@x1-two You are most certainly entitled to that opinion. They could always have a size limit though.
Forum Updates
@dhg-ixxrmacxxi said in Forum Updates:
[...] it's easier to just read the preview and scroll past instead of clicking the thread then going back and having to scroll back down to where you were.
That might be true for your use case, but I just middle-click every topic I care to read (to open it a new tab), then after opening all the interesting-looking topics, I switch tabs and start reading.
I have to believe I'm not the only one that does this, and all the extra scrolling and fewer topics on screen at a time courtesy of the previews makes this far more painful than any presumed benefit of seeing a preview of the OP.
This should have been a toggle from the start. Since it wasn't, it should absolutely be a toggle now. Different people consume the forums in different ways. A change like this benefits your experience but greatly detracts from mine.
I don't mind it, outside of a couple UX things:
The user icon isn't padded equally.
The entire page is 15 padded.
The title is padded by 15px left and then the icon is 42px. That yields an indent of 57px until end of icon. That should be the value of margin-left in li .content h2.The title is indented more than the text of the topic.
The title is margin left of 62 + the 15 of parent div for 77, whereas the body text is padded 61.
A big 16px difference that doesn't "line up".
The teaser-container padding should be at a low number, like 20(not 15 because of roundness of icon), to line up with the icon, or 77 (or more) if the title is adjusted to 57 to indent under the title for a more pleasing look.Images showing the fixed icon spacing and the 77/20.
https://ibb.co/j8zJ3dI miss the old website and forum feedback forum already =)
@xCALYPT0x
The top left is kind of a signature, it has your gamertag and pic, it could just have one more line with a user created description?
https://ibb.co/crvNwy(imgur hating me, so had to use an alternative uploader)
My preference is for something that works consistently over something that might seem prettier. It's a forum. The most important thing is that we can easily access threads and create posts. It doesn't have to be fancy. If it can be fancy, great... but it should work first and foremost.
All I can say is that I have had the worst, most frustrating internet experience of my life trying to make use of this forum. It's awful... particularly on my phone. It can sometimes take 5 minutes just to get a reply window to open without taking me back to the front page or some broken, cut-off version of the page that I can't interact with at all. It's just bad, horrible, awful. Please fix it.
@fishst1ck said
Add this line to your ad blocker filters: seaofthieves.com##.teaser-container
Courtesy of Mr. @MusicmeeThank you @FishSt1ck and @Musicmee .
Musicmee, please disregard my PM to you asking how to filter it. :o)In recent weeks, I've had a recurring problem on Android with the text cursor showing above wherever I click. For example, to select the end of this paragraph, I would have to tap below it or (more likely) drag the cursor from mid-paragraph to wherever I want it. This is annoying and imprecise.
I had to log in again just today, so clearing my cache doesn't help.
@khaleesibot hey- just wanted to let you know that you can’t interact with the new layout on internet explorer v:11.0.9600.19035 or later. ( essentially the corporate builds). It’s causing errors.
Is there a way of viewing the old version? It seemed cleaner to the eye.
@williamherschel said in Forum Updates:
I don't understand what's taking them so long to revert back to the old forum. This update is universally panned. Nobody likes it.
There's obviously some sort of internal logic beyond "community growth" for why they decided to make this change, and why this still haven't reverted it back.
The forum has been in decline for a while. Maybe they thought it needed a final push.
Ahoy Everyone!
We've seen everyone's feedback regarding this change, the requests for more transparency, and the general consensus that most people are not in favour of this UI/Layout change. Because of this we will be making some tweaks to improve the layout and how it looks and feels, but we need your help!
What we would like from you is some ideas that could help make this current layout more user friendly? Example
Now this does mean that at this time reverting back to the old forums is not being considered, we acknowledge that this layout is not perfect but let us try and make it better together. We also recognize there are some immediate issues with the new layout on mobile devices that do not allow you to open threads at all will be addressed.
I want to thank everyone for their feedback so far, and hopefully together we can make the changes that will improve everyone's experiences!
I guess I'm just really confused. So basically the new layout is here to stay for some unspecified reason even though the community hates it. Nobody wants the current layout, we want the old layout. Making the current layout more user friendly literally just means rolling back the update.
