The display change
Why did y'all eliminate the branching conversation format in the forums? Logged in today only to find it's gone now & all the comments are in a simple sequence instead. I can't find my place in a convo anymore.
Ikr, I don't like this new update 😕 😔
@rationalGrapefruitq agreed, I hope they bring the old way back
@rationalGrapefruitq Neither do I.
@exuberantBlackberry9105
Yeah I find the update to make navigating the forums a bit tedious and I am not huge in threading in most forums.
@HopieRemi I totally agree that navigation is harder now in forums. I miss the previous format, honestly.
I wish it was possible to switch between formats. Some forums have multiple skins for this reason.
I have to agree that the new format is very confusing. It involves a lot of extra clicking to see the flow of the conversation. Messages that look blank aren't. Entire conversations seem to be reduced to a single comment. I think it's much easier to follow a conversation when you can see it. And as others have said, it's hard enough to find individual comments in these forums, and now it's even harder.
@GoingInCircles365 Totally agree!
Hi, everyone - I want you to know that our technical team is doing everything they can to resolve these forum issues as quickly as possible. I'm very sorry for the confusion and inconvenience this has caused you. I know these interruptions are frustrating but I appreciate your patience. ❤️
@Heather225
Thanks for the update. 💜
A few days ago you mentioned Monday as the target date for getting things fixed. I assume that's no longer happening--which is okay; it is what it is and everyone's working as quickly as they can.
Is there a new target date? Or should things just be left open-ended for now and we'll stay tuned for a post notifying when things are fixed enough that it's worth re-checking issues to see what's still outstanding?
@QuietMagic
Our lead dev has been heads down working on it all day today. I unfortunately don't have a timeline because there's multiple interconnected issues he's addressing but I will be checking back in here with you guys to issue updates and check to see what's still malfunctioning.
@Heather225
Gotcha, thank you!
@Heather225 Thanks, it's good you're putting out these updates. I am curious as to why this whole situation occurred to begin with. It seems like some kind of back-end issue, involving what is behind the website. If I could only talk to one of your tech guys...
Is it database structure? The coding of the Cups website itself? Does it have to do with the increasing population here; new members have been joining up for as long as I've been here & surely they were before I heard about Cups. No online population can increase on a platform indefinitely without adapting the platform to function with the increased load, so to speak. Is that what's going on here?
@slowdecline48
Yes, it is a scaling issue in relation to the database. We are trying to balance performance with usability. In this case they are at odds. A user would ideally have access to the entire thread very quickly with all of the parent child relationships open by default. In some threads this could be tens of thousands of posts that recursively need to be queried. At a small scale this is no problem. As it grows it becomes ever more complex and memory and processor intensive. Our team is working on a fix now that should be able to strike the balance but it will be a bit longer so please bear with us ❤️
@Heather225 If it's an issue with having trees minimized I'd rather we just go back to not even having that option and increasing the number of pages per thread.
Yesterday I talked to one of the Community Managers. The reason why the forum/thread structure suddenly changed is somewhat like I'd guessed:
There has been a fairly steady increase in members for a while now. The Cupsian population is significantly larger now than when I joined over two years prior. Of course it was growing before O discovered Cups. The platform itself is working under an increased (& increasing) load...basically this makes an overhaul of the platform necessary. The sudden thread change is a symptom of this whole operation.
I made it clear to the official I talked to that we would like the old branching thread structure restored. She said that while that cannot be guaranteed, she too would prefer it since it was simpler overall & that, hopefully, when the technicians are done with the system revamp we will have something similar to the old thread structure in place.
As I am currently grappling with chronic health issues (again), I won't be too active for at least the next couple days, & probably longer. Will check in here when I can. Thank you for reading.
@slowdecline48
Thank you, Slow \(^-^)/ for discussing the branching issue in replies in forum & to tell the management that we want the previous version restored 👉👈\('-' \) 😭
@VictoriaLove7 Apparently they brought out a sort of updated version! It's branching like before, but now it's a bit more compact in width. I can go with it. 👍🏻
@slowdecline48
yayyie! \(^-^)/ Thank you, Slow! it's branching & when we clicked on the notification where we are being mentioned, it will automatically scrolled to the exact post with our username in it \(^○^)/
@slowdecline48
Thanking you for conveying our concerns & thanking Heather & the crew who work to keep the branching format \(^-^)/
@slowdecline48
@VictoriaLove7
🥰 Appreciated! I will pass the kind shoutouts on to our dev. If anything ever gets wonky unexpectedly again, you can always tag or PM! Thanks again!
@slowdecline48 Thanks Slow.