Master list or page for all links?

[Reading Bug]

After viewing a couple of posts this afternoon, both of which provided very resourceful links, it occurred to me that a really helpful feature for the site (and forum) would be a dedicated page for digital-related links of all varieties.

The two posts I'm referring to, one linking to Zip and RAR freeware and the other to the best 2011 web hosts, are below:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/9142-post1.html

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/14520-post1.html

As it stands, unless one is looking for something found in one of the guides on the main site, the only option is to search the forum and hope. A standalone page, collecting links like those found in these two posts, organized in an easy to read/search fashion, would be extremely helpful. The table Admin included for the best web hosts is a nice touch, and is the kind of linear look or structure a master page would benefit from.

I see from another post that things are backed up until September, but perhaps this could be a long-term, work in progress project? Such a feature would help distinguish this great site even more.

[admin]

Interesting. I like it.

It won't be done right away, but let me see what I can come up with. It needs to be done in the right format, in the right place. It's actually not too dissimilar from another information presentation method that's in the plans. But yet different enough that this one could also be done. Ideally, where would you see such a list being published? How and where would people find it easiest?

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Reading Bug]

I imagine it being a one-stop shop for all digital links, for all products or services. It could be both on the main page and throughout the forum (if and however possible).

I dread searching forums or sites for old links because it takes forever and I usually come up empty. My first stop is a generic Google search, because I know I'll get what I want as long as I term it well (and it exists of course). The unfortunate part is that I have to distill the results myself because the whole world turns up as a hit.

If a master page here could be both broad (in terms of what's offered) and distilled (in terms of sensible, easy and linear organization), it could be great. Here are some points I think it should strive for:

1. Be broad enough to cover everything one could want, even the simplest tool or program. This would make it a constant work-in-progress, which it would be anyway since links and products change or disappear. This includes breadth of terms too, as any reasonable word or phrase should be a tag for an easy ID.
2. Be easy to search, either as an engine or a single, large main page maybe done glossary-style. I find Ctrl+F, on Windows, still to be one of my favorites because it's easy and basic, and quite often more comfortable than an engine for some reason (maybe because it's easier to keep perspective on how much info there is and how it's structured when you're on just one page). Ctrl+F would be the Google search of a single, large page. A positive result would put you at the right section, where you would be lead to sub-pages that would provide more links and detailed info. Fast manual search time would be key, as it's supposed to be a quick and easy stop.
3. Be organized in a linear fashion, such as Admin's table or the table used for the blank DVD quality rankings. Perhaps color coding could help categorization, such as by topic (blank media, photography, publishing), platform (Windows, Mac), whether tools are freeware or payware, etc.
4. Include the narrative as to why it's referred (most links in forum posts are already accompanied by this, as you guys always explain your recommendation; perhaps a link back to an existing post in those cases).
5. Link to permanent references, not ones that will expire (such as sales).

This is all that comes to mind at the moment, but I'll add to it if I come up with more. Thanks for considering it!

[admin]

There was a plan A. But it was scrapped for plan B.
So plan B is the current plan, but some of your suggestions fit better into plan A.
Now I'm changing it for a plan C, influened by your ideas, because I like them.

A was single indices by media topic (video, photo, web, audio, life/computers), then sub-indices with longer summary (video capturing, DVD authoring, etc)
B was scrapping the sub-indices and making longer main indices with summaries, 301'ing the old subs.
C will be return to single index style, with a top half of guides, and a bottom half of "featured forum posts", linking either to whole threads or specific posts (but in threadview). The sub-indices will stay, as home to summaries solely for guides.

Bulleted format may work best, as opposed to tables.

I'd love to get your assistance on this. I'll let you know when I'm ready for it.

Though in the meantime, you could surely gather what you think are the best non-sticky (or "FAQ" as we've labeled them) posts that deserve to make a long-term list of important threads/posts. You can create a "scratch post" for yourself, if needed, in the Premium Member forum.

___

The forum has a specific "forum search engine", although the Google one is what you find when "Search" is clicked on the menu. The new CMS has a search function built in, but I'm purposely hiding it in favor of Google Site Search. Google's algorithms miss the newest posts, but it tends to actually return better results, because it's ranking system is far more advanced.

