NEW FEATURES: Sub forums and combined forum views, and some new forums to boot

Hello all! I'm posting to announce a long-overdue change to Tiki Central. The creation of sub forums, and the ability to see the contents of those sub forums in a combined view. Let me explain how it works:

:down: You might have already seen the new format of Tiki Events on Tiki Central's main page:

Notice that Tiki Events now has "Other Events" and "California Events" below it? I've broken down Tiki Events into two new sub forums so that it's easier for members to browse. You can click on California Events to see just the topics pertaining to events in California, or you can click on Other Events to see events in others parts of the world.

However -- and this is key -- you can still click on Tiki Events to see both California Events and Other Events combined into a single forum just like it was before the creation of the sub-forums. This allows you to read the forums however you want, whether it be one at a time, or the old-school way with all the events in one place.

In addition to the new Tiki Events forums, I've also split Creating Tiki into sub forums. Tiki Carving now has it's very own forum, and I've created Other Crafts for all other projects.

These new features have been in the works for quite a while -- I've had the concept for well over a year -- but it took me a while to get all the programming done. Now that it's completed, it will be easier for me to split existing forums into sub-forums when we deem it necessary, without having to worry if it will fragment the forums.

Please let me know what you think by posting here. We're stillin the early stages of moving posts into the new forums, and if you find a topic that needs to be moved into one of the new forums, please u-mod it.

Mahalo,

Hanford

[ Edited by: hanford_lemoore 2006-04-26 02:27 ]

Wow! Subforums are easy (you already had them when you split Beyond/Backroom/Test/Bilge off from the rest of Tiki Central), but this is a step beyond that. These subforums "roll up" into their parent directories to allow you to go for an overview or break down the view into more discrete chunks, very smooth. And Search sends you to the subforum by default, which makes sense that since if you're searching for info you're looking for more specific information rather than the overview.

My own minor quibble is in something that you're actually fixing: the pull down "View a Forum" menu has always been out of order compared to the main Forum Index, and although you've reordered this somewhat in this upgrade there's still some of it out of that order. If you click on "Tiki Events" or "Creating Tiki" in the pull down menu it sends you back to the main Index instead of that Forum. And there's those "No More Forums" links that bring you to a blank forum. But this is just minor quibblings with one small part of the navigation that doesn't bother me much, and part of my job is to try to break things like this. I'm in awe of your incredible forumitude!

Nice job man!

Great work by Hanford once again! I have become a member on 2 other forum sites and TC sh**s all over them - it is just so much better designed and upkept! Great work man!

The use of categories and sub-categories works well too. There'll be some splitting of hairs when/if you split it up further, but that will settle down after a while anyways when people get used to it.

very nicely done! Thank-you!
Might I suggest a split in the locating tiki to branch off a section for home bars from the rest?
Thank-you
E59

fantastic changes! the splitting of 'creating' was a pleasant suprise! as a non-carver i often found the stuff i appreciated more dropping off the page.. now i can look at combined or just the crafty stuff.

thanks hanford!!

Nicely done. I propose two new forums: one for having your cake, and one for eating it too. Looks like we already have that though, figuratively speaking.

-Randy

Californian's map of the U.S.:

Legend

1. California. Unsurprisingly, California remains intact.
2. This is the state of Reno, which is easy to spot because it’s just outside the “Tahoe Region”.
3. The state of Vegas.
4. All Californians know that their neighbor to the north is Oregon. They know this because Oregon is where Chai was invented.
5. This is the state of Seattle unless you’re really wealthy, in which case it’s the state of Puget Sound. This is where Starbucks comes from. You’ll note that both Oregon and Seattle span the space between the west coastline and the I-5 corridor.
6. This is Death Valley. It’s hot here. Except in the winter, when it’s cold.
7. This is the state of Aspen. From the state of Aspen, you can ski straight into state #9
8. This state has two names for Californians. If you’re from Northern California, it’s known as “That Bastard of a President’s Ranch”. If you’re from Southern California, it’s called “The Alamo”.
9. The Midwest. It’s a huge state, as you can see, and for Californians, Midwest inhabitants on both sides of the Mississippi live on a strict diet of iceberg lettuce and Budweiser, which is why they have such big hair.
10. The blue vertical line is the Mississippi River. Californians don’t actually know where it is, they just know it’s in the middle of the country and that it runs “up and down”.
11. 11 points to the state of Chicago, which is a convenient home to the city of Chicago. [I can’t begin to tell you how many Californians think Chicago is a state].
12. This is Florida. It’s home to Disney World (which is just like Disneyland) and a lot of Cubans, like that Ricky Martin.
13. This is Back East, colloquially known as New England. It contains most of the 50 states because the Pilgrims thought small. That’s why they’re so rude Back East, you know. They don’t have room enough to spread out their yoga mats and become one with the universe.
14. New York, where the official state animal is the bagel.

On Tiki Central 2-14 is just referred to as "other".

:lol: Jes' kiddin' Hanford! Nice new features!

I just finished sorting all of the Tiki Events between "Other" and "California" -- ooh de lally! If you notice any that I've missed, please U-Mod & I'll get it moved.

I have to say, it was a lot of fun to relive & reminisce during the sorting. It's so cool to see the older California threads, where people who I know are now dear friends of each other were just meeting for the first time.

But it's even better to see the more modern echoes of that, with the burgeoning groups in places like New England, Seattle and Denver. It's so wonderful that Tiki Central has finally gotten big enough that there's enough critical mass in those places for people to meet up and form local communities like the ones we've been enjoying here in California for years. It's just fantastic.

Humu-Han-Humu,

Is there some other word, other than "Craft" you guys can use in the Creating header??

It sounds sooooo "Country Cottage."

Other than that, I'm in!!!

Just my 2 cents, coconuts, beers, etc. worth.

On 2006-04-27 20:59, RevBambooBen wrote:
Is there some other word, other than "Craft" you guys can use in the Creating header??

I'm open to suggestions, although "other crafts" is a very accurate description of what goes in that forum. Crafts is inclusive of art, and encompasses topics pertaining to specific pieces, techniques, etc.

~Hanford

Crafts is inclusive, but the word long ago became sort of dismissive, generally implying something hand made but with little actual art involved. (From years back my own snotty little definition was: crap + gifts = crafts.) (I'm much less snobby now.)

I think Other Arts or Other Creating would work.

What about having "tiki arts" and "tiki carving" as the headers?

Ben,
How about "Other Artistic Endeavors"

TTT :)