Feedback: Official Forums

[Gandalf.1537]

Went to the new forums, and lost all my discussions? And started threads? Oh well. :(

[LadyFearghus.3406]

Overall, I think I'm definitely going to stop visiting these forums unless I absolutely need to.

Really, I don't see how you guys didn't notice how bad this new design was.

 

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**Positives:**

 

_**Operational Search function-**_ This is great. Something we have needed for so long. For now, it seems to work perfectly.

 

_**The Badges-**_ I've always liked badges on forums. Gives a sense of accomplishment and even gives small goals outside of the game.

 

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**Negatives:**

 

_**Limited Editing Times**_ Why? Why? Why? This is by far the worst idea. And 100% the main reason for me to stop coming to these forums. 15 minutes is absurd, but at least that is fixed by ranking up a bit. Ranking up is not a hard task. This hinders immediate trolls. Great. I get that. But why 4 hours? The first post in a thread is THE most important. Artists now can't alter their original post to reflect new commission prices or showcase new work/updated skill. Guilds can't update their original post to reflect their latest guild size, their guild hall level, maybe restrictions have changed, maybe they stopped WvW and want to take that out so that WvW players would look elsewhere, maybe they want to temporarily stop recruiting, maybe their webiste changed. Not to mention just basic editing mistakes people make. THIS ABSOLUTELY NEEDS TO BE FIXED. Trolls trying to edit their post and appear the victim is not a good excuse for this and as far as I can tell that was pretty rare anyway. Expecting people to read through every post to see all updates on a guild recruitment thread is just plain stupid.

 

_**No images in posts-**_ The forums are now going to remain incredibly bland and flat and just generally hard to look at. I frequent the "Creations" sub. I don't want to always have to click links to get to images. If I'm looking for a particular art style for a commission, I want to be able to see immediately on that opening post if their art style is right for me. Embedded images can also help in guild recruitment posts to give a sense of the guild without having to go to their forum/site first. If someone has a screenshot of a problem they have, players can immeditaly start typing up a post that can help them without having to go to a new page.

 

_**No Date Immediately Visible On Posts-**_ Perhaps this is just because the forums are so new and has yet to show the "# days ago" like the previous forum, but for now a post time doesn't help at all without a date as well. This means immediately visible as you are scrolling through, NOT as you hover over the time.

 

_**Not Enough To Separate Posts-**_ This makes the forums look very messy. While signatures will start to help this, there needs to be more of an obvious separation between posts. Right now it's messy and very cluttered. Hard to read. Ironically, because it's so cramped in the middle and so empty on the sides, this site is both too empty and too cramped at the same time. How'd you manage that?

 

_**Post Are Way Too Wide-**_ This post would be a wall of text no matter what, but at least on the old forum it would be easier to read.

 

_**Markdown Is Annoying To Use**_ BBCode has always been more user friendly and looks better anyway.

 

_**Can't Click Through To All Dev Posts In A Thread-**_ This is very important. Dev Posts are very important, and sometimes the only reason I go into a thread. The old forums allowed us to click through to the next Dev Post in that specific thread even if it was on another page. Incredibly helpful to read Dev Posts on a large thread with many pages to go through.

 

_**Read Threads Are Not Grayed Out-**_ Perhaps I am missing this, but there appears to be no indication that you just visited and read that thread. Or that there are no new posts since your last read through. This is horrible and NEEDS to be fixed before I choose to even just read these forums anymore. Also no indication to which threads I've already commented in?

 

_**Threads In Lists Are Too Wide/Tall**_ This is probably due to the avatars being there, but the thinner lists makes it much easier to find the thread you are looking for.

 

_**Not Enough Colour-**_ Guys... I'm colourblind and never tend to say this. This site needs more COLOUR. Way too white. At least the old forums had much more red and even gray and black around it to fix this. Seriously, way too bright. My eyes are literally starting to hurt.

 

_**Constant Draft Saved Notification-**_ This is incredibly annoying as it pops up right above where you are typing. If this is an absolute must for you guys, at least make it less opaque so we can still see what we are typing. Would still be incredibly annoying, but at least I wouldn't HAVE to 'X' it out everytime. Put this on the bottom where the "You can use Markdown in your post." message is.

 

_**Constantly Logged Out-**_ I was literally logged out four times WHILE writing just this post. Receiving the "You don't have permission to do that" message when typing or trying to preview my post. Logging us out WAY too frequently and while I'm still active. Which leads to the last VERY annoying new "addition":

 

_**You've Been Signed Out-**_ Opening a bunch of tabs to then read later is how I typically read the forums. To go to the bathroom and return to an auto signed out page is so pointlessly annoying. Stay on the page I was reading!!!

