Now I’ve done a quick browse through the discourse demo and here are a few problems already ( specifically with that ).
Once you are in a thread, there is no navigating back to the previous sub-forum. You have to navigate home, click categories and then
navigate back into your previous category.
There is no ability to multi quote. Seems you will have to reply to each person individually unless you reply to each in a different tab,
copy the quote and paste it into your original quote. I haven’t tested this and probably won’t because it is pointless.
You get 2 types of replies. Personal replies and topic replies, bit confusing if you ask me for a new user. Personal replies, if that’s
what you even call it, are hidden when, i assume, more than one reply is made making the user has to click on “X Replies” in order to list it… conversations can be missed this way. Also with these different replies system, conversation can be easily lost if you are not familiar with this board.
Another con is what will happen to the front page of our current forum that holds some useful info. Where is this moving to as discourse has no place for this?
All in all, ascetically it may seem like a better option but aesthetics can easily be fixed. Functionality is something that can’t without involving the devs and I believe discourse to not be as functional as vBulletin when it comes to forums. Discourse seems more like a message board.
Back button on your browser or mobile works for me. Actually I’ve just checked again and it also remembers where on the page you were when you go back. Doesn’t take you to the top again. When you return to a thread youv’e read partially it also remembers where you were so you can continue reading where you left off.
Sign in. Once you are signed in your can select any text in a thread while writing your reply at the bottom and quite it. It’s in fact much easier.
I think you misunderstood. You can reply quite easily. Read this to understand how it works. How do I reply to folks here? - discourse - Discourse Demo
You can reply to an individual post or at the bottom of the thread. They are all shown on the thread. When you reply to a specific post they are also linked to at the bottom of that post.
There is a reply if you are going off topic also. E.g. you can reply to a thread and create a new thread linked to the previous topic but separate. Allows one to easily fork discussions when they go off-topic.
The forum also has pm system.
I have shown multi quote reply at the bottom of the thread linked above. Bear in mind that the post will be deleted as that sandbox is reset every day.
Another con is what will happen to the front page of our current forum that holds some useful info. Where is this moving to as discourse has no place for this?
Easily solved with stickies on the forum. Key information is also sent via pm once a user signs up. This can include links to the rules, and also the getting connected wiki pages.
And another feature is you can @mention someone like twitter. That will notify them that I mentioned them on a thread. You could even do it for groups like @committee once we set them up.
In fact there are scores of mods for vBulletin, paid and free, that has the potential to trump discourses features. ( I say potential because I’m not going too compare the long list of mods on vbulletins forum )
The only thing I must of misunderstood is the fact that it was suppose to be easy for new users. Now we gotta read how a reply system works.
For you it might be simple to understand and for others that are familiar with it but I am considered a new user of it and having to now read how the reply system works is not the definition of user friendly.
Toady I really think it’s quite intuitive when you start using it. It really feels like things do what they supposed to do. I was also browsing complex threads today on their forum on my mobile and it’s an amazing experience really comfortable, easy to read and quick. I mean how many of us have clicked dislike on a post because the buttons were just too damns small while using our mobiles.
Deathm the problem I have with that is trying stuff out always just brings out negative comments. This thread is the perfect example of that. People who don’t like an idea are most likely to speak up and then get a disproportionate representation.
The problem with this is that in this case I truly believe that we can improve engagment of guys that are not really engaged by taking the forum to the next level. These are not the kind of people who will post here to say they like the idea.
I mean we had someone on a shoutbox on a site near here who didn’t know who what comms meant. Completely disengaged. We HAVE to drive engagement as much as we can. I beleive this is something that can help.
I mean the software is 15 years old… The last major version was released in 2012. That’s ancient history.
I really think we can move on. If it fails miserably I’d be happy to go back to the old forum. But it has to be measured consistently. Not based on complaints of a few people.
