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- May 16, 2012
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what do you mean with the term forum structure or methodology.It isn't going to happen through changing the forum structure or methodology alone or at all.
what do you mean with the term forum structure or methodology.It isn't going to happen through changing the forum structure or methodology alone or at all.
It's disappointing that forum UI hasn't improved a whole lot in those nine years. However, I'm hopeful. I think things are looking up and several developers/development groups are stepping back and trying to rethink things from a UX perspective. In the old days, I think features were added just because they sounded cool, not because they helped a forum achieve its goals. That's starting to change, spurred on, I think, by new entrants to the forum software space.It may have been almost a years since this thread was lasted posted in, but the first post in it is from Sept 15, 2005—this thread is almost exactly nine years old!
But the goal is useful online communities, NOT forums. The forum companies need to see themselves beyond just forums (threaded discussions).Restructuring the same data isn't innovative in my book. Or the methods of displaying a discussion or having a "thread" be the start of a discussion. Those methods are basically the best methods for a forum. I can imagine something slightly different on the discussion viewing and workflow, but in effect, my ideas are still just a threaded discussion.
Agreed. That's not innovation ... but they have been creative about thread viewing.Discourse is a great example. They've taken away the view of categories with sub-categories in the forum index and instead, have them in a flat structure. The restructuring of the categories isn't innovative and it is actually restrictive. Although I don't think a lot of categories is a really good idea, not being able to have sub-categories is also the pits.
But the goal is useful online communities, NOT forums. The forum companies need to see themselves beyond just forums (threaded discussions).
I wouldn't say it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, but (with admittedly little hard data) would defend the proposition that a default Discourse installation is better at facilitating discussion among today's computer users than a default install of most other forum software packages. And that's a good thing.Agreed. Discourse is nothing new or worth migrating to.
That is a good thing.I wouldn't say it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, but (with admittedly little hard data) would defend the proposition that a default Discourse installation is better at facilitating discussion among today's computer users than a default install of most other forum software packages. And that's a good thing.
Discourse is a great example. They've taken away the view of categories with sub-categories in the forum index and instead, have them in a flat structure.
It's what they're passionate about. AFAIK, *none* of this is exclusive to them, but they put it together in a nice default package. Here are a few key things off the top of my head:That is a good thing.
Exactly how is discourse doing this ?
I'm convince-able.
It's disappointing that forum UI hasn't improved a whole lot in those nine years. However, I'm hopeful. I think things are looking up and several developers/development groups are stepping back and trying to rethink things from a UX perspective. In the old days, I think features were added just because they sounded cool, not because they helped a forum achieve its goals. That's starting to change, spurred on, I think, by new entrants to the forum software space.
Right Zordoz--that's what I meant by "rethink[ing] things from a [User Experience] perspective"--but once you've done that you do actually have to build interfaces informed by those thoughts. It's a difficult task and some folks seem better suited to it than others.
I'll have to see how they do this.3) Attempt to show discussions topics intelligently--collapse very long threads to the most important posts
will have to see what you mean.reading time summary,
more than what Xenforo does ? ie. you click a thread title you've been to ... and it takes you to the newest post..remembering exactly where you left off in every thread and instantly returning you there when you go back to it,
I saw that. I thought it was cleaner.5) Eliminate surrounding elements that don't matter as much to the conversation (postbit, the way they display dates, etc), but they still give you context in the thread of how posts relate to each other in a nice way.
You mean like alerts and search results ?7) Everything is realtime.
I like the idea.I forgot a Discourse feature I'm a big fan of--their Trust Level concept, which *might* be unique to them, at least in a default install. It makes a whole lot of sense to increase what your users can do automatically as they demonstrated their value to the community.
If you'll notice, I asked what needs to be done to get "online communities" to the next level. A forum is just a tool for an online community and in a forum solution alone, we will never find the wanted innovation. I am certain of it. So we really shouldn't be looking at forum software for better online communities. That one change in perspective, I think, really needs to actually happen. People need to stop looking at their forum solution creators for innovation, because, forum solutions are at their pinnacle of excellence. That box is complete.
For instance, I'll throw this out for discussion, I am of the opinion, users need to be united in a singular online community network. That is one major step to making online communities the much, much better social network. It is a provocative and bold step and I know a lot of forum owners might not like the idea, but it needs to happen to get back a lot of the lost user attention to online communities.
Scott
The reason people set up so many different forums across the internet is because people by nature cannot ever all co exist in one space. Opinions are too diverse for it ever to be possible, and no one can ever run a system that pleases all (or even most) people. By definition, the policies of any one community cannot ever be applied to all others. It's also why the world is and always will be full of different products and services, because no one solution fits all.
Forums don't have a lot of 'innovation' in their design, because for the most part, they don't need it. And even if they did, you couldn't sell it, because people are resistant to change. It's why stuff like Discourse will never become as popular as they claim, since the minute a big forum/site switches over to it, the memberbase would quite literally revolt. Probably with their own spinoff site using the old style and software.
They actually still have categories view in place, but its disabled by default with their reasoning being it should be used to solve problems that may arise as your forum activity grows (like need for real segregation of discussions).
Twitter Dev forums are example of Discourse installation that uses this mode: https://twittercommunity.com/
I love Comments in Posts