CityFactNow.com [Archive] - vb.org Archive

CFN-1

12-31-2008, 10:20 PM

Hello Everyone,

At exactly Midnight, (Eastern USA time), December 31st, 2008, I'll be turning my site on.

CityFactNow.com (http://www.cityfactnow.com) has ten forums for each of 30 initial US Cities. I've tried to cover the most obvious areas of interest for those who may be visiting or moving to any of the cities I've listed so far.

I have a list of more than 250 more cities to add to the site, but that will take a lot of time.

My goal is to add 5 new cities each week.

After midnight tonight, please check it out and I hope you all enjoy it.

I'm having web pages designed for the site but they aren't complete yet. I've placed a redirect to the forums from the root domain for now.

Wish me luck!

CFN-1

AWMGolfer

01-01-2009, 02:58 PM

Looks pretty stock and I would find a way to organize things better as it already is a long list. Maybe have it that guests only see one section of each forum and when the person registers they select their city and can only see that cities section, would help greatly with the look and organization. Or else I would look into the forum home tabs and give each city its own tab! Otherwise find a good theme! Good idea overall though and good luck!!

steven s

01-01-2009, 03:10 PM

Yikes. That is a long list of forums.
I'd make use of subforums. I got bored scrolling down. :)

I don't necessarily think anything is wrong with using the default skin, but there are other boards with a similar topic that you will compete with.

Good luck.

CFN-1

01-01-2009, 04:00 PM

Thanks Xhaiden and 1996 328ti, yes, the length of the list of cities bothers me as well.

I'm having a web page designed that will list and link each city in a more compact manner. I've arranged them alphabetically with the expectation of someone using their noggin to just fast forward to the city they wish to review. It is, after all, a place to look for a specific city and it's information.

I'd like to find a template that has a set of tabs that I could use for the alphabet. When "L" is clicked on, the list would take you right to the "L's".

I've also thought of grouping them by category, with the category being the Letter of the alphabet. That would make a nice short list.

AWMGolfer

01-01-2009, 04:24 PM

I would check into the mod here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=175687&highlight=tabbed

Might be something up your alley for what you want!!

CFN-1

01-01-2009, 06:09 PM

I would check into the mod here https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=175687&highlight=tabbed

Might be something up your alley for what you want!!Thanks Xhaiden! I'll check it out.

I've changed the initial menu to a Alphabetical "A-Z" type listing.

That shortened the list considerably until I can find a better format.

Perhaps the Mod you suggest will work for me.

--------------- Added 1230910176 at 1230910176 ---------------

I've changed the initial menu to a Alphabetical "A-Z" type listing. That shortened the list considerably until I can find a better format.Well, after letting it sit for awhile and re-examining the initial menu, I've decided that it's actually better the way it was. The bots will find the city names instead of a list of A-Z junk. I'll continue to look for a better method, but for now, the alphabetical listing will have to work.

TimberFloorAu

01-02-2009, 08:17 PM

CFN-1

01-03-2009, 05:09 PM

Mate lol, thats MAD !

Too many forums dude.

Why not create a Jump Menu. Using hotspot map.

Surely that would be more appealing and get people to the forum (city ) they want to, Quickly.

Similar to this, but perhaps a tad more stylish than ours

Not *too many*, just *many!*

After years of seeing one forum here, one forum there and another over there, all using different formats, I thought to myself, "myself, why not make one place with ALL of them in one place using the same identical format in each one?"

myself answered "Damn man, that's a great idea!"

So I did it.

There really is only 10 forums. 10 for each city. It's intended for those who are moving to or visiting a new city, so why would anyone want to look at Orlando, Florida information if they're visiting or moving to Anaheim, California? They'd just go directly to the Anaheim forum and look about.

It'll build. Give it time.

I'm going to see how the next month works and then prolly install vBSEO and see how it works for me.

I like your idea with the hot spot map.

I'm going to create a state by state directory in a week or so. Later, when I incorporate an HTML page to the forums, I'll setup the hot spot map.

Thanks for the idea, mate!

R1lover

01-03-2009, 05:27 PM

way too many forums... I left the site after about 6 seconds.

TimberFloorAu

01-03-2009, 06:54 PM

There are many hotspot maps online.

Also some cracking accordion scripts that would work great with your concept.

I am currently creating a ajaxified search auto completer for another site. This could work very well within other forum elements too.

Example;
In js for ajax auto-complete, you could have state | City | postcode.

Then when a user types in a search, this could jump them to specific forum.

May be a tad ambitious for USA as its so bloody big, but major cities, of which USA has 52 Capital cities etc could work seemlessly.

Accordion Menu could work the same, and reveal 10 easy to read cities by state, and then onclick, would expand to display forum information as "it does now" but just for that forum.

