Feedback: Official Forums

[notebene.3190]

What about moving the settings, notifications, inbox, profile navigator down?

 

There is a lot of 'dead space' at the top of the page, and if we could scroll down to just above the forum title, we could still see the that navigator, and see more posts at the same time.

 


 

 

 

[Crycerasobs.7864]

More avatar options as others have said, or at least some that are a bit less blurry. I _know_ you there are higher resolution versions of these images, this Rytlock is my desktop on my 1920x1080 monitor, and there he looks as sharp and crisp as the Brimboy himself! Here he looks like a mushy old potato thats been left behind a dirty old fridge growing tumors for 48 years

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Boogiepop Void.6473" said:

> Moderation messages are vague to the point of uselessness. No information is given on what the offending post was, so you have no way to examine what kitten the messages. No one can just magically become a better poster with no actionable feedback. A warning that gives no details on why it was issued is worse than useless.

 

We absolutely are working on this. It's a perplexing and intermittent issue. As you later decided, writing us at Forums@Arena.Net is the best way to ask questions of this nature, and I appreciate that you did that eventually and will be responding today.

 

> @"Boogiepop Void.6473" said:

> My icon has a cage on it. I'm not sure if this is viable to everyone or just me, or what it means. If you are going to use iconography it has to be clearly defined.

 

Can you take a screenshot of that, host it, and send me a link? That's weird!

[Charrbeque.8729]

There seems to be no buttons for pages to go to first or last page in the thread. Only buttons to go to previous and next page.

 

Edit: Usually on forums, a single arrow goes to next/previous page while a double arrow goes to first/last page (you're using double arrows for previous and next page).

 

Silly ArenaNet. :p

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @Charrbeque.8729 said:

> There seems to be no buttons for pages to go to first or last page in the thread. Only buttons to go to previous and next page.

>

> Edit: Usually on forums, a single arrow goes to next/previous page while a double arrow goes to first/last page.

 

Ahh! That is what was poking at the back of my mind earlier! I noticed it, but didn't mentally parse it. We should have the single arrow for one-page progression, and the double arrow for "end of pages" or "start of pages" I agree with you. Thanks.

[Charrbeque.8729]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > @Charrbeque.8729 said:

> > There seems to be no buttons for pages to go to first or last page in the thread. Only buttons to go to previous and next page.

> >

> > Edit: Usually on forums, a single arrow goes to next/previous page while a double arrow goes to first/last page.

>

> Ahh! That is what was poking at the back of my mind earlier! I noticed it, but didn't mentally parse it. We should have the single arrow for one-page progression, and the double arrow for "end of pages" or "start of pages" I agree with you. Thanks.

 

Glad to help. :)

[Puffershark.2489]

3. I believe the vertical space between forum posts is good as it is now.

 

The actual spacing looks fine to me -- but I _would_ like it if our usernames could be re-positioned a little. If they could align with the top of our avatar, instead of being 'centered' on the same line, I think that would fix the issue a lot of people seem to be having with too much space. Without having the block of color that dev posts do, I can see how it'd feel like there's an awkward gap. :)

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

It would be nice, like in the old forums, if one used the browser to 'go back', it went to the list of threads in the sub-forum, rather than to the previous page in the sub-forum. So, one doesn't always need to scroll up to the top of the page. Or, at least, have a 'take me to the top of the page' button always accessible, no matter where one is on the page.

 

Also, sometimes when I enter a thread I've visited before, it takes me to the post right after the last post I read, and sometimes, it does not, but drops me somewhere else in the thread. It's kind of irritating, to be honest. I hope that can be fixed, soon.

 

Thanks.

[OriOri.8724]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > @Vikkela.7261 said:

> > Downvoting is a horrible system. The total amount of thumbs down even shows up in your profile It will discourage open discussion and scare people from posting.

> > Not to mention people are more likely to press downvote on anything they dislike even the slightest where as average and good posts will get much less activity from thumbs ups.

>

> I understand your input. It is shared by many forum members, where others point to benefits of a full reaction system. As I said previously, we are likely to be making some changes to the system next week.

