Hanford - site suggestion

With the four topic categories that already exist, a fifth new category may be too much, but what about adding a Tiki History topic. We could move all the posts that have stories, pics, postcards, menus and all of the Sabu/Puamana stuff into one place. That way all this info won't get lost in with all of the numereous posts in the Main Discussion area. What do you think?

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo on 2003-07-12 13:00 ]

[ Edited by: ZuluMagoo on 2003-07-12 13:02 ]

Interesting. I've discussed many ideas like that with other members, but the main problem (and a problem that exists already with the current forums) is how we draw the line between these posts and others.

This won't address everything you mentioned, but I am working on a new forum that will help catalog Tiki locations. I don't know when it will be done, but I hope it's soon.

The other thing that I've been thinking of is a "Best of Tiki Central" page that would link back to the great posts. I have not come up with a good way to do it yet though.

These things hopefully will address the need, even if it isn't the exact method you suggested.

Anyone else have comments?

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2003-07-12 15:30 ]

This has been suggested before, but I like the idea of separating "Collecting Tiki" into two different forums: 'Collecting', which would showcase collections, finds, carvings/paintings, home bars, etc., and 'Selling', which would be basically things such as currently running eBay auctions, personal advertisements and "Hey, I found a cool site that sells____"-type posts. It wouldn't be much of a discussion forum - more like a classified ads section, where you'd go if you were shopping for something. If you have no interest in reading posts about folks simply hawking their wares, you'd avoid it entirely by simply not reading anything in that forum. It would also prevent having the "Collecting Tiki" forum clogged up with quasi-spam. However, as auctions end, it would need to be 'weeded out' and old posts deleted on a regular basis, so it might be too much of a hassle...

About the "Best Of Tiki Central" - how do you define a "great post"?

Just my 2 kukuinuts worth...

On 2003-07-12 21:30, Doctor Z wrote:
separating "Collecting Tiki" into two different forums: 'Collecting', which would showcase collections, finds, carvings/paintings, home bars, etc., and 'Selling', which would be basically things such as currently running eBay auctions, personal advertisements and "Hey, I found a cool site that sells____"-type posts.

Yeah, I've looked into this, but I don't think wev'e got a problem in Collecting Tiki right now. The first page's LAST post is from 12 days ago, so even if you only frequent Tiki Central on the weekends,there will only be a half-page of new/updated topics to browse.

And we have eBay posts flagged now with the eBay: prefix, so it's easy to spot those, and there's only 7 on the main page. So I don't think the Collecting forum is getting clogged right now (although I'm not a hardcore collector).

I'm also worried that a ForSale section would kind of open the doors to more off-topic spam and plugs, although I'm not sure. I've never set a policy on non-eBay sale announcements, but in theroy, legit ads for stores and websites that sell Tiki Stuff would require payment (advertising, basically). I haven't decided on how to handle that though. But I don't want a forum for it.

About the "Best Of Tiki Central" - how do you define a "great post"?

That's why I haven't implemented this yet. The effecient way is to base it on votes. Allow members to vote on a topic and if it gets enough votes, it would go into the "best of" section. Voting would be done while reading topcics... there would be vote buttons on the page of everyt topic, so it wouldn't require much extra on member's parts. But this requires some programming.

The other way is to just have someone in charge of it. There are lots of great posts that people remember on topics and they could be collected onto a page manually. But I don't have the bandwidth to do that. In that case, "Best of" would be determined by a moderator, but with suggestions (in the form of an email?) from everyone.

Man, someday I'm just going to have to write my own web forum from scratch that does all this. :lol:

~Hanford

If folks "flagged" posts as the eBay posts are in "Collecting" are it'd be helpful. The subject line on recent post by Sabu, "Tiki History- The Hawaiian Cottage..." would be how to do it. But if it's not a major hassle new categories wouldn't be a bad idea. I'd like to see a "Food and Drink" category.

My main site suggestion would be for peoples to mind the current categories and thread subjects. "Main" gets mixed up the most with subjects that should be in other categories. Threads in general seem to flow the way people think and talk (one subject morphing into another) but when the replies shift wildly from the subject topic it'd be useful if a new thread were begun. I've stumbled on interesting information and discussions happening under subject topics I'd initially ignored.

