I am a member of the soon to be Sims Forum. I have also raised my concern in the Forum and will repeat it here.Perhaps this debate has already started somewhere else, but forgive me for not seeing where. That is exactly the problem.I think everything new requires getting used to and I will probably spend some time getting to know the new EA Forum. However, there is one thing that immediately catches my eye and surprises me.How is it that almost everything is sorted by 'The most' such as Most Recent, Most Viewed, Most Replies, Most Likes. It is of course very nice for those who already have a lot of followers and likes, but for someone else it seems like a killer. On a forum like X, you're practically invisible and dead if you don't have a whole bunch of followers. I'm afraid the same thing is going to happen here.As I said, it may be because I can't find my way around yet, but I need to voice my concern out loud and hopefully become wiser.The best thing about the old Sims Forum is that it didn't try to look like a social media like any other social media where it's about scoring the highest rank and number of followers to get benefits. This applies in particular to the right to costume a personal avatar. I really hope the idea of earning enough rank to get a personal avatar is rethought.The existing Forum has been a sanctuary where you have been able to cultivate the special interest you have in the game with other Simmers regardless of their rank and general popularity. The entire structure of the forum has made it easy to navigate.I don't know how to navigate the EA Forum when it focuses on highlighting the most popular lore at the moment.This cultivation of elitism leaves me with a feeling of loneliness. For me it's a killer because I don't want to be in a Forum where I have to be confirmed daily that I'm invisible and therefore unimportant.

I absolutely hate that this site does not allow to read in a chronological order. It gives me anxiety. Nested responses and having to read backwards after selecting "Newest first" is just a joke. How am I supposed to read a story thread this way? This site isn't a forum, it's just a standard Q&A site which absolutely does not fit the Sims community.

EA_Spectre Allow me to illustrate a problem with the notifications. I choose to use pictures because sometimes they tell more than words.On the bell I can see that a notification has come to me.Now a whole series of notifications from threads I follow opens up. I would like to follow the comments in this group and now I expect the notification to take me directly to the latest comments, but instead I end up on the front page.It is a very active thread which, as you can see, was created 9 years ago.If I choose to sort by Oldest, I now have to scroll through 2843 answers. If I choose to sort by Newest, you can see my own answer that was transferred 5 months ago as well as the two newest answers that are in reverse order and several layers.How should we continue such a conversation?We can of course create a whole new thread, but since we are, as I said, a fairly active discussion group, we will quickly end up in the same problem.

Some new feedback... I can no longer follow the discussion on this relatively short thread.I'm being told there are 2 new posts since the last time I read it. I simply cannot find them. Are they the newest posts that appear under replies? No, because I've seen those a few times before. Are they buried in nested replies? Maybe... but I can't find them.This is short thread... only 30 replies at the time I'm writing this. On the old forums I was used to threads with hundreds of replies, some with over a thousand. I can't imagine trying to navigate those threads here. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I think it needs a few more whacks. For someone like me, this is a critical issue. This is a "can I use these forums at all" level critical issue. I don't want to walk away from this community but I'm being forced to by these new forums. I may not have a choice... and I once again wonder - how did we get here?

Would you prefer having the newest posts showing as the default option?If I may, I'd like to weigh in on this too... No, at least not the way this forum currently handles it.Seeing the "newest" post first just means scrolling back, or reading backwards, trying to find the last post you actually read... which also doesn't work because of the nested replies, like this one, which are not considered "newest" posts but are buried with the older post they are replies to. These forums are clearly not built to support discussions. These are tech support, question-and-answer, forums.

