Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Community Conversation => Transsexual talk => Female to male transsexual talk (FTM) => Topic started by: Ryan on September 12, 2010, 01:13:41 PM

Title: These Forums
Post by: Ryan on September 12, 2010, 01:13:41 PM
I know I probably shouldn't post this here, but I just want my opinion to be heard and don't know where else to post. I hope some of the other guys will agree with me.

This place is going downhill fast.
There are too many forums. I'm only interested in posting in FTM sections of the forum. It'd be great if they were all in one place, but everything is moving further away and making it far more difficult to find and post what I want.

On most other forums, there is a FTM section, maybe with some sub-forums for surgery and such. Simple.
But here, if I want to find FTM stuff, it could be in transsexual talk, FTM transsexal talk, just for us (FTM) and any of the 6 subforums of transitioning.

I don't want to spend my time checking 9 various sections in hope that there's something that interests me. It's too time consuming and puts me off coming here at all.

If the forum stays like this, I'm no longer interested in being an active member. Perhaps not a big loss, but I don't imagine I'll be the only one who fades into the background.

If this is taken seriously by staff, then thank you.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: rejennyrated on September 12, 2010, 01:18:31 PM
Ryan I don't know if it is of any help to you but you know that in this new version of software you can set ingores not just on users but also on whole sections or subsections of the forum.

So if you go into the ignore boards option in your profile and tick all the sections that you are not interested in then they will effectively disappear and leave you ONLY seeing the sections that you want.

I hope that may help!

take care

Jenny.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: emil on September 12, 2010, 01:21:25 PM
i think an easy way to cure that would be a sticky link to where the subforums were moved to. took me quite a while to find out where the top surgery subforum had gone..

edit: thanks, jenny!
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Ryan on September 12, 2010, 01:24:53 PM
That definitely sounds helpful, but I just don't think that members should have to take such measures to make a forum usable.
Maybe not everyone feels this way, but surely there's other people here who are only interested in the MTF or FTM boards.
It all just seems too complicated to be worth it.

It's not that I don't know where the forums are, it's just that they're all so scattered that it's too much hassle to go opening them all.
I may be wrong, but I don't think the FTM sections even get enough posts in the various sections to justify so many subforums.

I would think about how your members navigate the forums and reorganise them accordingly.
Again, just my opinion.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Nygeel on September 12, 2010, 02:28:21 PM
It took me awhile to figure it out where things were moved. I'm also trying to figure out the whole reputation thing...you can view a person's thumbs up/down but if they're on some sort of warning you can't see why.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Britney♥Bieber on September 12, 2010, 02:48:16 PM
I haven't noticed much I just click on the new replies to my posts and unread since my last visit. :P

But you look super cute in your avatar. :P
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Ryan on September 12, 2010, 02:57:06 PM
Thanks 8) You're looking rather hot, if I do say so myself!
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Nathan. on September 12, 2010, 03:08:19 PM
Quote from: KimberlyJean on September 12, 2010, 02:48:16 PM
I haven't noticed much I just click on the new replies to my posts and unread since my last visit. :P

Same  :)

I do agree that it could be better if there were less sections.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Carson on September 12, 2010, 03:10:33 PM
I don't really know what else to say except that I totally agree with you Ryan. I find myself just not bothering and coming on less and less.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Britney♥Bieber on September 12, 2010, 03:12:25 PM
omg thanks! I love the glasses on you!! :D
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Ryan on September 12, 2010, 03:17:49 PM
Thanks Carson, I knew someone would agree!
It's a shame because I love this place. I wouldn't be posting this if I didn't care.

As for the replies thing, that's fine for topics you've already posted in, but I don't post that frequently. It's too bothersome to find new topics or to keep up with topics that you haven't posted in.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Britney♥Bieber on September 12, 2010, 03:24:42 PM
That's true. Sometimes I'll just go to the mtf section and read a bunch :P
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Jeatyn on September 12, 2010, 03:30:51 PM
I feel the same, I'm so busy these days I find myself barely bothering to check the various sections. It's too much effort when I only have a few minutes to browse.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: James42 on September 12, 2010, 03:31:52 PM
You're definitely not the only one who feels this way, I have ADD so I get distracted easy if things aren't right in front of me, so having to navigate all over the forums just to find different ftm topics tends to quickly lose my attention. Not that I don't love Susans, but it would make it easier.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Farm Boy on September 12, 2010, 04:21:19 PM
I feel the same way.  I've been posting less often because there are fewer posts in the FTM section, and I usually don't have anything useful to contribute to the threads that are up.  I don't often check the other sections either because only a small number of them are FTM related (and it's a pain to check 9 different sections, as you say), so I end up missing the ones that are.

