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Subject: 
Re: Compromised Functionality on Lugnet and Brickshelf?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.suggestions
Date: 
Wed, 13 Apr 2005 18:19:53 GMT
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In lugnet.admin.general, Duane Hess wrote:

   I think the admins need to seriously reflect upon what rights and priviledges distinguish members from non-members. I would wager that for the vast majority of visitors the perception is that the only benefit to be gained by becoming a member is the ability to speed up the posting process. I would be surprised if many people even remember that there is a polling feature on LUGNET for members.

Very good points here. Lugnet has much greater functionality built in than is routinely used. In part this is due to user inaction, but in part this is also due (IMO) to the invisibilty of the functionality. For instance, there is no easy way to find who has web pages hosted here. Occasionally someone will link to their personal page and I’m always very surprised to find that it is a Lugnet page (e.g. I know that Marc Nelson upthread has a page here). Perhaps if there was some central repository of sites hosted here that could be ordered both alphabetically and also by most recently updated--perhaps the most important aspect of Brickshelf and MOCpages is that you can quickly see what’s newest. I remember something from when I first joined that implied that personal sites would be arranged on a map into neighborhoods. Does anyone know what I’m talking about there? It’s a pretty vague recollection.

As an aside, ideally, it would be great to have some huge member-updatable database of LEGO sites. LEGOfan.org was supposed to have this. I was involved in the creation of the initial database, and I personally crawled through link lists and manually entered over 400 sites. The idea was that once the membership option was turned on, people could enter their own sites into the database and flag dead links for the admins to check and cull from the list. That way there would be a constantly refreshed link list (as opposed to any static list that becomes full of dead links soon after creation). Unfortunately LEGOfan landed with a thud and the membership option was never implemented. I was discouraged by that, and subsequently became a classic-castle admin and so I pretty much let the whole thing slide off my plate, so I do not know if there are plans to go forward with that. (Jake?) But perhaps Lugnet could do this.

I would love to see the front page of Lugnet have some utility. I’ve personally given up on the front page, and my bookmark takes me directly to the forums. Things like “Current Poll”, “Recently updated member sites”, “Newest entries to the master site list”, and ... drumroll please ... “This week’s Cool Lego Site of the Week” could all be put on the front page in an automated way just as the highlighted posts are, so once the ball was rolling would not require an admin to come up with daily new content. These could also bring people to features of Lugnet that are not often used (polls, personal sites), are currently dormant (CLSOTW -- I still have hope!), or could potentially be implemented (a member-updatable database of websites, as opposed to the full-of-dead-links “Everything LEGO” page). Current contests (both Lugnet-based and based in other communities) could be advertised there as well. For instance, does anyone in the English-speaking world even reallize that the next ISCC is on again? Or remember the great annual town contests of a few years ago?

Bruce



Message has 1 Reply:
  Town Building Contests (was Re: Compromised Functionality on Lugnet and Brickshelf?)
 
Bruce Hietbrink wrote in message ... (...) Those were my responsibility, and I stopped mainly because there seemed to be so many contests going that there were now *too many*. The town contest pages still exist (yes, they are LUGNET member pages :) (...) (19 years ago, 15-Apr-05, to lugnet.admin.suggestions, lugnet.town)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Compromised Functionality on Lugnet and Brickshelf?
 
(...) I see this as being a key distinction. It's a perk of membership. If a person wants to be able to influence the focus of spotlights, they should become a member, otherwise the general lay visitor is stuck with what the members feel is (...) (19 years ago, 13-Apr-05, to lugnet.admin.general, FTX) ! 

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