 

I think a full reaction system is very beneficial overall. However, I also don't see the need to make the amount of downvotes and upvotes that a person's comments have received public information on their profile (though helpful could stay). Also, the "draft saved" message that pops up is incredibly annoying. It stays for far too long (I waited one time just to see how persistent it was and it felt like it was up for almost a minute, while 5 seconds is way more than enough time), but is also centered on your screen instead of above the comment box. This means that if you are in the middle of writing your comment, the "draft saved" box covers up part of your comment, and if you are scrolling back up, it covers up text in the posts. Please sticky this popup to the top/bottom of the comment box instead of having what appears to be an alert box pop up instead.

 

Back to vertical space. There is far, far too much vertical whitespace in these forums. between posts. And I figured out where its coming from and why some people might be saying that there isn't enough. The old forums had about 1/4" of whitespace beneath the bottom of a comment until the line that separated posts, and then another 1/4" before the text of that next comment started. Overall was about 1/2" of vertical whitespace, enough to make individual comments stand out readily.

 

In these new forums, there is about 1/4" of room beneath the text, then about 1/4" of height for the "options" (report/helpful/thumbs up/down/quote), then a good 1/2" of empty whitespace before you get to the next poster's name, then another 1/4" to the actual line, and finally another 1/4" before the text starts. We end up with a solid 1.5" of empty, vertical white space, which is triple what the old forums had. I really don't understand how people are complaining about too little whitespace when its about triple what the old forum had....................

 

I'd recommend reducing the size of the "options" somewhat, and then very aggressively reducing the amount of vertical whitespace between a poster's forum name and the actual text of their comment, along with a shave to the whitespace that appears above a poster's forum name. All in all it should be easy to shave 1/2-3/4" inches of vertical whitespace out, without making it feel crammed. End result is substantial reduction in whitespace (33-50%), yet still leaving more than what the old forum had (to appease those people who are complaining about "not enough")

[Darlgon.9273]

@"Gaile Gray.6029" Stupid question time. The red box about the forum maintenance is still at the top of my forums. Will the banner will go away when done? OR, will I always have to click the X box to close announcements, even if they are expired? (I just realized I did some poor time conversion and the maintenace has not started. I thought it was over. Used to EST time conversion.)

[Darlgon.9273]

> @OriOri.8724 said:

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > > @Vikkela.7261 said:

> > > Downvoting is a horrible system. The total amount of thumbs down even shows up in your profile It will discourage open discussion and scare people from posting.

> > > Not to mention people are more likely to press downvote on anything they dislike even the slightest where as average and good posts will get much less activity from thumbs ups.

> >

> > I understand your input. It is shared by many forum members, where others point to benefits of a full reaction system. As I said previously, we are likely to be making some changes to the system next week.

>

> I think a full reaction system is very beneficial overall. However, I also don't see the need to make the amount of downvotes and upvotes that a person's comments have received public information on their profile (though helpful could stay). Also, the "draft saved" message that pops up is incredibly annoying. It stays for far too long (I waited one time just to see how persistent it was and it felt like it was up for almost a minute, while 5 seconds is way more than enough time), but is also centered on your screen instead of above the comment box. This means that if you are in the middle of writing your comment, the "draft saved" box covers up part of your comment, and if you are scrolling back up, it covers up text in the posts. Please sticky this popup to the top/bottom of the comment box instead of having what appears to be an alert box pop up instead.

>

> Back to vertical space. There is far, far too much vertical whitespace in these forums. between posts. And I figured out where its coming from and why some people might be saying that there isn't enough. The old forums had about 1/4" of whitespace beneath the bottom of a comment until the line that separated posts, and then another 1/4" before the text of that next comment started. Overall was about 1/2" of vertical whitespace, enough to make individual comments stand out readily.

>

> In these new forums, there is about 1/4" of room beneath the text, then about 1/4" of height for the "options" (report/helpful/thumbs up/down/quote), then a good 1/2" of empty whitespace before you get to the next poster's name, then another 1/4" to the actual line, and finally another 1/4" before the text starts. We end up with a solid 1.5" of empty, vertical white space, which is triple what the old forums had. I really don't understand how people are complaining about too little whitespace when its about triple what the old forum had....................

