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It makes me really sad that the migration to the new interface appears to have effectively killed off discussion on these forums - they have now become even more clunky and hard to use, and it's hard to find anything in them, and some of the stickied posts at the top date back to 2011 and are no longer relevant. Is there any way to rejigger things so that the boards become easier to use and conversation might possibly start up again? Or is this a lost cause? Things had been drying up on these boards for a while, but this change appears to have delivered the coup de grace. I'd love to hear what other people think and whether a moderator might be able to do anything about it.
I Didn't know you couldn't message people you weren't friends with. I also didn't know there was an option to become friends with people. Is there some sort of quick, user-friendly guide to how to do things and how the site works? If so, it would be great to have it more prominent. If not, poor schmucks like me with not the greatest computer skills and frequent distractions and demands by small people with sticky fingers would be great.
Yeah, not a fan of the whole "friends" thing. Most boards allow you to message anyone, and to set your profile to determine who gets to message you. And we should be able to send a message to administrators/moderators at all times -- being "friends" with someone who has the power to (virtually) slap others' hands can be problematic, IMHO.
And I'd like to be able to be "invisible" when I'm online. Seriously -- how can I "lurk" when everyone can see me? ;)
Last update on July 2, 6:57 am by Angry Adoptee.
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Since a lot of us seem to have similar concerns, I wonder if there's anything that can be done in the interim period before the site migrates over to the updated version of the software. Just culling out some of those ancient stickied threads would do a lot to make the place feel more inhabited - scrolling down past all of those long-defunct topics is kind of disheartening. And the fact that you can't tell which posts are most recent in a thread is really confusing to me. Spud, is any kind of housekeeping possible before the next shift?
Diva,
Spud posted a picture asking for how to make it better.
https://adoption.com/community/communityadmin/
Spud - this is a part of the problem - if you just check forums vs community you aren't going to see pictures shared, things people write on their walls. Perhaps a SITE map describing how things work would be a good place to start. If this is a forum then it should have everything under forums...
I really don't know but without knowing how things interconnect, how and when people see things - I suspect that is the starting place -understand how the site works...
Cheers
D
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How about making the forums so that links like the one above actually work when clicked on rather than requiring a copy and paste into a browser? How about explaining how to navigate multiple pages of threads? FWIW that is not doable on a tablet. How about making it so original join dates are listed for posters along with an easy link to read previous posts by a member?
I feel so sad about how many questions from new members are going unanswered. I used to log in here and read multiple times per day. Now, I get so frustrated with how remedial the format is that I rarely come here. Maybe I'm just slow...but I've never seen a forum that is as user unfriendly as this one.
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My biggest complaint is still that I can't find new posts very easily. On the old forums, sub-forums in the list that had new posts were bold. Now I end up clicking " new posts", which rarely shows much and when it does, I can't tell which sub=forum things are in.
Clicking "community" shows more, but then I see all the status updates, relationship updates, etc., which can be cumbersome if I'm looking for new posts. And still, I can't tell which sub-forum posts are in.
Honestly, it's just too much effort to find new posts and I'm looking at it less and less.
THIS is something I keep forgetting to add...
"....Now I end up clicking " new posts", which rarely shows much and when it does, I can't tell which sub=forum things are in."
"....which can be cumbersome if I'm looking for new posts. And still, I can't tell which sub-forum posts are in."
That and having to click to go to the actual thread so you can respond. TOO many clicks...
Kind regards,
Dickons
Navigating threads can be awful. I realized yesterday that if I look at a single post, which is what happens if you click on a link from the community screen, I can't reply to that post. Then I had to figure out how to get to the thread.
I understand that this is supposed to have a facebook type feel, but it really annoying sometimes. The forums just aren't clean like the used to be. Far too much to wade through.
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Thank you everyone. I will be dedicating some more time with the developers next week to see what we can do. You've given me the best places to start!
We are sending out a mass email to everyone who has a forum account about the new community, so we should be seeing some more people here. Therefore, I feel the urgency not only to get things better for regulars, but also the people that may be coming back and seeing these new forums for the first time again.
It's times like this I wish I were a computer developer, so I could just do all of this myself :) I'll really push to get it better asap! I care about y'all and the way you support one another here.
I hope you have a great weekend!
-SPUD
Last update on July 10, 2:39 pm by Adoption Admin.
Wow! I haven't been on here in forever. I got a notice that someone had posted on my wall, and I thought "what wall??" My how things have changed. It's cool to see some names I remember. I hope everyone is going well...maybe I'll
Play around with this enough to figure out how to participate!
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I havent been able to login at all since the change until today. I contacted customer service back in May...three customer service agents later (I guess there has been high turnover) and many emails having to update the next person and the next, the last agent actually called me and fixed it! So glad to be able to login again but I completely agree with many of the posts here. If anyone is in a similar situation I highly recommend contacting support.
The hardest part for me is finding the General Adoptive Parent Support group ...it seems after logging in I go through a maze to find what Im actually looking for. Even with getting to my profile and my messages seems cumbersome. One of the main reasons I needed my old username back was to access messages. Being able to message privately with any member regarding a relevant thread or similar circumstances was very important to my experience with the forums on adoption.com. Im not a fan of the "friend" thing...if I want to be on FB I will just use my FB account, here I just want a somewhat anonymous forum to discuss, support and engage other members of the adoption triad. About the only thing Im liking better is the ability to "like" in agreement which was a key feature missing from the past format...though without it, users were sort of forced to actually post their agreement and be more engaged.
I still can't manage to get to anything but the first page of a thread with multiple pages. I also still can't figure out how to find my private messages. I may not be the most computer (or tablet) savvy person around, but I'm not completely useless. Anyone else have this issue? I actually broke down and got the computer out to try that way, but for some reason, I can't get to the forums on my computer even though I can on the tablet. I'm get more and more frustrated!
Ruth,
I come into the forum and once logged in I choose community that gets me a string of new posts and replies to posts...
If you are looking at a single post - to get to the post with all the comments - it's at the top right and underlined.
If you are in a post with the other comments showing - to get to the next page or last page it's bottom right.
To get to my messages - it's the little envelope grey shaded object to the right of the Community and different forum headers at the top of the page - click on the envelope and it will bring up a list, then scroll down...
That's how it is on my desktop anyways...
Cheers,
Dickons
Thanks, Dickons. From what I can tell, you can get to a lot of things from a computer that you can't from a tablet. I thought I'd try from my computer (which I don't use that often anymore, but I had it out for photos to send to my son's bparents), and I can't log in at all on that! Anybody else use a Mac? I'm wondering if somehow the site doesn't like them or they don't like it?
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Hi, Ruth74 - I use a Mac (I'm on one right now) and have had no trouble logging on - apart from the fact that the site is so difficult to navigate, which isn't really a hardware problem. But maybe it depends on the operating system - I'm updated with the latest software.
In general and to all, I'm still feeling pretty disheartened about this site - I don't see any discernible progress on making it easier to use, and I find I am not checking very often any more.
Hello Everyone!
We are working to correct many of these things here at the office! Know that your comments are not going unnoticed! Thank you for all your good feedback. Keep it up!
--J.Babe