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[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @AegisRunestone.8672 said:

> > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > Interesting, I went into this thread to read new posts and found that the post I had previously typed and abandoned is still there awaiting for me to post. That's kinda useful, especially if I have to come back later due to afk or a power cut. Whether it was because I had quoted another post I'm not sure.

> >

> > Also, is there a way to delete posts after you post one? Perhaps I am just being blind, but I couldn't see said option.

>

> Unfortunately, there is not. The original way was to report your own post to have it deleted, but you can't report your own posts anymore. :S

 

You can, however, edit the post to say "Removed content." That's fine within a thread, and I would only contact the moderators to request a removal if you are removing the first post in a thread.

[Randulf.7614]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > @AegisRunestone.8672 said:

> > > @"Randulf.7614" said:

> > > Interesting, I went into this thread to read new posts and found that the post I had previously typed and abandoned is still there awaiting for me to post. That's kinda useful, especially if I have to come back later due to afk or a power cut. Whether it was because I had quoted another post I'm not sure.

> > >

> > > Also, is there a way to delete posts after you post one? Perhaps I am just being blind, but I couldn't see said option.

> >

> > Unfortunately, there is not. The original way was to report your own post to have it deleted, but you can't report your own posts anymore. :S

>

> You can, however, edit the post to say "Removed content." That's fine within a thread, and I would only contact the moderators to request a removal if you are removing the first post in a thread.

 

OK thanks, I'll keep that in mind should I need to delete something. Hopefully the option to self-delete will come in time though.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @Agrotera.1254 said:

> I used to love coming on to the forums every day just to read. I would look at what was being talked about, answer questions and give help where I could. It was part of my day, something that I did every day before signing in to play. It was a part of my day that I enjoyed, that I looked forward to.

>

> Now I HATE the forums. They are hard to understand, hard to read. The only reason that I came here today was to post this. In short, the new forums are horrible and I want the old format back.

 

Comments like this, while heart-felt, are not of assistance in our determining your concerns. Saying "I don't like something" isn't valuable. Saying, "I don't like this, because I prefer that" will give us genuine and potentially helpful feedback. I don't know what "hard to understand" and "hard to read" means. The font? The configuration? The color? Is that the thread pages? The index? Your feedback is welcome but will only help us all if you share it in a meaningful level of detail.

[Archranis.2375]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > @Agrotera.1254 said:

> > I used to love coming on to the forums every day just to read. I would look at what was being talked about, answer questions and give help where I could. It was part of my day, something that I did every day before signing in to play. It was a part of my day that I enjoyed, that I looked forward to.

> >

> > Now I HATE the forums. They are hard to understand, hard to read. The only reason that I came here today was to post this. In short, the new forums are horrible and I want the old format back.

>

> Comments like this, while heart-felt, are not of assistance in our determining your concerns. Saying "I don't like something" isn't valuable. Saying, "I don't like this, because I prefer that" will give us genuine and potentially helpful feedback. I don't know what "hard to understand" and "hard to read" means. The font? The configuration? The color? Is that the thread pages? The index? Your feedback is welcome but will only help us all if you share it in a meaningful level of detail.

 

Gaile,

 

I think what you're asking is most reasonable. Permit me to toss out a few thoughts:

 

I think these features of the new forums are great:

* A search function that works. WOOT!

* Keeping track of my comments and the threads I've started, and letting me go straight to them. Very nice.

* Remembering my login information so I don't have to log in every time I visit the forums.

* Notifications when someone has posted to a thread I've started

* The removal of the "thumbs down" votes. Thank you for taking action on the feedback on this.

 

I would *really* like these things changed:

* The pop-up that tells me every single minute that a draft has been saved. Reason: This adds no value and is constantly getting in the way of what I'm typing. Request: eliminate this entirely.

* The secretive nature of what the various levels of "reward" are, being cast as a "discovery/surprise". Specifically, what does it take to allow signatures? Reason: Many of us come to the forums to find information, to advertise our guilds, and are volunteering our time in the forums to help each other by answering questions. The new forums behave more like a social media conversation rather than a bulletin board. They would have more utility if they were more functionally-oriented, particularly by providing posters' contact/guild information. Request: Enable signatures across the board -- and if anyone abuses this ability after a warning (maybe signatures are too long, for example), then prohibit *that individual* from using signatures.

