MyZF

Ooooh, I just saw the ad for the new MyZF site you've launched. Wow, free personalized forums, complete with photo uploads? This is neat, Dave. Wow! http://www.myzf.com

Hehehe...what is he gonna come up with next!?

Looks like fun, eh?

Pretty cool isn't it! I stmbled on a week or so ago while I was down with Phneumonia and set up a site but have not really gotten around to using it much yet.

I registered, but don't see how to add forums. Maybe they're not up and running just yet? This would be neat for SCIF store owners to use for discussion/questions about their products, too.

To set up forums you need to sign in as the administrator. I had to stumble about a bit to figure it out but it was fairly simple. You can set up as many or as few forums as you want.

Now that I have mine set up I am at a loss as to what use or direction I want to take it in.

Wow, wow, wow. Dave, you have put incredible tools at the hands of your users. This is awesome - the filtering, alerts, all of it. I am so impressed!

Thanks, gardenwife - I'm glad you like it! It's running the same code that DG uses (with some features added, and some missing), so you can get an idea of what it's like to admin DG. Have fun and let me know if you have questions.

Dave

It answers a lot of questions as far as how you're able to keep on top of things here like you do. It's great work, really. It makes so much sense.

That system has been in non-stop development for almost 4 years now, and really before that, too. It's the oldest and most mature of all my software products. Those features, every one of them, were put in to solve specific problems that we had here on DG (and other sites).

I hope you enjoy your site. I make money by the ads that I show on your site (they are tasteful text ads, or alternative banner-ads for the myZF service), so it's a win-win.

It sounds so fun! I wish I could think of a good way to utilize it...hmmm, a writer's forum? Story telling forum? Happy-Go-Lucky Forum?

Another avenue to check out.

Way to go, dave!

I like how we can make them private and/or by invitation only. I'm thinking it might be a neat way for our church members to communicate.

I've been looking for an easy way to set up a site for my extended family members to communicate with info pertaining to family history, happenings and reunion information. Would this forum be a good way to do this?
Bill

Yes yes and yes. All of you have it exactly right: those are the exact reasons for myZF. It works great for small, focused groups.

dave

Dave, can pictures be put into this site?
I'm thinking of my dog friends who have so much knowledge to offer.It would be a good education site for everyone.
Sandy

Sandy, the forums are set up like these, and pictures can be posted. It's really neat! :)

I've got one off and running for my High School Class. We are starting to plan our 30th reunion. It works just like DG.

And even I can handle taking care of it.

Are you going to do it Kim?
I'm going to need help but, I'm going to try it.
Sent it out to a few friends. A big interest. Can't believe this is free.
Sandy

I'm not sure, Sandy. I'm tossing some ideas around, though.

What do the letters ZF stand for?

Zero Forums. I'm assuming because they cost zero dollars?

Gardenwife: You got it!

I'll tell you where a real Dave's-Garden forum type website exists for a programmer brave enough to take it on: The genealogy community.

Myfamily.com owns EVERYTHING online related to genealogy, and they have RUINED it with pop-ups and advertising, their antagonistic attitude towards customer service, etc. They own Rootsweb, Genforum, and they already had message boards at Ancestry.com. They are so busy trying to slip cookies and other [deleted] onto your computer that the pages take FOREVER to load. People are starting to complain, but no action is ever taken, or things are just shut down in response.

It would be nice to have a Genealogy Forum website that actually WORKED.


This message was edited Jan 21, 2004 2:13 PM

hehehe, Inda - I emailed the link to this thread to my mom (an avid, if sporadic genealogy buff) and encouraged her to check it out, mainly for the specific families she researches, as I know they correspond a lot.

I can see it being a great, and less-commercial forum solution for genealogists in general :)

Well, I set up a Pennsylvania Genealogy forum at http://Genealogy.myzf.com/

Dave, how do I alphabetize my list of forums? I will have PA Counties and it would just be easier for people who visit my site if they were alphabetized.

