Feedback Appreciated!

[Rob Howden]

Hello EKN readers,

We’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to provide us with feedback on the new site, and specifically the new forum format. We’ve taken all of the input from the launch through to this weekend, and we’ve put together a wish list work document that we’ll be using to evolve the site over the next month.

We’ve obviously made a few visual upgrades since the launch, using your input, to improve the overall experience. We’ll continue to research more additions and improvements to address the popular requests.

That said, what you see today are the new EKN forums. We’re thrilled to see content and information being added every day and we hope you’ll all continue to be part of the forum community, providing your knowledge and passion to the forum content.

On behalf of the EKN staff, we thank you for frequenting the site and the forums and we wish you the best in the future.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[James McMahon]

So are you done taking feedback? I’m disappointed the feedback thread has gone away.

[Rob Howden]

James McMahon wrote:

So are you done taking feedback? I’m disappointed the feedback thread has gone away.

Jim, we are ALWAYS open to feedback. We took the last thread, developed a work list using the suggestions and requests from a number of our readers, and then removed it from forum section. That’s what feedback is for. I certainly don’t intend to leave a thread on the site in which readers have openly bashed our efforts to improve EKN. I think everyone would agree that this would not be in the best interest of the site. Personally, I love the new site and I really like the look and feel of the forums. As we continue to work on the features, I hope more people will feel the same way. We are certainly working to evolve the new forums to include additional features, as this is on our priority list.

That said, this is my business and it’s a free site for our readers. I would make the assumption that most of the people who have made aggressively negative comments about the new forum have not taken this into account. They’re simply commenting based on their own needs and desires, and not that of a vibrant business that MUST to be run with fiscal responsibility. EKN is in the business of supporting and promoting the sport of karting by working closely with organizations to provide media coverage and exposure, and in the business of providing unparalleled advertising value to the karting industry. Of the 100+ readers who post actively on the forums, about 5000 more just lurk…and, they read the editorial, the race reports, the rankings, our columns, etc etc. The forum is not the be-all and end-all of EKN. In fact, we have many more great components in the works that will be bringing even more value to the site.

In the end, people have different priorities. I’ll make my decisions based on my mandate for the site, not based solely on the input of readers who simply want the forums THEIR way.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Greg Wright]

Rob, I can certainly appreciate what it takes to run a business particularly one involved with the quirky world of kart racing. No question that the choices are yours, I have refrained from making negative comments and still have no constructive criticism to offer.

I do feel that the importance of the old forum format has been underestimated, time will tell I guess.

I hope for the very best.

Greg Wright
Rapid Racing Inc.
Vintage B-Stock Pilot
"When in doubt Gas it, It won't help but it ends the suspense."

[Rob Howden]

Greg,

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how the old forum format was underestimated. In terms of educating racers new to the sport, we’ve got components in the works that will aid this more than ever before.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[James McMahon]

Rob thanks for the taking the time to explain your views.

I agree that the non-constructive comments needed to go, but the entire thread going away surprised me. I’ve always been openly cognizant and sympathetic towards the amount of work required to keep a site like ekartingnews going and you have my respect for that.

[Dustin McGrew]

I do web development for a living. You guys are getting some terrible advice from somebody. To put it bluntly, if you or whoever is leading you guys to believe this forum will be better than the old one, you are out of your minds. To get all of the features the old forum had you will have to 1) rely on others to create plugins for bbPress or 2) create your own plugins. Neither of these options are easy or cheap. Doing a quick search on bbPress.org there are no advanced search plugins. Even putting an icon that tells the user if there are new posts in a category is a pain in the ass if not near impossible. Why would you want to go through all of that trouble when you could have went with software that is purpose built to be a forum like phpBB 3, vBulletin, or ipBoard? Quotes aren’t even working correctly on this forum. Come on guys.

[Joshua Guiher]

One look through the classified forums and you can see how things aren’t working. Formatting is all jacked up, quotes, etc.

In fact, just the lack of posted ads versus the old site should be telling enough, don’t even need to look at analytics.

