The new forum shows many new features, but as someone who spends most of her time around the old "challenges, stories and legacies" section, I cannot help but worry about the applicability of the new layout to this typology of content. In particular, I'm worried about the removal of threads' pages in favour of a "load more" and of a "sort by..." feature. This new layout seems suited for short threads made of short and quick responses, where missing some posts isn't a tragedy and that always gives you something to read. In the creative corner section, instead, we thrive with very long threads, that take years to be completed, our update posts tend to be long and detailed (i.e. the kind of posts we don't want to see getting lost among the newer or more liked posts), and we need the post to be displayed in chronological order. Similar comments can probably be made about the thread where the users showcase their custom saves update by update, or for some very ambitious build/buy mode project. To be less vague, I'd like to make an example, using the "Aliens stole my alien parents" challenge posted by @myghtysprite (sorry if I'm using your story as an example, it is the first one I could think of where the updates were made directly on the forum and not on an external blog!) The story thread on the old forum is here -> https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/1003023/aliens-stole-my-alien-parents/p1 , while the same thread on the new forum is here -> Aliens Stole My Alien Parents | EA Forums - 377899 Now, I'd like you to try to find a specific update because it's the next one I want to read, let's say it's the one titled: "Act 2, Day 2" (hint: it's around the middle of the thread).With the old forum, you select page 5, scroll down a bit, and there you are.With the new forum instead, whether you choose to sort the posts by "Oldest first" or "Newest first", and whatever you know where the post is or not (more or less), you need to click on "load more" forever before finding the post you're looking for (and note that this is a quite short thread for that section!). Also, if you decide to sort by "Newest first" (for instance, because you're looking for a chapter close to the end), you must scroll through the most recent posts (which you haven't read yet), spoiling one or more chapters you haven't read yet.Summarising, stories and legacies are the kind of threads that users can access at any moment, even years after the posts were actually made. The posts have to be read in chronological order to make any sense, and the readers need an easy and quick way to navigate the thread in its whole length (for instance, when they return to the thread to read some other chapters another time). As a reminder, the old forum remembers the last posts you read, but I didn't notice the same feature in the new one (?)For the moment, the only two solutions I can think of to make stories and legacies easier to navigate (both not ideal) are:for the original poster, to make a very lengthy index with all the links to the chapters' posts in the opening comment of the thread (but the links can really be a lot. For instance, my current legacy has about 180 chapters for the moment. That's a lot of links!)for the reader, to save or copy somewhere the link of the last update they read, and use it as a "bookmark" to know where to continue from.I'm starting to worry about how this would affect this section of the forum, in its current form the navigation of long threads is way more tedious and I'm afraid it will push away both posters and readers. Is there some function I'm missing that could make the navigation easier? Is there some change that can be made to the forum to make it more SimLit-friendly? Is this forum just not meant for this kind of use? Any other thoughts on what I wrote? PS: I'd also like to point out that the creative corner section is being hit particularly hard by the issue with the migration of pictures' links, I guess that's quite evident. In addition, I think that other users from the creative corner have other perplexities about the new forum, so feel free to add your comments on the topic.

In addition to needing pages and the ability to jump straight to the last post we read, it would be really nice if the sorting option we choose (most likes, oldest, or newest) could stay set as our personal default if we set it while we are logged in.I personally don't find the "most likes" sorting option useful at all. I will nearly always be using either "oldest" or "newest". It would be at least a bit less annoying if I could just set the sorting option to one of those two and have that be my default instead of it always being set to "most likes" every time I go to look at a thread.

I agree with HermioneSims 's comments and observations. I am a simlit writer, and a simlit reader, and I primarily like to share my stories, read other people's stories, and talk engage in deeper discussions with other simlit writers and sims players.I made this comment on another forum feedback thread as well, but I'll say it again. Story threads with serial chapter posts, and long discussion threads will not work well on this site as it is designed right now.Using the "by oldest" sorting option puts things properly in chronological order (this is good), but then I have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the part I haven't read yet (this is bad). The sort "by newest" option puts things in reverse chronological order (which is annoying and also hard to use because then the story is backwards, causing the story to be spoiled to me as I still have to scroll and scroll to get to the start of the part I haven't read yet). I would like an option to put all posts in chronological order and then jump straight to the posts I haven't read yet.It's like if you have a book and your only options are start at the beginning and read forwards, or start at the end and read backwards. You have no option to start where you left off last time and continue reading forward.This matters a lot to me because most of the threads I spend time on are stories and long discussions. The way threads and comments are set up in this new forum, with the lengthy "add more" instead of pages, the default sort by number of likes, the chronological sorting option that does not keep track of where you last left off reading, and the nested comments rather than all comments just being in the order they were posted, all make it hard to read stories and participate in long thoughtful group discussions. This makes this forum not very pleasant or useful for me, and I feel like I will not want to spend as much time here as I used to on the old forum. We need some better thread navigation options for creative writing simmers to continue sharing stories and discussing simlit writing as we have done on the old forum.

