Announcement/ HYS are too invisible

[Lisa]

Why not just provide a better, more comfortable experience for everyone?

Because, to put it simply, you can't please everyone all of the time. If forums were built to each individual users personal preferences, it would be utter chaos. A decision has to be made as to a format to do things and then adhered to. Usually this is done by taking how the majority of people use a function and developing it.

 

[Morgain]

Because, to put it simply, you can't please everyone all of the time.

True - but any business or effective project or forum CAN please most of the people most of the time.
In fact we have to or we simply fail.
Economics and online services are that competitive.
Satisfying one large group of the majority is not good practice at all. We need to retain and satisfy a lot more users./ clients than 60%

It is also risky to assume we know what the majority do and want without really solid data. It is all too easy to assume we know that based on impressions. Even surveys or polls are not reliable as they are self selected respondents. Responses from the active experienced group - who are the most likely to respond, will be skewed.
A good survey is proactive and observes neutral stats as well.

But in the end it hinges on whether we as admins see our role as forcing our users to do things the way we want, or instead working with them around how they tend to act in reaction to what we provide.
Obviously I belong to the second type of admin.

It can occasionally be necessary to herd people strictly into doing something in only one way. (eg Replying has to use the textbox.) In that case the software needs to make it impossible to so it any other way.
Working with any client group you quickly learn that if people CAN do it another way - they will.
So either cut off the other options, or work with them.

But leaving options open and then refusing to recognise that people will use them does not work.

 

[Sheldon]

True - but any business or effective project or forum CAN please most of the people most of the time.

Most of the people seem to be pleased right now. Without any changes.

 

[Morgain]

Most of the people seem to be pleased right now. Without any changes.

Got the stats on that Stuart? assumptions and impressions are so easy to make/

 

[whynot]

Most of the people seem to be pleased right now. Without any changes.

Perhaps they are simply waiting for the changes made to the software?

 

[Sheldon]

I have zero clue as to who Stuart is, Morgan.

 

[Sheldon]

Perhaps they are simply waiting for the changes made to the software?

There is a suggestion in place. Simply like it. Easy.

 

[whynot]

There is a suggestion in place. Simply like it. Easy.

Believe it or not "Like" it not enough.
Good results of them are more satisfying.

 

[Sheldon]

Believe it or not, liking the suggestion helps determine if something is implemented.

 

[whynot]

Believe it or not, liking the suggestion helps determine if something is implemented.

Perhaps there is no real need for changes:

Most of the people seem to be pleased right now. Without any changes.

 

[Morgain]

Well I'm really surprised. XF has always seemed to be pragmatic rather than dictatorial.
Maybe it's changing.

 

[Shelley]

I find it a constant anxiety that these important forums are so invisible. I visit XF often but sometimes there are periods of illness or busyness that prevent it.
So how am I supposed to know when things appear here? I have no way of setting an alert or notification on a forum here. But I don't think that is enough for really key items either.

Secondly even if you do visit here constantly, there are only two ways of seeing these forums have new threads.
One is Whats New?
(which is an excellent resource and should IMO be far more accessible eg part of the breadcrumbs bar)
But it can change rapidly in one day and an item get overlooked among a lot of small stuff. These key forums should really show up highlighted in some way.

The other is when another user mentions there is a HYS or announcement. This is a good community so generally I do see this kind of mention but it is still not really appropriate that notices from the board management are dependent on ordinary members to alert each other.

Why not post a Notice up to tell us there's a new Announcement/ Have You seen?
Why not make these threads appear highlighted in What's New listings? Or selected threads appear highlighted would be neat for admins.
Why not add an option to add ourselves to a Notification list for those forums?
or to any forum for that matter.

I don't see any difficulty in getting the HYS threads they are quite prominent already, easy to find and generally when a new HYS is posted I'm personally on it like Flies on poop. Why is is? Because I don't see myself as bone idle, lazy or require to be spoon fed via a silver spoon. But that is just me, I suspect judging by the amount of replies people are not finding it difficult and in some cases (most infact) people are responding literally seconds after the thread has been created and your asking yourself "they couldn't have read all that info" which brings me onto replies.

Again, easy to navigate to, find even but do you really need to read "thankyou" "oooh mike amazing" "ooh mike will you take your top off" "I'm going to swoon" "why wasn't a lens flare applied to said feature" replies? They aren't exactly informative threads in the way your conveying them out to be. The HYS initial post is always accessible easy to find when it's been made as are the others older HYS.

