Site Update: Forum Changes

@Heather225

Good ideas so far, glad the forums are getting some love finally and for the better! :)

Thank you for all your hard work on the forums! As someone who uses this space as more of a rant or diary sometimes, I don’t typically welcome replies to my own threads. But apparently there’s a prompt for folks to reply to threads with no comments. I wonder if you’d consider making an option for us to disable comments or replies, just so that there’s no confusion? Thank you!!

@TheJenInBlack Great idea!

Charlie

@TheJenInBlack I love the idea of being able to lock your own threads and for forum mods to be able to lock threads too

@TheJenInBlack hi I understand you want to express yourself in this way but not interact with people. There are a couple ways to do this

Click on Noni in your PMs and tell them you want to journal. You can vent as much as you like. no one but you can see it.

You can also email yourself and write anything you want in total privacy.

7cups is a peer to peer site. If you post anything you wil probably will get a reply. Hope you find an alternative that meets your need. There is no way to stop getting replies except to stop posting in the forums. Thanks for your post.

@soulsings

That's a very good suggestion 👍

I realize it’s a peer to peer site. It was just a suggestion.

@soulsings

Hi Soul! 😊❤️ oh my gosh! *high fives* 😊 and big *hugs*❤️ Great information you are giving here to help others. I certainly had no idea that function existed! Keep rocking the house my friend!

@TheJenInBlack If you state no replies in the title it's usually respected by most people. They just read and up vote it. It does state in the first page of the diary thread "

This is your space. Please note that if you would only like certain people commenting or just yourself, let us know and it will be respected. "

I know this already

@TheJenInBlack I agree, it's a great idea as even admin sometimes have a post Do not reply to this thread.

In the meantime, if you do want to make threads like that it's best to make 1 reply to your own thread, as the forum team is very intentional about clearing the needs reply queue every so often.

@Heather225 I have noticed already on some of the long lived threads in fifty plus that it is no longer possible to reply because the Reply button has disappeared.

What is the best thing to do with threads like that, start them again as a new thread if they are still relevant to the subcom?

@soulsings It's the replies to the replies. They go to 5 max only. So original post, post 2 replies to original, 3 to 2, etc. up to #5 (or is it #6? so 1 post & the 5 repliess) no one can reply to that last one. 20 people can still reply to the original post, 4 more people can reply to post #2, etc.

To get the thread to continue, get people to reply to the original post.

The bigger problem is with the old threads is that the orders are messed it. If it's necessary to see the most recent post ie. games, doing a new thread is probably ideal, and in the rules tell people to use the original post as their replies, not the last post in the thread.

@AffyAvo thanks for the insights!

@AffyAvo the other problem is that the button Post to Forum is no longer present. That means to post to the forums it is necessary to reply to the post which means the threads are dead if people keep using reply button.

Couldn't the Post to Forums buttons be restored and that way there will be less threads coming up against the 5 reply limit?

@soulsings Do you mean the "Post to Thread" button? You can still post to the thread by using the Reply button in the pinned post at the top. That button is wrongly labelled Reply. When you use it to post to the thread, you can see that your new post is placed at the bottom of the thread, and it does not have any "reply to" link at the bottom left. It is not a reply. It is a separate post in the thread.

It is now impossible to reply to the pinned post at the top, because its Reply button posts to the thread instead. You now have to post to the thread and tag the original poster. I would like another Post to Thread button at the bottom, and I think I might add one 😉

I don't understand "the threads are dead". At present there is a bug preventing some Reply buttons from appearing. I am hopeful that this will be fixed soon. There is no technical reason for removing any Reply buttons.

There is (allegedly) a separate bug that results in a limit of 5 replies-to-replies. And yet another separate bug that messes up the order of posts in long threads. I suspect that these two might in fact be the same bug, but I am not able to verify this theory.

If it's necessary to see the most recent post, in general that can't be done unless you have a notification that takes you to it. That situation has not changed, though. It has never been possible to find the most recent post, in general. (This has always been a problem for my taglist updater, and it still is.)

It would be helpful if the person who creates a thread could specify no replies to replies. This would make a flat thread in chronological order, and no replies would ever be lost in the tangle no matter how long the thread becomes. It might not be good for discussions (although that is a matter of opinion), but it would be good for other purposes.

And, as already noted above, it would be helpful if the person who creates a thread could specify no replies at all, except from themselves.

Charlie

@RarelyCharlie I also want the Post to Thread returned

What the new system does is stop adding a Reply To button to a post that is 5 or more layers deep. That means threads are dead in the sense that the last post cannot be replied to or the work around is to go to the first post in the thread and reply to that. This upsets the normal flow of posting and discourages participation by putting a road block in front of people posting.

