topic Re: What in Plusnet Feedback

What

jmd — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:03:21 GMT

have you done to the Forum - I know I read what changes you were proposing but they seemer much clearer than the actual result!
It now seems much more complicated............................

Re: What

pierre_pierre — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:40:38 GMT

especially if you want to start a new subject, you have to hunt down the tree, mind all the fallen leaves to find where you might be able to put it.

Re: What

bobpullen — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:46:21 GMT

I think the democratic decision was to review the changes in a month was it not and then make a decision on whether or not we keep it?
I've not had chance to get used to it yet but I must admit I don't like the horizontal layout of the sub-forums on the main page, makes it much harder to see what goes where IMO.

Re: What

Spider — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:50:49 GMT

What I find frustrating is that the horizontal sub sections give no indication as to what sort of threads should be posted there. Take this section for instance exactly what should be included here rather than the main feedback section. Unless of course this is the place to let of steam regarding products and services without expecting any feedback?

Re: What

James — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:53:43 GMT

I certainly wouldn't expect any threads in this forum to be ignored.
An intuitive title wouldn't have been too much to ask for though

Re: What

Firejack — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:37:13 GMT

Honestly I see no problem with the setup, at least at a quick glance. This configuration of sub forums within forums is a very common setup now.

Re: What

Alex — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 22:17:40 GMT

Maybe we should have a "rant about the new forums" forum?
I'm just trying to get used it it, just find it strange as I've been using the PlusNet forums since 2004 (I think) and it's the first quite radical change they've had.

Re: What

God — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:04:19 GMT

I can see the point of the sub forums; I can also see why they are shown horizontally, to save screen real estate, otherwise we would have a very deep page mega scrolly situation.
The bit that isn’t so hot is that the ‘Last Post’ info doesn’t tell you which sub forum it was posted in, this doesn’t help you make a quick decision if it is of interest or not.
Cheers

Re: What

petlew — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 07:39:16 GMT

No particular problems with the "trial" I suppose you'd call it, or the horizontal link's. But it does rather smack of a job for someone who's slightly under employed to get on with when they've got a few moments to spare, or in other words; change for the sake of change rather than having any real point to it...if it ain't broke don't try and fix it. However pleased to see the demise of the Polish forum, I've nothing against our European brothers and sisters (honest) but it wasn't exactly used over much.

Re: What

glloyd — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:26:11 GMT

What a mess, I thought the forums had become corrupted. What on earth was wrong with the old layout?

Re: What

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:56:21 GMT

Nice and helpful George - didn't you add your comments to the threads discussing the changes?
If people don't tell us how they want things, its pretty difficult for us to know how they should be.

Re: What

petlew — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:17:27 GMT

Further to my earlier post; now if you'd made these changes at the same time as changing the colour scheme, with the benefit of hindsight, my guess is you would be getting a lot less flack now, but you didn't, so these changes seem on the whole a bit pointless. However human nature suggests that if you, at the end of the "trial" reinstate the old menu's you will be inundated with complaints about that as well.
You can't please all of the people all of the time...
It would be interesting if you would explain your reasons behind the proposed changes, especially how much they assist yourselves.

Re: What

jelv — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:30:36 GMT

To me the old main forum index was way too long! I also thought that there were a lot of posts that ended up in the wrong board - far too many for the mods to keep on top off. Plus when mods do move posts some people get upset. Hopefully with a more logical hierarchical structure people will find it easier to find the correct place.

Re: What

jelv — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:35:19 GMT

A further thought: I hope people will look at the board/sub-board structure separately from the cosmetics of the way they are displayed. While I think that the structure is a great improvement, I think Oldjim's suggestion here is spot on.

Re: What

shutter — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:41:10 GMT

I have just had this section come up on my screen after my usual form of entry to the forum..... never seen it before.....

This new "layout" is a bit like the bus service round here..... a new company will decide they are going to put a bus on an established route, so they put on a white bus..... no logo. no company name. just the header "Free bus to town".... and run it 3 or 4 minutes before the regular one....
People get confused, get on, and don`t know where it is going until it gets there.....
Eventually, the new company decides it isn`t worth the effort, and puts the bus on a different route, customers get confused again, and some even get taxi`s into town, so at least they are assured of the destination.

Re: What

zubel — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:44:03 GMT

There were several reasons behind our thinking:
1) Shorten the list of forums that an end user is presented with. We went from a large number of forums down to, I think, 10-12 "main" public forums that are effectively categorised.
2) Organise the forums in such a way that 'sub-moderation' is possible. Once we've settled on the new layout, we'll be looking for volunteers to help moderate certain sections of the boards in a self-contained manner. This will include moving posts from a parent board to a sub-board as an example. This will also allow much greater granularity in the moderating approach (and as the number of posts and posters ramps up this is an important step in maintaining effective control over the entire boards). We have trialled this approach with some of the 'Feature Trial' boards in conjunction with PUG and it is very effective.
3) Retire under-used boards, but keep them available
4) Move the Archive boards into their own category so they can (at some point) be excluded from default searches to increase the relevance of search results.
Overall, I'm fairly happy with the structure, although as jelv points out there are certain... shortcomings.. with the way that some features are displayed at the moment (like subforums on the main forum landing page). I think it''s probably worthwhile starting up a thread or two with suggestions on how we could improve the look-and-feel once the dust has settled a little.
Does that answer your questions?
B.

Re: What

zubel — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:52:27 GMT

@shutter
We did try and publicise the changes as much as possible, initially with a 'Request for Comments' post here, then we followed up with a "Final discussion" post here
Ian Wild also posted a blog post on our behalf to try to get more visibility on the discussion.
So, to use your analogy - it's very similar to the new bus company advertising in the local newspaper and on local TV all their new routes, with exact timetables and their company logo emblazoned on every bus ?
We certainly didn't try to sneak the changes in under cover of darkness - after all, the community is here for the users so we want to try and make it as easy as possible for the users to, well, use.
B.

Re: What

God — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:18:24 GMT

As I said in an earlier post I can see the positive side of the changes, but folks are normally resistant to change and I guess it needs to be lived in for a while!
A couple of points though...
I am definitely missing not being able to see what the latest post is for all categories, would the forum software support a tool tip with the latest post information to be generated by mousing over a sub forum link?

Edit.... ignore this bit I just saw Pierre's post!
The forum pages are loading incredibly s l o w l y today, is this because there is still changes taking place, or am I just the unlucky one and it’s fine for everyone else?

Re: What

Assos — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:31:43 GMT

@God the forums are slow today because of some problems PN are having at one of their sheffield datacentres.
I'm not sure if SMF supports a tool tip with that info by default, however I do think it is a good idea - possibly there's a mod out there we could cajoule PN to install!

Re: What

zubel — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:55:10 GMT

Hmm, actually it 's more of a theme issue than a mod issue, so PN should be able to hande it within the theme definition.
B.