New ebay community boards

baffcat

Anyone else use the old boards and dislike the new version?

Can't get on with them at all.

Ah well, it'll cut down the time I waste not doing anything productive.

Crowqueen

I don't mind them, but then again, I'm an avid forum user and have seen a lot of familiar forums change over the last few years, not always for the better at first but then they improve and upgrade them, people get used to them, and then start moaning when the company decide to upgrade them later on. I still remember the massive complaints - and eBay's response, which was to sort out the most glaring problems - when the old boards got a slight facelift in 2005. The only really bad change in forums in general over the last few years was when Blizzard decided to make everyone's posts on the World of Warcraft forums be written under their own name rather than their character's name. That didn't go down well at all and they changed their mind. Low level grumbling will not kill off forums anywhere or bring old boards back.

If people do leave, then that's sad, but I suspect they'll just get replaced by new users, and the reasons I go there are still the same - since eBay CS can be, at times, worse than useless, there's a lot to do there. Since eBay rolled out their hotline to everyone, I think although CS come up with their nuggets of non-wisdom fairly frequently, there's possibly less of a need to go to the forums.

I do like the splitting up of Q&A into Buyer/Seller Central. Buyers needed their own forum, and Q&A gets cliquish and I can't say I'm sorry that there are people threatening to leave - they kind of monopolised things a bit. As mainly a buyer, and as someone who knows the various laws (and will soon have a certificate to prove I do so!) I felt from time to time that we needed a forum that catered to buyers as a group rather than the pretty nebulous "New To eBay" board, which just became overspill from New To Selling or Q&A.

It's early days yet, I hope they listen to some of the more serious complaints (particularly the lack of a bookmark or view first unread mechanism, which is one of the things I hate not having on forums with long ongoing threads), but I think to re-orientate the boards back to their intended purpose is a good idea, and you are always going to get some people unhappy with it - that's life.

iieee

I don't like the way that they show who's online now. I used to lurk because I don't have a posting ID. Now you need one just to lurk!

Crowqueen

iieee wrote: »

I don't like the way that they show who's online now. I used to lurk because I don't have a posting ID. Now you need one just to lurk!

You can change that in your preferences. I think it's under "List me in the directory" or somesuch euphemistic heading. Click the Hide button and that should help.

iieee

Crowqueen wrote: »

You can change that in your preferences. I think it's under "List me in the directory" or somesuch euphemistic heading. Click the Hide button and that should help.

Ah, thankyou so much. There were options to change the order of the posts and the number per page too, which were bugging me as well. I am all happy now. I can lurk again. :ninja:

Crowqueen

I also think it only shows you in that list if you actually post.

cyberbob

Due to time not been able to keep up on the Community boards for a while. Not too impressed with the new design. The fact that they now have all the sub categories. I think there is 2 or 3 under payments and postage whereas before they were just under the one Payments and postage title. It just means more stuff you need to wade through.

I just can't be bothered to go through all the sub categories. I do always find it strange when they upgrade these things and make them less user friendly.

Ms-Pacman

I find the forums very slow to load and quite often freeze if I right clight to open up in another tab. I've tried this on three computers with different browsers including IE7, IE8, Firefox and Google Chrome. Prior to the new forums I never had any issues.

I don't mind the new format although I'd prefer less subfolders but then thats only as I read them all for Buyer and Seller catagories.

StaffsSW

I've cut right back on my use of forums and discussion sites, and spent the time more productively. I now spend much more time researching and writing articles, and reaping the returns on them and I really should have done it sooner.
I removed a load of sites from my favourites, including MSE, and only nose through if I see any inbound link activity.

I did post a few comments on the Q&A before it closed to wind up the whingers and lamenters, about looking at their time managment skills if they could read and contribute to so many threads. The usual Q&A stasi all denied they spend more than a few minutes per day on boards, but we all know the truth, even if we do not like to admit it.

Crowqueen

The same people who complain about everything eBay does have posted 20 threads on how rubbish the new boards are, and then complain that no-one's going there to ask any questions.

Hmmmm...