Having Post to Thread would keep the thread going and hopefully be able to work within this new 5 deep parameter.

@soulsings Ie I reset the reply chain in this game thread - https://www.7cups.com/forum/50OverCommunity_193/QuizzesFunandIcebreakers_560/YourFirstletterislastletteroflastpost_167963/?post=2908036

Feel free to PM me if you can understand what I did.

@AffyAvo okay sounds good. Good idea.

@Heather225

Love these changes!! Thank you to the dev team for working to get these out <3

@usefulSummer3139

all my posts say published 6 hours ago :o is this a bug?

@usefulSummer3139 it is the same for me too, looks like a bug surely

Hope it is resolved soon

@Optimisticempath

yes, same! the heart counter is also broken :o

@usefulSummer3139 it is 😧

@Heather225 I think it's good, at first fear of change, new forum interface looked so different doesn't match the 7cups site look. Accepting the change, it's not that bad actually. Apart from that it still looks quite messed up and not looking so clean. I like the pinned idea but that would mean if a forum is of 3 page before it would be 5 now after the update. People are facing problems in their member dashboard & unable to select a topic while requesting a live chat. It's just my idea maybe those problems should be focused for now. Forum was alright I guess not many complains

@CallMeNaman2002

I agree with you, they could have prioritised things that actually needed some improvement instead of changing the entire layout of forums that was really okay and didn't need these changes in the first place 😔

They changes are reasonable.

Correction: The changes.😄

@Heather225

Very happy to see the forums getting some love. I used to be a Forum Mentor and it seems the activity has dwindled some.

On a side note, is there any reason in particular we are unable to edit our own posts - or maybe I am just missing something.

Thanks!

-Blithe

@blitheSun94

Only forum supporters and mentors can edit their own posts I think 😅

@Optimisticempath

It is locked to certain roles such as Teen Community Star and Community Mentor. Community focused mentors can only edit, delete and pin anyone's post in their specific Subcommunity such as Anxiety support whereas Global TCS like myself can edit, delete and pin posts across the entire community

Hope that helps 🙂

@Heather225

So far i see mostly positive or mixed feedback but i still would like to voice my opinion too on this change

I do not mean to undermine anyone's hardwork but tbh i don't like this new layout in forums

I don't know how to explain it exactly but the look is very 'fancy' and seems quite unnecessary and the forums simply don't feel comfortable anymore

The notifications seem to be messed up and broken too

I m finding it even more hard to navigate in the forums now and challenging to find and reply to posts

Somehow managed to get a little used to forums and now it is changed again 😕

From now replies will be limited too? I get it might crash sometimes but there are times when replies are necessary and for better context it helps to reply in a reply. Would it be possible to increase this limit? 5 seems very less in a community this big

I really hope you people don't end up deleting old threads and replies, makes me sad to even imagine some people coming back later and not finding their posts

I would really prefer forums to go back to how they were, these changes seem very unnecessary and uncomfortable 😕

@Heather225

Thanks for the great news!

@Heather225, thanks for the update 💓.

Glad to know about these changes!

@Heather225

Hi H! 😊❤️ Many thanks for the forum post with the update! I must say, I have a passion for compassion so I really enjoy how it shows up now as "hearting" the post! *high fives* 😊 and *hugs* ❤️

Between you, me and the lamp post, I kind of have to wonder if having the "heart" ❤️ up vote will emotionally connect even more strongly with people and encourage them to up vote the post (and perhaps, even possibly contribute to it). Moooo -hhhaa-haaaa (not evil laugh, happy joy laugh).

Not sure if the Devs can drill down deep on this one and see if the change has made an emotional connection and run the statistics? If the Devs can run the stats, I think it would be quite telling! For me personally, stats or no stats, I'm loving this! ❤️ Many thanks!

@Heather225 Thanks for updating us on the new and useful changes to the website!

In addition, I wanted to ask. Personally, I had some suggestions on how to change some other things around the site. I wouldn't say they're major, but just some adjustments here and there to make users' lives a little easier while contributing on here.

Is there any part of the "Site Update" forum or on the site in general where I could submit those ideas for further review, please?

Thank you💛

@LilacKalypso9

This post has a link to a form that can be used to submit feedback:
https://www.7cups.com/forum/SiteUpdates_100/Feedback_37/NewCommunityFeedbackProcess_264411/

@QuietMagic

Hi Magic! 😊❤️ *high fives* and *hugs* ❤️ That was a total rock star move on dropping that link and helping your teammate to have an appropriate outlet to voice their opinion, an avenue so that they will be heard and if the administration enjoys the concepts, it could create change in a positive direction.

@SparkyGizmo

Thanks 💜 Yup, they asked a question and it had an answer and I happened to know the answer 😊