This site has been a big help to me, but the re-location and separation of the groups has made things difficult to maneuver. 
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Michael Joseph on September 12, 2010, 04:34:41 PM
i completely agree.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: notyouraverageguy on September 12, 2010, 04:43:34 PM
Yes, all the FTM posts should be in one place. I noticed the surgery forums moved but just thought they disappeared. Didn't bother looking and wouldn't want to search through them all either.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Clay on September 12, 2010, 04:48:43 PM
it's a bit messy at least, and i can't fight the feeling i'm missing a lot interesting posts.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Ryan on September 12, 2010, 05:05:21 PM
Femboy; https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,339.0.html (https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/board,339.0.html) for coming out, hormones, surgery, therapy, legal matters and RLE.

Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Jeatyn on September 12, 2010, 06:28:30 PM
wow I had no idea that "transitioning" section was there
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Ryan on September 12, 2010, 07:42:06 PM
Surgery used to be a sub forum here, but now it's in the new transitioning section.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: LordKAT on September 12, 2010, 10:46:59 PM
I hate to tell ya this guys, but I never noticed a change at all.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Silver on September 13, 2010, 01:26:00 AM
The FTM board subforums seem rather pointless to me. I'd really just rather not check them, and it's not like topics about binder stuff in the FTM board were a problem. But I don't think it is going downhill.

Hey don't leave, you're cool. Maybe we should sticky a set of links to the boards that might be of interest to FTMs on this board.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: kelly_aus on September 13, 2010, 01:51:34 AM
This old grumpy bitch is gonna throw in her 2c worth.. Did some forums move after the upgrade, sure, but it hasn't left Susans and harder or easier to navigate than other forums I'm a member of, and tbh, the only real difference I noticed was the CSS being applied. It seems to me that anyone under about 30 has the attention span of a flea and expects everything to be spoon-fed to them..  ;)
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Ryan on September 13, 2010, 05:45:59 AM
Kelly, I think you're completely off the mark.
Many people like to quickly check new topics and posts before they go to school/work etc. When there are at least 9 forums for FTM topics, that's a lot of hassle.
For example, I allow myself 20 minutes of internet use before I have to get dressed and go to work. Susan's no longer fits in that time, so I don't bother coming here at all unless I have a lot of free time.

It's definitely left Susan's harder to navigate than other forums. At least for the FTM topics.
Maybe we do all have short attention spans, but we are the members and the forum should be based around our needs.

That's sounded a bit stuck up perhaps, but I didn't mean it in that way. I love these forums and I'm grateful that they give us a place to talk, but you still have to think about the best ways to draw in new members, and keep the old ones posting. It's a great forum, but at the moment, it's poorly implemented.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: meh on September 13, 2010, 07:14:04 AM
I subscribed to the RSS feeds for each forum I want to get updates on. Easier that way and I don't miss anything.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: insideontheoutside on September 13, 2010, 05:06:00 PM
I've been getting by on the "show new replies to your posts" and then just going to the main sections for topics like FTM and the Androgyne boards. I often just click on the "show unread posts since last visit" too to see what's going on in general.
Title: Re: These Forums
Post by: Cowboi on September 13, 2010, 06:49:59 PM
Honestly I never even noticed the change. However I didn't ever check many of the areas other than the FTM one to begin with. I've found that I've been more active on different types of topics and in discussions crossing over to all types of users (in comparison to pretty much exclusively talking with other FTMs before). Maybe this kind of has to do with the change, now there is a reason to peak at the other forums because I've noticed there are FTM topics there, then it gets me reading more general posts that don't only apply to us.

idk, I don't have an opinion on if it's good or bad, I'm just curious now if the change is what lead to me finding more sections to be active in and more conversations with different types of people. No real way to know since i have no idea when the changes were even made...