Beta Main Forum Page Thoughts

What happened to being able to see a list of all the forums with the most recent topic for that forum showing, I really liked that feature?

I like having the Best Ever and Best This Year columns but we already have a header link for the most recent topics so that feels a little redundant while I for one miss the ability to scroll through the list of forums. It would be nice if the most recent column was somehow grouped into what forums the topic was under. The way it is now makes it so that the most active forums will be likely to bury the less active ones and relegate those less active forums to the second page. Even if a new post pops up on a less frequently used forum it won't show on the first page of results if there's a few good discussions going on in a couple of other forums.

- I consistently Just use the old one and will continue to do so as long as I can ! How about we make ''a thumbs up if you like this , Thumbs up if you like that
and generate some specific numbers !

Just my two cents ! Big AL

Wow. Gotta say that the beta view is pretty bad IMHO.
That's a lot of background noise going on there. Doesn't help readability for me in the slightest.

All the space down the lefthand side, coupled with the below the like signatures that can be quite large leads to a lot of scrolling to read posts.

Also the thread layout, being the same as the old one, makes it hard to follow the conversation. I would have thought this would be a thing to improve in the upgrade. Maybe using something like geeklists on the boardgamegeek site. One header with conversations under that header, a new header for a different but related to the OP's topic.
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/178180/what-are-best-gateway-games-and-what-category

Edit: For instance Evans ant village thread would have benefited from this type of layout, with the ability to be able to just subscribe to his updates.

The buttons on the page look like they come from some 90's clip art. The text on them has that funny backwards highlight shadow thing going on, which makes things unclear.

I'm not particularly bothered by the looks of websites. Usability and information density is what matters most to me, and any change in a site is disorientating, and therefore annoying in the short-term, but this look, I have to say I find quite off-putting.

I'd also like to say that it doesn't matter too much whether current users do or do not like the direction the beta is going in, it matters if it is changes your bounce rate. So until things are up and running, or you spend a small fortune on a focus group (yeah right) I guess no-one knows until it goes live.

I don't like knocking other people's work, but we all want feedback, right?

Michael Newby wrote: What happened to being able to see a list of all the forums with the most recent topic for that forum showing, I really liked that feature?

Nothing has happened to it. If you still want to see it, click the PRIMARY FORUMS BUTTON (shown in the image below outlined by a blue rectangle). It will take you to the Primary Forums Page. The Primary Forums Page lists ALL FORUMS at permies.



More specific categories can be found by clicking the VIEW BUTTON (indicated above by the yellow circle). The "buttons on the left" will take you to Secondary Forums Pages which contains groupings of permies.com subforums. The Primary Forums Page is split into the following Secondary Forums Groupings: Growies, Critters, Building, Homesteading, Energy, Living, Community, Wilderness, Permaculture Artisans, Education, Regional, Global Resources, The Cider Press, and Permies.Com.

If you are concerned about the more active forums being buried by the less active forums, you can subscribe to updates of conversations posted within individual subforums by clicking the WATCH FORUM BUTTON (indicated by the RED RECTANGLE in the first image below). There currently is not an option to subscribe to updates in the Secondary Forums Pages. You will have to subscribe to each subforum contained within said groupings individually.

Rus Williams wrote: Also the thread layout, being the same as the old one, makes it hard to follow the conversation. I would have thought this would be a thing to improve in the upgrade. Maybe using something like geeklists on the boardgamegeek site. One header with conversations under that header, a new header for a different but related to the OP's topic.
https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/178180/what-are-best-gateway-games-and-what-category

Edit: For instance Evans ant village thread would have benefited from this type of layout, with the ability to be able to just subscribe to his updates.

There currently does not exist an option to subscribe to all posts made by a permies.com user in the OLD or NEW VIEWS. If you click the WATCH TOPIC BUTTON (located in the second image below and indicated by a green oval). The WATCH TOPIC BUTTON subscribes you to all updates in a thread WITHOUT you ever having to post in that thread.

Rus Williams wrote: I don't like knocking other people's work, but we all want feedback, right?

Yes, feedback on the NEW FORUM VIEW is wanted, but it would be more helpful for everyone involved (e.g. staff, moderators, users, etc) if feedback was placed in the appropriate thread that already exists for it: Opinions on New Forum Look. It is harder for feedback and conversations to be followed when they are unnecessarily subdivided and separated from each other.