Okay, maybe that was a little harsh, but I am extremely frustrated. I haven't been visiting the forums lately because I just couldn't take it anymore. I have a very busy life and when I weigh the time it takes to read the forum posts (due to time outs, etc.) and the enjoyment I get from them, the annoyance of time outs is just too much.I try to multi-task and work in another window, but even that doesn't make up for the frustration of all the hoops one has to jump through just to read a post. God help me if I want to actually reply to one.
What is most frustrating to me is that I think the forums are an important part of what waymarking is all about. It's a community managed Website - we get to vote and have a say about what categories are created. So communication is key to keeping things growing in a positive direction. The forums are a great place to discuss and learn - IF you can spare the time to try to get the posts to open. I can't and I feel like the result is that I've been cut off from a group of friends.
Anyhow, if you haven't seen me on the forums lately, this is why. My backlog is so huge now that I need to focus on getting waymarks posted when I happen to have a spare moment, not the forums.
The photo above has nothing to do with the forums. It's a photo of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. We recently vacationed there which is part of the reason for my large waymarking backlog and why I'm not taking time to wade through the forums.
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9 comments:
I couldn't agree with you more. I enjoy the forums and, like you, think they are essential to Waymarking. But the absolutely horrible performance makes it impossible to do anything there.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that most of us on the forum (when we can get there) are premium members. We're paying for this! And to make it even worse is the fact that the powers-that-be don't seem to make it a priority. (Nor do they seem to make anything with Waymarking a priority.)
I think that right now the big Website overhaul that Groundspeak is working on is taking up all their time. This overhaul should benefit waymarking by adding some of the same features over on waymarking.com that the geocachers enjoy. At least that's how I understood things.
However, I wish that Groundspeak understood how vital the forums are to the waymarking.com site. When the entire community is deciding on categories, not just a specific reviewer, it is vital that they have a place to discuss the category and also trends in the new categories. It's also a great place for newbies to learn the ropes. I have heard that the designer of the forums is currently working on updates, but that is just a rumor. But I've heard this rumor for close to a year now, so I'm not sure how soon anything will happen.
However, I get a lot of game each year for my $40, so I'm willing to put up with glitches - as long as I know that improvements are in the works. I don't want waymarking to always be treated as the ugly stepchild to geocaching. It's just different and deserves the attention it needs to allow it to grow.
I know that Groundspeak is well aware of the forum problems as they experience the same things when they are try to get in.
I know they are at the mercy of the software company that provides the forum software... supposedly a new version was to be released by now and hasn't.
I share your sentiments. There is currently a category up for Peer Review and I would like to be able to see what other WMer have to say about it before I make my decision. Can't access the forums, and when I do I can't seem to get past one thread before it freezes on me.
Any chance we can ..... start our threads in the GC forums??? I just tried and had no problem at all getting in there. The GCers might have a field day with it but it also might get the attention of the programmers over on 'our' side. After all, we are part of the same family, aren't we?
The geocaching forums are so full of trolls that it wouldn't be worth it to try to use their forums. Every post would be turned into an argument, no matter how benign.
Honestly, the longer I waymark, the more I think that the less connection the hobby has with geocaching the better. Too many geocachers try to force waymarking into a mold that it doesn't belong in. Waymarking's future is in attracting niche groups - or the people who discover it while googling for information on a certain topic. People who are intensely focused on finding tupperware often fail to see the point in searching for anything but that tupperware.
I'm trying not to be negative, but I'm frustrated, so it's tough to find any bright side.
I just don't understand how the geocaching forum can work so well, however full it might be of beings that live under a bridge, and the waymarking forum works so badly. Why would they use two different pieces of software? Dump the one that doesn't work and implement the one that does. The lack of public relations from Groundspeak is most frustrating. I'm sure their hearts are in the right place, but the constant stroking that "it will get better" is pretty old. HN brings up a great point that interaction is critical to this (mostly) self governed experiment....even if they don't listen to what I say. ;-)
They wanted to try out some new capabilities that the newer forum software afforded, most of which are not used much. These included the category based forums and location based forums. What I find surprising is that the company which makes the software used for the waymarking forum is used by My Space and Intel's as their community server, I know they don't have the problems we do.
I agree with keeping the forums separate though something needs to be done soon. I can't really refer people to the forums to ask questions because they will never have the patience to ask the question.
Once they do get the forums working correctly one capability I wish they would add is private forums within groups so group discussions can take place without it being for public consumption.
That's wild that this is the same software that MySpace is using. I wonder what it is about Waymarking.com that slows it down? Is it the sheer number of forums (if you count every category forum).
I agree with you Bruce that something to make group communication easier would be nice. If it was group forums though, there would need to be a RSS feed so that group members were alerted when someone posted to the group forum. Not everyone is a forum regular. Even just making "email entire group" an automatic thing, rather than having the leader decide who does and doesn't get to email the group. Newer leaders don't realize that they have to go in and make changes so that can happen.
I agree with S5280ft. The "it will get better" mantra has gotten old -- and I haven't been at this all that long! If TPTB can't get something as basic as forums to work (especially knowing that they're using the same company that MySpace uses), then it's going to be very difficult for waymarking to reach its full potential.
Just thinking out loud here -- I wonder if the problem isn't so much with the software as it is with the Groundspeak servers. Regardless, they need to start showing some real action on this, rather than giving us the "it will get better" speech.
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