 

 

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**Pointless Additions:**

 

_**Avatars-**_ I really can't figure out why these were added. The point of an avatar is to add unique identification to a user. To give a more sense of self. Without the ability to customize this (and I understand why you chose to not have this on a professional forum) there is just no point. Literally all these help to do is separate one post from another, but there are better ways to do that. Plus, they are so low resolution that they are just bad. At they veeerry least make them look good.

 

_**Muting-**_ I'm honestly not sure if this is new, but what is the point of muting a thread? Hiding a thread would be far more useful to me. For example, I never PvP, so fully hiding the whole PvP sub would make it easier to find the subs I actually do want to read.

 

_**Thumbs Up/Down**_ What is this now, reddit? Everyone can recognize a troll, we don't need to give them a thumbs down. If you want to thank someone for a good post, you write that in a new post. This literally only harms legit posters who don't understand why people are downvoting them. I see it all the time on reddit. Absolutely NO point for this. If anything, just keep the Thumbs up/old +1 system.

 

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This is from only an hour (most of which was just typing this comment) I can guarantee there will be more negatives if I chose to stay. But I literally can't stay on here much longer. My eyes are really beginning to hurt.

[Citri.9540]

Me looking at the page numbers for longer threads: 

 

Perhaps they could be made a little bigger?

[DakotaCoty.5721]

> @Gandalf.1537 said:

> Went to the new forums, and lost all my discussions? And started threads? Oh well. :(

 

Gaile stated that you can move the thread yourself by re-starting the discussion(s) on this new forums; they won't delete any threads that are duplicate on this forum and the prior forum.

[PainbowBrite.3785]

Couldn't change avatar from mobile mode.

 

Now that I switch to desktop, can't switch it back to mobile..

[mbhalo.1547]

1. The color of the font - its only 75% brightness of the black, makes harder to read and puts strain on the eyes.

2. Lots of empty space everywhere and lack of visual structure makes the forums hard to navigate.

3. Icons of people that gave reaction under the post - JUST NO.

 

 

[Cronos.6532]

Oh yeah, why isn't the text of every post/"comment" black? That's incredibly stupid.

[Cronos.6532]

A big positive bit of feedback is how fast the pages load though. It's very fast.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Ok, this is truly annoying. I started a post a few pages back, did some research before posting it to the forums, changed my mind, and deleted all the text. While reading the next page of posts, I got a 'Draft Saved' message, and thought, "Hmm. That's odd, I'm not preparing a post.". Got to the bottom of that next page, and found my (I thought)previously deleted post, just sitting there, waiting for me. Sigh. Deleted the text. Went to the next page, and the next, and lo and behold, there's the post again...and again.

 

I'm guessing one must track down the last page of a thread, locate your non-posted post, and erase the text there. Though, I can't be sure, as I'm now using the 'post' I deleted to type this. Evidently, there is no 'Delete' function like we had before. I had (silly me) thought just not posting it would make it magically disappear when changing pages. (Just to note, it was long after the 15 minute edit window.)

[nottsgman.8206]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> Ok, this is truly annoying. I started a post a few pages back, did some research before posting it to the forums, changed my mind, and deleted all the text. While reading the next page of posts, I got a 'Draft Saved' message, and thought, "Hmm. That's odd, I'm not preparing a post.". Got to the bottom of that next page, and found my (I thought)previously deleted post, just sitting there, waiting for me. Sigh. Deleted the text. Went to the next page, and the next, and lo and behold, there's the post again...and again.

>

> I'm guessing one must track down the last page of a thread, locate your non-posted post, and erase the text there. Though, I can't be sure, as I'm now using the 'post' I deleted to type this. Evidently, there is no 'Delete' function like we had before. I had (silly me) thought just not posting it would make it magically disappear when changing pages. (Just to note, it was long after the 15 minute edit window.)

 

deleting the text, even in the original post, doesn't remove the draft (found this out in this thread). the only way I have found for it to not do as you said is to either begin a new reply (I'm guessing in the original thread), or manually delete the draft from the drafts page.

[Aleksander Suburb.4287]

It is more complicated to integrate a link into your post

[guildwars2.com]( http://www. guildwars2.com " guildwars2.com " )

 

It is not clear where you can label your own link and why you must write the real link two times. In addition it is two long in editor mode, so you cant easy read and correct your post

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

It's not the draft I'm referring to, unless it's automatically adding drafts to threads. It is starting a post, and then deciding not to post it into the thread. There doesn't seem to be a way to get rid of it. One should only have to remove the text. If one must go look up drafts in your personal account page, and then delete those, well...that just seems silly and a lot more work than needed.

