Thanks guys... I think I got a good sampling of the usage info I was looking for (about 550ish surveys), a few great suggestions and of course the usual 5% that want to do nothing but complain and gripe. Geez, where do these people come from?

But overall I got some pretty good data and some GREAT suggestions... I'll try and compile a list of the suggestions and post them along with the responses to each VALID suggestion. Most of witch will be solved with the new site if/when/as soon as I can get the new forum software squared away and wrapped up.

Again I appreciate everyone who took the time to give some good feedback and constructive criticism. I will be shutting the survey off shortly so if you wanted to participate.. do it now!

Thank you again!
Mike

OK guys, I have closed the the survey and wanted to post some of the comments and address each of them. I've lumped some in together as they were similar. Also, feel free ANYTIME to PM me your ideas or suggestions after reading this post. I DO want to hear from you if it is constructive.

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Suggestion: Maybe a link for guys that are building and posting often. So when you sign in on the home page you click on it and it goes directly to the last post of your forum where you can add new material quickly, instead of having to go through the multiple layers of links to get there. This could be preset to whatever forum the builder chooses in the personal file area..
Response: Great Idea... I was thinking you can tag a thread as a "Favorite" and then it would appear in a "Favorites" list (say show the top 10) under your login info and managed in your profile.

Suggestion: I hesitate to make this suggestion, because as an IT type and a once upon a time database designer, I know how difficult it would be...but often I wish the site had a "Library" of Subject Aircraft to browse/search through. This would need to be sub-divided into "completed" (or mostly completed) aircraft, and "discussed/considered" aircraft, for those wishing to know the status of possible aircraft plan development, etc.,.
Response: Only if YOU promise to manage it! lol

Suggestion: Perhaps also a "sub-Library" in the tutorials section on specific techniques (pulled from various build threads) (e.g., different finishing techniques....I know there is a Glassing section...but there are at least 4 or 5 excellent techniques for this....some vastly different).
Response: Great idea, only problem is you have to have folks to WRITE tutorials first. :-)

Suggestion: Improve the Search function / Make search results take you to the post that the keywords are found in.
Response: Agreed.. The current search falls short. The new site will have a much improved search function. No new major development will occur on the current site.

Suggestion: Perhaps the photos of builder projects on the home page could cycle more often. Not always finished products, but works in progress, too.
Response: Good idea.. I like it! Let me think about this one for the next version of the site.

Suggestion: I think you can get the vendors section more dynamic. You could keep the main structure but the vendors description could be included below the name and the name became a direct link to the vendor website.
Response: Another great idea... An easy fix to! It's on the to-do list.

Suggestion: Need greater flexibility in the time-frames allowed on the Active Topics page.
Response: Understood. If this is a simple change I will implement it. Added to the list.

Suggestion: I know it might go against site sponsors but I would like to see a supplier survey. Maybe rate the most common short kit companies. Ask members to rate their experience regarding wood, Service accuracy, quality, ... . Maybe the next month Rate another type of product Balsa providers such as Paint suppliers, Balsa, Glues. Regardless of the poll, poll takers only rate the product brand or supplier used
Response: Humm... Interesting idea. Let me think about it.. Definitely on the "possible" list.

Suggestion: My only issue (if you can call it that) is that when I click on an email alert I would like it to go to the first new message not the last.
Response: Great suggestion, unfortunately the entire underpinnings of the notification system would have to be rewritten the way this forum software handles that. BUT! I promise that "feature" WILL be in the next version of the site.

Suggestion: It would be great if there were a link or tab that showed/displayed only when an appropriate level of support was present, that went direct to the extra material available at the different levels of support. For instance, if annual support allows one level of access to the FTP pool, then that tab would display when someone who had Site Supporter status signed into the site. If someone with Lifetime Site Supporter status signed in, and there were different levels of access to the FTP pool or other sections of the site, then a tab would display when they signed into the site...etc.
Response: Great Idea! It's added to the list!

Suggestion: I would also like to see a way to have a digest [including posted pics] of a specific thread emailed to me, or something similar...
Response: The new forum software for the new site has a digest feature but photos will never be included. To much bandwidth usage, and that cost money. Sorry.

Suggestion: How about 1 forum with all the best tips in rather than having to search individual posts
Response: New site will have a Tips & Tricks area, already in place there.

Suggestion: If there are any PC settings user's should be aware of to maximize access speed, it would be a good 'help' item.
Response: Is outside the scope of what we can do.. I don't have enough hours in the day to complete this one task! lol

Suggestion: Some of the tutorials are a bit out of date... the info is always in the builds, but some of the common info would be easier to find in a standard tutorial section
Response: Ok... I agree, so who wants to volunteer to write tutorials?

Suggestion: Perhaps a system whereby members could add "private advice" with the ability to post pictures would be helpful. Could the "private messenger be enabled to do this?.
Response: Humm... Dunno if we could build an entire system off that concept but maybe a "In reference to" button that will include a link to a thread's page you want to reference in a PM.

Suggestion: Could be a bit smoother integration between the forum and the other features, if I have to be a stickler, but overall very happy.
Response: I assume you are talking about the chat. The current software encrypts the password so there is not an easy way to pass the user to the chat application. We hope to resolve this with the new forum software.

