Thursday, January 13, 2011

New Signings Hotline Forum Format

Signings hotline has a new format and honestly, I'm not a fan so far. I'm all for change and trying things new, but this isn't working:

  • Best Practice & Maintenance should not be the first forum working - I go to signings hotline for signings information, not maintenance. 
  • I have to click about 3 or 4 more times to get the same information than before the upgrade. 
  • Before the upgrade I could see what threads had been updated, now I can only see the most recent. 
I've belonged to Signings Hotline for years. I like the service, but this upgrade to the forums isn't working. Instead of spending times on redesigns, I'd rather see time spent on:
  • RSS Technology for getting updates
  • Mobile App Development

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for making these recommendations. Sometimes I look at SigningsHotline.com with a "numb" eye from being on it so much.

1. "Best practices" has been moved down the list.

2. There should be no additional clicks necessary vs the old board. You need to click on the smaller font forum titles, below the heading titles. This removes 1 click and keeps it on par with the old board.

3. On the main page you can immediately see which forums have new threads in them by the green dot next to their names. (This is same spot to click on mentioned in #2)

4. If you go to very bottom of the forum page in the green box, you will see a dropdown stating "SigningsHotline" by default. For mobile devices, change that to "SigningsHotline Mobile". That is optimized for mobile devises.

5. I will look into RSS feeds and appreciate the suggestion.

Best regards,

Howard

James said...

@Howard - Thanks for the responses and comments - always professional.

Great to hear about RSS. I use it a ton to read blogs and sites and think it could really add to readership of the forums.

Re: Mobile - Are you in the process of developing mobile apps for iPhone or Droid?

Anonymous said...

Howard:

I think the success or not of the Signingshotline format is the number of posts on some of the more forums, such as Tell The Promoters. Very few. I am thumbs down on the new format and have frankly stopped using the site.