 

TBH though, as a newbie to karting, websites sure don’t seem like they are high priority for anyone. Hell, even WKA hasn’t posted any stories or results from the Man. Cup races on Sat & Sun.

[Rob Howden]

Dustin, while I appreciate that you seem to think you know how I run my business, you do not. Here’s a great thing about the free market system. I am offering a free product for you to use. If you like it and want to use it, you can. If you don’t like it, don’t use it. It’s simple.

If this is the case, don’t tell me how to run my business either. We’ve built a new website with a new forum, and I like it. I’ve received countless emails from people in the community and the industry that like it as much as I do. Yes, we’re going to see if we can make some adjustments to respond to request from a few forum members, but that’s it.

Personally, I’ve heard enough from you. If you don’t like the fries at a restaurant and keeping coming in to tell the chef how to cook his fries, eventually, you’re not going to be allowed back in the door. Let me give you a hint…it’s the same here at EKN.

I love feedback, but I don’t like, nor will I stand for, disrespectful comments or continuing negative bashing. You and I are done with this conversation.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Rob Howden]

Joshua Guiher wrote:

One look through the classified forums and you can see how things aren’t working. Formatting is all jacked up, quotes, etc.

In fact, just the lack of posted ads versus the old site should be telling enough, don’t even need to look at analytics.

TBH though, as a newbie to karting, websites sure don’t seem like they are high priority for anyone. Hell, even WKA hasn’t posted any stories or results from the Man. Cup races on Sat & Sun.

Joshua….as proven by the lack of quote formatting directly above, we need to fix a few things. The formatting will be looked at in good time, as we’ve been addressing a couple other issues first. As for the posted ads, I think that almost 400 unique classified ads in just over a month is pretty strong, considering the fact that we’re in the middle of the season.

As far as website priority is concerned, WKA isn’t really a good barometer of this, as they have never been overly-forward on trackside coverage. I expect a report from Pitt tomorrow. In stark contrast, our EKN Trackside coverage has been able to expand and flourish with the new site, thanks to more functional and user-friendly photo galleries and the ability to post video and audio interviews within our race reports. These are all very valuable commodities for our readership that those focusing totally on the forums do not take into consideration.

We’ll be back trackside with live coverage of the Rock Island Grand Prix and US Pro Kart Series finale within the next month, and I can assure you that a large group of karting enthusiasts will make our site a priority during those weekends.

And, as a newbie, I think you’ll be impressed with the components we have coming down the line to help make it much easier for new racers to enter the sport and enjoy their learning curve.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Greg Wright]

Rob,  You asked for my thoughts regarding my earlier comments. Briefly here ya go.

 

As you know I am involved full time with kart racing as a shop owner, magazine columnist, announcer and broadcaster. As a result I talk to a large number of both current and potential future karters on a daily basis.

  I have had my ear bent by several karters about the changes in the forum. Each and every one of them told me that they visited  EKN for the forum first and foremost and then may read some articles on the home page if they catch their eyes.

   All have indicated that they no longer visit EKN as often as they did previously due to the lack of content on the forums, and a forum that is harder to use and read. I know you don’t agree with the last statement (harder to use) but it is for me as well.

  It’s clear that you feel that you have improved the site and I guess time will tell if the improvements are going in the right direction.  I’ve got no dog in this fight and wish you the best in your endeavors. I will continue to participate and add content to the forum.

 

Greg Wright

Rapid Racing Inc.

Greg Wright
Rapid Racing Inc.
Vintage B-Stock Pilot
"When in doubt Gas it, It won't help but it ends the suspense."

[Rob Howden]

Thank you for the reply and the input, Greg.

Each and every person is entitled to their opinion, and that’s great. If ‘ease of use’ and ‘content’ are the two primary comments at this time, this works for me…and here’s why:

1. Ease of Use – as I have stated, the new forum IS the new forum, plain and simple, and it’s not going to get thrown out to go back to a widescreen format. Our site just doesn’t work that way and it was a pain, business-wise, in the past as well. So, to address ‘ease of use’ with the new forum, we will continue to work on improving the experience to the best of our ability and limitations. That said, I’m sure you’ll agree that the familiarity with the old forum and the discomfort that comes with new things, unknown qualities, is at least partially part of anyone’s negative feelings toward’s the new boards. This will eventually dissipate as people become more comfortable with the new site.

