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Feature Update: Forum Threads

Heather225 October 17th

Hi, everyone. I know it’s been a difficult few days for the forum users. I have been in a couple of threads dropping updates. Our engineering team has been working on a way to fix database scaling issues. It's common in technology that fixing one problem can inadvertently create a new one, considering the interconnected nature of complex systems. I am eternally grateful for your patience and I can now say we’ve got good news!

Engineering has come up with a brand new version of the threads that should balance performance with usability. It should resolve loading issues, allow access to entire threads quickly, and have all the parent-child threads open by default (you can simply click to collapse the threads you don’t want to see below the user’s name). The changes have just gone live.

Explore the new design and lemme know if you encounter any technical trouble.

Thanks again for hanging in there with us and I hope this change creates a more enjoyable and supportive experience for the forum space.

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Heather225 OP October 17th

This should have fixed the notification errors as well.

2 replies
EasyTalkFriend October 17th

@Heather225

Awesome News and I for one like it better already. What an amazing comeback! Thank you and everyone involved So Much! Huge KUDO'S!

congrats-avogadro-gifkaro.gif
And THANK YOU again.

slowdecline48 October 17th

@Heather225 So I see! The thread structure is sort of like before but more compact in width, with the connecting lines. It works. I'll go with it. Give the tech crew my regards, please.

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HopieRemi October 17th

@Heather225

Love it! Thank you!

cloudySummer October 17th

@Heather Thanks, this improves things a little.

Could you please give a bit more thought to styling / size of clickable elements and their distances from each other, though?

1. The small light grey arrows that are supposed to reveal the rest are hard to see, and while the blue dot shows '11 replies' it's not clear that the arrow at the other end would unfold those, e.g. here:

https://www.7cups.com/forum/siteupdates/General_2444/Automaticallyincorrectlyminimizedforumpostsarenowpermanentlyminimized_338247/

grafik_1729187915.png

2. It's all so tiny, and trying to click on one thing can easily lead to clicking on something different.

grafik_1729188233.png


3. The popup over the name gets in the way of trying to unfold the thread (seems I can't share gifs, but just try it out and you'll notice what I mean - if you're not coming from the right, the popup will block access to the arrow).

6 replies
cloudySummer October 17th

@Heather Seems the arrow is intentionally made difficult to access, though?

It hides one of those 'harmful', 'bad' posts, that are auto-hidden now. Please, please reconsider that idea. It is really not helpful, and prevents people who feel really down from being seen (and helped). It makes me feel so sorry for every single poster that I see being treated like this by Cups.

Even lots of helpful, supportive, reflecting posts get hidden because of this.

Could you please elaborate what the benefits are of doing this? (and doing it automatically, too)

mytwistedsoul October 17th

@cloudySummer Hey that's me! 😅😂

4 replies
jesusredeemedme2425 October 18th

You are SO famous. ;)

1 reply
mytwistedsoul October 18th

@jesusredeemedme2425 LoL! Maybe in my dreams 😂

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cloudySummer October 18th

@mytwistedsoul Sorry about that... I pixelized the first, but forgot it for the second one. You can flag the post and ask for removal of one of the images, if that would be better.

1 reply
mytwistedsoul October 18th

@cloudySummer Aww please don't be sorry! It's ok 😊 I'm forever immortalized in this thread 😀

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Jenna October 17th

@Heather225

Thanks for the update and to the hard work put into making the forums work better for the community.

1 reply
Heather225 OP October 17th

Thanks Jenna, We’re doing our best and am hoping this update helps folks.

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MistyMagic October 17th

@Heather225 thanks to you and the team for working so hard on this. May I ask, is there any reason for using the 7 Cups cup as pfp for those that don't have a picture chosen? I feel that by doing this it tends to make the posts look more official? That cup is usually reserved for 7 Cups use.

I can understand the idea may be a place holder in which case maybe design and use a different cup, perhaps paler?

AffyAvo October 17th

It is looking much better!

  • I agree with others about hiding certain posts though. It seems like people who are unhappy tend to be targeted. Aren't these people ones we should be encouraged to support? If this tool isn't going to be more selective and fit with the values of 7cups, I don't see a benefit. My initial thought was leave it to posts that have been flagged, but that creates other issues of 'public flags' even if indirectly.

I do see potential for this to be used effectively with moderation, but that involves new things to be implemented - throwing more things into the mix right now isn't going to go smoothly is my guess. I'll try to circle back when things have settled. 

  • The generic profile image. Besides the logo making some posters appear to be official or in leadership roles like Misty pointed out (consider com mods profile pictures) it also makes following a discussion between multiple people more difficult. The different colored letters made it much easier to distinguish one member from another without actively having to look. When multiple users have the same image it's easy to confuse one for another.

