Jan 6, 2020

Tougher guidelines on posting format. The parent post should adhere to a wordcount/content guideline, and submissions roll from there. Comments not contributing meaningfully to discussion (trolling or not) should be deleted. No one wants to have a discussion where 90% of the discussion is either someone adding nothing and simply agreeing, or disagreeing via childish trolls. Either add something meaningful when you join the discussion, or don't join. There's an off topic section for a reason, fool around in there. If you aren't actually here to discuss things, don't discuss, just read. Eventually the higher quality discussions will actually lead to more people chirping in, and people who really want to say something will be incentive to post a stronger message.

 

Jan 6, 2020

Cialis ads will help erect attention for the Sxn80 cause. Let them in. It's Initiative 101, baby. It's okay. I know what you're thinking. "So immoral, Jay. Why would you even insinuate or suggest that I ever stoop so low?" You might ask yourself. "What's it all for? How did I get here?" The answer is simple, really. Sometimes you have to show a little teat, to make 'em skeet. The proverbially-aforementioned (th)em, would be the taste-makers and pundits of the vital marketing industry, as well as its fairly commonplace Cyberspace Outreach Predispositions.

 

Jan 6, 2020

the only thing that helps this site grow is an Eminem or Kendrick album.

 

Jan 6, 2020

Design: 2.0 > StudioLeaks > 3.0

 

Jan 6, 2020

2.0 > TRShady > SL > 3.0

 

Jan 6, 2020

yeah re: #2.... it would, sure..... but at least there it isnt all aggregated - like i log in here, its like oh theres literally been three posts all day okkkkkkkk im leaving. whereas the previous model, u could see maybe creative was dead but Music (or whatever) had a post within the last hour. you don't know if that's just one thread or 20. you know? so more air of mystery when its sub forums.... just to me anyway, my personal posting habits. forums are a niche way of discussion so i think leaning into that, allowing people to discover things and engage on their own terms is perhaps part of the solution.

 

Jan 6, 2020

oh yeah one thing I do miss with alerts is that I remember not having to refresh my browser to see if I had any. It would show automatically on the notification bar and in the browser tab. I feel like the alerts do show automatically without refreshing sometimes, maybe? But definitely not all the time. Not really a big deal though

 

Jan 6, 2020

I guess it just looks cluttered. Nothing else. I'm not on as often so it could be just the fact im not used to it. The idea is great, especially for people with a lot of notis. I haven't any bugs with it btw.

 

Jan 7, 2020

@Slyk I believe I understand your thought process much better now after seeing you break things down the way you have so far.

General Comments:
Overall, I think a hybrid of 2.0 and 3.0 would be the ideal solution, not a total revert. I think we could keep a lot of the clean new looks of 3.0 and some of the helpful functionality improvements while also "reverting" back to the simplicity and intuitiveness of 2.0.

3.0 PM/Profile views
Fine in my opinion, fantastic work!

3.0 Thread view
For the most part, I would agree that 3.0 looks/functions better (though I have some criticisms as well).
Pros:
-Larger avatars
-Floating reply box
-Theme (Has a "cleaner" look visually for post layout)
Cons:
-Navigation bar (will go into detail later)
-Sidebar (will go into detail later)
-No Users Viewing Thread section (Personally I could care less about this, but I understand why other users enjoy this feature)

3.0 SXN View
Pros:
-None really. Arguments could be made that the theme is better (might look slightly cleaner if not for the side bar), but it needs some minor adjustments.
Cons:
-Navigation bar (will go into detail later)
-Sidebar (will go into detail later)
-Theme adjustments: Add a thin spacer between threads to keep it consistent with the thread view (and it would also give it a more organized appearance). I prefer 2.0's layout In regards to thread details (OP, date, replies, views, most recent reply, etc.). 3.0 is missing the "views" portion entirely which I think is actually an interesting statistic that actually drew me in to viewing certain threads I wouldn't normally click (though it will obviously highlight the lack of activity of the site in its current state, so maybe you will want to hold off on that and add it back once the activity picks back up). I'm also not a fan of the design/appearance of the labels/tags (the finance, politics, serious blue buttons) on 3.0. They stand out too much and distract from the different thread titles rather than supplementing them. I think they need to be more subtle and mimic the styling of 2.0's