I really don't know what sort of feedback you're looking for. It's pretty obvious that people do not like previews at all, and many folks seem to be against the ability "hide" posts/threads.
The feedback you're asking for already exists. Here it is, it's simple, roll back the update. That's what people want. There's no reason to complicate it, or continue to drag this mess out even further.
I've already asked for Rare employees and Deckhands to cite examples of where supposedly users were asking for these features, and everyone has come up empty handed.
I'm not claiming that there is some vast conspiracy, but there is obviously some unstated reason regarding why you're all so against rolling back the update. If there is, you should be upfront about what that reason is.
@williamherschel Unfortunately we all have to work with what’s being presented to us. If you don’t wish to provide ideas as to how to improve the current layout then that’s fine you don’t have to. But as I mentioned before reverting back is not being considered currently. You asked for transparency on what is happening and why, there’s the transparency that it will not be rolled back because Rare wants to give this layout a try and tweak it as necessary and make improvements.
@KattTruewalker provided a couple recent examples of the Block feature being requested, it’s also something that we get asked in PMs a lot, which for privacy we cannot share the contents of that.
If you want the reason why it’s not being rolled back: They want to try this layout, improve it, and see how it goes. 3 days is not a long enough trial period by any means, therefor at this time reverting it back is not being considered.
@dhg-ixxrmacxxi said in Forum Updates:
@williamherschel Unfortunately we all have to work with what’s being presented to us. If you don’t wish to provide ideas as to how to improve the current layout then that’s fine you don’t have to. But as I mentioned before reverting back is not being considered currently. You asked for transparency on what is happening and why, there’s the transparency that it will not be rolled back because Rare wants to give this layout a try and tweak it as necessary and make improvements.
I fail to understand how any of these new UI changes are tweakable. People don't like the preview because it creates additional clutter and makes no sense for embedded videos. I genuinely do not understand what a proposed solution would be outside of removing this "feature" entirely.
@KattTruewalker provided a couple recent examples of the Block feature being requested, it’s also something that we get asked in PMs a lot, which for privacy we cannot share the contents of that.
I appreciated her response, but she admitted that she discovered those two posts during a cursory forum search while on her way into the office. Again, I appreciate that she attempted to answer the question, but I still don't think it's justified. Also one of the two examples was a post where someone was asking for downvote to be enabled, which has nothing to do with this current UI change.
I have no doubt that as moderators/deckhands you're all privy to some internet craziness that I cannot see. I think being able to block PMs is great, but I don't think that logic needs to be carried over to being able to hide threads/posts so long as moderators continue to do their job.
If you want the reason why it’s not being rolled back: They want to try this layout, improve it, and see how it goes. 3 days is not a long enough trial period by any means, therefor at this time reverting it back is not being considered.
I appreciate your response, but all this says to me is that they have no intention of changing it. Three days might not seem like a lot, but any new users who visit the forum during the duration of this "test period" will immediately be discouraged by how much a nightmare it is to navigate. More casual users are not taking part in this discussion (like the one we are having now), and it seems very likely to me that they will just take their traffic elsewhere.
I'll back off for a bit, but given the unanimous feedback that you've already received, the stated explanations do not make any sense.
@dhg-ixxrmacxxi said in Forum Updates:
@williamherschel Unfortunately we all have to work with what’s being presented to us. If you don’t wish to provide ideas as to how to improve the current layout then that’s fine you don’t have to. But as I mentioned before reverting back is not being considered currently. You asked for transparency on what is happening and why, there’s the transparency that it will not be rolled back because Rare wants to give this layout a try and tweak it as necessary and make improvements.
Can we get clarification on what exactly is meant by "the current layout"? Does this refer specifically to the preview below the thread heading? Does this mean a preview of some sort that is not below but still present? Does this mean a preview that is hidden completely until some sort of action is taken? If the previous format is forbidden as a suggestion, which one assumes means no preview, it is helpful to know what we are allowed to suggest.
