Skip to main content
c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
Community Expert
May 14, 2014
Question

i feel the current incarnation of the forum discourages participation

  • May 14, 2014
  • 6 replies
  • 7503 views

Previously the creator of a thread and the last person having posted there were listed, now it seems to be limited to the creator.

I myself take less interest in threads that have already received attention and suspect that some others may feel likewise.

So even if post 1 is by the creator themselves (adding some clarifications for example) I can’t see that immediately and am less likely to even check out that thread.

I guess the Forum administrators should be able to determine if more threads have been contributed to by only two people since the last Form update (which might also be an indicator of other problems though).

Maybe (hopefully) others do take a different approach than me, but I think reinstating the listing of creator and last poster to a thread in both Content and Overview would benefit the Fora.

Anyone else wants to share their opinion on this?

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    6 replies

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    August 16, 2014

    Thanks for all the contributions!


    It’s been a while and personally I have grown somewhat used to the current degraded state of the Fora.


    I continue to contribute (if I should do so less frequently it would be primarily due to my work-load and not deliberate protest) but I have the impression that participation is not what it used to be.

    Sometimes I take the time to go beyond page one of the Content and it seems more threads stick at 0 replies than previously.

    Edit: I should have mentioned that I am referring to the General Photoshop Forum.

    Naturally, again, I cannot ascertain if my impression is quantitatively correct or just self-reinforcing prejudice …

    Legend
    August 17, 2014

    c.pfaffenbichler wrote:

    I have the impression that participation is not what it used to be.

    We've had the stats engine disabled for a while (and I'm sure you all noticed the huge performance improvement! ) so I can't talk about the long-term trend; but this week the Photoshop section had a daily average of 43,000 views, 22 new questions, 103 new replies and 2 'likes'.

    The PS section overall has 26,000 topics, 24,000 with responses and 5000 marked as correct. On average it takes 1 day for a correct/helpful response to be posted. That's a pretty typical ratio for the popular areas of the site.

    Of course some of the really obscure areas get no experts visiting, and some places don't tend to get "questions" as much as general chatter.

    Noel Carboni
    Legend
    August 17, 2014

    It'd be interested in insights as to why some sections apparently get a higher percentage of answers marked than others.  As active as I've been, there are folks (e.g., kglad) with points counts that would take me 50 years to reach.

    I find the social/cultural aspects of that fascinating.

    -Noel

    July 8, 2014

    Been reading the comments on this Forum since Jive updated from 4.x to 7.x.  My conclusion from all the comments is that Adobe is in a hole which it can not extract itself.  Can't go forward or back.

    The current Jive web is not user friendly for a User to User answer Forum.  Seeing who was last responder, time in minutes since last response, breadcrumbs, jump to last post, and number of responses no mater which tab one uses would seem to be a  bare minimum to make Forums useful for responders.   Neither Jive nor Adobe wishes to spend the time and money to write new code to make this happen.  It appears the ample modifications would make version "non-standard" and then Jive would not cover in agreement.

    Adobe can not jump ship and choose another vendor as all the response history would be lost.  So users are stuck with whatever Jive throws at them, no matter how bad it has become, or will become.  And if you are an old time user you will remember the thousands of comments on this Forum about how bad it was when Jive took over from the previous vendor years ago.  It took at least a year of complaining before meaningful changes were obtained.  I do not believe that will happen this time as the major players have either quit or accepted changes as fate.  The least Adobe could do is demand a reduced rate as they are getting a reduced service.

    Like my old boss once said about workers like me complaining about the great working conditions of "the good old days".  He said only the old timers complain about loss of freedom to do their job.  The new hires don't complain, and in a few years will look back and say when they were hired "those were the good old days".    In 3 years will Jive 7.x be "the good old days?"  I hope not, but then  - - - - - .

    So new blood will fill the Forums and maybe that is a good thing, gets rid of the complainers.

    curt y since 2007

    Frank Heller
    Inspiring
    July 1, 2014

    I could not agree more with the title of this thread. Every mouse click now takes 20 seconds or more before anything happens, impossible to tell who the respondents of a thread are and each page of threads is now an extremely short list.

    These forums are no longer fun or easy to participate in.

    Noel Carboni
    Legend
    July 1, 2014

    I've been putting in a lot of effort lately, but I've got to say this forum frustrates at every turn.

    Today it's these 20 second long waits for anything to happen.  I cleared cookies to no avail (except that the next attempt to log in just hung up).

    Every day it's the stupid flaky editor that eats phrases.  And this business where if you visit a thread via your Inbox it doesn't show having been read in the main Discussions view.  Ridiculous!

    I agree with Christoph's original post - even if everything were to work right, the overview screen has lost all its utility.

    Adobe, please consider our renewed cries here make it more pleasant for the folks who wish to contribute to continue to do so.  As an example, you've lost a REAL ASSET in Curt Y's leaving (and I'm sure others).

    -Noel

    MadisonLeupp
    Community Manager
    Community Manager
    July 7, 2014

    We're working on adding more memory to our jive servers to help with the lengthy load times.

    Thanks for your patience as we work to fix this!

    the_wine_snob
    Inspiring
    May 23, 2014

    Though you do not need another "me too," I feel the same way.

    My participation is way, way down, and will likely be so in the future. I find the new forums to be all work, and little fun. It is so hard to get work done any longer.

    Perhaps for a first-time poster with a question, or problem, things ARE better, but for me, a contributor, I am horribly frustrated.

    Hunt

    nealeh
    Inspiring
    May 23, 2014

    Bill Hunt wrote:

    and little fun

    Exactly. And when something, being done voluntarily, stops being fun you stop doing it.

