For military wives, girfriends, partners and family

Just curious as to what functions you lot use on this site and what you find REALLY handy and what you've never looked at.

Personally, and I'm not just saying this because Good CO invented it and is standing behind me with a shovel , I like like like the little "forum tools" bar at the side of a topic. It's most handy!

Watch topics?

Searches? Do people ACTUALLY know how to use the search facility properly or is it ignored?

Please let me know what you do /don't use, what you think you'd like to see on Rear Party and anything else that would be of use.

Do people use the drop-down menus at the top of the page?

Would you use the chat more if it was different?

Really want to get the site usage increased, as I think we have a wealth of information - and not to forget technical abilities - to provide and make this site THE Families and Friends site for our armed forces.

Rude responses will be dealt with by my prongs. You already know who you are

Gob shut then.....nah it hurts too much.

Search, no I don't tend to use it, like the one next door its a bit 'random' so I tend to go to the forum I *think* I'm looking for and check stickies/recent topics.

Drop downs not often mainly I navigate from recent posts/my posts.

I like the forum tools now I'm getting used to it - am blonde it takes a while to stop looking for it at the top
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Heaven wont have me, hell is scared I'll take over. Time for the pub!

On the move this weekend. Not sure yet where I'm going or when I'll get there.....hope theres enough vodka in the car.

Just looked for search....make it easier to find
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Heaven wont have me, hell is scared I'll take over. Time for the pub!

On the move this weekend. Not sure yet where I'm going or when I'll get there.....hope theres enough vodka in the car.

Would this be better as a poll?

I only ever use the home page which shows the most recent topics
I sometimes use the Arrse link at the top of the page

I never go to the forum list
I don't use Chat
I don't ever look at the gallery
I have never clicked on Dating, Shop Jobs or News Links at the top of the page. Why would a forces OH want/need Dating link anyhow?
I never, ever click on any of the advertising banners


That sounds really negative with more Dont's than Do's - sorry

HP
x

It's not JUST for OH's though is it.....?

I hope not cos I haven't got one!

I just use the last 50 posts thingy and log in via the home page. I have used chat a couple of times and quite enjoyed it, EoN did make me giggle!
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I can't decide whether to be a good example or a horrible warning

I think there are so many "functions" on the site that I've never used/don't know how to use that I'd embarrass myself by saying what I do /don't use

I do think it's a shame more people don't use chat, though> I found it really handy when the OH was on tour just to warble insignificantly, and found myself in the Arrse chat room - which, let's face it, isn't always good for when you're not feeling "Brave"...

At the moment noone does, but when it was used it could be interesting and far friendlier than the arrse equivalent.
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Heaven wont have me, hell is scared I'll take over. Time for the pub!

On the move this weekend. Not sure yet where I'm going or when I'll get there.....hope theres enough vodka in the car.

And I think that is where a big part of the problem is..... The assumption that this is a site just for OH's.

Obviously the majority will be, but there IS room for the other types here too, ex, parents, friends, sibblings, kids of etc.

Exactly! I'm an ex of and friend of and now find myself living and working in a military environment. I've learnt a lot from this site and ARRSE and all of that has stood me in very good stead for where I am now.
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I can't decide whether to be a good example or a horrible warning

Yup, it doesnt help matters but we have a site here where the males of the species are welcome, alot of other sites to support forces families are for some reason ''wimmins'' only, men just arent welcome. But the vast majority of our members are female and for the most part wives and girlfriends.

I know over on arrse the parents thread was hugely successful, and although I understand why it was over there it would prehaps have been better suited to here as this sites remit as the family site - but the MOD's there aren't MOD's here and it was them who were able to post the factual reassuring info.
*do we have a parents section? goes to check the forum list*
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Heaven wont have me, hell is scared I'll take over. Time for the pub!

On the move this weekend. Not sure yet where I'm going or when I'll get there.....hope theres enough vodka in the car.

Agreed site is not just for OHs - I stand corrected on that one.

HP
X

From a newbie perspective, I have used the search function but must admit it is easy to miss if you’re new, I had to look about for it as was expecting something big and obvious on the front page when I first visited the site. I haven’t used the side bar tool as now I tend to just go straight to the most recent topics page and then look at what I fancy, but now I’ve been reminded of it I might use it more often.

I’ve never used Chat but only because I got the feeling/impression no one else does either so it was slightly pointless logging in to it...

Other than that I find the set up of the site to be really clear and easy to use. I must admit I’ve been on one other forces “significant others” site and was quite frankly turned right off it, mainly due to the banal postings and getting fed up of reading the first 10 replies to a thread all saying "LOL" or "Aww hugs" (just my personal opinion) but also because of the whole set up and it having far too many forum subjects where I felt the most important ones were squirreled away at the bottom so that hardly anybody used them. This site suits me much better!

I wouldn’t have found Rear Party if I hadn’t been looking and definitely think it could do with a bit more publicity in the general domain (such as Facebook etc although I can understand the concerns about Persec related to that). All in all I think it's a great resource, it's just a shame more people don't know about it, whether they be significant others, family or friends.

Just thought of this and it might be a bit off-topic but.... Something that would be useful to new posters/members (but I have no idea if it's possible) is a link to the stickys about Persec etc upon joining the site. I admit I'm not too knowledgeable about that sort of thing, as to what constitutes a breach of Pesec/Opsec (except from common sense which we can all forget at times) so something like that would be very handy for us new people!

I know the seasoned members tend to point out certain things when a new person says hello but invariably it means that person looking for it and it would be great to have an area set aside for such things... Just a thought.

I use the drop down menu's at the top, though almost every other button click is the 'last 50 posts' link. Personally I'd like a button for that as a shortcut.

The forum tools I like, but the one thing I always wanted was some form of refresh function, so that posts appear as they are submitted automatically, not by manual refresh.

I think it's a little annoying to lose the page numbers at the top of the page in RP at the moment. I have to scroll to the bottom and then click to the last page.
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"Sir, if you were my husband I'd poison your tea!"

"Madam, if you were my wife I'd drink it."