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[Feedback] After a few days mucking about here, I have a list of things that I think could be better

Pryotra·7/17/2014, 5:45:01 PM·14 votes·3,116 views

Hi! Pryotra here! For those of you coming over from GD, Welcome! You might remember me as that guy who made GD Night and GD Classic. If not, I was that blue guy with this Avatar:

http://imgur.com/OwdZYE6

Now, some of you are new to this platform, others have been here awhile, but I think all of us have something about here that we would like to see improved. It makes sense; after all, this is a beta, right? Anyways, after being in the new and improved Boards for a while and testing the new features, I feel that there are some things that could be improved. This is only my list so far, so feel free to add your own perspectives below!

Without further ado, let's jump right in!

#Chronological View

My, oh my, is this handy. Essentially the old Flat view from the CB, this new and improved version means that it finally got Riot's Seal of Support, and therefore comes with a plethora of features to make it at least parallel to the nested view, right? Nope, Chuck Testa. It still needs some help. Let's see if I can nail some of it down. Keep in mind that I feel chronological view should be parallel to Nested in that I could choose one or the other, and not have to hop in either direction for ANY reason.

  1. Default View - Look, I get it. You can only have 1 view as the default. But could you at least make it so that it remembers my choice across threads? I've heard this is a non-occurance, but I have had to switch to chronological view 5 times today alone, but never switched back. If it isn't supposed to do that, then could you fix it? Please and thank you!
  2. Lost in Translation - How do I know who the guy above me is talking to if he didn't quote the guy? Or if the guy he is responding to is on another page? Well, currently the answer is flip to Nested view, and that is a No-no. Could you add a link to the bottom of nested replies that takes you to the parent, without ever leaving Chronological view? Maybe even a "Show parent" button that simply pops the parent up from behind the post? Either way, I would appreciate not having to switch back and forth just to follow a conversation.
  3. Voter Registration - Simply put, I can't vote unless I am in Nested view. Not ok, please fix it.

Overall, thanks for deciding to support this view! I know I prefer the look, if only the functionality could back it up so it was a true choice.

#Boards on the Front Page Overall, there has been improvement here. I especially like the images beside the posts. That said, there is room for improvement here as well.

  1. Voter Privileges - So, It appears you can vote on threads OP's without even reading them (again). Could we just remove the vote tally and buttons altogether from this page? There simply is no reason to see it that I can determine, and especially no reason I can vote on something without even clicking in to read the OP.
  2. Sorting Troubles - Quite honestly, their are only 2 real sorts I use, Hot and recent. Recent when I want to find something new, Hot when I want to see where the discussion is. And frankly, Neither really live up to their potential. Hot Still only finds popularly voted stuff, which isn't really a discussion so much as a circlejerk, and recent is only the newest made thread, not the newest post. I think that in order to find Highly controversial stuff, there needs to be a sort that simply counts total activity period. Votes in either direction count positively in this sort, but takes a back seat to unique poster count as a function of time. This way you can find those truely active things, because if it is popular enough to deserve everyone's attention, It will still rise, where as in Hot sorting if it doesn't get votes it sinks. Pretty bad experience IMO.
  3. Where Do I Post? - Honestly, the current board choices are pretty bland, and don't really cover everything league related while still having overlap. I propose the following changes:
  • New Boards:
    1. Tips & Tricks - a board for people seeking advice and improvement in league. For all levels of experience, whether you are good at the game or just barely learning the ropes, this board would be a place to learn and help one another.
    2. Bug Reports - whether it be a site bug or a gamebreaking exploit, this thread should be the place to post. Help & Support are for those seeking help with technical issues like crashing or random pings. Bugs should have their own place to have that dialogue.
    3. Roleplaying - This is a community that already exists that has been excluded entirely. I feel they should get a home.
  • Revised Boards:
    1. Renamed: Champions & Skins ->Champion Lore & Skins - In my eyes, we already have a balance board. If the Moderation Team has issues with the concept of the same discussion belonging in multiple places, then we need to cut back on the overlap. Therefore, this board should be renamed and repurposed to include discussions of Lore between and surrounding various champions, Skins, and upcoming champions.
    2. Live Gameplay Balance - This should be about all things balance when it comes to the live version of the game. After all, that is what it says on the tin.

That said, I appreciate the improvement here. Seriously, I don't feel like removing my eyes from simply looking at the front page, so you are MILES ahead of where you started! Keep it up! That's all that I can remember for the time being, but I will update the list, or make a new one if you already started on this list by the time I remember more.

Lastly, but certainly not least: THANK YOU BASED RIOT FOR A DARK FORUM LOOK! MUCHO GRACIAS! DANKE SHON! Keep up the good work!

