Feedback: Official Forums

[Sicarine.3985]

The dev tracker links do not often take you **directly** to the dev post, and instead you have to hunt through the replies. In the old forums we had a hyperlink to a specific post, where when you open it, it would take you straight to that correct post. We need that back.

[Robdalf.2561]

> @BlaqueFyre.5678 said:

> Now the important Question, does the Search function actually work on this forum?

 

Yes! Yes it does!. Your question was top of the list when I searched for "does search work".

[hornswroggle.8023]

Hi all

first up: Congratulations to ArenaNet on the new forums.

I saw them on Desktop before but now that I'm in bed and wanted to browse a little more I noticed where they REALLY shine:

Oh Baby do they look good on Mobile now! A slick plain setup with reduced graphics for bandwidth efficiency and very quick load times.

If you haven't seen it yet check it out it's really good.

[Elrey.5472]

**Request:** The spanish forum is missing some important features compared to the English version, but the most important one is the **Looking for Guild** forum.

This section is specially important because the old spanish forums were almost dead but the Looking for Guild section was the most useful place ever to find guilds and I think almost everyone relied on that at some point to find an spanish guild. Please add that section back in the new forums or it will be a hard hit to our already small community.

[garrettx.3452]

> @Kyban.4031 said:

> > @garrettx.3452 said:

> > I like the new look but what I liked in the old forums was a way to see which threads had a dev answer in them and once inside devs were easily identifiable.. Any way of implementing this over here ?

>

> It's kind of here, there's a dev tracker tab at the top of the page, just not as good as old one imo.

 

Yeah found out afterward but far from as essy as in the old forum unfortunately...

 

 

 

[FrizzFreston.5290]

Must say, this does look fancy.

There's quite some nice things, like auto saving drafts (The reoccurring popup is a teensy bit annoying), Tagging people, notifications and bookmarks. Hopefully a working search function and even the thumbs up and down or helpful is nice.

 

Sad to say I don't like arbitrary rules that didn't exist before.

Edit time, not being able to post pictures, no signatures.

A ranking system where you need to earn your "basic" forum functions seems like a way to earn something in a forum that is replacing another feels very off to me. Alot of people have been posting useful discussions and useful stuff in the old forums, to take away those previously normal rights and now put them under policing feels like it's a bit restricting. It's harder to adjust to a new forum if you suddenly change the rules as well, and it doesn't make it feel as a home and instead feels more like oh all those things you could do before, not anymore!

 

Also putting the whole old forum down the drain with so much information there within a months time is slightly off putting. Then again, I probably can't remember all the relevant topics anymore, and little there is to stop us from recreating or revisiting topics I suppose.

 

Forget the past and let's move forward is great on paper, but disrespects the past completely.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

Is there an ignore/block user function available in the new software? Many forums have an option where you can choose to ignore/block a person and you won't see their posts. It is kind of like the in game block feature. In some forums this option also blocks those you ignore/block from sending you a private message. If so please consider enabling it. Since you are rolling out this shiny new forum you might as well include all the bells and whistles that might be available to give the users as many options as possible.

[Saphykun.3206]

Firefox 55.0.3 (64-bit): When using the tiny search button at the bottom of a forum thread, the [search text becomes smaller and invisible](https://i.imgur.com/yZ7Fra7.png).

IE 11.413.15063.0: Same as above, except the cursor line stays put while the text moves left.

No problems with Chrome, thankfully. Using Windows 10 Home, 64-bit.

 

Overall, I like the new forum look - having icons really help differentiate between posts with how they're set up now, but I strongly dislike how wide they are. It feels stretched and forced to fill up the page. Would definitely like more avatars (PoF is coming! You know what that means. Bring on the new spec icons, or riot!).

Could we have links open in a new tab instead of taking us away from the forums? Ctrl+click isn't a hassle for me but it's just one of those nice-to-have things.

[Lairin.4528]

Whoa I had a few threads open to come back to reading after dinner. Upon returning and starting to read through one of the threads, the page then completely reloads.

> You've Been Signed Out

> You were signed out due to inactivity.

 

All my tabs then redirect to this logged out page and _I cannot return to the return to the page after logging back in_.

The back button on the browser might work if I hadn't opened new tabs on each...

[AegisRunestone.8672]

> @Saphykun.3206 said:

> Firefox 55.0.3 (64-bit): When using the tiny search button at the bottom of a forum thread, the [search text becomes smaller and invisible](https://i.imgur.com/yZ7Fra7.png).

> IE 11.413.15063.0: Same as above, except the cursor line stays put while the text moves left.

> No problems with Chrome, thankfully. Using Windows 10 Home, 64-bit.

>

> Overall, I like the new forum look - having icons really help differentiate between posts with how they're set up now, but I strongly dislike how wide they are. It feels stretched and forced to fill up the page. Would definitely like more avatars (PoF is coming! You know what that means. Bring on the new spec icons, or riot!).

> Could we have links open in a new tab instead of taking us away from the forums? Ctrl+click isn't a hassle for me but it's just one of those nice-to-have things.

 

What are you searching me up for? ;) J/K. Good catch there.

[Vagrant.7206]

Man, everything feels really cluttered on a desktop. Is there no way to do a list view?

 

Also, why were the class subforums done away with?

[AegisRunestone.8672]

> @Lairin.4528 said:

> Whoa I had a few threads open to come back to reading after dinner. Upon returning and starting to read through one of the threads, the page then completely reloads.

> > You've Been Signed Out

> > You were signed out due to inactivity.

>

> All my tabs then redirect to this logged out page and _I cannot return to the return to the page after logging back in_.

> The back button on the browser might work if I hadn't opened new tabs on each...

 

What browser are you using?