3.0 Homepage:
One of my biggest complaints/issues.
Pros:
-Theme (Aside from the featured content section. Although it certainly looks more appealing visually with album covers and images, functionality-wise it's not as nearly as good as 2.0. Needing to click and drag to see everything that is "featured" for one is a pain to do, and two defeats the whole purpose of being "featured". Featured content should be seen without needing to click or drag anything to see it, it should be right there in front of your face, ease of access and visibility is key to the concept of something being "featured.")
-Footer (Though adding our social links could be beneficial for the site if anybody keeps them up-to-date even semi-regularly).
-Removal of useless "Friends Online" sidebar section
Cons:
-I absolutely hate the setup/layout/design/organization/functionality of it. A lot of the functionality/organization of the 2.0 homepage was replaced by the new navigation bar and so the new homepage essentially took on a different purpose. I believe this right here lies the core issue most people don't like about 3.0. The concept of the new homepage (mixed with the navigation bar) makes the entire site look disorganized and unintuitive/confusing.

Spoiler: Details

I understand and appreciate your reasoning for wanting to try adapting and evolving the site from the "stale" format of most forums. I understand how the concept of the navigation bar seems like a super useful tool to add to the site and make navigation quicker/easier theoretically. Unfortunately, these adaptations failed in my opinion. I think it's one of those things that seems like a great idea, but in reality it leads to more problems than it solves. And as the homepage is the center of the site where everybody accesses everything from, the confusion/dislike for the homepage and site setup makes people dislike the whole 3.0 inception and request for the reversion back to 2.0. As @Worm said, 2.0 was simpler and people did not adjust well to the change to 3.0 (which I mentioned in my original response to this thread). As @Big Cuntry said, I too really miss the homepage being a list of all the boards. And as @Papa Alpha Andy stated, 3.0 diminishes the "subculture" of 2.0. Reverting back to a 2.0 type of homepage would alleviate a majority of the disdain a majority of the users have with the site.
Again, I appreciate and understand your reasoning behind why you wanted to design the homepage the way you did, but I think it is safe to say that this "evolution" is one that did not catch on. The "stale" interface is simpler and intuitive, making it superior in the end.

3.0 Navigation Bar:
Great concept to test out and theoretically makes sense, but IMO it failed. Maybe some sort of adaptation could be made to make it effective, but this feature in its current state certainly isn't flawless. A navigation bar (at least one such as what we have now) is not effective for a forum. We have way too many categories and content that we cover on here. Clicking and dragging the bar to see all of the content in it is ineffective and functionally odd. Although it is nice to be able to quickly access different sections from anywhere on the site, from a navigational/functionality standpoint, the 2.0 homepage did a better and more organized way of doing this even though it required one more click. I think the integration of this could possibly be part of your reason as to why you have gotten "revert to 2.0" rather than "3.0 is great, minus the homepage view", because it is integrated into every aspect of the site. If it is important enough to integrate into every page, it shouldn't need to be customizable. The one extra click will not deter people from using the site.

Spoiler: Debunking the "Three Click Rule"

A study conducted by Joshua Porter published on User Interface Engineering found out that users aren’t more likely to resign to failure of not getting to what they want on a site after three clicks versus a higher number such as 12 clicks. “Hardly anybody gave up after three clicks,” Porter said.



The focus, then, shouldn’t be on reducing the number of clicks to get to a page, but rather on the ease of utility of it. If you can construct a user interface that’s easy and pleasurable to use, but still takes like 15 clicks (e.g. 5 times more than the three-click rule) to achieve a particular task, it will prove to be more effective. Don’t let the arbitrary three-click rule stop you.

