Update on your feedback

[Dan Izzard]

UPDATE - MARCH 3RD

Reorganisation

From the feedback - content and discussion that helps you run your business is the number one priority. Therefore the 'running a business' section has been moved right to the top of the list. We'll continue to signpost the community areas (that were at the top) in other ways such as signposting the introductions forum in sign up emails and messaging on site.

Marketplace

We've moved this into the community area as it was in the full member area which was noted to have caused some confusion as to whether non-members could even access that area.

Marketplace was formally at the top of the site which guaranteed a nice level of traffic, it's slightly lower down now so we're going to create some in house ads that will be shown regularly in ad slots across the site to give it more visibility. We also introduced a link to the marketplace in the main nav last year - any further ideas on giving this more visibility welcome.

We're still working on other feedback as below.

Please let me know if you have any questions!


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We’ve had over 50 submissions to the feedback survey - thanks to all who submitted (you can still do so here). Each of these submissions has fed through to a canvas where we have organised them into themes so we can make informed decisions on where we need to take action. We’ve also been through the various threads in the feedback area and added this in to review with the whole UKBF team and development teams.

What we have done in response to feedback

We’ve had a really good response to the groupings and design that’s been introduced to the forums. The E-Commerce forum was originally moved into a sub-section but we’ve brought that back out due to demand.

We’ve also had strong feedback about the order of the forums and which ones members would like to be at the top of the page.. We’re looking to re-order the forums based on this feedback shortly and move (running a business forum) to a position nearer the top of the site.

What’s we’re exploring

UKBF Content feed - This was quite a big visual change for the forum. The first thing that we wanted to achieve was to be able to add editorial content to the site as an added value for the members. Once this was launched we started to move 'Sticky' threads, created by members, across to the content feed so that it wasn't just populated by editorial content (if there are any sticky threads that you've written and would like to update to be featured please let me know). We are now looking at how we can do more to promote member generated content within the content feed, watch this space!

We’ve had feedback that the Content feed is ‘distracting’ and makes the site appear ‘cluttered’. We really want to delve deeper into this feedback by talking to members.

We’ll be in touch with those who left their usernames in the feedback thread and survey about this - if you didn't but would still like to input please submit on the feedback survey or send me a PM.

Another thing mentioned was notifications for article content. Should article comment notifications work in the same way that threads do? Should articles be ‘subscribed to’ like threads.

Thanks to all the members that have already provided feedback on all of the changes. We will continue to monitor the feedback that we receive and keep you updated as things progress.

 

[andygambles]

You will need SSL/TLS on the site soon otherwise browsers will start warning users that logging in to the forum is unsafe.

 

[Dan Izzard]

Thanks @andygambles will get the IT ops team on it although I though this was standard for all our sites already. We don't want to anger almighty Google!

 

[fisicx]

We’ve had feedback that the Content feed is ‘distracting’ and makes the site appear ‘cluttered’. We really want to delve deeper into this feedback by talking to members.

Another thing mentioned was notifications for article content. Should article comment notifications work in the same way that threads do? Should articles be ‘subscribed to’ like threads.

Has there been any progress? I notice that the LH content shows zero comments on just about all articles and they are still distracting. I'm sure some people like them but previous feedback showed many didn't.

Are they here to stay or are they still under consideration?

 

[Timoxendale]

Has there been any progress? I notice that the LH content shows zero comments on just about all articles and they are still distracting. I'm sure some people like them but previous feedback showed many didn't.

Are they here to stay or are they still under consideration?

Have to agree, I’m using Greasemonkey to remove them and the sites a lot better.

 

[AllUpHere]

Is there a reason that a lot of articles not authored by Sift staff are written by new members who don't contribute to the actual forum?

 

[UKSBD]

Is there a reason that a lot of articles not authored by Sift staff are written by new members who don't contribute to the actual forum?

Article sites got pinged by Google, so they now have to disguise it to look like a forum so people can pay for the advertorial.

