Changes on OI

I agree most of what you said...

The photo album feature has been here since the first day of OI and I like it as I said about it on the other thread... I don't do flickr...

To begin with, those albums don't pop up on the screen, so they should have not bothered anyone.

 

I can handle newbies, love the honest ones but I can't stand those "newbies"(ex: those with less than five years of growing experience) pretend to be experts.

 

I must admit I'm having a hard time getting used to the new look. I miss the simple, clean, sophisticated colors of the original forum.

 

"simple", "sophisticated"

Huh?

 

Before I comment on this topic, I just want to say that I appreciate Enrique's taking on the responsibility of running the forum; he has already helped me with a problem I had and did so with speed and kindness.

I must say I agree with the majority of the comments above. My personal aesthetic is that is the cleaner and simpler something is the more beautiful and useful it is. I joined OI motivated equally for two reasons: the quality of the content and the simplicity of the interface and layout. I hope this forum can hold on to both.

As much as I love bright colour, I think that the colour scheme for the forum should be muted so that it doesn't steal the spotlight from the photos posted by members. For the record I vote no on the mustard component of the new layout scheme and I think the flags are distracting; after all we can read the location without needing to see a flag. The more accoutrements that are added, the more cluttered each entry becomes, weighing down and unnecessarily elongating discussion threads. While OrchidBoard may have some useful posts, the user experience even for a visitor to that sight is greatly hindered by the huge adverts, insane colours and superfluous graphics. Orchids interactive should be the anti-OrchidBoard, aesthetically speaking.

As for new members, I think the more the merrier! My favourite type of newbie is the sort that spends time researching previous posts on their topic of interest or inquiry before asking questions, and then builds on that with more detailed, new questions. Thankfully the opposite doesn't happen too often here, when a newbie comes on and tediously asks questions that OI members have already taken time to answer in other discussion threads.

I love sharing information and I really appreciate how OI has become a significant international web hub for the exchange of cultural information related to growing species orchids. I also think it's fantastic how little attitude there is here even among the most talented growers, a breath of fresh air in the orchid world where all too often ego corrupts the free-flow of useful data. May it remain so!

 

Good statement! and we do need serious newbies in this hobby...OI is a good training camp but please do expect some dramas from time to time...If new growers can take some "beatings" from seasoned growers, they will become better growers and enjoy the hobby more.

 

Thank you everyone for taking the time to express your thoughts and concerns.

OI deserves to have its own personality and style with a customized design/logo. The old design was, literally, the "out of the box" design for vBulletin (the forum software) and no longer supported the long-term vision for OI.

For the comments about the color: I am more than open to suggestions. What colors would you like to see?

New members are always welcome. At OI we are always looking to grow our family of Orchid lovers, regardless of the level of growing orchids.

The "social networking tools" are essential for promoting and growing OI. For example, the “Like” button allows members and guests to conveniently share what they enjoy reading here on their Facebook wall where all their friends can see it.

The “photo albums” is default feature of the software and it has always been there. I just made it more "accessible" based on your feedback: http://www.orchidsinteractive.com/showthread.php?274-albums

As far as "bells and whistles" go, I suppose the “flags” might fall under this category. They have now been removed.

This thread has been moved to the "Suggestions and Problems" forum.

 

I like the new color scheme and layout. It is relaxing to the eye and it is not distracting from reading the content.
stefano

 

I'd like to see us encourage diversity in the orchid species we see members specialize in. I really would love to increase the Cattleya species contributions to the board, I'm sure Alexis will agree.

 

Report post--this feature has been here since the first day of OI, you can report/direct the thread to the admins or mods because of violations of rules, "rude", "beating" the new members, spams...,something you think it is out of line.

Infraction--New feature, I have seen it on Orchidboard. Basically it is a warning message from another member(s) because they don't like what you say to them or about them. Some of them are temporary against you but some may stay on your record. If you have enough of those, you may get "time-out" or you may be banned from the forum. Some of those infractions are not monitored by admins or mod and they are not free of bias. On OB, I got infractions from someone who stole my photos and another one(cancelled by mod later on) from someone who were openly trashing almost all popular species vendors in U.S for their service and plants that they sent him. I have heard "don't mess with me or I give you infraction!"

 

As long as the feature is here, that is what will happen. The thread starter can even give his/her thread a five stars too.

 

I can only vote once. That sucks.

 

:evil: You can vote again now.

 

Hey, where is the "infraction" button? I can't find it. Is it gone?

 

It's still there. Second icon from the left, at the bottom of each post.

 

Hmm, I only have the "report post" icon. Any idea why?

 

It appears the "add infraction" option is not available on posts made by moderators & administrators. I see it on other users' posts, though.