Feedback: Official Forums

[skullmount.1758]

Dev tracker actually going to the post instead of the top of the threads and being able to go/jump through just dev posts in a thread by hitting the up/down arrows that were in their red boxes in the old forums.

[Endless Soul.5178]

I miss my signature line.

[TexZero.7910]

> @Djinn.9245 said:

> I understand why Anet had to change the forums - there were bugs with the old forums and from what I heard the person who programmed them left Anet and there wasn't enough documentation. However, there are some things I really liked about the old forums that I wish were in the new forums. Here are the biggest items although I'm sure I'll think of more:

>

> 1. Indication of what I've read. In the old forums, the threads I already read were greyed out. I could tell at-a-glance if new comments had been added because the forum went back to black. I don't prefer the new notifications system. This was true of the forum Categories as well (like "Guildwars 2 Discussion") which would be grey if no new comments had been made in that entire category.

>

> 2. Indication of which threads I had made a comment in. It was easy to see at-a-glance what threads I had made comments in and I didn't have to go out of my way to bookmark them.

>

> Does anyone else miss things about the old forums? I wonder if it is possible to add these features to the new forums?

 

1. Sorta still exist, just in a weird limbo. If you've read something and there's nothing new it just stays in a neutral state similar to if you've never read it. If there's new comments it says x New (where x is a number of new post).

2. Also exist, you just have to click your name at the top of the forums and click on the comments tab.

3. As a work around for both you can also just bookmark the topic forum-side by clicking the icon to the right of the thread that appears like a bookmark. From there you can just load your bookmarks from the top of the page using the same icon again

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

You can still tell at a glance if a previously read thread has more posts. It says underneath the thread title, X# new, in a gray box. You just have to train your eyes to look for that. I've been using the bookmark function to note threads I've read and then clear them out once a day. It's more cumbersome than the old forums way of telling you you've posted in that thread, but it's better than nothing. As for signature's, don't we get them when we rank up? I thought I read something about that. I'm just copy pasting in my signature until that time.

 

.

__________

Be careful what you ask for. ANet might give it to you.

___________

[TexZero.7910]

> @"Rising Dusk.2408" said:

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" I wanted to mention a feature the old forums had that the new one doesn't have: the ability to see when you've read a thread's most recent update or not. It's very hard to know which threads I've looked at without this feature. In the old forums it manifested as the title of the thread being greyed out after you'd read the most recent update, whereas topics with new posts would appear in the normal coloration.

 

Just covered this in another thread so i'll restate it here incase people still have an issue telling if they've read something.

 

If you ever clicked on a thread it will automatically track to the newest comments.

A thread you've never read before will show only the NEW tag on the front page (before you come into it).

If you've see a thread and there's new comments it will show x New (where x is a number greater than 0)

 

I know it's not as intuitive as the old grey method but there ya go, how to tell if you've read a thread.

[OriOri.8724]

> @TexZero.7910 said:

> > @"Rising Dusk.2408" said:

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" I wanted to mention a feature the old forums had that the new one doesn't have: the ability to see when you've read a thread's most recent update or not. It's very hard to know which threads I've looked at without this feature. In the old forums it manifested as the title of the thread being greyed out after you'd read the most recent update, whereas topics with new posts would appear in the normal coloration.

>

> Just covered this in another thread so i'll restate it here incase people still have an issue telling if they've read something.

>

> If you ever clicked on a thread it will automatically track to the newest comments.

> A thread you've never read before will show only the NEW tag on the front page (before you come into it).

> If you've see a thread and there's new comments it will show x New (where x is a number greater than 0)

>

> I know it's not as intuitive as the old grey method but there ya go, how to tell if you've read a thread.

 

Its not as intuitive, its not as easy to see (on the old forums a single glance would tell you information on every thread shown on that page, whereas now you have to look for that little tiny "new" box under each thread), it doesn't work on sub-forums like it did in the old forum. Overall this is a huge downgrade in usability

[Rising Dusk.2408]

@"TexZero.7910" I didn't even see that NEW tag, especially since thread titles can be multiple lines long. While I agree with @"OriOri.8724" that it's a downgrade in functionality from the previous forum software since it's so easy to miss, at least the functionality exists in some form. Thanks!

