OOAK Table Tennis Forum

As suggested by some of our members, I've updated the home page of this forum, to include a list of the (currently 12) latest discussions at the top of the page. The idea is that it shows the latest discussions to more people, in the hope that more will take part on the discussions. Some people may only look at certain sections of the forum, and may not be aware of other interesting discussions, so this might help.

For those of you that only use the recent/active/new topics links, nothing should have changed. Nothing else should have changed either, but if there are any issues, please report them here, or PM me.

If you have any further suggestion on how we can improve this, please post or PM. Any feedback is always appreciated!

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I'm quite liking the new layout. I had the "view active topics' as my home page, but I've now gone back to the normal home page, as it already displays the new topics there, and everything else is underneath.
I'm just not sure how many Recent Topics I should display... for a regular like me 12 is enough, but for the less regular people I could probably show more?

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I like it! Good move. It's still very clear that there are different 'sections' of the website within the preview of the posts themselves, so no harm bumping up the number of Active Topics to ~24 and reducing the chance of people seeing the board index from the get go.

I think you can monitor the posts over a few days and see how many "new posts" there are. If there's 10 new posts one day, and then 10 the next, it will only take 1 day for 80% of new posts to disappear from the main page (with 12 set as visible)*.

What length of time is most suitable, I am not sure. But I feel at least a few days "new topics" should be visible and think Vinnie's suggestion of 24 is a good guess.

*my maths is not right. 80% of the first day's new topics.

I like it. I think it will be helpful to see what might be discussed in other areas that I don't normally visit, or if I haven't been on the site in a while.

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"The greatest teacher, failure is"
USATT Rating: 1725
Blade: Stiga Cybershape Carbon
FH Rubber: Butterfly Tenergy 19 2.1
BH Rubber: Dr Neubauer ABS3 1.5

It might be my imagination, but I do think we're getting more discussions with more member since I implemented this feature. I've increased the number of topics to 20.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Ah... this had me confused for a few minutes - I thought I'd clicked on something I shouldn't have. Just had to scroll down a little to see the normal view..

Iskandar

In the remote chance that someone is interested , I made another small modification to this new addition, based on some useful feedback from a member with a lot more experience in web design than me. He explained it's better to still see the structure of the forum on the home page, making it easier to access if you wish to post a new topic, or are looking for a specific category.

So I've reduced the number of topics on the home page back to 12, but if you want to see more recent topics, you can just click through multiple pages of recent topics. You'll see the page numbers at the top right.
Hopefully that's the best of both worlds.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I prefer it with more. Personally, I think the number over the last week or so you selected was adequate.

I don't see an issue with having to scroll the bottom to see those topic sections, and the forum is kept active by people contributing to existing topics rather than creating new ones.

People may have one specific reason for visiting the forum (e.g. posting a topic and asking advice), but they see another topic they have something to contribute to. Practically, they wouldn't have known that if they hadn't seen it.

Just my thoughts.

Appreciate your thoughts, especially since you're the one that initially suggested this feature!

I think I'll play around with the settings over the next few weeks to find the best number. I agree that including about a week's worth of recent topics is probably a good number.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

I always use the "Active Topics" view anyway, but having it on the Board Index page is a help. So, thanks for that. There is one other thing. I just wanted to report a spam post, but because I am not wearing my reading glasses, I mistakenly hit the like button instead. Could they be more widely separated. I know this is not the Future of the Forum suggestion thread, but that has gone way down the list now

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Other setups:
SDC Custom Blade/Butterfly Dignics 80/Butterfly Glayzer
BTY Viscaria/Tibhar K3/Tibhar K3

I'm really beginning to appreciate this new feature. The main problem, in the past, was that if you posted something, and someone else posted something under the same topic immediately afterwards, your very recent post immediately gets buried and doesn't get listed on the front page. Now your post remains on the front page for a little while. You can even make 2-3 posts under the same topic and they'll all show up for a while on the front page. I must admit I was slightly annoyed in the beginning, I thought I'd pressed the wrong button and landed on some page other than the front page (I think I was using my phone at the time).

Iskandar