Feedback: Official Forums

[SapphireDisaster.1046]

> @Moyayuki.3619 said:

> Will forums for Living World, HoT, etc. be created?

I skimmed quickly and didn't see any response to this, but I'd like to second this. Especially with PoF and Season 4 swiftly coming our way I think having one generic forum for game stuff might get a bit too cluttered. Though I suppose it might prevent topics going in the wrong areas, so I can understand if the idea is to keep it all in one place. I just worry stuff will get lost.

 

 

[Shrugal.4513]

Small custom CSS to make it much more readable:

 

* Remove reaction avatars

* Move reaction buttons to the right and make them gray, just like the time

* Color usernames red

 

```

.RecordReactions {

display: none;

}

 

.Reactions {

text-align: right;

}

 

.ReactButton, .ReactSprite, .ReactButton > span:not(.Count) {

color: #b3b3b3 !important;

}

 

.ReactButton.HasCount {

margin-right: 0 !important;

}

 

.Item:not(.arenanet-tracker) .Username, .ItemComment:not(.arenanet-tracker) .Username {

color: #e1261c !important;

}

```

 

Use can use an extension like [user CSS](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/user-css/okpjlejfhacmgjkmknjhadmkdbcldfcb/ "User CSS") to apply it.

[TheDevinM.8053]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> Welcome to our new official forums! We're glad you're here, and hope you enjoy all the improvements these forums offer you.

>

> Please post your input about the forums here. If you encounter a forum bug, please share the details in this thread. If you find a graphical or visual bug, please host a screenshot on a photo-sharing site and provide a link.

>

> We will be gathering your input and will address issues as soon as we are able to do so.

>

>

>

 

The new forums look great! Can't wait to explore all of the new content added in with this update! Cheers!

[Darlgon.9273]

The icons for people who "Thumbs up" and mark posts "Helpful" will VERY quickly become useless forum noise. Can we turn those off?

[Moyayuki.3619]

> @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:

> > @Pompeia.5483 said:

> > Obligatory request for dark theme/night mode :)

>

> This is actually a very valid point. White takes more power to generate than black, or even the darker colors. Haven't looked at the mobile site, but if bright white is it will have an impact on battery life.

 

Agreed, and good points! I could disregard the power usage and prefer a "dark theme" for the simple fact that it's so much easier on the eyes. :)

[Shaaba.5672]

> @Shaaba.5672 said:

> Too wide, font too small, and the avatars for each thumbs up/down has got to go.

 

I want to clarify my statement. I said the font was too small, but I don't think that's the problem actually. (and I was talking about the body font for further clarification). It's just that there's so much else going on that your eyes jump back and forth and when it gets to comments - which really should be the most important focus - it seems to get lost. The visual hierarchy is out of whack.

 

I actually like some of the elements (and agree with the decision to limit avatars while still providing some diversity) but the elements fight against each other instead of balancing each other out.

[DoM.8396]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> Welcome to our new official forums! We're glad you're here, and hope you enjoy all the improvements these forums offer you.

>

> Please post your input about the forums here. If you encounter a forum bug, please share the details in this thread. If you find a graphical or visual bug, please host a screenshot on a photo-sharing site and provide a link.

>

> We will be gathering your input and will address issues as soon as we are able to do so.

>

>

>

 

The markdown table's could use a makeover. It's very bland and at least could use some row highlighting for every odd row.

[Lionwait.4815]

I was getting hopeful when I saw we got a new look for the forms. But I'm still a bit disappointed on the rules. I remember playing back in the day DAoC and the forms were full of smack talk and trolling. It was quite fun to find people complaining about each other. I wish we had such a spot for smack talking to each other for wvw and pvp.

[Moyayuki.3619]

I understand that logging us out automatically after inactivity is a security issue, but it does feel like the logout happens a bit too quickly.

[Darlgon.9273]

Ok.. the "timing out" of being logged into forums is just stupid. Are you seriously telling me just sitting here, not pushing anything makes a forum load, while I am playing the game?

[Donari.5237]

I note in the Profession forum there are "child" forums to differentiate. Could you perhaps put in a Living Story child forum either in General or in Lore? It's handy to have posts on that split out from general chatter so players can zero in discussion of ways to get achieves and so spoilers don't show up on the main page as excited players blurt out their reactions to the story they've just gone through. Those are just samples, there are many reasons why that was a useful sub category on the old forums.

[Zalifer.6140]

I'm on desktop, so these issues may not apply to the mobile version of the forum.

 

Avatars are huge, especially considering how they are only moderately useful since they're one of 20 or so stock ones. Avatars are actually only really any use when they can be used to identify a poster, since they can't they don't really do much, so make them smaller.

