New Forum Structure

[Admin]

Many of you know there has been a site update being developed in the background with components of that update being slowly implemented here on the live site...styling changes, thread prefixes, Top of Page etc.

 

The next element is a new forum structure. These days there are more and more International visitors coming to the site however, as in the past, they don't stay due to the Australian centric of the site and yes, I know I have tried it before, but previously the site just wasn't ready for it BUT I feel the timing may be right to give it a go. I feel it will help to keep the International users staying here and contributing more whilst maintaining the Australian elements of the site. With the proposed structure there are 2 other enhancements from the overall update that would accompany the restructure to make it more appealing to all users.

 

Australia really is such a small audience and the content you have all contributed has made this site one huge resource of valuable information to any recreational aviator in the world to use. So it makes sense to try and make this content and the site more appealing for International users who would in turn bring even more great interesting and helpful content for everyone.

 

It may seem that there is a big impact however in reality there isn't. The 3rd forum down is still General Discussion however it is now in a category with a few other General Discussion forums for other regions. The "Other" forums still come after the General Discussion ones. The Accidents and the Governing Bodies forums are combined into the General Discussion forum and that will be the place to discuss these instead of having separate forums for them. Some very little used forums are removed and the Recreational and GA Aircraft forums are combined into one category instead of being 2 separate ones. So in reality there isn't as great an impact as what it may look like.

 

It also provides for separate regional Trips/Events and Spare Seats forums so the upcoming events, from the Event Calendar System, can be displayed across the top of the appropriate region's Trips/Events forum.

 

There is a new Aircraft Category with forums for each of the different types of aircraft. This is instead of having separate Recreational and GA categories. Some forums have also been removed due to their low use...Airports, Air Traffic Control, Rotary Wing and Aviation Apps. Aviation Apps have become region specific so these can be discussed in the specific region's general discussion.

 

The other benefit is that it would make the forums easier to use for everyone when creating threads having less worry about which forum your thread belongs in and less work for the Mods in having to move threads from one forum into another more suited forum.

 

So here is a preview of the new forum structure:

 

General Forums Category

 

-- Site Announcements And News Forum

 

-- Pilots Just Landed Forum

 

Recreational Flying World Wide General Discussion

 

-- Australia and New Zealand

 

-- UK and Europe

 

-- USA and Canada

 

-- Africa and Middle East

 

-- All Other Regions

 

Other Forums

 

-- Trips/Events/Spare Seats Forum

 

----

 

-- Student Pilot and Further Learning Forum

 

-- Instructors Only

 

-- Aviation Classifieds Forum

 

-- Aviation Laughter Forum

 

-- Aviation Videos Forum

 

-- Aerobatics Forum

 

-- First Class Lounge Forum

 

-- Suppliers (paid advertising) Forum

 

Aircraft Forums

 

-- Aircraft General Discussion Forum

 

-- Avionics, Engines and Props Forum

 

-- GA Aircraft Usergroups Category

 

----

 

-- Ultralight and LSA Aircraft Usergroups Sub Category

 

----

 

-- Trikes and Microlight Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

----

 

-- Rotorcraft Usergroup Forum

 

----

 

-- Powered Chutes etc Usergroup Forum

 

-- Gliders and Soaring Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

-- Warbirds, Vintage and Classic Aircraft Forum

 

Aircraft Building Category

 

-- Aircraft Building General Discussion Forum

 

-- Aircraft Kits and Design Forum

 

-- Workshop Tips and Tools Forum

 

-- Firewall Forward Forum

 

-- Instruments, Avionics & Electrical Systems Forum

 

-- Finishing, Sanding, Painting and Graphics Forum

 

Special Interest Forums

 

-- Aviation Enthusiasts General Discussion Forum

 

-- RC Model Aircraft Forum

 

-- Commercial Aircraft Forum

 

-- Military Aviation Forum

 

-- Hobbies and Collectables Forum

 

-- Flight Sim Forum

 

-- Off Topic Forum

 

Also with this proposal is a new feature that allows you to click an icon on the right of any category that will hide (contract) or show (expand) the forums in that category...and it always remembers what forums in the main forum list page that you want to see or don't want to see. This what it looks like with a category expanded and some categories contracted to not show the forums in those categories:

 

 

There is also a "Friend Inviter" function that you can access in your site settings. It provides an interface for you to invite your contacts that you know in Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and even your email contacts and it looks like this in your settings area:

 

 

I hope this will help the site to grow especially if International users feel comfortable posting here in their own group of forums.

