Forum Discussion

packerfan7889's avatar
packerfan7889
Seasoned Novice
2 months ago

Forum Feedback on seeing replies

This is a copy and paste from MasterSeedy post in Swgoh discussions and thought I would post it here for better visibility as I agree with everything said there

"This is, in part, just a function of how navigation works in general on these forums, but I thought the people still working on the forum programming should take note of the fact that when I get an alert that someone has replied to a discussion in which I've taken part, that's not inherently bad. But if I click on that notification, I expect to be taken to the new replies. 

Instead, the person clicking is taking to the default page for that discussion which, if popular, won't include any of the most recent replies. And if you scroll tot he bottom and click on "more replies," the interface does add new replies ---  but in the process of adding them, it automatically scrolls you right back up to the top again. 

Nor is there a button for revealing ALL replies. instead you scroll to the bottom, click more replies, get autoscrolled to the top, scroll back down to the bottom, click more replies again, and get returned to the top again, repeating several times for longer discussions. 

This is tedious and is exactly the opposite of what people reading a forum want. You hit more replies to see the new stuff, not to be shoved back into the heart of the old stuff. And you hit the notification button to go to the thread in the first place to see the new stuff, not the old stuff. 

Both the notification button and the "more replies" button should reveal all the newest replies, and take your browser to those new replies automatically. 

The entire point of hiding replies is to make navigation easier, but with this set up it does not. I would rather have to scroll past hundreds of messages once than scroll past the first 20, then return to the top, then scroll past the first 40, then return to the top, and so on. Eventually I'm going to have to scroll past all those hundreds of messages to get to the new ones anyway. The current interface just makes it so that I have to do so over and over and over again. 

Targeted links from your notification page, a  "reveal all replies" button, and the ability to maintain one's place on the page while revealing new replies are all necessary here. 

Pagination rather than hiding replies would also be much preferable to the current system, though with the other 3 options implemented pagination could be considered optional. "

  • Noted and fully agreed. Right now the notification system groups multiple reply events together and just links to the thread.
    Best practice would be to at least directly link to earliest of those events.

    Generally speaking, the current support to handle bigger threads is not close to where we want it to be. Being able to load more then just 20 messages is a necessity. Not getting scrolled up and down is a necessity.
    We also need "jump to unread" functionality.

    We have already raised this feedback to get it addressed.

  • I completely agree with everything mentioned here, and this is a well-thought-out breakdown of the current issues with the forum’s navigation system. The main problem is how the notification and “more replies” features function, which ends up making it harder to access new content, especially in long discussions. The points about getting automatically scrolled back to the top and the repetitive nature of clicking "more replies" are spot on and frustrating.

    Implementing targeted links that take users directly to the latest replies and a "reveal all replies" option would make navigation smoother. Additionally, ensuring users maintain their position when loading new replies would significantly improve the user experience. The idea of having pagination is another great suggestion that could prevent unnecessary scrolling.

    Ultimately, these improvements would create a much more intuitive and user-friendly forum experience for everyone.

  • EA_Nils's avatar
    EA_Nils
    Icon for Community Admin rankCommunity Admin

    Noted and fully agreed. Right now the notification system groups multiple reply events together and just links to the thread.
    Best practice would be to at least directly link to earliest of those events.

    Generally speaking, the current support to handle bigger threads is not close to where we want it to be. Being able to load more then just 20 messages is a necessity. Not getting scrolled up and down is a necessity.
    We also need "jump to unread" functionality.

    We have already raised this feedback to get it addressed.

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