general forum feedback

[chrisr 18]

@SanderVG

Now your very broken new website has one of my email addresses as my user name.

Seriously?

As a user and an active member with two of your UM2's I feel a complete lack of confidence in where you're going.

Shape up! :-(

[ultiarjan 1,223]

I still get notifications for topics where nothing changed ...

The notifications to this "feedback topic" still direct me to a black page...

[chrisr 18]

Ok, I'm feeling I want out of here entirely @SanderVG PM me to let me know how to delete my account please? Mods?

Edited May 9, 2015 by Guest

[dodgrr 27]

One of the main reasons I bought an Ultimaker 2 was the forum and the member's active roles in helping other users.  The forum has been replaced with a shiny interface and extremely poor usability.  I feel like a good friend went to get a bunch of plastic surgery and the anesthetic wasn't administered correctly.  Please turn the pretty brain damage off, we need our forum back.

PS: Compromise? keep everything else the same, just point the "forum" link on the new shiny homepage to the old format forum? Please.

sincerely,

everybody

Edited May 9, 2015 by Guest

[0235 24]

more woes. completely unusable on my phone, so much so for slick interface and tablet-ification and dumbing down. it wont even run on my phone! its not even that old, and still holds up to almost every I throw at it. inability to run something as basic as a forum on a device not even old enough to start school is silly :/

[chrisr 18]

As an active forum member I've now lost all faith in this shiny glossy rubbish that @SanderVG seems bent on pushing forth. I now want my account deleted. In the settings page there is no obvious way to do this. ?

I feel very sorry as I feel UM have really lost their way. A brilliant concept all open scource, community atmosphere etc., something wonderful in an increasingly competitive world (with arguably better printers in the offing) but they've (imho) missed out on that one aspect which so set them apart from their competitors. Which was the forums. Like minded folk joining together to create a better product. Where is that now?

Way to go UM. You mucked up big time with this move.

[chrisr 18]

Please delete my account. As I've lost all faith in security, this website etc.,

[Anders Olsson 136]

I am about to leave this community too, unless the old forum is opened for posting again within days.

I was about to order an UM2GO a month ago, luckily I have been way too busy, so that decision was postponed, and now I am pretty sure there are not going to be another Ultimaker at my place.

Nor am I going to develop any of the upgrades I was planning for the UM2. I will focus on general things that fits other printers too instead.

And I am not going to recommend anyone to buy an Ultimaker because what I have seen happening lately, with Ultimaker in general and with this forum in particular, tells me that Ultimaker is really going in the wrong direction.

After all, the superb old forum was my main argument for buying the Ultimaker and with that ruined by someone who does not understand the importance of the forum, or realize how bad the situation is, I can not recommend anyone to go for this brand anymore.

I mean, it is not like you can improve this new forum slightly. The design is fundamentally flawed and if the designer does not (want to?) realize that, we have a major problem.

It is not about improving small things one at a time. Put the whole thing in the trash bin and start over!

The layout of the old forum was obviously done by someone that had designs skills. Although not perfect, it was pretty good.

Since the designer of this new forum is obviously lacking all kind of web design skill, start with that layout of the old forum then and improve what was not working there.

I have seen very similar things happening at work, so I can see what is coming, and I think it will happen much quicker than people in charge here realize..

By the way, if you who are leaving are moving to another forum please let me know, because I love to continue somewhere else.

Over and out..

[titanoid 4]

Oh Anders, not you...

Although I understand you.

Just as they seem to realize what they've done.

Well I see improvements, call me naive, but I'll stay and try to be constructive.

Eventually WE are this forum.

[Labern 774]

This is really the first forum I have used as most other forums I have been on People complained to much and were to impatient, so I didn't bother continuing. Although some things are currently lacking on this new forum. I don't find it that bad. I think there are some improvements over the old forum and it there has been some improvements so far to fix minor things.

But I will be nice to see a visual change to help reduce the white space. But as sander said, Its being worked on.

[jhertzberg 19]

I still get notifications for topics where nothing changed ...

The notifications to this "feedback topic" still direct me to a black page...

,,, and I don't get notifications for topics that I followed when the do change. For instance, I selected "follow" on the toolhead changer thread, and I'm not getting those. Furthermore, most of the time when I have tried to select the last page there, I have gotten a blank as if I'm the first to comment. And on this thread, I can't go straight to the new post that I was just being notified about! For a long time, I visited the Mods=and-Hacks forum (at least) daily, and there were great new ideas and collaboration. Now, there's a precipitous drop-off in activity, and I don't see the point of visiting as often.