2. Content – on the old forum, topics were brought and debated, time after time. We re-hashed old topics each year, some people just played along and commented and added to the thread, while others bitched that people simply need to search for a topic instead of starting a new one. What I’m getting at here is that as the days and months go by, every topic from the old forum will be introduced here as well. It’s inevitable. We turn over people in the sport every 3-4 years, we know that, and while it’s a trouble spot in the growth of karting, in this particular case, it means that the new people coming into the sport will be asking the same questions and discussing the same topics as those that came in four years earlier. The content will re-generate itself, as it already is. We are looking into ways to bring some of the old content over, but I can’t comment on the true ability of this possibility at this time.

Thanks again.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Justin Mitchell]

Rob,

Understand that almost all forums on the internet either use phpBB, vbulletin, or IPB. They all have an extremely similar featureset. There are some other semi-popular boards out there, but they have also have the same featureset as the others. So this wordpress forum will *always* feel unfamiliar and hard to use for any new user. You have basically put up a road block that some new users will be willing to get used to… and some never will be.

Also, realize that the forums will never recover if certain features are not fixed. The main thing that comes to mind is the search functionality. As it is, the search is worthless. Until search works… the forums are almost useless to me.

By the way, your old phpBB forums can be run in a “narrow” format with ads on the side, just like these forums are. I didn’t really understand that comment.

[Wesley Bourne]

Rob –

Just happened to fall into the world of karting as the old site was being shut down and was on it for a few months before migrating over here.  I’ve been on many automotive forums nearly since their inception, and am marketing director for a large motorsports company in the automotive side.

As far as improvements for the new forum, the biggest thing I see if the lack of search.  As a newbie there is tons of information out there that I am looking for, some of which may have been hashed over hundreds of times.   Currently this site doesn’t have many of the answers I’m looking for, so I end up having to resort to Google next.

While I don’t know your traffic reports pre-or post change, I’m curious why you guys didn’t use 301 redirects for the old site prior to shutting it down?  The big problem I see is that now that my searches are taken to Google, E-Karting News always comes up towards the top with an answer, but now that answer is a 404 Not Found and I move onto the next result.   It’s only a matter of time before Google begins to penalize you for these dead links once the crawlers get ahold of them.   Adding redirects could at least get some of the traffic directed towards the right place and hopefully help get your user base back here.  I like others check the forums first and homepage second, and lately as there has been less new content for me to peruse, I find myself checking the forums and the site less often.   (Rememering that Karting has so many divisions, regions, engine types, etc.  With thousands of topics to sort through, you typically found 5-10% that were releveant towards your needs.   Now that 5-10% is of a much more limited number and simply not enough currently to peak my interest).

[Eric Stevens]

Rob,

I understand that this is your business, but it seems that you have lost touch with who your end or true customer is. You provide a free forum and editorial site to promote karting yes, but the business side for your is the revenue generated by paying advertisers who rely upon us the end user visiting and using your free product to give value to their advertising dollars. So saying you dont care about us the users, our opinions, and experieinces with “YOUR WEBSITE” is wrong.  The end users, be it lurkers or posters are what determine the going rate for advertising on your site, the more we visit the more you can charge your advertisers. That makes us the customer.

As you say we can just give up, not visit etc. but what good does that do you or your advertisers. I am certainly not visiting as much, nor spending as much time on the forums as I did, and I can guarantee with 100% certainty I am far from being alone in that regard.

I have posted that I did not like the new format, still dont and never will. I used to enjoy reading the forums and now dread it. Posts that just complain with crappy  comments like “new site sucks” are wrong and should be removed and dont deserve to be acknowleged, but someone stating they dont like the new site because its hard to read, or hard to navigate should be acknowledged, not met with resistance because you dont agree. You are the creator  and it will be hardest for you to be objective, but you owe it to your readers and yourself to take a step back reevaluate your position.

