Forum separation?

Mark McDonald
Mark McDonald Member Posts: 24 ✭✭
edited November 22 in English Forum

So all the forums, with the exception of beta, have been collapsed into a single group? Is there some way to get rid of all the white space?

Select 1-3 relevant tags below.

Comments

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member Posts: 2,661 ✭✭✭

    Other languages, resources and Proclaim are also separated out. English is combined into one and relies on tags. I think it works reasonably well.

    A few things I notice for repair or possible improvement:

    • The status of 'answered' seemed problematic and is being discussed
    • Images are missing from some posts in the migration to this platform
    • The analytics in profiles need to be corrected. Mine says I joined in 2016 when I joined the previous platform on the day of its launch in 2009.
    • The lack of dates on forum post lists could lead to a greater possibility that someone will post on a thread that was forever ago.
    • I personally prefer to see in addition to the original posters name, the most recent time and date and who commented in the subtitle.
    • Would it be worth having a 'mark all' read option for forum?
    • The quote function is all or nothing, which diminishes its function.

    The use of white space in the forum does give it a clean look. I am getting used to it, but I, too, have wondered if the use could be tweaked a bit to help with the visual flow of lengthy posts, particularly with the demarcation of the original post and subsequent comments.

  • Graham Criddle
    Graham Criddle MVP Posts: 32,625

    Regarding when we joined the forum - I found that, for me, the date shown was the last time my forum email address was changed. Could that apply here?

  • scooter
    scooter Member Posts: 1,131 ✭✭✭

    Here I want to highlight parts of Donovan's post. I cannot. This is a big drop. Logos: please restore.

    Dates are necessary. Date OP originated, date of last post, who wrote last post, how many posts on this thread

  • Frank Sauer
    Frank Sauer Member Posts: 1,757 ✭✭✭

    The quote feature was something we were giving feedback on those types of needed improvements during the Beta phase

    Logos 10 - OpenSuse Tumbleweed, Windows 11, Android 15 & Android 14

  • scooter
    scooter Member Posts: 1,131 ✭✭✭

    Yeah, Frank, I hope they move on these issues.

    As the originators have to be the ones who change the forums, there can be some resistance to doing so.

  • Jason Stone (Logos)
    Jason Stone (Logos) Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 506

    Here I want to highlight parts of …'s post. I cannot.

    @scooter, members can select/copy portions of an individuals comment and quote them (or simply type ">" followed by the space bar). That is the simplest way to quote snippets of another.

    We are actively monitoring the dialogue around this and I really appreciate your feedback there.

    Sr. Community Manager at Logos.

  • Jason Stone (Logos)
    Jason Stone (Logos) Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 506

    A few things I notice for repair or possible improvement…

    @Donovan R. Palmer, I've taken note of your list there. Thank you for sharing!

    Sr. Community Manager at Logos.

  • Jason Stone (Logos)
    Jason Stone (Logos) Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 506

    Is there some way to get rid of all the white space?

    We will be making more use of sidebars in the future, @Mark McDonald. That white space will come in handy for future releases and expansions on our community space.

    Sr. Community Manager at Logos.

  • David Carter
    David Carter Member Posts: 1,085 ✭✭

    My feedback is that you've made it way too hard to quote part of a post 😘

  • EastTN
    EastTN Member Posts: 1,441 ✭✭✭

    "The use of white space in the forum does give it a clean look. I am getting used to it, but I, too, have wondered if the use could be tweaked a bit to help with the visual flow of lengthy posts, particularly with the demarcation of the original post and subsequent comments."

    It feels "modern," but somehow also feels more cluttered to me. I think that's due to a couple of things. First, you can't see as much of the conversation on a single screen, so it's not as immediately clear where you are in the conversation. Second, while navigating by tags and filters may be more flexible, it doesn't provide as obvious a structure as separate forums. Of the two, I think the first is the most bothersome to me.

    Overall, it feels to me more like scrounging through a junk drawer and less like scanning through a filing cabinet.

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member Posts: 2,661 ✭✭✭

    Not in my case. I actually changed emails in the last year.

  • Mark McDonald
    Mark McDonald Member Posts: 24 ✭✭

    White space on the sides is, for me at least, a non-issue. White space in each boxed post wastes screen real estate and forces constant scrolling.

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,761
    edited November 25

    @David Carter

    My feedback is that you've made it way too hard to quote part of a post 😘

    You have to find the blank "Leave a Comment" to respond.

    Click the Edit symbol on the left side, outside the Comment box

    Then select the Quote symbol as below

    And select Quote to get a Quote box to paste your (partial) quotation

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Aaron Hamilton
    Aaron Hamilton Member Posts: 906 ✭✭✭

    And after all of that you're left with the result of nobody knowing who you're actually quoting…

  • David Carter
    David Carter Member Posts: 1,085 ✭✭

    And after all of that you're left with the result of nobody knowing who you're actually quoting…

    Indeed

  • Jason Stone (Logos)
    Jason Stone (Logos) Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 506

    Great feedback on quotes and user experience regarding white space. We're excited about improving this space in the future.

    A few suggestions around quotes would be to use the rich text editor to the left of the comment box, and mention users while you call out their particular text unless you quote their comment as a whole using the default quote feature.

