Board improvement thots

_sturt_

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I hope it's not taken the wrong way for me (or anyone else) to suggest some ways CZ might get even better than it already is. Just a couple of observations, if you'll indulge me...

1. For those of us who use RSS feeds, it would be super if there was a forum-specific feed for FanZone (at minimum). Personally, I use NetVibes to dashboard most things I read, but cannot include this site. When I try to copy the one RSS address (via the RSS icon at bottom of any given forum page) to NetVibes to add it, I get this:

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2. I realize there is a separate forum where news is collected, but may I suggest an extremely handy asset on another board I frequent--one that ideally shows up as a static element on every forum page?

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In the case of HawkSquawk.net, they've included tweet feed from players, columnists, blogs, local media sources, and of course, the team itself.

I'm a novice where web design and construction is concerned, so I don't pretend to know how practical it is to adopt this into the current framework. But if not now, maybe this could be incorporated into some future revision of the board using a newer edition of forum software. (Fwiw, I'm friends with the HawkSquawk admin, if it would be desirable to initiate a dialogue with him for some reason.)

3. Finally, kudos to the admins and mods for this board. I've only been posting here for a few months, but I've found it to be the most hospitable, intelligent and intriguing gathering of Cowboys fans I've experienced. It's not terribly over-moderated (though I have to mention, there's been a couple of times I felt it got just a little picky), so people seem to be able to express themselves pretty freely. Then, otoh, I don't even barely try to read every thread, let alone every post, but I've almost never found a back-and-forth getting completely out of hand. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but it's good that the personal attack thing isn't such a dominating characteristic of the board's culture, that when I finish reading I never come away feeling like I just left a 7th grade playground fight... can't say that for every board I've frequented over the last 20 years.
 

Reality

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1) The reason we do not allow RSS feeds on CZ is because when we did, it was abused by users and services. Not to mention, the purpose of the site is to provide a place for Cowboys fans to get together and discuss the Cowboys, not just use it as a news site. There are plenty of Cowboys news sites and newsfeeds out there as well as Twitter that provide newsfeed services and benefits.

2) Putting externally linked javascript applets including feeds on pages interferes with the board speed and performance, and most importantly, reliability. If a feed source such as twitter is slow or not working, it creates problems for the site and makes the site appear down or slow. The focus has always been on keeping CZ fast and reliable. I have always used enterprise level servers to power it and have always made sure it remained online and fast, even under extreme traffic periods. We've had thousands of users online at the same time and the site remained fast and reliable the whole time.

3) Thank you! The credit goes to the staff and users here.
 

_sturt_

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Disappointed especially with #1 response, but I entirely get the #2 response. Hope you might reconsider the utility of #1 at some point... it's just so much more convenient to scan thread titles.

Thanks for the prompt feedback, tho.
 
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