Forum Categories are changing. Let's discuss.

Danikat

Cooperharley wrote: »

In the grand scheme of things, does this matter? I feel like most people use the recent tab to see what's being discussed, but it's fine I guess

Some people do, but I think there's a lot who don't.

I never use it because there's several themes which get a lot of topics and posts that I'm not interested in at all, like PvP balance and problems with other people's computers, and if I just use "recent" I have to scroll through all of them to pick out the ones I do want to read.

It also has the added complication of making vague subjects even vaguer by removing the context of which section they're in, so I have to at least click into them to find out of it's something even worth me trying to follow or if it's about part of the game I don't play and won't mean anything to me.

For me it's much easier to use the sections to narrow it down to topics I'm more likely to want to read.

Hamish999

I very rarely look at anything outside of General Discussion so makes no difference to me :shrug:

DenverRalphy

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

kyle.wilson wrote: »

The search feature inside of the forums needs a change.

We can reach out to the provider of our forums, Vanilla Forums, about that. Search optimization happens on their end.

Actually, Vanilla Forums has an Advanced Search built into the core of it's design, This forum has been modified so heavily outside it's virgin state that I doubt Vanilla Forums would even touch it. You'd be better served speaking with the people or peoples that modified the forum software to such an extreme.

vsrs_au

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

kyle.wilson wrote: »

The search feature inside of the forums needs a change.

We can reach out to the provider of our forums, Vanilla Forums, about that. Search optimization happens on their end.

What about the forum post jumping problem? Is there any fix planned for that?
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/596835/is-there-a-setting-to-turn-off-the-forum-post-jumping

LalMirchi

I don't know how flexible the backend software is as I would like to have an option for a configurable User Interface. This would show the most recent posts in selected categories for a logged-in user. In effect this would simplify the landing page with a quick overview of ones chosen information.

This suggestion is based In setting selected categories as favorites while keeping the header and footer unchanged:

In this view only the most recent posts in the selected categories would show.

By default (for new users or those that do not edit their settings) all categories will be included, ie the forum view would be unchanged.

An easy way to choose ones favorite categories would be required, perhaps in the users settings. This would allow users to have a personalized view while easy access to the header/footer links would still show specific information.

.

TaSheen

LalMirchi wrote: »

I don't know how flexible the backend software is as I would like to have an option for a configurable User Interface. This would show the most recent posts in selected categories for a logged-in user. In effect this would simplify the landing page with a quick overview of ones chosen information.

This suggestion is based In setting selected categories as favorites while keeping the header and footer unchanged:

In this view only the most recent posts in the selected categories would show.

By default (for new users or those that do not edit their settings) all categories will be included, ie the forum view would be unchanged.

An easy way to choose ones favorite categories would be required, perhaps in the users settings. This would allow users to have a personalized view while easy access to the header/footer links would still show specific information.

.

There are platforms that would allow that. As far as I know at this point, Vanilla isn't one of them.

Cloudtrader

Why am I still seeing a separate ToT Category AND the new Game Systems category with ToT threads in it, too?

Also, Game Systems absolutely does not make sense. If I want to read about Housing, I shouldn't have to sort through crafting and card game stuff.

vsrs_au

LalMirchi wrote: »

I don't know how flexible the backend software is as I would like to have an option for a configurable User Interface. This would show the most recent posts in selected categories for a logged-in user. In effect this would simplify the landing page with a quick overview of ones chosen information.

This suggestion is based In setting selected categories as favorites while keeping the header and footer unchanged:

In this view only the most recent posts in the selected categories would show.

By default (for new users or those that do not edit their settings) all categories will be included, ie the forum view would be unchanged.

An easy way to choose ones favorite categories would be required, perhaps in the users settings. This would allow users to have a personalized view while easy access to the header/footer links would still show specific information.

.

If the forum was actually using a decent forum framework, e.g. Xenforo, showing/hiding categories in your user settings, and many, many other things, would be possible, and this rearrangement of categories wouldn't have even been necessary.

ZOS_Kevin

Cloudtrader wrote: »

Why am I still seeing a separate ToT Category AND the new Game Systems category with ToT threads in it, too?

The system is not saving the options properly. This is a bug and we have submitted a ticket to Vanilla to fix.

Cloudtrader wrote: »

Also, Game Systems absolutely does not make sense. If I want to read about Housing, I shouldn't have to sort through crafting and card game stuff.

So the other two systems don't have nearly as much chatter as housing does. So we don't think it will be an issue reading about housing under the new category (once the category bug is fixed). However, as we noted before, we'll be monitoring how folks are using categories. We can always revert or pull housing back into its own category. That's why we archived the sections rather than hide or delete. We want to make sure they are still accessible for finding older threads, and if we need to revert changes, we can do that.

VouxeTheMinotaur

Four_Fingers wrote: »

Would like to see some effort made increasing forum traffic which has been dwindling.
Maybe revisit some players that were overzealously banned a couple of years ago.

