What changes, if any, would you like to see made on this website.

[99explorer]

What changes, if any, would you like to see made on this website.

[Gary Devine]

explorer, I like your Irish Elk profile photo.
Is that a trail cam photo? lol

One question submitted per day on Field and stream Answer room.

It will stop a newcomer to the site from clicking the submit button thirty times.

[31Alpha]

I'm not a website design geek or anything, so I know there are a lot of things easier said than done, but...:

1) Fix the glitches with the submit buttons. When you click it, there is no immediate feedback.

2) There's a lot of dead/old links

3) Overall user interface: There are too many categories that either don't have enough subcategories to justify having a category or wrong subcategories. Why is "bow hunting" listed as a special method under the Hunting drop down menu along with gun dogs. That drop down menu should have the subcategory "Method" with, for example, "Modern firearm, Bow, Muzzleloader"...etc and then special methods could be like atlatl or something. It just needs to be reorganized over all.

4) The Message Board and even Answers section should allow photos (at least hotlinked).

5) The overall feel just seems to be "amateurish," something that I wouldn't expect out of such a large magazine publisher. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more advertisements on the website if that would generate more money to improve the sites features while also being more interactive with us, the consumer. I mean, Field and Stream does have to make a profit, but I think they could improve ad revenue through their website if more users were drawn to it. Right now, it's not really a website that I would recommend my friends to use for gear/equipment research. Love the small community feel to it, but it's also just over all a frustrating website to navigate for good info. Field and Stream has to feel the economic crunch from print media losing to digital publications, and as much as I prefer to have the textile feel of the magazine, tablets are the future and I have changed my subscription from magazine to Kindle. What's nice is I can read an article, and then immediate log online to fieldandstream.com and discuss it or express my opinion.

[jhjimbo]

More stable platform.
User to user communication.
Ability to delete multiple posts.
Ability to insert pics direct to personal profile.

[Amflyer]

1. Faster Hardware--stop the lag times when accessing the site

2. 60 second time between posts allowed. This would take care of the multiple postings.

3. Moderation. This would stop most of the flame wars, childish insults and such.

4. Change the format of the Answers section to move to the top any posting that has a response to it. Many questions get swamped under the multiple postings, and sometimes just because they are old.

5. Get rid of the silly -/+ thing.

6. Free beer and hot wings on Thursdays.

7. Get rid of the obnoxious "everything is spam until proven otherwise" feature. See #3 for alternative. I'm sick of typing "YyVxK" every time.

[jhjimbo]

I will add a decent spell checker.

[Edward J. Palumbo]

There are the technical issues, very slow to accept a post, for which I have no solution. I agree with jhjimbo's suggestion; it'd be beneficial to go off-forum to discuss some topics or issues with other members directly. Mistakes happen, and I wish there was a way to delete a post (it really embarrasses me when I double-post, badly misspell a word, or type a factual error).
Other than this, I enjoy the comments and input on this site.

[Edward J. Palumbo]

Before I forget...I would add a category for handgunners, since many of use sidearms and hunt with them.

[bayouwoof]

Ah dunno -

Mebbe ifn they wood not send me so much gear to test!

Ah have gotten behind on mah review writin and mah garage is really gittin clogged up wif all them suvs and quads and roffles and shotgunz, etc.

[Treestand]

I would like to see the word NEXT PAGE at the base of the last Answer of a Post.

[NorthernArcher7890]

I wish there was more walleye and gun dog coverage.

[99explorer]

Gary - Thank you. The Irish Elk has been extinct for more than 7,000 years. It had the largest antlers of any cervid, measuring up to twelve feet from tip to tip, and weighing as much as 88 pounds.
A small rack was auctioned at Christie's last year for $50,000.

[DakotaMan]

Without giving it a great deal of thought, here are 10 to start with:
1. Ditto 31 Alpha.
2. Refine the user comment entry process across the site:
a) Don't do another http post until you receive a response from the Web server.
b)Lock the input control (e.g. "submit" button)once it is clicked. Provide immediate user feedback (e.g. button jump, button color, button shade, progress indicator) to the user when a control has been clicked so they don't stack up requests or attempt more clicks.
c) If long response times are inevitable (as they seem to be) it should be a progress indicator. This would prevent the user from entering random clicks on this and other controls while trying to regain control of their session.
d) Time the entry out after a short period of time with message to re-enter so the session isn't locked up indefinitely.

3. Refine authentication (sign-in) so it works, is consistent and operable across the site with the first authentication retained for the life of the session.

4. Allow links and pictures to be embedded in comments. This is an informative site and a pic (or a link) is often worth a thousand words.

5. Fix the annoying content entry checks that say too many entries have been made after the first entry or that require a user to re-authenticate for no good reason.

6. Fix the "search" function to actually search for a term and present actual content related to that term. This search provides random content unrelated to the search term in most cases. Allow the search to filter by main category.

7. Provide links to subcategories for the blogs rather than downloading immense amounts of un-used content on the splash page. This is improving with the "browse by" links but splash page content needs to be keep lean and mean for quick loading.

8. Advertising is the name of the game in Web sites, just don't let an ad take over the session and block all other content. Don't present adds that take so long to load and/or close that the user is motivated to close the session. Present smaller ads inconspicuously. Don't pop up ads that block user navigation or content viewing. The add that blocks the splash page for 10 seconds or more is the least ergonomic technique I have ever witnessed for advertising and it makes the user want to boycott the sponsor rather than seek buying information.

9. Provide capability to view answers by search key and time frame so we can find something that was discussed last Christmas for example rather than to have to scroll through 100 pages of useless content to get there.

10. Improve performance of the Web server with the package used. I suggest scrutinizing that and sizing servers for better performance.

I only offer these thoughts in the interest of making the site even better than it already is. It is loaded with great content, gives us connections to great authors, great products and most of all, other like-minded sportsmen with tons of knowledge. This site is now a tremendous repository of information so the search, filter and categorization functions are becoming much more meaningful.

[99explorer]

I really hate those pop-up ads that take up the whole screen. I try not to look at the sponsor's name as I hurry to find the "X" to delete it.

[jhjimbo]

99,
Some full page ads I get I can scroll down another one line and there is a 'go to F&S now' button so you do not have to wait for the countdown counter to go to zero.