Eric

 

 

[Rob Howden]

Eric Stevens wrote:

Rob,

I understand that this is your business, but it seems that you have lost touch with who your end or true customer is. You provide a free forum and editorial site to promote karting yes, but the business side for your is the revenue generated by paying advertisers who rely upon us the end user visiting and using your free product to give value to their advertising dollars. So saying you dont care about us the users, our opinions, and experieinces with “YOUR WEBSITE” is wrong. The end users, be it lurkers or posters are what determine the going rate for advertising on your site, the more we visit the more you can charge your advertisers. That makes us the customer.

As you say we can just give up, not visit etc. but what good does that do you or your advertisers. I am certainly not visiting as much, nor spending as much time on the forums as I did, and I can guarantee with 100% certainty I am far from being alone in that regard.

I have posted that I did not like the new format, still dont and never will. I used to enjoy reading the forums and now dread it. Posts that just complain with crappy comments like “new site sucks” are wrong and should be removed and dont deserve to be acknowleged, but someone stating they dont like the new site because its hard to read, or hard to navigate should be acknowledged, not met with resistance because you dont agree. You are the creator and it will be hardest for you to be objective, but you owe it to your readers and yourself to take a step back reevaluate your position.

Eric

Eric,

Thank you for taking the time to comment here. I’ll first comment that I care very deeply about my readers, both those who use the forum and those who don’t. I also believe that I have a very firm grasp my my business model and the symbiotic connection between our EKN reader and our valued advertiser. Please let me correct the statement that ‘the more we visit, the more you charge’. EKN has not raised its advertising rates for the last four years. There is no correlation there. My rates are based on a guaranteed view count that we triple each month.

As for our readers, I talk to them every day. I chat with every driver and parent at every race I attend. They are our readers as well, and they have much different EKN experiences that the regular forum visitors and posters.

I haven’t told people to leave the site, but only that it is what it is. I’ve let them know that I have a plan for the future of EKN and this new site design is part of that route. We have some incredible things planned for the site, new concepts for attracting new karters, educating them, and supporting the industry. It’s hard for me to keep quiet and not respond to all the doubters, although I need to remember that they don’t know my vision, only their own comfort zone, which some believe has been compromised. I understand and truly value that people love EKN (and the forums), and I’m proud of that. But, I cannot sit and let the world of media pass us by. The old site was archiac and was missing all the functionality we need to move forward. And I did not believe that I could do what needed to be done any other way.

As far as providing our advertisers with value, I learned LONG ago that it’s not just about banner views or click-throughs. That’s only a small part of what we must bring to our clients to make being part of the EKN program successful for them. Yes, it’s a component, but we provide much more….and with this new site platform, I can do even more for them. To me, that’s crucially important.

And to address your final paragraph. You posted that you ‘don’t like the forum, still don’t and never will. I used to enjoy reading the forums and now dread it.”. That’s hard to read, but it’s your perogative to feel that way. But I also don’t think I’ve given much ‘resistance’ to improving the ‘hard to read and hard to navigate’ feedback. We’re looking at ways to improve it further. Thanks to Howie Idelson, a talented graphic designer, we made some font and style changes which I love, and we’re looking to add more features to improve navigation and the overall experience. That said, the only resistance that I offered up was to the suggestion of scrapping this forum and starting fresh with something else. Put bluntly, that’s not an option right now.

We’re taking EKN to the next level, and I’m personally excited by everything that is in store. I wish I could let you all in on my vision, but that would ruin the surprise and the ideally consistent run of exciting additions and improvements.

Eric, thanks again for the comments and the line about the straight negativity being removed from the site. I have read and taken in all that you have offered.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Rob Howden]

HEY!!! The quote format works now!!! LOL. My team is checking things off the to-do list!

YES!!!

