Official: How’s the New Community Site Working for You?

Hello Jason,

If I click on a link in the email. For example "A question from …." with now over 35 pages. It leads me always to to the 3. page instead of the actual post.

Hello Jason,

a annoyance. I have to scroll to the bottom until I can switch to the next page. The page turner must be above too. So if we start on the first page we can go to the next without scrolling down.

Ok. I see it, it is under the initial post.

I preferred the former layout of being able to select message forums by the subjects that used to be available instead of how they are now.

Hi @Jason Stone (Logos) ,

Thanks for the post, and I think the new forum looks much better esthetically. I just have a few thoughts.

The first thing I think might actually be a bug. When I receive an email that someone has responded to a thread and I click on it to see the post on the forum, instead of it going to that post it brings me to somewhere in the middle of the thread.

Another thing which would be helpful is having fill-in profile pics for people who haven't uploaded a pic. The reason for this would be for the sake of tagging. Earlier I was in a conversation with someone without a profile pic. I then wanted to tag him, so I did the at symbol and started typing his name, but there were four profiles with his name, and there was no way to tell which was his because none of the four had profile pictures. I can attach an example of "test" and you can see how problematic this would be with someone's name. It would thus be helpful if people without profile pictures had different colors or something, similar to the last "test" being distinct, so that you can tell them apart if you are talking to someone with a common name.

I think those are the only things I have noticed (besides being able to select parts of quotes as everyone has mentioned).

Two things that would make the forums much more useful to me:

1. The ability to mark all posts read in a single click.
2. The ability to see only unread posts

My standard approach to the several forums I visit is to first produce a list of all unread posts. I then scan through the list and read the posts I find useful. When I am done with this process, I then mark all posts read before closing the forum.

—Solly

@Jason Stone (Logos) If I make my browser 150%, the community page fills the screen, at 100% the left and right 25% of the screen roughly is pure white space. I wish the community page would resize for the screen resolution. my screen resolution is 1920 x 1080

This would be my thought as well. I used to come to the Forums daily, got to "posts not read" and look at those that interested me and it took a few minutes. I can't get that view now, and getting all posts in the bell thing doesn't dismiss them once read, so now I come here a couple of times a week and get lost in the "recently commented" view, so it has at least cured me of my forum addiction that had lasted for about ten years. Whilst I value the easier use on mobile, I really dislike the chaotic ordering of posts without easy categorisation. For me the vital thing is to make a post disappear once I've read the latest contribution, which was so easy on the old format, but impossible on the new platform.

JASON: I see the blue dot at the bell thing, so I hit its discussion. This brings me to the first typed line of the new-to-me post.

BUT, is this the right post? Now I have to mouse up 1/3'' to see the avatar; I wish to match the bell's avatar with the post's avatar to know I am in the right place. To do that, I have to mouse up.

On 6 of 7 bell-waiting discussions, the above happened.

On the 7th, the New Forums showed me the writer's avatar, so I needed no mouse move.

Beside that, I understand that is part of the whole "page" but in the community page, everything is centered and from the top of the page with the Logos "logo" and Community over to to the circle with my image is about 60-75% of the screen. I would like for those to be extended to the edges. there is extra white space under where the Quicklinks portion is at the top of the scrolling page. The text of the forum (comments and such) is generally just about 50% of the entire landscape of the screen.

i screenshot the page for visual effects of this reply before the picture

This describes me also. I look at a few of the recent posts and give up. My time is limited and the old format was easier to see what was new and then enabled me to mark "all read."

It just happened again … but in your message there's no quote … but a @DMB. Is that the bad boy?

BTW There's 4 DMBs (which I guess is ok, though whether someone selects the correct DMB is a guess). But now, there's little pictures, and quite obviously there's 2 of me-DMBs. I'm betting when you loaded the old software, you picked up multiple eMails for the same person (vs assigning the last used).

DMB: "I guess everyone is different, but I'm thinking the old software's 'much better' related to efficiency…"

I strongly agree with that. It also just works better - I seem purely incapable of using the new quote function to do anything other than copy an entire post, which makes it very difficult to clearly indicate what part of a post you're responding to.

DMB: "Now, on the plus side, on small devices (eg iPhone and my watch), the new app is easier to scan down, given that's the ballgame."

That could be. I may be atypical, but I can't remember the last time I looked at the forums on my phone - and the idea of trying to engage with them on a watch is inconceivable to me. I sincerely hope FaithLife isn't dumbing down the forums to make them "watch friendly."

Fair enough - we should give credit where it's due. But on balance, I'm still underwhelmed.

ETN: Now I know what the gizmo is called. I always knew it was a para break, but not its name.

JASON: Little video on how to use this would be cool. I note that an URL to the video will not, much later, take me to the video. I need to write down the pathway; I keep a notebook for these type of things. Ex: I need go to A > choose D > choose P > see the video. Then I can find the method to review.

Thank you, Jason!

@Jason Stone (Logos) I've mentioned my concern in different ways in this forum and so far without a response. Probably because I didn't offer any thoughts for alternatives. If I knew of any I would offer. For the time being I've stopped following the English forum because of getting hundreds of redundant* and irrelevant* notices. Maybe if I explain how I use the forums it would help or maybe you or someone could explain something I'm missing or don't understand that will get me going again.

*Redundant= a separate notice from each poster on the same subject

*Irrelevant= irrelevant to me-not a topic/subject/group I would have followed in the old forum that is now part of the all in one English forum.

I'm thinking there are at least two ways people use this forum.

One, probably the most common, is to actually come to the forums, search, read and post, using whatever device you prefer.

Two, my method and probably less popular, is to select categories and sub-groups if they were available in the forum to follow and have notifications sent to my email where I read them. If I then decide to post, or respond to a post only then will I go online to the forum, I don't go to the forums searching for or reading posts there. I don't have the time nor do I want to spend time doing that.

This is why I would like to see better grouping or consolidating of email notices.

A few things I think would be helpful

1. If posts/comments by different posters on the same topic could be consolidated into fewer notifications by subject instead of by individual. I have my mail sorted by subject but still get every individual. Right now I get a separate notice from every poster who comments on the same subject or topic. I don't mind the separate comments just not all the separate notices I have to open.
2. I would like to see the "tag" or "group" BUG either moved out of English Forum bucket or somehow be able to follow and receive notices about these posts without having to receive hundreds of general English Forum posts. Bugs should be as easy to find as announcements.
3. Will there ever be a possibility to follow or unfollow a member?
4. I also don't receive my own comments or post notices in email and I have both notify me of new posts and new comment checked under categories in my preferences. What am I missing?

The posts having a background and border is an improvement which helps a lot I think.