Snowboard Club UK

SCUK and Website - SCUK Changes
dunx - Jul 11, 2008 - 05:04 PM
Post subject: SCUK Changes
The ideas phase of SCUK2 has been in the pipeline for some months and hopefully, within a month or three you'll start to see some changes to the SCUK website and the services SCUK provide.

We'll be keeping all the good stuff: forum, slope directory, calendars, discounts, FAQs and of course the news.

Our intention is to allow you to focus more on your personal SCUK profile page (which is pants at the moment), so you can see what's going on at the slopes you ride, see local SCUK partner discounts, etc, etc. It'll be a bit more "Facebook", but we're very keen to stay clear of "friend collecting" so we hope to build communities around the slopes you ride at, a bit like Facebook groups.

New sections will include a full slope directory of all major world resorts including weather forecasts and freestyle details. We'll also have a shop and not before time. Personal galleries, linked to our calendars and slope directories will also be provided. We'll probably stay clear of videos, but who knows. There will be much more ability to comment on and contribute to SCUK content outside of the forum.

We may drop the Membership Pack and instead, provide a tasty discount in the shop, so people can buy what they want, rather than get what we give them. Naturally partner discounts and special stuff will only be available to SCUK members.

This is just a taster of the plans we have, but if there's any other functionality that you are desperate to see on SCUK, then now is the time to mention it.
kap66 - Jul 11, 2008 - 05:09 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
sounds good!! look forward to the changes!
Branny - Jul 11, 2008 - 05:31 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
Looking forward to seeing what you've got coming Dunx....

I've been on here since day one, but it's definitely time for a tidy up and new functionality, provided it doesn't get it banned from work internet access!!

all the ideas sound interesting and looking to see how they work.......
jdderbys - Jul 11, 2008 - 06:22 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
sounds good
lez_s - Jul 11, 2008 - 06:30 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
i like the sound of it, but, you said about personal profiles like facebook. if people can post on the profile that could take away people using the forum to chat or ask questions and end up with people chatting between friends and never go on the forum. if that happens it might put new people off.

its about time we had a galleries, what about video's?
dunx - Jul 11, 2008 - 06:57 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
We already have the PM system and that will stay, but there won't be anything like the FB wall. We don't propose any SCUK Chat system either.

Videos are bandwidth nasty and there's so many sites that already do it so well. We'll probably give the ability for people to embed YouTUBE vids directly in their profile. I'm not sure yet.
lez_s - Jul 12, 2008 - 09:23 AM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
that's good as i think that is the problem with snowboard.com people chat between there friends and never use the forum.
robtheslob - Jul 12, 2008 - 10:26 AM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
keep the xscape discounts!
ace_mcgraw - Jul 12, 2008 - 10:53 AM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
I must admit I'm a fan of the membership pack! I always feel giving away a couple of things when you join up is likely to encourage more people to join rather than discounts on stuff - it's my general route to a new dvd each year and I like it! Defo agree with lez - anything that may take people away from theforum is a bad thing Sad
Markland - Jul 12, 2008 - 11:06 AM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
Groups of people from different locations won't move them away from the forum as they wouldn't be able to really talk on the group page or whatever it will be. It will make arranging stuff such as a chill factore meet up easier and people who never go chill factore wont have to see the discussion about it in the forums making the forum less cluttered and it easier for people to find out about group scuk events happening near them
dunx - Jul 14, 2008 - 05:16 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
The "trouble" with the forum is that it's only used by those people that use it! There's many more people that use the site that don't use the forum, than do use it. The idea behind the new site is to provide another focus for people to exist in their own right, whilst naturally retaining the useful forum functionality for general discussion.

I certainly don't want a forum for every slope in the UK, but what we could possibly do is enable people (possibly just moderators) to flag a forum discussion up as being related to a particular slope or event, so that it appears as part of the pages related to that slope/event and also in the profiles of people who might be interested in that slope/event. Does that sound a good idea?

The way I see SCUK is that we're already a community and because of this, already "friends" on some level. I can see the point of friends on FB, but not on SCUK. There's already a perceived clique to SCUK and although in reality it's easy to become a "regular", having a smaller focus on slopes would make SCUK more accessible to many who don't want to spend their life on the forum.