@lucid-stew said in Forum Updates:
@dhg-ixxrmacxxi said in Forum Updates:
@williamherschel Unfortunately we all have to work with what’s being presented to us. If you don’t wish to provide ideas as to how to improve the current layout then that’s fine you don’t have to. But as I mentioned before reverting back is not being considered currently. You asked for transparency on what is happening and why, there’s the transparency that it will not be rolled back because Rare wants to give this layout a try and tweak it as necessary and make improvements.
Can we get clarification on what exactly is meant by "the current layout"? Does this refer specifically to the preview below the thread heading? Does this mean a preview of some sort that is not below but still present? Does this mean a preview that is hidden completely until some sort of action is taken? If the previous format is forbidden as a suggestion, which one assumes means no preview, it is helpful to know what we are allowed to suggest.
Current layout referring to including the preview feature in some form. Change the layout where it reduces some clutter and stuff. Some suggestions that I passed along was to eliminate a lot of the dead space, reduce the text size of the preview, move the "Posts and View" counts to the left side under the gamer pick and move the category beside the gamer pic then move the preview up. Basically better space utilization is what I came up with, but there's other ideas I am sure. Sorry for not being more clear previously.
Along those lines, I would say limit thread titles to ~32-40 characters, eliminate thread views completely, put the post count next to time since posting under the thread title, replace last post preview with first post preview in the space left over which would be about 3X larger than the current last post footprint.
reasons:
- Most thread titles are pretty short. Those that are more long-winded could probably be worded more succinctly, and if a title is 160 characters, what is the post for anyway?
- The number of posts tells you what you need to know. Views in conjuction doesn't add much, and probably discourages discourse, such as when a thread has 1 post and many views, i.e. "you can skip this one because it isn't interesting enough to warrant replies".
- Overlap between first/last post when there is only one post is a waste of space. If there are 15 posts and the purpose of the first post preview is to summarize the thread, what does the last post give you that the other 13 don't? You can tell by order which is most recent.
- With the same font as current last post, the remaining space would display about 75% as much information as the gigantic first post preview currently does.
- Overall form factor returns to more functional and readable original version.
What this has done, is it has essentially turned your forums into something more resembling a news feed on the front page of a website. Now there, it isn't so bad to only see two threads or articles on the screen at a time, considering those pages don't see updates for days or longer.
You haven't streamlined the forum viewing process at all. You've made it more of a hassle really.
The only feedback I can offer here to improve the current layout, is make the preview optional. It's a little disappointing to see that this feedback is essentially being discarded, and I'll never understand why people are so determined to latch onto a bad idea despite how universally unpopular it is received. I know I'm already spending less time here due to these changes, my adblock tends to crash a couple times a day since I added that line in to remove the preview so I default to Reddit instead of relaunching my browser and all my tabs. I understand wanting to give some changes time for adjustment, but sometimes it's pretty clear when something doesn't work for a number of people and time doesn't provide any additional insight.
Any updates about how Rare plans synthesize the feedback outside of simply shoving it down our collective throats and forget that this place used to be significantly more functional?
Lets cut the BS and get some real reasons regarding why Rare thought this change was a good idea.
@williamherschel As of right now the web team is reviewing all the feedback that we've provided along with the feedback in this thread and will be going over it to see what they can do to improve the design. You will notice that they have heard all the feedback regarding the mobile site not functioning and have already fixed that problem for us!
As I have told you before, twice, Rare wanted to make this change because they thought it was best, and are listening to feedback and working on ways to improve it. B
Now before anyone states that it's 'killing the forums' I would like to state that since the change there has been no statistical difference in forum use.
@dhg-ixxrmacxxi said in Forum Updates:
As I have told you before, twice, Rare wanted to make this change because they thought it was best, and are listening to feedback and working on ways to improve it. B
So if the feedback is almost universally that people do not like the preview feature. Is Rare considering removing it? What is the timeline on this? I know that you're probably getting tired of me re-hashing this, but I'm not the only one that feels like they don't really want feedback. Again, unless you're receiving some alternate stream of information that I'm not privy to, this update has pretty much been universally panned by the community.
Now before anyone states that it's 'killing the forums' I would like to state that since the change there has been no statistical difference in forum use.
Would Rare be willing to make these numbers public? What sort of date ranges are we talking about here? Have you seen the numbers yourself, or did someone imply this in a general sense on the deckhand board?
66 out of 100