>

> I'd recommend reducing the size of the "options" somewhat, and then very aggressively reducing the amount of vertical whitespace between a poster's forum name and the actual text of their comment, along with a shave to the whitespace that appears above a poster's forum name. All in all it should be easy to shave 1/2-3/4" inches of vertical whitespace out, without making it feel crammed. End result is substantial reduction in whitespace (33-50%), yet still leaving more than what the old forum had (to appease those people who are complaining about "not enough")

 

 

Lol.. Oh.. sorry. Yeah, I am not sure I want it published to other players how many downvotes I have either. Sixteen is a lot, esp if you are being forum trolled by a member looking for your every post to downvote it.

 

AAAAnd.. the forums quoted a different poster than the one I tried to quote. Corrected it now. Boo.. Hiss.

[Nick Lentz.6982]

I think you should require players to say why they downvoted or upvoted someone's post instead of leaving it in the dark. It could weed out most trolls, and actual require feedback

[Donari.5237]

I also would like a next/previous page arrow to be a single > or < with the double to go to first and last. On top of that, the first page does not have a page list at the top, so when I am on my tablet not signed in (I do not use my password on my tablet as it is not nearly as secure a device as my computer) there's a lot of finger swiping involved to get to the newest page of a thread.

 

Feedback on the Report system: It looks nice and thorough. However, I just reported a post in a positive way to ask for it to be stickied, using the "other" option, and the popup said my complaint had been received. Could that perhaps be changed to "report" rather than "complaint?" I wasn't complaining in the slightest!

[nopoet.2960]

You see that line at the bottom of this post. It's unnecessary. The the red text, of you are logged in or the large name of the next poster is enough to delineate between post.

[TexZero.7910]

Search bar text is white on white for searching within a thread.

the ellipses for a thread serves no functional purpose (should be a jump to page with a user entry for number)

[Jaken.6801]

Got some QoL ideas, that would really help the forum:

 

* A interactive _jump to the top_ and _jump to the bottom_ would be beneficial. Since this version has more scrolling space, getting to the comment area or back to the controlls is rather annoying.

* Alternatively add buttons to the first post for a quick comment.

* Another alternative would be an adaptive control panel, that pops up if you scroll down, like on mobile. It's a hassle to scroll up all the way up.

* The Avatars need higher resulution. I am looking at Zoija right now and she is totally blurry

* Allowing to add PC's. devices or locations as a main access to the forums, to go around the security issue.

 

Some future ideas.

This forum would have benefitted from synergy with your account. Using the API's it would have been awesome to get access to special stuff if you played the game.

 

* Unlocked avatars based on story advancement, class played or rank earned. Basicly based on your game progress

* Badges or titles that we have unlocked could be transfered

* Guild logos could be added to the profile

* Guilds could be managed via the forum for recruiting (like inviting into a guild from here)

* Adding a build designer as a plug in to quickly exchange builds (like other websites do already), in the Class Forums for example.

 

Overall there could be a lot of stuff you could have added by mixing the two.

[Leo G.4501]

I don't have much to complain about in these new forums except for the autosave prompt occasionally popping up and blocking my view. Maybe a more transparent prompt or just a pulsing text message rather than a pop-up. It's more an issue with the mobile version since there's already limited screen space.

 

I do like the thumbs up/thumbs down/helpful options for expressing your opinion without requiring writing a post. On the older forums, ideas that many would consider quite good and some may post in the thread to express that but it was more likely to be seen as silence. You wouldn't know how many people like an idea or disaprove of it if no one commented. And while you can't force people to comment on stuff, more options to convey information is a step in the right direction.

 

Some may not like getting thumbs down, so I'd suggest changing the wording from "Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down" to "Agree/Disagree". The simple icons are fine but this text change may make these expressions seem less "negative" in the majority's eyes.

 

I would also recommend disabling the capability of viewing other posters' "agree/disagree" votes through their profile as well as the ability to vote on a person's posts on their profile to curb potential abuse of this system.

