How could TOTV be improved?
 

1) Increase the information density. Even with ads blocked, it is rare that you will see more than one post or answer in a full screen. It has banners, icons, and all sorts of distracting fluff.
2) Does anybody ever use the little icons, F, plus, etc.? What does a plus even do?
3) Because of this, a typical question get n-teen duplicated answers. Who has the time to scroll AND page to check to see if a post is just something that others have said?
4) Grammarly - a grammar checker - badly needed by some, does not work, even though there is some sort of spell-checker.
5) Eliminate paging. It is just too slow.
6) Inhibit quoting. If someone really wants to quote something, it should be intentional, not accidental. Excessive quoting further reduces the information density.
7) Hyperlinking would work more easily if it worked like other applications like GMail, or if it had two boxes, one for the url and one for the text.

For an absolutely free 'blog' service, I think it works fine, I use the "View last thread" to avoid rereading and occasionally will scan a thread if I know I replied so I do not repeat myself. As for grammar and spelling, I get red and blue lines as I am typing for various errors, perhaps you have a setting that has this disabled, or your browser does not support this function. The ads support this site, no ads, no site.
So, I believe it is just fine, my humble opinion.

It could be improved but, as VT said, for a free service it is acceptable.

I do not like constant "improvements" to a website that change how it operates, meaning I keep having to re-learn it.

I guess when one pays a monthly fee....one can complain.

Do you mean the buttons at the bottom of a post (I don't see icons)? If so, then yes, I use them. A plus (+) shows who has "thanked" a post.
I would say it should be incumbent on the reader to take the time to scroll AND page to see what others have said. If you aren't willing to read what others have written then why do you expect others to read what you are about to write?
I find paging faster than scrolling to the bottom of 72 replies.
Quoting is optional. If added by mistake, the quote block can easily be deleted before posting. ToTV already reduces excessive quoting by including only the post being quoted and not any previously quoted text. Better user education or less laziness would be a better solution than removing a valuable feature.
I don't understand this at all. You highlight the text to be displayed as a link, press the icon to Insert a link (blue globe with a chain), then enter the URL into the box. As far as I can tell, this *IS* one of the two ways you add a link in gmail.

I did manage to get "Multiquote" to work once, but have forgotten how I did it. Probably just as well!

I can only read one answer at a time, so I'm fine with only being shown one answer at a time. What might be an interesting option, is if you could click a box in an answer that would pop-out a window containing the original post of the thread, so you don't have to scroll back or page back to find it, and then scroll/page forward and try to find that post again to continue reading the thread from where you left off.
The F I believe allows you to share a post to your facebook page, if you have one. The + lets you see who has thanked the poster of any given post, and the thumbs-up is the thank button, which is only visible if no one has thanked that post yet.

If you're in a hurry, maybe read faster or learn to skim? Or don't read a thread at all until you know you have time to dedicate to reading it.

English is not everyone's first language. In addition, some people are blind and use a voice-to-text translator or braille keyboard to post. I get that it can be difficult to understand some folks - I have trouble with them too. But if it's a topic of interest, and I think the person has thoughts I want to know, I'll take that extra 30 seconds to decipher it in my head. If you don't feel they have something valuable to add to the conversation, just skip their post.
No idea what you mean by that, unless you mean when you get to the bottom of the page of responses, you have to click on #2 to get to the next page? Again - that would be a YOU problem, not a system problem. It's not that time consuming. If you mean something other than that, I dunno, I guess I don't ever experience what you're referring to.
Quoting IS an intentional thing. There are quick-replies and regular replies. There's also multi-quoting, which most people don't know how to use (I use it often). You would know that if you checked multi-post threads where people are just posting in them, and you have no idea who they're responding to.
GMail is a mail application. VBulletin is a forum application. They work off different codebases and serve completely different functions. Be grateful you don't have to deal with raw hypertext markup language.

Residents only.

