Announcement/ HYS are too invisible

[Digital Doctor]

OK. The idea stinks. Start putting alerts up top for every stinking little thing and people start ignoring it.

It's just for important alerts.
Max 2 per month.

 

[Lisa]

It's just for important alerts.
Max 2 per month.

OMG but what if there's like.. FOUR HYS's in a month? *starts twitching*

 

[Mike]

OMG but what if there's like.. FOUR HYS's in a month? *starts twitching*

Or 4 or 5 in a week?

 

[Morgain]

Again, easy to navigate to, find even but do you really need to read "thankyou" "oooh mike amazing" ... he HYS initial post is always accessible easy to find when it's been made as are the others older HYS.

Yes it's easy to find - if you go looking for it. The point is that without EXTERNAL services you have to specially go and look. It seems very odd that other information far less important can throw up an alert or sent a notification automatically, but not this.
I think this is a good point so whats needed is alert/ notification on the first post.

.. perhaps a prefix

Perhaps yes. Not enough but helpful.

Can't we already subscribe to the forum?

No we can't. That's exactly the problem.
(There is an addon. It will soon have ability to make watching a forum mandatory. But that wont solve the XF problem HERE and relies on admins installing it elsewhere. I have seen it stated that most admins use XF unmodified.)

Watch forums would be a good feature I suppose that would alert you. I think I would use this specifically for HYS and announcements.

Thank you that's the whole point.

But generally, i find any new threads created in there instantly because i like to do some leg work.

I'm sure you find that most users do not measure up to your standards. We work with people as they are.

Is there a suggestion for Highlight this forum in What's New ?
View attachment 46612
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.

SUPERB - love the pic.

Maybe they are being pragmatic. Maybe the solution to this entire problem (subscribing to a forum) is going to be in 1.2.

Here's hoping.

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?

Reasonable request? Joke? No not reasonable. A major theme of forums is to STOP users 'leaking' offsite and relying on other services. That XF users are actually being recommended to use Twitter, or Facebook to keep up with XF is disgraceful.

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

No it's not like a car seat. A car seat involves major life/ death issues. It also involves using functions with both hands, both feet, correct positioning of the body to among other things view FOUR mirrors. Forums are not about personal safety in dangerous situations of skill. The skillset is basic, point, click, type.
We could apply your point to a product which doesnt have the safety issues or the usage skill complexity. A word processor. A book. A pen. A TShirt.
It is immediately obvious that simple usage requirements and lack of risk opens up variable user responses.
Far from forcing users to use them a set way providers work hard to make them flexible.

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 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).

See Chris' pic and proposal above.
Will check your thread.

 

[Digital Doctor]

It wouldn't work for the thread starter as they don't visit the forum home page.
Which is the cause of the "problem".

The forum home page sucks.
Shelley's idea might get me to check it sometimes.

 

[Paul B]

The forum home page sucks.

In your opinion.

I find it perfectly acceptable.

 

[Biker]

I'm done with this thread. Can't believe it's still going on.

You want the information. You know where to look.

But that's the entire gist of the thread. They don't WANT to go look. It should be handed to them on a silver platter with little bells tinkling in the background.

 

[Digital Doctor]

Or 4 or 5 Alerts in a week?

Works for me.
There are some notifications that you love to get.

4 or 5 per week all year might get stale.
But not in this case !

 

[Nudaii]

I always just go straight to forum list, seeing people mention whats new was a bit of a surprise, in the 15months i have been using XF, i have used it 3 times between all the xenforo forums i use.

Two of those times was testing a style.

One of those times I was bored and decided to see how the activity had been last few days, not used it since XD

 

[Mike]

Reasonable request? Joke? No not reasonable. A major theme of forums is to STOP users 'leaking' offsite and relying on other services. That XF users are actually being recommended to use Twitter, or Facebook to keep up with XF is disgraceful.

Morgain, this is sort of the problem. You bring up a problem you have and people give you workarounds and you shoot them down because it's not the "one true solution" (watching a forum). If this was a suggestion, you posted in the wrong forum. So if it's not a suggestion, then what are you trying to do? Naturally people are going to give you workarounds or their own opinion, especially if they don't agree with the premise or think that the underlying point is flawed.

Plenty of people have already acknowledged the suggestion to watch a forum - it's come up here numerous times. It's been noted how liked it is and that it's obviously known. You've even posted a link to this thread in it. If this is a suggestion, we might as well just tag it as a duplicate.

I'm not saying to watch your tone, but your tone really does undermine your point sometimes. It creates combative responses that then derail the thread, further undermining the point. If you want to affect change, you are going to need to sell your perspective.

 

[Chris D]

Reasonable request? Joke? No not reasonable. A major theme of forums is to STOP users 'leaking' offsite and relying on other services. That XF users are actually being recommended to use Twitter, or Facebook to keep up with XF is disgraceful.

What's disgraceful is your continued trolling over something that is basically a non-issue.

The problem: You were away from the forum for a few days and you would like certain threads from certain forums to be more prominent.

