Does anyone else feel lost here?

In the time I have been here and considering that at times I have been in the top three posters, have written guides and answered many many posts I am sad to say I have never once been contacted by the owner. I have been at the other place for a short time and had more contact and requests granted than any other site I have been a member of.
 
I am 100% behind this plan. Let me know what you guys come up with! :D

In all seriousness, I agree the volume of new users here has reached the tipping point where the usefulness of the forum is undermined by the lack of organization and oversight. Starting to drive me nuts...and drive me away. Which is probably better for my mental and physical health both. I love helping people (ok...I'm addicted to it...I can admit that), but even that inner drive has been stunted here lately.

I'll do whatever I can to help with this, but I'll need to defer to you all for figuring out the best way to apply our efforts.
 
No wonder you heard from them--it's less than 100 posts on there. If I was the admin id be half of them starting out! Don't think I'm moving due to the pure number of posts here!
 
I won't be going there. I'm not a fan of the way the admin from the other site tried to poach people from this site. It showed poor judgement. And there's no need to move house over a couple broken windows or some dodgy plumbing. There's too much here and I'd rather try to fix it. Adam seems reasonable. Probably busy with other things. I don't see why he wouldn't nominate some moderators to help clean things up.

If things don't change? Well, hard to tell. I really don't want to sift through 10 new "Which FPV Should I Buy" posts each day. There's always the option to set up something new. But before that is even worthy of debate, I want to see what we can do here. Let's fix the windows and the plumbing.
 
Also I think a way to unsubscribe to a particular thread once your no longer interested or it goes South would be useful. I've chimed in on a few threads that have gone around and around in circles because people couldn't be bothered reading the while thing.
 
As an impartial observer I think the other new forum is trying to be all things to all men and as such will never have the community feel that this Phantom only forum has. I have posted before that all that is likely to happen is that things will get diluted - as an example, already it looks like we are going to lose one of our leading videographers - now, if I want to read Shrimpfarmer's opinion on something I have to go to two places - how can that be called progress ?

If you want to explore other multicopters other than the DJI family there are existing forums with much more expertise available. Personally, I am probably going to move away from RTF for my next drone and have discovered an excellent multi rotor forum aimed at the UK market. This one forum alone has 50k posts.

Agree that with some small tweaks this forum can be improved immensely.

Edit: there is another aspect to consider. This forum is not just about factual information, there is also an entertainment factor. As it is now there is sufficient activity to provide an hour or so worth of browsing (often I read other sections not just the stuff about my P2V). To provide this level of interest means that there needs to be a considerable number of contributions - some rubbish but some interesting. If I look at other smaller forums there just simply is not enough activity. Lets keep all our eggs in one basket !
 
I know exactly how you all feel, I rarely browse this forum these days :( I used to enjoy signing in and seeing what challenges DJI have set for us. But I've found since the introduction of the first vision, the number of members has exploded and I find most threads and topic irrelevant to my interests and/or it has been covered before and thus, i dont have the motivation to reply because i know its just going to be lost in a week or so amongst 100's of new threads. I don't blame the new members for this, as I've heard the search function isn't great. That said, I'm also grateful for the forum that Adam has set up.
 
PhantomNoob said:
They're running a much better platform. phpBB pales in comparison to Vbulletin software, and the search works as it should.
That might be the case but if it is something is wrong with how it is configured because at the moment it looks awful with the way it wastes screen real estate and when images are posted the text does not render correctly. Vbulletin may be technically superior but this forum seems to have better cross browser/device compatibility - using a tablet, phone & pc it always looks easy to read to my eyes. Have just checked the other forum on my Android tablet and phone and despite being both set to desktop view each device displays the content differently.

(and do not get me started on Tapatalk ;))

Edit: just thought I would check the claim that vbulletin is so much better than phpbb (I have run a phpbb in the past) and having read the first page of results from a Google search I would say that each has it's own fans and although vb has more features it is not a clear winner. There seems to be new platforms available that are better than both.
 
pault said:
PhantomNoob said:
(and do not get me started on Tapatalk ;))

And here is why I love this forum, phantom experts, and MIND readers :) I agree, it could be setup better, I've run just about every version of phpBB since it's inception. At one time, it was the only forums software I would install. Most of the boards I visit these days seem to be running Vbulletin, and I've grown accustomed to it's search features. I've not seen the latest phpBB release, and wonder if it possesses the ability, but it's just not been implemented here?
 
ianwood said:
I think some forum specific moderators can go a long way, moving threads, ending O/T or inappropriate messages, organizing stickies/FAQs. With a very light touch of course. But, yeah this place needs some work. The logo has said "phantoi", "dji phantom for" for quite some time now. Thread, forum and site search all need to be fixed.


agree

:lol: @ phantoi
 
This is not the first post where a flurry of members have called for moderators. There have been plenty of them especially when the place was infested with Trolls which still plague the place. I will watch with interest to see how Adam responds but I suspect he is not around the forum that much.