 

Oh, and one last thing. Maybe I'm just not seeing it but it's difficult to find the threads I've posted in. On the old forums, there was an icon next to the thread title to give you a clear indicator of where the threads you want to keep up with are.

[DakotaCoty.5721]

> @Jaken.6801 said:

> Got some QoL ideas, that would really help the forum:

>

> * A interactive _jump to the top_ and _jump to the bottom_ would be beneficial. Since this version has more scrolling space, getting to the comment area or back to the controlls is rather annoying.

> * Alternatively add buttons to the first post for a quick comment.

> * Another alternative would be an adaptive control panel, that pops up if you scroll down, like on mobile. It's a hassle to scroll up all the way up.

> * The Avatars need higher resulution. I am looking at Zoija right now and she is totally blurry

> * Allowing to add PC's. devices or locations as a main access to the forums, to go around the security issue.

>

> Some future ideas.

> This forum would have benefitted from synergy with your account. Using the API's it would have been awesome to get access to special stuff if you played the game.

>

> * Unlocked avatars based on story advancement, class played or rank earned. Basicly based on your game progress

> * Badges or titles that we have unlocked could be transfered

> * Guild logos could be added to the profile

> * Guilds could be managed via the forum for recruiting (like inviting into a guild from here)

> * Adding a build designer as a plug in to quickly exchange builds (like other websites do already), in the Class Forums for example.

>

> Overall there could be a lot of stuff you could have added by mixing the two.

 

I really like the badges / titles.

 

I'd love to wear my Twice-Told Legend title on the forums.

[Juba.8406]

I will say it again and again, Deleting +5 Years of content is a Mistake.

 

There has to be a way to migrate old content.

[Jwake.7013]

Not sure this is possible or even practical, but regarding the Avatar images; what if we could do something like how guild emblems are made. Where we have a set amount of symbols and colors to make our own from those choices? Just thought I'd toss out the idea to everyone.

[CrimsonNeonite.1048]

The mobile site is much more readable than the desktop one, which has poor formatting and layout.

[Leo G.4501]

As I'm browsing around, I was kind of surprised by the fact the forum notifies me in real time with a pop-up that someone posted in a thread I read. Granted, it wasn't a useful notification, it did make me think of some ways I'd like to use it if you add more features and customization to that feature.

 

Beyond just turning the feature off, I'd like to be able to only get notifications from the threads I bookmark as well as from posters I "mark" in some way. I don't think there's an option for that anywhere so I'd suggest adding a "Followers" feature so I can be notified when a specific poster makes a thread or post. You can even link a badge to having a certain amount of followers.

 

[EDIT] Ok Just realized the live notification was from a thread I accidentally bookmarked so the feature likely is defaulted to bookmarked threads. Still, my other suggestion stands. I'd like live notifications for posters I'm following :)

[Leo G.4501]

> @CrimsonNeonite.1048 said:

> The mobile site is much more readable than the desktop one, which has poor formatting and layout.

 

Also, the mobile site doesn't ever seem to log me out. That's pretty nice :)

[Lyp Sao.1375]

I can't cancel an edit. Even if I clear the text field (bottom of page) and change the page it keeps saying __draft saved__

 

* write something in the text field

* wait a few seconds

* draft message pops up

* clear the field (because I do not want to post)

* change the page

* old text is now restored and draft message pops up ??

 

_I'm curious: Is the forum a commercial software or is it self baked?_

 

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"Lyp Sao.1375" said:

> I can't cancel an edit. Even if I clear the text field (bottom of page) and change the page it keeps saying __draft saved__

>

> * write something in the text field

> * wait a few seconds

> * draft message pops up

> * clear the field (because I do not want to post)

> * change the page

> * old text is now restored and draft message pops up ??

>

> _I'm curious: Is the forum a commercial software or is it self baked?_

>

 

You _can_ get rid of them, but it's more involved. You have to navigate to your 'Saved Drafts" (Gear - top of forum)and use the X to get rid of it.

 

Good luck.