I agree 100%. I spent time on that old forum for the stories and the pictures. Letting us preserve our most treasured threads and then having none of the pictures showing when we got here was a huge disappointment. It was hard enough for our community to be uprooted and displaced like this. To find out (with no warning at all) that the familiar threads and stories we were hoping would help us feel more at home here are essentially ruined due to all the pictures being gone has made the transition even more sour for a lot of us.Making the default method of sorting posts be by "most liked", rather than chronological, and not being able to easily start reading a thread at the last place we left off really shows that the design was not intended for the way simmers interact with each other. It may work well for game sites where the main thing people do is ask questions, look for technical help, or briefly argue about some feature, but it doesn't work well for players of a game like the Sims games, where we want to write and read lengthy stories, share lots of screenshots centered around a theme, or have long detailed discussions about the game or our ideas. This forum format is not right for really creative and thoughtful players.To make this site useful going forward, we do at least need a way to read threads chronologically with features such as pages and the ability to keep track of where we left off.

I think you describe the problem for Simlit writers very accurately with your examples. Right now several of my fellow writers are looking in several different directions for an alternative platform where we can meet.I don't want to write off a new Forum in advance, so I was quite happy to read your post.Another problem with the new creative corner is that there is no space or permission for us to use our creativity. No costumed avatar and no personal signatures.

Sorry for my English, I'm from the German forum which hasn't started yet. So here we look at how the new forum will work and... I see the same problems for storytellers. Searching further and further is not helpful for reading stories or even searching for a specific post in your own thread. The response format is also not a good solution for people collaborating on stories. It destroys a necessary level of chronology. I would like to see normal pages like the old forum again. This structure is not intended for learning to use as it does not represent a well-functioning solution.

Forum Discussion

HermioneSims

Seasoned Adventurer

5 months ago

New Sims forum: worries about creative corner

The new forum shows many new features, but as someone who spends most of her time around the old "challenges, stories and legacies" section, I cannot help but worry about the applicability of the new layout to this typology of content.

In particular, I'm worried about the removal of threads' pages in favour of a "load more" and of a "sort by..." feature. This new layout seems suited for short threads made of short and quick responses, where missing some posts isn't a tragedy and that always gives you something to read. In the creative corner section, instead, we thrive with very long threads, that take years to be completed, our update posts tend to be long and detailed (i.e. the kind of posts we don't want to see getting lost among the newer or more liked posts), and we need the post to be displayed in chronological order. Similar comments can probably be made about the thread where the users showcase their custom saves update by update, or for some very ambitious build/buy mode project.

To be less vague, I'd like to make an example, using the "Aliens stole my alien parents" challenge posted by @myghtysprite (sorry if I'm using your story as an example, it is the first one I could think of where the updates were made directly on the forum and not on an external blog!) The story thread on the old forum is here -> https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/1003023/aliens-stole-my-alien-parents/p1 , while the same thread on the new forum is here -> Aliens Stole My Alien Parents | EA Forums - 377899

Now, I'd like you to try to find a specific update because it's the next one I want to read, let's say it's the one titled: "Act 2, Day 2" (hint: it's around the middle of the thread).

With the old forum, you select page 5, scroll down a bit, and there you are.
With the new forum instead, whether you choose to sort the posts by "Oldest first" or "Newest first", and whatever you know where the post is or not (more or less), you need to click on "load more" forever before finding the post you're looking for (and note that this is a quite short thread for that section!). Also, if you decide to sort by "Newest first" (for instance, because you're looking for a chapter close to the end), you must scroll through the most recent posts (which you haven't read yet), spoiling one or more chapters you haven't read yet.

Summarising, stories and legacies are the kind of threads that users can access at any moment, even years after the posts were actually made. The posts have to be read in chronological order to make any sense, and the readers need an easy and quick way to navigate the thread in its whole length (for instance, when they return to the thread to read some other chapters another time). As a reminder, the old forum remembers the last posts you read, but I didn't notice the same feature in the new one (?)

For the moment, the only two solutions I can think of to make stories and legacies easier to navigate (both not ideal) are:

for the original poster, to make a very lengthy index with all the links to the chapters' posts in the opening comment of the thread (but the links can really be a lot. For instance, my current legacy has about 180 chapters for the moment. That's a lot of links!)
for the reader, to save or copy somewhere the link of the last update they read, and use it as a "bookmark" to know where to continue from.

I'm starting to worry about how this would affect this section of the forum, in its current form the navigation of long threads is way more tedious and I'm afraid it will push away both posters and readers.

Is there some function I'm missing that could make the navigation easier? Is there some change that can be made to the forum to make it more SimLit-friendly? Is this forum just not meant for this kind of use? Any other thoughts on what I wrote?

