Changes to how discussion lists work

MSE_Stephen

Hi everyone,

Over the past year, there have been some changes to the forum structure. Many of you will have noticed that the Bookmarks page unexpectedly changed on Friday.

We just want to explain some of the changes our forum provider is making to how these pages work, along with some of the benefits and drawbacks.

The first thing to understand is that there is a central Discussions page here:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussions

Our forum provider is slowly moving away from having separate list pages for separate tasks, towards having most things link to the Discussions page above with a filter applied.

For example, last year, clicking the ‘Ask an Expert’ tag changed from linking to:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussions/tagged/ask-an-expert
(A special page just for that tag)

to:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussions?tagID=95
(The discussion page with a filter applied to just show that tag)

Now, Bookmarks seem to have similarly changed from:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussions/bookmarked (now a redirect)

to:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussions?bookmarked=true

Advantages

A big advantage of this new system is that you can further filter the selection after clicking through.

For example, after clicking My Bookmarks, you could then choose to show Bookmarked threads that are trending, or Bookmarked Threads that are a Poll (With more options coming soon)

Disadvantages

We can change some of the defaults on the /discussions page, such as the sort order and whether or not there is an excerpt, but what works well in one situation may not work as well in another.

• You might like to see excerpts of the first post when viewing the Latest Threads page, or clicking through from a tag, but find seeing an excerpt confusing when viewing your bookmarks.
• You might like to have tag pages sorted by Recently Created by default, yet have Bookmarks sorted by Recently Commented.

We're working with our provider to get more options an improvements. For now, tell us your suggestions for what you think the defaults should be.

For example, do you value having excerpts on the Latest Threads page or would a cleaner, longer list suit you? (example draft)

Please let us know your thoughts below.

PennysIntoPounds

I think we'd mostly prefer the site to go back to how it was before the changes tbh @MSE_Stephen. People want to read the latest comments on the bookmarks they've subscribed to and for that to be the default.

The list is already too long- the amount of diaries that were displayed on one page previously was a useful amount for being visually clear and user friendly.

There doesn't need to be a preview of the first ever post on each diary. This is pointless, messy, and feels quite intrusive.

We were all quite capable of going to latest threads to see latest threads, this isn't X and there aren't trending threads. People post at different times depending on their availability.

There is also no call for excerpts on newly created threads. We know whether they're of interest as they have titles and are in categories.

Thanks for engaging with us on this

jackieblack

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82136000#Comment_82136000

Everything PennysIntoPounds said ^^^^^^^^^^

Brie

I understand PiP's points but think the excerpts are essential as a title alone doesn't necessarily tell me whether the post will be of interest of not. There are lots of posts where the title is inaccurate or misleading and the OP will amend when this is pointed out to them.

MSE_Stephen

Hi,

I don't think there is much likelihood of Bookmarks being changed back.
This is one of the changes our provider has made platform-wide to all their forums. So there probably isn't the facility of changing it back just for us.

What I've asked is if they're the ability to at least change the default link from:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussions?bookmarked=true
to
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussions?sort=-dateLastComment&bookmarked=true
…so that bookmarks are at least in the order our members would like.

But, as discussed above, we're in a situation where changes we do have the ability to make, would change the whole /discussions page for all other ways that page is used.

jwil

I agree with @PennysIntoPounds.

I don't like the excerpts, the cleaner list is much easier to read and to find something.

I would also like to see bookmarks reverting to last commented.

PennysIntoPounds

When I press the thumbs up button, I'm getting blank boxes with lightbulbs filling the screen (and the page isn't registering my 'like'). Samsung browser on Samsung galaxy phone

PennysIntoPounds

If you could pass on these tech glitches to your provider that would be great please @MSE_Stephen. Who is your provider?

BootsMullery

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82136645#Comment_82136645

The MSE Forum provider is Vanilla Forums aka Higher Logic Vaniila

Sea_Shell

If, whilst in "discussions", you ask it for "all" then "top", it thinks for a while and then spits out a completely random list of threads, that seem to be either old, closed, or hardly commented on.

What's the purpose of "top"? What's the criteria?

I'll post a screenshot of what I get...

What do you get?

vic_sf49

Echoing all those comments before mine, in that you don't need to see excerpts, on threads you've bookmarked.

I only bookmark them, if I've starting reading the thread and want to follow along, so seeing the same 3 lines of text, for many years in the case of some diaries I follow, is cluttering up my screen.

Also, I pointed out in another thread, that I currently can't find, that the formatting of the Discussion / Bookmarks now doesn't fit an 8 inch tablet screen (Firefox browser, Samsung tablet.)

Screen shots of the differences in formatting....