I'd love to be able to give everybody the ability tag people in galleries like FB, but I'll have to see how easy that is. There's a few gallery modules that are attempting it, so I'll have to see how they come along as none seem quite there yet (doesn't seem too tricky to me TBH).

The comment system I mentioned before (for news items, slopes, events, etc.) will be much more heavily moderated than the forum. It may even be that comments have to be approved before they appear on the site, rather than the other way around.

We'll also be making much more use of Google Maps for a whole heap of things, such as the slope directory, but also for people to pinpoint where they live (if they want to) and we'll get around the privacy problem by limiting the degree to which you can zoom in on the map.

The membership pack is good, but the trouble with it is that many of the DVDs we provide become available for free a season later as cover-mounts. You can only have so many beanies or board tools and not everybody wants a T-shirt, so in some respects it's almost a deterrent to joining. The discounts will become the prime focus for being a member and once again, discounts that apply to individuals will be made more obvious within peoples' profiles.
HJ - Jul 14, 2008 - 06:51 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
I thought it was agreed that next season you were going to give away SCUK bottle openers!
charliebuoy - Jul 14, 2008 - 07:35 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
It all sounds good. Early days yet though it seems so we'll have to see how it pans out. It's definitely necessary to retain the forum functionality because it's a large focus of the website, but as Dunx says it's a minority of users of the website who make use of it. Anything to bring in a larger number of people would be good and a way to do that would be to have a more accessible community. I think it would be good to be slope focused and event focused but not so that it creates small groups within the website. It needs to be inclusive is what I'm getting at really.
Sidget_Ex - Jul 14, 2008 - 07:42 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
Nice one Dunx, keeping things flowing along

I looked @ the SCUK Calender the other day, you and all the SCUK crew are doing such a great job - SCUK is definatly the UK's best snowboarding community

Cheers SCUK Beer
dunx - Jul 15, 2008 - 03:44 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
At charliebuoy: I'd expect people's profile to be their point of entry to SCUK so they can see the things they're specifically interested in. All the discussion would go on in the forums and I'm not proposing we change the number/structure of the forums we currently have. E.g. Discussions about Cas would still happen in the UK Forum, but they'd also get flagged up against the Cas Slope page and in the profile of anybody who regularly rides at Cas. If they never ride at Tam, they'd not see those discussions in their profile, but they'd still be in the UK forum if they were interested. So... I'm not suggesting any changes to the forum.

At Sidget: That's part of my point with the forum being too big a focus for some people. You've been on the forum for ages and you've *only just* looked at the calendar. The calendar and news are where I expend most of my effort and some regulars aren't even looking at them. I still get people asking me "to let the forum users know". SCUK isn't just a forum.

There's a lot on SCUK (too much to interest any one person) and the idea of profiles is just to allow people to see the parts that they're interested in and hopefully make it a more useful site for people who just dip in and outand a site they're more keen to get involved with.
ace_mcgraw - Jul 15, 2008 - 04:00 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
Just out of interest, when you say introducing profiles etc, are you thinking of something similar to what natives did a few months back?
polo - Jul 15, 2008 - 04:18 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
One thing I have noticed and if you want forum activity to increase is that to visit the forum you have to travel down the "your scuk" menu. Some newcomers who may be just looking for a forum (rather than the other site features) may not realise that the forum link is located in there. Maybe a forum drop down menu by itself would make things clearer for people unfamiliar to the site?

The new proposed features sound cool though. Slope directory sounds awesome. Will it be like worldsnowboardguide, with user reviews and resort details etc?
Branny - Jul 15, 2008 - 04:20 PM
Post subject: RE: SCUK Changes
no you don't...just access the forum down the left hand side column.....past the crud google adds..lower...down a bit..yeah you've got it...

thats why i have the rss feed!!
polo - Jul 15, 2008 - 04:40 PM
Post subject: Re: RE: SCUK Changes
Branny wrote:
no you don't...just access the forum down the left hand side column.....past the crud google adds..lower...down a bit..yeah you've got it...

thats why i have the rss feed!!


Yeah, but it's still not as clear as say having it's own drop down menu, where you could click to the main forum page from the site home page. Not seeing a forum link at the top could imply that there is none to someone who is skimming similar snowboard sites if you get my meaning.

