Feedback: Official Forums

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"hugo.4705" said:

> I would suggest an editing tool for poll please, like if we want to change one of the poll option into another one and also adding the "remove my choice" to allow people re-picking the correct poll answer. Please :D

 

While I understand the request, in truth enabling an editing tool that can be used on a public-facing poll is risky. In fact, such a tool can be used for pranks or even for malicious purposes. It would be as if the government mailed out ballots and then said, "Oh, all of you who voted for the candidate in the second field have now voted for Donald Duck. Surprise!" ;)

 

Once a poll is public, it's essential that it **not** be alterable, so that those who voted do not find their initial choice altered, potentially to something entirely different than what they normally would choose.

[Master Ketsu.4569]

Dev tracker is still useless as it is organized based on threads rather than actual replies, this means specific posts are obfuscated behind non-dev posts.

 

This is really the only big problem I see with the new forums.

[Neutra.6857]

I like the changes but I do have a question, is there a reason why you didn't create a QOL subforum when you created these forums?

[Lanthun.7251]

The design looks amazing IMO! I saw things got darker and thought something on my computer went wrong, lol, but glad it was something of an improvement for here!

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Neutra.6857" said:

> I like the changes but I do have a question, is there a reason why you didn't create a QOL subforum when you created these forums?

 

Yes, there's a reason. At one point, we had more than 40 subforums. More than 40!! It was too many, and the conversations were too spread out -- thus reducing the volume of input and interaction -- or they were repeated (inadvertently) in multiple forums, or people were never sure where to place a question, comment, or suggestion. I streamlined down by 1/3 when I accepted the Communications Manager / Forums Team Lead position in 2014. I streamlined further when we opened these new forums. And some members of higher management believe we should try to have even fewer forums!

 

Adding a QoL subforum isn't necessary, and it's not even practical, when a QoL request might apply to a specific profession/skill balance, to an in-game mechanic, or to any number of other topics. So please feel free to share your QoL suggestions where they best fit, and rest assured that they will be seen.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Master Ketsu.4569" said:

> Dev tracker is still useless as it is organized based on threads rather than actual replies, this means specific posts are obfuscated behind non-dev posts.

>

> This is really the only big problem I see with the new forums.

 

Dev Tracker is a major disappointment for me, too. It's not at all what we intended, but we're not able to make changes. Perhaps in the future we'll be able to develop a system that best addresses our needs, and I do remain hopeful about that. In the meantime, or until such time as we can make the improvements, we expanded the Latest Posts rotating section at the top from 6 dev posts to 12, and I think you'll find it's quite helpful in locating recent posts.

[Donari.5237]

Checking on that Thumbs Up etc color change -- looks like it globally changes. Which may be intended of course! But as it is, right now it will just let you know that at least one reader has clicked a reaction, not whether or not you personally have.

[Charrbeque.8729]

Editing a post seems a bit sluggish. Took a few tries to edit something I just posted. I was able to after about a minute. But right after I realized I needed to edit a second time. I clicked and clicked and nothing happened. I waited a few minutes and it finally worked. Not sure if that's intended or not.

 

Other than that, I love the new changes.

 

Edit: Same thing here. Immediately after posting this I noticed a typo. Took a minute before it would let me edit this post.

[Ojimaru.8970]

"Edit Post" function is borked, can confirm. I've been unable to edit my posts since the update (PC, Chrome).

 

Also, would dearly love to have the "Mute" function again. The "Discussion" tab is nigh unusable without it, as it simply gets clogged up by posts I have no interest in (PvP, WvW, Bug Report, etc.).

 

Marking forums and sub-forums as "Read" is also a tedious slog, as there is no way to do it from the (sub)forum itself; instead, I currently have to go to the main page, scroll down, click the gear icon, "Mark as Read," wait for the page to reload, scroll down again, repeat the steps for the sub-forums. There just needs to be a "Mark Forum As Read" function at the top (and bottom) of each forum, like any sensible VB4 forum from the 90s.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I've found that the 'Edit' button seems to have changed its active area, and only lights up when I place my cursor to the left side or right side of it. Placing the cursor over 'd, i, or t' won't activate it (light it up).

Something is odd about it now.

[Nilson.9865]

I don't the way it looks.

I opened discussions, i wanted to check new topics, but my sight was locked on these huge avatars. 2/3 of my screen is covered with avatar images and nicknames. Look at the distance between "Started By" and "Replies" or "Most Recent" and option and bookmarks icons. If i were looking for some players with particular avatars - it would work, but since i come here to read information, well, it's poor design for this.

>! 

 

[hugo.4705]

Totally, Agree, this space could be used for instance, to show the beginning of the last comment with only the name of the author. The original poster could be put just near the title at the left, between parenthesis (). For the first line of the screenshot it would be :

From left to right:

-Feedback: New forums (Gaile Gray.6029)

-"I've found that the 'Edit' button seems to have changed its active area, and only lights up when I place my cursor to the left side or right side of it. Placing the cursor over..."

-Inculpatus cedo.9234

And eventually at far right the numbers of views then comments.

 

So people see in one look if the last answer/topic is interesting and so decide to reply or not.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

In case you've not noticed, some posters are reporting (over in the Bugs sub-forum) the 'Search' function no longer works .

[Vavume.8065]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> Dev Tracker is a major disappointment for me, too. It's not at all what we intended, but we're not able to make changes. Perhaps in the future we'll be able to develop a system that best addresses our needs, and I do remain hopeful about that. In the meantime, or until such time as we can make the improvements, we expanded the Latest Posts rotating section at the top from 6 dev posts to 12, and I think you'll find it's quite helpful in locating recent posts.

