Forum Structure Update Feedback

ZOS_MichelleA

The forum structure update is now complete. We welcome you to post in this thread to share your thoughts and feedback on these changes. This was the first step in several changes we'll be implementing on the forums over the coming weeks and months. Please remember to follow the Code of Conduct when sharing your opinions with us.Thank you!

Arsenic_Touch

Still no filter for other languages. That's bad juju. That was single most complaint about the forum format. I shouldn't be seeing german and french threads when I click the developer tracker. Nor should I see them on the main forum when I click EN in the top.

Should have left the discussion link/counter you've made on the right under recent discussions, because now we have to go through our own profile just to access our old threads we made, and it doesn't even show them unless you click "show more"

We need a feedback subforum and a bug report subforum (so they don't clutter the customer support section)

We need a trade subforum, for each alliance and server.

The guild section needs to be separated by alliance and server.

The counters are still showing threads from the beta forums, Like right now I have 135 discussion threads but I cannot access all of them, and it says 3 unanswered on the right but there's nothing there when you click it.

You didn't really change anything at all except add a general discussion subforum which is great but doesn't address the rest of the issues.

Tandor

Agreed. Perhaps we could be told if anything else has changed, because if it has it isn't obvious!

Noswell

Even if nothing else has changed yet, thank you sweet Jesus for a general discussion forum.

Edit: I can't decide whether that's naming and shaming so I'll leave it. Wait, I think I just discussed disciplinary action

Lucusmontem

Any plans for a better separation under Guild Headquarters? I was hoping for a few new sub-forums with this forum restructure. What I'm talking about is 1) separating EU and US with 2) AD, DC, EP and trade guilds as sub-selections 3) for PvE, PvP and RP.

AlexDougherty

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

Still no filter for other languages. That's bad juju. That was single most complaint about the forum format.

That was the second biggest complaint, the biggest was a lack of General Discussion which they have added, and Suggestion forum which they haven't.

Mind you a filter for the languages would be nice too.

Nazon_Katts

If you could activate the hide feature of categories, the language problem could be solved on an individual level. Hidden categories shouldn't show up in any board queries, so this would clean up recent and the dev tracker.

ZOS_MichelleA

Tandor wrote: »

Agreed. Perhaps we could be told if anything else has changed, because if it has it isn't obvious!

We'll be happy to explain it in some more detail! The first and most apparent change is that there is now a General Discussion forum for all three supported languages (English, German, and French).

Additionally, we have moved several forums out from under existing categories and made them more visible. The Alliance War forum now hosts three forums (one for each supported language) for all general PvP discussion. Additionally, the PvE Discussion forum is also now open for discussion.

This means that there are now three separate general discussion boards available for everyone to post in: one for ESO in general, one specifically for PvE, and one specifically for PvP.

As said in the opening post of this thread, this is only the first of several steps we will be taking to improve the forum experience for you all. We appreciate the responses thus far, and ask everyone to please continue sharing your constructive feedback on the forums with us.

murklor007neb18_ESO

It still just as horrible as before, but now with a general discussion (yay!).

- Still seeing pointless french/german forums, completely clogging the view
- Unable to see sub forums unless you enter a main forum
- Completely pointless sub forums or they are in the wrong location
- Non existing "roleplaying" forums. Where are the race forums?
- What is wrong with the standard line by line main/sub forum layout that *everyone* use today. Its good design, it make sense and we are used to it. Your forum that consist of a wierd box layout is however very bad and very confusing.

The features are decent (vote options, saving drafts, etc) but the overall design remain horrible. What's going to happen when the console version release? Are we going to have to look through 50 darn boxes before finding the right forums?

How the layout somewhat loosely imagined should be:

- News/Information mainforum
--- Developer/interviews/etc subforums

- Support mainforum
--- PC/console/Mac technical support subforum

- General/main mainforum
--- PvE subforum
--- Cyrodiil subforum
--- --- Aldmeri/Daggerfall/Pact subforums
--- Players helping players subforum
--- Guilds subforum
--- Crafting subforum

- Lore mainforum
--- Story subforum
--- Race subforums (one subforum for each race)

- Community mainforum
--- Addons subforum
--- Community creations subforum
--- Offtopic subforum

- German mainforum (with all subforums as above)
- French mainforum (with all subforums as above)

- Archived mainforums (if you ever create temporary forums for event things)

Lilth

Really happy about to read you are redoing the forum layout. I avoided the forums for quite a while because it is a giant maze of confusion atm. Finally gave in and started using them so I could contribute to the feedback on the game.

murklor007neb18 posted some good ideas and I agree that a standard forum is needed. The current one isn't user friendly at all kinda like the guild stores =x

Turelus

The addition of a General Discussions forums is really great, thank you for that.

Would it be possible for us to have a Features & Ideas section to the forums where players can post ideas for improvements to the game and give the Development staff an area they can go to engage with players about ideas and updates.

Also the Developer tracker still really horrible to use, any update on if or when we'll get a more thread/forums style layout for that?

wrlifeboil

murklor007neb18_ESO wrote: »

It still just as horrible as before, but now with a general discussion (yay!).