Like you, I believe the best "search reults" are ones that are hand crafted, by way of lists and indexes. Guides, for example, are generally written to be read in a specific order. Some of the new updates pending for the site will simply expand existing guides into page 1/page 2, etc format, in order to better force ordered reading. If somebody sees their on page 5, hopefully they'll have the good sense to go to page 1 to start their read. That's a current flaw of the site, known for about a two years now.

Some of the existing guides are just really, really bad, in terms of depth. Sure, people will get a lot of help from them, but as the collective knowledge here has turned more into cutting edge technologies, forensic methods, and more nuanced approaches, each current guide can easily be expanded 5-fold. And that's going to happen. Some involves freeware that's easy, freeware that's hard, and even hardware/software that's as costly as a new car, plus everything in between. Funny enough, nothing here is really "outdated", just missing some bits that would give serious people a broader understanding.

___

Side observation: I'm amused. The forum software is dumb. It thinks "indices" is a misspelled word. Who programs these things?

[Reading Bug]

Quote:

Originally Posted by admin

I'd love to get your assistance on this. I'll let you know when I'm ready for it.

Though in the meantime, you could surely gather what you think are the best non-sticky (or "FAQ" as we've labeled them) posts that deserve to make a long-term list of important threads/posts. You can create a "scratch post" for yourself, if needed, in the Premium Member forum.

Great, I'd love to give my input.

I'm not sure which post types you're referring to. Looking at the sub-forums, it seems the stickies are the ones called "FAQ Answer."

[admin]

It's quite simple, really:

Posts marked as "FAQ Answer" are forum stickies. Those are already marked as important here in the forum, which pretty much guarantees most of them are also important enough to make the aforementioned indexes of featured posts. I know what most of those are, and where they are, seeing how they're at the top of each page of a sub-forum.

It's all the other posts forum-wide, that are not marked as stickies, which may be overlooked. It's these "normal" posts where somebody like yourself could be very helpful, pointing out what you feel are common topics that should make the proposed list of featured posts.

Does that make more sense now?

___

And as a leak of what's going on here...

The new site is going to "soft launch" in just a few days, with old content migrated over mostly unchanged, with a small handful of new editorial additions. Blank media, capturing and restoration articles will receive rapid updates and expansions shortly thereafter, along with the release of several timely reviews and guides on non-video digital topics (web tech, mostly). In the next 6 weeks alone, the non-forum content of this site should double. And then double yet again by the end of January.

[Reading Bug]

Hi Admin,

Sorry it's taken so long to respond. I understand what you're saying, but going through the text of each non-stickie thread on the entire forum would take quite some time, and wasn't really what I had in mind in terms of assistance.

If I can help in terms of conceptualizing, layout etc, please let me know! I can certainly create a new scratch thread as well, like you suggest, to add links I come across on the forum (as well as on the web).

[admin]

Look at this page: http://www.digitalFAQ.com/guides/video.htm

Right now, it has a long-form with-summary list of guides. That's temporary.
At some point in the future (no ETA), it will switch to a list-based format.
The summary-based list will move to the category. A dedicated Capturing Guides index page, for example.

The list version will break up by large topics, as it does now.
And it will include not just guides/articles, but links to our new editorials, as well as links to important forum posts.
There's also another item yet-unannounced that will have content that is linked to. (Don't want to mention it yet.)

You can then CTRL+F in the browser to find anything by keyword in titles.

We can do the guides (it's done already), and the editorials (easy to do, since there are few to start).
The forum posts, however, will take more work. We can do quite a few on our own, based on our ideas of what's important, as well as based on the views posts have received over time.

However, beyond that, we need help.
Anybody willing to contribute may post here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/news...html#post17469

Feel free to contribute zero, 1, 2, 10, 25, 100, whatever. All input, no matter how small, is appreciated.

Unlike most sites, who are run by people who do whatever they want, we try to tune our content to the needs and desires of our members and readers. If this is something you think will help, then it's certainly something we'll consider implementing.

Thanks.