* The spacing between lines of text (in printers terms, the "leading") is too much for the font size. Reason: This makes it harder to read because the distance between lines of a single paragraph more closely resembles the spacing between paragraphs. Request: Please use single spacing for lines in the same paragraph, which is typically 1.2x the point size for digital typesetting.

* Restrictions on editing a post. Reason: This is of particular importance for Looking For Guild -- if there is an error/update to one of our posts (especially the first one), we need to edit *that* post so that people viewing it are not given incorrect information -- even if that happens months and months after the thread was created. Same goes for deleting a post. Request: eliminate time-based restrictions for editing/deleting one of our own posts.

 

Thank you.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

@"Archranis.2375" It only takes 72 hours of forum participation to be able to edit posts, forever. Hard to say, but the official "Forum: How do I..." thread states signatures are unlocked by becoming a Veteran (needs 30 days to kick in - there may be other requirements).

I don't know if it changed, but staying logged in used to be much better on the old forums (I turned it off on this forum), and it's always saved your log-in information if you asked your browser to do so.

The Dev Tracker was SO much better in the old forums. This one is next to useless.

[AegisRunestone.8672]

@"Archranis.2375" Time editing restrictions don't last long. IIRC, you just need to have been here 72 hours, or (so I've heard) participate in 4 discussions. You have 2 stars next to your nick which means you have unlimited editing time now.

 

As for the sig, I think it's 30 days. It was about 30 days to the date I joined the new forums when I got promoted to Veteran. Though, I agree a restriction on sigs is a bit pointless.

 

I also would like a little more spacing between paragraphs.

 

And increased sig font sizes--just a little more.

[Magnoshuttat.5720]

Okay so I haven't been with this game for very long and so far it's been a lot of fun, but can someone tell me why in Heart of Thorns the developers thought it would be a good idea to have Vines that can almost kill you instantly and from anywhere on the screen. I have tried to get through the Mordremoth events and no matter what armor upgrades I put on or potion/food I use to boost my abilities and power I simply can not get through these events without dying a minute or two into the event. It's getting to the point where the game isn't even worth the effort because it's no longer fun when your character keeps getting their ass handed to them by a damn plant.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @Magnoshuttat.5720 said:

> Okay so I haven't been with this game for very long and so far it's been a lot of fun, but can someone tell me why in Heart of Thorns the developers thought it would be a good idea to have Vines that can almost kill you instantly and from anywhere on the screen. I have tried to get through the Mordremoth events and no matter what armor upgrades I put on or potion/food I use to boost my abilities and power I simply can not get through these events without dying a minute or two into the event. It's getting to the point where the game isn't even worth the effort because it's no longer fun when your character keeps getting their kitten handed to them by a kitten plant.

 

I'm afraid this has nothing to do with the New Forums. You might try the 'Players Helping Players' sub-forum for advice. I would suggest playing through Core Tyria and the Personal Story, as well as Dry Top, The Silverwastes and Living World Season Two, first.

 

Good luck.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I've mentioned this before, but it seems to be getting increasingly worse. The Dev carousel is broken. Posts may only stay a short few hours; posts disappear not in chronological order; no idea if all posts are showing up now.

 

Please look into it, as the Dev Tracker is useless, so the carousel was the only way to see new Dev posts. Thank you.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

I wanted to update about the Dev Tracker and the Carousel:

 

**Tracker:** ArenaNet approached our forum supplier to request further work on the Dev Tracker. We really want to get it aligned with our expectations and those of our forum members. There are several ways in which we believe the tracker could be improved, but at this time it's not clear how many changes we will be able to get made on the back end. I do expect some improvements, but frankly I really doubt that we will ever have a Dev Tracker that functions like the tracker on the old forums. (The old forums had many issues, but the DT was one the its bright spots.) Right now, I am personally trying to learn how to work with what we have, even while I wish it was a lot better. I am speaking nearly daily with our Web Services Programmer so that we can clearly communicate our requests to Vanilla and -- cross fingers! -- I'll update when we know more.

