How Can The Forums Be Made Even Better?

Hey! That is really cool! Thank you very much.

The thing that bugs me about the forums is that I find no way to look at "new" posts in a thread.  If I've read a thread before, and people have posted more, there seems to be no easy way to jump past the msgs I've already read and start reading with the new messages.

Most forum software supports that feature, but if it's available here, I haven't found it.

yus welcome

I'm not sure what you are doing wrong but it works for me the way you said you want it to be. I tick the box where it says [Track this forum topic] and when there are new comments I get an alert on {My Home] page and find the topic in [My Tracked Activity]. When I click on it the page opens at the first of the new comments I haven't yet read.

I'm a little concerned about the tone of the top 4 items in the survey, all of which have to do with "addressing" content, and hint of limiting, or removing, or otherwise controlling individual posts.  It's bad enough we've got the chesstapo "moderating" random posts (which is a misnomer, because the affected posts are censored, not moderated-- it's the forum that is moderated). The instant a decision is made to allow some of the items mentioned in the survey to be addressed, the fight becomes who gets to set the rules.  And I've never met anyone yet who didn't think their own idea of acceptable restrictions was perfectly reasonable for application to everyone else.  So those were 4 easy none of the aboves for me.

Me too-- when I click on the links in the "New Comments" section of my main page it takes me to the first comment added after I was last viewing that particular thread.  You didn't mention-- are you "tracking" the topics?  I assume that feature wouldn't work for an untracked thread.

Sounds like a suitable subject for your follow-up survey into the things that really matter in the chess.com forums.

Great resource! Thanks for the tip.

Incidentally, another problem with the forum editor is that QUOTE doesn't copy URLs properly. You have to go back and copy them individually.

wormrose wrote: Please tell me how! 

Wow! You learn something new every day.

Limits have to be set somewhere. Take flashing images via animated GIFs, for instance. Currently very few people use them. If they ever became widespread, I imagine chess.com would explicitly ban them since they can cause actual harm to a small proportion - and annoyance to a larger population.

LOL's and Easy!'s became a genuine bad habit in the specific area of the Daily Puzzle - and this was eventually addressed - without impinging on the wider forums.

Consider image size: virtually everyone avoids posting images larger than 600x600 pixels (although the one above probably just exceeds that!) since it otherwise necessitates horizontal scrolling within the topic. If very large images were routinely posted, it would affect the forum experience for everyone, and it would probably be stamped down on.

I think there are certain norms of 'good practice' that are widely accepted e.g. only routinely using a font size between 8pt and 16pt.

However, I agree that judgements of 'inane', 'boring' and 'irrelevant' are entirely subjective. If the survey showed that a significant proportion found many topics were 'irrelevant', there would still be several ways to address it, e.g.

• motivate more members to post in the forums
• introduce new forum categories for better separation of different types of posts
• improve filtering

that didn't eliminate 'freedom of expression'.

Thanks for the valuable feedback.

Now I can rename some of those threads I inherited. Poetic justice if I can manage something witty.

Artfizz, thanks for the reply-- just to clarify, I'm not sure if you included the results for the 4 responses just as an example or because I wrote "top 4 items".  I meant I'm uncomfortable with the first 4 entire questions (content, behavior, poor practice, etc.), not just the 1st 4 items in Question 1 .

I think image dimensions and allowed image types and font sizes are a different matter than actual content (by which I mean thoughts and the manner of expression).  I've always been in the "don't like it? don't read it!" camp, and would support improved filtering that would allow individuals to be able not to view posts by specified members, basically a user-configurable kill file.  I'm sure we've all identified (different) individuals whose posts always cause us to roll our eyes and quickly skip ahead to the next post, and that is the best way to handle it rather than prohibiting the posts or requiring alteration based on simple majority preferences.

Such a kill file function should be separate from the current "blocked user" function, as there may be people whose posts I always find tiresome and would like to hide, but I may still be perfectly happy to play them in a game or receive personal messages or notes from them about team news or whatever.  Ideally it would set up so it was as easy to invoke a kill function from directly within the forum as it is to mark a thread for tracking, without having to go to my account or preferences like is necessary to block a member.  However, within the account preferences there might be a way to manage the killed members, to see who you've hidden and have the ability to unkill them later if desired.

I saw one forum once where each individual post could be collapsed to show just the header, identifying the poster and time, and thus marking the position of the post in the thread.  Clicking the plus symbol expanded that post so you could read the content.  The neat part was that the default was that posts were always expanded, but you could specify which members' posts you wanted to always appear initially in collapsed form so you could see they had posted but didn't have to suffer through their drivel.

There is still some benefit though in highlighting behaviour/attitudes that tick people off.

Take the occasional tendency to mock some posters' poor English. If enough people respond they find this attitude unacceptable, some of us might stop to think: 'Hang on, English may be this person's 2nd or 3rd language; is it such a clever idea to heap scorn on their attempt to communicate?'

Or take the way that occasionally, we name a community member and say: 'Person X should be stopped from continually posting nonsense' - which usually quickly degenerates into a flame war.

Hence the title of this topic: How can the forums be made even better?

Sort of like getting last marking rights on a tree? 

at atom is like a family, Neutron is the Dad, the Proton is the mum and the electrons are the kids, when uncontrolled release to much energy

When Newton saw an apple fall, he found ...
a mode of proving that the earth turn'd round
in a most natural whirl, called gravitation;
and thus is the sole mortal who could grapple
since Adam, with a fall or with an apple  -- Byron.

I shot an arrow in the air

It fell to Earth I know not where

until I decode the telemetry 

Signif'cant that the survey

Omitt'd to assess po'try.

Thanks for the suggestions.

SurveyBob is fairly limited in the features it offers.

Q11: Which ASPECT of the Forums is in greatest need of improvement?

in terms of the slightly artificial categories I set up.

Thanks for your participation.