- Still seeing pointless french/german forums, completely clogging the view
- Unable to see sub forums unless you enter a main forum
- Completely pointless sub forums or they are in the wrong location
- Non existing "roleplaying" forums. Where are the race forums?
- What is wrong with the standard line by line main/sub forum layout that *everyone* use today. Its good design, it make sense and we are used to it. Your forum that consist of a wierd box layout is however very bad and very confusing.

The features are decent (vote options, saving drafts, etc) but the overall design remain horrible. What's going to happen when the console version release? Are we going to have to look through 50 darn boxes before finding the right forums?

How the layout somewhat loosely imagined should be:

- News/Information mainforum
--- Developer/interviews/etc subforums

- Support mainforum
--- PC/console/Mac technical support subforum

- General/main mainforum
--- PvE subforum
--- Cyrodiil subforum
--- --- Aldmeri/Daggerfall/Pact subforums
--- Players helping players subforum
--- Guilds subforum
--- Crafting subforum

- Lore mainforum
--- Story subforum
--- Race subforums (one subforum for each race)

- Community mainforum
--- Addons subforum
--- Community creations subforum
--- Offtopic subforum

- German mainforum (with all subforums as above)
- French mainforum (with all subforums as above)

- Archived mainforums (if you ever create temporary forums for event things)

Too many sub-forums => low traffic => dead forums. I hope that the ZOS forum mods don't fall into that trap.

Noswell

Can we not attach files to posts in the General Discussion forum? Or is that just me..

Iago

ZOS_MichelleA wrote: »

The forum structure update is now complete. We welcome you to post in this thread to share your thoughts and feedback on these changes. This was the first step in several changes we'll be implementing on the forums over the coming weeks and months. Please remember to follow the Code of Conduct when sharing your opinions with us.Thank you!

my thoughts on the new forums are this.instead of making the forums easier to use why don't you fix the problems that you already have such as billing body and bug quests.? it seems to me that a little common sense would dictate that the big problems be handled first

murklor007neb18_ESO

wrlifeboil wrote: »

Too many sub-forums => low traffic => dead forums. I hope that the ZOS forum mods don't fall into that trap.

Some forums arent meant to have high traffic but they exist nonetheless. Look at GW2. They have 43 forums (!!!) and 28 archived forums. And it still make a hell of alot more sense than the ESO forum because its simple top to bottom layout with main titles on forum and then subforums. Such as "Game Discussion" containing GW2 discussion, helping players, crafting, auction house, dungeons and audio (for some reason) subforums.

What I suggested wasnt even that many and a compressed version, lol.

Even forums that DO use the box layout at least separate them (and doesnt show different languages). Such as the World Of Warcraft forums. They have main titles so you can look at "areas" of box forums.

Oh my god I just realized that someone over at Zenimax probably ordered the forum admins to make it just like WoW because everyone loves WoW... And then ignored half the design.

Fruity_Ninja

Is there an off-topic section? If not is it possible eventually?

I've found it to be a fun section in other forums, where you can discuss random topics that are non-game related. It also breaks up the monotony of the constant game related whine that seems to infest other sections.

Turelus

Another post...

Just wondering but can the entire forums be turned into a more traditional forums layout, breaking it up into categories then froums?

Something like this...

C - News and Updates
F - Official News & Patch Notes
F - Website Articles Discussion

C - General Forums (English)
F - General Discussion
F - PVE Discussion English
F - Alliance War English
F- Community Creations

C - General Forums (Deutsch)
F - PVE Discussion Deutsch
F - Alliance War Deutsch

C - General Forums (Fancais)
F - PVE Discussion Fancais
F - Alliance War Fancais

C - Customer Support
F - CS English
F - CS Deutsch
F - CS Francais

I didn't cover all the sections but this should give you a general idea of what I am talking about. You can have each category as collapsible as well meaning the English speaking players who are often complaining about the other language sections can just collapse the other languages.

Once again sorry to link to the EVE Online forums but it really has a superior layout design for people to work with right now.
Something like this: https://forums.eveonline.com/

Turelus

ron.spark79_ESO wrote: »

my thoughts on the new forums are this.instead of making the forums easier to use why don't you fix the problems that you already have such as billing body and bug quests.? it seems to me that a little common sense would dictate that the big problems be handled first

Bah have to edit because the forums doesn't like "= / =" without spaces. :P

Ron, a forums/web design team is not the same team that works game design, programming or development in most cases. To use a terrible analogy you're asking why a plumber can't fix the gearbox in your car.

So many edits because of fail this morning... I need coffee.

Arsenic_Touch

ron.spark79_ESO wrote: »

my thoughts on the new forums are this.instead of making the forums easier to use why don't you fix the problems that you already have such as billing body and bug quests.? it seems to me that a little common sense would dictate that the big problems be handled first

You do realize that the people that work the forums have nothing to do with the billing issues or bugged quests, right? so how do you expect them to address them?

Turelus

Going for the triple post...