 

I used to read the dev tracker posts every single day on the old forum, that all ended when this forum was introduced.

[Charrbeque.8729]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> In case you've not noticed, some posters are reporting (over in the Bugs sub-forum) the 'Search' function no longer works .

 

It was fun while it lasted. I guess some things just aren't meant to be. :/

[hmsgoddess.3869]

I'm disappointed there still isn't an option of deleting a post I have created.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

> @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > @"Master Ketsu.4569" said:

> > Dev tracker is still useless as it is organized based on threads rather than actual replies, this means specific posts are obfuscated behind non-dev posts.

> >

> > This is really the only big problem I see with the new forums.

>

> Dev Tracker is a major disappointment for me, too. It's not at all what we intended, but we're not able to make changes. Perhaps in the future we'll be able to develop a system that best addresses our needs, and I do remain hopeful about that. In the meantime, or until such time as we can make the improvements, we expanded the Latest Posts rotating section at the top from 6 dev posts to 12, and I think you'll find it's quite helpful in locating recent posts.

 

In SWTOR's forums, the thing called "Dev Tracker" is basically a big paged list of everything ever posted by Bioware staff, past and present, newest at the top. (Sort of like the rotating section here, only in the form of a list of posts.)

[Sojourner.4621]

> @"Steve The Cynic.3217" said:

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > > @"Master Ketsu.4569" said:

> > > Dev tracker is still useless as it is organized based on threads rather than actual replies, this means specific posts are obfuscated behind non-dev posts.

> > >

> > > This is really the only big problem I see with the new forums.

> >

> > Dev Tracker is a major disappointment for me, too. It's not at all what we intended, but we're not able to make changes. Perhaps in the future we'll be able to develop a system that best addresses our needs, and I do remain hopeful about that. In the meantime, or until such time as we can make the improvements, we expanded the Latest Posts rotating section at the top from 6 dev posts to 12, and I think you'll find it's quite helpful in locating recent posts.

>

> In SWTOR's forums, the thing called "Dev Tracker" is basically a big paged list of everything ever posted by Bioware staff, past and present, newest at the top. (Sort of like the rotating section here, only in the form of a list of posts.)

 

That's what it was on the old GW2 forums, and I am guessing what they had hoped for here as well from Gaile's response. I assume when she says they are "not able to make changes" it has something to do with the company that handles their new forums being intractable about certain things (as they have been about other much requested features at times).

[SkyShroud.2865]

"Edit" button is hard to click....

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"SkyShroud.2865" said:

> "Edit" button is hard to click....

 

Don't place your cursor over the letters d, i, or t while awaiting a fix.

 

****

 

Another thing I noticed (not sure if it's always done this, but I've noticed it now) is that when posting in a thread, the 'Report' button is missing on my own posts until the page is refreshed.

[StinVec.3621]

Regarding partially blocked 'EDIT' element:

 

As you can see in this screenshot, the 'Options' element has a gear icon and the word 'Options' actually written on the page. Though the 'Options' text cannot be seen on the page near the gear icon, it is written in the hover tooltip of it that happens to hang down over the 'dit' in 'Edit', which blocks that area from being able to be clicked.

 


 

If you use a CSS theme add-on in your browser, this is the code to add to bring the option flyout forward to being on top of the 'Options' element that hangs down over the 'dit' part of 'Edit' so it no longer blocks the activation area.

 

.Options .Flyout.MenuItems

{

z-index: 2;

}

 

Or this specific target element to ensure only the options flyout menu on your own comment posts is elevated instead of all option menu flyouts:

 

.Section-Discussion .Content .Item .Options .Flyout.MenuItems

{

z-index: 2;

}

 

 

[Gaile Gray.6029]

Thank you StinVec. That's very helpful!

 

I have responded to the bug report in the Bugs Subforum about the "edit" borkedness, and I'll repeat hear that we were aware that the "bar" with the names and Edit function wasn't aligned properly and I'm assuming that editing will be corrected when the bar is adjusted, but I'll make sure we have all the notes in hand when we contact Vanilla.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Charrbeque.8729" said:

> > @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > In case you've not noticed, some posters are reporting (over in the Bugs sub-forum) the 'Search' function no longer works .

>

> It was fun while it lasted. I guess some things just aren't meant to be. :/

 

I just tested and it appears to be working fine. A forum member also confirmed that they had no problems with "Search." I asked for input from others in that thread about their experience, but this appears to have been a temporary situation and not a long-lasting or systemic bug. Still to be confirmed, of course.

[Gaile Gray.6029]

> @"Vavume.8065" said:

> > @"Gaile Gray.6029" said:

> > Dev Tracker is a major disappointment for me, too. It's not at all what we intended, but we're not able to make changes. Perhaps in the future we'll be able to develop a system that best addresses our needs, and I do remain hopeful about that. In the meantime, or until such time as we can make the improvements, we expanded the Latest Posts rotating section at the top from 6 dev posts to 12, and I think you'll find it's quite helpful in locating recent posts.

>

> I used to read the dev tracker posts every single day on the old forum, that all ended when this forum was introduced.

 

But I assume you are reading the Latest Posts in the four-page rotating stream of dev comments at the top of the page?

[Manasa Devi.7958]

I don't like the "^ Go To Top" pop-up. I have several icons on the notification area of my (windows) taskbar that regularly pop me a notification. The "Go To Top" thing pops up at the exact same location when I have my browser maximized (which is pretty much whenever I use it) and that's confusing and annoying. This new thing is useless to me anyway because I still (and will forever) habitually just press the "Home" key to go to the top of the page. In short: annoying and useless.

 

The other changes like fine though.