Old forum?

[redshifteffect]

Anyone miss the old forum?

I found it much easier to have information on all IMG related issues in one forum....

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[mic]

Perhaps the admins can answer this question: is it possible to offer a view which displays threads from all the new "regional" international forums, so that in effect there is a virtual classic-style international forum for those who want it?

 

[Stephen Ewen]

Originally posted by mic
is it possible to offer a view which displays threads from all the new "regional" international forums, so that in effect there is a virtual classic-style international forum for those who want it?

It may be possible for there to be a View New Posts option for all the International Forums, which in effect would give a very similar layout as the old. I will investigate this.

 

[driedcaribou]

I quite like this new format.

It's much more organized and it caters to users who perhaps don't visit as frequently.

It does take longer to get all the information though because you have a lot of hopping around to do.

 

[Purifyer]

Is there really the traffic to warrant FIFTEEN new forums? I think it's overkill. I think a better idea might be to make a Caribbean IMG MD forum, and a 'international students of medicine' forum. From what I've seen it's the caribbeans who are the ones pushing to be differentiated?

It also should be noted that most of the schools outside the US are not 'MD'... (as in, these are not 'international MD' forums.... for some reason the ethnocentricity bugs me

 

[pitman]

I think in particular some of the current forums could be combined, at least until # threads warranted separation, for example, USMLE+CSA+Other exams could be just one forum for all exams; and Rotation+Residency could be one forum (plus people are somewhat likely to want res. info when they're deciding on rotations, USMLE & CSA info at the same time, etc.).

But I think if region forums were reduced, then get rid of the ones that currently have few threads, and combine them into an 'Other Regions' forum (e.g., Africa, Asia, and MiddleEast), splitting them off as traffic requires. This way Gabon students won't feel as lonely .

If the # of forums were reduced enough (8-9?), and if it's possible, I think it'd be IDEAL if the General Discussion forum threads could be at the same level as the entry point for the other forums, e.g. if vBulletin allows something like:

Australasia
Canada
Carib
Europe
Other Regions
-----------------------
Crossing Jordan's Borders
USMLE + Other Exams
Rotations + Residency Grapevat
-----------------------
"How do I know what continent I'm in?"
"My brother needs a good whipping to nip all this IMG nonsense-talk"
"Ima IMG MD - Where's the beef in DO?"
...

where the forums are listed as now, and below the list is the most recent thread for General Discussion, then the next recent one, etc. Doable?

-pitman

 

[pitman]

One arg for a Canadian forum is that if it exists, Canadians will come (maybe) -- I don't mean Canadian IMGs, but Canadians going to Canadian schools. In other words, Int'l Forums don't have to be just for Americans and FMGs coming to US, but potentially can be the de facto place for all med students / docs everywhere outside of the US.

But while part of the trick is to *create* the "market" for traffic, I agree that in some places where current traffic is lacking and where the market is small, forums should wait, since there seems to be too many forums. Is a tricky balance tho.

 

[Stephen Ewen]

Thanks for all the feedback.

Confirmed computer geek that I am, I wrote the following that may serve some well.

Those with especially tabbed browsers like MYIE2, Mozilla/Netscape, or Opera, can, for now, use this VBScript to facilitate rapid navigation of all SDN International Boards.

Click Here to Open All International Forums within their own Tab or Window

The link will run a small VBScript that will do as the link says. It is especially cool if you have your tabs set to load in the background, so you can read the first opened pages while the others load in the background, ready for you at just the right time.

Just click the link, and when the prompt comes, just click OPEN and it will do its magic.

 

[tl47]

WAAAHHHH... VBScript is an EVIL empire thing...

So much for Mozilla/Netscape and all others . Yeh, just reporting that it doesn't work on mozilla or any other tabbed browsers you mentioned above since none supports VBscript which is a purely MS standard.

Let me see... nahhh... my geek meter is running low, so I guess I won't write the equivalent for Netscape/Mozilla/Opera.

 

[Stephen Ewen]

Agreed about Microsoft being stinkers. But I assure you I would NEVER post some malicious code.

I use it with MYIE2. And it should work just fine for all the other mentioned browsers.

Click to view screenshot of Netscape.

 

[tl47]

Hi Stephen, sorry for bringing this OT.

Thanks for the screenshot. I think it might work with VBScript being handled via wscript. But which version of mozilla/netscape are you using? Looks quite different from my Moz1.4. Anyway, with tabbed browsing, I just have to do it once, save as a tab-group, and I'm set.