Sorry…just a little breather from getting barraged. ;-)

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Eric Stevens]

Rob,

Thanks for the response. I understand the need for the change in the website for the everything but the forums. I am not suggesting the old site but rather a better more powerful forum software.

Are you sure that making the wordpress Forums work is easier than adjusting a more powerful forum software to match your new website. My understanding is that you can make other forum systems match your website easily. I only know enough to be dangerous though.

I am a karting addict who has gone from racer to sponsor racing with my son so I am not going away, just wanting a better user experience. I hope that happens one way or the other.

Eric

[Jerry Pretti]

A small suggestion:  move or duplicate the “Mark All Topics as Read” button to the top of the page.

I find it a real PITA to have to scroll to the bottom of the page to get to it.

thanks…

[Rob Howden]

Jerry Pretti wrote:

A small suggestion: move or duplicate the “Mark All Topics as Read” button to the top of the page.

I find it a real PITA to have to scroll to the bottom of the page to get to it.

thanks…

Thanks Jerry. We’ll definitely look at this.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Henry Smythe]

 

Let’s be real here. You don’t really want honest feedback. When you had real feedback, you cried about it and deleted the posts. What you want is for everybody to agree with you and tell you they like the new site, except they don’t. Everybody hates the new site.

Everybody knows it is your site, and you can do whatever you want with it. However, the way you disregarded everybody’s feelings was unbelievably arrogant. You keep saying how much better the new site will be, except nobody has seen any hint of it yet.

 

[Chris Bany]

Henry, that’s real.

[Rob Howden]

Henry Smythe wrote:

Let’s be real here. You don’t really want honest feedback. When you had real feedback, you cried about it and deleted the posts. What you want is for everybody to agree with you and tell you they like the new site, except they don’t. Everybody hates the new site.

Everybody knows it is your site, and you can do whatever you want with it. However, the way you disregarded everybody’s feelings was unbelievably arrogant. You keep saying how much better the new site will be, except nobody has seen any hint of it yet.

Henry,

Leaving feedback in a forum thread serves no useful purpose, but only to fuel a mob mentality of negative commentary. Like any ‘customer feedback box’, we emptied the box, went through all the input, we’ve put together plans to make adjustments, and we are moving forward. To say that we disregarded this feedback is simply ridiculous. But I guess that perception is part of the world we live in. You can’t see behind the scenes, so you make a negative assumption that we don’t care, you call me ‘unbelievably arrogant’, and you feel justified in your post. Would you call me that to my face? I would hope not, considering that fact that you’re only making an assumption based on what you see in a few forum threads. Because if you did, you’d hear that we’re working on this everyday. You’d learn that it’s a constant topic of every day, and steps are being taken to add features that have been requested.

EKN is a vibrant site, with a staff of two people. Our developer is working on some solutions to other minor issues as well, all while David and I continue to go about the business of running the site. I know you don’t care about this, or our editorial efforts, because it’s all about the forum for you, but the simple fact is that upgrades will be made as soon as we can put them into effect. The reality is that we’re working on it every day.

And Henry, people don’t ‘hate’ the ‘website’, some just ‘hate’ the new forum. The site itself – the other dozen segments of the site that support the sport and racers with coverage, editorial, news and features, have been extremely well-received. I have a ton of great emails and message from racers, parents, advertisers and the organizations. I do thank those people for their input as well.

I’m disappointed that you can’t see that the forum continues to provide positive community interaction, and is already evolving with new threads and topics each day. Yes, it’s a different experience and a different look, and it’s lacking a few features of the old site, but if content is actually king, the site will re-generate itself very quickly. So, you can either help that along by adding useful contributions, or you won’t. I can’t make you do either, so it’s up to you to decide if you’re going to make a positive contribution to EKN and the sport, or just comment on what’s wrong with the site.

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[TJ Koyen]

The forum isn’t as streamlined and minimal as the previous iteration but it still serves it’s purpose. I haven’t had any issues with it and I’m still here checking it everyday and posting so clearly it works well enough.

Excited to see what kind of features can be added and integrated in the future.