YES! Or at least some indication that a person has a verified Villages address (owner or non-owner resident)

While I agree that having a symbol for a verified villages residence, we have several people who start participating on this forum prior to moving here. Overall, I think the forum is well designed. Ignoring ads is something I learned as a youngster watching TV. (I thought they were the perfect time to grab some ice cream at night.) The impatience of some who chime in with points that previously been made is always interesting.

I'd like to see the original poster identified when he/she returns with another post on the same thread. Like this:

Fidelity101
Go fast, pull up.
Fidelity101's Avatar
Thread OP

Have you tried Next Door. It might be a better fit, unless you choose to start your own site with the parameters you are looking for.

Is there already a facility to mark posts as read? When revisiting a thread of 40 posts, it would be nice just to see the original and any I've not read yet.

I also dislike the Random Pictures on the start page. If you like looking at other people's dogs and grandkids then fine, but it would be nice to be able to disable it.

Can't believe I'm going to say this, but I agree with OBB. And Bill. This site - especially for a free site - works just fine. The VBB format is common and has been around for years. Many people know how to navigate it. Multi-quoting is not terribly difficult and rarely needed. I do know at least one that does not use it and should. That one person will jump into a thread days after it has started and then make about 3 to 5 posts in a row as they one-at-a-time respond to posts in the thread they only just found. They usually only do this on threads that have a certain, special, will-not-be-named here topic. Simple fix: block that person.

Want a better mousetrap? Go ahead and build it. See if they come.

I agree with you except for the multi-quote thing. I am probably the one you are referring to who makes 3 to 5 posts in a row. While I understand your point, I read the entire thread first, then go back to certain posts I want to respond to. I see each post as separate thoughts or individuals, and prefer to focus my response more to that person, rather than lumping them as a group. Just my style. Sorry if it irks you.

Nope, not you.

I think to restrict the use of this to residents only would be misstep. For me personally it helped save my sanity when I was preparing for the move. And it may people to know about all things TV so they’re ready for it.

Lots of people would have been shut out if it is just people who live in the Villages. And I expect this might be a delight to some but I may be moving just outside the Villages in a few years. I would like to stay in this weather and be close to some of the Squares.


The moderators do an excellent job in my humble opinion. I have had a lot of problems on other places like Findlaw many years ago when there seemed to be no limits on what could be posted. Or, almost no controls.

I have a question that has been haunting me for a while.
I'm always up early and TOTV pops up on my email at 4am.
When I open it up there are already a number of comments listed.
Are people receiving this before 4am?
If so, do these people ever sleep?

I agree that this site shouldn't be restricted to just residents. I only saw who recommended this because it was quoted by someone else, otherwise the OP of this is on my IGNORE list.

So to go back to what could be improved on this site, I wish I wouldn't see quotes of people on my IGNORE list.

Above the posters you can see when people responded or wrote the original thread. This one was from yesterday. And wow you're up VERY early!!

Site can be good for newbies, easy solution.......Nonresidents can read, not post.
Too many nonresident trolls.

I don't experience what you outlined. I use two ad blockers and don't see anything except the post and several responses on the page. You should add a second ad blocker or change to a more robust blocker. Makes a world of difference.

I'll just make it easy from an IT perspective..... SMH....

Technical issues:

At the bottom of the poster's post, there is an "edit/delete" option, but you cannot delete a post. Very confusing.

If you start a thread, you can edit the thread title and/or content by using the "go advanced" option. But apparently, this option is only available for a limited amount of time. Also, a lot of posters don't know that they can edit the thread title using "go advanced".

Thanks …
… now I know how you and others pull specific sections out of the original text of the main topic - with the multi-quote function

Glossary page?
 

Add a glossary page for all of tha abbreviations included in the texts. I have been reading TOTV for 4 years now and still don’t know what most of the abbreviations are referencing.
(TOTV = Talk Of The Villages)

I like it just fine the way it is, the only thing that I find difficult is deleting a post I've written, if I change my mind. I think the edit/delete option should allow deleting, unless I'm missing something. Most of these gripes are simply nit picking... Grammar? Really?

