How could we make the website better ?

Needless to mention that you guys are doing a great job out there. Moderation, management, up-time.... all have been so impressive.

With regards to the vision, you are the boss Julien. If you see Expat-Blog as a dot com in future, here are a couple of suggestions.

1- For long threads, do give a thought to list down using ascending order. For example, about the "Question of the Day" thread, everyone just see the first page and answer the question put some 1.5 yrs back from now. This kills the spice there.

2- An infrastructure to search threads better with strong advice to use search before anyone posts. And you know well why I am saying that
Google custom search is fine. But it's too plain.

3- We have discussed the chat feature before, but I guess the technology world has taken another turn and you must not be considering investing efforts in it anymore. An App would be a better idea (with push notifications & response capability etc) but again it's a matter of vision and would be applicable if you see Exat-Blog as a service in future rather than a dot com.

I have been a part of Expat-Blog since long and i have been a competent witness of the visible progress of the Blog and i can bet there is no other blog in Riyadh to even compete the standard. Its truly active and up do date and courtesy goes to Julien and his efficient Team of members.I admire you guys for taking prompt & appropriate action against every offensive post  or even annoying members.

I second all the ideas of "TheLegendLeads"  I would add only few to it.

1)- Being a woman i would like a little change in theme of website and believe me it won't effect the identification or the popularity 

2)- Would it be possible for u to authorize us to delete any unwanted & annoying post from our own topic ? It happens to me quite often so i was wondering if its possible.


3)- Understanding the different, conservative & stern culture including the strict internet policy of SaudiArbia, especially in Riyadh i would suggest to have a moderate  "Team Member" From same country who can keep eye on posts which could create a problem for any blog member due to any controversial content ignoring his/her personal conflicts with any member of Expat-Blog.

I may have few more but i m too sleepy to write further so i would check tomorrow what i wrote and whatnelse i can add:p

good night

Compliments for a very useful site. It is pretty good once you get the hange of it.

1. I would just like to suggest more intuitive navigation and with lesser number of clicks. E.g., to get to the Riyadh forum, one has to click on Forums, the scan through the list of countries and the select city. If the site can store the city of residence for a user and browse directly to that page after loggin in it would save a few clicks.

2. I second the question of the day suggestion posted earlier by a member.
Question of the day or "How to in Riyadh" allows a poster to aska quick and short question and get multiple quick responses. As opposed to a blog it is easier to get "Answers". Also if there is a point system for users who respond to questions it would encourage more users to help out. Questions can be dynamic webpart on the home page  (or any landing page as per suggestion 1) which displays the latest 10 questions for instance).

more moderators that are riyadh forum specific to help deal with the influx of spam and bad postings

you guys do a great job, but sometimes it takes a while.

chatbox is my main suggestion with a few moderators for that as well.  Im sure plenty of us would volunteer to help. i know i would.

and forum navigation is  HUGE annoyance to me as well as the above.  It takes too many clicks and remembering sometimes to get ot the original saudi forum from other places.  leading to more clicks to get back to it.  on a computer it is fine. but on a phone its annoying hence why i never come here on my phone

TheLegendLeads > very, very good ideas thanks. Just to let you know, our "mobile app project" starts ... on Monday

Fidgety Soul > what do you mean by changing themes ? (colors?)
for 3) I completely agree ... who's in ?

itadvisor > for 1) this is about to change ... very soon
Regarding the point system, have you seen the + button on your posts ? (and the karma section in your profile ?)

Freshlikesushi > we indeed need moderators in KSA to quickly intervene if there is a problem. Regarding the navigation, as previously said, this will change in a few weeks (we are currently testing)

Regarding a possible chat system, would it be a general chat for everyone (huge moderation work) or a private chat system to talk with your contacts only (as in FB) ?

Thanks guys for your ideas and suggestions ! Please do not hesitate to suggest more things, your opinion is important to us, and it helps us a lot !

chatbox coded in to the KSA main forum, then each ACTIVE forum over a matter of time would be nice. 

vipstylecars.com has one, but you cant see ituntil you log it haha

It's been suggested before and I think that an 'ignore' function would be highly beneficial so that we just don't have to see the comments of people who consistently annoy us but who are not necessarily doing anything 'wrong' (I suggest this at the risk of being on everybody's ignore list )

Another suggestion:  on our profiles, there should be a box to indicate male or female since, if one uses an non-gender specific avatar (an alliecat, for example ) members don't know which sex they're communicating with--important because there are some things it's okay for another female to say to me but totally inappropriate for a male.

i want to say again....a main overarching (in this case saudi arabia) forum link.  As it sits now, i have to click saudi arabia and then forum at the left.

now that someone else has mentioned it...it just annoys me more haha

Freshlikesushi wrote:

i want to say again....a main overarching (in this case saudi arabia) forum link.  As it sits now, i have to click saudi arabia and then forum at the left.

now that someone else has mentioned it...it just annoys me more haha

Bookmark https://www.expat.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=423

TheLegendLeads wrote:

Freshlikesushi wrote:

i want to say again....a main overarching (in this case saudi arabia) forum link.  As it sits now, i have to click saudi arabia and then forum at the left.

now that someone else has mentioned it...it just annoys me more haha

Bookmark https://www.expat.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=423

still cumbersome

Julien , yes i mean the colors and yes, i agree with the ignoring feature. It would be Blessing and yeah . i know its not a facebook but sometime i feel click "Like" to some comment so i wish u had the feature.The option "recommend" may not fulfill that purpose.

Julien might be thinking "Why the hell I asked them for suggestion ,they keep telling me oh we love it, its perfect and still coming up with millions suggestions, I shouldnt have given such idea"

Fidgety Soul wrote:

Julien , yes i mean the colors and yes, i agree with the ignoring feature. It would be Blessing and yeah . i know its not a facebook but sometime i feel click "Like" to some comment so i wish u had the feature.The option "recommend" may not fulfill that purpose.

Julien might be thinking "Why the hell I asked them for suggestion ,they keep telling me oh we love it, its perfect and still coming up with millions suggestions, I shouldnt have given such idea"

Hey, guess what?  There IS a 'thumbs up' function like facebook.. look down, lower right corner!!

yeah Allie I saw that but i thought recommending or liking the comment would be a different sign but i guess it can still work for me:)

I like Alliecat's suggestion of an Ignore function. On Amazon.com if people vote that a comment doesn't contribute to a discussion, Amazon hides the comment (you can still click to reveal it if you so desire). I've noticed on Expatblog you sometimes have to wade through a lot of drivel to find the nuggets - something to help with this probelm would be useful.

TheLegendLeads wrote:

2- An infrastructure to search threads better with strong advice to use search before anyone posts. And you know well why I am saying that
Google custom search is fine. But it's too plain.

Yes, I agree that the SEARCH function must be in everybody's face BEFORE they post a question!   If you go to YAHOO ANSWERS the first thing you see is a search box!