A few suggestions..

[99p Flake]

I have quite a bit of experience with vBulletins, so I'm glad this forum makes use of them ^__^ So, may I offer a few suggestions directly related to the forum?

Firstly, why not have a 'new members' forum so people can get to know each other, not only introducing themselves, but introducing their guinea pig as well (Which is something vital to a forum about pigs!).

Secondly, I think the forum home page would look a bit neater if all the international forums were placed in a subforum named 'International' or something.. That way you could add more categories without scrolling the page too far down.

Also, there does seem to be a lot of scattered rules around that sound a lil harsh, and to me, doesn't really add towards the friendly feeling of the community. Such as making a huge point of correct grammar etc? Perhaps a single topic that acts as a introduction to the forum as a whole (Explaining basics like where to ask for help, how the photo gallery works etc) which also lists the rules of the forum, could be pinned in a general discussion/new member forum for people to see, and linked to on the main home page? Makes updating the rules much easier for a start!

Just suggestions to help

One more thing though.. Why are we only allowed to use guinea pig related avatars? I know that this is a guinea pig forum, but a forum is also a community, and a community breeds through individual personality

[CavySpirit]

Thanks for the feedback. Let me address a few suggestions.

I guess, overall and first, I never intended (and still don't) for this forum to be a general guinea pig forum. I personally belong to the www.guinealynx.info/forums forum. THAT forum has highly credible and experienced members and those savvy members are online pretty much around the clock providing good and accurate info and correct posts and replies to new or naive members when incomplete, inaccurate or darn-right dangerous info is posted by others. This site doesn't have those members (except for a few that I am aware of, such as Treen and a few others) and the traffic is light compared to the other forum. I cannot commit the time and I definitely don't have the inclination to monitor this forum to keep everything honest and accurate. So, I really prefer the focus of this forum to be about cages. Not about pigs, per se, or about people. I knew there would be the inclination to post about anything and everything, so I've only provided one forum, Cavy Chat for that. I don't want to encourage more of it, really.

There are other forums, GuineaLynx for adults and mature kids and Cavy Madness for any age that provide more overall cavy care topics. And honestly, I've found the other forums where there is a section provided for people to introduce themselves to be pretty lame. Only a few people do it and some write books. It's not a good overall solution to getting to know the membership.

My personal preference would be not to see any International Forums, because doesn't the world revolve around me? However, I don't want the folks in the other countries to feel like second-class citizens. The idea behind the forums is fairly geographically centered -- cages, sources of materials, environment, etc. Unlike the traditional, 'let's chat about pigs' forum. I know it's a pain to scroll down, but there is a quite a bit of international traffic on this site according to the site stats. And, as I've stated above, I don't really want to add more categories. Not unless the demographics of the forum changes, i.e., more members, more highly experienced members, more traffic. And given this is a site about cages, I don't forsee that happening very quickly.

You'll need to tell me the urls and text that you are referring to regarding harsh policies. I'm a 47-year-old woman with practically a zero tolerance for chat-speak. If you've got something to say, it's worth saying it right. I'd consider revising something if I know specifically what you are referring to. And one-time sign-up policies don't cut it worth a damn. People blow by those things once and that's it. But, I do have clean up work to do on the policies and whatnot.

Re: the guinea pig avatars. Because that's what Lynx is doing on GuineaLynx and I very much like it. In general, boards with avatars end up looking like a teenage stewpot of anime. I just don't like it. You'll note I also don't allow smilies in posts. Same thing. Can't stand them. If only people would use them once in a while with discretion, that would be great.

If I end up changing the direction of the forum to be more of a general forum, I would make some changes. But, it's actually a tough balancing act.

I still have probably a solid week's worth or more, full-time of stuff to do to clean up this board. Notice I haven't even taken the time to upgrade to the latest vB release. There are quite a few hacks in place to accommodate the way I've installed and tailored the photopost gallery to integrate with vB. Not to mention all the work I still have left to do on the site itself. Not to even mention two new major website projects with heavy database apps that I'm currently working for guinea pigs. Not to mention I'm supposed to be working for a living.

I sincerely wish there was more time in the day, because it's nice to have a life, too. I will get to making changes and improvements, it just goes at a snail's pace some of the time, but I will get there.