[Elric Of Melnibone.4781]

Hate the new forum, way to much white space and eye hurting clutter. Readability is the MOST important trait for forums, and the new one just plain fails at that.

[Nimrod.9240]

Some things I noticed or miss:

* If you scroll to the right (arrow key on the keybord or middle mouse button), is it just me, or is there lots of empty space for no apparent reason?

* If you are in a section (like "Guild Wars 2 Discussion"), why are the pagenumbers for multipagethreads tiny?

* Why is there no "mark read everything" button? I have to do the "mark read" for every section manually. Clunky.

* The "Report", "Quote", ... buttons under each post distract too much from the content, especially if there are multiple short posts together. Also they should be in a diffrent colour and aligned to the right side (maybe a bit smaller too).

* Get rid of Thumbs Down; from over 25 years using internetforums I came to the conclusion to never ever allow users to negativly judge others.

* Get rid of either Thumbs Up or Helpful, its basically the same thing. Or better, rename one to "Thank You" to express your appreciation for a post/guide/whatever. Everyone likes to beeing thanked for.

* There should be multiple designs we can choose from, like a night mode or old GW2 forum style. Or how about one themed for every race? Sylvari would be greenish, Norn icey blue, Charr metallblack and so on.

* Not be able to post pictures or thumbnails for security reasons -> get better security!?! First, what reasons and for whom? An explanation would be nice. :)

And you want me to believe it is saver for us players by haveing us to open every link to an external website, than you hosting it? Sorry, but i dont buy it.

If you are really concerned about our security how about stop using the Gamelogin to access the forum and make it complete separate from each other?

Our account names in bright daylight and a forum where we are forced to open up external sites to access content (like pictures). Yeah, what could possibly go wrong...

* In a thread everything feels like its just kinda floating on the white background, like, there is no structure. The avatars are just there hanging around, our names lose in midair as if they cant decide if they belong to the post above or to the one they actually belong to. I think there needs to be better separation between the post with a more solid line, starting above the avatar on the left.

* EDIT: another thing, the last comment i saw was from Rising Dusk.2408. While i was writing my points down Elric Of Melnibone.4781 made a new post but that was not shown after previewing my comment! Only after i actually posted my comment AND refreshed the page.

 

All in all it seems its way to overdesigned, sacrificing function for form/artstyle.

Overall i dont like it.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I had a post removed due to quoting a removed post, and now at the bottom of the thread is a draft of that removed post. I know how to remove drafts, but this seems like something that should not happen.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I haven't been having trouble with the Dev Tracker as I use the ArenaNet icon that takes me to the post (unless there's an error). I do wish the up/down arrows would be re-instated. I, too, use the 'New" and 'x New' indicators to tell me which threads have new posts, but would prefer the greyed-out feature, and, of course, there's nothing to indicate which sub-forums have new posts. I'd definitely like something at-a-glance to indicate which threads I've posted in.

[Just a flesh wound.3589]

The quote links in this forum are bad and annoying. In the old forum you could click on a the display name on a quoted post and get the original post, even on posts that are years old in another thread on a different sub forum. Here if you try that you get an error message. The other way was much better since you could use the quote to prove it was said. Now you'll need to add a link to that thread as it's no longer proof by itself since someone could make up the post and figure no one will go digging for the original in the middle of a discussion.

[Faeyas.2816]

~~I miss the old threads and am upset they were just removed and not archived in a way we could access them. ~~ Nvm found them

[Aenaos.8160]

We need to be able to upload screenshots directly to the forums like we used to.

[LadySilverHand.6841]

> @Faeyas.2816 said:

> ~~I miss the old threads and am upset they were just removed and not archived in a way we could access them. ~~ Nvm found them

 

They do plan to remove them in the -very- near future. So save anything you really need from there now, and encourage people to repost over here.

