I don't like change. That's a given. I think too many times people change things for the worse, or at least make changes that don't improve anything but only make those of us familiar with the old ways work harder.
Thus, being aware of this about myself, I try to bite my tongue when people start talking about how good changes are.
Still, if I don't mention it, no one will ever know. These are a few things I've noticed about the new forums that may warrant attention.
- Quote buttons are at the top of a post. I thought they were at the bottom before (although I may be confusing this with some other forum). The bottom makes more sense to me, at least, because that's where you are after you've read the thing. You shouldn't be replying before you read it, but I don't think you should have to page back up to the top to find the quote button, either.
- I can't find a time stamp for my last visit. This can be important, and I usually check it, because if somehow I lose the connection or the system resets for my presence here, the only way I can find unread threads is to manually hunt for those since the timestamp--and that means I have to remember it.
- Posting takes me back to the index page for the subforum, not back to the thread. That significantly reduces the probability that I'll see a post against which I cross-posted, and increases the likelihood that I'll miss something I should have read. I suspect that's something that can be set somewhere, but I have not yet had the opportunity to explore such user preference controls, and don't know how many weeks it will be before I find a leisurely day at The Forge--probably the next time everyone leaves for GenCon or Origins so no one is posting.
- I won't say that there's nothing to indicate which threads are stickies, but I will say that it's not readily apparent to the eye. That makes it much more difficult to find where the "current" and "active" threads begin on the board, particularly on a board like this, which has (if I'm remembering aright) four or five sticky threads above the first active one. I mentioned that before, but there wasn't any comment or action on it, so I thought perhaps it was overlooked--besides, it confused me again today, as first glance suggested there were no new posts on this forum, when in fact there were quite a few below the bottom of my admittedly short viewing window.
I may have more curmudgeonly gripes in the future. Take them as the objections of someone who doesn't like change anyway, and if you can do anything conveniently to appease people like me, that would be appreciated.
(And don't get me started on the threatened future changes. I am
not adding fourteen blogs to my to do list. If I need to say something, I'll go to a forum, thank you. Blog formats are confusing.)
--M. J. Young
Quote from: M. J. Young on August 04, 2005, 10:57:04 PM
Posting takes me back to the index page for the subforum, not back to the thread. That significantly reduces the probability that I'll see a post against which I cross-posted, and increases the likelihood that I'll miss something I should have read.
FYI. You may not have encountered this yet, but the new software is quite interactive. If someone else posts while you are composing a message, a warning will appear upon clicking the Post button, giving you the option to read what was posted before continuing.
Julie
I want to second Mike's distaste for banishing anyone to the blogosphere.
QuoteOh you guys make everything so damn complicated.
I'M ONLY TALKING ABOUT THE GNS FORUM.
Geez.
Ron
Maybe I'm just dense, guys, but I think Ron said that it was the GNS / Theory forums that were going to become an "Ask Ron" forum. I think he said that Actual Play and others weren't going away. Disliking change is one thing but shouldn't we at least wait and see what the actual change is before deciding that it is distasteful? It just doesn't sound like that big of a deal to me.
My complaint: the search function no longer allows searches for _every_ post by particular author. It rejects a blank "keyword" field, even if the author field is used. I used to search for a particular author's contributions over the past week.