[rachl.3760]

Could we have the Helpful, Thumbs Down, and Thumbs Up look visually different if we have already selected it? It's a bit confusing the way it is now.

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

I'd like to ask if the header area of the forums could stay fixed at the top of the page? I.e. put it in a div with a "fixed" position style and allow the rest of the forum to scroll under it. It's useful seeing the links to other pages and my own notifications/settings/etc while reading.

[Cave Rock.4869]

> @gebrechen.5643 said:

> I think it looks good. Not sure about the speed on mobile yet, but I will soon know

 

The speed on mobile seems great. Working extremely well.

[AegisRunestone.8672]

> @rachl.3760 said:

> Could we have the Helpful, Thumbs Down, and Thumbs Up look visually different if we have already selected it? It's a bit confusing the way it is now.

 

Yeah, I accidentally unthumbed up a person I had thumbed up by clicking "Thumbs Up" on his post because I couldn't remember if I had or not. I had. It went down one, so I reupvoted it. ^^;

[Praxis.4976]

Considering we can't actually personalize our avatar images (which renders the whole 'have your own avatar' thing moot, by the way), it is an eyesore to have avatar images so large on every page. It'd be something else if people were allowed to be creative with their avatar, but having giant, generic avatars is pointless, and ugly. They're also all blurred... the least you could do is provide generic icons that are the correct size to be displayed.

 

It is bizarre that you are just ditching the old forum. All discussion just tidied under the rug, and everyone silenced mid-discussion. Bizarre.

[Esprit Dumort.3109]

I am not sure if adding a Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down is beneficial to this community or not. I feel that people will look to the Up and Down (Votes) before they judge the value of someone's post and dismiss or blindly agree with someone's comment.

 

An alternative would be to not immediately show the ratings but wait some time similar to the way Reddit does, before showing Ups and Downs. That way in active threads people have a chance to judge someone's post on their own merit rather than be influenced by the rating system immediately.

 

P.S. - I feel Thumbs Up should be before Thumbs Down, to encourage being positive.

[Ni In.6578]

If on the desktop site while on a mobile (iOS 10.3.3 w/ Safari for example), returning to the mobile site is very difficult. The link is small and I had a hard time making it work reliably. Could we get a mobile-friendly button instead of a plain link?

[Erasculio.2914]

It would probably be more positive for the community if there were only a "Thumbs Up", not a "Thumbs Down". We would have only the absence of positivity towards a post, as opposed to full negativity.

 

Also, the images at the top left of the screen are fine; the images at the top right are very bad. IMO, showing two very annoying and ever present NPCs (Taimi and Braham) only reinforce the common belief that GW2 is more about the NPCs than about our characters.

[Cave Rock.4869]

I have to agree a night mode which can be used with both mobiles and desktop pc's would be nice. Plus I assume avatars for the new elites are on the way right?

[Cave Rock.4869]

Btw some text over laps or moves of screen and is not viewable on mobile devices.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

My final feedback, you tried to get too fancy. Unfortunately in my opinion this had a negative affect. I really think all you needed was new forum software that allowed a setup like the old forum but with a working search function. I understand the old software was on its last legs so it is great you got something that works now. However the broken search function was really the only front end complaint. Oh and that odd page error.

 

Positive:

*The search function works.

 

Negative:

*Can't edit posts over time.

*Can't attach images.

*Some weird ranking system that seems to grant permissions like the ability to have a signature. I'm a paying customer with access to the forum. I should not have to earn forum privileges. Feel free to take them away if I violate the rules but this isn't the darn mastery system in game.

*Don't like the layout. It is way too spread out. Since we can't upload images for custom avatars there is no reason to have avatars at all. What's the point? "Hey here is my generic Thief avatar that 2,000 other people have as well." It just takes up space and messes with the cleanliness of the layout.

 

Lastly, thank you for removing all those thumbs up avatars. It seems you are listening and I am willing to bet there are many forum improvements on the way.

[Miss Lana.5276]

From what I've seen the posts don't show the date that they were posted, only the time. This could affect the amount of necro'd posts in the future, and will be irritating all around. I'm always checking the patch notes and if I can't see that there was a new post yesterday/today I will be unlikely to read it.

 

This "draft saved at xx:xx a/pm" popping up **over** the text that I'm writing is **really** irritating. Maybe move that window to a corner of the screen instead.

 

Someone on the first page commented saying essentially that the forums are too wide. I have to agree. The example pic they posted was a lot easier on the eyes. At the moment it feels too squashed. Reducing the width will remove that squashed feeling.

 

I feel that the navigation page should **not** have icons on it. It makes it feel overcrowded and more difficult to navigate, as the eye is drawn to the icons rather than the name of the posts. If I really want to find out who started the thread and who last posted in it I will read the names on the thread itself.

 

I'm not sure I agree with having to unlock features. Signatures are a **big** player in forums across the internet, and always have been. They're where we're allowed to put information relevant to us or about us. Having us work to unlock that as a feature is redundant if we have badges - which we now do. If you're making us unlock the signature "feature" then you may as well do the same with icons. No icon til X amount of posts, can only select from a pre-set of icons at X amount of posts, can upload a pic of your own at X amount of posts. While I **do not** like the idea of unlocking an icon, if you're locking signatures - which are a core aspect of forums - you may as well be consistent and do the same to icons.

 

Since you can see the results of who voted for what in the thread itself, the poll feature's results *really* does **not** need icons under it! Everything is so cluttered now and it's giving me a headache.

[DeShadowWolf.6854]

Only two complaints here, both of which have already been voiced:

1) Reduce the amount of whitespace between each post and make the horizontal lines more important. Previously I could tell without even looking at the nameplate when one post ended and another began. This is noticeably more difficult now.

2) Nightmode?