[Miss Lana.5276]

I understand that the thumbs down/up buttons are under review. But unless you're wanting to create a space where no constructive criticism is allowed I suggest leaving both options *or* removing both options.

 

Having *only* positive feedback buttons may create a "safe space" for people who don't like to be "judged", but it will no more remove the "toxicity" of the original forum than creating a new forum will (I've still seen plenty of it here). It would possibly encourage those who disagree with a post to comment on it, but it wouldn't encourage comments that agree with it. Whereas removing both the thumbs up/down would encourage both agreeing and disagreeing comments.

 

Personally I like both the thumbs up and down buttons, because it gives me a quick option to agree/disagree with a post without having to get involved in the conversation (sometimes I just don't have time, sometimes my brain doesn't work properly haha).

 

Please note I've used disagree and agree here rather than positive and negative comments. Just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean it's a negative thing, nor does someone agreeing with you mean it's a positive thing.

[Loss Dream.1825]

### so cool !!!!!

[Vash.2386]

There is much too much scrolling on this new forum. With the old one I could see 30 headers for the subjects on one page on my phone. With the new forum only 5 are visible on my screen. It's a step backwards. We don't need all this space per post. Particularly the avatars. We only need to see them when going into a post, not when reading the subject headers.

 

Wish I could use the old format instead.

[Abakk.9176]

I dissaprove of the up/downvote buttons, for all that it's worth.

[Kreiri.9048]

Whoever just deployed new css for forums screwed up .Tag-Poll css rule. Just saying.

[Offair.2563]

I agree on the grayed out when read and the icon that displayed which topic u replied in. Also the page with the subforums were nice to quickly jump from one into another.

[WARIORSCHARGEING.2637]

can not delete this posting and have noting to add to this topic good bye

[Khar.9463]

It's definitely a step backwards.

[Djinn.9245]

> @TexZero.7910 said:

> > @Djinn.9245 said:

> > I understand why Anet had to change the forums - there were bugs with the old forums and from what I heard the person who programmed them left Anet and there wasn't enough documentation. However, there are some things I really liked about the old forums that I wish were in the new forums. Here are the biggest items although I'm sure I'll think of more:

> >

> > 1. Indication of what I've read. In the old forums, the threads I already read were greyed out. I could tell at-a-glance if new comments had been added because the forum went back to black. I don't prefer the new notifications system. This was true of the forum Categories as well (like "Guildwars 2 Discussion") which would be grey if no new comments had been made in that entire category.

> >

> > 2. Indication of which threads I had made a comment in. It was easy to see at-a-glance what threads I had made comments in and I didn't have to go out of my way to bookmark them.

> >

> > Does anyone else miss things about the old forums? I wonder if it is possible to add these features to the new forums?

>

> 1. Sorta still exist, just in a weird limbo. If you've read something and there's nothing new it just stays in a neutral state similar to if you've never read it. If there's new comments it says x New (where x is a number of new post).

 

Yea, this doesn't function the same. Neutral doesn't indicate that I read it.

 

> 2. Also exist, you just have to click your name at the top of the forums and click on the comments tab.

 

> 3. As a work around for both you can also just bookmark the topic forum-side by clicking the icon to the right of the thread that appears like a bookmark. From there you can just load your bookmarks from the top of the page using the same icon again

 

This just isn't convenient. I used to be able to just look at the whole forum category.

 

1. I could see at-a-glance what I had already read and whether there were new responses

2. I could see at-a-glance what I had commented on

3. And I could also see the rest of the category to see if there was anything else I was interested in.

 

Using bookmarks I am taken to a page with only bookmarks and can't view the rest of the category. It isn't as effortless.

[Djinn.9245]

> @WARIORSCHARGEING.2637 said:

> if you go to forum settings you can change it so you can see what you read also too you can see what new post to a topic have been made by setting your forums profile settings properly .

 

I investigated my settings when I started using the new forums and all I found were Notifications. I'm not talking about Notifications, but being able to tell **_as I look at a forum_** what I've read and what I've commented on. If there is a way to do that other than bookmark please share