 

[RPower]

@AllUpHere To answer that question, sometimes there are topics (like law) where I am not an expert and neither is anyone else at Sift. Therefore, we ask external contributors - where possible experts in their chosen areas - for free, to write us a piece on a certain topic. It's not advertorial, and where possible we try not to put any links in with the content. If I were to write all the content myself, there would be far less of it. Lots of sites employ this practice, from BusinessZone to the Huffington Post, Forbes, etc.

We're also really trying to get more members writing us pieces, so if you have any suggestions or topics you'd like to write about, or how we can improve existing content, please PM me!

 

[AllUpHere]

@AllUpHere To answer that question, sometimes there are topics (like law) where I am not an expert and neither is anyone else at Sift. Therefore, we ask external contributors - where possible experts in their chosen areas - for free, to write us a piece on a certain topic. It's not advertorial, and where possible we try not to put any links in with the content. If I were to write all the content myself, there would be far less of it. Lots of sites employ this practice, from BusinessZone to the Huffington Post, Forbes, etc.

We're also really trying to get more members writing us pieces, so if you have any suggestions or topics you'd like to write about, or how we can improve existing content, please PM me!

You miss my point. I obviously agree that it's best to have experts writing such posts. What I don't get, is why you get 'outside' help before trying to find the expertise from existing regular contributors.

I myself have had a couple of my threads 'stickied' in the marketing forum (both of which generated dozens of 'thanks' and thanks via PM) but I've never been approached to write any content. There are also a good few other underutilised members of the forum who would more than likely be happy to help (although they are disappearing fast).

 

[RPower]

@AllUpHere Sorry for missing your point. Of course, I'd very much welcome help from within the forums. Content has only been up and running since January, so I am still getting around to people and getting familiar with who is an expert at what - being an editor on my own, my days are really busy so I don't get a lot of time to do what I would like to do more of which is engage with the community.

If you could point me in the direction of members who would be willing to contribute content in various areas I'd be really grateful. Would you yourself be interested?

 

[fisicx]

However....

Dan said the whole LH column was under review and he would be feeding back the results of that review. It's clear that there isn't a lot of engagement with the articles - zero comments on most of them - and you cannot compare with huff, Forbes or BZ, none of those are forums.

If Sift are going to keep the LH column that's fine but many are probably still wondering what purpose it serves. UKBF is a forum. The clue is in the name.

 

[japancool]

@AllUpHere To answer that question, sometimes there are topics (like law) where I am not an expert and neither is anyone else at Sift. Therefore, we ask external contributors - where possible experts in their chosen areas - for free, to write us a piece on a certain topic. It's not advertorial, and where possible we try not to put any links in with the content. If I were to write all the content myself, there would be far less of it. Lots of sites employ this practice, from BusinessZone to the Huffington Post, Forbes, etc.

We're also really trying to get more members writing us pieces, so if you have any suggestions or topics you'd like to write about, or how we can improve existing content, please PM me!

If those articles are relevant to specific topic areas, why aren't they in the appropriate subforum instead of on the LH bar. By the way, that box on the left there scrolls. Does anyone ever actually scroll down it?

 

[fisicx]

And a week has gone by and still no feedback.

@Dan Izzard and @RPower - when are we going to get the long promised report on the UKBF survey and if the LH column is here to stay?

 

[Dan Izzard]

Hey @fisicx - it's all still work in progress. We've got some good stats on the articles and what is and isn't working now so have been trying to compile some of that. We've also got a release on site next week that will introduce notifications on the articles and some great content from other members on the go.

Will be sure to get a post together with the survey feedback. Next steps from that is to contact users individually to clarify some of the feedback. With that in mind would love to schedule a call.

 

[japancool]

Just a thought. One of the much trumpeted benefits of becoming a full member are the website reviews. This seems to be strictly enforced.

But who provides the reviews that makes this a benefit? The other members. And if they feel ignored and stop providing reviews, that benefit vanishes, and let's be honest, right now, there's not much else that becoming a full member is worth it for.

 

[Dan Izzard]

Hey @japancool just sent you a PM - would be good to discuss this further.