Good point, Woofmutt. Flagging messages by labeling it Tiki History would help out immensely. Labeling them would be subjective, but then again, what isnt?

The "best of" section would serve a different purpose though, and that is to highlight great topics that otherwise would fall off of the the first few pages. Having a Tiki History section would rise some of those posts but others would stay burried (the great topics on Hawaii, for example).

So, I see a use for both.

Ah, another thing to add to my to do list.

~Hanford

A new section called TIKI CRAFT for all the tiki projects like how to build tiki bars or genral questions like how to stuff a puffer fish.

Hanford-

How do you make any $$$?

Casey, Good point. How does this work? Shouldn't members be kicking in a little?

On 2003-07-14 23:02, [email protected] wrote:
Hanford-
How do you make any $$$?

I romance elderly women, then I con them out of their life savings --

Oh, you mean how do I make money with Tiki Central?

The short answer is I lose money on Tiki Central. But that's not as bad as it sounds because (A) Tiki is a hobby of mine, and I enjoy it, and (B) I've been slowly working at putting together fund-raising projects.

But until those fund-raising projects are up to full speed, I rely on associate fees from Amazon.com to help put some money in the tip jar, so to speak.

Whenever you visit Amazon.com from a Tikiroom.com link then make a purchase, I get a small fee from it. it's not much but it does add up.

I have an all-in-one search page for Amazon.com, Expedia.com, and Google that I recently christened Tiki Central Search. Horribly creative, I know. Everyone: When you're in the mood to shop for travel or products, use Tiki Central Search and help keep Tiki Central running!

I have also slowly been looking into certain types of advertising (Tiki, of course) but have not gone that direction yet.

It all moves very slowly becuase most of my waking hours are spent getting my other website http://www.monolux.com up to speed.

Thanks for the inquiry!

~Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore on 2003-07-15 04:19 ]

I think Sven made this point better than I can, but to paraphrase... Having more forums and topics on Tiki Central tends to make the whole board more difficult to read.

To make it easier to follow what's been posted previously, it would be helpful if everyone would use the search feature -- which works extremely well -- before creating new topics.
I like the idea of archiving and highlighting some of the really great information on specific places that is still being uncovered by TC members.
Before James published is Roadtrip book, his Tiki Bar Review pages site was very dynamic with people adding new stuff about tiki locations all the time. Even though I'm glad to have his book, I miss that aspect of his old site.

On 2003-07-15 05:27, Kailuageoff wrote:
I think Sven made this point better than I can, but to paraphrase... Having more forums and topics on Tiki Central tends to make the whole board more difficult to read.

I agree, but at a certain point, when paths are clearly drawn and traffic is up, a new forum helps things out. If all our current forums were merged into one, I think it would be pretty tough to follow.

The Locating Tiki forum I'm looking to add (any day now) will be more of a reference than a chatty conversation area -- it won't be for questions, only for specific Location information, pictures, and trip reports.

Regarding a Tiki Crafts area: I think that's a perfect section for the "best of tiki central" becuase I don't think we have enough to make it a forum, but I do think it would be nice to call them out so they're easily found.

~Hanford

I romance elderly women, then I con them out of their life savings --

Oh, you mean how do I make money with Tiki Central?

~Hanford

Hanford,

You made me laugh out loud at work! Some real thanks for all the hard work you put into this site. Maintaining a website can be a serious pain-in-the-arse.

This "Locating Tiki forum" is a great idea. It seems that historical information might likely flow-out of that forum as well. The Book of Tiki is great, but there is so much more info out there! It'd be great to find a new (old) mug with an unknown (to me) mark on the base, look-up the bar in the forum, and read all the current and historical information on the place submitted by members. I realize that the forum you are talking about would probably be for current bars/locales, but the idea of a historical database would be groovy...

Thanks again,

Slod

Hanford-

Please make an announcement and keep reminding us to use the TIKI CENTRAL SEARCH! I'm certain we would all use it regularly if we all understood it helps the cause.

Mahalo!

I am also a website designer(audioautographs.com), and I know this is not an easy one. It would be cool if a Centralite could have a "Favorites" thread list.I know we can do it with the search engines (IE, Netscape,etc.) I just want it ALL Hanford! If nothing changed, I would still be happy.
Thanks for all your hard work too.

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-07-17 11:29 ]