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  • SnowJapan Moderator

We hope you have all had a good season - unusual thought it may have been in terms of snow conditions and weather.

 

Anyway, it is that time of the year again when we start to plan improvements and modifications to be made to Snow Japan in time for next season.

 

Many of the regulars will probably already know this, but each season we make considerable modifications to the site. The bottom line is we want to always be improving the content and functionality of the site and add things that will enhance the experience - and many of the ideas each season come from various feedback from people using the site.

 

We already have a number of things on the list of things to do, but would like to invite you to let us know if you have any further ideas or comments about things you would like to see on Snow Japan.

 

Please send any comments and ideas you might have to the usual editor @ snowjapan.com email address.

 

A big thank you in advance for any comments you send on - we really appreciate it!

 

Thanks.

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An example of such a post.

 

"I am coming to Japan in about 10 years time, I am looking for a resort that is only accessible by reindeers pulling a helicopter, the resort must have rainbow colored snow that tastes like strawberrys and everything must cost under 100 dollars also please book every stage of the trip for me.

 

By the way my friend is coming from Swaziland and requires Swaziland size 78.231 shoes, what ever that size is in Japanese."

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Actually a "Where to ski" forum is a great idea.

 

Closing threads such as "Snow in Japan" after they get huge is probably a good idea too. I know this thread hammers the hell out of your servers and by now it should be renamed "A bit of everything". It doesn't help people trying to find information when they find a thread with 400 odd pages!

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  • SnowJapan Moderator

Thanks for the comments and to those people who have sent in mails.

 

 Quote:
Closing threads such as "Snow in Japan" after they get huge is probably a good idea too.
Well, we're just scared of the angry complaints that we would get for doing that (or anything else). ;\)

 

But seriously, there are definitely going to be some quite big changes to the Forums side of the site, and that will probably also be done well before next season.

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There is a good weather section on this site. It gives you the five day forecast for each resort. It would be great if this was a bit easier to get to, maybe putting a link to it up the top of the page or linking it with the NOW reports.

 

If this is already the case, sorry i just always have trouble finding it.

 

Great site anyway. I love it

 

matt

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I have two suggestions:

1. Some indication is given when the PM box is full.

2. Once we are logged in, we don't have to re-enter our passwords every time we want to check out the "My resort watch" sections.

 

These are not important, but I just thought it would be nice to have.

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It would be good in the 'Now' reports or on the forums to allow for a recap of first hand conditions for those who went up. Sometimes the now reports can conflict with actual conditions on at individual resorts. By adding a section dedicated to first hand accounts, it would give folks a better view into how each resort's coverage is at any given time.

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How about restricting the starting of new threads for new users, to weed out those who only start a thread to ask for travel advice and are never seen again? Maybe a waitng period, or a minimum number of posts on established threads? This might encourage use of the FAQ, or the main web site for this basic information. "What is the best place to ski in Japan?", or variations on the theme, are questions that shouldn't clog up the forums.

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keba that is what I was getting at earlier. Its funny because sometimes even in the same day there have been 3 new users all asking the exact same question.

 

I am pissed off because although some people dont like my attitude here, I have been helpful in the past and not even get a thank you.

 

There was this girl coming from Australia that emailed me directly about equipment. I gave them all the information about shops in jimbocho and said that I would show them were to go to get the right equipment as I was going there on a friday. It didnt pan out so, I gave links to Google maps and exact route to take from the station, station times etc from shinjuku planed out everything. The no reply.

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  • SnowJapan Admin
 Quote:
How about restricting the starting of new threads for new users
This is definitely one of the things that we want to change if we can.

We get literally hundreds of emails sent in each month asking questions - some incredibly vague, some very specific.

Some of those mails are almost demanding an answer, with no sign of a please or thank you anywhere. And often when we spend the time to reply to something, we never hear back from those people again. Some people seem to think that we are a free question answering and advisory service.