 

**Carousel:** The carousel -- that rotating series of six recent dev posts at the top of the index page -- is not working well, and again, we've communicated our desires to Vanilla Forums. One of the problems that I see is that if a dev quotes someone, the quote shows up (being the topmost portion of a thread) in the carousel rather than the actual dev comment. We may not be able to fix that, but I know we'd all rather see what the dev wrote. I've amended my own posting patterns so in many cases, I do not quote someone, which allows a bit more of my comments to be visible in the carousel. I can share that tip with the team, as well. But there are other issues, too, so we're pursing getting things fixed and improved on that system, too.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

I think the general discussion forum needs more sticky threads. There are not nearly enough. My fingers need more exercise via scrolling to get to actual member posts because the extra spacing and clutter between thread titles isn't enough. Possible suggestions for more sticky threads, "This is what a sticky thread looks like", "This is a Quaggan (include a picture)", "How to view sticky threads", "How Raptors feed their young", "Hey look! It's another sticky thread". Thanks for your consideration. ;)

 

Sorry for the sarcasm but an abundance of sticky threads in forums is something that bugs me. Even as a new member of a forum with sticky threads I tend to scroll right past them without reading to get to the actual discussion.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

In the carousel, I don't really find the Devs quoting someone an issue; clicking on it still takes you to the Dev quote, and one wants to know what they are responding to (in most cases), anyway. But, the carousel eating posts is an issue, and the Dev Tracker tracking threads instead of posts is useless.

[StinVec.3621]

Regarding the quote issue: It may be a good idea in the meantime to instruct the team to continue quoting posts they are responding to, but to instead make their comment _above_ the quote, just like I did with quoting you. This way the dev's comment is first and the quote second, allowing for the comment to be immediately visible in the carousel instead of the body of the comment they are responding to.

 

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> I wanted to update about the Dev Tracker and the Carousel:

>

> **Tracker:** ArenaNet approached our forum supplier to request further work on the Dev Tracker. We really want to get it aligned with our expectations and those of our forum members. There are several ways in which we believe the tracker could be improved, but at this time it's not clear how many changes we will be able to get made on the back end. I do expect some improvements, but frankly I really doubt that we will ever have a Dev Tracker that functions like the tracker on the old forums. (The old forums had many issues, but the DT was one the its bright spots.) Right now, I am personally trying to learn how to work with what we have, even while I wish it was a lot better. I am speaking nearly daily with our Web Services Programmer so that we can clearly communicate our requests to Vanilla and -- cross fingers! -- I'll update when we know more.

>

> **Carousel:** The carousel -- that rotating series of six recent dev posts at the top of the index page -- is not working well, and again, we've communicated our desires to Vanilla Forums. One of the problems that I see is that if a dev quotes someone, the quote shows up (being the topmost portion of a thread) in the carousel rather than the actual dev comment. We may not be able to fix that, but I know we'd all rather see what the dev wrote. I've amended my own posting patterns so in many cases, I do not quote someone, which allows a bit more of my comments to be visible in the carousel. I can share that tip with the team, as well. But there are other issues, too, so we're pursing getting things fixed and improved on that system, too.

 

 

[OriOri.8724]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> I wanted to update about the Dev Tracker and the Carousel:

>

> **Tracker:** ArenaNet approached our forum supplier to request further work on the Dev Tracker. We really want to get it aligned with our expectations and those of our forum members. There are several ways in which we believe the tracker could be improved, but at this time it's not clear how many changes we will be able to get made on the back end. I do expect some improvements, but frankly I really doubt that we will ever have a Dev Tracker that functions like the tracker on the old forums. (The old forums had many issues, but the DT was one the its bright spots.) Right now, I am personally trying to learn how to work with what we have, even while I wish it was a lot better. I am speaking nearly daily with our Web Services Programmer so that we can clearly communicate our requests to Vanilla and -- cross fingers! -- I'll update when we know more.

