Dance Blog Section and changes

[DanceMentor]

You'll start noticing in the right sidebar in some of the forms there will be links to the dance blog section. And at the bottom of the forums section you'll start seeing the latest posts from the blogs. Let me explain a little bit of the reasoning behind this...

One thing that's clear as I go through the content of This site is we have years of posts, 23 years, and so much knowledge inside but it's hard to access. And while we have so much information about some famous dancers it's not so easy to find. So what I've done is with a little help I've assembled some articles about some of the famous dancers and I will keep a flow of those going and you'll notice inside of those articles we have a lot of links to specific forum posts.

In terms of being found when people are searching for things I think this should help also. And hopefully the way I've done it it's not really taking away from the overall experience on the forums. The discussion topics come first and they are either in the sidelines or at the bottom of the homepage.

So I'm going to be doing this as an experiment to see how it goes and I think it's probably going to go pretty well and maybe we'll get some more people coming to the site or hopefully it will help some people learn more about different answers because we have so much depth here.

 

[raindance]

This sounds like a good way to bring people to content!

While you are making changes, take a look at how the forums look when logged out and viewed on a phone without an ad blocker. The number of and size of ads is overwhelming and makes it difficult to even find a list of discussion titles, or to read a thread once one is selected. I know you need/want to continue with the ads, but perhaps they can be scaled back somehow. It is difficult to imagine anyone coming to that on their phone and persisting long enough to log in I'm afraid.

 

[DanceMentor]

This sounds like a good way to bring people to content!

While you are making changes, take a look at how the forums look when logged out and viewed on a phone without an ad blocker. The number of and size of ads is overwhelming and makes it difficult to even find a list of discussion titles, or to read a thread once one is selected. I know you need/want to continue with the ads, but perhaps they can be scaled back somehow. It is difficult to imagine anyone coming to that on their phone and persisting long enough to log in I'm afraid.

Yes believe it or not this is a little bit of a scaled back version. And we can do better. I'll look into that soon.

 

[opendoor]

I'm wondering how a blog article affects internet searches. Does it appear as a competitor to Gemini and Wikipedia itself, or does the blog or blog section have to be actively accessed?

Otherwise, we should consider indexing the threads in the forums. You could quickly query keywords when a new topic is started. However, since posters here often don't stick to the topic, you'd actually have to query keywords for every single post.

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

we should consider indexing the threads in the forums.

Great idea!!!!!!

 

[DanceMentor]

I'm wondering how a blog article affects internet searches. Does it appear as a competitor to Gemini and Wikipedia itself, or does the blog or blog section have to be actively accessed?

Otherwise, we should consider indexing the threads in the forums. You could quickly query keywords when a new topic is started. However, since posters here often don't stick to the topic, you'd actually have to query keywords for every single post.

Wikipedia actually does not do very well for a lot of the dance searches. There's a site called WikiDance where we have outranked them on some things recently. And part of what helps us get indexed is by organizing our content in a way that's easy for people using our site as well as search engines who are trying to relate content together. So by writing articles that help bring relationships it can make things a little easier for people and search engines.

It will take a little time to see how effective it is but I think by integrating some articles directly on pages or I should say links to those articles directly on pages it should help people and engines see them and hopefully find them helpful.

One thing I'll say is there really is a wealth of information here but it's not easy to find so I have been using some indexing tools to help find things and write articles and link things so if someone were researching they would find some unique things that they probably wouldn't find anywhere else.

 

[opendoor]

..so I have been using some indexing tools to help find things..

No, I mean something completely different. You should add a keyword prompt (maximum 3) to the input field for creating a new thread. You could also contact all previous thread starters to add these keywords retrospectively. I would take the time to add keywords to my threads.

 

[DanceMentor]

No, I mean something completely different. You should add a keyword prompt (maximum 3) to the input field for creating a new thread. You could also contact all previous thread starters to add these keywords retrospectively. I would take the time to add keywords to my threads.

I see what you mean. Or maybe in this case the use of "tags" would be appropriate. I could use some automation to tag older threads as well, but might take some time processing. I believe xenforo does have the ability to use tags.

 

[opendoor]

.. the use of "tags" would be appropriate..

Tags are tricky. I'd prefer keywords. Just consider the variation in postures, embraces, and holds within tango substyles. It's not just standardized ballroom jargon. The nuances and the psychology of interpersonal (dance) relationships are also extremely difficult to put into words. I think the author must find the right keywords. The treasure can only be unearthed if the description is truly nuanced and highly expert.

 

[DanceMentor]

Tags are tricky. I'd prefer keywords. Just consider the variation in postures, embraces, and holds within tango substyles. It's not just standardized ballroom jargon. The nuances and the psychology of interpersonal (dance) relationships are also extremely difficult to put into words. I think the author must find the right keywords. The treasure can only be unearthed if the description is truly nuanced and highly expert.

Yes I hear where you're coming from but I'm also thinking about it from a software developers mind and there has to be some sort of standardization or the keywords don't really help us all that much. I'm glad at least I can create some topics on the blog that then reference a lot of related material from dance forums over the years. That's at least a start.