Savings section usage metrics

veryintrigued

Since the new forum it 'feels" as if there are less new threads and less discussion within the threads.

I'd be interested from any forumites / MSE itself if this is true.

Descrabled

I only look at "Savings & Investments" now and SS2 thread on Regular savers. All else has now become too difficult. I hope the problems that SS2 has in updating this thread can be solved.

I read the forum on a mobile, as I suspect many others also do, or sometimes a tablet and the new format does not sit well on a small screen.

I know it is a marketing venture but taking a third of the screen with adverts for "email, blogs and tools" that have greater prominence than the threads makes it difficult. I hope the presentation improves. Difficult to add to threads at the moment.

I used to look at many more sections of the forum but have reduced my use and now I am exploring other parts of tintferweb.

colsten

Descrabled said:

....... the new format does not sit well on a small screen.......

Or on a large screen. The new forum is undoubtedly a significant downgrade. Sad. 

Stompa

colsten said:

Descrabled said:

....... the new format does not sit well on a small screen.......

Or on a large screen. The new forum is undoubtedly a significant downgrade. Sad. 

Agreed.

MovingForwards

veryintrigued said:

Since the new forum it 'feels" as if there are less new threads and less discussion within the threads.

I'd be interested from any forumites / MSE itself if this is true.

The whole forum seems quieter, less questions being asked, less general chatting and the same posts are showing when refreshed.

masonic

It's harder to keep track of threads here than it used to be on the old forum. I find myself having to go back to the forum index and mark forums read, which of course is problematic if posts are added in the interim.

Notifications weren't working very well, this is now improved, but not all that useful if you contribute to and bookmark a lot of threads.

It's now very difficult to break up a long post into sections and respond to the various parts separately. It requires editing the HTML. Failing to do this and dropping your comments within the quoted post makes it harder for others to respond. That limits the complexity of discussions that can be had here.

All of the above is somewhat offputting. I don't personally have any problem with the general look and feel of the forum.

badger09

veryintrigued said:

Since the new forum it 'feels" as if there are less new threads and less discussion within the threads.

I'd be interested from any forumites / MSE itself if this is true.

Fewer
The grammar police are still here

Apologies veryintrigued. I agree with much of masonic's post. I'm struggling to see which posts I've already read, so don't spend as much time here as I did on the old format. And I'm not keen on the ubiquitous 'Forumite' label.

eskbanker

masonic said:

It's harder to keep track of threads here than it used to be on the old forum. I find myself having to go back to the forum index and mark forums read, which of course is problematic if posts are added in the interim.

I'm finding this aspect working quite well, or at least in a way consistent with how I interact with the forum!  I did a 'mark read' early on which, as you say, resets everything, and since then the purple 'new' tag highlights threads with posts I haven't read, and the automated suffixing of the #latest to the URL takes me straight there, so everything exactly how I'd want it.  The exception is threads last read before the changeover, but to me that's a transitional issue that'll subside over time.

masonic said:
It's now very difficult to break up a long post into sections and respond to the various parts separately. It requires editing the HTML. Failing to do this and dropping your comments within the quoted post makes it harder for others to respond. That limits the complexity of discussions that can be had here.

It's undoubtedly clunkier but viable to split like this response without editing in HTML.  I realised by accident that using the 'quote' button multiple times puts multiple copies into the editor, which can then be hacked about to your heart's content!

masonic

eskbanker said:

I'm finding this aspect working quite well, or at least in a way consistent with how I interact with the forum!  I did a 'mark read' early on which, as you say, resets everything, and since then the purple 'new' tag highlights threads with posts I haven't read, and the automated suffixing of the #latest to the URL takes me straight there, so everything exactly how I'd want it.  The exception is threads last read before the changeover, but to me that's a transitional issue that'll subside over time.

I guess what I am missing from the old forum is the automatic marking of threads read once your session expires based on the timestamp of your last action. Over here the purple 'new' tag persists on a thread until you read that thread or manually mark the forum read (which you cannot do from within the forum). A 'mark forum read' button within each forum would be very useful.

eskbanker said:

It's undoubtedly clunkier but viable to split like this response without editing in HTML.  I realised by accident that using the 'quote' button multiple times puts multiple copies into the editor, which can then be hacked about to your heart's content!

This is a great tip, thanks!

ColdIron

masonic said:

A 'mark forum read' button within each forum would be very useful.

I might be missing something but Profile->Mark Category Viewed would seem to fit the bill

masonic

ColdIron said:

masonic said:

A 'mark forum read' button within each forum would be very useful.

I might be missing something but Profile->Mark Category Viewed would seem to fit the bill

Thanks, it didn't even occur to me to look there. I think I've learned enough in the last few posts in this and another thread to resolve all of the misgivings I mentioned above.