Can we have this stuck/pinned please? It would be nice to have one central and visible place to discuss the forums layout and give the team behind it all or thoughts.

Ironhide

For the love of god, let me choose a language and only show me threads tagged as that language.

Iago

Arsenic_Touch wrote: »

ron.spark79_ESO wrote: »

my thoughts on the new forums are this.instead of making the forums easier to use why don't you fix the problems that you already have such as billing body and bug quests.? it seems to me that a little common sense would dictate that the big problems be handled first

You do realize that the people that work the forums have nothing to do with the billing issues or bugged quests, right? so how do you expect them to address them?

Turelus wrote: »

ron.spark79_ESO wrote: »

my thoughts on the new forums are this.instead of making the forums easier to use why don't you fix the problems that you already have such as billing body and bug quests.? it seems to me that a little common sense would dictate that the big problems be handled first

Bah have to edit because the forums doesn't like "= / =" without spaces. :P

Ron, a forums/web design team is not the same team that works game design, programming or development in most cases. To use a terrible analogy you're asking why a plumber can't fix the gearbox in your car.

So many edits because of fail this morning... I need coffee.

I do realize this but since customer service has decided to not do anything I figure there has to be inter office communication between web and game developers even if its on the managerial level.

AlexDougherty

ron.spark79_ESO wrote: »

I do realize this but since customer service has decided to not do anything I figure there has to be inter office communication between web and game developers even if its on the managerial level.

Possibly not quite managerial(for most things), but they probably email issues they find to the relevant team of devs.

Those Devs are probably checking on their emails two or three times a day, while they try to fix the issues they've been given. And they probably prioritise they according to their company hierarchy, with obvious exceptions. And the forums are outside the hierarchy, so given very low priority.

All the mods can do is send the emails and wait for a reply.
(before you ask how I know, I'll admit it's all supposition, but educated supposition)

daneyulebub17_ESO

Agree with a lot of what others have said regarding future changes, but just knowing they're working on 'em makes me happy!

And... General Discussion!!!! Yay!! I can finally quit feeling like an idiot posting everything to inappropriate places.

Blackwolfe5

-The column display on the Devtracker is horrible.
-The "Metroish" design of the category page is confusing
-Mixed languages in the devtracker/recent discussions makes things harder to follow.

Give us tickboxes to filter out languages we are not interested in/cannot read. Personally I don't know either german or french so that pretty much clutters up 1. The category page. 2. Devtracker 3. Recent discussions.

Furthermore the design of the devtracker is terrible and make things even harder to follow. It would be better and less confusing if the devtracker displayed things in rows instead of columns. Seriously, just looking at the devtracker gives me a headache.

I hope some of these things are in the works. If not, they should be.

But for now, thank you for the general forum!

Phantax

Noswell wrote: »

Even if nothing else has changed yet, thank you sweet Jesus for a general discussion forum.

Wouldn't be so bad if half my posts didn't say in customer service thread BUT they are actually in other places, spending too much time hunting round for them. And so many people are 'still' going to post threads on the old forum as that's where we have been posting for so long now !

notepad

Glad to see General Discussion. But, like plenty of others, I'm disappointed that all three languages are still present for everyone. This makes it more 'cluttered' (and that would be the same no matter which of these languages you feel most comfortable with).

I think it would be better if the language is part of our Forum Account preference. We choose a language when setting up our account, and that is what we see (the others are hidden). If we are bilingual or trilingual and want to see the other forums, just change a dropdown in our profile (or maybe a "change language"option in the bottom banner where Game Guide and Media are) and then we can view than language.

JasonSilverSpring

The Server Status forum seems to be hidden now. I can only find posts if I do a search on it. Is the plan to post server status going forward under the Official News? I agree with others about an option to only see forum categories for one language. Also the mobile site still has a blank homepage for me (Google Chrome on Android 4.4).

TheGrandAlliance

"Developer Discussion" session is now "Website Article Feedback".

.........other then a lame-sounding name: Is there any reason the "Developers" don't want to "discuss" anything anymore?...

TheGrandAlliance

JasonSilverSpring wrote: »

The Server Status forum seems to be hidden now. I can only find posts if I do a search on it. Is the plan to post server status going forward under the Official News? I agree with others about an option to only see forum categories for one language. Also the mobile site still has a blank homepage for me (Google Chrome on Android 4.4).

Yes it appears that Official News will have everything in one place from the looks of it. In theory you didn't need seperate forums in the first place IF languages were sorted out...

scratchnsniff

I think everyone is being way to critical, this game is only about 2 months old and I see ZOS making changes every other day.

1. I noticed everyone is so quick to say things such as "you didn't fix anything". I see ZOS making an effort to listen as much as they can to their players and trying to adjust. We don't know the limitations they have.
2. ZOS may be limited in what they can do / filter by the software used for the forum. Not all software is the same.
3. Lastly, the forms might not be a top priority right now at ZOS. There are still issues in game and once again i will say, at least they are trying to make a change. I see true effort on the part of ZOS.

Instead of complaining. Offer some constructive feed back and for the love of the prophet...do it in a nice way.