Again, thanks for the feedback and I hope you can enjoy it as it is for a while.

[CavySpirit]

However, in looking at the post count, I think the next time I do some maintenance, I'll leave UK, Canada, Austalia and add an Asia and Europe forum and move the appropriate countries one click down.

[tashagurl]

I think the rule page would be a good idea.

[99p Flake]

Heh, and here was me thinking that the point of Mods was to make them do all the work

[cavylover]

Shes just trying to spread the word about C&C cages.Not to make anyone happy about how a site performs.Shes been updating it quite frequently over the past couple weeks.Who needs to know everyone on a forum .Probably not anyone here.If you wanna make friends just Pm them.im not critsizing im just wondering how long you been apart or cavycages.(do you even own a Cavy)just asking :s.Because i had by laws come to my house a couple days ago and take aways some fosteries because some dipshit said i wasnt taking care of them.Also T runs another site also thats heard of almost around the world Cavyspirit.com.This is just a basic forum for people to talk,ask questions,and Build their cavy a better home.Nevermind i noticed you've been a member for not even 24 hours.

[CavySpirit]

At the moment, I think Treen is the only moderator. She's contributed content and photos for the site, has great cages, her own good site, is in the UK, and so can help on that perspective and knows all the correct info about guinea pigs. With all the internet and web development I do, I've yet to come across anyone who has the time, inclination, and experience to really help me on the real development or maintenance side. The moderator role here is from a post content perspective. Help in replying to serious care or medical questions (that frankly don't belong here, but people do it anyway) and just helping keep things relatively smooth.

Oh and I think I have Sue moderating the purchases forum since she is the one selling them.

[99p Flake]

Originally Posted by cavylover

Shes just trying to spread the word about C&C cages.Not to make anyone happy about how a site performs.Shes been updating it quite frequently over the past couple weeks.Who needs to know everyone on a forum .Probably not anyone here.If you wanna make friends just Pm them.im not critsizing im just wondering how long you been apart or cavycages.(do you even own a Cavy)just asking :s.Because i had by laws come to my house a couple days ago and take aways some fosteries because some dipshit said i wasnt taking care of them.Also T runs another site also thats heard of almost around the world Cavyspirit.com.This is just a basic forum for people to talk,ask questions,and Build their cavy a better home.Nevermind i noticed you've been a member for not even 24 hours.

You see, if there was a forum where members could get to know each other, then you would know that I have two Guinea Pigs :P

I don't mean to cause trouble, but usually people like to hear suggestions on how to improve their website or forum 'community' in order to spread 'the message' they wish to convey across the Internet, and web stuff is just something I have experience in

I realise that the maintainer obviously has other, more important duties, hell, I've tried juggling websites, forums, work, and other commitments, and it's not all that easy (Especially when people don't always show appreciation for your efforts :\) which is why you get people to help, yah?

[CavySpirit]

I do appreciate the suggestions.

[cavylover]

I'd love to help out but i doubt you'd Let me :s.I have experience on like 10 different kinds of forums but not Vbulletin.mostly Ezboards Cjb and other ones(cant remember the names).

[tashagurl]

Hey Teresa, in case no ones told you, I just wanted to say thank you for doing this. It is an awsome site and if I hadent found it my pigs would probably be pretty misrable.You work so hard and do so much and I just wanted to tell you that I appreciate it very much.Keep up the good work.

[LiciaMommycott]

I second the emotion. This is a fabulous forum and web site. I applaud CavySpirit for doing all the work to set this up and appreciate it tremendously. My piggies wouldn't have such a nice place to live if it weren't for this site.

Also, her site - her rules. Sometimes with all the abbreviations and chat speak and misspellings, I can't even tell what people are trying to say.

[supertramp]

I third the motion - this site is a great help for cavy owners all around. I know i wouldn't have a good cage for my pig(s) if it weren't for this site. Thank you Cavyspirit for putting the effort in to make such a great site, and I completely agree with the rules; 'chat speak' is so annoying, it's not as if there's a limit to the letter count in posts. Emoticons, too, can become extremely irritating when people use them extensively as some people undoubtedly would. Thanks again, we really appreciate all your efforts.