- To begin this thread, I would like to say that I encourage to not pick on the details, think of the bigger picture, of the bigger idea I'm trying to share with my arguments. The reason why I do this is because of the growing impression I have, that the old forums were superior, in terms of functionality mostly. But I do recognize that what we have now is a huge upgrade in terms of appearance. That being said, this thread will be organized in spoilers, each one titled with a specific subtopic, to make it look more organized and less intimidating to who might read this.
As a general argument, no I don’t dislike these things about the new forums because I’m too used to the old one. I had these impressions from the beginning, but ignored them since I thought it was only the contrast I was feeling from having used the old format for years now. Enough time has passed for me to test these features and experience the forum experience how I would months ago, I already know where everything is and how everything works. And these things still fail to convince me, they fail to provide the same convenient and easy experience the forums used to have.
In the old forum design, everything was more straight to the point, much more clear. Much easier for a visiting user to find everything they need. And for a concurrent member to consult the places they frequently need. The new organization that was given to specifically subforums is really confusing, especially because subforums aren’t listed by relevance and what’s most frequently contacted by CubeCrafters, like it was in the old forums. Where we had only the most important subforums at the top: Suggestions, Rules, Staff Applications and Support. Having things like Creations and Competitions on top has no logical sense and just contributes to making the forums feel disorientating.
Another change that I don’t find favourable is the renaming of some sub-forums, why is “Everything Else” “The Lobby” who is going to guess that’s the place for off-topic posts? The previous title described what the subforum was about. Why are gamemode subforums so huge, making it hard to find more important things like Support and Staff Applications. Overall the organization is not coherent with what the users need, it’s not arranged conveniently how it was in the old design.
Another change that I don’t find favourable is the renaming of some sub-forums, why is “Everything Else” “The Lobby” who is going to guess that’s the place for off-topic posts? The previous title described what the subforum was about. Why are gamemode subforums so huge, making it hard to find more important things like Support and Staff Applications. Overall the organization is not coherent with what the users need, it’s not arranged conveniently how it was in the old design.
I will say it straight away I am not completely certain of what factors caused this but I think this is a problem evident to any forum user that has been around before the change, posts don’t get to as many people as they used to. Threads don’t get nearly the same amount of attention, living example: CCG Memes. How come the thread is getting so little posts after easily being the liveliest thread in the entire website? Something is really wrong with the new forums, and I can’t quite get a grasp of what it is.
I do have some theories, though it’s mostly speculation. What I listed in the previous spoiler has to do with this, the forums are confusing, they’re hard to navigate and not because they’re not like the old forums. I’ll get into greater detail in the next spoiler about this.
It has been hard for me to keep up with everything new on the forums, and I am certain many people have experienced the same thing. It has to do with the way notifications are formatted, they’re not easy to read, and it’s much less easy to find what content you have already reviewed and what you haven’t. Also how all subforum messages are listed in the “New Posts” only makes the more “relevant” threads vanish away from public attention very quickly.
Forums content is not receiving enough exposure, the entire website seems to be centered around the featured content, and not user made content. It’s really easy to miss out on good, interesting threads. Which is also greatly affecting discussion, since having threads be harder to find means less people participate, which not only reduces the quality of the results discussions can bring, but also ends up demotivating to think that whatever you put out there won’t even be seen by that many people. The website looks really active, but for some reason it’s not.
I do have some theories, though it’s mostly speculation. What I listed in the previous spoiler has to do with this, the forums are confusing, they’re hard to navigate and not because they’re not like the old forums. I’ll get into greater detail in the next spoiler about this.
It has been hard for me to keep up with everything new on the forums, and I am certain many people have experienced the same thing. It has to do with the way notifications are formatted, they’re not easy to read, and it’s much less easy to find what content you have already reviewed and what you haven’t. Also how all subforum messages are listed in the “New Posts” only makes the more “relevant” threads vanish away from public attention very quickly.
Forums content is not receiving enough exposure, the entire website seems to be centered around the featured content, and not user made content. It’s really easy to miss out on good, interesting threads. Which is also greatly affecting discussion, since having threads be harder to find means less people participate, which not only reduces the quality of the results discussions can bring, but also ends up demotivating to think that whatever you put out there won’t even be seen by that many people. The website looks really active, but for some reason it’s not.
This is easily for me the most disappointing part about this “upgrade”, was it really an upgrade? Overall the website looks like a compilation of bits and pieces that don’t look coherent together. Don’t get me wrong, there clearly is a lot of effort put into the design, but it doesn’t look right altogether does it? Some parts look empty, unfinished, perhaps even rushed.
The thing I specifically dislike the most is the “New Posts” tab and how it shows weird coloured tags that represent subforums, and how the profile picture is the one of the person who posts and not the thread owner. In a way profile posts served as “thread icons” and made threads much more recognizable than what we currently have. There is also really no need to list the subforum, the tags look really ugly and messy. The home page is also really ugly in itself, the way featured content is shown is really weird, and the thread pictures don’t really look right.
If I had to describe the new forums in three words it would be: Pretty, Chaotic, Incoherent.
The thing I specifically dislike the most is the “New Posts” tab and how it shows weird coloured tags that represent subforums, and how the profile picture is the one of the person who posts and not the thread owner. In a way profile posts served as “thread icons” and made threads much more recognizable than what we currently have. There is also really no need to list the subforum, the tags look really ugly and messy. The home page is also really ugly in itself, the way featured content is shown is really weird, and the thread pictures don’t really look right.
If I had to describe the new forums in three words it would be: Pretty, Chaotic, Incoherent.
In Conclusion, these are legitimate issues that most certainly should be addressed, because I am under the impression that with this “upgrade” functionality was sacrificed to favour looks. And it has been greatly damaging to our forums community.
Thank you for reading this! I encourage every single person reading this to go ahead and leave a reply. Everyone’s input is highly important, and I appreciate it a lot. Let’s get the conversation going!
PD: I know this could go on the forum feedback subforum, but this subforum gets to more people.