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/1014450/the-all-new-ea-forums-are-live-now/p8 We're being asked to redirect our comments/feedback here to the new forums, but in all honesty it's hard to figure out how and where best to do so. Many other people are probably going to be confused as well once they realize that this is where the staff members are gathering suggestions. It would be my guess that starting a new thread for each individual concern would probably not be preferable.The original poster has already outlined most of my top concerns, but I'd like to add a few additional details.* You're obviously hearing this a lot, but having the ability to recognize each other by way of personalized avatars and a customizable profile page is extremely important to a lot of people. The old forums do an excellent job in that respect, so if it's possible to do the same here that would be much appreciated.* As already mentioned, it would be definitely be helpful to have the newest posts show as the default option. However, even when sorting posts that way, having to read posts in what seems to be reverse order is extremely difficult. Page numbers and post numbers would be a lot of help to remedy that problem.Would it be possible at some point to recreate a specific "off topic" section for random topics and forums games? That is where I've spent 99% of my time over the past several years on the old forums, and there are others who have done the same. Having those threads grouped into "The Sims Franchise Discussion" section isn't particularly convenient.If a member of the EA staff happens to see this comment, I want to say thank you for your patience and effort. Clearly you have a lot to deal with right now, and it personally means a lot that you're already making so much effort to listen to everyone's feedback. It's completely understandable that it will take quite some time to sort everything out and make needed improvements and additions to the site.

The new EA Sims Forum | EA Forums

Jooleeyuh
Seasoned Adventurer
4 months ago
My hopes for this place being improved are very low right now, considering I was banned from the old forum literal days before it closed for saying exactly what everyone in this thread is saying.
A place where less-popular statements are buried by default and a chore to access can hardly be called a discussion forum.
Caerfinon
Seasoned Veteran
4 months ago
What I would really like is :
a show only unread posts option
a way to mark forum threads completely read like on AHQ
$100,000 and a jet on the tarmac to take me to Monaco
Any two of these items would be a sufficient improvement for my enjoyment of these forums.
Thank you for your consideration.