(They are alphabetized on my Forums Admin page, but not on the finished webpage.)

This is TOO awesome. I can't wait to announce this to my Rootsweb mailing lists! Thanks Dave!

This message was edited Jan 21, 2004 3:45 PM

IndaShade,

You can't alphabatize them because they show up in the order of the most recently updated forum, just like DG.

Now, they are alphabetized on the "Forum List" page. Click "Forums" in the Menu and then scroll to the bottom for the alpha list.

Nice site, by the way. I hope it is successful!

dave

Oooohhh.... I get it. Well, that's not so bad then.

I'm going to do a little fine-tuning over the next few days, and then unleash this on the mailing list.

heheheh.

See the myZF forums for more details...

Weeell, so far I've gotten 52 people to sign up for my PA Genealogy site- 50 of them since 4:30 this afternoon. If I get to 100, do I get a Dave's Garden T-shirt? *VBG*

I think I also may have recruited another genealogist to move her group to myzf.com.

Along the way, I have stepped on some toes and gotten hate mail. That means everything is going just as I suspected it would...... :-/

Very nice IndaShade! A tip: I think your logo might be a little too wide. It's making the left column too big. Also, get rid of the Database TextSearch (since you're not using that feature... it's a completely different part of the system.)

Congrats on 50+ users! Here's the next 50! :) (No shirt, though!) :)

dave

Well, I resized it smaller, but I think it's still too big. I may have to have my daughter redesign it when she gets home from school this afternoon.

Would you say 125 x 125 pixels is a good size?

The theme that you are using is my least favorite of all five themes, and it's a little harder to get a good sized logo in there without ruining the page.

Your logo is currently 200 pixels wide. It could be trimmed a little, and I think the font is poorly pixelated as a result of your resizing. Do you mind if I redo your logo for you?

Dave

Sherry,

Try this one:

http://liveoak.standardout.com/~dave/pen_gen.gif

It's 142 pixels wide and the fonts were redone so as to not be pixelated. Also I didn't have to resize the state at all.

Dave

One last thing... you can remove those underscores (_) from your forum "Public Name". Put spaces there instead and they will show up correctly for your users. Underscores don't look as good as spaces.

dave

IndaShade... I just signed up at your site. Nice!!

I have roots in PA on both sides of my family, and hope to participate in a few months after I am re-settled from this move. Thanks for letting us know about it.

Okay, found and uploaded the new logo. Thanks.

Wish I would have known about the underscores before I added so many counties. GRR! But I'm in the process of removing them, and it does look alot better.

I am absolutely having a ball with this! I have gotten so much nice feedback from other (and some not so nice, but hey...)

This message was edited Jan 22, 2004 12:02 PM

Dave, if the forums we make are public ones, is there any way they could be automatically linked to on our DG member pages automatically? (I know, boy that really does sound lazy!)

This message was edited Jan 22, 2004 3:11 PM

Today was supposed to be cleaning day, and I haven't gotten a THING done because I've been playing with my website all day! ROFL!

What if this website gets too big for me to handle? I'm afraid to announce it to anymore of my genealogy places. I've had over 100 people sign up in less than 24 hours!

GW: Yes, you can link them from your Member Page. Just add the URL into the Preferences and there you go - easy as pie!

IndaShade: if it gets too big for you to handle, well, hehehhe. I'm the wrong person to ask! I don't know anything about getting over-run with a huge community. :)

Dave

LOL, Dave

You're right Dave-- I just had a panicky moment there. I posted it to the Ancestry boards. I am going to wait a day or two on the Genforum boards.

I wish I could get some other people interested in doing other states on myzf. I'm dreaming but....if I could get some others to start state pages, maybe you could just make us one main page to link all of our states to.

One of the biggest draws for the Myzf forums is the lack of pop-ups. People have been HOWLING about the pop ups on Genforum since Myfamily bought them. I sure hope that Myzf can continue to be pop-up free.......