So a good question was asked tonight in chat. There isn't an all substance trip report section. there are 2 dmt trip reports sections, one for new members and one for full members . Why not have an any substance section for trip reports and the OP can put what the substance or often times substances in the title. Normally in the past I would write my trip report in the topic room of the substance I was tripping on if it wasn't dmt but when the report was from 2 or more psychs Id have to choose.

I have felt that the amount of topics are a bit much. It takes forever to scroll down to current discussions as well as figure out the appropriate place to start a thread sometimes.

I think we could do some spring cleaning and combine some rooms. Even some of the category's could be made into one room and would be just as user friendly IMO.

I dunno...just a thought but I think less is more in this matter. Anyone else feel there are too many topics in the forums? If this idea is shared by others id be happy to make a list of rooms that could be combined or even rooms that could be removed.

Mayan wonders for example should just be in the traveling section...ext.

Cheers

yeah it is feeling a bit hard to navigate

Amen.
I propose to re-order the forum and take the cacti forum as a model.

I would collapse all nexus project sub forums under one header except "Coalition for Entheogenic Liberty" because it is rather active.



Then I'd Put Quality DMT reports under DMT Reports.

Then A/B, STB & FASA under one Headline "DMT Extraction Techniques"
DMT Allies Extraction moves to the "OTHER ENTHEOGENS" as a subforum of the Bufo&5Meo Heading. Advanced Extraction Techniques --->PERHAPS to the Research Section

"Help & Advice for Healing" I would move to "Sustainable Nexus" --->Sustaining our mind, body and possibly soul

Suppliers Forum ----> Other Entheogens

Mayan Wonders --->under the Heading of "Real life traveling" as suggested.

Thiks would already save a ton of space.

Welcome Area
Introduction essay
New member questions (all questions go here only)
Open discussion (no FAQ related questions)
First steps in hyperspace

General DMT
Information/general discussion (this is like open discussion but used less) do we need this?
DMT experience reports
Quality experience reports
DMT extraction paths

I don't think we need two extraction sections. And by changing it to new member questions that would allow us to merge information/general discussion with open discussion, since then there wouldn't be any more newb questions flooding open discussion. All questions could be isolated in one area, I wouldn't mind so much the repetitive questions that keep getting asked, that could be answered by read the FAQ.

Does this sound right? I'm tired so i might have different thoughts in the morning.

I just bookmark the welcome section;

https://www.dmt-nexus.me...lt.aspx?g=forum&c=19

and boot straight into there....All topics currently under discussion are red flagged, ready for me to read...
one page...off you go...

But I do agree there are a lot of topics on show.

The restructuring is indeed necessary.

We could merge subforums into common broader categories and we could merge threads that talk about the same thing. Also we could think of simple ways to keep things organized and good discussions easy to find, to make it visually pleasant and simple to navigate the forums. Please post any ideas you all might have.

I think the main thing we should look at as a standard would be:

Sections that get a lot of traffic/posts possibly splitting in two based on most frequent types of posts

Merging sections that receive less traffic/posts based on commonalities.

There wouldn't really be any other reason to split or merge sub forums that I can see. Open discussion is starting to become cluttered with nonsense questions and the amount of threads created are becomin so high that its shoving a lot of threads off the main page before they are seen by many people. You can easily access page two but I would be willing to bet that quite a few people don't do that.

I think it would be extremely advantageous to have a section specifically for questions only for new members/anyone to post in. Lately I've seen 3 or more post per day of questions that have been answered a million times and we could better assist this issue by setting this new section up in a way that displays the info they are failing to look for themselves in a more friendly way.

I'm going to start documenting the questions being asked, cause I think the FAQ needs a little update/expansion to also assist us in lowering the amount of redundant questions being asked.

Anrchy makes a good point...

There has been an explosion of newcomers lately (since the shroomery outage) and as word spreads, it's gonna grow exponentially.

Some of the 'self proclaimed lurkers' havn't been lurking in the FAQ section that's for sure.
( I for one used to help a lot with extraction Q's but I stopped because I can't keep up now )
I know a majority of the newcomers just want to 'extract and go' sooooo...

Maybe it would be a good idea to have a sort of 'initiation ceremony'..!
Whereby...the only way a new member can post (besides their intro essay) would be if they were 'forced...directed' to the FAQ and had to read or scroll down to proceed...Much like a Terms and conditions or the disclaimer when installing new software won't let you hit the 'finish/next' button until the scroll bar has been 'read'.

I know this sounds a little bit 'closed shop' or 'elitist' but the Nexus is going to get overrun soon and Snozz's FAQ Bin is already 'the size of Montana' and getting hard to handle....I'm sure he gets super busy filling it up...

Also could there be a size limit (auto resize?) on photos/pics posted....some pics are so large (straight out of the camera) that loading takes an age...!

Anyway just some thoughts...'back to you in the studio...!'

^^^

Not so much limiting a users ability to do things, I find the lead by example motto to work better. And a lot of times you will see users that previously created a thread that the FAQ could of answered, helping other new users by leading them to the FAQ as well. Even after only a few more posts. I also have no problem posting a few "read the FAQ" posts per day. And if we could get people into habit of reading a thread question, double checkin to see if its in the FAQ, then directing new user to that section I think it would catch on.

Cyb: how many times do you actually read the disclaimers, or do you just scroll through so you can click next?