 

There is also the functionality, already installed on the site, for you to exclude any forums from your "What's New" function on the site. You may wish to not have new posts in your What's New that have been made in the forums for another region for example. You can already do that by going to your site settings and selecting the "What's New Exclusions" part of your settings:

 

 

This new forums structure would be the most important step that this site has taken for a very long time as it will shape the site from this point on.

 

With more users feeling comfortable posting here will mean more interesting subjects, more knowledge and experience transfer, more auxiliary content like more photos, more videos etc which means we all benefit.

 

However your comments are valuable so please post your thoughts, it would be greatly appreciated...speak up now or...

 

 

[geoffreywh]

how about paypal account for donations?

 

 

[Admin]

how about paypal account for donations?

There is a Donation button in the right column of the main forums page...donations of $50 or more automatically make you a First Class Member and are EXTREMELY appreciated

 

 

[old man emu]

Crickey! The First of the Month has come around again. Look in your piggy bank on Thursday arvo.

 

OME

 

 

[boingk]

I like the sentiment but I think it is going to make the forum a very messy affair.

 

Why not have an 'International' forum group with the countries under it and then subforums under that?

 

Perhaps I'm being too narrow sighted?

 

- boingk

 

 

[Admin]

I like the sentiment but I think it is going to make the forum a very messy affair.Why not have an 'International' forum group with the countries under it and then subforums under that?

 

Perhaps I'm being too narrow sighted?

 

- boingk

Thanks boingk...do you mean something like this:

General Forums Category

 

-- Site Announcements And News Forum

 

-- Pilots Just Landed Forum

 

-- Other Forums Category

 

----- Aviation Classifieds Forum

 

----- Aviation Laughter Forum

 

----- Aviation Videos Forum

 

----- Off Topic Forum

 

----- First Class Lounge Forum

 

-- Suppliers (paid advertising) Forum

 

Australia and New Zealand Forums Category

 

-- General Discussion

 

-- Trips/Events/Spare Seats Forum

 

-- Student Pilot and Further Learning Forum

 

-- Instructors Only

 

-- Accidents and Incidents

 

-- Governing Bodies

 

UK and Europe Forums Category

 

--

 

USA and Canada Category

 

--

 

Africa and Middle East Category

 

--

 

All Other Regions Category

 

--

 

Aircraft Forums

 

-- Aircraft General Discussion Forum

 

-- Avionics, Engines and Props Forum

 

-- GA Aircraft Usergroups Category

 

----

 

-- Ultralight and LSA Aircraft Usergroups Sub Category

 

----

 

-- Trikes and Microlight Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

----

 

-- Rotorcraft Usergroup Forum

 

----

 

-- Powered Chutes etc Usergroup Forum

 

-- Gliders and Soaring Aircraft Usergroup Forum

 

-- Warbirds, Vintage and Classic Aircraft Forum

 

Aircraft Building Category

 

-- Aircraft Building General Discussion Forum

 

-- Aircraft Kits and Design Forum

 

-- Workshop Tips and Tools Forum

 

-- Firewall Forward Forum

 

-- Instruments, Avionics & Electrical Systems Forum

 

-- Finishing, Sanding, Painting and Graphics Forum

 

Special Interest Forums

 

-- Aviation Enthusiasts General Discussion Forum

 

-- Aerobatics Forum

 

-- RC Model Aircraft Forum

 

-- Commercial Aircraft Forum

 

-- Military Aviation Forum

 

-- Hobbies and Collectables Forum

 

-- Flight Sim Forum

 

 

[johnm]

IAN

 

a tiring question but if I donate $ 50.01 do I automatically become a first class member ? - I don't want to - I want to go through life as a private - may be a corporal - not any higher ...................... though, 1st class on my blemished record would be a blemish !