>

> **Carousel:** The carousel -- that rotating series of six recent dev posts at the top of the index page -- is not working well, and again, we've communicated our desires to Vanilla Forums. One of the problems that I see is that if a dev quotes someone, the quote shows up (being the topmost portion of a thread) in the carousel rather than the actual dev comment. We may not be able to fix that, but I know we'd all rather see what the dev wrote. I've amended my own posting patterns so in many cases, I do not quote someone, which allows a bit more of my comments to be visible in the carousel. I can share that tip with the team, as well. But there are other issues, too, so we're pursing getting things fixed and improved on that system, too.

 

Oh good to hear you guys are still improving the forums, as I have a couple more suggestions to make - namely can you guys edit the "leaving the forums" page to not appear when its a link to the gw2 wiki? The old forums had that and I miss it a lot

 

But first @"Gaile Gray.6029" about the quoting. The "carousel" just prints the first part of a devs comment, you can still quote people as long as you quote them at the bottom of your comment, your words will be what appears in the carousel thing.

[Dreggon.6598]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> I wanted to update about the Dev Tracker and the Carousel:

>

> **Tracker:** ArenaNet approached our forum supplier to request further work on the Dev Tracker. We really want to get it aligned with our expectations and those of our forum members. There are several ways in which we believe the tracker could be improved, but at this time it's not clear how many changes we will be able to get made on the back end. I do expect some improvements, but frankly I really doubt that we will ever have a Dev Tracker that functions like the tracker on the old forums. (The old forums had many issues, but the DT was one the its bright spots.) Right now, I am personally trying to learn how to work with what we have, even while I wish it was a lot better. I am speaking nearly daily with our Web Services Programmer so that we can clearly communicate our requests to Vanilla and -- cross fingers! -- I'll update when we know more.

 

The dev tracker was the reason I visited the forum in the first place, it's a really important and useful tool and if this new forum lacks that feature then it would honestly be better to revert to the previous forum.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

>but frankly I really doubt that we will ever have a Dev Tracker that functions like the tracker on the old forums.

 

That's too bad. It was one of the the best parts of the old forum IMO. The only thing I feel the old forum was lacking was a working search function. It seems the new forum has a lot of bells and whistles but at the expense of important functions outside the search feature. I think most couldn't care less about avatars, thumbs, badges and all that shiny stuff but instead would prefer more forum functionality. It seems that is too late now. Let's hope the people at Vanilla Forums can help fix the issue.

 

There is already the stigma that Anet doesn't participate enough in the official forums as opposed to Reddit. A busted Dev tracker doesn't help dispel that notion. We are all rooting for you to make it work!

[Ohoni.6057]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> I wanted to update about the Dev Tracker and the Carousel:

>

> **Tracker:** ArenaNet approached our forum supplier to request further work on the Dev Tracker. We really want to get it aligned with our expectations and those of our forum members. There are several ways in which we believe the tracker could be improved, but at this time it's not clear how many changes we will be able to get made on the back end. I do expect some improvements, but frankly I really doubt that we will ever have a Dev Tracker that functions like the tracker on the old forums. (The old forums had many issues, but the DT was one the its bright spots.) Right now, I am personally trying to learn how to work with what we have, even while I wish it was a lot better. I am speaking nearly daily with our Web Services Programmer so that we can clearly communicate our requests to Vanilla and -- cross fingers! -- I'll update when we know more.

>

> **Carousel:** The carousel -- that rotating series of six recent dev posts at the top of the index page -- is not working well, and again, we've communicated our desires to Vanilla Forums. One of the problems that I see is that if a dev quotes someone, the quote shows up (being the topmost portion of a thread) in the carousel rather than the actual dev comment. We may not be able to fix that, but I know we'd all rather see what the dev wrote. I've amended my own posting patterns so in many cases, I do not quote someone, which allows a bit more of my comments to be visible in the carousel. I can share that tip with the team, as well. But there are other issues, too, so we're pursing getting things fixed and improved on that system, too.

 

The more important thing is to show more posts in the carousel at once. I know devs almost never post on the official forums, for reasons, but when they do people should see it. I've seen other forums with a similar carousel and it will show as many as twenty "pages" of dev quotes at once (like twenty dots along the top, each representing four posts).

