Feedback Requested

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am thinking of making a change to SatelliteGuys and I would like your feedback before I do it. Whenever DISH comes out with a new line of receivers we have always had a separate forum to make it easy for members to get help with that new product line.

We did it with the ViP line of receivers and we are doing it now with the DISH Hopper line of products. After the ViP line was mainstream we moved all posts into the DISH area.

Like the ViP line the Hopper is now DISH's mainstream product. The question now is should we combine the DISH Hopper Forum with the main DISH forum and just have one DISH forum.

Like what happened with the ViP line is now happening to the Hopper line, and that is many Hopper related posts are being posted to the main DISH forum and not to the Hopper forum, and I will be the first to admit we have fallen behind on moving them to the Hopper forum.

So what do you think? Please vote in the poll.

Also one other thing to ask... we have installed a thread rating system here at SatelliteGuys. If you have received good help or info from a thread and want others to know this is a good thread please rate it using the "Rate this thread" option at the top of the thread.

Not only will this help our members, but Google also better indexes those threads which receive good ratings.

Thank you! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

 

[T134]

I have the same problem at my forum but of course on a much smaller scale. Personally I like a site that is well organized into forums, subforums, branches for each individual item etc. When I am browsing a site it makes it much easier to get to the area I need and browse topics specific to what I am looking for.

All that said....it doesn't really work for most or at least many people. Taking the time to read and think is beyond the comprehension of quite a few. Actually finding the correct section and posting to it with a relevant topic....almost impossible. You'd be lucky if they find the satellite section and post a thread let alone get it into DISH section or a specific IRD subsection that is correct. If you have people new to your forum or forums in general it is even worse.

As you mentioned staff then has to see the problem then take time to move and redirect threads and/or prune posts. Not such a big deal at my place with the lower traffic and more limited focus but here I could see it being a full time job. If no one does it or you fall behind everything becomes a mess and the whole purpose of breaking things into sections is defeated.

For your dish section question at this site with all the posts and traffic I'd recommend lumping it all together. Save your staff and yourself all the work of trying to keep it organized. Users can just go through one big section with multiple subjects or do something really scary: use the search button.

 

[TheKrell]

Well, you could return the technology (or whatever it was called) subforum, and put all hardware related stuff in there, and all the programming/channel disputes/business stuff into the main forum. Or vice versa.

 

[KE4EST]

I was just thinking that the other day. The time has come to combine.

 

[mike123abc]

Considering how important the hopper is, a separate forum is probably still important. When the next "best" receiver comes out, perhaps change the forum.

 

[harshness]

Given the differences in feature sets from the ViP class receivers and the fact that you can't have Hoppers on the same account with most other boxes, it is probably best to keep them separate.

We certainly don't need to confuse ViP box users with talk of PTAT, duo nodes and Netflix.

 

[mike123abc]

It is also nice for non Dish users, I still go through the Dish forum to keep up with what Dish is doing, and not having a bunch of threads about which remote button does something is nice...

 

[Mr Tony]

combine them

 

[Hall]

Leave them separate. I did notice you (Scott) posted the story about Netflix/Hopper in the main forum too....

If you guys haven't been doing a good job moving threads lately, then the posters have been pretty good about it themselves. I hardly ever see Hopper-related posts in the main Dish forum.

We did it with the ViP line of receivers and we are doing it now with the DISH Hopper line of products. After the ViP line was mainstream we moved all posts into the DISH area.

Why change that very sensible system ? There is no new receiver.

 

[Deadlocked]

Leave them separate. I did notice you (Scott) posted the story about Netflix/Hopper in the main forum too....

If you guys haven't been doing a good job moving threads lately, then the posters have been pretty good about it themselves. I hardly ever see Hopper-related posts in the main Dish forum.

Why change that very sensible system ? There is no new receiver.

Netflix is a different beast


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Hall]

Netflix is a different beast

It's only available on the Hopper (and related systems) though.

 

[Hall]

...and I would like your feedback before I do it.

Why not put this poll in the Dish forum ?