just an idea

[pierrre]

Hello F1Technical net...just a thought, you've got your front page and news section with pretty good articles. I was thinking that, what are your thoughts on connecting those articles to the forum as well like on pistonheads so forum members can directly respond to their ideas on it

[Steven]

A better connection between the articles and the forum is something on the wishlist for quite some time. So many users are only visiting the forum, and others come by to check some news once in a while, but never end up on the forum.

Any ideas in this respect are very welcome!
Could you send a link to the site you mention?

An item on our TODO list currently is to move the red button "discuss this in the forum" to the bottom of articles, and perhaps insert the latest post underneath the article. It appears that right now, the button is rarely seen by visitors.

[strad]

that's a really good idea

[wesley123]

A better connection between the articles and the forum is something on the wishlist for quite some time. So many users are only visiting the forum, and others come by to check some news once in a while, but never end up on the forum.

Any ideas in this respect are very welcome!
Could you send a link to the site you mention?

An item on our TODO list currently is to move the red button "discuss this in the forum" to the bottom of articles, and perhaps insert the latest post underneath the article. It appears that right now, the button is rarely seen by visitors.

I'd say treat everything as a forum, including the articles. In this case it would be a great option to allow the first post to be treated differently. With this, everyone can (in)directly contribute to the website. There are some pretty neat things going on in the forums, and such a change would bring the possibility for these efforts to be featured on the main page.

[pierrre]

A better connection between the articles and the forum is something on the wishlist for quite some time. So many users are only visiting the forum, and others come by to check some news once in a while, but never end up on the forum.

Any ideas in this respect are very welcome!
Could you send a link to the site you mention?

An item on our TODO list currently is to move the red button "discuss this in the forum" to the bottom of articles, and perhaps insert the latest post underneath the article. It appears that right now, the button is rarely seen by visitors.

for instance, the red arrow represents discussion in forum



and after clicking the article, reference red arrow again


thats on Porsche Lifts The Lid On The New 992 Targa

[Just_a_fan]

A better connection between the articles and the forum is something on the wishlist for quite some time. So many users are only visiting the forum, and others come by to check some news once in a while, but never end up on the forum.

Any ideas in this respect are very welcome!
Could you send a link to the site you mention?

An item on our TODO list currently is to move the red button "discuss this in the forum" to the bottom of articles, and perhaps insert the latest post underneath the article. It appears that right now, the button is rarely seen by visitors.

I'd say treat everything as a forum, including the articles. In this case it would be a great option to allow the first post to be treated differently. With this, everyone can (in)directly contribute to the website. There are some pretty neat things going on in the forums, and such a change would bring the possibility for these efforts to be featured on the main page.

I agree with having forum comments on the articles. That way the discussion and the originating article are a single unit in the forum. Sure, we have other topics as now, but currently if one wants to discuss an item that is in the news, one has to start a new topic or try to find where in the existing topics it is/should be discussed.

The only issue that will need to be considered is that the conversation that is linked to the articles will need to be moderated firmly to ensure it all stays on topic. Likewise, where an article has a conversation attached, there will need to be joining of newly started user topics to help keep it all in one place.

[dimaestro]

I'm not sure if top quoting or bottom quoting is the norm here.

Having articles linked to the forum is not really a new idea. Ars Technica, The TechReport, AnandTech have been doing it for decades.

However it does require some combination of the main site and forum boards, and if there aren't enough people to write the software required it won't work.

I've been a lurker on F1 Tech for quite a while, and it's got 2 vastly different user bases. The chatty forum geeks (no offense intended) and the people who read the articles. The real question is (and is for any website) what generates the revenue to actually run the site?

So the real question is: What's the priority? The main or the forums? I have no idea on the financials but only the guys who run/pay for the site can answer it.

A better connection between the articles and the forum is something on the wishlist for quite some time. So many users are only visiting the forum, and others come by to check some news once in a while, but never end up on the forum.

Any ideas in this respect are very welcome!
Could you send a link to the site you mention?

An item on our TODO list currently is to move the red button "discuss this in the forum" to the bottom of articles, and perhaps insert the latest post underneath the article. It appears that right now, the button is rarely seen by visitors.

I'd say treat everything as a forum, including the articles. In this case it would be a great option to allow the first post to be treated differently. With this, everyone can (in)directly contribute to the website. There are some pretty neat things going on in the forums, and such a change would bring the possibility for these efforts to be featured on the main page.

I agree with having forum comments on the articles. That way the discussion and the originating article are a single unit in the forum. Sure, we have other topics as now, but currently if one wants to discuss an item that is in the news, one has to start a new topic or try to find where in the existing topics it is/should be discussed.

The only issue that will need to be considered is that the conversation that is linked to the articles will need to be moderated firmly to ensure it all stays on topic. Likewise, where an article has a conversation attached, there will need to be joining of newly started user topics to help keep it all in one place.

[pierrre]

thing is, when i come here i go straight to the forum but with this integration the articles would take centre stage. even in other sites too i jump to their forum, i could be mistaken into thinking other active forum users do the same. also, i see lots of users taking pieces from outside the site yet the sites articles are good. I don't know about those who visit the site just to read articles, I guess their forum participation is irrelevant unless maybe the concept could bait them to participate in the forum but from an active forum users perspective it would be quite interesting... of course it has to be left to the site developers, again, just an idea

[dimaestro]

thing is, when i come here i go straight to the forum but with this integration the articles would take centre stage. even in other sites too i jump to their forum, i could be mistaken into thinking other active forum users do the same. also, i see lots of users taking pieces from outside the site yet the sites articles are good. I don't know about those who visit the site just to read articles, I guess their forum participation is irrelevant unless maybe the concept could bait them to participate in the forum but from an active forum users perspective it would be quite interesting... of course it has to be left to the site developers, again, just an idea

That's a valid point. Would inviting main page users into the forum actually dilute the forum? Would it cause more spam/invalid/silly comments?

I guess it's possible, but entirely up to the guys who run the site to determine. I like F1Techs forums. You guys are like light years ahead of me on knowing F1 technical details, but I really do enjoy reading em. It's like a 6th grader sitting in 10th grade algebra. I don't entirely know what's going on - but it sure is interesting.