How to improve this new Forum?

[Max Wax 0]

This forum is not that easy to use. I find it difficult to figure out what topics or posts are new sometimes.

I am an A Game of Thrones and Call of Cthulhu LCGs player.

I think FFG should keep at least the order of the previous subforums  (I mean starting with the most popular "General Discussion" and "AGOT Off-Topic" as the last one, as it used to be).

Grey letters on a dark background does not make things easier to read. The news posts for instance are still posted that way. No contrast!

Today I had a problem to get to the new  "R&D Journal" and News/Spoliers for Call of Cthulhu LCG. It the previous Forum a click on the top of the page was sending you to the official website. On here, clicking on different AGOT/COC icons, was taking me to the FFG store most of the time.

Before, If anyone posted any link, you could be redirected to its site just by clicking it. Here it is not working [you have to cut and paste links to see what's there].

I have read also that some of you had a problem linking friends on here.

Those are just suggestions for things that perhaps could be improved. So far the new Forum sucks!

[radiskull 39]

I also have a suggestion, also posted in the AGoT LCG forum:

 

I would really like it if threads that have changed since I last visited would go to the top, like they did before.  I worry about missing things that might be new, yet not on the front page.

[littlewars 0]

radiskull said:

I also have a suggestion, also posted in the AGoT LCG forum:

 

I would really like it if threads that have changed since I last visited would go to the top, like they did before.  I worry about missing things that might be new, yet not on the front page.

Yeah, what is up with that? These are the strangest forums I've seen.

It follows no normal conventions.

It's like they've just ignored all the good things that have built the forum format over it's development...

[Kage2020 0]

This feels more like the form system that Drupal uses, though significantly improved.  That has never had – or the last time that I looked at the latest version – the best of forum modules.  Or at least the most accessible of ones.  It does have much improved functionality in terms of community building, which is where this site excels, but for what the majority of us want...? 

So it seems like a bit of a balancing act.

I am not, however, an expert on such matters.  Not by a longshot, so take with a pinch of salt.

Kage

[Joram2 1]

I personally don't see that this site excels at community building at all.

There are several faults with it from a community building perspective:

#1- To form a community, it should be a site that people like using. Which means, faster than a drip of molassas.

#2- A private message function is going to be better at community building than any of their current features; it allows person to person contact on the site without having to go through e-mails.

About their other "community building" features, the library and friends list, I don't see that either contributes significantly. I know who my friends are without having them in a list. All the list thing does is encourage you to regard someone as your friend even if you aren't very familiar with him or his views.

The library is nice, but it doesn't really contribute to an online community. I know if someone owns a game based on whether they post in that forum. So while this feature might help you link up with people in your area to play games with, that doesn't help the online community at all.

So I don't consider these forums to have even the advantage of community building.

[Iron Guardian 0]

Aside from the concerns others have posted on this and other threads, I would like to see the "Friends Finder" function expanded to include cities/towns as well as states/provinces to assist in narrowing down the list of all those who reside in the state/province.  This would greatly help those who have moved to a new area as well as those who would like to meet new people in their own area.  I just tried this for my own state of New York and would rather not check each of the 70+ people listed (whose profiles did not list area of residence IIRC when I tried).  In addition, perhaps a thread could be started on the forums allowing people to post that they are looking for new groups and/or players in their area...

[Roxas2 0]

Joram said:

I personally don't see that this site excels at community building at all.

There are several faults with it from a community building perspective:

#1- To form a community, it should be a site that people like using. Which means, faster than a drip of molassas.

#2- A private message function is going to be better at community building than any of their current features; it allows person to person contact on the site without having to go through e-mails.

About their other "community building" features, the library and friends list, I don't see that either contributes significantly. I know who my friends are without having them in a list. All the list thing does is encourage you to regard someone as your friend even if you aren't very familiar with him or his views.

The library is nice, but it doesn't really contribute to an online community. I know if someone owns a game based on whether they post in that forum. So while this feature might help you link up with people in your area to play games with, that doesn't help the online community at all.

So I don't consider these forums to have even the advantage of community building.

 

I completely agree with this. I've helped build two video gaming websites' message boards and compared to them, this new place is a prototype to be nice about it.