Meso
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Everything posted by Meso
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When we went live with the new layout, we were excited for the new ways for users to engage in content across the site. One area that allows for this to happen quickly and easily is the Activity streams listed under the "more" section of the navbar. In order to make it easier for our forum users to catch up on new posts in the forum, we've added a shortcut to the forum "new content" stream. This will allow you to browse over the most recent posts and thread topics on the site at a glance, meaning you don't need to manually go into every category to see what has been posted, you can just simply take a look at the stream to see what's new. Clicking on the "unread content" button will take you to the forum content stream directly, and allow you to make any additional filtering options you may wish, such as the time frame of the unread content you want to see. If you only want to see what you haven't read since your last visit, you can do that too. All the content in this stream is unread, so you'll only be seeing posts you have yet to catch up on. If you wish to see all activity in the forums in this view, you can simply adjust the "read status" filter. We hope that this small addition may assist you in making your forum experience more streamlined and enjoyable.
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Hey there, There has always been the ability to view threads without logging in, there were always some sections which required one to login and I believe those are still behaving in that manner. Threads like Speakers Corner, Bonfire etc were login only sections.
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For years, we saw thousands of posts taking place in the notorious DB Cooper Thread; we have decided with the 'new start' approach to the new site, to unlock the thread and invite those who wish to discuss the DB Cooper case again. Just do your best not to descend into madness. We will be fairly relaxed in moderation, until the point where personal attacks become involved. It should be possible to hold a discussion, no matter how polarizing, without resorting to the attack of others. So with that mind, we welcome you to jump in!
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The Return of DB Cooper on DZ A few years ago, we found ourselves inundated with complaints regarding this thread, daily PMs that consumed too much time to warrant allowing the thread to continue. With the new design, we've decided to re-open this thread and allow for users to return to discussing the DB Cooper case. We will be liberal in our moderation until the point of personal attacks. If you wish to discuss the case, you're welcome to do so - but do so without attacking others involved. Personal attacks will not be tolerated and earn you a time out or permanent ban for repeated offenses. Welcome back to what we consider a valuable part of DZs history.
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I hear your grievance, but technology will tend to move along with the tech approach that the industry leaders are using. You want users to feel familiar with the methodology. Do you use social media? Facebook, Instagram, Twitter... They're all based on a scroll-heavy model. It's how you navigate. So modern technology will follow that approach in order to keep the style familiar to the user's general habits. For instance, if all the large sites implemented side-scrolling approaches, other companies would too, in order to keep people in a familiar space. Scrolling is the easiest and most used action on our phones. If you can point out particular cases where excessive scrolling can be avoided (excessive padding or line issues), if you pointed that out we could look at removing it. But we don't notice any of these issues when trying to locate them and it all feels pretty standard for forum apps. It is possible for us to implement tapatalk to this forum, tapatalk is a mobile application where users can link their forums to and it has an older appearance, but offers things like push notifications on the forums, and if one is looking for an older design look. That may be an option - we'd just need to install it. But we'd first need to see enough demand for doing so.
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We actually considered going the route of an application. But let's just say the costs that are involved in such an exercise would force us to shove popup ads in your face on nearly every click. The truth is that the site isn't cheap to run, there's a whole lot of server space being used and ad networks have made life quite difficult over recent years. We've got a lot of ideas, but none of these ideas come cheaply. And we don't want to ruin the user experience with video ads etc. If the majority of people felt like they'd rather deal with annoying ads in exchange for more features, we'd go that route but historically we've seen what even one or two rogue ads can do in terms of user response. I'm always all ears to suggestions for the site. If anyone feels like they have a good idea that could benefit our users if we implement it and help the community, we'd seriously look into it. I do have some fairly affordable additions I want to make to the site this year, small things that may make the engagement on the site feel a bit more fulfilling in what users expect in modern site design and social media etc.
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After looking at how the forum structure is laid out, we've made a few changes. The Skydivers with Disabilities, Women's Only and Blue Skies forums were historically part of the community/off-topic forums, which didn't really make sense. These sub-forums are directly related to skydiving and seemed to be far removed in their intent from the Bonfire and Speaker's Corner, which serve as broader off-topic forums. You can now find these 3 sub-forums under the Skydiving section and not the Community section. What this also does, is isolates both the Bonfire and Speaker's Corner in a way that will allow users who wish to ignore these forums to collapse the section and not see them. I feel like this is a logical step, as there is no reason to place skydiving related sub-forums under an off-topic forum group.
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Unfortunately, as you say they were rarely used. The last post in them was from mid-last year, the lack of activity meant that it was a lot of forum real estate (making the forums a bit more bloated), and we hid them until we decide what to do with them permanently. We don't want to have them display as regular forums if they're only getting a few posts a year, but we can understand that the threads currently in them may be useful. We'll apply our minds a bit as to whether there is a way to still keep them archived without having it impact the appearance of the forums (seeing forums with a last post of a year ago definitely isn't great).
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Thanks for bringing this up... Will run some tests now and report back. Looks like I managed to attach an image without any issue... Can you please let me know if you're unable to do the same?