For example, when I was looking recently for a snowboarding community, firstly I didn't think this site had a forum. It was only when I had a bit of time to browse around that i saw it. Not being an scuk member, i didn't think of looking in the "your scuk" drop down menu, assuming it was for member related pages.

Also, when i read portal based sites like this I don't generally read the side columns if i notice advertisements and such, I must subconsciously block the rest out.

Maybe it's just me and i'm not making any sense... Confused Just throwing ideas about anyway. Wink
dunx - Jul 16, 2008 - 10:26 AM
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Probably a good point, so I'll change the menu now Smile
Sidget_Ex - Jul 16, 2008 - 05:46 PM
Post subject:
Thought the forum had dissapeared under 'Your SCUK' i was like nooo!!

N oi Dunx, cheeky - I browse a lot of the other website apart from the forum, im always reading the news you post its quite interesting

I liked the one about the dudes in Austria or Switzerland filling their halfpipe up to save snow - thats pretty cool
dunx - Jul 17, 2008 - 11:12 AM
Post subject:
SCUK's predecessor, TheBoarder, was the most visited snowboard site in Europe before we even started a forum. All driven by daily news.
Markland - Jul 17, 2008 - 11:51 AM
Post subject:
I like the new forum navigation menu, but putting the "recent headlines" and "community" sections from the left hand side closer to the top of the page would make the forum more easy to use as at the moment it is very far down and alot of new people might not scroll that far down the page.
Tomahawk - Jul 17, 2008 - 12:43 PM
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^ yea but then people wouldnt scroll down to the moeny making adds.
Markland - Jul 17, 2008 - 12:47 PM
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Yeh i though about that, how about put the ads on the right hand side of the page it wont make much difference to the size of the forum.
rachie - Jul 17, 2008 - 12:48 PM
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The ads that are here, if we click on them do SCUK get monies for it?? if so i'd gladly do daily clicks for monies for SCUK Smile
Sidget_Ex - Jul 17, 2008 - 02:15 PM
Post subject:
Anything to help the community

We could use some more SCUK merchandise


Dunx, perhaps a News section of the forum in addition to the sidebar links?

I think it would be good, theres a lot of news items i'd like to give feedback, questions and opinions on

I think there needs to be more emphasis on the news, well - I'd like there to be


Edit: With the news section of the forum, users should be able to post news threads, but to reduce spam the people who are allowed to post news threads should be either Paid up SCUK Members or people that have a certain post count / time registered on the forums [Such as 2 Weeks and 30 posts] So it doesn't fill up with 'WIN FREE IPOD NANOS!'
Tomahawk - Jul 17, 2008 - 02:46 PM
Post subject:
rachie wrote:
The ads that are here, if we click on them do SCUK get monies for it?? if so i'd gladly do daily clicks for monies for SCUK Smile


i presume so or else they wouldnt be there.

and the google ones definatly do.
dunx - Jul 17, 2008 - 02:50 PM
Post subject:
Commenting on news will be part of the new comments functionality. I'll probably add the same facility as I've proposed for events and slopes, so a forum entry can be associated with a news item (or slope or event).

Naturally, all the ads on SCUK generate us money (to enable us to spend it on re-doing the site!), so feel free to click them on an hourly basis. We're quite focused on what we show you, so they should be of general interest. There's no "poker" ads!

As for placement, well, they work better higher up. I just scroll down to the latest forum posts and my browser config blocks out most of the ads anyway!
Sidget_Ex - Jul 17, 2008 - 02:53 PM
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Awesome, sounds good

I've noticed the site isn't as slow as it used to be either

Will remember to click on the ads more =P
rachie - Jul 17, 2008 - 04:16 PM
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Well now i know that im not just clicking on hunky mens bodies just for the fun of it Wink i'll click more often


POWER TO SCUK Smile
Sidget_Ex - Jul 17, 2008 - 04:30 PM
Post subject:
Quote:
Well now i know that im not just clicking on hunky mens bodies just for the fun of it


Is that all i am to you? Sad
Branny - Jul 17, 2008 - 07:41 PM
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dunx wrote:
We're quite focused on what we show you, so they should be of general interest. There's no "poker" ads!


