Howdy from Texas,

If you recently made a post in this forum and suddenly you aren't seeing it anymore, don't panic. Most likely, either myself or one of the moderators simply moved it to a more appropriate forum.

For instance, just recently a post about copyright issues was moved to the Taking Care of Business forum, and a post about shoulder braces was moved to the Support Your Local Camera forum.

With regard to threads which are moved within 24 hours or so of their initial posting, we'll leave an automatic re-direct which takes you right to that thread's new location in another forum. These are the threads with the "arrow" symbol and they're marked as "Moved:" to let you know they've been put somewhere else.

With older threads, we generally move these without leaving the re-directs, which can clutter the boards somewhat. If you're looking for a certain topic and it's no longer here, try checking whichever other forum was better suited for that discussion. You can also use the search tool, and search for specific words or topics, or a list of posts made by you or any particular community member.

In the long run, this process helps with archiving the threads where they really belong, and aids the searchability and overall organization of the community boards as well.

Don't worry, there's no punishment phase for this... nobody's going to slam you for dropping a post here if it doesn't really belong. Open DV Discussion is meant as a sort of catch-all forum anyway. But sometimes certain topics really need to be filed elsewhere, such as camera-specific questions for instance, and generally we'll just come in behind you and quietly re-locate such posts to other areas which are more appropriate.

Ultimately however we're all very grateful if you take into consideration for which specific forum your topic is best suited, and make the effort to put it there yourself in the first place.

Much respect,

Just wondering why something like "shoulder braces" would be put under Support Your Local Camera? I always thought that part was for mainly asking pricing questions and what camera shops generally have availiable, something like a general shoulder brace question or something like that doesn't seem like it would really fit there. Is my understanding incorrect?

Tim,

In this case, the support being discussed is not of the moral type but instead the physical type. Typically tripods/heads and other devices used to help stabilize your shots.

If you go to the DVinfo home page (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/) you'll see a brief description of each forum, in this case:

Support Your Local Camera
Sticks, Pods, Braces, Cranes and other mounting issues.

If you're new around here then I suggest you take a quick look there so your posts end up in the right place. This will improve your chances of getting helpful responses to your questions!

HA! I got it. Wow...that one flew right over my head. I know I noticed how most of the forums did have names like that, and I knew what the rest are intented for, but for some reason this one flew right over me! The other part is that I've never browsed that part of the forum...

Which begs the question, are our forum titles and descriptions confusing to our readers?

Well I got all the other ones, I see it now, I'm sure if the users read the description under them there is no problem, I'd just never browsed that forum and never read the description under it, or I had and didn't pay much attention to it.

I saw this post and read where it went to and didn't make sense to me, thats all, if I had been browsing I'm sure I would have seen it.

I have been using this forum for almost two years now. I still find the forum titles confusing.....

Care to elaborate on that? If you start from the home page (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf) you will see a concise description of each forum.

To add to Boyd's question, are there particular ones you find
most confusing?

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Hurd : Which begs the question, are our forum titles and descriptions confusing to our readers? -->>>
No.

Dennis Vogel

I really like the forum titles and have never had a problem with them. They are very clear, and the subheadings are even clearer. I think the clever titles (such as "Still Crazy") are much better than using boring straightforward ones (like if it were simply called "Still Cameras").

Well, that's exactly the problem...."Still Crazy"....what does that mean? Crazy about what? If it weren't for the description below, I probably would've never known what that forum was about.

The others are:

"The Long Black Line"....the long black what? Do you mean a boom pole?

"NOw Hear This".....what is this...a forum for soapbox speeches?

"Support Your Local Camera"....took me a while to figure out what it meant without reading the description below....I thought it meant support your local camera groups, etc.

IMHO, I think it's better to keep things straight-forward so that way people can find what they need quickly and efficiently, even if it means being boring: AUDIO, LIGHTING, TAPES, etc. This is also easier for people who do not speak English well.

However, I love the forum and I am perfectly happy with the way it is now;-)

"If it weren't for the description below, I probably would've never known what that forum was about"

Well, I guess that's why the descriptions are there.
As long as the descriptions are clear, there really aren't any problems.

"Support Your Local Camera"....took me a while to figure out what it meant without reading the description below"

My question would be, if we can't trust that people will read the short description, what makes us think that they will read the anything whether it's straightforward or not?

And, if someone can't figure out what a certain title means, why wouldn't they read the description?

Let's have a thread about "Sense of Humour"? Oh yes please ! ! ! That would be really neat - and kinda tidy too. I like tidiness, everything in its right place and .. . .well . . . kinda tidy too!

Think about tape? "The Long Black Line" - got it?

It's really for new users of DVinfo. I remember when I first came here for my XM2 - "Son of WATCHDOG" ? Now what's all THAT about? I thought it was pretty kool and not unlike Alice in Wonderland. Do I wanna be part of a Web site that is a bit light hearted and isn't so far up its rear-end that it can "lighten-up" a bit? You Betcha! . . .

More please !

My best regards Nick,

Grazie

<<<-- Originally posted by Nick Medrano
IMHO, I think it's better to keep things straight-forward so that way people can find what they need quickly and efficiently, even if it means being boring: AUDIO, LIGHTING, TAPES, etc. This is also easier for people who do not speak English well.
-->>>

Yeah, us video guys are a quirky bunch...

If you want to play a fun game, try and find all the hidden Pink Floyd references... :)

<<<-- Originally posted by Chris Hurd : Which begs the question, are our forum titles and descriptions confusing to our readers? -->>>

On one hand, I like the forum titles -- they are cute and interesting!?!?!

On the other hand, the cute titles make it harder to quickly identify the forum you want.

This is really a user-interface issue.