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“SAME SAME, BUT BETTER-ER”. The JFX 2. She's kinda familiar, but she has that shiny new kid appeal with her modern flair and style. Powerband, mini-ribs, all the bells and whistles. Take her for a ride, baby! We’ve done it again! We released the new version of our beloved JFX canopy, the JFX 2, on the 17th of January 2019. The original JFX was already a great canopy to fly with beautiful openings, great flight and the opportunity to land it gently or with a full-blown hissing swoop. Version 2.0 has not been a radical redesign: the JFX 2 stays true to all the things a canopy pilot loves, but now has all the kickass features they know and want in a modern cross-braced canopy: a powerband, mini-ribs and sail loaded ribs. This canopy is all about cross-braced performance with ease: cranking turns, raging swoops, gentle touchdowns! The JFX 2 is the go-to canopy for someone wanting to start their swoop journey, or for someone who wants a “do-it-all” wing with power which will maximise the good times and minimise the risk with plenty of playfulness. This canopy is the smoothest transition into flying high performance, cross-braced wings from an elliptical wing. It can be loaded light of heavy for consistent delivery in flight. JFX 2 | Icarus Canopies NZ from NZ Aerosports Ltd on Vimeo. The original JFX was the last of our canopies to be designed purely by Paul “Jyro” Martyn’s keen eye and 35+ years of experience. With the JFX 2 we’ve added a touch of fancy French Aerodynamic genius to the mix from our head designer Julien Peelman, and the result means incredible aerodynamics, refined performance and uncompromised aesthetics. Key features of the JFX 2: Powerband: debuted on the “Petra”, the Powerband lets us control the shape of the top surface of the wing more accurately, especially at the crucial leading edge where around 90% of lift is made Mini-ribs: These little additions in the tail are also a legacy from the “Petra” and “Leia” canopies. They decrease trailing edge drag, which has the function of increasing glide and flare performance - both things you can never get enough of “Minybrid” construction: A low-pack-volume take on our hybrid construction “Leia” canopies, the JFX 2 pioneers the minimal hybrid (Minybrid) wing. The loaded ribs - the ones the lines are attached to that experience the highest amount of stress and distortion - are made of sail fabric. This reduces rib distortion, helping the wing maintain its shape through all flight profiles, increasing glide, stability and responsiveness 21-chamber design: The JFX 2's sleek fully elliptical 21-chamber design captures the smoothed staged openings of the traditional 7-cell. She's crisp and responsive, yet it does not feel tense and edgy and packs some punch at the bottom end Closed Center Chamber: Inherited originally from the “FX” and “VX”, then redesigned for the “JVX”, the closed center chamber nose was the innovation that allowed cross-braced canopies to become popular by softening the openings, controlling distortion and improving aerodynamics. It's not the latest but probably one of the most important of Jyro's contributions to modern canopy design! Images by Chris Stewart/NZ Aerosports Key flight characteristics: Openings: JFX 2 openings are predictable, soft and not scary! Reliable, consistent and stunning as always, openings are the ace card of this canopy Harness inputs: inputs are light and instinctive, and very responsive. She can be flown entirely on harness with ease - we actually prefer to fly a lot of harness with the JFX 2 Toggles: Powerful and responsive even at the bottom end - even more so than the original JFX Stall point: The slow flight characteristics are hugely improved from the original JFX. The stall point is slower and lower - get plenty of feedback and warning, both on toggles and rears Fronts: Loaded high, lightly and even underloaded; the feedback of the fronts will be great. A bit of slowing down needed before a bigger turn to reduce the pressure on the fronts, but they are very effective for getting into the dive Dive & Recovery: The dive on the JFX 2 is longer than the original JFX, but not as long as on the Leia. With a slow, predictable (and easily adjustable) recovery arc, the JFX 2 is ideal to get those bigger rotations dialled in. -
what is the best first question for the q and a forum
Meso replied to SethInMI's question in Questions and Answers
I'll allow this as a first post... On the condition that my comment is selected as the best answer. In order to show users how this forum section will operate. Though going forward, it should be noted that this forum section will be moderated in such a way that only legitimate questions that can help others will be allowed to remain here. -
I'm excited to let you guys know that we've added a new forum category which will operate slightly differently than other parts of the website. In a normal forum thread, important or useful responses are often lost through the noise of other posts, making it difficult to easily find the most relevant post to the question being asked. This new forum will arrange posts based on their quality, allowing users to upvote or downvote answers in response to the topic question. The creator of the question is then also able to select a best answer, which will move that answer to the top of the thread, making it the most visible post. By doing this, we manage to reduce the amount of noise in the thread and serve as a direct and efficient way for users to find the best answer (based off community consensus and thread creator's opinion). We have some highly skilled jumpers on this site, and we want to be able to promote the helpful and useful posts made on the site. This thread will still be monitored and abuse of the forum (such as posting trolling questions or non-skydiving related posts) will result in post removal and possible warnings, so approach the forum with a mature intention of promoting knowledge. You can find the new forum section under the Skydiving area, or click here.