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

It would be nice if we got a different message when posting in a thread that has been removed, other than "You don't have permission to do that". I'm aware that this scenario probably doesn't happen too often, but it's a bit disconcerting when it does. Maybe something like "This thread has been closed/removed/etc."

 

Thanks.

[TheQuickFox.3826]

I like the forums, but I have a small but important question:

 

Will these forums stay now?

 

The [Guild Wars Support forum](https://forum.guildwars.com/forum/ "Guild Wars Support forum") has been deleted and the [previous GW2 forum](https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum "previous GW2 forum") will be deleted as well.

 

I've seen future reward badges for being registered here for 10 years, so this is a good sign. But I would really dislike if the forums get deleted again in the future.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

Lots of good ideas here! Let me see if I can answer questions or provide some info:

 

JustTrogdor -- I'm not a fan of the large number of sticky threads in GW2 Discussion, and I've given them a critical eye several times. I believe each thread truly needs to be prominent, and permanently visible. I learned through experimentation on the old forum that tucking several PSA's and other important information into a generic "Important Sticky Thread" post isn't at all effective; they were not read, and we had a flood of redundant questions that were answered in the unread threads. If you have other suggestions, I'm willing to listen, but at the present time I don't see a solution that accomplishes two seemingly opposed desires: To keep important information visible while reducing stickies.

 

StinVec -- That's a VERY good idea, and I think I'll start using that immediately. I also can share it with the team. You may have noticed that I don't quote people now, I just call them out by name, but your idea (also shared by OriOri) makes sense in individual quote situations.

 

OriOri -- I will look in to not having a "leaving" warning for the Wiki, but it *is* a different site and we may be stuck with it. :(

 

Dreggon and JT -- you got that right. I'm emphasizing the importance of the Dev Tracker to our web programmer and Vanilla (on a near daily basis ;) I hope we can get accommodation. If we help create a system for efficient and effective tracking, **all** of Vanilla's customers will benefit, but at the present time, I am not getting traction with them. Oh, and reverting to the old forum is absolutely not an option. It must be decommissioned (not an optional situation) very soon.

 

Ohoni -- Good suggestion. I will ask Vanilla if we can have more than two "pages" of quotes in the carousel.

 

Inculpatus cedo -- Changing the messaging for removed threads would be a good idea. I will forward that and see what we can do.

 

TheQuickFox -- As far as I am concerned -- and I am "forum product owner" for ArenaNet -- yes, these forums are here to stay. We cannot revert to the old forums, we do not have any other options that are as viable as the choice we made with this provider. The longevity factor is why I am so passionate about getting these forums as polished, user friendly, and useful as possible! It will take time, and I appreciate everyone's patience while we work out glitches, add features, and improve the system. I believe long-term we will have a better forum, not just with more bells and whistles, but with actual features and usability.

 

 

 

 

 

[Azure The Heartless.3261]

It's good. I'm really glad you included poll functionality so we can take quick census of topics that the devs can take a glance at if need be.

 

[AegisRunestone.8672]

I have a question: what about "share your [insert class name here] pictures!" threads in the profession forum, respective of said class? Can we get those threads stickied? They were in the previous version of the forums.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

The carousel has eaten your post, @"Gaile Gray.6029", yet again. Posts on carousel at this moment show up before and after the timestamp of your post in this thread (one each), but all other posts have disappeared.

 

It's very odd, and disconcerting.

[Nokomis.5076]

"To keep important information visible while reducing stickies"

How about a separate sub forum for "stickes" or important messages? Maybe when someone wants to create a thread in e.g. Bugs, there's a message atop of the message box telling him, that his question might have been answered in there already (or something like that).

[Gaile Gray.6029]

More updates:

 

It appears we **will** be able to:

* add more pages to the carousel (aka "carrousel" at Disneyland). We'll get on that as soon as we can. There may be a skip and a miss, and you may not see a full 12 posts (due to glitches we're also getting addressed) but you'll see more and that'll help!

* remove the "you're leaving the site and possibly heading into SketchyLand" message when someone is heading to our own Guild Wars 2 Wiki.

 

We're still looking into the other things, but progress is being made! =)