I spent over thirty years in software development, first coding, then managing large projects. I also managed web roll-outs for companies like Sun Microsystems and JPMorgan. I have been part of successful roll-outs and some not so successful. This one is demonstrably not successful, and the brand is suffering. I'm sorry, but at this point any project that I was ever on would have been rolled back with an apology to the users. I urge you to consider fully restoring the old forum while you continue to develop, debug, and UAT this one.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Guest

[valcrow 144]

I haven't read all 30 pages of replies.. sorry if I missed stuff, but a lot of the responses seem kinda extreme to me, particularly the ones extrapolating UM's intentions from a website rework... I'm not seeing the reasoning behind calling for the scrapping of the whole forum. There are issues for sure, but nothing that doesn't seem fixable.

While I agree with some of the points here like the notifications, new posts etc. I actually like the new look, I think it's cleaner and more professional. I have large monitors so more white space is welcome to me. The Website portion is MUCH better than the original. It has a lot more content and looks a lot more professional. The forum portion is lacking the refinement, accessability and features of the previous one however.

The one BIG killer Gripefor me being the inability to open up a new tab without loosing your post. There are lots of times where I would write a post and reference a reply on another page in another tab. Doing this will change your current page to your new tab page and you'll loose your post. frustrating.

My Minor gripes are,

-There are far too many sub-forums. I can understand this is useful for new people looking for specific information but for general browsing as a user that comes on here all the time it's a bit hard to choose where to be.

-Hard to see the 'new posts' as other people have mentioned.

-needs more replies per page.

-miss the old chat. (I know it's coming at some point, not on priority)

-When I type a long forum message like this one, the top bar continuously pops up when I type, and pops away when I scroll down.

-Needs some sort of language filter so you don't get the french/dutch/international topics showing up on your main forum digest page.

What I like are:

- New forum look

- badges, stats etc.

- new website look

- new print section / gallery is very cool

- Runs fast

- notifications are clear

- Like the potential of the unanswered questions thing/best replies

[DidierKlein 729]

I must say i'm really shocked to see some reactions...

You know i loved the old forum, it's why i became moderator here, maybe you can think my feeling is biased because of my moderator status but i'll say it (again) anyway.

First of all, yes i miss the old forum, but i'm also keen to have a new platform and to be able to enhance it, and be a part of it, it's been now more than a year that i've been part of this community and i'm very attached to it. The change of forum doesn't change that feeling i have.

Obviously some things are missing, working bad, but some other things are pretty nice and work well. The community is listened too, when the remarks are constructive and usefull.

Of course you have the right to say that you don't like it but that won't make it better.

I can see a big potential in this new platform we just have to be patient, and stay focused on the core of it: us.

[SandervG 1,521]

I still get notifications for topics where nothing changed ...

The notifications to this "feedback topic" still direct me to a black page...

This is most likely when a spam post or new user makes a post, but it has yet to be approved. A bug which is noted, thank you for bringing it up!

[SandervG 1,521]

more woes. completely unusable on my phone, so much so for slick interface and tablet-ification and dumbing down. it wont even run on my phone! its

Can you (by DM if you prefer) give me more details on what phone/tablet you are using? Thank you!

[ultiarjan 1,223]

In general I find the usability on my phone just fine (obviously besides the already documented general issues like info density and the missing 1 page overview)

No idea if it's forum related but I've had multiple crashes of chrome while on the forum, which I did not have before. Samsung S4, android 4.4.2, Chrome

[0235 24]

more woes. completely unusable on my phone, so much so for slick interface and tablet-ification and dumbing down. it wont even run on my phone! its

Can you (by DM if you prefer) give me more details on what phone/tablet you are using? Thank you!

Sonny Ericsson Mini Pro SK17i.

[jameshs 42]

I must say i'm really shocked to see some reactions...

You know i loved the old forum, it's why i became moderator here, maybe you can think my feeling is biased because of my moderator status but i'll say it (again) anyway.

First of all, yes i miss the old forum, but i'm also keen to have a new platform and to be able to enhance it, and be a part of it, it's been now more than a year that i've been part of this community and i'm very attached to it. The change of forum doesn't change that feeling i have.

Obviously some things are missing, working bad, but some other things are pretty nice and work well. The community is listened too, when the remarks are constructive and usefull.

Of course you have the right to say that you don't like it but that won't make it better.

