Effective Forums (Part 2)

A Story by dw817

While they can indeed upload a "Calling Card" that is say 480-pixels across by 360-pixels down, they also have the option of using the onboard Online editor to add text. In any of 4-different sizes.

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EFFECTIVE FORUMS

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EFFECTIVE FORUMS (Part 2)

Some ideas and musings I've had on effective and useful messaging forums

© February 2019 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission

Alright, earlier we touched in Forums how important it is to have certain safeguards and features to detract cyberbullies and trolls from wrecking conversations.

This week we'll cover a few ideas I've had spinning in my head for years that I think would be a welcome addition to forums today - and - I don't see it. It's not used anywhere.

Quite simply you can call them, "Calling Cards."

That is a whole dedicated domain or URL that lets people post .JPG, .PNG, or 256-color animated .GIFs that are a little bit less than a 3rd of the screen across. You could also flag to NOT show any .GIFs that are animated as animated .GIFs can be quite annoying if viewed for a considerable time. Or the SysOp could deny that filetype entirely.

In any case, In this method of a Calling Card you can detail items of interest, such as, let's say, someone wants to advertise that they do yardwork in their zipcode area and are looking for work.

While they can indeed upload a "Calling Card" that is say 480-pixels across by 360-pixels down, they also have the option of using the onboard Online editor to add text at any position on the card, and in any of 4-different sizes, and perhaps a choice of 16-different fonts including classic Tahoma, Trebuchet, Arial, and Caecilia.

The advantage of this is someone can bring up say all the Calling Cards that have been added by others and do keyword searches.

If you were to only include words as part of the IMAGE of your calling card, you could not do word searches.

The advantage of this over doing just raw word searches is someone cannot just enter the contents of a Thesaurus as part of their "keyword" search and come up with a user's search every time. (You see a lot of searches in Youtube bring up completely non-related videos). No, the words that are searched for must be VISIBLE on the card itself.

It is also up to the moderator or SysOp of this Calling Card board to delete expel, or ban anyone who abuses the privilege of this ability to search for their Calling Card keywords of interest.

You could have categories too. Here's a few just to start things:

[1] Classified Personals, people looking to meet up

[2] For Sale or looking to purchase, can include links to EBAY and Amazon (premium)

[3] Work Wanted or Looking For Work

[4] Absolutely Free, must be free with no clauses (come to address and pickup)

[5] Humor & Art (Calling Cards where the image is more important than the message)

[6] Restaurant & Tavern advertisements (preferably new or just opening)

[7] Political (ads for voting for mayor, treasurer, president of city/state/USA, etc)

[8] Events (Sport events, tickets, etc)

[9] Public Holiday Events (usually provided by city, includes phone, address, etc)

[10] Health businesses (massage, chiropractor, doctor, hospital, medical)

[11] Grocery & Trades (grocery stores, specialty food stores)

[12] Clubs (get togethers for Bingo, Card Games, Chess tournaments, etc)

[13] Apartments for rent, section 8, etc.

[14] Houses, boats, vehicles for sale

[15] Real estate, properties

[16] Banks, Loans, Insurance, financing

[17] Web advertising, specifically designed to pull Online traffic (premium)

That's just a few I can think of.

They would all be free too, no charge to use this service or site to advertise your business, a bit like Youtube but where keywords must appear in the card and the picture is a static non-moving one (unless .GIF).

The cards would be displayed maybe 3 across by any length down. Once logged in (and verified by SysOp/moderator), you could have for free a maximum 3 of your own, add any symbol (from a robust choice of emoji) to add other people's Calling Cards to your personal custom folders to make them easier to find later or if they are deleted or removed, you still have a copy in your folders.

If you wanted to create and post more Calling Cards, that might be a premium service.

Clicking on one would enlarge it double-size. You could leave personal and secret messages for the card creator if you so choose and they could get back in touch with you.

Or if it's like a classified personal, clicking on the card would immediately enter you into chat where you could chat live with the owner and the owner has the ability of chatting with one or more people who click on their card either altogether or individually in separate boxes.

You could flag the same for someone looking for yard work or what have you. Basically you have [4] choices of cards.

[1] No click, it's either there to show off artistic ability, humorous, or a Birthday greeting or Hello to an overseas friend. Something to someone that does not have a web address, mailbox, or chat available. Including any web-address, home address, phone number, email, or otherwise is forbidden for this particular and 100% free Calling Card type.

All Cards would have the ability of clicking LIKE too, like Youtube. No dislike button either as I think this can be abused. If you don't like a card, don't click LIKE or write the author. Move to another Card.

[2] Clicking automatically puts the clicker in direct live chat with the person who posted the Calling Card. The owner can chat with multiple people in a single box or by default have each message appear in a separate box so multiple private chats could be conducted.

[3] Clicking automatically puts the clicker in direct contact with the owner's private mailbox. They can leave a message whether the owner is there or not. The owner returning later can see the messages they have and reply. Replies will appear as a flag, "You've got mail" to the person who originally clicked.

[4] Clicking goes to a custom URL, away from the Calling Card operating URL. I'm thinking this could be a special or premium feature so it might charge say $5 a month for the user to have something like this - the ability to direct traffic.

Culling. The domain could either have a policy of automatic removal or not. That policy could include that if a Calling Card is not clicked at least once a month, it is automatically removed, or ... it could be permanent. Any Calling Card is retained in the system forever - until such time as the owner or SysOp manually remove it.

. . .

And that's it !

I haven't seen this done yet. Maybe there's something much better today, I don't know. But I do know if someone did enact and enable a site like this, provided it was easy to use, flexible, friendly, and fast, people would likely be there to make use of it. And it could have literally millions of custom Calling Cards by everyone all over the world.

That's one of the ideas I have for effective forums for this week. Until later ...