The solution:

1. Subscribe to a forum. This functionality isn't yet available. More waiting is required.
2. Use your eyes. You have two of them. There are two (one for each eye, perhaps) forums that contain important information. Look at them occasionally.
3. The information is available from multiple sources (entirely optional based on your preferences), they are:
   1. What's New
   2. The XenForo Homepage (the Twitter block)
   3. The XenForo Twitter Page
   4. The XenForo Facebook Page
   5. The XenForo forum RSS feed

I don't see anything disgraceful about this. Do you want Mike to knock on your front door when he makes an important thread?
I honestly don't see how this is still being discussed after 4 pages. What more do you want?

 

[Shelley]

Yes it's easy to find - if you go looking for it. The point is that without EXTERNAL services you have to specially go and look. It seems very odd that other information far less important can throw up an alert or sent a notification automatically, but not this.
I think this is a good point so whats needed is alert/ notification on the first post.


Perhaps yes. Not enough but helpful.

No we can't. That's exactly the problem.
(There is an addon. It will soon have ability to make watching a forum mandatory. But that wont solve the XF problem HERE and relies on admins installing it elsewhere. I have seen it stated that most admins use XF unmodified.)


Thank you that's the whole point.


I'm sure you find that most users do not measure up to your standards. We work with people as they are.


SUPERB - love the pic.


Here's hoping.

Reasonable request? Joke? No not reasonable. A major theme of forums is to STOP users 'leaking' offsite and relying on other services. That XF users are actually being recommended to use Twitter, or Facebook to keep up with XF is disgraceful.


No it's not like a car seat. A car seat involves major life/ death issues. It also involves using functions with both hands, both feet, correct positioning of the body to among other things view FOUR mirrors. Forums are not about personal safety in dangerous situations of skill. The skillset is basic, point, click, type.
We could apply your point to a product which doesnt have the safety issues or the usage skill complexity. A word processor. A book. A pen. A TShirt.
It is immediately obvious that simple usage requirements and lack of risk opens up variable user responses.
Far from forcing users to use them a set way providers work hard to make them flexible.


See Chris' pic and proposal above.
Will check your thread.

My standards? No this is just doing things for yourself and basically doing some leg work to get to the content to answer your smug comment. I believe in getting people to do things for themselves like such things as using "Search" not spoon feeding them and educating them to be downright Bone Idle.

 

[Slavik]

Do you want Mike to knock on your front door when he makes an important thread?

Why, yes, yes I would

 

[Paul B]

Try this link, I always find it extremely useful for seeing which forums have new posts in them:

http://xenforo.com/community/

If you want more granularity there are these two links:

http://xenforo.com/community/forums/announcements/
http://xenforo.com/community/forums/have-you-seen/

 

[Lisa]

Why, yes, yes I would

Me too... so long as he brings a preview copy of whatever he's working on with him In return I will offer food and booze!

 

[Biker]

Why, yes, yes I would

I'm sure that could be arranged. However, the licensing fee for such services could be an issue. I'm thinking at least a thousand quid per month.

 

[Sheldon]

Do we have Thread of the Year contests? I have my nomination.

 

[erich37]

I am looking at the "Tweets" here at the Homepage of XenForo.com and immediately see new announcements, which is good to have this shown at the Homepage.

However, there could be a solution which is literally the same.... but does not rely on Twitter.
There are some Forums which do not want to have Twitter or Farcebook integrated (for various reasons).

Why not make it just something like "Featured News" or "Featured Threads" at the Homepage ?
Just the same thing we do have at the Homepage currently, but without Twitter....

 

[Morgain]

Apologies Mike yes it was a suggestion not a request for help.
Yes Ive seen it come up before but there is no sign that it's being actioned. In fact it was looking like it needed a reminder. Devs have a lot to cover so reminders can be useful.

... your tone really does undermine your point sometimes. It creates combative responses that then derail the thread, further undermining the point. If you want to affect change, you are going to need to sell your perspective.

Well I'd gathered something I do doesnt go down well.So thanks for helping though it's not clear specifically what is meant.

The way I methodically deal with points in turn is because of the specific academic training I have where that was ground into me.It does tend to produce results because it's thorough.

It is not in my eyes combative to work on points offered and examine them carefully. That to me is treating the point seriously respect. To act with contempt is to ignore ideas offered or say/ imply that the speaker is lazy (already said to me above) or selfish, or stupid.

Where I find something works I am quick to Like, or to praise.
Where I see counter points I say so because that helps the concept building to go forward. I don't see team working as effective if we don't fill each others' gaps.
I have no objection to others pointing out gaps in my ideas. Some do this in an aggressive way - saying the other person is being lazy, stupid, or otherwise insulting the person. I never do that. I do point out where an idea doesn't work. That's what sharing ideas is about so that together we can build something better than solitary effort can.

 

[RobParker]

If only XF had some kind of system where a notice could be placed in a prominent position alerting people to important news (obviously with the ability to dismiss for those who have read it, etc)...

Seriously, I don't get why the fantastic notice system is completely underused on here when I always thought it was pretty much built for this very purpose, making announcements and pointing people to important news/threads.