As with any change, immediate backlash is expected, especially when users have gotten so used to the old ways for so long. This is still the best online gathering place for karters to chat and get information, and a little interwebz redecorating isn’t going to change that.

Keep up the good work EKN. In time, the heat will die down and everyone will get used to the new look and feel.

Driver/Coach/Wrench : Innovative Performance/Exprit
Owner : Oktane Visual - www.oktanevisual.com
www.facebook.com/oktanevisual
www.instagram.com/oktanevisual

[Steven Novikoff]

Rob,

I too have found myself not looking at EKN as much.  I mostly like the forums and really missed not being able to pull all the new posts from my last visit like you could in the old forums.  Seeing the last four or five posts is fine if you are looking at this constantly, but not if you only come back every few days or so.

Thanks,

Steve Novikoff

 

[Ray Chiappe]

I keep having to log on for Forum use. Is that the site doing this now??

[andy graham]

Just an observation — I’ve sent several PMs thru the new site, and havent gotten any responses…strange, I always got a response when using the old site, even the courtesy “its sold”.  Just thought I’d pass that along, dont know if its a glitch or not.

[David Cole]

Ray Chiappe wrote:

I keep having to log on for Forum use. Is that the site doing this now??

You have the option, just like the old site, to keep yourself logged in when you sign in. Make sure you check that box.

andy wrote:

Just an observation — I’ve sent several PMs thru the new site, and havent gotten any responses…strange, I always got a response when using the old site, even the courtesy “its sold”. Just thought I’d pass that along, dont know if its a glitch or not.

Hi Andy, You will see in the top menu next to your name a little quote logo. Anytime you have a response from a private message, you will see a number pop up. Make sure your profile has you receiving emails when you receive messages as well.

David Cole - EKN Managing Editor

[Ambrose Buldo]

Is there an option to only view “New posts” since last login, or posts not read?

[Juan Jaramillo]

<div class=”d4p-bbp-quote-title”>Ambrose wrote:</div>
Is there an option to only view “New posts” since last login, or posts not read?

The lack of this is killing this forum (

[Bob Baldwin]

Have to agree with Juan  Also anyway to separate the latest forum topics from the Classifieds ?

[Tim Doll]

Dave – I consider you and Rob to be friends, but quite frankly the new form is CRAP, and people are voting with their keyboards.  You have better numbers than I do, but I’m betting forum traffic is down by 90%.  Forum traffic drives site traffic, and loosing that sort of site traffic is a disaster.

I just posted a classified to sell a kart and it was a disaster!  It got so f-ed up that I gave up and re-submitted a new ad.

I’ve tried to give the new format a fair chance, but I’m very close to punting – and punting means I won’t be back.

Time to declare victory and go back to the old system.

Tim

[James McMahon]

I have to admit I’ve trashed a few threads rather than persevere and post them. Multiple OS, multiple browsers the response box starts haemorrhaging HTML code.

Sounds like they guys are working on something though? Dave? Rob?

[Justin Mitchell]

It looks like Google has demoted these forums from it’s search listings, probably because of all the dead links. It used to be when I’d search google for something related to karting, in the first 10 results there were always a couple of links to EKN. Now there’s nothing.

[James McMahon]

<div class=”d4p-bbp-quote-title”></div>
<div class=”d4p-bbp-quote-title”>Justin Mitchell wrote:</div>
It looks like Google has demoted these forums from it’s search listings, probably because of all the dead links. It used to be when I’d search google for something related to karting, in the first 10 results there were always a couple of links to EKN. Now there’s nothing.

Yeah, it’s a shame.  One of the largest discussion repositories for karting, the largest in the US, a body of a decade of work  has basically been nulled. Sure the content is there under eknclassic, but that’s not really the point.

I don’t understand why the old forums weren’t kept at the old URL and the new ones under a different one, be it a subdomain or subdirectory. I guess the designers had their reasons for setting up a separate domain (eknclassic).

[Chris Bany]

how does it go, “can’t see the forest for the trees”

This new forum is a disaster.  Like new site, hate new forum.

