ExcelMale Upgrade: What improvements would you want to see?

Hi Guys

First of all, thank you for being a member and for sharing with others.

I created ExcelMale in October 2014 with the forum technology available back then (vbulletin). Unfortunately, Google stopped ranking vbulletin forums well since they could not provide a good mobile experience. As you know, our mobile experience on ExcelMale is not adequate at all.

Fortunately, our amazing moderators have made this forum work despite the older technology used to design it. I am proud that we have made it a place where men can share health information without being attacked or trolled.

The good news is that we are about to start a redesign of ExcelMale using a more responsive platform called Xenforo.

But before we do so, I would like to ask for a favor from all of you.

Besides the obvious poor mobile (cell phone, Ipad, etc) experience,

1- What would you like to see on ExcelMale?

2- Any particular forum structure concerns?

3- Have you see forums that are better designed? Can you show us examples?

4- Do you like the search feature on this site now? If not, what would you change?

5- What would make you come back to ExcelMale more frequently?

6- Would you trust an ExcelMale brand of supplements curated by Nelson Vergel?

7-Any other issues/ideas?

Feel free to reply to this post.

Thank you in advance for helping to make ExcelMale.com one of the best men's health forum platforms in the world.

I’d like to see the sticky’s only on the first page of each category.

Ive no idea how to deal with it but in regards to item 4...the search function works well for me but most members either don't use it or isn't working well for them generating repetitive topics over and over and over again offering little new information. Most new topics would make more sense added to an existing topic. Vince is the best at grabbing old threads and linking back to them. Maybe the mods merging threads and closing/redirecting threads would be a way to deal with it; abuse of the "Post new thread" button.

Also keeping threads on topic is almost nonexistent here.

One minor thing, I would have new posts appear longer when you click on new posts. Maybe twice as long as they currently persist.

DragonBits said:

One minor thing, I would have new posts appear longer when you click on new posts. Maybe twice as long as they currently persist.

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Good idea! Thanks

Vince Carter said:

Ive no idea how to deal with it but in regards to item 4...the search function works well for me but most members either don't use it or isn't working well for them generating repetitive topics over and over and over again offering little new information. Most new topics would make more sense added to an existing topic. Vince is the best at grabbing old threads and linking back to them. Maybe the mods merging threads and closing/redirecting threads would be a way to deal with it; abuse of the "Post new thread" button.

Also keeping threads on topic is almost nonexistent here.

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Thanks. Yes, this would require for me and moderators to do this as a full-time job as volunteers. One day soon I may be able to hire someone for this type of housecleaning and maintenance

sh1973 said:

I'd like to see the sticky's only on the first page of each category.

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Amazing and simple idea! Thanks

I would like to say one thing, I really like researching the old threads, reading what old members said and the things they dealt with. I really hate when threads get deleted.

You say we delete threads. We don't do that unless it is a spammer. I am confused.

Nelson Vergel said:

You say we delete threads. We don't do that unless it is a spammer. I am confused.

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Maybe folders would have been a better word. I know for sure some of my threads disappeared along with some of Genes. Am I right about that?

How about when we revisit a thread it automatically takes us to the unread posts?

Systemlord said:

How about when we revisit a thread it automatically takes us to the unread posts?

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excellent idea

Vince said:

Maybe folders would have been a better word. I know for sure some of my threads disappeared along with some of Genes. Am I right about that?

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We have never deleted any threads that are not related to spam, especially if posted by moderators. Are you using the search box on the upper right corner or google? I know our internal search engine sucks, so you may not be finding them if you used the internal search.

Nelson Vergel said:

We have never deleted any threads that are not related to spam, especially if posted by moderators. Are you using the search box on the upper right corner or google? I know our internal search engine sucks, so you may not be finding them if you used the internal search.

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One of my early threads that got deleted, was on my TRT journey. When I first started and everything I did to get to that point. I know the thread got very long and eventually was hijacked. I know for sure it got deleted because it became a personal attack on someone who is not and never was a Excel member.
The before and after TRT picture folder got deleted. I believe there was only two threads in there, mine and another member.

one thing i love and would hate to see go is the "new posts" button/link. it's always my first stop when i visit the site and one that i rely on for its simplicity and value -- just hit the link and i can see all new threads posted since my last visit, as well as threads that have new posts in them.

linter said:

one thing i love and would hate to see go is the "new posts" button/link. it's always my first stop when i visit the site and one that i rely on for its simplicity and value -- just hit the link and i can see all new threads posted since my last visit, as well as threads that have new posts in them.

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I used the New Posts button everyday, we got to keep it!

Systemlord said:

I used the New Posts button everyday, we got to keep it!

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same here...

Another question: Are there any forums out there better designed than ExcelMale? Thanks

not that i know of. and i frequent lots of forums. most of them are worse and so-called improvements tend to make them worser. this site works great for me. i hope v2 does too.

Nelson Vergel said:

Another question: Are there any forums out there better designed than ExcelMale? Thanks

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That's a big NO, some of the other forums have only 1 or 2 good useful features and missing other important ones. Excelmale is much better balanced only missing the unread post feature where it automatically scales to where we left off the day prior.