 

please advise

 

 

[Admin]

IANa tiring question but if I donate $ 50.01 do I automatically become a first class member ? - I don't want to - I want to go through life as a private - may be a corporal - not any higher ...................... though, 1st class on my blemished record would be a blemish !

 

please advise

No you don't if you don't want to...I manually upgrade users to First Class if they are kind enough to make a donation of $50 or more so if you don't want to then just let me know and I won't do the upgrade...it's funny, you're the 2nd person to say this

 

 

[boingk]

Thanks boingk...do you mean something like this:

That looks good!

 

I just think that otherwise there could be confusion of what topics are relevant to a said area or not - we have different homebuilt and instructing standards, for example.

 

Cheers - boingk

 

 

[Admin]

Any more comments?

 

This is an important change to the site and the only change that impacts all users in the site update...other components only effect users if they choose to use them but this one effects everyone so please comment

 

 

[eightyknots]

Any more comments?This is an important change to the site and the only change that impacts all users in the site update...other components only effect users if they choose to use them but this one effects everyone so please comment

The proposes changes seem to be agreeable. There is no reason why not to implement them as soon as practicable.

 

 

[Admin]

I am going to have to go with the first option as the 2nd option has far too many forums...just did a mock up on my PC of the site and it was simply far too many.

 

 

[Admin]

The restructure has taken place...some notes:

 

1. The General Discussion forum has been renamed Australia and New Zealand in a new General Discussion category
    
    
   
2. New general discussion forums have been created specific to geographic regions
    
    
   
3. Previous threads and posts contained in the Accidents and Incidents forum have been merged into the Australian and New Zealand general discussion forum. Aircraft Accidents and Incidents can now be discussed in their specific region General Discussion forum
    
    
   
4. Previous threads and posts contained in the Governing Bodies forum have been merged into the Australian and New Zealand general discussion forum. Governing Bodies discussions can now be discussed in their specific region General Discussion forum
    
    
   
5. Previous threads and posts contained in the Aviation Apps forum have been merged into the Australian and New Zealand general discussion forum and then removed
    
    
   
6. Previous threads and posts contained in the categories Recreational Aircraft forums and the GA Aircraft forums have been merged together to form one combined category with single forums relating to both recreational and GA
    
    
   
7. Trips/Events and Spare Seats will have specific regions generated so when creating an event in the Recreational Flying Events System you can select which region the event is in and it will automatically create a thread for the event in the related forum and display it as an upcoming event across the top of that region's forum
    
    
   
8. Trikes/Microlights and the Rotocraft usergroups forums will have sub forums specific to aircraft brand so aircraft brand specific discussions can be made
    
    
   
9. A new category called Special Interest" has been created for forums that are outside the Recreational Flying core set of forums
    
    
   

 

 

Still to do...

 

1. Create an Instructors ONLY Forum along with an Instructors User Group and related permissions - DONE
    
    
   
2. Create sub Trips/Event/Spare Seats forums for regions and link in to the Event System - DONE
    
    
   
3. Change each forum's description to be specific to what the forum is for - DONE
    
    
   
4. Update the What's New Exclusion List so you can exclude any specific forums new posts when you use the What's New site feature - DONE
    
    
   

 

 

 

 

[Admin]

Just a reminder to ALL registered users...in your settings you can choose which forums you want to exclude all new posts from being included in the site's "What's New" feature.

 

So if you are not interested in seeing any new posts that have been added to say for example the "Off Topic" forum, or say all the forums in "Aircraft Building" or say the "Jabiru Usergroup" forum etc, then you select those or any other forums you want excluded on the "What's New Exclusions" page in your settings.

