Is the forum dying?

[macua85 52]

I have been on this forum for a while now, not sure when I joined but must be over a year ago. Up until the new forum was released, it was very active. Plenty of new topics and new replies to keep me busy in the mornings. However now, it seems its a day or two between having much to read. Coffee corner for example, and the 'a coffee between friends' thread was always at the top, with the usual contributors having a natter...I guess they have taken a back seat now. So, is it dying? What are the stats telling you Sander? Do you analyse them?

Its a shame, and hopefully only short lived. Time will tell though I guess.

[leopop 0]

Hi there,

I also see less (apparent) activity. Looking at myself, it is very difficult to get into the topics with the renewed interface. It is nice and colourful, but also less clear with much less overview of what is happening.

In short, it appears to me as being more cumbersome to get trhough, and instead of daily (or multiple times a day) viewing, reading and commenting, now I find myself only once a week or two.

To quickly get into the forum and check out new topics feels (yes, irrational, that is) less easy.

But, this post may prove the opposite!

Leo.

[neotko 1,417]

I think the navigation patterns have change. It's horrible to check forum sections (3 clicks a lots of scrolling on movile) it's something I just don't bother. I just check last posts and because when you enter a post you don't see what section it is... New stuff I can see and read. If it goes beyond that page I will never ever see it.

[jameshs 42]

It might recover in some time - I understand the reasons for the change but it was to prioritise new user take-up but broke the link with 'old' users who provided much of the interaction. As the traction improves it may pick back up.

There are probably very good reasons for UM to go from tinkerer to newbie - there are pitfalls (think takerbot) and hopefully we wont go down that route!

this forum is still broken - there are signposted upgrades (to bring back previous stickiness) but at the moment is it still one step forward, two steps back - step forward is branding, steps back functionality.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Hopefully the updates expected somewhere end this month will bring back the overview of what you've read / not on the main forum page (better late than never), this may

 

bring back some activity. Looks like 99% of activity atm is Didier and GR5 doing support...

If we all start sharing again what we're up to .... things must become interesting again... although (at least in Europe) the holiday season is starting so I think that will naturally limit the amount of posts...)

[Labern 774]

Well I have given up on 3d printing all together at the moment. Got A new 2Go and haven't been able to get it to print properly from the start. Wasted to much filament trying to fix it and support is trying to help but no success.

So i have lost enthusiasm to print.

Its hard to share stuff when you cant print stuff.

[zoev89 73]

I find the new forum more difficult to use. The information is more mouse clicks away. It logs you out so I am hardly logged-in anymore. Half of the messages I created came from my phone, the new forum is unusable on my phone :( so I don't. So I lost quite a big amount of time on the forum which is sad. I guess more people are struggling.

mmm just notice where are the smilies?

[IRobertI 520]

A lot of people hate the new layout.

A lot of people don't like the reduced functionality.

A lot of people had issues logging in with their accounts (I'm sure there's a large "dark number" here as well)

Lack of e-mail updates likely made a lot of people drop off.

For me the biggest issue has been that I can't see what I've already read which made me almost stop reading completely. A few days ago I made a greasemonkey script to help with that so now it's easier.

It's just a lot of factors that have contributed to it I think. Hopefully things will start picking back up once the next couple of updates roll out. I think it might be a good idea to send out a mass e-mail to old users once ALL old features are implemented as well.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

I think it might be a good idea to send out a mass e-mail to old users once ALL old features are implemented as well.

 

@TheDeugd @SandervG I think you should consider Robert idea ...

[leopop 0]

Hi all,

So, as I understand well, the ALL of the old stuff is getting back, and alive? That'll be great. Indeed, better late than even later.

Promise: I'm going to check more frequently, and hope it will revive.

Keep up the good work!

Leo.

[TheDeugd 18]

 

I think it might be a good idea to send out a mass e-mail to old users once ALL old features are implemented as well.

 

@TheDeugd @SandervG I think you should consider Robert idea ...

 

We are, and we're thinking of a few more things.

 

Hi all,

So, as I understand well, the ALL of the old stuff is getting back, and alive? That'll be great. Indeed, better late than even later.

Promise: I'm going to check more frequently, and hope it will revive.

Keep up the good work!

Leo.

 

Definitely! We've been collecting a lot of feedback for a while now, listening, talking, talking with some community members in private. We've made a huge collections of things to work on which you can read here. We're working hard right now to develop these. In the months of July and August you will find a host of new features online.

[hreedijk 4]

I'm also a forum user that's 'lost' in this new layout.

In the old forum I was checking in 2 to 4 times a day and helped other users where I could, now I login once within 2/3 weeks.

If the old stuff is coming back, I'm in!

[DidierKlein 729]

Activity has dropped that's for sure...

Mine also, but mainly due to some problems with my network (forum was extremely slow for a couple of weeks, now it's better).

The fact that i'm not able to see easily the latest posts since my last visit is a big problem (and i think that a lot of people are seeing that as a problem too).

Hopefully it will get better after the following updates?