 

Edit: Oh, yes. I didn't properly read your post. This is just so irritating. This forum really needs some work. I'm enjoying it less as time goes by, rather than more as I learn how it works. Sigh.

[PBag.7450]

The mobile version (though very black and white and gray) is nice but one thing that irks me is that subforums and threads are navigated to by clicking the text rather than clicking the full gray box. It's just a UX request that I should be able to click the same location on all threads and subforums to navigate too them. As it stands, a topic with the name "Hi" needs to be clicked more carefully than one that is significantly longer. I only noticed this because I kept tapping to bring a post up and having nothing happen.

[Zephyra.4709]

Thanks for the update to the forums; I was actually in doubt they would _ever_ be updated seeing as the old search function was a complete dud. Here's my 2 cents regarding physical appearance;

 

**Good:**

 

* Lots of room for text/paragraphs

* Avatars are a nice addition and add flavor to profiles/user's posts

* Report/Quote features are orderly

* Enjoying the auto 'bold' and 'italic' selections etc instead of manually having to type it all out

 

**Bad:**

 

* Too much white space; please take a look at _Oldschool Runescape_ forums for a nice boxed/tight knit appearance which is easier on the eyes

* Way too many 'underscore lines' which give a mottled/rag-tag appearance to posts

* Enlarge the 'view next page' section considering posts are now very wide

* Add text overlay to explain what certain features do, e.g; search function should state "search" when hovering over it after a brief period

* Include full date/month/year when post was made instead of merely hover over feature considering the new sheer width of posts - there's plenty o' space!

* Add some color!

 

Overall look forward to zipping through how things actually work... keep up the great work ANet!

[Soren.9316]

Just want to give a huge huge thumbs up for the new look and dynamic scaling. The forms look gorgeous on the phone and in a small browser window. Clean layouts are always a win!

[Juba.8406]

Hard to navigate, Hard on the eye.

[Winderly.2718]

Yesterday i hated the auto sign out for inactivity feature. i signed back in and was sent to the forum index. Who wants that ? Seriously ?

That's just Grawl wrongdoing.

Today i found another reason to hate this. As i was reading (page after page) i suddenly realized that i couldn't thumb up or mark as helpful anymore.

Turned out that i was auto signed out.

So reading the forum is inactivity ?

What's wrong with you ?

 

So now to work around this issue, i have to keep an extra useless tab of the forum open.

When i get auto signed out, i use said useless tab to sign back in.

And after that i refresh the pages i was using.

 

Nobody should have to do all this to use a forum.

[Slaywright.4807]

I'd appreciate if the forum font size respected my browser's text size setting. Due to my eyesight being just that little bit worse I have to strain my eyes quite a bit to read the forums. I know I can zoom in, but I really don't need the phone version when I have mouse and keyboard control. I know it's as simple as switching from pixel-perfect font sizes to relative size in a number of places in the CSS, and I imagine I am not alone with text size issues in either direction. The font size option's in browsers for a reason :)

[Winderly.2718]

i may have found an explanation for the inactivity auto sign out feature existence.

i cannot find the sign out button. Does it exist ?

[nottsgman.8206]

> @Winderly.2718 said:

> i may have found an explanation for the inactivity auto sign out feature existence.

> i cannot find the sign out button. Does it exist ?

 

little gear icon at the very top of the page (account options) >> Sign Out. it's obscure, but it is there :)

[Ceridwen.6703]

Probably already been suggested, but it would be nice if the "Draft Saved" and other notifications didn't crop up right in the text reply box as I'm typing (or that notifications didn't interfere with the Post Comment function).

[Charrbeque.8729]

Overall pretty decent. It will take a little getting use to, but I like the new forums so far.

[Winderly.2718]

> @nottsgman.8206 said:

> little gear icon at the very top of the page (account options) >> Sign Out. it's obscure, but it is there :)

 

Thank you.

It would make more sense to me if that gear was used only for actual options.

The sign out button should be near the user name (as is in any normal forum).

[Charrbeque.8729]

Would be nice to add screenshots to our posts like the old forums. I don't like the idea of having to use a third-party website for that.

 

I used Imageshack for a few years but then they decided to go subscription only. Then I switched to Photobucket. After a couple years or so of using them, they decided to go subscription only a few months ago and I closed my account. (this was for the forums of another MMO I play)

 

Most of the time I share screenshots related to bug reports. I don't see a reason to pay a monthly subscription for posting an image once in a while. :/

[Norbe.7630]

im also getting dizzy after reading a few lines :s