PS: I'd also like to point out that the creative corner section is being hit particularly hard by the issue with the migration of pictures' links, I guess that's quite evident. In addition, I think that other users from the creative corner have other perplexities about the new forum, so feel free to add your comments on the topic.

feedback

GlacierSnowGhost
Seasoned Hotshot
5 months ago
In addition to needing pages and the ability to jump straight to the last post we read, it would be really nice if the sorting option we choose (most likes, oldest, or newest) could stay set as our personal default if we set it while we are logged in.
I personally don't find the "most likes" sorting option useful at all. I will nearly always be using either "oldest" or "newest". It would be at least a bit less annoying if I could just set the sorting option to one of those two and have that be my default instead of it always being set to "most likes" every time I go to look at a thread.
GlacierSnowGhost
Seasoned Hotshot
5 months ago
I agree with HermioneSims 's comments and observations. I am a simlit writer, and a simlit reader, and I primarily like to share my stories, read other people's stories, and talk engage in deeper discussions with other simlit writers and sims players.
I made this comment on another forum feedback thread as well, but I'll say it again. Story threads with serial chapter posts, and long discussion threads will not work well on this site as it is designed right now.
Using the "by oldest" sorting option puts things properly in chronological order (this is good), but then I have to scroll and scroll and scroll to get to the part I haven't read yet (this is bad). The sort "by newest" option puts things in reverse chronological order (which is annoying and also hard to use because then the story is backwards, causing the story to be spoiled to me as I still have to scroll and scroll to get to the start of the part I haven't read yet). I would like an option to put all posts in chronological order and then jump straight to the posts I haven't read yet.
It's like if you have a book and your only options are start at the beginning and read forwards, or start at the end and read backwards. You have no option to start where you left off last time and continue reading forward.
This matters a lot to me because most of the threads I spend time on are stories and long discussions. The way threads and comments are set up in this new forum, with the lengthy "add more" instead of pages, the default sort by number of likes, the chronological sorting option that does not keep track of where you last left off reading, and the nested comments rather than all comments just being in the order they were posted, all make it hard to read stories and participate in long thoughtful group discussions. This makes this forum not very pleasant or useful for me, and I feel like I will not want to spend as much time here as I used to on the old forum. We need some better thread navigation options for creative writing simmers to continue sharing stories and discussing simlit writing as we have done on the old forum.
- HermioneSims
  Seasoned Adventurer
  5 months ago
  I agree a lot with the book example, the current forum is literally like not being able to open a book from a central page, and there isn't the option to have a bookmark either!
  - JesLet40
    Seasoned Ace
    5 months ago
    Don't forget that sometimes when you open it, the chapters have rearranged themselves after how popular they were with other readers and is now in complete disorder.
MonaSolstraale
Seasoned Veteran
5 months ago
I think you describe the problem for Simlit writers very accurately with your examples.
Right now several of my fellow writers are looking in several different directions for an alternative platform where we can meet.
I don't want to write off a new Forum in advance, so I was quite happy to read your post.
Another problem with the new creative corner is that there is no space or permission for us to use our creativity. No costumed avatar and no personal signatures.
- crocobaura
  Seasoned Ace
  5 months ago
  If you're looking for an alternative forum for story tellers, ModtheSims forum is a great sims dedicated forum, and its structured much like the official forum that is closing. It has separate sections for TS2, TS3 and TS4.
  ModtheSims
  - ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Hotshot
    5 months ago
    Took me a bit to navigate to find it so here is the Sims 3 link for creators:
    Mod The Sims - Sims 3
Fischreuse
Seasoned Rookie
5 months ago
Sorry for my English, I'm from the German forum which hasn't started yet. So here we look at how the new forum will work and... I see the same problems for storytellers. Searching further and further is not helpful for reading stories or even searching for a specific post in your own thread. The response format is also not a good solution for people collaborating on stories. It destroys a necessary level of chronology. I would like to see normal pages like the old forum again. This structure is not intended for learning to use as it does not represent a well-functioning solution.
SoulGal7
Seasoned Hotshot
5 months ago
I agree, I would prefer pages rather than the load screen.
- GlacierSnowGhost
  Seasoned Hotshot
  5 months ago
  Yes! Pages. Please.
  
  Simmers, especially storytelling simmers, like to have very long running threads for stories, picture sharing, and discussions. We need these threads broken into conveniently sized pages we can navigate easily, rather than massively long single pages we have to keep loading more and scrolling through to find what we are looking for.
JesLet40
Seasoned Ace
5 months ago
I am currently working on updating my Whittaker Saga, to fix all the images that did not get transferred. I've been at it most of yesterday and today and is no where near done (144 comments to go out of 208), then there is the addition of the new things that did not come here, and I agree it's a huge problem. Each time I start I need to start by scrolling down until I find the last comment I worked on. Also with no spoiler-tags in comments it takes a lot of computer power to load that much. The fact that I cannot use the source code when I write means I need to scroll up and down to add pictures, which makes writing harder.