I also an idea, encouraging new members to help eachother. I'm not sure exactly how but in part it would be told by us in some way, and also would need visual aids that you could see that would says something like "help new members with their questions" and possibly (this may be too much) setup a point system so if you help a certain amount that's how you get membership. Or something, that alone would require trav to write up a bunch more code so I understand that may just be something we should overlook. I dunno.

Any ideas?

I don't know if you have not already noticed, but the traveler already did some restructuring, eliminating quite a few subforums.

I did notice indeed and it's awesome.

I don't know if you notice but my main subject matter has been on the section "open discussion". just tryin to get some ideas in the air. Hoping more people can chime in with some ideas to topple the mad influx of unneeded questions that plague that section.

"takes forever to scroll down to current topics"

no it doesn't.

I for one say there are not enough topics.
Hang those who talk of less!

i think the "Entheogenic University" needs an entry exam.

it obviously doesnt need to be anything to hard, and im not trying to suggest that we become an elitest forum, but if it was to have questions which were answerable by simply reading through a couple of sections of the forum(FAQ/WIKI) then we would eliminate many commonly repeated questions.

i would suggest that we allow the posting of an introduction essay and then further posting is dependant on taking a short (30min/20 question) multiple choice test on the most common questions that have popped up in the "for FAQs sake" thread.

its quite clear that even though people are asked to read the FAQ/WIKI that many dont, i understand that some people want questions answered quick sharp but i personally feel that there is very little connected to the nexus that needs answering that quickly.

If someone has a urgent question then there is always the chat section.

i feel that this would be a good way to keep the boards clean and would make the Nexus a better resource for everyone.

Totally agreed with 3rdI that, besides some convenient re-arranging of the subforums, one big reason for the proliferation of posts is that new members do not take time to browse the FAQ and the Wiki.

This place requires a little commitment and implication. There's tons of people online that will show up in a forum with one question to answer, drop it the easy way, maybe get their feedback and leave like that. That might be OK for tech support communities, where users don't really need to learn about the guts of their OS or their hardware, and can afford to have that particularly annoying problem solved and move on with their stuff.

Needless to say, not with entheogens. Besides our interest in seeing the Nexus well sorted, and keeping a great signal/noise ratio, it's in the new users' best interest to obtain MORE information than they thought they needed... because in general they do need much more than they suppose.

Whoever does not bother to read and search (or at least improve their google-fu) has no place here. Education starts in seeing how convenient is learning and realizing you know very little. We should make that clear and mandatory.

The test suggestion 3rdI makes might work, or maybe adding an extra point in the Attitude section requiring that little starting homework. Posts asking questions that are easily answered checking the DMT FAQ could be deleted by mods and a standard warning / message pointing to the FAQ sent to the user.

I like it just the way it is. Traveler has worked hard to create a diverse forum that still reflects his core values if I understand correctly. Also, the size is just a reflection of our massive growth. There were under 2,500 registered members when I joined in Summer of 2009 and before this year is over I'm betting we will be over 20,000. . . .Even if only a few hundreds are active at any one time, the large number reflects diverse styles and interests, that in my opinion, are nicely reflected in the current structure and topics of the forum.

Thats an awesome idea. I'll tend to see countless new member posts that reflect the lack-in-drive to read up a little so they know what they're getting into.its also a good idea imo so that we know that they know that they had to read a little bit in order for them to have gotten the questions right.

Im certainly in vote for something of this nature.

I agree. The point being made was to condense the topics not eliminate any. Trav must have agreed with this since he made the changes a few weeks ago.

Ya I think you guys are missing the whole idea. With growth, comes a need for further organization and categorization.

I take a lot of pictures. And have been for quite some time. There was a point where when I was a kid my step mom crashed the computer and I lost ALL of my teenage years pics. So when I started over I had one folder called pics. All the pics went into that folder without any sub folders. Eventually it became fairly difficult to track down certain pics so I decided I had enough to make categories. Camping, friends, family, all started be becoming so full that I started creating even more sub folders. Now almost every sub folder within my pics folder is named according to the activity and each of those contain sub folders according to what year and then inside that even more details, like 1,2,3 for in what order I did it, or by month ect.

My point is that you could say that every single sub forum we currently have will most likely be divided into two seperate ones eventually. And my proposal is for that to happen to open discussion. The two most posted things in that section are discussions and questions. Eventually it will require it. The only other thing I can think of that would put off needing to divide it into two seperate sections would be to increase the amount of threads viewable per page.

Anyways I know it's not imperative right this second, but like I said I'm throwing ideas in the air, and eventually this will need to happen anyway.

Nice new avatar anarchy! I think I get what your saying. So do like the changes Trav has made?

Yes, what trav is doing is basically providing rooms that can handle the capacity they are receiving. Organizing everything in a manner that is aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate. My proposal is basically the next step if what he is already doing, but speakin Specifically about a certain sub forum.

If we do nothing, eventually you will have to look at page 3 in order to see what people posted this morning. Now this could be a long time coming but I'm also trying to tackle the large amount of questions that are being asked, and allowing for a proper place for those questions, all in one swoop.

Open discussion, is being used the most. Help with smoking method and how to make changa need their own section. There are so many questions being asked everyday and the "for faqs sake" thread is proof they need they're very own sub forum.

Oly: thanks glad you like it. Got a couple others ima rotate through everyonce in awhile. Mushroom water splashes. Amazing really.