What the hell happened to the Buzz

[Don]

As my wife would say. "I can't stand clutter."

I thought PlayYak was cluttered, until the new Buzz.

I think the home page should be simple and clean, show a picture, and show your forum options. It shouldn't look like the Sunday sports page trying to cram everything onto one page. Can't make everyone happy, I'm sure some tech weinie is proud how much stuff is happening on one page. It might set somekind of record, for features per sq inch.

[Andy R]

Yo Buzzards, check out this page and bookmark it...
http://www.mountainbuzz.com/forums/
(For new posts since your last visit use the New Post feature (attached).

You can click here for an example of what is one each page and how to avoid the clutter you don't like.
Bookmark your favorite Buzz page

What changes would you like to see made to the home page to make it more friendly?

[rhm]

when the first page comes up i just instantly click on the forum listings. this brings me to the page that most closely resembles the old buzz.

[ToddG]

way, way, way too much going on on this page. too many "boxes" with too many borders .. too many hyperlinks .. too many words .. too many options ... too much stuff competing for my attention. makes me eyes bleed & me brain dizzy. i seriously don't even know where to begin looking. as an example, when i clicked "reply to thread", i was redirected to a log in page. there were a total of 3 different places where i could have entered my log in info, & there very well may have been more places for me to log in but i just didn't scroll that far. is that necessary?

i still don't understand why you need a "boaters forum" a "betty buzz" a "trip planner" an "eddy" a "gear talk" ... it's all kayakers talking about things that interest kayakers. who *really* cares if it's off-topic? "useful" information is only one of about fifty-leven reasons that people use online forums. you build more of a community when all the laundry is being aired out in the same place. "lost & found" & the other outdoor rec "disciplines" should have their own buckets, but seriously, do you need to talk about "gear" in a separate kayakers' gear forum??? if kayakers can't talk about gear in the "boaters forum", then WTF are we supposed to talk about?

i'm all about the K.I.S.S.

[GAtoCSU]

Originally Posted by ENDOMADNESS

Agree with everything said. This site is fugly. The text font is HUGE !!!

Ctrl+mouse wheel ---) changing font sizes

[double-a-ron]

way way way way too many things happening. go back to the old software and limit it to a few different forums. this place doesnt have enough traffic or posts or members to have all of this stuff going on. i cant imagine anyone has enough time on their hands to actually browse all of the areas this new site has with each login. please KISS. thanks.


-aaron

[Phillips]

Change happens. We all need to deal. I like eddyflower flows b/c of the quick link to the trip report. It gets me stoked. Mountainbuzz has morphed numerous times over the years. Its easy to have a bitch. These guys are all taking time out of their lives to provide this site to us. Deal. . . DEal. . . Deal.

Kent

[theprofessor]

I might get ripped a new one for even suggesting this, but part of the clutter here is the fact that you have so many interests being packing into one site.

Make a new snowboarding forum, make a new moutaineering forum, spread it out so the boaters get a clean interface, and the boarders get what they want etc... domains for each interest is what I am suggesting.

I am still working on my community design for boarding and one for climbing but my boating community design is pretty good. I know the buzz is much older and more established but you might find idea's on our site that you like or want to incorporate into the buzz.

I am already running a wide array of usgs gauges and local water authorities and the such. If you wanted I could soup up a flows page for the state of CO for you.

It is already configured to take different qstrings for searching and stuff so you can do something like just flooding rivers in Oregon.

I could make a nice looking version of that page color schemed just like the buzz so it would function as one unit. I dunno just an offer if you wanted to dig on some of the tools I have built.

~J

[Peev]

Agreed! I'm glad I'm not the only one out shopping for womens deodorant now!

[holley]

Originally Posted by double-a-ron

go back to the old software and limit it to a few different forums.

I wouldn't go back to the old software. This new software is much tighter, if a little messy right now. And even with a few bugs to work out. A lot of successful forums are driven by this software.

Sounds like the format is a test drive, and that Andy has asked for suggestions multiple times since he launched the new rig. Even saying he’d be tweaking it along the way to make it better and more user friendly. Maybe think of it as a work in progress while everyone works toward the solution…

Ya punks.