[Chris Bany]

I just noticed this (I could be late)

This could be a very good thing for the forum: http://ekartingnews.com/forums/view/latest-topics/

[Rob Howden]

Thanks Chris. The URLs used by the new site are different from the old format. so we didn’t pick up on this. That said, we’ve added the ‘New Topics’ link to the ‘Forums’ drop-down menu in the navigation bar, so reader can click there first, if desired.

Please send me your mailing address and I’ll make sure you get an EKN shirt for helping out with some great feedback. Much appreciated!

Rob Howden - eKartingNews.com Publisher / Editor - @RobHowden

[Nic Logan]

This is my first time back to the site since the update. Looks good.

But why did I have to re-register with EKN? The website did not even recognize my email address as having been on record when I attempted to do a password request?

Not that it’s any huge loss, but this also means that the private messages I was storing are all gone to me.

Did I miss a memo?

[David Cole]

Hi Nic, Yes, you missed the memo.

You can still access your old information on EKNClassic.com. The new Forum is just a building block for what we have in store for the future. Many new features to come with an open palate to work from.

Thanks and let us know if you have any questions.

David Cole - EKN Managing Editor

[Nic Logan]

Ah very nice! Thank you for the information.

I would like to provide some feedback that I hope will be considered constructive. And please pardon me if this is not in any way a revelation.

The old version of the site was a wealth of knowledge and information(just as the new one will be in time); and it still is, as EKNClassic. I personally came to understand essentially all that I know about karting as a result of both the active community within EKN as well as the historical records held within the site. However, I only ever came to know about EKN through my karting related queries in Google’s search engine. After registering and using the site I quickly learned that accessing tailored, older information was relatively difficult using the search tools native to the site. As a result of this, I reverted to using Google whenever I wanting to search for a specific question that was not current on the boards. And I can do that still, now that I know to add EKNClassic to my google searches. But that’s just the thing, I know that, strangers don’t know that. As a result of how Google determines is search results, crawling, indexing, and relevancy, it’s possible that changing the url for the old site prevents that invaluable information from being presented to karting newcomers who have no idea what ekn is.

I don’t offer this feedback with the presumption that I am educating you. To the contrary, I feel I am preaching to the choir. However, I did think it was at least possible that the way I consumed information from EKN, might be a bit foreign to a crowd that has been using it directly and exclusively for the better part of 10 years.

What does this mean? Well, if I am someone interested in the sport because I saw a video, a picture, or whatever and I have never heard of EKN, then I will turn to google for my queries. But if google doesn’t index eknclassic because no one uses it, then that wealth of information is almost worthless because it’s not performing its added (and arguably greater) utility as a draw for the site and the sport(not to mention the quality of information).

As an example I searched for probably the most overhashed topic on EKN (Stock moto vs ICC) and Google presented no results from EKNClassic. Previously, the results would have been dominated with various thread titles and excerpts, all with the url ekartingnews tacked on the end; with maybe 2 or 3 other sites in the results. Here is a hyperlink to that google example. You will see one link for the new site, and yes, eventually this new site will catch up. But by changing the url of the old site, people like me may not find the new one for quite some time.

I like the new site and support the change. I’m only mentioning this as something to be aware of (if you previously were not) and that if the consequences of changing the old site’s name was a necessity, it’s a shame that added utility is gone.

[Gerry MCN]

go back

[Jerry Pretti]

<div class=”d4p-bbp-quote-title”>Rob-Howden wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbp-quote-title”>Jerry Pretti wrote:</div>
A small suggestion: move or duplicate the “Mark All Topics as Read” button to the top of the page. I find it a real PITA to have to scroll to the bottom of the page to get to it. thanks…

Thanks Jerry. We’ll definitely look at this.

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<div class=”bbp-reply-signature”></div>
<div class=”bbp-reply-signature”>This feature seemed to disappear a while back…</div>

[Paul Makarucha]

You guys realize that there are alternatives to this forum right? EKN has a fantastic site for articles and news coverage, but this forum is not good.

[Author]

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