New Forum Feedback

This may be a bit premature (and not taking into account bugs) but so far as one in a sea of users, I like the new forums. Though a little bit hard to find at first, the new layout and wealth of user perferences is great.

A couple of suggestions:

  • I've liked forums that list a "number of times viewed" column. It helps to know what other users have looked at, what they have found helpful, especially threads I have started.
  • Probably not suitable for a company forum, but I also like a Thanks feature, that you can thank a user and it is a user statistic - I think it encourages user contribution more.
  • Is the "answered" category similar to the "solved" feature in other forums? Ie where the user who posts the thread can tick a "Is Solved" box when the question is answered.

That's all, so far so good.

steve

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  • The other thing I have done is to remove all Groups and Forums from my Favorites so that I can use the Favorites to link to threads of current interest. I hope this will be temporary and that better seperation of Favorite Groups, Forums & Threads can be accomplished. The Groups are already available via the "Group List" widget. I think it would be great if there were several seperate Favorite Places Drop-Down lists at the top of the page: Blogs, Forums, Wikis & Groups. Perhaps all under the one Drop-Down & each with its own Fly-Out List. I would also like to configure the default Tab for the Forums (Unread). I still would like one page which would consolidate all Unread threads from ALL Favorite Forums.

  • Yes please! Since I will be rarely looking at blogs and wikis, and even files, I would love to be able to put them 'out of the way' somewhere so my focus can really be on Forums.

  • Unknown said:

    Yes please! Since I will be rarely looking at blogs and wikis, and even files, I would love to be able to put them 'out of the way' somewhere so my focus can really be on Forums.

    One of the significant aspects of the way things are organized now is to put wiki, blog, and file content alongside forums. Put those "out of the way" and you will miss out on information that is likely to answer questions before you even have to ask them.

      

  • Phil,

    What I am looking for (and I think many others - Richard included) is quick access to the content need from all pages. With the current organization of the "Favorite Places" it is difficult, at best, to discern which link goes to which Blog, Forum, Group, Wiki or even Thread. The Titles are truncated to the point they only show the Sub-Forum & Threads are interspersed withing the Forums also I find that trying to display Groups, Forums & etc. at the same time most of the time will require the user to use the # more link and even then sometimes need to click through several pages to get to a SHORTCUT to their Favorite Forum.

    Even though it appears I have nothing but criticism for the site, for the most part I like the new layout and the abiltiy to customize the home page. It would be nice If we could specify which widgets should be persistent throughout the site. Also the fixed width / size of the pages seems to be a waste of space (you can hardly buy a monitor w/ a 4:3  aspect anymore). It would be nice if the "main" frame would resize with the window and the leave the supplementary frames a fixed width.

    Thanks - Roy

  • Unknown said:

    it is difficult, at best, to discern which link goes to which Blog, Forum, Group, Wiki or even Thread.

    Hmmm... is that similar to the comments that Andreas had regarding instances where some forums have Forum in the title, while others do not? Or something else?

    Unknown said:

    Even though it appears I have nothing but criticism for the site, for the most part I like the new layout and the abiltiy to customize the home page.

    Understood... we expected (and wanted) feedback. And it is being provided :) Seriously (and getting a little philosophical), the original plan was to have a "beta program" for the site, but that quickly fell out of favor because of various factors (e.g. trying to maintain TWO sites at the same time is not like having two releases of the same program out at the same time, who would be "in" to test it out, etc.) It just seemed to make the most sense getting things to a workable, usable stage, while preserving as much existing content as possible and "cut it loose". We can work forward in making the site "better" based on real-world feedback (and discussion, of course :). Everything may not happen all at once, but the plan right now is to make changes as necessary moving forward.

    Unknown said:

    It would be nice If we could specify which widgets should be persistent throughout the site.

    Yes, that is something we noticed, too. There is a way to do that, but only your personal experience is uncustomized. It is sort of a dilemma, but I believe that eventually will work its way through when this new site is acclimated.

    Unknown said:

    Also the fixed width / size of the pages seems to be a waste of space (you can hardly buy a monitor w/ a 4:3  aspect anymore). It would be nice if the "main" frame would resize with the window and the leave the supplementary frames a fixed width.

    I think I understand what you mean... that is something we can look into.