I don't want to give up on this forum yet, but I am considering putting my story on a blog somewhere instead and use the forums less.
PalmArrow
Seasoned Hotshot
5 months ago
I would like to second everything written in the OP and in the subsequent comments. Story threads (and threads like "what happened in your Sims game today", which are also image-heavy and need to be read chronologically) were, to me, the main reason of existence of the Sims forums. Without images properly loading, chronological order and easy navigation through long threads there, sadly, is not much reason for me to use the new forum.
- GlacierSnowGhost
  Seasoned Hotshot
  5 months ago
  I agree 100%. I spent time on that old forum for the stories and the pictures. Letting us preserve our most treasured threads and then having none of the pictures showing when we got here was a huge disappointment. It was hard enough for our community to be uprooted and displaced like this. To find out (with no warning at all) that the familiar threads and stories we were hoping would help us feel more at home here are essentially ruined due to all the pictures being gone has made the transition even more sour for a lot of us.
  Making the default method of sorting posts be by "most liked", rather than chronological, and not being able to easily start reading a thread at the last place we left off really shows that the design was not intended for the way simmers interact with each other. It may work well for game sites where the main thing people do is ask questions, look for technical help, or briefly argue about some feature, but it doesn't work well for players of a game like the Sims games, where we want to write and read lengthy stories, share lots of screenshots centered around a theme, or have long detailed discussions about the game or our ideas. This forum format is not right for really creative and thoughtful players.
  
  To make this site useful going forward, we do at least need a way to read threads chronologically with features such as pages and the ability to keep track of where we left off.
JesLet40
Seasoned Ace
5 months ago
I've also noticed that even if the pictures are added correctly, they don't always load correctly, leaving blank spaces were the pictures should be. This is likely more likely to happen the more posts you load, ie. the further you get into the story.
Fischreuse
Seasoned Rookie
5 months ago
JesLet40 wrote:
I am currently working on updating my Whittaker Saga, to fix all the images that did not get transferred.
In the German forum, no image is transferred to the news forum because we have fed the forum directly with our images all these years. That was great, but now...everything will be empty! Do I want to put all my pictures in this new forum again... and keep scrolling and... scrolling... scrolling... scrolling? 🤪. They told us to try saving our images to Imgur and relinking them to the old forum to be ready for the transfer😁. No one did, because no one knew, what will come 🤭 ... I had some stories (comics) with just pictures in the posts. It will be completely empty when transferred 🤣 ...

Another issue I'm noticing: I don't see a preview/save before sending button in the editor. This also makes it very difficult to post longer stories directly in the forum. It's just for entertaining snapshots. Something I'm not looking for.

I can't stop noticing more and more problems as I test this forum. I prefer to read chronologically and not the answer with the most likes. There is no point in destroying a discussion or story like this because different posts belong together. Yes, we can choose... but first the system does the choosing for me and every time I have to change. And so I see jumping, scrolling, jumping, scrolling, jumping, scrolling all the time. Painful for the eyes, not good for health. It makes it so difficult to read here. Please change the ranking. But really, I don't know which direction... newest/oldest? Normally I'd say oldest according to chronology, but...

Yes I am missing normal pages 😩
- crocobaura
  Seasoned Ace
  5 months ago
  This is why I think this forum format was a very deliberate choice. They probably don't want to moderate very long threads anymore, hence a forum format that discourages that. I noticed that this forum is already very slow when loading short threads with about 20 posts and few to none pictures, simply because it always needs to list and re-list all the posts in the Most liked order. With the old forum, all threads would be cached and helped to load pages faster. Slow loading pages and difficulty to follow conversations will, in time, discourage lengthy posts. I see we get notifications about new posts or likes we receive in threads we posted, but there is no way to link back to those posts to see what they are. Whoever thought those are useful must like abuse. Same with the most recent posts list in the right hand panel. 7 seconds ago someone posted something in a thread started by XYZ. How fun, now I can play detective and try find out who posted what and where. I think the format is great for shouting in the wind type of posts, you say what's on your mind, get if off your chest and then forget about it.
  - Fischreuse
    Seasoned Rookie
    5 months ago
    Yes, that may be true... just endless mindless snapshots for the brain will be the future, but then I'm gone with the wind. I have no interest in forums like this format.
crocobaura
Seasoned Ace
5 months ago
At the moment there is no option to search or find anything in the treads. My only guess is that this was intentional because there is no way they would have chosen this type of forum for the Sims community by mistake. I noticed the drawbacks as soon as I joined the new forum, whoever decided that this forum is the way forward had to know these drawbacks as well.