Posted 2013-10-17 1:37 PM (#146786) Subject: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Fountain Inn, SC United States
As the riding season here in the northeast is in its last months, I get to turn my attention back to this website. Not that I've been ignoring it, just that like many of you, I've had a full summer/fall of riding and events and have been letting the site run on autopilot a bit. Thanks to many of you who continue to police the forums and let me know of issues so I can act on them. In reality, these forums are some of the best behaved that I know of, certainly amongst the biker and even Victory sites. I thank you for your actions in that regard, it really makes a difference.
So with the coming idle times (unlike you lucky guys in warmer climates), I get to thinking...
Are our websites serving the community as they should?
What can we do to improve upon them?
I think before I ask for your feedback, I should just reiterate many of the features of the site..
In-depth articles, written by me, professional authors, and your fellow members
A member supported Parts Listing providing OEM and aftermarket part #s for many Victory parts.
Member supported Product Reviews - the best insightful reviews come from you who use the products
An online Gallery to house all your Victory related images (which now accepts images up to 1mb in size)
Link Resources to many aftermarket Victory vendors, dealers, Polaris manuals, Riding Clubs and Adventures, etc.
A Member supported Calendar of events. If something is happening in your area, put it in the calendar so others will know!
Classified Ads - Both Personal and Vendor related. Want To Buy ads as well?!
Personal pages that keep track of your forum threads, gallery photos, and messages from fellow members. This is a great tool for keeping track of threads you've posted in.
Downloads for logos, GPS screens, and occasional Victory documents.
And of course, some of the best Victory related threads on the net. Certainly the friendliest!!
So with fingers crossed and teeth clenched in anticipation of some criticism I ask that you let me know...
How are we doing?
Where does this website need improvement? What needs aren't being met?
What do we do well? What distinguishes us from other forum sites?
Has our online store served you well? We would like to offer more products but with limited funds we are cautious about ordering products without mass appeal, especially if they require different sizes.
While we continue to register anywhere from 60 to 100 people monthly (and log 10 times as many just lurking), what cool ideas do you have to draw more fellow Victory riders to the site(s)?
Posted 2013-10-17 6:15 PM (#146792 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Iron Butt
Posts: 804 Perry Hall, MD
Jeff,
Sorry that Mother Nature will force you out of the saddle soon.
Report card:
Personally I have nothing but praise to share. Your list of features, member participation, your prompt attention to post regarding the site, and your current desire for feedback are all evidence of that.
Improvements/needs not being met:
There are a lot of members who find it difficult to post images. It would be great if, as someone recently suggested, there was some way that the site could apply the resizing. Such a tool would encourage the use of more photos.
I'd love to see a running slide show on the home page using the fantastic motivational posters that have been posted (primarily by SongFan). They have always been are a huge hit with members and would grab the attention of the browsers.
Perhaps a feature that was specific to traveling on the Vision. Ideas would include favorite tours, trailers reviews, camping, tour supply list tool, mapping tool with GPS download feature, and of course pictures.
Do well:
Monitor and promptly address issues/concerns. Encourage member participation in activities not just on the site. Provide insight into some things going on at the corporate level. See the report card for more.
On line store:
With my tail between my legs I have to admit to not taking advantage of it - sorry (not your fault).
Cool ideas:
Improvement comments probably would have been more appropriate here.
THANKS for making this THE best site for anything Vision.
Posted 2013-10-17 10:01 PM (#146805 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 573 Central Illinois
When it comes to pictures I like to use sites where I can just paste in an IMG code line and leave the picture in my Photobucket account rather than tie up server space at each individual forum.
How about a map feature where anyone interested would enter their location and it would show up on a map with a link to each person who was listed? It would be a way to find those nearby and arrange a meet and greet.
Posted 2013-10-17 11:14 PM (#146807 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Visionary
Posts: 8144 New Bohemia, VA
Jeff, you and Miles have done a bang up job with the site, especially without all that banner stuff found on other free sites. Content is always the driving force on any forum. So the site will only be as good as the participant. You built the platform right from the get-go, I don't know how you can improve on that.