This and maybe an in-game announcement on the log-in screen where they post server maintenance.
I myself had no idea these forums existed, let alone was invited to them by playing the game, for years until recently.
I feel there are many other players who are like that. A nudge to them as a reminder.
Just an idea.

alternatelder

I will still only visit General. The rest I go to if I happen to have something to post, or I'm looking for something specific...Which I usually have nothing.

SilverBride

I've started using Recent rather than just General like I used to. This way I see posts I would have missed before because they were in forums I never visited.

I still think there are way too many categories though and would like to see them consolidated even more.

katanagirl1

Housing and Crsfting section now show the latest posts being December 2023. This won’t work.

tsaescishoeshiner

There are some threads that are not showing up anywhere. Two days ago, I found a thread about competitive BG compositions, and it's not in the PvP forum or any of the 3 subforums linked at the top. Not sure how to find it now without the search function or trying a web search.

EDIT: It's the "PvP Combat and Skills" category, which is not showing up under the new "PvP Activities" forum or the combat one.

Here's the thread I couldn't find: https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/665651/class-combination-prediction-for-bg-4v4-8v8-play-for-win-setup

Here's the PvP Combat and Skills category, which I can only find by clicking at the link on top of this thread, and not from the forum menu:
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/PvP-combat-skills

TaSheen

Well, stuff like this takes time to get the wrinkles ironed out.... Been there done that. I'm guessing a week isn't going to be enough time....

SilverBride

I was uanble to post a screenshot on a post in the Game Systems forum that I was able to when it was still the Housing forum.

I found a work around for now.

I went to a different forum that allowed me to post a screenshot previously.
I edited that post and posted the screenshots there, then copied the screenshot's urls and cancelled the edit on that post.
I then pasted the urls into the Game Systems thread and the screenshots posted.

vsrs_au

The Crafting sub-forum is being a bit unpredictable. First, it got moved under General > Game Systems, then a copy of it reappeared under General, then the copy vanished, then it reappeared. It's time to migrate the forum database to a new forum engine, because Vanilla is rubbish (or it's not being configured correctly). We were also promised that the forum post jumping problem would be fixed, but here we are many months later and it's still a problem.

wilykcat

It's a bug.

vsrs_au

wilykcat wrote: »

It's a bug.

Yes, I saw the previous post mentioning that, but even software bugs follow rules, so it looks like nobody has figured out the rules for this one, yet.

wilykcat

vsrs_au wrote: »

wilykcat wrote: »

It's a bug.

Yes, I saw the previous post mentioning that, but even software bugs follow rules, so it looks like nobody has figured out the rules for this one, yet.

I hope they will resolve these issues quickly. Maybe they're working on a fix and these things take time.

Amottica

Destai wrote: »

I think there’s strong need for an Overland sub forum. Right now, all overland discussions are directed towards one thread, and it’s hard to keep track of the discussions within it.

It is by design that the overland discussion is all in one thread. It is an official thread, and they close all other threads to keep the focus on the official one.

Amottica

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

kyle.wilson wrote: »

The search feature inside of the forums needs a change.

We can reach out to the provider of our forums, Vanilla Forums, about that. Search optimization happens on their end.

It's good because the forum search is really bad. Google works so much better than the forum search.

LikiLoki

I used to go to "housing" a lot. Now I started to get confused and stopped coming in. Maybe if there are thumbnails of icons in this square internal themes, will become easier?

Theist_VII

Haven’t really noticed that much of a difference with the categories yet.

Was assuming we would see a lot of the less active topics bundled, but it doesn’t appear to be the case.

Nerouyn

Cloudtrader wrote: »

Why am I still seeing a separate ToT Category AND the new Game Systems category with ToT threads in it, too?

Also, Game Systems absolutely does not make sense. If I want to read about Housing, I shouldn't have to sort through crafting and card game stuff.

There's often a wide gap between what players and developers want. This is one of those instances.

They've been consolidated because housing is popular, and crafting and card game stuff aren't.

ESO's housing - putting aside monetization debates - is well done and much loved.

Crafting is... well it's cycling through alts every day to do writs which is rewarding in terms of in game rewards but boring as. Not much anyone could say about it.

The card game thing? I reckon they looked at the popularity of The Witcher games, stupidly decided it was all down to its card game and decided to copy. Now they know better but have tried this "clever" forum consolidation trick to "remind" players the features they're perfectly aware of and don't care about at all exist.

katanagirl1

vsrs_au wrote: »

The Crafting sub-forum is being a bit unpredictable. First, it got moved under General > Game Systems, then a copy of it reappeared under General, then the copy vanished, then it reappeared. It's time to migrate the forum database to a new forum engine, because Vanilla is rubbish (or it's not being configured correctly). We were also promised that the forum post jumping problem would be fixed, but here we are many months later and it's still a problem.

I thought the categories would still exist under the Game Systems category, but reading Kevin’s thread it sounds like it won’t be. Everything is just lumped together.

This is not the way I thought subcategories would be trimmed down. Crafting and Housing are related and could be combined, but ToT doesn’t relate to those two. How about remove some generic categories instead? Or leave them alone cause it’s not that big of a deal.