We use a cracking little script on one of our other sites which uses a simple accordian.
at www.air-conditioning.com.au

Give it a once over. It may work for you.

Ste

--------------- Added 1231016116 at 1231016116 ---------------

added:

http://www.air-conditioning.com.au/install.php

Scroll to bottom. Its a fully distributeable script, and free. Let me know.

Ste

GhoHan

01-03-2009, 08:16 PM

LOL
So many forum category :(

CFN-1

01-04-2009, 12:40 AM

way too many forums... I left the site after about 6 seconds.10 forums is too many for you? How odd.

If you were there to actually look for information, you wouldn't be browsing but one category.

There are only 10 forums in a single category.

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There are many hotspot maps online.

Also some cracking accordion scripts that would work great with your concept.Thanks Ste, I see that I do have to reduce the size of the initial category menu. Even if I use states, it would be the 50 states and 1 district. 51 is even longer than what I have so far.

I think a hotspot map would work the best. I've got my web page designer working on it.

As long as I'm using the vBulletin as the initial menu, this will be a problem. Going to an HTML page with the hotspot map is the best idea I've heard so far.

Thanks for your help and suggestions.

CFN-1

smooth-c

01-04-2009, 12:55 AM

I did exactly the same - there's a term called information overload;

Information overload refers to an excess amount of information being provided, making processing and absorbing tasks very difficult for the individual because sometimes we cannot see the validity behind the information

It's seriously too many forums!!

CFN-1

01-04-2009, 01:50 AM

I did exactly the same - there's a term called information overload; It's seriously too many forums!!I understand that you've used perhaps 5 minutes to form this evaluation without taking into consideration that there are actually only 10 forums that would matter to any person who is really looking for information about a particular city.

The list is too long to be comfortably viewed, even though it is alphabetically arranged in a manner that most school aged children would understand immediately.

As for the "Information overload", I'm sorry, but that's nonsense.

TimberFloorAu

01-04-2009, 02:20 AM

R1lover

01-04-2009, 04:07 AM

10 forums is too many for you? How odd.

If you were there to actually look for information, you wouldn't be browsing but one category.

There are only 10 forums in a single category.

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You asked for opinions, we gave you them and you question and defend your site.

You may have 10 forum categories, but you have over 100 sections to your forum that all display on the front page. This is overkill and it's plain and simple, others agree as well, so rather then questioning the feedback that you have been given, take it and make some changes.

The easiest thing I can see to do is make the categories all sub forums rather then forums.

benstillman

01-04-2009, 07:48 AM

Wow that's a lot of forums...... :down:

And nothing for Ohio!!!! :mad:

CFN-1

01-04-2009, 12:03 PM

You asked for opinions, we gave you them and you question and defend your site.

You may have 10 forum categories, but you have over 100 sections to your forum that all display on the front page. This is overkill and it's plain and simple, others agree as well, so rather then questioning the feedback that you have been given, take it and make some changes.

The easiest thing I can see to do is make the categories all sub forums rather then forums.Quite an attitude you have there.

You should learn to chill out.

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Yes, the list of categories is long. I'm working on that.

Ohio will be covered soon, Ben. The list is from Forbes. It's the 30 most visited cities in the USA in 2007.

Ohio wasn't on the list. Sorry man. The remainder of the cities will be added in order of population.

Columbus, Ohio will enter as a category with it's own 10 forums for it's population of 747,755 and persons per/sq mi of 3,383 as soon as I arrive at that point of the list.

Here's something that will just scare the hell out of all the nay-sayers; there will be 300 categories when I've entered all of the cities. That will make THREE THOUSAND FORUMS.

Kind of freaks you out, doesn't it?

The site is 4 days old. Come back and review it again in a year.

Caddyman

01-06-2009, 02:02 PM

city data does the whole US in less then 60 forums, and a short list....kinda...might want to take some cues from there...

http://www.city-data.com/forum/

CFN-1

01-07-2009, 07:48 AM

A neat way of accomplishing this could be utilising GoogleMaps and Custom Flags , hyperlinked to each forum/state/city

We use a system on one of our MIT sites, using Exhibit from MIT

http://www.visatimeline.com/my-visa-timeline/mapexpat.htmlThat's a great idea, TFA, thanks!

I hit your site while you were working on it, evidently. I couldn't get it to load. I'll try again later.

Gladhatter

01-07-2009, 11:01 PM

I think you have a noble cause going and a winning idea here. My suggestion is you get your designer/coder to look into VBadvanced and from there you can set up custom pages that allows the viewers a preview and can custom set on that preview page thier personal favs and also continue to access the rest of the forum if they wish. A nice skin would go well also and as you say you are working on it. I hope you the best of luck.

CFN-1

01-08-2009, 08:06 AM