Posted 2013-10-19 10:55 AM (#146863 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Iron Butt
Posts: 691 Manchester, CT
Hey Jeff
Qudos for all your efforts...you have and are doing a awesome job!!!
Thoughts
A section for our partners
Each month, the partner would provide an overview of what's on their drawing boards, give members of the forum the opportunity to post questions etc. Many providers have Facebook accounts and sites be it would be great to have a single place where forum members can get the latest and greatest info without having to reach out to each partner on an individual basis.
Have them provide a monthly member only special priced merchandise
Member discounts
Store
Solicit members via polls on new merchandise ideas
pre-paid orders in order to meet different levels of volume purchases
Events
Discount tickets for motorcycle events e.g. shows (international expos), races, track events etc
Posted 2013-11-05 5:21 PM (#148565 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 573 Central Illinois
Often I find a need to edit a post when it takes me to that "check your post" screen. There are often spelling and similar things I need to fix. I have noticed that the edit function does not work smoothly. In fact if I add a separate paragraph for an after thought I do not get a new paragraph, I get code that indicates the desire for a new paragraph instead. If I add or remove italics, I also just get the code and not the actual italics. FYI I am using Firefox, just in case the issue is browser specific.
Posted 2013-11-11 1:18 PM (#148766 - in reply to #146805) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 341 West Salem, WI United States
Oldman47 - 2013-10-17 10:01 PM When it comes to pictures I like to use sites where I can just paste in an IMG code line and leave the picture in my Photobucket account rather than tie up server space at each individual forum. How about a map feature where anyone interested would enter their location and it would show up on a map with a link to each person who was listed? It would be a way to find those nearby and arrange a meet and greet.
Posted 2013-11-12 8:42 AM (#148782 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 548 Mount Vernon, WA United States
Just FWIW... the IMG format works.. and also
location is now part of the profile and searchable.
Some upcoming things I'm working on are an image resizer that automagically resizes images uploaded to be a reasonable size and we've talked about the map options too, but need to wait until more people fill out the profile.
Posted 2013-11-23 1:37 PM (#149111 - in reply to #146786) Subject: RE: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Iron Butt
Posts: 763 Anderson, IN (48mi NE of downtown Indianapolis)
This website is fantastic. I have no complaints. If you are asking for ways to improve it, there is one helpful feature I have noticed on other sites. There are little orange "New" icons next to topics which contain a post I have not yet read. On Vision-Riders I find myself re-reading an entire topic because I can't remember which post was the last one I read. Clicking the "New" icon takes me to the post I have not read in the topic. It's a very convenient tool. When I open the forum and see no orange "New" I move on to something else...like going for a ride. It saves a lot of time. Is there already something like this in Vision-Riders that I am not aware of?
Posted 2013-11-23 4:39 PM (#149114 - in reply to #149111) Subject: RE: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Fountain Inn, SC United States
victoryvisiontour - 2013-11-23 2:37 PM
This website is fantastic. I have no complaints. If you are asking for ways to improve it, there is one helpful feature I have noticed on other sites. There are little orange "New" icons next to topics which contain a post I have not yet read. On Vision-Riders I find myself re-reading an entire topic because I can't remember which post was the last one I read. Clicking the "New" icon takes me to the post I have not read in the topic. It's a very convenient tool. When I open the forum and see no orange "New" I move on to something else...like going for a ride. It saves a lot of time. Is there already something like this in Vision-Riders that I am not aware of?
Thanks for a great site!
Have you used the "New Threads" link near the top right of the forums page? It will show you all the threads with new posts that you haven't read. If you want to keep track of threads you have posted in, go to your profile page. There's a list of the left of all the recent threads you've participated in. There's also a list of ALL threads with new posts in the right column on that page too.
