[wp-forums] Forum makeover

Thu Nov 10 03:18:59 GMT 2005

Tg chipping in....you asked for opinions, what follows is mine, all 
mine, preeeeasssiousssss. Oh, sorry.

I don't have the answers, and I don't pretend to know the answer, but 
here is it.

Podz wrote:
> skippy wrote:
> 
>>Matt Mullenweg wrote:
>>
>>>IMO this will never be quite right. The forums themselves are pretty
>>>much useless, they're too broad for really browsing and if you're brand
>>>new there's a strong cognitive barrier to figuring out where your post
>>>should go. This was what tagging was supposed to address, eventually I'd
>>>like for there to be no forums at all.
>>
>>Personally, I find it alarming that the project leader finds the primary
>>support mechanism for his project "pretty much useless". 
> 
> 
> I do and I don't.
> 
> I have yet to use any forum anywhere that I happy with. I have - like
> many here - used a lot of forums, from Mozillazine (huge!!) to Newsgator
> to browsing the incomprehensible Slashdot and Kuro5hin. I like none.
> They all have faults, idiosyncrasies - yet each one will have a group of
> people who do understand how they work and do their best to keep it
> oiled and working.
> I think most people here understand the WP forum.
> It's not perfect, but neither is phpBB <insert big flashy annoying gif
> here> or invision <I'm making you wait for the next screen simply
> because I can> or any other. It's not the software - it's what we do
> with it.

I couldn't agree more. So, maybe we need to re-think what's been done 
with the forum software.

> 
> "they're too broad for really browsing"
> Yes, they are now for a new user. I'd guess I'm not the only one who
> reads many threads though and still learns things. But ...
> 
> "if you're brand new there's a strong cognitive barrier to figuring out
> where your post should go"
> Possibly - I think users hit the mark more often than miss it. but right
> now we have no signposts. Apart from the forum title, we have nothing to
> guide people. Which is why I suggested the use of "What you can post
> here". I know we can't cover everything, and if we do people will
> delight in picking holes. but we _can_ give guidelines and I think we
> should. The forum software can scale - our approach has to as well.

The reason for the barrier is the lack of exposure to this kind of forum 
organization. It's forum. It's also unexpectedly simple. There aren't a 
dozen options vying for attention. A box and a button. People don't know 
how to react. Remember when Google first launched? Same thind. Took a 
while. Those who have used it for some time, know their way around. So 
how do we help those who are arriving for the first time? *shrug*

Just thinking out loud (??) her for sec, consider this: On the forum 
front page, there's a side bar just begging for something. So how about 
this: A header "Start a Thread:" (just for example) followed by links to 
each of the forums. When the user clicks, the display expands to show a 
brief desc of what can be posted in that forum, short, brief and yet 
informative. 3 Links are now available to the user 1) takes the user 
right to the New Post in that forum.  2) Takes the user to the front 
page for that forum. 3) takes the user to the Codex page that has the 
detailed description of what goes in each forum. I know it exists, I've 
seen it. Let's use it.

As they are, the forums are pretty good. They aren't overly complicated. 
My own druthers would be to see a visual makeover of the forums:
1) Make it easily seeable what's been resolved & what hasn't - a simple 
* in a column would suffice. I tend to forget to look at the resolved 
flag when opening a thread, and isn't until I hit the botom posts that I 
get a clue.
2) I don't know why it's importaint to me, I'd like to see a forum 
indicator too. The first letter of the forum name would work (T for 
Themes, P for plugins, M for Misc.) I don't know why I feel that it's 
importaint, and I can't really give a compelling arguement for it 
either. The only thing I can think of is that it quickly will show when 
some one's crossposted. Not that that's a big problem here.
3) I had a third item, and now it escapes me. If I remember I will send it.

> 
> "This was what tagging was supposed to address, eventually I'd like for
> there to be no forums at all."
> I think this is a very long way off... I actually like the tags (I've
> said so before) because I can home in on topics faster and if they serve
> just to help helpers that's cool by me. But losing the overall structure
> and becoming more freeform ? Hmm.... not yet :)
> 
> We have a tool. We just need to use it a bit smarter.
> 
> P.
> 
> 

I'm OK with the tags as an addition to the forum categories... but not 
instead of. your'e going to get all kinds of weird stuff and different 
spellings for the same thing. Ultimately it'll proly be OK, it's just 
unfamiliar territory and my fear is probably unfounded.

-tg

> 
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