Feedback: Official Forums

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

* In the old forums, I could easily find posts by others to which I gave a :+1:. Is there a way to do that here?

* Similarly, I'm interested in posts that other people :1:. The old forums allowed that (if the player opted in).

* As others have mentioned, when reviewing the [Dev Tracker](https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussions/tagged/arenanet "Dev Tracker"), I'd like to be able to see what the dev wrote in the preview, rather just see the list. I'd also like the option to go directly to the actual post by the dev.

* In the old forums, lists of posts (e.g. dev tracker, posts by another player, upvoted posts from another player, etc) all showed the entire post, rather than 4-5 lines of preview. That was very convenient, as it meant I could review my interest level without having to open the thread. Is there any way to get that here?

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > Just noticed one concern about Previews:

> >

> > Previews should be available to any forum member. I know there is a bug, where the formatting is quirky. I have reported this and Vanilla will work on making sure previews truly represent what will be shown on the post itself. But again, for availability, anyone should be able to use Preview. If that is not the case, could you please post? We can look at your account to try to see what's going on.

>

> I can preview, unless it is an edit. In that case there is no preview option.

>

> Also, the @username doesn't work if there is a space in the username and it is typed out. Such as my Display name: @"Inculpatus cedo.9234

> I bring this up because I find posts with my Display name as in the example.

>

>

 

If there is a space you can put quotes around the username like @ "Inculpatus cedo.9234"(without the extra space between the @ and I) which gives @"Inculpatus cedo.9234"

[Kitta.3657]

I absolutely HATE the new dev tracker. Please let us see single posts. Having to scroll through every single page of a thread to know where the dev post is... so backwards from the previous forum. Please change this. I've just wasted so much time thinking there were new dev updates in certain threads >.>

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @Khisanth.2948 said:

> > @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > > Just noticed one concern about Previews:

> > >

> > > Previews should be available to any forum member. I know there is a bug, where the formatting is quirky. I have reported this and Vanilla will work on making sure previews truly represent what will be shown on the post itself. But again, for availability, anyone should be able to use Preview. If that is not the case, could you please post? We can look at your account to try to see what's going on.

> >

> > I can preview, unless it is an edit. In that case there is no preview option.

> >

> > Also, the @username doesn't work if there is a space in the username and it is typed out. Such as my Display name: @"Inculpatus cedo.9234

> > I bring this up because I find posts with my Display name as in the example.

> >

> >

>

> If there is a space you can put quotes around the username like @ "Inculpatus cedo.9234"(without the extra space between the @ and I) which gives @"Inculpatus cedo.9234"

 

Great. Hope others see the post who use the @ with my (and others) Display Name. Still should be fixed, though.

[Nythrilyn.2146]

I don't really like how the 'Guild Wars 2 Discussions' is located all in one place.

At least with the old style it was put in sub-categories ie: Living Story, HoT, etc etc.

This is just ugly to look at

[stephanie wise.7841]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> Welcome to our new official forums! We're glad you're here, and hope you enjoy all the improvements these forums offer you.

>

> Please post your input about the forums here. If you encounter a forum bug, please share the details in this thread. If you find a graphical or visual bug, please host a screenshot on a photo-sharing site and provide a link.

>

> We will be gathering your input and will address issues as soon as we are able to do so.

>

>

>

 

hi Gaile Gray on the forum you have a http404: not found the server has not found anything matching the requested uri( uniform resource identifier) (xhr)get https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/js/librairy/jquery-1.10.2.min.map

this error seams to follow on every page probably something left on the server that is not in use.

 

on the forum bug page there is 4 error html 1407."Invalid tag name. First character should match [a-zA-Z]." have a look use the dev tool and look in console for error. the error seams to come from < < < span at the closing of span you also have > > > line 266 267.

and they relate to a previous line of code that use < div > class = wrapper. line 256 257

 

the 2 other error relate to the js library j querry line 113 114

[cocodragon.7916]

The decision not to allow pictures either in or attached to forum posts is a critical failure. This is a requirement at least for Community Creations and Screenshots sections.

 

Not having this ability due to security concerns is not a hang-up your competitors have. Furthermore, attaching pictures has been a feature of the original forums for over five years.