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It will be moderated, though fairly lightly. The wonders of the Q&A functionality is that noise is automatically filtered out. Posts that are downvoted by users are pushed to the bottom, while posts that people find insightful are pushed to the top. Meaning that posting shit content will serve no point as your comment will just get pushed to the bottom of the thread and be unseen.
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It's possible that the ads have been removed from the renewals listing cause of the time delay to renew. They will stay there for 5 days. Though we've now increased it to 7 to allow more time before pruning the expired ads. We do apologize for these teething problems with the new system. I am not sure why you were asked to pay for a free ad, it shouldn't work like that, we've checked the settings and packages that are free should only offer free renewals. We're going to do more internal testing on this and see what's going on, but the plan is definitely for free ads to have free renewals.
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Hey guys, Just looking to gauge some interest here. I'm interested in adding a "Questions and Answers" area to the forums. Somewhere that one can ask a question and get answers which can be upvoted by other users, and the best answer selected by the post creator. The idea behind this, is that sometimes there's great information posted in a thread, but it can take forever to go through all the posts and try locate the best answer. This would make it so that information would be neatly presented and someone looking for insight could read both the question and the best answer listed directly next to each other, eliminating the need to go through a ton of posts to find the best answer. If you want to read the rest, you're still able to. But the best voted, or OP selected answer will be easily visible. I definitely think it could prove a valuable asset that helps promote learning in a more streamlined way than a traditional forum thread. What are your guys thoughts, and how do you think would be the best way to create it. A single section for all Q&A? Or perhaps several Q&A forum sections (Beginner Q&A, Skilled/Proficient Q&A, Advanced Q&A) etc. Any thoughts would be useful
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Thanks a lot for bringing this to my attention. I found the problem and resolved it on the articles. Please do let me know if you come across any other similar issues.
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Only if you had selected to submit a paid ad initially. If you submit a free ad initially, then you should be able to renew it without paying anything. But for those who paid for a featured ad, instead of providing a free regular ad renewal, the system allows for a renewal of the feature, which is then paid. But if you want to change between packages, paid vs free. You will then need to resubmit the ad as a paid ad. I realize the old system made this a little bit easier, by allowing you to choose whether you'd like to renew as paid or free, but we are naturally confined to whatever the functionality of the plugin is, and they only allow 1 option per package. So in this case, we can either choose to have featured ads that were paid for initially, require a second payment to renew as a feature, or we can remove that option and have it so that featured ads can only be renewed as regular free ads. We're still deciding which one is the most desired. But we haven't been able to find a way to provide both options. Either the person who has paid and wants to renew as a feature will need to submit a new ad, or the person who wants to renew a feature as a free ad will have to submit a new ad.
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There is a merit in your approach, but we also realize that these two forums have played a large role in the community here over the years, well at least the Bonfire has But you are able to collapse forum sections that you don't have an interest in, to make your forum environment more isolated to what you have interest in.
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We've done some testing and it appears that the renewals will only be visible once expired. On the old system, once an ad had expired it was automatically deleted from the system. On the new platform the behaviour is different and an expired ad will remain visible to you, and just be unpublished. This means that you can wait for your ad to expire and then just renew it afterwards. But please don't hesitate to let us know if you continue to have issues.
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After a lot of feedback from users looking for the profile flags which we had on the old site, we've added the functionality to the site and flags should appear next to all user content. You also have the ability to turn off flags, should you not wish to see them. To access your flag settings / set your flag. You can do so under your Account Settings (found from the top right dropdown next to your avatar).
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Busy drafting the post on how to select flags, we just went live with it. But to set your flag, head over to your account settings from the top right dropdown and then click on "Country" in the left hand side and you can select your country.
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The system doesn't seem to allow us to create that option We're looking for ways to make it as close to the old options as possible, as we can see the merits in it. It may mean having to create more feature options such as a 7 Days with paid 7 day renewal or 7 Days with free 30 day renewal. We are looking into it actively though on our development environment and running some tests to see what's possible.
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Haha, if it had been smaller that could maybe have been a thing. But it's just too big to keep without it negatively affecting the viewing experience for users.
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Thanks for the detailed feedback, the time and effort you put into that post makes it much more likely that we're able to assist in resolving any issues.
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In order to make your classifieds experience safer, we've introduced a feedback system similar to that found on sites like Ebay. This feedback system allows you to rate users based off your transaction experiences with them. If you've successfully dealt with another user, whether it be through buying or selling gear, you can now rate that experience on the transaction. A positive experience can be rated to reflect that, allowing other users to see whether or not a user has established a trust rating through their classified dealings. If you're a buyer or a seller, you should consider asking the person with whom you are dealing, to leave you feedback after the transaction. This will help establish your profile credibility, while also helping others avoid scammers in the process. One has the ability to negatively rate an experience, such as that with scammers or sellers who supply products different to their advertisement specs, which can help in showing users with a bad transaction history who are best avoided. To leave feedback, simply go to the user's profile that you are dealing with, and click on the feedback tab. From there, you can add feedback for a specific advert in question. The feedback left on a user's profile will display both on their account page and on their ad pages, making it easy to see a user's trust factor while viewing ads in the classifieds section of the site. If you experience any problems with the feedback system, don't hesitate to reach out to our support for assistance.