[Catherine10]

That must be difficult to moderate

[Simon Gerrard]

The real problem with CIU is that it is about advertisers and advertising revenue and not members. The advertisers want exposure to as many people as possible because even the members with false names have real businesses and are as likely to respond to adverts as the people with real names and identities, so the advertiser don't give toss about who gets exposure as long as they get what they want. What the members want is to a large extent irrelevant so it is almost a waste if time asking for our views because CIU isn't about us in the first place.
I don't accept Mike's argument about better vetting, that's just an excuse for poor management.

Simon

[Aqua-dapter]

at the moment 10 new members are awaiting approval, often i will log on and 10-15 new people are awaiting approval....... every day!!

its hard to keep a check on this amount of new members,  I think this is why they get through it would be a full time job to check out everyone.

other forums don't have this amount of new members joining so can keep a tighter control

I have been admin on a larger forum than CIU (45k+ members at last count), so I know this can be an issue.  What we did was set up a "volunteer group" people could only join by invitation, and they would help with this work.  It's when the work falls to a few individuals that it becomes onerous.

I'm not sure if it would work here, that was a more "techy" forum so many of the members were already familiar with how forums work etc.

With regard to improvements, having the buttons work, and do as they are supposed to would be great:

• "mark as read" still doesn't work
• the "insert quote" link doesn't work, and
• the "new" button takes you to the latest post, when it should take you to the latest unread post in the thread

Not sure why the PM system is disabled.  If it were abused, there should be an "ignore" feature, and if someone was reported for spamming, they would/should quickly get banned.

What enabling PMs would do is allow members to contact each other without posting new topics like "FAO Wayne" which just causes unnecessary "noise" in the forum.

I agree having some form of "real name" system would be good, but not sure how this would work without causing someone a lot of extra work.

Paul

[AuRavelling79]

I remember when CIU had PM's and it led to threats and abuse and spam. I cannot understand why there is a concern about lack of control when moderators are only there in name only.  I mean how long is it since Sarah Sarill was even on here and I've not heard from Ian Giles for weeks.

It's pathetic really.

[Steve Gunn]

A section where members can post deals of the week without fear of
being banned as alot of special offers are not heard of unless you speak to other cleaners around the country

[Matt Gibson]

Keep all the graffiti, brick cleaning etc in "general cleaning" not hard floor section as its got nothing to do with floors.

I've never had any probs regarding names, but the whole fiasco recently with "Amir" was abit of a bore.

Otherwise, I'm happy. 

[Mike_Boxall]

Loose anonymous user names, such as Mr Industry.

We have tightened up on this over time and we'll continue to do so. A user name like Mr Industry shouldn't get aproved now although there's nothing to stop people changing their profile name after they've registered. I think we'll end up going through a process that asks existing users to change if it's not suitable and then we'll start looking at enforcing it more strictly over a period of time. I think it's fair to say we all want to know who we're talking to although we're never going to be able to stop people making up names if they really want to.

Regards

Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

Replace absent moderators.

Point taken and in hand!

Regards

Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

The real problem with CIU is that it is about advertisers and advertising revenue and not members...What the members want is to a large extent irrelevant so it is almost a waste if time asking for our views because CIU isn't about us in the first place.

That's not the way I see it Simon. The more we can try to give members what they want the more they'll keep coming back to use the forum and then the more attractive it is to advertisers. Advertisers fund future development which, in turn makes it an even better resource for members and everybody gains.

I've always said you can't please all the people all the time, particularly those with a 'glass half empty' attitude. This section is really for constructive comments and recomendations but thanks for sharing your thoughts anyway.

Regards

Mike     

[Mike_Boxall]

Keep all the graffiti, brick cleaning etc in "general cleaning" not hard floor section as its got nothing to do with floors.

Thanks

We're currently looking at how the sections should be subdivided so they're better categorised.

Regards

Mike

[Mike_Boxall]

A section where members can post deals of the week without fear of
being banned as alot of special offers are not heard of unless you speak to other cleaners around the country

Would this really get regular content? I'm not sure but we'll add it to the list to look at.