 

Until something is implemented to address this the new forums do not cut the mustard.

 

Who likes monoliths of text?

[msalakka.4653]

Bright red big titles, grey body text. You really should have someone with a degree in graphic design make these stylesheet decisions.

 

[Anhellbro.7210]

new forum is ugly terrible and frustrating

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I imagine this has been posted before, but the Dev Tracker _really_ needs some work. It lists threads chronologically by the latest post, whether by Dev or player, rather than listing by latest Dev post. It's really difficult to keep up with what the Devs are saying, and no way to tell if you've already read that Dev post, or if there are new Dev posts in the thread.

 

Also, unless it's my imagination, I like the new border around the 'create a new post' area. What's missing is something to delineate Preview posts (and a preview for edit posts).

[Alchofas.8243]

Too many stickied threads in Guild Wars 2 Discussion section, some of them could really be merged together in one thread.

 

Such as how to report, how to give good feedback could be merged into one Instruction Thread. Known Issues, Policies and such could be moved to Announcement section.

 

And, not trying to be a kitten or anything, Gemstore items new/returned sales is not really needed especially when it's not updated by staff, it's too messy to check anyway.

 

Edit: I just noticed profanities will be censored to kitten, and i thought it was a trend in gw2 language. lol. Nice feature.

[Jana.6831]

> @Alchofas.8243 said:

> Edit: I just noticed profanities will be censored to kitten, and i thought it was a trend in gw2 language. lol. Nice feature.

I actually write kitten ;) Guess I've been around for a while.

 

On topic:

I probably like this forum better - but I did like the old as well.

One thing that is bothering me: The name of the forum is that small and for some reason I always click on 'best off' when I want to refresh the page.

The probably best feature is the instant thumbs up. People have got no idea how many posts I like and now I can finally show them.

 

 

[elrin.4750]

Old forum is better in terms of design, the sections are also better. This new forum has too much white space/spacing.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

So, the forum was lagging (for me, anyway), and the 'Post Comment' button would not light up. I pushed it more than once, eventually ending up with a double post. I'd love to report said double-post, but I can't find the 'Report' flag on my own posts.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

Hey all,

 

While you can continue to add feedback about the new forums, after two weeks I think we have a large amount to work with, so I'm going to un-sticky this post and it can rise and fall as input is added. (If you decide to add more feedback, don't forget to use our spiffy new search engine to find this very thread!)

 

By way of information, I submitted an extensive two-week report to the entire team, sharing the insights, requests, suggestions, and concerns that you expressed in this thread. I actually drew stats for the input, so that I can quantify the areas of larger concern while not failing to highlight other opinions, as well. It's for certain that we will not be able to address every piece of feedback, but equally certain that we will address some!

 

A few bugs are being worked on, including:

* Clarity of the avatars: Interestingly, this is only an issue in the English-language forum. We'll get those sharpened up for you as soon as we can! (Oh and yes, we know you'd like more and we'll see about making that happen.)

* Dev Tracker Issues: There are several things that are glaringly not-good with the DT. Principal amongst them, in my eyes, is the fact that the beautiful and shiny new "Latest ArenaNet Posts" section -- that rotating set of squares at the top of the Index Page -- gets totally messed up when a dev quotes content. In addition, clicking the ArenaNet icon *should* take you to the post, but it doesn't always work. And the threads on the tracker page itself are hard to parse, when you see the entire thread rather than the specific post by a dev. Oh, and yes, a "go to next dev post" *would* be splendid, and we'll see if we can add that. Basically, the DT needs work, and we're on the case!

* Design Concerns: This is more subjective, and for every comment about liking this thing or that, there's another comment about not liking it at all. But we've noted what you have to say, with numbers and specific quotes, and we'll look into making some small tweaks, if they are possible and if that's ultimately what we should do.

* "Draft saved at [.4 nanoseconds after the last save]" message: If I see that ONE MORE TIME in this very post, I'm going to say something very unladylike! ;) We're aware, and we'll see if there's a way to tweak this. I think it may be hard-coded on the Vanilla side, but we're looking into it.

 

Anyway, thanks again for sharing your thoughts, and please feel free to continue to do so.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

@"Gaile Gray.6029" Thanks for the update. (And also for seeing that some of the more egregious bugs/issues are already taken care of.)

