Will the link from a notification to the thread ever be fixed?
Hello EA and hello folks. I wonder why it still is a thing, that we cannot be linked to the exact last entry, be it a comment or a like that shows up in our notification. I mean i get a notification that someone has commented in a thread that I follow. When I click on that notification, I will not be redirected to the specific comment or the corresponding like, no. I will be redirected to the top of the thread or anywhere in between. This may not be a big deal if the thread has only two or three posts. But in a thread with a few dozen posts, that is annoying. You also cannot simply expand the whole thread, you have to expand it portion for portion. I already gave up following larger threads, which is pretty bad, because they are interesting. But I just don't want to play hide and seek with the comments. So my question to the EA team is, if this will ever be fixed. There are other threads in the forum regarding this. It would greatly enhance the user experience in this forum, which by the way has great content.
Suspecting People Creating Accounts to Be Rude or Praise Their Own Posts
I swear, only because, I have seen multiple instances where new accounts where there is like 1-3 posts like within the same 1-3 hours (then seemingly no more) seem to be made to be rude to other posters or praise their own posts/ideas (made within that same 1-3 hours). Is this consider rule breaking? Can posts with what seems like a create to be rude post then activity stops, could have the rude posts deleted (if if not complete hate rude)? I do not want to post the examples here as there may be possible innocents, but I am highly skeptical all are innocent. But I noticed toxicity towards other users increasing, and reporting seems to not be helping. I'd like to keep this community healthy and happy. If a Moderator could PM for actual details—if they wish to investigate.
Feedback on Forum Functionality (When it is Non-Functioning)
Catching up with responses as a 13+ years on the forums vet, should not lock me out of replying after 6 replies within an hour (my notifications easily can be over a dozen when I sign in the morning). I would think at this stage verified users should not be locked out for high activity (especially when that is their usual activity). I even am locked out of posting this post, I am waiting for it to allow me to Publish... I also noticed more issues this year compared to past years, that html gets flagged (won't post with html errors despite past/previous posts/edits allowing it), even if implemented with the in forum editor's html/markup (and not a copy paste issue), error or updating tables/lists/posts, it just locks out future edits to the table/list/post. I also see that others have been posting about this issue, so I didn't make a stand alone post about it (just thought I'd include it in this one), but I want to mention that notices/errors are so frequent it really makes the forums not very user friendly. Especially, to those who can have high daily activity.
The new forum
As someone who has been active on the old forums I would like to share my feedback on this one. My first encounter with this forum was on my mobile because I was on holiday during the switch from the old to the new forum so I wanted to wait for a week or two before making this post. No avatars: this really hurts. Avatars gave us all faces on the old forum. With the limited selection I now have to share my picture with several others. This leads to confusion because I something think 'there is a reply I made' only to realise it was made by someone else. Not having a unique avatar also makes me feel anonymous. How are other simmers ever going to easily recognise me? On the old forum you had to promote from new member to member to get an avatar and I get that. I don't mind if it is tied to a rank, but that has to be a rank that everyone can reach. Currently only heroes are allowed an avatar, and thus the privilege to build up their own personality on the forum. But the info page about hero ranks also say not everyone can become a hero (which makes sense). But the combination of not everyone being able to become a hero and only heroes getting their own avatar means that some users of this forum will never get access to something that should be a basic feature. The heavy focus on 'most liked' posts makes this forum feel like a popularity contest. It is difficult to sort posts for long threads. Some discussions have been going for years with hundreds of posts. On the old forum we would automatically be taken to the last unread post and then see the subsequent posts in chronological order. This new forum however sorts by likes on default. You can switch to sort by oldest but can't set it to default. However for long threads setting it to oldest means I have to click 'load more' way too many times. Sorting by newest means I am reading backwards and on an active thread this can also mean clicking 'load more' The above point makes this forum not suitable for sharing long stories which is something me and other simmers love to do The extensive rank list is confusing. Every single level has new, rising and seasoned added to the title. For the higher ranks adding the word 'new' kind of takes away from the higher ranks. You already have to go searching for the ranks on this forum before you realise a new adventurer is higher than a seasoned traveler. Most users on this forum don't know that list by heart. Adding the word 'new' to high ranks feels confusing and not very intuitive. Sharing a forum with other games: we used to have a forum exclusively for sims and now we are just a small part of a forum for other games. That does take some time to get used to. But why do I get links to other game in 'related posts' when I am on the sims part of the forum. I accidentally stumbled into another game forum. Is it possible to restrict the related posts to the sub forum (game) we are currently browsing When creating a new discussion we can select different tags. I miss a tag for discussion (sometimes the purpose of a thread is just talking about the game) and a tag for speculation. The version of the site on my mobile doesn't shot a button to add a picture. I sometimes don't get a chance to post a picture when I am on my laptop. I upload them to a photo sharing website and then post them a few hours later. But this forum only shows the add photo option in the desktop version. I have a feeling that this forum was mainly created for short conversations with very few posts where chronology of posts is unimportant. It also feels more like a popularity contest with the heavy focus on getting likes for your posts, a competition on it's own which distracts from the topic itself. I want to give this forum a try and really want to make best of it. But the difficulty to read threads chronologically really makes it difficult. That's the part of this forum that needs improvement more than any others.