[ultiarjan 1,223]

Hopefully, but the crazy amount of time it takes worries me, not long ago it was july, now it's again july/august. imho it's just taking waaaaayyyyyyy to long to.

[neotko 1,417]

Ultimakers need some beach and vacation too

[TheDeugd 18]

Ultimakers need some beach and vacation too

 

True! But no worries, we're working hard right now to create the necessary improvements we talked about in this topic.

[SandervG 1,521]

Well I have given up on 3d printing all together at the moment. Got A new 2Go and haven't been able to get it to print properly from the start. Wasted to much filament trying to fix it and support is trying to help but no success.

So i have lost enthusiasm to print.

Its hard to share stuff when you cant print stuff.

 

Hi @labern, what is the latest update on this? Are you already back on your saddle?

Let me know, maybe I can help too!

[SandervG 1,521]

Hopefully, but the crazy amount of time it takes worries me, not long ago it was july, now it's again july/august. imho it's just taking waaaaayyyyyyy to long to.

 

As far as I know it is still July, but we are looking at 2 launches with improvements.

One in July, one in August.

By then, we should be on full speed again and we are eager to learn where we can dot the remaining i's and cross the remaining t's.

[gr5 2,167]

You guys are all nuts. This forum is as active as ever as far as I can tell. There's so many posts I miss a ton of them and never get to read them all. Even if I spend an hour a day I can't get through them all.

You just have to change your workflow a bit. Some of the nice features of the new forum - you can bookmark lots of useful pages like this one:

https://ultimaker.com/en/community?sorting=latest&filter%5Btype%5D=question-unanswered&filter%5Btype%5D=all

That above link shows you recent topics. If you see a topic you are interested in then click the "follow +" icon and everytime you come to the forum go to the "bell" at the top of the screen and it shows you all the responses to your posts and posts in the threads you are interested in. Also in that above link - if you have a distinctive icon for yourself it's easy to see if you've recently already posted in some of those or you can just look at posts that no one has responded to yet.

I don't know what you mean about losing your session. I can go many days without having to log in.

Regarding the email feature - that is what I miss the most. The plan is to add that back in. Plus email all the old users.

All the old posts are still in the new forum. You can get to them through google most easily - just search for the topic and your username and/or text within the topic and most old things aren't hard to find.

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

@gr5: Yes and no. Yes, the forum is as active as you can expect at this time of the year (let's not forget we have a real summer in Europe while the last one has been quite miserable in some parts of the old continent).

No as there are quite a number of newbies (which repeatedly ask the same questions (either they are too lazy to use the search function or the search function is still sub-optimal; I guess the latter as I had my troubles finding old posts with the new search engine...)) and quite some of the older users, UMO users / tinkerers are gone...

Or with other words, George...:

You, my friend, are all that's left of their religion.

(not quite true, but hey, STAR WARS quotes are always a good thing).

[neotko 1,417]

The main problem I see it's that the felling of 'let's explore' has been wiped. Sections like there where before did that effect of inviting the user to know more about each 'hardware'-'mods'-'hacks'-marlin'.

Ultimaker chooses a-la facebook style where the top info it's show and the page down it's long forgotten. The forum works if you come daily and see the new stuff. But this isn't a fabebook where the info can be long forgotten. Where it's the minimum requeriment for a forum that's a 'sticker'. Sticker it's a mayor tool when users go into sections but the way it's designed kills that and makes this just a roll of stuff that will never charm new users like it did with me. This forum was what made me buy this printer.

[Lofrank 1]

I'm really active recent days:)

[drayson 75]

... Sorry but I have to spend my two cents on this topic...

Got my UMO in 2012 I think and the forum was the best place ever to hang out. The first thing in the morning and the last thing in the evening...

A few month ago I stopped this behavior as there were difficulties at login to the new forum, worst usability ever, less discussions and always the same raised topics and - yes, I agree to the thread starter - I have also the feeling it dies.

And I'm too not very active any more...

UMO users are in minority, seldom news about tweaking and modifying. Don't know why but my feeling is that the spirit has gone...

Maybe you should re-open the old forum for UMO users, dont know if that helps but...

My two cents...

Edited July 20, 2015 by Guest

[Titus 170]

The forum is just in a sleep state right now. I believe once functionality has been restored and layout improved many people, like myself will return and participate more active again.

I check the forum about every hour, but only follow a few topics, new posts and old followed topics don't really pop up so don't catch my eye.

[gr5 2,167]

"sleep state"?  Are you kidding me?  It's overwhelmingly busy!  I can't even read half the english posts!  It would take me 2 or 3 hours a day to read all the posts each day.

Just try to read all the posts from today!  here's a link for you:

=all&filter[time]=today"]https://ultimaker.com/en/community?sorting=latest&filter[type]=all&filter[time]=today

Damn it.  I can't get the above link to display right - you'll have to cut and paste it.  It's the square brackets around "type" and "time" that are messing it up.

Alternatively go here:

https://ultimaker.com/en/community

Then to the right click on the drop down that says "select" and choose "latest" then change "all time" to "today".

Edited July 21, 2015 by Guest