Unfortunately it seems that there are a lot of people who aren't particularly polite, and it does get frustrating especially when you take time and effort to get back to people.

A few words of thanks go a long way.
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I had a similar experience with a newby, who contacted me (via PM) about appropriate skis for Japanese conditions, and despite a detailed email with what I thought were very practical, helpful tips... not a peep out of him afterwards.

 

I can't imagine what the moderators or old-timers like fattwins have to put up with.

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When I was in their office, I was given a very quick glance at the inbox of the main Editor email. It was really scary.... just huge volumes of mail. While I'm sure old-timers might get PMS from newbys, I would say it surely pales into nothing in comparison with what SJ gets.

 

I've mailed some of my thoughts in guys. Thanks \:\)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don’t like the idea of closing threads really, I say keep it open. That said the monster that is Snow in Japan might need to die. In most cases threads don’t build to that size. I do hate it when other sites close down good threads like crazy.

 

As for new user, YellowSnow just don’t answer all those questions stay away and let that post fall down. I don’t think that limiting what people can post right off the bat will encourage new members to join.

 

The picture uploading needs to be fixed. I want to be able to upload at least 5 pics at a time. Uploading them one by one is a pain really.

 

The now pages and the guides are too close together on the forum header. Many times I click on what I think is a now report and get a guide.

 

In bedding video from YOU TUBE. With the advent of you tube we no longer need to have a video section really. You could organize something with YOU TUBE or GOGGLE VIDEOS that link directly to all lets say Niseko videos – Hakuba videos etc. Or users can set up links in what is the video page now.

 

The photo of the day should be on a random cycle. Hey sometimes the photo will suck but it will or might encourage people to visit a members gallery because of a nice random photo.

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what about being able to vote/rate photos? that way the best and most popular photos are ranked and you can scroll through the good ones.

there is a surfing site called magic seaweed that does this quite well, and the photo section there is quite busy. it also lists the weeks top shots, and then has an archive of all the best shots from previous months.

it also encourages good photographers to upload their pics and users (like me) will end up checking out their member page, and often will follow this through onto their private web pages

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Thanks for the comments everyone both in this thread and the ones that have been sent in by email.

 

Quite a few of the suggestions will probably be happening sometime in the coming months.

 

One thing that I am pretty sure we will not be changing is the 1 photo at a time uploading system. The main reason for that is because we have a lot of data associated with each photo (Prefecture / Resort name / User Gallery / Category / Caption). It would probably look too complex on the front end as well as also be rather complex to actually get going on the backend, so I don't think that is something that many people require and isn't really on our things to do list. (Although if everyone thinks this is something we really should do, please do let us know!)

 

Please do send us any further thoughts you may have at any time. Thanks, we really appreciate it.

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Fattwins:
I don’t like the idea of closing threads really, I say keep it open. That said the monster that is Snow in Japan might need to die. In most cases threads don’t build to that size. I do hate it when other sites close down good threads like crazy.

As for new user, YellowSnow just don’t answer all those questions stay away and let that post fall down. I don’t think that limiting what people can post right off the bat will encourage new members to join.

The picture uploading needs to be fixed. I want to be able to upload at least 5 pics at a time. Uploading them one by one is a pain really.

The now pages and the guides are too close together on the forum header. Many times I click on what I think is a now report and get a guide.

In bedding video from YOU TUBE. With the advent of you tube we no longer need to have a video section really. You could organize something with YOU TUBE or GOGGLE VIDEOS that link directly to all lets say Niseko videos – Hakuba videos etc. Or users can set up links in what is the video page now.

The photo of the day should be on a random cycle. Hey sometimes the photo will suck but it will or might encourage people to visit a members gallery because of a nice random photo.
This must be the 3rd post from FF that Ive actually understood in 5 years :p :p
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Good one with the Forums update.

 

I think it's a good idea to change them now rather than after summer... looks like it will be a while before we all get used to them. All looks good though.

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