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.
