Why do you keep changing the layout instead of doing what matters?

Someone From EUW·Sep 18, 2013·33 votes·2,446 views

There are so many tools that we still lack on our forums... The ability to search by user, search "my threads" (either threads you created or threads where you've posted), view only my posts (with the option then to "view this post in thread), view only OP's posts (with the same option), a bump thread option (with a 30 minute cooldown to prevent spamming), the ability to add a poll after creating your thread, etc.

People don't like changes in the layout, we want utility improvements.

17 Comments

RiotjmccaffreySep 19, 20138 votes

Hello,

I am one of the engineers who has spent a lot of time since LoL beta launched bending the forum system to our will so hopefully I can give you guys a bit of insight into this from the technical side (which isn't the only side obviously).

We run vBulletin at a scale that it was not designed for and that very few, if any, other companies do. Because of these relatively un-charted waters, we have had to re-write or significantly change vBulletin in order to meet our needs, and these changes have resulted in breaking some of the features that are listed here in ways that would require a lot of effort to fix correctly.

For example, we had to change the type of database engine to account for the number of posts being made at peak times. This change broke the full text search functionality of the database (which relies on the less performant engine) that the default search feature is based on. To then re-enable search quickly, we had to implement an alternative search engine which works very differently from vBulletin's default search, making all of the things that rely on the default search unusable without major changes.

This example coupled with many other of these types of issues have added up to a point where while it "works", there are many very large changes that would need to occur in order for us to make it function with all of the features that we (as a community) want at the scale that LoL demands.

Krylhos, Montag, PD, and the other champions of this effort have been keeping flexibility AND scale top of mind since the start of this project, so the foundations here are very solid not only for the current player base, but for the future as well. I personally am very excited to see this go into beta because I know that these foundations represent just the humble beginnings of what, with this community's passionate help and collaboration, will be an epic destination on the web.

OpasonofpopaSep 19, 20132 votes

That explains a lot of things. Had I known that since the beginning I wouldn't have been half as mad as I was when I learned about this. Why didn't you tell this earlier?

ploki122Oct 23, 20131 votes

They actually talked about it a few times, but because of the old vBulleting style, it was very hard to even learn of the discussion.

Yes, necro/very late reply.

OpasonofpopaOct 23, 20131 votes

:( I just read thorugh thebig thread on the old forums about this beta and didn't find anything that would have said anything about it. How I understood it was that they thought this to be a much better layout. My mistake maybe.

ploki122Oct 23, 20131 votes

Yeha, it was much older than that, and like I said it's the vBulletin's fault and not yours :P

OpasonofpopaOct 26, 20131 votes

I find it more likely to be because it was only posted in the NA forums. I am from EUW so I don't check every thread that carefully.

Ryou TakeshiSep 18, 20137 votes

As much as I like this new forum over the old one, I have to agree. You barely addressed any of the issues that we've had. Don't get me wrong, this is a step in the right direction, I just don't understand why we have to take baby steps.

RiotMontagSep 19, 20133 votes

Even though it might seem like baby steps on the surface, the major steps have been foundational.

Because of the size of the LoL community, vBulletin had serious scale issues that made it virtually impossible for us to develop for it. As PD mentioned in his opening post, adding many of the things players have asked for would have required virtually re-writing the entire vBulletin platform. So, rather than spend all that time and do a few incremental things we decided to take a step back, think about discussions as a whole and do something that's both more forward-thinking and far more extensible than vBulletin.

Because of the foundational work Krylhos and others have done, Krylhos was able to release an update today to make your comment sorting options stick for a particular community. We're hoping to take advantage of that speed by regularly collecting and acting on your feedback so that you can help shape this platform.

Just a forum accSep 19, 20132 votes

Yeah, links don't work. Or it's just me(I see [1]s)?
Also, any posibility to add links like these: example ? Works on SE, not sure if it's possible on reddit.

Young Luv MurderSep 20, 20135 votes

"... we decided to take a step back, think about discussions as a whole and do something that's both more forward-thinking and far more extensible than vBulletin."

... This is faulty logic and you know it. It IS a step backward, that's for sure, but it sure as hell isn't a style for discussion. Just stop and realize you guys made a mistake and the community, who you say you are listening too and want feedback from, don't like this.

Void2258Sep 18, 20137 votes

Actually if you click on "My Profile" in the upper right, you get a list of your posts. Also you bump a thread by hitting the up arrow on the op post, just like on reddit.

TheHippysAWizardSep 18, 20136 votes

OMF, that is the coolest thing I have seen on a forum, sorry I am not a reddit person. This is really nice it makes it easy to find a post you wanted to follow up on. I can easily go back to my post on an old topic or find a specific Rioters, so we can bump the rioters who we appreciate and wish to follow up on.

I like this system, we just need to work on organization so we don't have to re-read a bunch of posts to find the one we wanted to follow.

Also, I like this formatting guide thingy. Hopefully it will keep everyones posts more readable and we wont see a bunch of complaints.

TheHippysAWizardSep 18, 20132 votes

No, I think they are fine. It is much easier to start with a blank page and build on it than it is to go in and rework fine detail.

CelestyaSep 18, 20132 votes

The other problem I'm already noticing is the "Hot" sort for the main "hub". There's almost no posts/replies to anything remotely new =s

SacrixSep 20, 20132 votes

Preach the lords words my friend. But no matter how loudly you preach, the heathens at Riot have already determined that they are un-moving on the topic of keeping the old forums over replacing them with another, worse variation. Fixing the existing problems is "too much work", so why not just scrap what we have all grown up, essentially, on, and replace it with something that is a direct, and poorly done copy of Reddit.

As shown by the absolute lack of response on the forums thread: http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=41636810&posted=1#post41636810

TeleclastSep 18, 20131 votes

I've personally run several vBulletin sites and all of those are so easy to implement that I find it weird that they aren't implemented, even terrible forum systems have most of those options available. I'd say that there is a bit more than that necessary for the old problems, it would be nice to see a list of things that this new change is supposed to resolve.