Posted 2013-11-24 5:16 PM (#149138 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Iron Butt
Posts: 763 Anderson, IN (48mi NE of downtown Indianapolis)
Jedi Jeff,
Thanks for the response. I have tried the "New Threads", but that only shows the most recent threads...usually today only. I have also looked at the profile page. These are great features, but they do not have the funtionality as I was trying to explain. While I am in a forum, I cannot see which subjects I have and have not read. It would be nice if there was some sort of marker on all the ones I have not read. That same marker should also appear anytime a new reply is added to a subject. When I click on the marker, it should take me to the most recent reply to that subject. The marker should then dissappear from that subject when I return to the page for that particular forum. It would reappear the next time someone replied.
Sorry if my explanation is confusing. I find the "New" feature extremely useful on other forums. If it could be added to this forum, great! If not, I will still love this forum all the same.
Great website! Please keep up the good work. Thanks
Posted 2013-12-08 8:26 PM (#149483 - in reply to #149138) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 548 Mount Vernon, WA United States
victoryvisiontour - 2013-11-24 5:16 PM
While I am in a forum, I cannot see which subjects I have and have not read.
You are correct, "while in a forum" you can not see which subjects you have read. That functionality is ONLY available through the "New Threads" button due to forum design.
However, shortly you will see a "Mark All As Read" link next to the "New Threads" link. Clicking the new link will do as stated so that the next time you click "New Threads" you will only be presented with threads that have updated since you were last at the site.
I hope this helps.. "Mark All As Read" link should be up later tonight.
Posted 2013-12-09 10:38 AM (#149499 - in reply to #149483) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 341 West Salem, WI United States
The one thing that I just can't stand about the site, is that there is really no support for the message editor in Chrome ! Chrome is the most used browser on the planet, hard to believe its not supported. The site actually thinks I'm using Safari (mac) when I use chrome.
Posted 2013-12-09 4:28 PM (#149510 - in reply to #149499) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 548 Mount Vernon, WA United States
ljurgens - 2013-12-09 10:38 AM
The one thing that I just can't stand about the site, is that there is really no support for the message editor in Chrome ! ?Chrome is the most used browser on the planet, hard to believe its not supported. The site actually thinks I'm using Safari (mac) when I use chrome.?
-Lance
Too funny... are you spying on me ? It's actually not the forum software itself but an add-on that is used and I am actually in the process of upgrading it. Should be in place within the next couple of weeks..
FWIW... I use Chrome too, and so you can imagine how much it's been bugging me.
Posted 2013-12-09 5:21 PM (#149512 - in reply to #146786) Subject: RE: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 548 Mount Vernon, WA United States
Well I guess 'tis the season.
Chrome users can now use the Rich Text Editor and there are some added features such as embedding YouTube videos that are not quite working yet... but should be shortly.
Posted 2013-12-09 7:32 PM (#149518 - in reply to #146786) Subject: RE: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 548 Mount Vernon, WA United States
And now you can drop in YouTube videos. This may not work 100% of the time based on settings the author of the video has used mostly. Also don't bother using the "share" link, just copy the URL in the address bar on youtube.
Posted 2013-12-16 10:03 AM (#149717 - in reply to #149618) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 548 Mount Vernon, WA United States
Don, try it again please and let me know as sometimes you get a cached copy of the page although it should be clear by now. Other people have uploaded larger files.
Posted 2013-12-21 5:30 AM (#149871 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Tourer
Posts: 548 Mount Vernon, WA United States
Ok Don... give it another try. I had forgot there were TWO places to set upload sizes... one for the Gallery and one for the forums.. It should work now.
Posted 2014-09-08 2:29 PM (#165798 - in reply to #146786) Subject: Re: Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
Cruiser
Posts: 82
Full disclosure: I purport to be a friend of Jeff's and Miles'. I'll let them deny that as they wish. That said, I am mightily impressed by the site's content because it's by riders for riders and full of content from real riders. The discussions are informed and entertaining and if you're looking for info, someone will provide. I was about to post a thread asking about riding the Dragon, but thought I would instead search "Dragon" and found an existing thread with all sorts of input I was looking for.
Well done, you two. We appreciate what you're providing.
Need Your Thoughtful Feedback
and also 
It's actually not the forum software itself but an add-on that is used and I am actually in the process of upgrading it. Should be in place within the next couple of weeks..