    Sr. Community Manager at Logos.

  • scooter
    scooter Member Posts: 1,131 ✭✭✭
  • Frank Sauer
    Frank Sauer Member Posts: 1,757 ✭✭✭

    @Jason Stone (Logos) thanks for pointing out that feature - somehow I missed that…. Still hope we can get closer to the Old Forums quote capability, as others have mentioned using this quote function for a portion of a post does not clearly note who we are quoting.

    A few suggestions around quotes would be to use the rich text editor to the left of the comment box, and mention users while you call out their particular text unless you quote their comment as a whole using the default quote feature.

    Logos 10 - OpenSuse Tumbleweed, Windows 11, Android 15 & Android 14

  • Frank Sauer
    Frank Sauer Member Posts: 1,757 ✭✭✭

    Look at the icon just outside the Comment Box - to the left of where it says type. If you click that icon there are different options.

    Logos 10 - OpenSuse Tumbleweed, Windows 11, Android 15 & Android 14

  • scooter
    scooter Member Posts: 1,131 ✭✭✭

    I had clicked it; nothing appeared. Hence my question here.

    So, thanks Frank. This time I clicked, it gave choices.

  • Jason Stone (Logos)
    Jason Stone (Logos) Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 506

    So much covered in the thread of this post!

    Please let me know if there are more questions.

    Sr. Community Manager at Logos.

  • scooter
    scooter Member Posts: 1,131 ✭✭✭

    Thank you, Jason, for hanging out with us.

    Thanks for putting Shop at the top. Love it. I do the Logos tour. Here » Pre-pub new ones. » Pre-pub my ship dates

    Thanks for the date / time as U have set it up.

    Thanks to you and the team!!

  • Aaron Hamilton
    Aaron Hamilton Member Posts: 906 ✭✭✭

    Yes, the forums keep getting better. Good job Jason & team. I keep wondering what gifts (improvements) I will see when I come back. I want more. Must be the Holidays; feeling greedy. 😉

  • DMB
    DMB Member Posts: 13,613 ✭✭✭

    Forums keep getting better? In what way? My impression is Vanilla was introduced/customized, it's quite confusing, inefficient, and loses stuff. And no offense to Jason, but I'm guessing he's treading water (work-arounds) due to the marketing and web teams busy on the denom-packages (making sure they're not give-aways). But they do deserve their holidays!

    "If myth is ideology in narrative form, then scholarship is myth with footnotes." B. Lincolm 1999.

  • Donovan R. Palmer
    Donovan R. Palmer Member Posts: 2,661 ✭✭✭
    edited November 26

    I think a few changes since launch has been:

    • Timestamps on post listings
    • Email alerts have been switched on
    • Post length has been increased
    • Missing images lost in the migration has been repaired
    • An oversight leaving Catholics off of the Christian Groups list on the resource page has been addressed
    • I think some adjustments on the spam filter - or lost posts.

    There might be more, but those that I have noticed so far…

    On your point about new packages… it will be interesting to see what the next round looks like. It is something to look forward to in the gray winter months of Jan-March!

  • Aaron Hamilton
    Aaron Hamilton Member Posts: 906 ✭✭✭

    My honest opinion: the Vanilla forums are premature. Presently, I feel the old forums are superior to the current experience. While I genuinely do see the potential of the new Vanilla forums, the integration was rushed and should have gone through much more extensive beta testing. But here we are. My comment does not refer to the broad transition but to the minute details. I see and appreciate the little things that are better today than they were yesterday.

  • Jason Stone (Logos)
    Jason Stone (Logos) Administrator, Community Manager, Logos Employee Posts: 506

    There might be more, but those that I have noticed so far

    Great observation @Donovan Palmer … and we are less than a week into launch! We're already making strides to improve this new space.

    We're triaging feedback and prioritizing changes. Some are quick and easy; others more substantial. And of course we have to balance that feedback with what we know is coming in the gray winter months of Jan-Mar. Substantial improvements are already on the roadmap.

    Thank you for your patience!

    P.S. I'm not treading water in the wake of other teams doing their thing, @DMB. 😉 I'm confident that we will get the space where it needs to be, quickly, and all teams are working together to serve our staff, our application users, and community members — there are just a lot of facets to balance between new users, legacy users, and staff needs. We've got this! One step at a time.

    Sr. Community Manager at Logos.

  • Frank Sauer
    Frank Sauer Member Posts: 1,757 ✭✭✭

    There are some odd behaviors that exist - I notice a LOT of years old posts showing as "Recent" with 11-20 dates that are inaccurate - but figured that is a lay over from the conversion that could be corrected.

    Quoting is still not on the level we are used to - but I'm encouraged with the reactive nature of the team to other issues, so I expect the improvements to be coming.

    I really like the Mobile function on both phone and tablet.

    The fix for links is a big plus as well.

    Overall, there are things I miss about the Old Forums, but a lot I enjoy with the new

    Logos 10 - OpenSuse Tumbleweed, Windows 11, Android 15 & Android 14

  • Mark McDonald
    Mark McDonald Member Posts: 24 ✭✭

    I think the "New" forums continue to be a work in progress. Jason's continuing participation shows Logos' intent to make them work to our mutual benefit.