- This topic has 25 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 11 months ago by
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Members and Visitors,
The CTOA which has been a online support site for over 14 years for owners and prospective owners of Chinese Tractors and Dozers is getting a face lift !
I am in the final steps of the new site UPDATE with a clean flow and also fully responsive on all the newer type of devices as well. This will be much more helpful for those out in the field needing support. They can simply use a smartphone or tablet to view and ask questions without having to go home to a computer.
And..YES…all the current threads on this site should be available to still view and comment on.
The site currently has NO paying dealers which helps me move forward with some needed changes and ideas.
One, by having no advertisement, (banner ads) on the site form any dealer, then all dealers that sell tractors can be added to our directory of dealers to help anyone looking to buy a tractor or dozer fairly.
My hope would be that those Dealers could offer a paid membership on this site for its new customers as the official support forum for equipment support. (your thoughts?)
Oh…and IMAGE UPLOADS will be simple as ONE CLICK browse, SELECT and its in the POST !!! Clean and straightforward.
CTOA - Founder
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I am working on a easy directory submission for all members to use but am still having some bug issues I am working out. I hope to have it online by this evening working and then we can start building a directory of members that have businesses including those that sell tractors as well as implements and other businesses of interest that would help our members help each other. I hope everyone finds it more useful and updated from the old site
CTOA - Founder
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Has anyone tried view the forums on your smartphones or tablets?! I posted this from my phone and used the phones voice to text to help type all of this. That sure speeds things up for me when on the go.
Oh, and if your viewing this, then your on the NEW site (IT’S OUT EARLY 🙂 ) . I just got excited and decided to activate it early and then let every member know about it as well.
CTOA - Founder
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Hal, Two questions: Will there be the capability to see the ‘unread’ posts I have not looked at yet? When going to a thread would like to see the portion that I have not read before. Possible? Thank you for your time, RonJ
Good questions and YES that option is being implemented to the site!
CTOA - Founder
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FRIENDS !! Just added the ability to ADD FRIENDS within the CTOA site. Helps you keep track of what your friends are posting and saying in the forums easily.
To add a friend, just go to their profile and click the ADD FRIEND button. They will have the option to accept or not your request!. (don’t take it personal if someone doesn’t).
BE SURE TO UPDATE YOUR PROFILE’S BIOGRAPHY SECTION <—— it lets others know more about you.
CTOA - Founder
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Will the RSS feed come back, or better yet, get a list-serv for email?
I would rather have messages come in via email and let my email program handle the sorting and categorizing. Even a daily digest of posts are better than having to log on and search for new posts.
RSS was at least delivered to my inbox.
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Yes, but I still have to fire up a browser and go “looking” for a post.
List-serv or RSS delivers it to me automatically and I new post are highlighted in my always running email program.
I don’t have a reason to log onto COTA every day but would if the RSS feed gave me a reason to do so. The only reason I noticed there was a new site for COTA is when Outlook started telling me there was a problem with the RSS feeds. After a couple of days I decided to see if I could figure out what was wrong. Logging on for the first time in months revealed the problem.
Being forced to use the onsite forum as my only means of contact, I will likely not monitor nor participate in the exchange of information until I “need” something.
As a former sys-admin I understand the problems associated with list-serv and RSS. As an end user, I appreciate them greatly and sites that use them are much more valuable to me.
For me, mobile device access is a non-issue. My wired internet works in the metal walled shop, the cell phone doesn’t.
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Is this doing what you are asking for?
http://www.ctoa.net/?feed=rss2&post_type=forumAlso, be sure to update your own profile page info as well as look at it to see what information is listed on your own profile for quick reference such as topics you subscribe to or mark as a favorite as well.
CTOA - Founder
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There we go! Had to subscribe to the individual forums (that is OK) first, then activate the RSS to my Outlook. The subscribe button is a little camouflaged but once I found it the rest was easy.
Looks like it is working now.
I didn’t see the feed button on the site pages, but the link you posted worked fine.
Thanks,
Stuart
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I never got into using those RSS FEEDS myself, but happy to help get you in the right direction 🙂
Still making small changes and tweaks to the site, but I am happy with the overall feel and flow.
And, remember you can add any specific TOPIC your wanting to follow by selecting the SUBSCRIPTIONS option while viewing it and then you will get EMAILS when a new reply is made to that as well !!!!
CTOA - Founder
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Yeah, RSS is not my method of choice but it does help out.
When a message shows up in Outlook through an RSS feed, it looks like an email but is not.
For one thing you can not reply to it. But there is a link button in each message called “view article” that if you click that, it will launch your browser and take you directly to that message in the online forum.
Once the message is in Outlook, I can use all of the other features to manage the messages (apply rules to sort and move). It makes dealing with 100+ messages from several forums and list-servs a little easier each day.
BTW, I do like the new nice clean look of the site. Not a lot of “jibber-jabber” in the code so it loads nice and fast!
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Also if you have your own business you are welcome to list it in our new directory it is a free service on our site. I’m also hoping all the tractor and dealers will realize they should have recommended this site to help with tech questions by not having banner ads at all it treats everyone fairly.
CTOA - Founder
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I have added a quick link to the top of the forums and in the forums menu drop down box to quickly show you all the RECENT POST posted on the site. This is a quick way to see the most recent questions being asked on the site.
CTOA - Founder
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The NEW Private Message System is up and running !! I think it is very clean and simple and straight forward as well. When you log in you will see a MESSAGE SYSTEM box showing any new message. As well as a obvious NOTIFICATION BAR that will appear at the top of the site whenever you have a NEW private message from another member.
You each have options to set as well to decide if you want to be notified through your regular EMAIL that you have a new internal message as well.
HOPE EVERYONE LIKES THIS NEW SET UP !!
CTOA - Founder
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Hal, Two questions: Will there be the capability to see the ‘unread’ posts I have not looked at yet? When going to a thread would like to see the portion that I have not read before. Possible? Thank you for your time, RonJ
That has now been addressed and explained under this post link HERE
CTOA - Founder
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A new email system was installed and used today to announce our new site I apologize if you have received one prior to today but I was having issues in the mass mail to members protocol. I just wanted to make sure everyone was informed that our site has been updated. It is our members that make our site great and better than all the others so remember to get involved read the questions help with answers and enjoy your tractors today. 🙂
CTOA - Founder
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