I can see a big potential in this new platform we just have to be patient, and stay focused on the core of it: us.

hear your message, but I used to visit twice a day - now once a week to this thread only :(

that makes it broken IMHO

I think the emotion is because the forum is ike the window onto a glorious community - when you change the window then the aim would normally be more clarity - this one is SO foggy that we can't see where it is going, and some of the foggyness is in the glass, so a quick wipe won't cut it - at that point it is worth getting out to walk

[mastory 44]

When I click on a notification link (upper right pull-down menu "bell icon"), I am taken to the page with the updated post, but the presence of the initial post at the top of the page is confusing at first glance. It makes me think I'm at the wrong page. At first glance, the links below that first post appear to be a page footer. Only scrolling down reveals that those links are actually a header? - for the current page.

I understand the logic of placing the initial post on every page, but for the most part people following a thread deep into the back pages will already understand the premiss for the thread. If not, they can always click on page 1 and review it. Especially for threads with long initial posts, this is confusing to the user, and also consumes a lot of page space. Additionally, there is no visual delineation to cue the reader that the redundant initial post is not actually part of the current page.

My 2 cents.

Things are improving, and thank you.

Matt

[mastory 44]

I'm getting topic update notifications for my own postings. I think these ought to be ignored for the original author as you already are aware of your own post.....

Matt

[DidierKlein 729]

I must say i'm really shocked to see some reactions...

You know i loved the old forum, it's why i became moderator here, maybe you can think my feeling is biased because of my moderator status but i'll say it (again) anyway.

First of all, yes i miss the old forum, but i'm also keen to have a new platform and to be able to enhance it, and be a part of it, it's been now more than a year that i've been part of this community and i'm very attached to it. The change of forum doesn't change that feeling i have.

Obviously some things are missing, working bad, but some other things are pretty nice and work well. The community is listened too, when the remarks are constructive and usefull.

Of course you have the right to say that you don't like it but that won't make it better.

I can see a big potential in this new platform we just have to be patient, and stay focused on the core of it: us.

hear your message, but I used to visit twice a day - now once a week to this thread only :(

that makes it broken IMHO

I think the emotion is because the forum is ike the window onto a glorious community - when you change the window then the aim would normally be more clarity - this one is SO foggy that we can't see where it is going, and some of the foggyness is in the glass, so a quick wipe won't cut it - at that point it is worth getting out to walk

I hear yours too

It took me a couple of days too get used to it but now i'm okay

I guess that most of the users used the old forum like me: show last messages since my last visit, then read (jump to the last read) reply and so on.

This is one of the things that could bring old sensations back, it's on the list of features to add. Meanwhile we have have to keep improving it, to make the best experience possible for most of us.

[titanoid 4]

Ok, an official update about the improvements that went live today!!

I will also post a separate read only post, that will list all the fixes.

Since this thread is ongoing, the other thread can be used as a point of reference to see what has been updated so far.

@SandervG:

That's what I was waiting for: A clear message that critics were heard and bugs and flaws will be eliminated.

So thanks for that!

[jhertzberg 19]

I guess that most of the users used the old forum like me: show last messages since my last visit, then read (jump to the last read) reply and so on.

This is one of the things that could bring old sensations back, it's on the list of features to add. Meanwhile we have have to keep improving it, to make the best experience possible for most of us.

This was the primary way I interacted with the forum as well.

Did anyone create use cases before embarking on the redesign? This should have been a top forum reader Actor use case. If there are no use cases defined yet, it would still be a good idea to do them now, and check them off as the fixes get done. At the very least, all the issues raised should be in your bug tracker.

Regarding white space, it seems that the majority of comments on the topic have been that the space is excessive, yet a few people are happy with the new sparser look. If you implemented your CSS properly, couldn't you just make compact/sparse a user selectable option that is saved in their profile record? I see that you are reading the User Agent, so you should be able to choose a mobile-friendly style sheet automatically.

[personal-drones 44]

I still get notifications for topics where nothing changed ...

The notifications to this "feedback topic" still direct me to a black page...

This is most likely when a spam post or new user makes a post, but it has yet to be approved. A bug which is noted, thank you for bringing it up!

Also for me notification of new posts to this thread bring me to an empty page. So when I get a notification I have to:

- click on it to mark it as "read"

- find myself on the empty, useless page

- navigate back to the forum home page

- navigate manually to this topic

- go to the last page of the topic

- read the new message

A lot of work. But I am so interested in this topic that I will do it.

EDIT: Just noticed that notifications for another thread I am following are perfect and bring to the last post. Great to see it working! Funny that only for this particular thread I still get redirected to the "empty page" instead.

Edited May 9, 2015 by Guest

[DidierKlein 729]

I agree it would be pretty nice to have the choice of look between at least two (maybe the compacted look could be inspired by the greasemonkey script.

Also if you haven't seen there's a subject now with the latest corrections:

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/view/15753-forum-improvements