Regards

Mike

[Ian Gourlay]

I read somewhere people with silly names should not get registered Despite cracking on about this for years maybe at last something will be done but there is someone with 8 posts who has a strange name.

I have also noticed that once registered there is ability to change identity.

I agree with Education topics . There is a USA site where there are loads of Educational Resources but it is run on subscription bases which would not fit current format.

[Steve Gunn]

A section where members can post deals of the week without fear of
being banned as alot of special offers are not heard of unless you speak to other cleaners around the country

Would this really get regular content? I'm not sure but we'll add it to the list to look at.
Regards

Mike

Probably more than the calendar section,I'm sure day to day everyone must get a special deal or offer within the industry whether it be scrims to mops

[AJ]

I would like to see searchable profile content that will allow users to locate contractors that operate in any given area.
i.e a search box query 'london' willl throw up all members that cover london.
Instead of posting a thread 'job in wherever' users can search for members operating in 'wherever' and contact them directly.
This will give CIU another dimension, whereas members use it as a place to seek or provide work for others.
I personally have had a couple of occasions when I have posted a thread asking for work to be carried out and have not got to the obvious person because he/she has been offline.

[Paul Coleman]

Allow PMs for people to communicate more easily.  The problem with email addresses on profiles is that the spambots pick them up.  Maybe the real concern is not that PMs could cause spamming but that other companies might remove sales from the forum owner's company (Concept2O??).  If that's the concern, I doubt it would really make a difference (except perhaps for the odd newbie) but allowing PMs would cut a lot of the noise and trivia from this forum.

[Paul Coleman]

Another suggestion.  Allow two pics per profile.  Pic 1 could be a normal business pic (owner's face, owner's van or whatever floats your boat).  Pic 2 could be an image of the account holder's email address.  That way, the spambots won't be able to grab the email address from the profile.  I acknowledge that it might require a little more bandwidth to allow this but this would be minimal if there were a restriction on file size.  Any extra bandwidth used would be partly offset by people not needing to make "FAO xxxxxxx" type posts anyway.
Allowing people to display their email addresses (as am image file) without the risk of being inundated with spam could reduce the silly threads and cut out the need for PMs.

[Paul Coleman]

Yet another suggestion.
Make the bit on the profile where someone needs to put their area compulsory.  It wouldn't need to be too revealing but just an approximate location.  This would help with threads where pricing is an issue as pricing often tends to be regional.  It would also help with threads about water quality/hardness as it would be easier to see at a glance if someone is in a hard or soft water area (though obviously this wouldn't be the case if they bordered such areas).

I have made three suggestions.  I have deliberately kept them separate so that they don't dilute each other.

[Richard Basey-Fisher]

i think its about time the forum members had to use real names and also i think it should be compuls to put your location town  county.

i would also like to make a couple of points


maybe the facilty to private message someone would be useful

i am a member of another forum  non cleaning related and they have a new members section in which new members can post when they have done ten posts they then have access to the main section to post but from the moment of joining they have access to view the main board .   works well on that forum   many active members often take the time to post help to new members many of which are new to the industry .   saves the main board from be cluttered with the same topics over and over again.  also in this section it has help and tips to use the forum and  rules etc

[Robin Ray]

Along with the name thing...

A review section for each section. Maybe a template could be made for the product review with a star rating etc... With an option for a video. This would put all the product information in one place and thus make it easier to find, and will also stop the main sections from being crammed full of the same old questions about the same old products. It would be worth making it so you can only post a review with a real name and also if you have over a number of previous posts this would insure a true product review by a real person everyone knows with real experience.

I personally would also like a section where you can discuss modifying equipment (Without being mocked and told the answer to all of life's problems is to buy a "truckmount" ) I know a US forum which has a section like this but I'm mot sure how much use it will get over here.

Rob

[Ian Gourlay]

I would like a section like that. problem is it requires an electrical engineer

Simple thinks like replacing parts on truck mounts or portables.