TT4 FAQS – General
Posted at 03:13AM Nov 25, 2007 by CarolB
We’re moving to a new forum platform. Here’s a list of some most frequently asked questions.
What’s new in TT4? Here’s a high level summary, as communicated on Thorn Tree, in response to traveller feedback and requests:
There are even more features coming soon in TT4.1.
Why are you upgrading Thorn Tree? It’s a little sad to be saying goodbye, but I’m afraid it’s time to uproot this lovely tree and tenderly replant it in some more fertile soil. We want to be able to give you the fastest, best possible experience we can (and yes, that includes from that dodgy internet café with dial up).
Will Thorn Tree have advertising? Yes, there will be ONE ad in TT4. Thorn Tree needs to fund better systems and support. It has been ad-free since launch in 1996. That’s a fair run. We will also be concentrating on aligning with advertisers who add value to the traveller and eventually move towards members being able to dictate the ads they’d like to see.
Will Lonely Planet guidebooks have advertising? No, as stated when we introduced advertising on the rest of lonelyplanet.com in 2005. That conviction still holds true.
What changes will there be to moderation? Apart from a new moderation system for us, the key change for you is a ‘Report This’ button. It empowers the Thorn Tree community to play an active role in keeping the Thorn Tree spam and abuse free.
We are also changing our obligation to settle your disputes via private messaging. We’ll do as much as we can to build tools that create and facilitate a safe online environment, but we will be under no obligation to settle your private disputes via the private messaging service.
We’d like to spend more time on what we do best – travel and inspiring others to travel. We know we have some passionate, independent travellers within our midst, going on great adventures, with a wealth of knowledge behind them, and we’d really love to spend more time identifying, nurturing and sharing those community contributions.
What influence will BBCW have on Thorn Tree? All of the changes you’re about to see were initiated before the BBCW came on board. They acknowledge we know travel (and our traveller community) better than anyone and trust us to carry on with our plans. Apart from the initiatives we’ve introduced above, our moderation approach remains the same.
What look & feel changes can we expect? We’ve tried to replicate the look and feel of the current Thorn Tree as much as possible, but there are some changes. The Thorn Tree icons are gone for starters - feedback suggested that most were not as attached to them as we first thought. There is also now a 3rd column, housing Lonely Planet destination info. We’re aiming for a more integrated experience across the lonelyplanet.com site and your feedback also told us you’d like quick access to more travel destination info and maps. World Guide will also be relaunched soon!
Moving away from full screen width is a poorer user experience Best practice research shows that while there is not much difference in terms of speed of reading with different line lengths (apart from very short ones and extremely long ones) the most comfortable line length for on-screen reading for most people is in the range of 4-5 inches (10.1 – 12.7cm). We will be smack bang in the middle of the range at 11.5cm. If you’d like to read further on this see Human Factors or Usability News articles.
We also know that 93.5% of our users are viewing Thorn Tree on a monitor resolution of 1024 and above. Not to say that we don’t want to cater to smaller screens. Stay tuned for our Mobile initiatives...
Where can I find help, log a bug, give feedback or suggestions?
Will Thorn Tree be down for any period? Yes, it will be down but we’ll try to keep it to the shortest possible time we can, at the quietest time for Thorn tree, to try to minimise inconvenience as much as possible.
We’ll add a note to Thorn Tree the day before we are taking the site down and you can keep in the loop and check in on progress via this blog.
What about all the nitty gritty stuff regarding my profile & posts? We’re doing the hard yards for you. For FAQs on this topic see the post here
Category: NewAndImproved | Tags: tt4
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