 

To go to the "What's New Exclusions" page in your settings, simply click/tap or hover your mouse over your username in the top right corner of the site. From the drop down box that appears just click "What's New Exclusions" in the left column. You will then see the Exclusions page so just click the forums whose new posts you want excluded from the list of posts you see when you use the "What's New" feature...oh, don't forget to click the "Save" button at the bottom of the page when you are done.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

[Admin]

A new forum has been created for Instructors ONLY. Instructors can discuss things relating to instructing without interference from general users. General users will be able to see the thread titles only but can not see any posts that are made within a thread.

 

I hope this will be a great benefit to Instructors to be able to discuss elements of their instruction with other Instructors only plus I hope that Instructors using this locked forum will migrate valuable pieces of information resulting from their discussions out into the general forums for all users to benefit from...especially in the "Student Pilot and Further Learning" forum

 

To request access to the Instructors Only forum, please contact me by private conversation, phone, email or use the link "request access" that is shown next to the Instructors Only forum. To gain access you will need to be able to demonstrate that you are in fact a Flying Instructor, in some manner that can be verified

 

 

[Dieselten]

(Without prejudice) The speed with which the non-Australian sections of the forum begin to acquire threads and posts will very soon indicate the validity of the assumptions upon which this restructure was based.

 

 

[Admin]

Please note that due to the Forums Restructure the "What's New Exclusions" has had to be reset...if you had exclusions already set then these have had to be removed due to several forums now having a different ID in the database...sorry for any inconvenience

 

 

[BPN]

Ian, with due respect, if it aint broken dont fix it. This new stuff sucks. It seems change for changes sake.

 

I just don't see the need to change all the time without any benefit.

 

Regards Bruce

 

 

[Admin]

Ian, with due respect, if it aint broken dont fix it. This new stuff sucks. It seems change for changes sake.I just don't see the need to change all the time without any benefit.

Regards Bruce

Thanks for the comments BPN...I suppose it comes down to different opinions of if it is broke.

There really is so little difference

 

- The 3rd forum down is still General Discussion as it was before...the only difference is some extra forums there for International users

 

- The rest of the general forums follow General discussion as it was before...the only difference is some extra sub forums for International events

 

- The previously separated aircraft forums of Recreational and GA have been combined into the same single category called Aircraft

 

- The Governing Bodies and Accidents forums have been merged into General Discussion

 

- An extra forum has been added for Instructors

 

Many users didn't worry about where they created threads so in General Discussion there were threads about Aircraft, there were threads about Engines, there were threads about Accidents, there were threads about RAAus so now it is even easier not only on users creating threads but also on myself and the Moderators not having to continually keep moving threads into their proper forums.

 

What sucks about that...PLEASE let me know if it can be done any better...I called for comment before the restructure, and for some time before it, so I can only go by what comments you make so decisions can be made.

 

BPN, I do very much appreciate the feedback and thank you for saying something

 

 

[damkia]

The Governing Bodies and Accidents forums have been merged into General Discussion

This would be the only negative I can see from the upgrade.

 

Having them separated means you also separated the "attitude" (for want of a better description) into "Dead serious" Accidents and Incidents, with minimal superfluous chatter and thread drifts, and "Almost anything acceptable" General threads where a more liberal approach to posting is welcome.

 

The other factor is now we actually have to search through pages of general chit-chat to see recent accidents and incidents, with the possibility of missing them altogether if you have not been on for a week or two and have not heard any rumblings to encourage your curiosity to search in the first place.

 

Having all the Accidents and Incidents in one place was a benefit not actually offered by RA-Aus at the moment - this forum was one of the very few places RA-Aus A&I's were talked about.

 

I accept that we may not have lost A&I's, but we have lost a good part of the functionality and ease of access to them. A&I's was one of those threads that you keep a general eye on once or twice a week.

 

"Search" only works when you know you need to search...

 

For want of a better description it is now not as "fail safe" as it probably should be in accessability

 

 

[Admin]

:crying:why didn't you say this when I was calling for comment...good point and understand that but can I take it under advisement at the moment...and can I put to you the question of whether there would be interest on accidents in other countries? For example if there was a separate Accidents forum again, what would you think if there were mixed in there accidents from all around the world...or would you only be interested in accidents in Australia? There are more accidents in the US for example than Australia and then add UK accidents in there as well not to mention those in South Africa.