Sure, making thinks easier alerting users of is a good thing but does it really need to be applied here? I'll throw a bone, perhaps a prefix (not sure you suggested that with a "HYS" prefix? I dunno, is it even worth adding? Can't we already subscribe to the forum? (not sure that would even help) since the HYS are quite prominent in that they always get the attention when they are created.

I'm looking at this as a "HYS is just been created" and everyone is replying to it on the get go but the replies that generally are posted are not informative information that users benefit from for the majority of case since they are generally "thanks" "Great work" replies.

Watch forums would be a good feature I suppose that would alert you. I think I would use this specifically for HYS and announcements. But generally, i find any new threads created in there instantly because i like to do some leg work.

 

[Biker]

The fact remains, there are very simple ways to determine if something new has been posted in the Announcement and Have You Seen forum. Just because it doesn't follow YOUR way of checking things, doesn't mean it's not correct or incorrect. Harping on a single point because it doesn't fall into your idea of perfection doesn't make the point valid.

Checking to see if there's something new is easy. Changing one's browsing habits on the other hand...........

 

[CTXMedia]

Is there a suggestion for Highlight this forum in What's New ?

Something like this:




You could set this option for your important forums, such as announcements or site news, and have the unread important threads floated to the top with the border and/or background to visually highlight them.

This might make important threads more visible to the "What's New?" button hoggers ...

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Chris D]

Well I'm really surprised. XF has always seemed to be pragmatic rather than dictatorial.
Maybe it's changing.

Maybe they are being pragmatic. Maybe the solution to this entire problem (subscribing to a forum) is going to be in 1.2. Who knows? I'm sure there'll be many HYS' before 1.2 is at beta stage...

In the meantime, you'll just have to ensure you check the Announcements/HYS forum, subscribe to the RSS feed, check on Twitter (no account required just view the homepage) or check on Facebook.

Surely that's a reasonable request?

 

[CTXMedia]

Well I'm really surprised. XF has always seemed to be pragmatic rather than dictatorial.
Maybe it's changing.

It's a bit like going to a car manufacturer and asking for the driver's seat to be redesigned with a swivel base:

Them: "Why? Surely it works okay as it is doesn't it?"

You: "No, it doesn't work for me. I drive my car backwards everywhere and I end up with a stiff neck as a result! I'd like the drivers seat for all of your cars to have a swivel base so I can drive them backwards with ease!"

Them: "Are you serious?"

You: "Yes. Oh, and whilst we're at it, can you put an extra steering wheel in the back too please to stop my arms hurting?"

Now, okay, it's not quite that bad, but when the solution to the problem is ... Turn around and drive it forwards like everyone else!!! ... it does mean that if you don't it is really your problem and not the car manufacturer's.

Joking aside, I think there is room for improvement, especially as the What's New? feature works so well on XF that a lot of our members use it by default - you just need to define what you think would be a good "fix" for this and create a suggestion thread so that others can support it if they think it's a good idea too.

I'm going to do the same with the post I've made above - just to put the idea "out there" and see if it captures anyone else's imagination (done).

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Digital Doctor]

Announcement/ HYS are too invisible

This is a structural problem.
The lack of a Home Page is the problem.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Being able to subscribe to new threads in a forum would help. (a frequently requested forum feature).
Alerts do expire, mind you.

This problem isn't a forum problem really.
Xenforo needs a native Home Page product.

 

[xf_phantom]

IMO xenforo needs "only"

Being able to subscribe to new threads in a forum would help

It was suggested, we're waiting for it, end of story ATM we have to use twitter, facebook & co or wait for the 1,2 days delayed email.

A home page won't help because people who don't visit the forum index page (to see if something was posted in announcements and have you seen section) won't visit the homepage too
I'm also somebody who's not visiting the index page. My landing page is the what's new page and i'm going direct to threads and conversations via the email notification links or alerts. If i need to create a thread, there's a 50:50 chance that i can get to the necessary forum via the "what's new page" too, because of the forum link in the threadbit.
And if it's not there, i have to go too the indexpage (i tried to get familiar with the quick navigation but i can't ) and then i don't check the announcement / HYS forum for new content.

 

[Shelley]

Probably not a solution at all but you could be node specific in that you have an indicator. I probably would do this but it's thrown out there now and serves as something people wouldn't miss at first glance titling it whatever to users preference.

.nodeList .node_3 .nodeInfo.unread .nodeTitle:after {
    background-color: #8555cd;
    border-radius: 2px 2px 2px 2px;
    color: white;
    content: "HYS";
    font-size: 10px;
    margin-left: 5px;
    padding: 1px 5px;
}