Tinkering with the forum format!

[shooternz]

The constant tinkering with the Adobe User forums has resulted in this less than ideal mess of a Forum Format.

The tinkerers seem to be set on some 'FEATURE CREEP' agenda that benefits the back stage of the forum process. eg datamining, data sharing, data gathering.

None of that serves the users one iota.

The latest forum format seems to be written and designed by those that have no idea how a "real conversation" works in "real life".  They probably have only ever communicated electronically ...txt, tweet, email, blog etc.  In fact they probably never have had face to face communication experiences.  Any forum should replicate a conversation . ie an OPEN exchange of thoughts and ideas.  One needs to know who one is conversing with is a good example.

Of the forums I participate in...the Adobe forums went from the best forum experience  to the worst.

Sack the jive coach!

Thoughts from a longtime Adobe Product user and Forum participant

[pwillener]

shooternz wrote:

...the Adobe forums went from the best forum experience  to the worst.

I personally doubt that it was ever "the best", but it was more or less usable, despite its many faults.  Now there's even less of it!

John (Forum Admin) promised that some of it will be restored, but why not all?

In fact I am wondering why usability needed to be removed, instead of adding some?

[Phillip_M_Jones]

It was the Best Forum Format back before Jive.

[Claudio_González1]

I still strongly refuse to go into Facebook, Twitter or the like, but I share yours feelings completely. Conversation is quile a lot older than them.

[Dave Merchant]

Apart from the recent linking of Community Help and the forums (which has nothing whatsoever to do with the redesigned interface) I'm curious where that idea came from. The tools that show site statistics aren't affected by the new skin, and the database record for a post or a user hasn't changed at all - only the templates used to display them.

shooternz wrote:

The tinkerers seem to be set on some 'FEATURE CREEP' agenda that benefits the back stage of the forum process. eg datamining, data sharing, data gathering.

[Bill12]

My real concern is the waste of space. When the Adobe forums was first moved to Jive, the use of space was a big concern. They improved it and then created this mess. The list of topics in a discussion is not only about half the screen, and that is on a wide screen format. There are other things like the big wide "actions" etc on the right that on this screen along takes about 2/7 of the wide screen. Even when I go to a reduced font (that is hard to read), it takes a lot of space. Then in the discussion list there is an additional column that is squeezed between the discussion list and the right column. It is really annoying.

If some options were given to deselect some info from the view I would be right there. I understand Jive can do that, but it never seems to make the forum options for me.

[Bob_Peters]

shooternz wrote:

The latest forum format seems to be written and designed by those that have no idea how a "real conversation" works in "real life". 

...among other things!

I think all the "observations" about this New and Improved design were mentioned when Adobe chose to switch to Jive.  The forums seem to be moving backwards!  Time warp?

[Jacob Bugge]

In the time of the fair forums.

[Noel Carboni]

shooternz wrote:

Thoughts from a longtime Adobe Product user and Forum participant

You'll notice that there's no longer any way for anyone to tell that beyond what you've written above.

Sometimes, when a company makes changes that don't seem obvious at first but which really suit a master plan, that would be leadership.  I've wanted to think that could be the case here, but try as I might I just haven't been able to make that word fit.

We're told that a number of the features that have been "lost" will be coming back - as though they somehow were "lost" through a process beyond anyone's control.  And it seems the brain-damaged software simply HAD to be put out for the public to use, because maybe the old one just couldn't cut it any longer.  I guess it was awfully tired.  And notably, once the public was shown this swiss cheese of an implementation, it wasn't immediately rolled-back - as though once the decision is made it's made and there's no revisiting it.

Lines Bruce Willis said in "Die Hard" keep coming to mind.

-Noel

[PECourtejoie]

The forums are a work in progress, and we all have a say in its shaping.

[Noel Carboni]

PECourtejoie wrote:

The forums are a work in progress, and we all have a say in its shaping.

You have a wonderful positive attitude, Pierre, but two things: 

1.  They shouldn't be a work in progress - they should be polished and complete.  As it is it gives people the impression that the company's products are unpolished and lacking in function.

2.  We may have a say, through threads like this one, but it rarely seems to make any difference.  Again that seems to reflect Adobe's overall current philosophy for product development and release...  Consider the fact that they virtually always plan to release what they already have built - even though people may feed back many problem reports during beta testing.  It happened with the Photoshop CS6 beta, it happens with the Camera Raw betas, and we have this forum software that, despite being released in an unfinished state, isn't being actively modified per anyone's requests.

There's only one good reason for exposing unfinished software - to solicit feedback to help find what's unfinished and prioritize what needs to be done to finish it.

It's not working, Adobe.

Hello?  Is this thing on?

-Noel

[PECourtejoie]

I think that the public beta will help to get more bugs tackled in 13.0.1. It has its uses.

[Noel Carboni]

Yes, probably true, but think of the arrogance in setting up processes that virtually assure that no bug reported during the beta would be fixed.  It probably all boils down to a definition of "show stopper" somewhere, and who knows, maybe they would be willing to have stopped the show if something particularly heinous was discovered.  To be fair, on many computers (mine included) Photoshop CS6 actually works quite well, so I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.  I guess I should just sit down, shut up, and accept that in the "cloud" dominated univers everything we will use will always just be a work in progress all the time.

Thinking of the forum features we have lost in pursuit of this new, simpler look...  Am I just getting old, or is the new millenium turning out to be a time of "having seen better things in the past"?

-Noel

[Bob_Peters]

Noel Carboni wrote:

Yes, probably true, but think of the arrogance in setting up processes that virtually assure that no bug reported during the beta would be fixed.  It probably all boils down to a definition of "show stopper" somewhere, and who knows, maybe they would be willing to have stopped the show if something particularly heinous was discovered.  To be fair, on many computers (mine included) Photoshop CS6 actually works quite well, so I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.  I guess I should just sit down, shut up, and accept that in the "cloud" dominated univers everything we will use will always just be a work in progress all the time.

Thinking of the forum features we have lost in pursuit of this new, simpler look...  Am I just getting old, or is the new millenium turning out to be a time of "having seen better things in the past"?

-Noel

I agree with your statement 100%.

When comments and suggestions regarding the change to Jive were requested many were given.  As far as I can tell our comments made very little (if any!) difference.  The current iteration is a huge mess which shows no coherent concept other than to change things.

[the_wine_snob]

Craig,

I agree completely.

Working with others and their problems in these forums, was once a labor of love. Now, it's just LABOR.

I have also noticed a big fall-off in participation, in several product forums - you will know almost all of those too.

Beyond all of the "installation issues," often being rerouted to the product forum, from the Installations Forum, there is just not much in the way of posts. Now, there is STLL the "MKV" thread, but that sucka' just won't die...

Nah, I feel your pain - it's as bad up here, as it is down there.

Hunt