This affects modding too  - within a thread, where 2 are arguing and a 3rd is participating. With different images it's easier for me to pick out the 2 that are arguing and putting less focus on the 3rd poster. When they are all the same pulling out the argument posts takes longer.

With thread lists, different pictures makes it easier to discover duplicate threads.

2 replies
AffyAvo October 17th

@AffyAvo I'll be fair to the hidden posts, I haven't seen this occur to any posts made today, so maybe - hopefully! going forward it is more selective, but just isn't retroactive.

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slowdecline48 October 17th

@Heather225 Like everyone else, I'm glad to see the forum/thread issues fixed. But I've been thinking about something & feel like I should bring it up:

Are there future plans to deal with the population increase here?

It is my understanding that the threads went on the fritz because the then-current platform structure couldn't handle the transmission load from the amount of members in Cups. This solution is great but, assuming new people continue to join & use the forums & chat rooms at current rates, it is only going to work for so long. A very few members left & maybe a couple bad apples were banned in the time I've been here (> 2 yrs); meanwhile there has been a steady trickle of new people, particularly teenagers. Net increase overall. At some point, 7Cups will have to build another housing development & roads to connect it all, so to speak. Have Glen & the other leaders discussed this at all? Do they have any future plans?

3 replies
AffyAvo October 17th

@slowdecline48"Are there future plans to deal with the population increase here?"

Is this even the problem? I'm curious how many new threads do we get in a month now to 5 years ago? What about number of posts?

2 replies
slowdecline48 October 18th
@AffyAvo It's not "the" problem, no. However if we assume Cups will keep going the way it's been, it is a problem. A member doesn't have to make a new thread every day to take up digital space (when logged in) & use system resources; just being here & doing the usual activities is enough. Why do you think the forums going haywire was a scaling issue to begin with? What else did the platform have to scale to? Heather said as much in a previous response with "As it grows it becomes ever more complex and memory and processor intensive." (You can read that in the earlier thread under my post here.) I was also told the same thing by another Community Manager, before that. Increasing population within a system--any system--is not an issue you solve once & then forget, unless you permanently limit the population. 7Cups can't do that for obvious reasons. Thus it is a problem that can only be periodically managed, at best.
1 reply
AffyAvo October 18th

@slowdecline48 I'm just thinking aloud. I don't recall so many issues with the forums my first few years here. Of course, we have added features, most of which I am happy to have. More features, more features = more things to break = more difficulty scaling up. Are there any in particular that cause more issues?

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QuietMagic October 18th

@Heather225

Thank you for implementing and conveying the changes!

I appreciate that it's now possible once again to manually expand posts that have been auto-hidden, but I'd like to see the auto-hiding of posts completely removed:

1) Low accuracy

Almost all of the posts I've come across that are auto-hidden are harmless. Some examples:

Posts offering support:
Example #1
Example #2

Posts seeking support:
Example #3
Example #4
Example #5
Example #6

2) Targets especially vulnerable or empathetic users

The auto-hiding affects posts containing negative tone, but it's not able to differentiate between:
a) Inflammatory or unsupportive posts that may be violating forum rules
b) Posts that are expressing "I had a really bad day"
c) Posts that are expressing "It sounds like you had a really bad day"

The people who are most affected by the auto-hiding are those who are using the 7 Cups forums for their intended purpose: sharing difficult feelings or validating others' difficult feelings.

When a post is hidden, the message that it sends is: "this post is bad/wrong and not welcome on this site". This is especially true for newer users who might not know that this system exists or haven't yet realized that it's error-prone.

Tulipsmile October 18th

@Heather225

Eexcellent 🤩🤩

Thank you 🌷

Heather225 OP October 18th

Thank you for your input, everyone. It's encouraging to know how passionate you are about the forum space. All feedback shared here has been noted down to be taken on board. The collapsing posts we will be working on. We do have active plans to continue to strengthen things as the community grows so there won't be any big recurring issues like the recent one we solved. And lastly, all foreseeable changes will be communicated in advance! You all have big hearts and love the community as much as we do and I can't express how much I appreciate you for helping us keep making 7 Cups better. 💙 

3 replies
mytwistedsoul October 19th

@Heather225 Hey hi, I don't mean to be the doubting Thomas here but we've been told numerous times before that there would be more transparency when it comes to changes and well we're always caught off guard. I don't mean to sound ungrateful for all the hard work that so many have put in. It really would help if people had a heads up that things are being worked on. That way when bugs or glitches are encountered there wouldn't be freaking people out. 

2 replies
Heather225 OP October 19th

I 100% agree with you and understand the trepidation. We will do our absolute best to stay on top of communication.

1 reply
mytwistedsoul October 19th

@Heather225 This is wonderful news! Thank you! 

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