Posted By:
BenFirst, I want to make it clear to Elliot, and everyone on Net54 that if a board upgrade were to occur, there would be no change in the balance of power. My intentions are honest, and this is not a private venture of mine. I just want a board that is a easier, and deeper more information resourse and I know I'm not alone in that feeling. I want Elliot behind the controls. However, Elliot may feel that his job is too time consuming and might need help moderating threads...Reading EVERY post on a busy message board is a very time consuming task. vBulletin supports multiple moderators, so if the moderator needs backup mods, I can think of handfulls of members who are well equipt for the job. My role, however, will remain poster, chatter, and interested reader.
Now that things are a little clearer...
In order for this board to maximize its useful and practical potentials as a source of information to both newbies and more experienced collecters, it must have a SEARCH FEATURE.
Say, someone is new to pre-war collecting, and wants to pick up a few t206's...they don't want to have to sort through 150 old threads. We need a search feature, where you can type in any keyword and come up with exact word matches. As soon as our newbie types in "t206", a list of exact hits will come up on another screen just like one would do with google or yahoo.
Newbie: Lets see, whadda we have here...oh! just what I was looking for: a thread with tips for identifying t206 reprints with pictures of fake and real cards, and a thread in which we the board discussed the tougher cards in the t206 set. That way, particular topics that have been rehashed over and over in the past can be easily accessed, added to, and not duplicated. Since vbulletin threads are categorized, we could even have a category dedicated to t206's by itself, that way, any collector who is tired of reading about t206's can read what they want to read.
More experienced collectors can access threads where obscure cards and sets were discussed or even mentioned once. I'm pretty sure that the vbulletin search feature allows you to not only search thread titles, but all the content within the thread as well. So, say I want to learn more about 1888 S.F. Hess California League (N321), I can read every thread in which that set is mentioned. Sounds pretty cool to me.