Requesting Feedback: Top Things YOU like about Forums?
Today I wanted to start up a discussion about what you like about the Wealthy Affiliate Forum, or forum's in general. What I'm looking for is your top "Feature" list, not necessarily the content within any particular forum.
What is it that you like about a forum?
Is it:
- Categorized discussions
- Ability to browse and find topics
- Ability to easily ask questions and get responses
- Ability to Search for content?
- Seeing New posts?
- Something else?
- Organizing by date?
I'll tell you what I like about forums:
I like that you can go into a forum without any particular topic in mind and find GEMS of information. You can find questions to answers that you didn't know you had, and learn a ton from seeing discussions on categorized topics.
What I don't like about forums is that while you are within a forum you have no idea about what is going on within other pages. You can always go back and check the "new posts" but that means you have to remember to do that. Forums take a long time to post a question too. You need to find a category, enter a bunch of information, write the post, submit it, see a confirmation page, etc, etc.. Forums use old technology and thus are time consuming. I've used forums more than most people as I have answered 10's of thousands of private messages over the years and they seem clunky and old.
So, what do you like/dislike about forums? What would you like to see? Let's open this discussion as it will influence some of the projects we are working on here at WA!
Carson
Recent Comments
15
I recently wrote my first forum post, while looking for help with a technical problem. I was extremely impressed by the quick response from, apparently, some of the best folks you have on board. Huge help.
Nonetheless, the forum isn't exactly "user-friendly." I had to hunt like mad to find the right place to post my question, recall where I posted it, then hunt around for the topic repeatedly until I got an answer. I'm very big on organizing, so...maybe some sort of organizational map would help. On the other hand, I'm very new to all of this so take from this what you will, as I'm sure you will.
Otherwise, you might want to think about getting someone to fix those WAbinar videos. Most of them won't play regardless of venue or use of relevant software. Just a thought.
Stacy Manson
Hi Carson, to put simply: I like how the forum is setup as it is now in terms of giving what somebody needs.
But I think the answer we're looking for is more in terms of accessibility of the forum alongside the blogging system setup here. Part of this you have to consider is that people have already made old blog posts that aren't built around a new type of system combining the two. So what will become of any old blog posts?
Here are my thoughts or suggestions:
1. Instead of the use of tags, you could have a drop down menu of each topic within the forum. Then somebody chooses the topic they would be in, and make there post. These would be only topics that would fit in the forum, unless wanted to make the forum applicable to all blog posts.
2. You could perhaps fix it to where there was an option called “General Blog Posts†that would not get attached to the forum. So when somebody posts, it would not show up as a normal post within the forum.
3. Only blog posts would come in the form of having any pictures or links within words. Then when it would be transferred over to the forum, these links would not be there & any pictures would not show up.
4. Perhaps somewhere on the blog post, there would be a link to the forum (like the topic link they chose from the forum on the drop down menu that replaced the tags) that would allow people to visit the forum whenever they wanted.
*So with that said, that leads us to the advantages of having both.
Advantages of using Blog System
• It has pictures & it has links on words
• It’s accessible via your own profile
• People can immediately see this through their own dashboard or feed rather than visiting the forum.
Advantages of Forum
• Forum posts will not contain links all over the place & pictures
• Forum posts are all accessible immediately without searching for them all over your dashboard
• Forum posts you can all find immediately without having to scroll forever or just “losing it†where you just can’t find it.
Simple is best. Obviously when you make something over-complicated or complex, chances are you’re going to have a lot of bugs. This much I’ve learned & I have no doubt you know this even better than I do. I’m excited either way for what you all decide to put in action.
Hi Carson. I tried about 10 times to put my feedback here as a comment but it said null every time I refreshed the page. So I sent it to you in the form of a message instead. Thanks.
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Seth Layton
Hey Seth, not sure why you had trouble posting your message but I've copied it above so that everyone can read your response.
In reply
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Simplicity is KEY to integrating a "Questions" type system into WA. The forum does have it's advantages, and blogs also have their advantage.
One aspect that we will be wanting to accomplish is a system where people can ask questions in any kind of "category". We have moved to a "tag" system simply because there are far too many types of questions that people want to ask and a forum with pre-set categories just doesn't work. Allowing people to use tags and attach previously used tags allows scalability and better organization. We can then show "Top tags" etc.
In regards to old forum posts we will not be getting rid of them. The problem with the forum is that the same question can be asked 100 times, and there are many instances of this. We need a smarter system that can offer answers to your question and stop all the duplicate content. We want people to find the answers right away, not have to wait for a response when there is already many answers already.
Scrolling through a dashboard type system doesn't make sense for questions.. we have some ideas for this too.
Very good suggestions Seth, thanks for taking the time as these will definitely be taken into consideration!
Carson
I believe I had trouble partly because of how long the message was. I posted a huge message in response to one of Kyle's Training Guides in the past concerning the Vegas trip being tied into - how much people help each other in Wealthy Affiliate as opposed to making 300 Wealthy Affiliate sales. It seems these really long comments turn out null every time. Perhaps I should try breaking them up in pieces so that doesn't happen.
As for making accessible all the old posts within the forum, good luck with that. That seems like it might be a tough challenge. But it would be great if it was made possible somehow. One thing I do know is that when time progresses, the answers to the same question tends to change. so the answer to a particular question 2 years ago may have a different answer to it today. Perhaps something like that could be added as an extra feature to the blogging platform like a little search box or have a list of common questions at the ready.
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Seth Layton
Things I like
+Search for old topics
+Reply w/ quote
+Open discussion feel rather than posting on someone's blog
Things I don't like
+Open in New Window
+Can't open PM from inbox
I think having a forum is a great idea, I just dread having to open up that new window. Then, if I open up several forum posts in different tabs, one will open in the new window and the others will open in the original.
Other than that, I like having the Q&A forum separate from the blog area.
Yes, I guess the forum may feel a bit more "open" as you are posting within something that one person doesn't "OWN". On blogs you feel like you're posting on something that belongs to the user. Good point!
What I like:
* Private Messaging
* Notification Feature of new posts
* Search for threads that haven't been answered
What I Don't Like:
* That it opens in a new sized window
* That if you're not 'logged in' to the forum, you can't click links to it from WA
* That PM's aren't stacked/layered like a gmail discussion
Great suggestions Jay. Sending private messages easier or having private "live" discussions is definitely on the wish list!
Carson, like you said you can find GEMS of information.
I think this is the same with the Blog system that we have right now but the real benefit of the forums is the way its organized and easy to browse. Honestly, the features I would keep are the PM feature, which I would integrate into the current OEP, not have to open up the forum. I'd copy some of the organization as well.
Just some of my thoughts.
I agree with you on all points. What I'd like to see is an organized way to ask questions and get answers fast. Blogging is one way to communicate but it should be easier to ask a question, and very easy to answer. What I'm working on is something of a mash up between WA Blogs and The WA Forum that is fully integrated into the system.
One major thing that I don't like about the forum is that the same question can be asked 1000 times. When someone is asking a question they should be provided with answers that match :) In most cases the question asked has been answered many times already...this is one limitation to forums that we will be sure to tackle!
Actually, something like the "knowledge base" model used on many hosting services would be a great addition. The question is the title and a quck show/hide toggle will give you the answer with links to related training etc..
I totally agree with everything, there are tons of good info in the forum, the "knowledge base" is a great idea Christian.
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Hello Carson, I could not find the right place to do a Feature Request, so here is my Top feature request: . Where is the like button in live chat? Michael