Feedback: Official Forums

[VanishingRose.6982]

Love the new forum so far, thanks for the update to it!

[Bandini.6185]

Sorry not to be as happy as others, but I don't like the new forum.

* I have to scroll a lot to read what people say. Most of the page is taken by pictures (avatars of writers, people likes,...)

* /dev/traker used to be a single page with only comments of people from Anet. It was very easy and quick to read. Now, there is just a list of threads, and we have to go to each thread

* there were arrows to navigate between ArenaNet posts in a thread

* I find it dificult to find the useful information (what people write) in the middle of lines, members names, avatars, and the red Report line

 

I hope this is not the final version because on my desktop, this new forum is a real chore to read.

[Brandr Skjoldulfr.4810]

Could you add an RSS feed for the dev posts? I found it the most useful feature of the old forums.

[Honest John.4673]

There is too much clutter between each post. It gets worse when people Thumbs Up/Down with the added giant squares.

[scarmak.4159]

The new look is awesome, would be nice to see a night mode.

[fizz.4536]

Can we get a small alteration to the way the notification pop up works. It sticks the box in the middle of the page, so it can be kind of disruptive. A nice alternative would be for it to appear in the top left or right corner of the browser.

[Senritsu.9271]

I am very pleased with the new look and have few complaints aside from what's been said already, there does need to be a Nightmode as white can be very blinding or hard to read for some people. But, everything else I can live with thank you for all of the hard work that you do Arenanet.

[Bast Bow.2958]

> @AegisRunestone.8672 said:

 

> I have a question: I checked the "How do I...?" section and I didn't see anything about Private Messages. How do we send those?

 

Same question here: How to send private messages?

 

 

 

[LINKAZZATORE.8135]

Dev Tracker used to show directly the reply that a dev made, any chance of this coming back? Right now it just shows the thread name and a button to change page and read the specific comment on the thread itself.

 

Edit: also the line between each post should be slightly longer to make it easier to distingue different posts/replies but not a big deal.

[SkyShroud.2865]

Is there a alternate theme? It is confusing for my eyes (as I scroll down) because each post bit is not very distinctive Likewise the threadlist is not very distinctive. I like distinctive neat and clean designs because it is easier on the eyes.

[TheRandomGuy.7246]

Too much empty space. Have to scroll way too much. Also cant see at a glance if there was new post in the sub forum or no. Also need nightmode.

[adrazz.1830]

Loving the new forum!

[TheOneWhoSighs.7513]

The forums feel bloated & the separation isn't good enough for that bloat.

 

Here are my very basic CSS edits to make it feel slightly better.

 

Edit: I'll do even more after I get off work.

 

```

body * {

font-family: helvetica, sans-serif !important;

color: #333333;

}

.Section-Discussion .Content .Item-Header::after {

background-image: none;

border-bottom: 1px solid #333333;

}

.Section-Discussion .Content .Item .Item-Body::after {

background-image: none;

border-bottom: 1px solid #333333;

}

.Section-Discussion .Content .Item {

border-bottom-width: initial !important;

border-bottom: 1px solid #333333;

}

.DataList .Item {

background: none;

}

.ReactButton {

border: 1px solid #e1d9d9;

background-color: #f9f9f9;

border-radius: 5px;

padding: 5px;

}

.Section-Discussion .Content .Item-Header .Meta time {

color: #333333 !important;

}

```

[takatsu.9416]

Yeah, agreed with several others, there is a bit too much whitespace. This might also be largely related to how horizontal the page stretches which causes the white space to be overdone. If for example u squeeze in the page width, the white spaces are a bit nicer and helps to divide between paragraphs of text. Still, there is a bit too much. Also the avatar images are pretty big compared to the each post. Those thumbs up images that collect... yeah that is really crazy in size lol! Those should be reduced in sizes, particularly as these class or related images are familiar to us and there aren't many details to look at. Font sizes for the report, helpful, thumbs up thumbs down, can also be reduced so it's less distracting. Or perhaps removing the text and just leaving icon buttons like the old forums would be better.

 

There are also many helpful pinned threads in the old forums. Are we going to have to manually bring them over? Will the OPs have to do this or can ANet staff help mass migrate at least the pinned threads that are helpful.

[Penguin.1345]

This new layout is very loud and complicated. Differentiating between stickied posts and regular post is harder than before. The multitude of colored icons and what have you detract from the posts by being way to contrasting to the rest of the layout.

 

As a colorblind i have a veeery hard time seeing the thumbs up/down icons over the avatar icons.

 

Downvoting is going to be abused. WoW forums had similar function and was eventually removed because of abuse. May be an issue on my end, but the avatars themselves are pixelated and generally muddy and ugly. I cannot see if i have upvoted a post or not.

[Voreo Sabrae.5416]

Why are Signatures showing "Do Not Have Permission" ?

[Senritsu.9271]

Signatures are something you unlock, they are not given right away. So... give positive feedback and you'll unlock more things.

[TheUndefined.1720]

Suggestion:

 

Remove Thumbs Down (and possibly Thumbs Up as well) or change the term to a neutral vote.

 

Reason: A thumbs down / thumbs up vote detracts from the point of using the forums. Forums are meant to share and spread ideas as well as discussion. These votes offer an optional and less communicative form of response that is not in line with discussion. These votes may also be used for harassment or point of reference for someone's feedback ( example; "I want the Disney logo as my icon" Thumbs up x1000, thumbs down x2 - "See! We should have a copyrighted logo!").

 

Suggestion: Change the thumbs up / thumbs down to neutral votes - examples: Insightful, Profound, Deep, Ritlock-Approved, Quaggan-tastic, Kitten!, etc... Neutral votes at least won't 1. detract the conversation with a little flavor text and 2. won't inspire harassment among members.

 

Additional thoughts: In general, people need to be able to take criticism. The forums are a great place for discussion and challenging ideas. However, they shouldn't be filled with a handfull of posts and hundreds of votes.

[Wolfey.3407]

I genuinely enjoy and love these forums over the old ones.

I think for most people, the changes will grow on them and they will eventually come to accept it.

[smitske.4912]

Too many icons for too many things (users upvoted liked whatever) while there isnt much text. The icons should IMO either be removed or made significantly smaller for things such as likes. The division between posts should be better. I also think we should only work with 1 voting item, thumbs up or helpful, the rest is just clutter and thumbs down leads to negativity.

 

The number of possible avatars should be bigger or we should be able to customize them, simple put it is very hard to quickly identify users from these avatars.

 

Longer edit time, I already dislike there is a limit but this one is very short. it encourages making extra posts (bumping) instead of adding to the original.

[syntohras.1064]

There should be badges for players who play this game since RLS/HoT ect. A bit weird to be only "a Member" now.

[TheRandomGuy.7246]

> @Penguin.1345 said:

> As a colorblind i have a veeery hard time seeing the thumbs up/down icons over the avatar icons.

 

They are barely visible shapes for not colorblind too tbh.

 

[omica.6548]

Firefox does not work to access the forums. Had to switch to IE to login. Was using Firefox ver 53(32bit), would not recognize user name and password. Noted, after switching that the accept rules check box did not appear on login screen with Firefox.

[graywing.6125]

It scales quite bad on tablets (chrome 60, android 6, 1920x1200) 

 

[syntohras.1064]

and pls more avatars!