Dog Community

Any body home???

Posted : 8/23/2013 4:05:27 PM

I am old and irritable. My thought processes are best described as "concrete sequential". Change is not good. But I will with hold judgement until I have tried the new format a bit. So far, so good.

kpwlee

Posted : 8/23/2013 6:21:12 PM

Hey Doug hope all is well and glad you found the 'new' forum - it is in beta so it should get better

JackieG

Posted : 8/23/2013 8:30:25 PM

Doug, I'm singing the same song. I'm getting used to it though I can't say I feel anything is better than the previous format. Maybe I'll see some advantages as they work on things. I must say I tend to be of the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought.

DrAlexanderTab

Posted : 8/23/2013 8:37:43 PM

Hi - this is Alex - the CEO of DOG.com. Was just reading your messages. We plan on this thing improving alot over the next 2-3 weeks as we fix issues and improve the experience. Thanks for your comments and participation. This was not was not easy to bring together - but I think you will be increasingly please. (I'm planning on it as I feel the saw way as you do. Though to say the old site wasn't broke is not quite fair :)

calliecritturs

Posted : 8/23/2013 11:06:34 PM

Dr Tab - if you can "fix" notifications I will be a happy woman!! Honestly the stuff I see is all good and hopefully it will bring a wider group of folks along.

Change is never easy -- we all get used to seeing a thing and life is "easier" if we just continue to see that. BUT ... if I'd never tried coffee ice cream I would never have known how much I would LOVE it. (given *how* much I love it ... perhaps it would have been better for my waist had I stayed ignorant but I truly can NOT believe that!)

The one thing I can't make "easy" yet is how to see what's been posted since I was last "here". And I'm assuming that is just part of what is to come. I see things are more in chronological order today and that's GREAT.

Hopefully folks will feel a bit easier once they see that this realy is "beta" (which to most folks is something they never deal with -- and you're giving us the opportunity to HAVE input and that truly rocks.

jbrayshaw

Posted : 8/24/2013 4:50:56 AM

Doug, Appreciate you keeping an open mind. We've done what we can to try maintain the elements people liked about the old forum. But we're definitely learning as Alex said. Calliecritturs, we've got plans to design in better chronology features. Also, you mentioned notifications. How would you like them to work? Let you all into a little secret though, we're currently bringing over all the posts from the old forum and that does affect performance as well as post order. By early next week, this work should be complete. This will sort out post order. There's a lot planned but we're open to your feedback. And the site has already been improved as you'll hopefully see.

iluvjamison

Posted : 8/24/2013 6:49:51 AM

Can somebody tell me if there's a way to clear all the old messages in our mailboxes at once without deleting each one individually ?

Thanks,

Deb W.

JackieG

Posted : 8/24/2013 9:24:40 AM

Deb, I can't believe you don't want to save every message I've ever sent you. bwahahaha

I can't wait until the "active" threads section gets fixed. I feel like I'm in a grocery store where the marketing geniuses have set it up so I have to wander the entire store to find what I'm looking for.

Some of us do understand what a Beta version is but that doesn't mean we are enjoying the process. lol

Edited to say that my DH is in IT and he absolutely loves doing Beta testing. Different strokes as they say.

I do appreciate dog.com providing us with this free forum. It's the first forum I ever participated in and for the most part it's the only one I visit regularly.

calliecritturs

Posted : 8/24/2013 2:13:33 PM

@JackieG

Some of us do understand what a Beta version is but that doesn't mean we are enjoying the process. lol

Edited to say that my DH is in IT and he absolutely loves doing Beta testing.

Whoo hoo!! If you use "rich formatting" instead of "reply" it's like the "top" reply button used to be rather than "quick reply" at the bottom. So you can quote!

AND you can edit!!

yeah, Jackie you & I definitely get "beta" -- *laughing* I was just gently referring to the bunches of folks who had emailed me (like I was supposed to know what I was doing??? Not!)

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The question about how we'd like notifications to work is probably multi-layered.

1. Some of us monitor closely the things we're more interested in (or better at) -- like Jackie is the incredible training guru and I do a lot of the health and "alternative holistic" stuff. So being able to simply mark a whole section so we get **all** the new posts from a section is good ... at least for me.

2. But really specifically -- because of a software glitch early on in the last upgrade 7 years ago people were being inundated with thousands (literally) of notifications. At the time it wasn't uncommon for there to BE a thousand posts a day. Because of bitter complaint they made it a snap judgment that you could only be notified of the **first** response to a post you had made. Whether you started it or just commented. And even if you clicked at the top of the thread to get notifications -- you **only** got that first one. No more. So if someone posted at the same time you did and you looked at it -- you could wind up never hearing about any more posts. And most casual posters really never figured out that they may have gotten more posts than just "one".

So if you can not either for specific posts or a whole section that you want to always see *all* notifications for that it would be helpful. I admit that may be more of a hot button for me because of the urgent/critical nature of stuff like the IMHA thread.

Another "type" of notification is being able to ascertain when you log in what posts have been made in your absence. Some folks look at everything but want to only see what's new since the last time they were on. Some only want to see what's been posted in "their" discussions. I see you're making a particular part of each person's "profile" or "dashboard" or whatever you call it what they are interested in -- you may already have planned to add that.

Since the forum totally did away with all notifications in the past several months, people have gotten used to just looking at what's new since they last posted. In essence we've learned to cope and have almost forgotten what there was 'before'.

But NOW (as in this is "edited";) Jackie was talking about "active" threads which is a little different .... like she said "different strokes ..."

I'm sure I've only "explained" this from my own viewpoint -- so hopefully it will be a jumping off point for those who want it simpler.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My own one comment -- it looks like you're doing things with "icons" as much as possible -- and a lot of folks truly may need the words. Like at the bottom of a large thread that is on multiple pages the word "last" rather than an extra arrow or "+" likely will be easier.

I'm trying to be balanced here I guess. Because of what I do in the IMHA sector, I see a LOT of people who join specifically to post in that one area. Often they are computer "newbies" who have a tough time with the process. But ... if we can get those folks to stick around they tend to become passionate members who will talk up Dog.com to the **world**. Even in our dwindling member ship I know of about 4-5 people who now access the board regularly.

Hopefully that's what you're looking for -- is traffic for the website. A broad cross-section of people. The folks who are active on FB and the other "social media" will likely find this easier to navigate than some of the rest. But "some of the rest" may spend a lot too (we hope).

jbrayshaw

Posted : 8/30/2013 5:08:33 PM

JackieG calliecritturs We're not expecting you to enjoy this. But we do appreciate your patience, participation and also, your feedback. I'll be posting a more detailed help sticky tomorrow.