No guarantee they're in English though:..currently in the google bar

Solaria - Davos
Individuelles Ferienwohnen mit umfassendem Serviceangebot
www.solaria.ch

Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing Laughing
HarryCambs - Jul 18, 2008 - 11:09 AM
Post subject:
I also think is a great idea for the profile to be the entry point aka facebook. I would prefer if the profile page to display the recently joined forum topics, (galleries), messages and news.
Can you also do a photo/video gallery? They are quite popular forum topics but people end up using facebook because of lack of built in galleries on scuk as not everybody has flickr etc.
Please keep the RSS feed as well, I am one of the few geeks that use it.
A cleaner layout would be nice, at the moment I find SCUK a bit confusing, not trying to criticise you in a bad way but I guess it was the way things where done in the days the site was built.
Maybe you could also do a facebook app to link to SCUK site directly like drupalforfacebook app so that we don't have duplication on facebook as well.
dunx - Jul 18, 2008 - 12:51 PM
Post subject:
Galleries already mentioned above and will be included.

The layout is the main drive for the change TBH. It's far too busy and is coming up to 4 years old! Profiles should cut the chaff too.

We are considering a direct interface to Facebook, although I'm not sure of the state of the APIs from FB's end. I'm pretty sure it's doable, especially if Drupal have it licked already.

For the geeks... the site is still going to be based on PostNuke, which was recently re-named Zikula, so much of the site will still feel the same even if it looks different and there's new features to play with. In fact the first task is to move to Zikula with the same site we have now. Hopefully I'll start that within a month... but I've said that before. I'm redesigning www.seego.co.uk first Smile
Sidget_Ex - Jul 18, 2008 - 12:54 PM
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I got distracted by that bloody website a week ago for like an hour just browsing things that were completely pointless to me

Damn you Dunx =P


N don't change the forum colours if you change the layout - they are part of SCUK!
HarryCambs - Jul 19, 2008 - 01:06 AM
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You can also have a direct link to the forum from the news/slopes/events so that foorum topics are appropriately linked to their respective subjects/pages.

P.S. just back from the pub, hope it makes sense when sober Beer
Mac83 - Jul 21, 2008 - 12:56 PM
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Something i'd like to see... (Although peple may react with a "Why should SCUK do it just cos other forums do?")

A popup of the first post when you hover on the thread title. It just gives a bit more info incase the title is a bit vague! A couple of the other forums I use have this plugin and i've found it really handy.

I'm not too sure about this direct Facebook Link thingy!? I'm not saying it's a good or a bad thing... I'm just not sure about it! I'll gladly add it when it arrives and have a play tho. Thumbs Up

and yes... I visit other forums.. I don't know what to tell you all... I feel so dirty... Uh Oh!
Hodude - Jul 21, 2008 - 01:36 PM
Post subject:
Mac83 wrote:


A popup of the first post when you hover on the thread title. It just gives a bit more info incase the title is a bit vague! A couple of the other forums I use have this plugin and i've found it really handy.



good idea... i find it really handy too, saves me having to click into particular thread that i might not be interested in, particularly on slow forums (this is one of them!), speed is your friend!! Razz
arby - Jul 23, 2008 - 08:55 PM
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yeah... dont change it too much! people dont like change!

the stuff about putting in more local stuff sounds wicked. if my local slope (chatham) had an easy to access page with, say a calander and a news feed which some dedicated regular updated like once a week then i'd love to read it all even tho i hardly ever go there. maybe even put up a window with competition winners or something. think getting a bit more local would be great, even tho we have to remember we're all scUKers! lol that looks like suckers
craikeybaby - Jul 24, 2008 - 05:35 AM
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All sounds very interesting, but will it be quicker? And will I be able to click on the show new posts button and get a list of posts I can read, rather than a list of posts saying "no new psots since last vist"...
lez_s - Jul 24, 2008 - 07:51 AM
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i use that new posts button and always get a list back.
Hodude - Jul 24, 2008 - 10:48 AM
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erm... what 'new posts' button? i can't find it Confused
lez_s - Jul 24, 2008 - 10:59 AM
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go into the front page to the forum and top right there is a link saying something like, new posts since last visit.
Branny - Jul 24, 2008 - 11:39 AM
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LMAO only been on the forum since october 2004..and never spotted that hahahha
lez_s - Jul 29, 2008 - 11:56 AM
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How about when you get an email saying you have a pm you get the pm message in the email too?
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