Cheers
C.
Traits: 🐶Dog Lover, 🎨Creative, 😑Loner
My Stories:🤷🏻🐕Simmer Tales | 🌐A Sim's Life | 🌌Galaxy Far Away
My CC: 🎨Caerfinon's Sims 4 Custom Content
MDianaSims
Seasoned Hotshot
4 months ago
Thanks for making this thread. I have a number of issues with these new forums as well.
Show more loads slowly or not at all. We really just need pages with a set number of replies shown. Similar to AHQ.
Pages reset at completely random moments.
I get logged off automatically, sometimes even less than a minute after clicking on something.
I have unread replies on threads even though I have read everything.
Notifications are late and/or reset. This is not a cache/cookies issue. This happens on my desktop where I always have history and cookies removed when closing the browser.
And I agree that we need a functioning method to view post chronologically and be able to see which posts are new. I also want custom avatars back.
I've twice had posts/edits disappear even though I'm sure I posted them, this should definitely not happen. I've actually now copied this post because it might just go missing because I probably got logged off while writing this long-ish post.
cocokayla
New Scout
4 months ago
Same. I can't tell what replies are actually new. Even the notifications are useless because they don't take you the new replies. Then you have to change 'most liked' to 'most recent' and it's still not clear. Maybe there could be a better way to distinguish what posts are read and unread. Like an icon or a border around the new posts.
- FreddyFox1234
  Seasoned Veteran
  4 months ago
  cocokaylaI agree. Two notifications are helpful - the one that tells you who liked your post, and the one that tells you if someone has mentioned you. If you click on those, you get taken straight to the relevant post. That's great.
  The other notification, about people commenting on threads I'm following, is pretty useless. If we've got the time and nothing better to do, maybe we'll make the effort to go hunting through the threads trying to spot which comments we haven't read before. But personally I don't bother, so I'm starting to ignore those while the number of 'unread' posts keeps on steadily increasing.
luciusstorm
Seasoned Veteran
4 months ago
Some new feedback... I can no longer follow the discussion on this relatively short thread.
I'm being told there are 2 new posts since the last time I read it. I simply cannot find them. Are they the newest posts that appear under replies? No, because I've seen those a few times before. Are they buried in nested replies? Maybe... but I can't find them.
This is short thread... only 30 replies at the time I'm writing this. On the old forums I was used to threads with hundreds of replies, some with over a thousand. I can't imagine trying to navigate those threads here.
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here, but I think it needs a few more whacks. For someone like me, this is a critical issue. This is a "can I use these forums at all" level critical issue. I don't want to walk away from this community but I'm being forced to by these new forums. I may not have a choice... and I once again wonder - how did we get here?
- flauschtrud
  Rising Adventurer
  4 months ago
  I absolutely agree. I just unfollowed all discussions that I had previously followed because the notifications are just spam 😐
Jayel-1
Seasoned Ace
4 months ago
Finely cracked my problem today.
AVG browser protection anti tracking!
Jayel-1
Seasoned Ace
4 months ago
With my current problem with only being able to access the new forum is on my phone as I have an internal server error which no one seems to be able to help me with, is to get active in the AHQ forums which is easier to negotiate and use.
Never thought I'd ever say that!
MonaSolstraale
Seasoned Veteran
4 months ago
EA_NilsI have a problem updating my Story. The front page and some additions are transferred from the old Sims Forum 6 months ago.
Today I updated with a new chapter. Unfortunately, I can't change the front page and the header that contains a date that refers to an update from March 10. It seems rather misleading.
How do I fix the header?
- puzzlezaddict
  Hero+
  4 months ago
  You're not the only one to report this, and I don't know of a fix once this has happened. But if you link the thread and write out the new title you want to use, I can try to edit it for you.
  - MonaSolstraale
    Seasoned Veteran
    4 months ago
    puzzlezaddict Thank you very much . It's perfect 💖
    You are truly my hero 🥇
MonaSolstraale
Seasoned Veteran
4 months ago
EA_Nils Thanks for your reply. I have also cc'd you in a reply I just sent regarding frustrations with layer upon layer replies.
I'm afraid I don't fully understand all the technical stuff, maybe because of the language barrier, but I understand from your answer that some of the basic structure and settings are determined by the forum host. Among other things. the sorting by Likes and Most.
I also understand that you as employees are doing your best to create a good forum for everyone.
I miss the structure in the old Forum with clear headings and subgroupings. It's easy to find your way around.
In this Forum, random topics are on the front page according to their instant popularity and it's hard to find your way in. For me, topic-based hashtags will be a poor solution.
I would also say that costumed profile pictures and signatures are a big wish from users. I don't quite understand why this poses a security risk? I hate to mention X because it is a volatile medium, but you are allowed to create your own profile after all.
I would like to say that I am happy for your responsiveness. Since I wrote my feedback three days ago, I have moved from being a very frustrated and disappointed user, to having more faith that solutions can be found.
ImSands
New Adventurer
4 months ago
Rather than starting a new discussion, I thought I'd jump in on this one to echo the feedback from others in this thread. While overall I like the new forums, I find them very difficult to navigate for the exact reasons mentioned above. Its difficult to find the unread posts in a thread I'm interested as the sort options dont allow me to read them chronologically from where I left off last time.
I also find it quite difficult to see which threads have new posts in them since there is no obvious visual indicator of that. I liked the big yellow NEW sign on the old forums that immediately showed me that a thread I had viewed had new posts. It didn't require me to "work" to find those tiny little numbers in the bottom of the topic in a pale font that say how many new posts.
Finally, the design where everything is almost the same color and font weight, makes it difficult to distinguish the thread titles from the description texts (that are far to long in my opinion), and therefore make it hard to scan a page to get a quick overview of threads. To me it just looks like a giant wall of text.
Hope this feedback helps these forums improve over time.
- Larrikateven
  Seasoned Rookie
  4 months ago
  ImSands wrote:
  Finally, the design where everything is almost the same color and font weight, makes it difficult to distinguish the thread titles from the description texts (that are far to long in my opinion), and therefore make it hard to scan a page to get a quick overview of threads. To me it just looks like a giant wall of text.
  I've been struggling to even begin to engage with this forum because of this. I see a giant wall of text as well.