Do you want your app to be cute and funny, or easy to use?
Do you want new users to be able to quickly and easily find the correct/best forum to post their questions?

Someone said:
>>Well, I guess that's why the descriptions are there.
As long as the descriptions are clear, there really aren't any problems.<<

I have to disagree. If you have to read both the title and the description to even get an idea of the subject of the forum, then you're making the user do un-necessary work.

The cute/clever titles make it extra hard on international users whose first language is not English.

Most of us are very busy people. We don't have time to read a paragraph when a few words will do. Titles are like signposts -- if the signpost is misleading, you don't even go down the road to see the details.

The first rule of U/I design is to make your app as clear and intuitive as possible. If you can be cute/interesting WITHOUT compromising rule #1, then that's a bonus.

There are plenty of ways to keep the site interesting without making the forum titles confusing and/or misleading.

Just my 2c.

Hi Jim,
As you can see from my earlier posts, I agree.

I still spend some needless seconds reading and re-reading the post titles and their descriptions to make sure I am posting in the right category.

Remember...Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS)

This may be of help (http://projectboil.pixel10.co.uk/posting/Posting.html) to many of our members. Be patient, it loads slow, even with broadband. Some of our members may need to watch it twice.

Jim - true, true . . true . . . . .

Jeff - that's very funny. I especially like the water stains on the title slides.

Nick - as you have posted here 243 times, it's hard for me to understand how you could possibly not understand what the different forums are about by now. I think I managed to figure it all out the first day. I suspect the time spent here posting about the user interface is much more than the "needless seconds" spent trying to understand the forum titles.

But in the end, this is Chris' website, and the titles of the forums give you a little insight into his sense of humor. I'm sure he will read your comments, and maybe they will influence some of his decisions in the future. But with 11,600 members and 211,000 posts online it doesn't seem that any of these user interface issues are creating much of a problem...

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : This may be of help (http://projectboil.pixel10.co.uk/posting/Posting.html) to many of our members. Be patient, it loads slow, even with broadband. Some of our members may need to watch it twice. -->>>

That loaded way too long and I closed it. It broke rule #1. I left the website.

What was it about?

Nick, when you have the time try and let it load. It's just a cute cartoon about posting and rules.

I will Jeff, thanks.

To be honest, I also think the main title headings should be simple and relate directly to that section, such as : Tapes, Audio, Lighting, etc, and the 'quirky' titles such as 'long black line', 'still crazy' etc should be placed in the sub-headings.

For longterm regulars there are no problems, but there is no doubt that someone who is new to the forums or quickly scanning down the page to find important headings, could find it frustrating, or miss important section headings.

Just to add my .02. I am new to this site and I have/had zero problems navigating to the correct area of interest. I think Chris has done a great job in taking a subject that can be rather dry and staunch and he inserted a little humor. I am still greatly confused by people that are saying that reading the sub-title is "too" much information and they simply do not have the "time" to read it. Point is this, if the additional 5-10 words in the sub-title tax you either in your mental capacity or in your amount of time on the web, then you really do not have the intellect or the time to read the material actually inside the forum section your looking for. One of my favorite saying to date and it has never proven itself to be false: "You can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but never all of the people all of the time." This is one of the situations where the minority would be those that have issue with the catchy titles. Great job Chris.

I for one find the forum title hilarious :D

But - if I may play the devil's advocate for a moment - some of my collegues and friends find the titles very confusing. Mainly because they are not as fluent in English as I am.
You must remember that there are users (like me) who do not live in an English speaking country and have a hard time already deciphering the english in the posts.

Like I said, no prob for me. I find it gives the forum a unique look and feel. And I am all for it.

Cheers from Belgium
Arthur

I have been using this forum for almost two years now. I still find the forum titles confusing.....

I don't have that problem, but for me there are so many separate forums that it's sometimes hard to sift through all of them, and their descriptions, to figure out what fits where best.

Having said that, I don't mind at all if a moderator moves a post of mine to a more appropriate forum.

I fully understand the forum titles (at least the ones I frequent) and I have no problem with moderators moving things around (yes, let's keep things tidy).

Here's my question: Yesterday I posted a new thread in the "Open Dv Discussion" about an international video program. Where did it get moved to? Or was it deleted? Did I do something wrong in posting the thread?

I did a search about the program before I posted to see if there were any relevant threads. No results were returned on the handful of searches, so I thought it would be OK to start a new thread. I'm not affiliated with the program, just curious about it. Wondering if anyone has experience with it. But now the thread is gone. If I broke a rule about posting, just let me know what I did wrong and I won't do it again. If it was a taboo topic (I can't imagine it was, but who knows) then let me know and I won't bring it up again.

Could the moderator that removed my post send me an email and let me know why it was removed? I don't want to make trouble. I don't want to break the rules. I really enjoy this forum. I've learned a lot here.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin, it's been temporarily withdrawn from public view due to some flaming responses it received. Most likely it will be restored minus a reply or two (as personal flames are never allowed on this site). Look for it to reappear soon in the Taking Care of Business forum.

Edit: thread has been restored to http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=106901

Hi all,
I think I just sent this question to the wrong place, so I'm going to try again! (forgive me, I'm just getting used to this process...) I'm trying to ask about the best tape to use to record HD with the Sony HVR-A1U. Where should I post this question? I can't find the thread for the Sony HVR-A1U.

Best,
Cindy

I can't find the thread for the Sony HVR-A1U.It's been moved to our Sony HVR-A1U forum:

See http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=99

You guys,
I'm sorry to be a pain, because I've been asking this question...but did the Sony HVR-A1U forum disappear? If it didn't, and someone would link me to it, I'd be most appreciative!
Cindy

See http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=99 for the Sony HVR-A1U forum.