 

 

[turboplanner]

I certainly would't mix accidents/incidents or any other category related to Australian regulations with discussions on foreign events.

 

For example, RA radio procedure is not exactly at the highest standard right now, primarily because of frequent tampering by the regulator, so it's difficult enough for a student or casual flyer to get the old phrases out of his head and the new ones in. Recently we had a thread where someone was recommending British phrases, which were not valid in Australia and could have a pilot making a critical mistake at a critical time. On another thread someone was espousing and quoting New Zealand regulations which were not applicable here.

 

So it can cause confusion, and potential risk.

 

 

[damkia]

:crying:why didn't you say this when I was calling for comment...good point and understand that but can I take it under advisement at the moment...and can I put to you the question of whether there would be interest on accidents in other countries? For example if there was a separate Accidents forum again, what would you think if there were mixed in there accidents from all around the world...or would you only be interested in accidents in Australia? There are more accidents in the US for example than in Australia and then add UK accidents in there as well not to mention those in South Africa.

My apologies, but I missed the line in the middle of the paragraph of you first post at the time (my bad - trying to get a house ready for sale ). I did look through the list of threads and still missed the absence.... (Doh!)

I would think that the overseas information would be useful as most accidents have a wide cross section of interest and relevance in terms of human factors, environmental, and mechanical issues involved.

 

 

[Admin]

So here we have 2 different opinions and I agree with both. When trying to work out the best solution with Accidents I knew that it would be wrong to have just one forum for them given the different legalities plus the thread titles that are used like:

 

Fatal Crash at Taree

 

Emerald Qld - Virgin does go-around to avoid light plane

 

Fatal Incident at Parafield...

 

Now one near a school! Ballarat

 

and then there are ones that are like:

 

CTSW Flips on landing (an accident thread of interest to all CTsw pilots)

 

The intent of the Accidents forum was that it be used as a learning tool...although they are other aviators misfortunes, there are always elements that we can all learn from to help keep us all safer. The other thing is that the threads always have an element of geographic location. There is also the desire to keep the forums as compact as possible instead of having a forum for this, a forum for that and forums for everything else. So it was hard to try and determine the best compromise. The geographic element of an accident, the desire to keep the forums list as short as possible, the legality/governing body aspects of an accident all hinted at having them discussed in General Discussion per region and hence this is what was done after user comment was called.

 

The alternative is to either have a separate forum for Accidents as it was but then there is the legality/governing and geographic issue as the site tries to entice more and more International users.

 

This only leaves the option of having a separate Accidents category with geographic regions as sub forums the same way that is now done with the Events/Trips and Spare Seats category and sub forums. This covers:

 

- separate forum for Accidents

 

- legality/governing issues are kept within their own region of accidents

 

- geographic elements of an accident thread are also kept within their region

 

But it then requires an extra category and sub forums further extending the forum list and adding more complexity to site usage although somewhat softened by the already existing format of the Trips/Events and Spare Seats forums.

 

That is the dilemma and possibly the best option is to have an Accidents category with geographic regions as sub forums like the Trips/Events is done...as always, open to comment

 

Nothing on this site is done for no reason, there is no change for change sake and in fact over the last year there has been no change however when ever a change is proposed, it is always communicated to you all and it is always accompanied with a pleading for comments and without them I can only do my best with what I think I know

 

 

[Admin]

There is always a "B" plan...that is to move this site back to .com.au and have it the way it was before and purely targeted to Australia. Then create separate sites for the UK, USA, Canada etc but it is so darn hard to start a site off and takes a long time of constant focus to get them going...it is a catch 22, people come to the site for content who create more content which gets more users etc etc etc so starting a site is extremely hard without content and users. The other negative to that is that you don't end up with one huge repository of helpful information to all but rather spread across separate sites. But a positive is that the site can be tailored specific to the region with some great extras developed for that region (Airstrips, Events, Articles, News, Clubs, Schools, People, Places etc) and a more "community" element comes out.

 

So is that what you want?