageous, I cannot help but feel we will be losing some good hosts and groups, along with those who regualarly meet and bring attention to redbubble, like Castle Magic and Wales Rich in Beauty groups for instance… I cannot help but think you shouldn’t change areas that are not broken, and the group will be cutting off its nose to spite its face…

I wish someone would spend some time thinking about how to improve the search offered so you could search the text for key words, and use symbols for words you don’t know or partial words. This goes for all the searches, but here it would be most important.

I was talking about searching text in descriptions, or journals. But even when searching in the current search box offered like for groups (for example: if you think the word photograper is in the group name, but it’s actually photographic today it doesn’t allow you to just put in photo* and get all group names with the word photo in it. Most searches allow partial names and it still finds all the words that relate. Other area, in managing the addition or deletion of pictures (if I know the pictures name or part of the name, why can’t I just put that in and get the picture up for editing, instead I have to page thru the 20 pages of pictures to find it. Search can be a powerful tool that could reduce the transactions done on the system if it’s integrated into the in design. I was just hoping some thought would be given to that to make the system more manageable, and also to eleviate some of the stress on the system resources. I hope that helps explain it better.

wow – sounds really great. We need all these in the forums.

I welcome the advice centre … How ever I think General discussion forum or Redbubble cafe has somewhat unneeded subfoums.
I also think that PIN IT (grab a pin …) facility should be given to every forum / subforum, but should be approved by mods/hosts and volunteers to pin a topic.

Sounds truly wonderful… I’d definitely feel more confident going into the forums after these changes. :-)