    Cheers,

    --

    Neale

    Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

    If this post or another user's post resolves the original issue, please mark the posts as correct accordingly. This helps other users with similar trouble get answers to their questions quicker. Thanks.

    Claudio González
    Legend
    May 23, 2014

    Curt, Jim Wilde, Bill, Neale,

    Having suffered the chaos of the transition from the fair forums to Jive software, and witnessed how little attention was payed to suggestions from oldtimers, I have very little hope that our pleas will produce much results. However, Madison and her team are really working hard to mend things, so I think we should all give them a chance before leaving.

    I am formally asking you please not to leave the forums now. Or at least, not completely. Do come in here once a week to take a look. Who knows? Madison and company might be successful in making participation fun again.

    May 16, 2014

    Yes, I have quit.

    I have been answering questions mainly on the Bridge and Photoshop Forums since 2007.  Since then the Forum has gone through many changes.  I have also been active in the Forum Comments Forum over the years to make changes so the forums are more friendly.  It seems like each time the forum format is "enhanced" many useful features are eliminated.  Through the constant repeating of comments of the heavy hitters many of the features were reinstated, only to be eliminated with the last change. 

    Major Forum changes occurred about two weeks ago, and of course negative comments flowed on the Forum, but this time this time the heavy hitters seemed to say "we have lost the battle, the Forum is not going to be changed, so just adjust or quit".

    We responders are volunteering our time and knowledge to benefit the Adobe users.  Many of us feel Adobe has much to gain to keep us happy as they get excellent user feedback with almost no outlay of money.  But many of the omissions make it difficult to read and respond to the Forums.  We are getting NO positive help from Adobe or MVP's to indicate anything will be done to correct critical omissions.  In my opinion those are:

    1.  Point system fouled up and broken.  Only top 6 responders listed, down from 10.  There is some satisfaction to make the top 10, although points hard to get now.

    2.  Can not see who  responded last - useful to know as some responders are a must read as one can learn from them.
    3.  Overview tab does not list number of responses

    4.  Content tab does not list list time since last response, only time of response (useless).

    5.  There is no (updated) after thread you have visited.   Makes it more difficult to see if there has been a response since your last visit.
    6.  Huge amount of wasted space on page

    7.  Can not jump to last comment - how long did it take to get that included last time?  Have to scroll through the entire page(s) to get to last comments

    6.  No breadcrumbs at bottom of page - how long did it take to get that included last time?  The back arrow does not always work the first click. 

    For me these items makes it difficult to read and respond to questions.  So just want to you to know I am dropping out of the Forums.  It has been fun, but the changes no longer make it fun.

    hans-g.
    Legend
    May 18, 2014

    Hello Curt,

    your work, this list with all the points worthy of improvement - it's a pity - BUT is simply situated at the wrong place. For this reason maybe you couldn't see a great "movement" here: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1464803?sr=inbox where Preran patiently collected all our suggestions (see esp. his list in page 2 consecutive number 46) to pass these informations to the "team".

    And so I can only sympathise, then, with "... and I will keep some breathing space between my requests so as to not overwhelm them ... "

    Hans-Günter

    mytaxsite
    Inspiring
    May 19, 2014

    Hans,

    Perhaps I'm misunderstanding you, but you seem to be saying that Curt, posting to 'Forum Comments' is posting in the wrong place, whereas Preran posting in 'Dreamweaver support' is in the more appropriate place.

    To me that seems back to front. I would have though this the appropriate place for such posts and am surprised that the Dreamweaver support moderators didn't move the topic here. As it is probably each and every Adobe community forum has its own discussion about the new forum going on, all making the same points -  a lot of redundant effort.

    I'm also concerned by Prerans response #53 that suggests the MVP 'Back Room' (whatever that is, but I presume restricted access) is actually the only one that the forum managers are going to be taking any notice of.

    Cheers,

    --

    Neale

    Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

    If this post or another user's post resolves the original issue, please mark the posts as correct accordingly. This helps other users with similar trouble get answers to their questions quicker. Thanks.


    I think what Hans was trying to say is that Preran is keeping a list of

    features requested by forum users and that he is in regular contact with

    the developers so we are likely to get swift response of any changes

    rather than posting it here which nobody acts on it.

    nealeh
    Inspiring
    May 14, 2014

    I don't like the new iteration. The lack of a 'Mark All Read' , lack of 'Last Contributor', and the slowness of moving from one page to the next means that I rarely look beyond the first page. As you say, it is discouraging.

    It's a pity Adobe haven't implemented the same iteration of Jive that McAfee are using - that's slick and fast.

    Cheers,

    --

    Neale

    Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

    If this post or another user's post resolves the original issue, please mark the posts as correct accordingly. This helps other users with similar trouble get answers to their questions quicker. Thanks.

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 16, 2014

    It's a pity Adobe haven't implemented the same iteration of Jive that McAfee are using - that's slick and fast.

    That list looks better indeed.

    As for the speed issue I’m not sure which factors do actually influence that.

    In any case I’m curious if and how the administrators do evaluate participation on these Fora.

    hans-g.
    Legend
    May 16, 2014

    Hello C,

    I suggest that you give your remarks to a kind of a wishform here in the forum. Please see paragraph 46 Preran in
    https://forums.adobe.com/message/6366211#6366211 ( "and I will keep some breathing space between my requests so as to not overwhelm them") and

    https://forums.adobe.com/message/6367679#6367679 see paragraph 3 and 4 >>> A great "thanks" to Preran, who patiently collected all our suggestions (see esp. 46) to pass these informations to the "team".

    Hans-Günter