3.0 Sidebar:
Thread view and SXN view Sidebar: Simply put, it's distracting and clutters the site. I learned in my Marketing on the Internet class a few years ago that "less is more" per page on a website in most instances. You want the least amount buttons and options as possible so people are drawn to the core actions of the page.
-SXN Info is pointless IMO. Every section is self-explanatory for the most part. I doubt many people read these and find them useful/helpful. They are just one more thing in the way to ignore.
-Latest posts shouldn't be shown in a thread. If I am in a thread, it is for a reason. I am interested in the thread and want to engage in it. That is my focus at the moment. Although you are trying to increase activity by drawing attention to other threads, you are simply cannibalizing the activity that they could be engaging in with the thread they are already in.
-Quick filtering and quick follow mention groups in the SXN view are nice features but should be implemented differently (not in a sidebar). Their design currently clashes with the clean look of the rest of the site and they take up way too much space. They should be towards the top like an extension under the header, or in place of the navigation bar section.
Homepage Sidebar: 2.0 Sidebar was much more effective and useful. As mentioned previously, all of the featured content was easily viewable and accessible. Although it isn't pictured in your screenshot, at some point directly under featured threads there was a section/feed for Latest Posts/Hottest Threads. You could easily see what activity was going on at that very moment on the homepage and see what was popular overall recently in an organized fashion without having to leave the homepage. It wasn't extremely intrusive and bogged down your whole experience with content that you may not be interested in the way the new homepage does. This design was a much better approach than having the entire homepage serve this purpose. It gives you access to it, but doesn't force it down your throat. Then below that was the status updates section. I'm glad you removed the useless Friends Online portion for that part in 3.0. In my opinion the entire status updates portion should be removed entirely.

Spoiler: Reasoning

I will reiterate what I said in my previous post: There is too much to do on this site outside of discussions and that draws away from what the site is supposed to be made for. We have integrated too many social media aspects into the site. Why have a section for status updates on a forum? For one that is giving people an outlet to express themselves and their ideas in a way that pulls them away from posting in an actual thread (which would be more content that could lead to more engagement).

Alerts:
When I have notifications and I hit the "mark all as read" button, it then brings me to a whole notifications page rather than just clearing the notifications badge for the drop down arrow. I'm marking all as read because I don't want to view those notifications, so why am I being brought to a page to see them in more detail? Not sure why this issue hasn't been addressed yet, it's a simple logical improvement.

"Waste of Space" and "Increased Transparency" Comments: You are cluttering people with way too much information at one time. Information that people aren't necessarily interested in (because this site covers a wide range of topics and artists, and having a homepage that simply consists of latest posts can be simply full of content that doesn't appeal or apply to each user's interests. As @Papa Alpha Andy said, there were different pockets of the forum with sub-communities in them based on people with similar interests. 2.0's homepage layout worked perfectly for that sort of thing). You tried capitalizing on "screen real estate" which shouldn't really be much of a focus for a forum. That is important for websites such as those selling products, but a forum is a whole different ballpark. You are simply cluttering people's screens and overwhelming them with too much to do and too much to look at. It loses the visual attractiveness of the "clean" new look by jamming too much onto the screen. Again, less is more. Make it look nice. Make each page have a sole purpose and lose all the "extras".

In conclusion: The new look of the site is generally great. A lot of the newer/improved features are beneficial and great additions. However the navigation/organization of the site was significantly hindered with the new homepage; so significantly that it overshadowed any useful improvements to the site. Apply 3.0's visual and functionality improvements to 2.0's simplistic organization and I believe activity will increase and the site will be more appealing to new users.

 

Jan 7, 2020

2.0 was more or less a template design and it worked better.

 

Jan 7, 2020

Τbh everything @Nay Nay said feels like could make the experience a lot better.

I wanted to add that I kinda hate the fact that we have to refresh the page for pretty much everything.
I think new posts page, notis and recent activity (if it comes back anyway) should all be real time.

 

Jan 7, 2020

I'm just here for the reps

 

Jan 8, 2020