A number of high post count members have voiced how they feel differently about the place these days. I bet there are plenty of others feeling the same who keep their thoughts to themselves.

Time will tell.
 
ianwood said:
I won't be going there. I'm not a fan of the way the admin from the other site tried to poach people from this site. It showed poor judgement. And there's no need to move house over a couple broken windows or some dodgy plumbing. There's too much here and I'd rather try to fix it. Adam seems reasonable. Probably busy with other things. I don't see why he wouldn't nominate some moderators to help clean things up.

If things don't change? Well, hard to tell. I really don't want to sift through 10 new "Which FPV Should I Buy" posts each day. There's always the option to set up something new. But before that is even worthy of debate, I want to see what we can do here. Let's fix the windows and the plumbing.

+1 I agree...instead of jumping to greener grass, try watering the lawn we stand on.
I admit...I'm guilty of asking questions that have been answered already. Search is cumbersome. Millions of FPV threads that either don't answer question directly or end up a pissing match. Stickys would help immensely. As far as ADAM is concerned...he doesnt exist. ADAM is the first person to join the forum.
 
Whiteram said:
+1 I agree...instead of jumping to greener grass, try watering the lawn we stand on.
I admit...I'm guilty of asking questions that have been answered already. Search is cumbersome. Millions of FPV threads that either don't answer question directly or end up a pissing match. Stickys would help immensely. As far as ADAM is concerned...he doesnt exist. ADAM is the first person to join the forum.

Your going to need one hell of a watering can ;)
 
Shrimpfarmer said:
.....

A number of high post count members have voiced how they feel differently about the place these days. I bet there are plenty of others feeling the same who keep their thoughts to themselves
......

I can understand the feeling that long time members look back with nostalgia to the days when there was just a handful of them all discovering these amazing drones together. However this is just the nature of all product focused forums as they mature. I suppose it just depends what type of feel people prefer - for a more intimate 'club' type atmosphere then maybe the other place might suit whereas some might prefer a more lively buzz albeit with a large number of simple repeat questions. So maybe there is room for a new startup but on balance I would prefer the forum elders stay here and continue to contribute.
 
It's not easy running a forum/bulletin board (BB). Especially one which is on the brink of attracting the attention of thousands of consumers buying Phantoms. While it is true that they are 'ready to fly' in as much as they do not need to be built, they do need a lot of setting-up. I am sure that when Adam started this BB he had no idea how popular it would become, how complex the set up would become, or how quickly all this would happen. Seems to me that what Adam needs is help, not criticism.

The main issue seems to be that noobs are asking the same questions over and over. What they need is directing to the right place. And one way of doing this is by 'moderation'. If you guys who have been so helpful in the past would become Moderators you could help sort out this BB without anyone getting overloaded. The more moderators, the less each one has to do. The strength of moderating is that posts will not be displayed until someone has looked at them. A moderator can decide to refer the sender to a particular post that has already addressed the topic and prevent the post from showing on the site. This will give an opportunity to reduce the number of posts on the same subject while still helping those that ask the question. It is a form of discipline that other BBs use to control posts. Some go as far as to say that they will trash posts made to the wrong forum or asking a question that is on the FAQ.

I am not an expert on these things but if enough people divided up the work it would be possible to put up a FAQ with links to relevant posts. I must declare that as a quad-noob myself I really appreciate the help I have received. I do not feel I know enough to be much use - but I will stick my hand up (so to speak) and be prepared to answer any posts that I am confident about subject to the time constraints of having a day-job. Who knows, it may be a really good way to learn stuff... This could be the definitive Phantom BB but it needs help. A Mod just does what he/she can, they do not have to make a massive commitment, just be part of a like-minded group. Anyone else up for helping Adam out?

EDIT:
I seem to have missed a page or two where Mods have been suggested, but it' still a good way forward...
 

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,935
Latest member
Pauos31