 

I wonder if it might be useful to start a new thread in November asking for new feedback. By then, the old forums will be gone, forum regulars will be used to the idiosyncrasies here, and we'll have figured out some new tips/tricks (including things we couldn't do in the old forums). Thus, more of the feedback would be about "what's next" rather than "what's different". What seems important & urgent today might be less interesting then.

[Mango.1845]

> @cocodragon.7916 said:

> The decision not to allow pictures either in or attached to forum posts is a critical failure. This is a requirement at least for Community Creations and Screenshots sections.

>

> Not having this ability due to security concerns is not a hang-up your competitors have. Furthermore, attaching pictures has been a feature of the original forums for over five years.

>

> Until something is implemented to address this the new forums do not cut the mustard.

>

> Who likes monoliths of text?

 

I couldn't say it better. Totally agree.

[caveman.5840]

how do u delete a post ?

[Gaile Gray.6029]

I have spoken to the issue of not being able to accept/allow images and at this point additional feedback on that subject is pretty much redundant and unnecessary. Unfortunately, no matter the level of discontent or disapproval -- even my own! -- nothing will cause the reversal of that decision in the short term. I stated in my report that I hope our security oversight will eventually come to see a way for us to accept images, but candidly, I do not expect that to happen any time soon, if at all.

 

In my dreams I'd be able to gather hard data to show how many forums accept images, how many using Vanilla software accept images, how many security incidents have arisen through that acceptance, and other points of data that would basically make the case for us reversing the "no images" decision. However, I don't have the time or the approval to spend time on this subject, for those who know security far better than I already have spoken on the subject and it was on their recommendation that the decision was made.

 

TL;dr: It's definitely a known and recognized concern.

[Illconceived Was Na.9781]

> @caveman.5840 said:

> how do u delete a post ?

 

We can't currently. You have to self-report the post and ask for it to be removed. (I imagine the mods would prefer if they didn't have to be involved in it.)

[JustTrogdor.7892]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

 

> * Design Concerns: This is more subjective, and for every comment about liking this thing or that, there's another comment about not liking it at all. But we've noted what you have to say, with numbers and specific quotes, and we'll look into making some small tweaks, if they are possible and if that's ultimately what we should do.

 

Interesting. I have not taken a tally as it isn't my job to do so but from following this thread and others the main feedback that stood out more than others was the design. Mostly the massive amount of white space and second from my casual observation was the clutter. Let's take a look:

 

Old forum General Discussion:

https://imgur.com/a/Ii8y1

 

New Forum General Discussion:

https://imgur.com/a/Av64p

 

Sure it is subjective, but really. Just compare them. I do not like the new design at all. IMO it is not easy on the eyes and doesn't flow for easy reading. Removing avatars from the forum page and leaving them in the actual thread would clean things up a bit. Avatars on the forum page don't really serve a purpose. Toss in they are just generic avatars that don't really show who posted the thread since everyone and their Skritt has the same ones, even more useless. I really do hope you consider cleaning things up. I know it can be done because the forum software you use, Vanilla Forum allows for a lot of customization. I'm guessing that is why you choose it.

 

P.S. Please also consider the ignore/block user addon. It would work great, it works a lot like in game block.

 

Oh, and the sticky situation in general, good grief. Please consider cleaning that up some how. See my image link above. It's total chaos. I thought the sticky thing in the old forum was bad, but this dwarfs it by comparison. ;)

 

[Shena Fu.5792]

Rename "Child Categories" to Subcategories. I mistook that these were intended for underage players.

[JustTrogdor.7892]

Oh @"Gaile Gray.6029" will you please disclose what it takes to reach Veteran status for a signature. I don't really care that much because my forum signature is "The Burninator" but a bit of transparency so those that care about their sigs will know what to expect would be great. I'm sure most regulars are wondering. Some people do use them for a purpose, for example advertising their guild. ;)

[Qugi.2653]

Forum is ok. Not best but search work.

 

 

 

[Nemo.5609]

I'd like it if we get avatars of the new PoF Elite Specializations. Currently we have every profession and the HoT ones, but having the new ones too would be awesome.