 

Similarly the enormous "reactions" section listing avatars of people who marked a post helpful/thumbs down/thumbs up is just needless clutter (since we can't tell who anyone is based on an avatar anyway). In many cases, it takes up three of four times as much space as the actual content of the post. Remove that section and leave the easy to read total. If the info of who it was that did various actions has to be there, maybe make it something we can see on a hover, or after clicking the total number to open a drawer listing users who reacted to that post.

 

I would also advocate clearer demarcation between posts. A thicker line underneath the "report/quote/helpful/thumbs down/thumbs up" line would probably do.

 

Maybe mute the colours of the buttons for those actions too? As the posts are grey on white and background images are grey on white. the only thing that stands out on the page when you look at it are the (questionably useful) avatars, both the post owner and reactions, and the buttons to take action. The actual content of a post is the least visible, since even the posters name is larger.

 

Edit : I actually just realised all of this can be fixed by going back to the old forums. This update adds unnecessary features like avatars and reactions, and stinks of form over function (even though the old forums are rather nice looking too, they were easier to read).

[kurfu.5623]

There is also a discussion going on in the old forum that is worth looking at:

 

[https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865](https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865 "https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865")

[notebene.3190]

I don't like being logged out even more than I used to. Seems like every time I alt-tab back to see what's going on, I have to click login again, then scroll down, then come back into the forum. It was actually easier before hitting F5 and then speed entering my user/pass, at least it put me back where I was. Now I might not remember what forum I was reading when I alt-tab back to the forum.

[Moyayuki.3619]

> @kurfu.5623 said:

> There is also a discussion going on in the old forum that is worth looking at:

>

> [https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865](https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865 "https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865")

 

The problem is, complaining about it on the now-older site won't change anything. It's best if we all be pro-active and post our constructive feedback here so that the good folks whose job it is to make the site can see what works and what doesn't.

[Ulion.5476]

I would like longer borders on the side of the forum. I need an option to reduce the size of text on the forums instead of having to zoom out. All of the text/icons are to big.

[lLobo.7960]

Is there anyway to hide all the icons under each post and all the images on sides and avatars?

It's terrible to read at work.

[Bears Man.4896]

great design of new forums love it

 

[Ampa.2749]

1. "Poster avatars" are too big. Serve no purpose. The use of color for avatars with B&W text just distracts from the text. The text is why I'm here.

2. The sometimes quite large collection of "reaction avatars" serves no purpose. I don't know why I need to see the identity of everyone who responds.

3. Too much white space. It may look nice as a layout, but does not help finding and reading individual posts.

4. Artwork along the margins? Really? Not why I'm here.

 

This layout of the forums seems to be the "verbose" form. I think I would prefer the "compact" form if there was one.

I have expressed my skepticism elsewhere about the security rationale for the omission of images. Not buying it.

 

However I do appreciate the migration to a system that will support searching.

[Sicarine.3985]

Dev tracker not easily accessible (impossible actually) through mobile. I don't wanna scroll through player comments on the train. I want to know what anet's saying when they're saying it.

[Arkarian.1679]

New forums look great overall, you did a good job. There's one thing though that I find particularly uncomfortable, and that is the huge line of reaction avatars under each post. It makes a thread really hard to follow and uneasy to read. I would probably replace that with a simple counter for each reaction (like, helpful and so on), which you could click and get a list of each user who was reacted to that post (similar to Facebook reactions).

 

Alternatively, you could keep the avatars as they are now, but reduce its size drastically to not interfere with reading overall, so that you could realistically accumulate 50+ likes in no more than two lines of avatars (basically like the size of the quote / helpful / thumbs icons without text).

 

[Hanakocz.5697]

Can we get some settings to set our "you have been logged out for inactivity" to some longer interval than just few minutes? PLEASE PLEASE

 

Also would be lovely if we can have some settings for like 50% zoom than default :)

[NitricRose.1863]

Wow, a truly awful user interface. I am with Zalifer.6140. This is a total disaster.

And what's with the dim, gray text? I have a hard time reading it.

Stupid pop-ups in the middle of the screen.

I will not be using this forum.

Can anyone suggest other decent GW2 forums?

[kKagari.6804]

Sending private messages seems a lot harder than it needs to be, if I click someones profile, I can't seem to send that person a private message.

[kurfu.5623]

> @Moyayuki.3619 said:

> > @kurfu.5623 said:

> > There is also a discussion going on in the old forum that is worth looking at:

> >

> > [https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865](https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865 "https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/game/gw2/Honestly-I-like-this-forum-alot-better/first#post6748865")

>

> The problem is, complaining about it on the now-older site won't change anything. It's best if we all be pro-active and post our constructive feedback here so that the good folks whose job it is to make the site can see what works and what doesn't.

 

That is why I posted a link here.