I've just started up a new ubb board (http://www.nhsp.info/cgi/ultimatebb.cgi) - sorry the forums are private so you can't look too far!

The problem is a lot of the new users are very inexperienced with this i.e. have never seen or used a bulletin board before, and I suppose they can be a little daunting at first. I know there's the faq built into ubb, but does anyone have anything a little more basic that they've used, explaining say, the layout of ubb boards, how to navigate and post messages?

thanks,
Rob

But of course.

http://www.infopop.com/support/ubbclassic/UBB6user.html

--
Charles Capps
UBB.classic™ Developer
Having problems? Open up a support ticket!

Did this help Rob?

...because the problem is, as I see it, usability, not lack of information.

Rob, I just passed through here (nothing else to do ) and had a look at your BB and site.

From what I see, you probably have a finite target audience, like the participants of the proyect? And you want to get all of them to participate in the BB or, at least, use the site?

This is quite a different task than building a take-it-or-leave-it BB for, say, Elvis Fans or support to mothers of newborns with health problems. People will go to your site primarily for information, second for ease of use, not for pleasure, and certainly don't want to read faq's first.

Here's what I would do:

Put everything into the BB: You currently have several sections on the site, like 'News and Updates', 'Q&A', 'Meetings'... Why not post all this information as Topics within the BB? The way you have it organized now, users probably don't know where to look first for a particular piece of information. Could it be in the BB, or in the Q&A, or maybe News? And, if its NOT in the BB, they won't find it using the search tool. So why not having a forum 'Meetings' instead of a link and page? If you put everything into the BB, the search tool becomes much more useful.

Keep it simple: Once you moved most info into the BB, you might eliminate several links on the header of the page. I would also elimnate de UBB.classic logo, the moderators column, the page footer, and everything else that isn't essential. Why not put a baby-pic instead of the logo? (I'm not sure what exactly you can remove/substitute in the BB.) You also might wan't to use a larger font size. And reduce the number of forums.

Keep it simple II: On the non-BB pages of the site you offer links to several file types, like Word, Excel, PDF and offer a link to download the Acrobat reader. Seems pretty complicated to me. Did you know that you can have virtually any file appear almost as is in a forum topic? Here is how I do it when I need that:
- Save your, say, Wordfile as a Webdocument (file/save as).
- Open it again with Internet Explorer.
- Use View/Source Code to view the file as html.
- Copy and paste the html text into the topic.
- Check the option Pure HTML on the newtopic form. You might need to enable that option on your BB, if not already.
Like that your meeting summaries will not only appear directly in the forum, but they also become searchable!!

Write an introduction: Like 'Hi, we moved everything into the forums. Please use the search tool at the top of the page to find the information you are looking for. For any question or comment just clic here. Then, you hyperlink 'here' directly to a newtopic form in the forum you think general comments should go to.

Does it really have to be private? If it is not absolutely required, why not open it up? Currently, most of the info (everything that is not in the BB) seems to be available to the general public anyway. Making it, for example, readable for everybody, but posting allowed just for registered users avoids the need for login if a user just wants to access a file he already knows is there. Of course you may also have one forum private and others public.

This probably goes far beyond the advice you were looking for, but since these are just suggestions anyway...: Why not have a fully public forum within the BB? Don't your proyect participants out there meet anguished mothers or little experienced doctors who have questions or comments? Don't be afraid this causes too much traffic... it probably won't. And if it does, you surely also have the connections to people you could invite to answer the questions arising. The whole point is, this might make your primary users more interested in the forum, and even spur motivation.

Kindest regards
BA

[This message was edited by BA on August 04, 2002 at 12:18 PM.]

...and, since you have just 24 members you probably know personally, why not get their feedback in person? ONce you rearranged the site (if you think it's pertinent), call them up and invite them to have a look at it.

At the very least I would put in a note at the top of the page that registration is required to view the forums. Link "registration" directly to the registration page.

Right now I think people would get there and not be able to get anywhere and not have a clue what to do next.

Julie
The Swingers Board