Suggestion: Some times there's too much off the topic chatter between colleagues instead of PM messaging each other they clog the thread subjects.
Response: Have you tried to read a thread on "the other site"? lol.. Seriously though, we try and go back after the fact and clean up the "noise" in threads. We will try and do a better job of this but this IS an community, not a BLOG.

Suggestion: I really miss not being able to print off full threads.
Response: Sorry but we do not have the server resources to allow this.. it eats up CPU and bandwidth.

Suggestion: It would be a good idea to have scale jets forum
Response: WE DO! http://www.rcscalebuilder.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=71

Suggestion: Faster Login procedure, eg automatic redirection on last link that was clicked before login. Enable more than one PC to remain logged in ("remember me") per user account
Response: Both great ideas but again the underpinning of the current software do not allow this without a major rewrite. But those features ARE in the new site.

Suggestion: I would suggest is to have a thread for new members to introduce themselves to the community
Response: EXCELLENT Idea! It's on the list!

Suggestion: In Active Topics lengthen the time out time, I always get caught and have to reload and I check nearly every day
Response: Sorry this is a DEEP DEEP bug in the site software and we will not be tackling it since we are working on the new site.

Suggestion: In an internet world gone crazy with spammers and dolts, this august pack of certifiable lunatics is a haven of sanity. Please don't change that !
Response: Heck, I just had to post that one cause it was so awesome! Thank you guys who left kind comments.

Suggestion: Site speed needs a bit of work.
Response: Yes I agree, unfortunately we are a slave to resources because of our size. When the server gets loaded up things slow down. Just like your PC. This site averages over 1.5 MILLION requests a day! But we are optimizing the code as we go along on the next version of the site.

Suggestion: Unclear to me when you "need" to re-donate to the site to retain the site-supporter status
Response: I send reminder PM's each quarter for renewals.

Suggestion: Great site! We would have many more members if there wasn't a fee, but maybe we don't need lots of members? Not sure how I feel about that one.
Response: Agreed.. But anyone can join with out paying and browse and have a few posts at no charge. But unfortunately someone has to pay for it all. We are too small to draw high dollar advertisers. I'm not gonna pay for it.. You see the dilemma, but I understand where you are coming from for sure!

Suggestion: A "Videos" area would be nice. Where people could easily post YouTube links to maiden flights for the aircraft they've just finished in the build threads. Also competition videos of winning or high placing competitive flights.
Response: Humm.. Interesting suggestion but not sure of the true value of this. You can easily post a link to a youtube video in a post. Youtube.com does a fine job of hosting videos.. Let's let them.

Suggestion: Just keep us all on the straight and narrow ,planes,planes,planes
Response: Agreed! :-)

Suggestion: Is it possible to add video sequences in the tutorials? Sometimes it is easy to see what is explained?
Response: yes it is! Unfortunately no one is providing us with video tutorials.. Volunteers?

Suggestion: I would like to see a button to take you to the most current post on a forum when that forum is posted down on the lower left part of the home page (sorry couldn't remember what that block was called without starting the survey over again) It just saves a step, I know it's a minor detail but I browse almost all of the current posting when I come to the site.
Response: See that light blue arrow to the left of each post in the "Top 6 Recent Posts"? Click on it, that does exactly what you are asking for.

Suggestion: I would also like to see a little more detail about the vendors posted on their site, maybe a more comprehensive listings
Response: Sorry but my days of maintaining vendor link lists are over. and they NEVER maintain their entry... That's experience talking. They just change too much and all my time is spent added new vendors when they frequent this site but don't support it.

Suggestion: Take away the pop-up "this might take awhile" when uploading pics.
Response: It's on the list! :-)

Suggestion: I would spend a lot more time on your site if it was faster. It has got to be the slowest site/forums of any I've seen. I probably would even send you some money if it was faster.
Response: Nice constructive criticism.. Since you come here quite often on everyone else's dollar. My suggestion.. find a faster site.

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So when is this "New Site" coming out? I have no specific time as I have to work on it as time allows in my spare time from my other spare time (get the picture?). But it is moving forward and a lot of the major issues have been solved with the help of the vendor who is I purchased the forum software from. So please be patient and you will not be disappointed. You will also see some minor changes to the left column of the pages over the next week or two as we try and streamline some things. Again, MANY thanks for everyones participation!

Mike

Suggestion: A "Videos" area would be nice. Where people could easily post YouTube links to maiden flights for the aircraft they've just finished in the build threads. Also competition videos of winning or high placing competitive flights.
Response: Humm.. Interesting suggestion but not sure of the true value of this. You can easily post a link to a youtube video in a post. Youtube.com does a fine job of hosting videos.. Let's let them.

At my other forum in The Netherlands there's a youtube forum tag used like this:

[youtube]NVpmEdx1v9k[/youtube]

This way we can post Youtube videos from our own Youtube account or others'. It's very nice to show the video in the forum thread itself. And it's not a big deal ... the videos are hosted at Youtube like you say. It's only text data for the RCSB database.

Check it out at this thread: High-speed low pass

Maybe you could add a button to the message menu like the "Add Image" that opens a dialog in which you can enter the Youtube video ID and embeds it?

So, not a video area at RCSB, but just the possibility to embed Youtube videos in a post ... the same way you embed external images actually.

Yes it is.. As I said above in an earlier post.. I got a good sample (over 600) so I shut it down. However, please read the complete thread and if you have any other suggestions please PM me with them.

Thanks,
Mike