Conveniently organized forums categories ensure discussion is easy and on topic.
The internet is undeniably good at connecting people in wildly different locations. But it can also bring us closer to our next-door neighbours.
Pleasant Community Circle came to Hop Studios in 2021 to have us update their site’s content management system. Originally created as an informational site for the residents of the private Mt. Pleasant (Michigan) Lakeshore Subdivision community, it had become much more of an interpersonal communication system over the years. The residents were using it to share personal news, events, obituaries, and other happenings in their community. Super, right? It was, except that the site wasn’t originally designed for that, and using it that way was clunky and inefficient.
Then, issues caused by the outdated CMS began popping up. That, plus a frustrating interface, plus the increasing number of members posting led to disorganization and confusion on the site. It was time for change. The community board wanted to make it easier for members to create and participate in discussions, so they asked Hop to recommend and then implement a way to organize discussions into categories.
The first step was upgrading ExpressionEngine from v.2.10.1 to EE 6.2.2. Since the site had not been updated in seven years, this alone significantly improved site functionality and usability. We also upgraded the PHP and several add-ons while removing unnecessary or outdated plugins and extensions, which really improved site performance and smoothed out some of the issues members had been experiencing.
Implementing forums is nearly always a big effort, but sometimes you can achieve the same result another way. Instead of installing forum software, we adopted ExpressionEngine’s regular channel functionality so that it worked as a very simple, clean, and usable discussion platform on the site – not confusing and overly featured like many full-fledged forum systems. While this was important to keep administrative maintenance and costs low, it was also crucial for member participation. No one wants to have to learn a huge amount of new technology just to let their neighbours know about a yard sale!
By creating a single community discussion area within ExpressionEngine with sub-categories where members can post about items for sale, HOA information, resources, obituaries, and community news, we helped provide this buzzing community with a more organized and user-friendly space for discourse.
It’s been so rewarding to see how this development effort has kept Pleasant Community Circle neighbours connected without requiring them to rely on tools controlled by giant corporations!