31 Comments

Pendragon7/17/2014, 10:01:09 PM4 votes

Thanks for keeping an open mind Pryotra

Voter Privileges - So, It appears you can vote on threads OP's without even reading them (again). Could we just remove the vote tally and buttons altogether from this page? There simply is no reason to see it that I can determine, and especially no reason I can vote on something without even clicking in to read the OP.

We have certain topics that link you to external websites and over time we intend to do more of this. This means that you could have read the content of the submission without having gone to the comment page. Everything we've seen so far tells us that this isn't a real issue right now and people are not actually doing it. If it becomes a problem we can revisit the decision.

Sorting Troubles - Quite honestly, their are only 2 real sorts I use, Hot and recent. Recent when I want to find something new, Hot when I want to see where the discussion is. And frankly, Neither really live up to their potential. Hot Still only finds popularly voted stuff, which isn't really a discussion so much as a circlejerk, and recent is only the newest made thread, not the newest post. I think that in order to find Highly controversial stuff, there needs to be a sort that simply counts total activity period. Votes in either direction count positively in this sort, but takes a back seat to unique poster count as a function of time. This way you can find those truely active things, because if it is popular enough to deserve everyone's attention, It will still rise, where as in Hot sorting if it doesn't get votes it sinks. Pretty bad experience IMO.

"Hot" currently takes non-vote activity (such as comments) into consideration. Over time our intention is that "Hot" will show you high-activity relevant and fresh discussions/content.

Where Do I Post? - Honestly, the current board choices are pretty bland, and don't really cover everything league related while still having overlap. I propose the following changes:

Stay tuned for changes here. Some are coming

AnonTwo7/17/2014, 6:44:18 PM3 votes

I think this sums up a lot of my current issues on the forums.

Not much else to say at this moment.

Sir ArmaMalum7/17/2014, 6:09:51 PM1 votes

Good feedback! I agree on all except that I actually do like the current Recent ordering for finding new posts and looking at the ordering independent of either votes or participation, that being said I would love the addition of a "Sort by Activity" ordering, just imho don't replace Recent. To add as well, a time division for the Best ordering has been asked for for awhile, i.e. Best of all time, Best of the month, Best of the week etc.

AnonTwo7/17/2014, 8:24:33 PM1 votes

Just something i wanted to add from learning in another post:

There is a letter cap on posts. It would be nice if either that was removed...

Or really just a word counter so you can see where the cap is would be nice.

Matthias91197/17/2014, 9:09:35 PM1 votes

Sorting Troubles - Quite honestly, their are only 2 real sorts I use, Hot and recent. Recent when I want to find something new, Hot when I want to see where the discussion is. And frankly, Neither really live up to their potential. Hot Still only finds popularly voted stuff, which isn't really a discussion so much as a circlejerk, and recent is only the newest made thread, not the newest post. I think that in order to find Highly controversial stuff, there needs to be a sort that simply counts total activity period. Votes in either direction count positively in this sort, but takes a back seat to unique poster count as a function of time. This way you can find those truely active things, because if it is popular enough to deserve everyone's attention, It will still rise, where as in Hot sorting if it doesn't get votes it sinks. Pretty bad experience IMO.

Hmm. Maybe differentiate between "highly rated" (has gotten a lot more upvotes than downvotes) and "hot" (getting a lot of comments/votes either way)?

Also agree that it would be nice to see both "most recent threads" (what the "recent" sort is now) and "threads with the recent posts" (ie, how vBulletin sorts it in the legacy forums). Although they may have changed it specifically to NOT do this so that people don't bump their posts every 5 minutes for attention like they do in the old GD forum.

Hyrum Graff7/17/2014, 5:53:52 PM1 votes

Agreed on all counts.

Chronologial view - 2: you mean, like this? :)

AnonTwo7/17/2014, 10:55:54 PM1 votes

Just wanted to mention (a bit annoyed) that for the umpteenth time i'm having issues with images.

First thread i made i couldn't attach more than 4 images...thread couldn't be done

then imgur came and that worked...okay

Now made a new thread for it, here

http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/fancreations/zQIj200E-by-green-dew-mommy-lulu

And i've found out the embed module won't let people go to the site, and the image link is very small.

Is there any long-term solution being made for large image threads? It's very difficult to post pictures right now compared to GD on top of these embedding issues.

Sir Frosthaven7/17/2014, 5:56:00 PM1 votes

Hello Pryotra! It's been awhile eh? Thanks for posting this thought out feedback. I believe most if not all of your chronological concerns are things that are being discussed (and I believe that your view type not saving may be a bug).

And I'll admit, I really like the current theme! I'll check back in this thread to see what discussion grows from it when I have some more time later today.