With all the part-timers, snowflakes, snowbirds, renters, etc., there is no way to control that.

I use all of the features including t he icons below the posts quite often. They are there for a reason.

I wouldn’t change a thing. TOTV has been running perfectly for years.

If you want to change things try starting your own messaging system.

There are many ways to verify status.

Both an owner and a non-owner resident would have a Villages ID to verify their status.

ToTV could collect addresses (it may already) then periodically check for too many names registered with the same address or even cross-match the names with County records.

My only request would be for users to stop quoting the OP in their reply. If you're responding to the OP you don't need to quote him/her. Only use it when you're quoting a secondary poster who you're basing your reply on. This would eliminate the many people who quote a half-page long OP post in their own reply and the page count just grows. Thanks!

To explain a little about how bad things can become. On Findlaw I was writing about improving things in libraries for survivors of crimes by creating a massive dialog between many various groups. I was helping a person accused of white collar crime going in person to law libraries all over the Tampa Bay area.

I was getting all kinds of personal attacks from a person who used hundreds of different names.




At the same time a soldier on a base in the US was having problems getting help for his girlfriend who was having all kinds of serious mental health problems. I had made some good suggestions for resources in the area of the base.

The troll starting pretending to be me and making all kinds of personal attacks. The soldier left Findlaw in frustration but his mentally ill girlfriend drove her car into another car just off base and died from the incident.

I disagree. Often there are several points to respond to. I’ll scroll up and reread the quote to make sure I answers whatever points in the original post I wanted to respond to.

Cyber bullying should not be tolerated. There was a lot of that back around 2015 on Talk of the Villages. I find past behavior is very indicative of future actions.

I also think that too many posters want to control what other posters say. People should be open to other points of view. The purpose of a talk forum should be to involve ALL points of view. I have learned to NOT criticize other posters directly, but I find that many posters will criticize me directly. If all points of view are NOT allowed then a Talk Discussion group just devolves into UNIFIED group think. Personally, I find that the most interesting (to me) posters are the ones that are critical of the STATUS QUO in The Villages. Nothing is PERFECT so what is the point of NOT being able to point out small problems and their solutions. If we wanted ALL GROUP THINK we could move to CHINA.

Totally agree, but when I read the post I really didn't take it as complaining... maybe was and I just didn't interpret it as such. It me that's the major pitfall of "social media" sight, and emails too, without the subtle voice intonations, facial expressions, speed of delivery (pace) of the words, it's often difficult to read the intent ! ? At least for me.

One has to only visit a popular villages on line newspaper to see what you mean. I know social media is often quit unsocial and uncivil even, but this on line paper was the most shocking filthy explicit name called and references to sexuality that are shocking in their detail... of course they spell the words incorrectly, use spaces to separate letters, etc. I suppose to avoid censorship, but.... what I read on that sight goes so far it nearly made be a believer in censorship... which I am not, so I just don't go to that sight for news anymore...easy solution ! But I was amazed that such things are allowed.

Improvement Suggestion
 

Ban the quotes that some people think that they have to provide every day on every response.

I use to run a large forum of expats. many of the threads seemed to be political in nature or became political as it matured. While such discussions were allowed, we had many members who complained that the list of current/recent threads/tropics were almost entirely populated by political threads. Our solution was to create a restricted politics sub-forum. If a person wanted to participate in this sub-forum, they requested access to it. In this way, non-participating members didn't have to see the politics threads listed on the current/recent threads list.

Another issue we had was members quoting posts. Especially if the quoted post was a large post. I know you've seen it here where the original post is often quoted numerous times.We found a switch on our forum software that truncated the quote after it was quoted more than one time. If you wanted to see the entire quoted post, all you had to do was click on the truncated quote.