Can you access and post in the Categories > Game Systems > Housing category?

freespirit

I have had several discussions over the last week about this subject. It seems some of us can use this section to post discussions and reply to other peoples posts but it has become apparent to me that not everyone can.
What I wish to discover is what you see if you navigate to Categories > Game Systems > Housing? I also want to stress that what I am talking about is when I am in the game systems category I then left click on the housing section, below is a screenshot of what I see, once in there I can post new discussions and reply to older ones, I have seen screenshots that point to the fact that other people either don't see this or be able to use these options

sarahthes

I don't see any recent posts or discussions in that channel past around April. Isn't it only there for archival purposes as they consolidated the channels?

freespirit

Can you open and interact(post and reply) with the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section as shown above?

This is my issue I see what I posted above and started a discussion there yesterday to which I have had one answer so at least one person can use it the same as I can!

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/681615/show-us-your-sheds#latest

redlink1979

Can you open the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section but get no options to post a discussion or reply to an existing one?

I can create discussions and reply existing ones in "Game Systems" but the subcategories except ToT appear to me as some sort of archive (I can't create any discussion and neither can I reply to the existing ones)

Edit: updated answer

freespirit

Can you open and interact(post and reply) with the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section as shown above?

This is so weird, I mean I see several discussions from June/July too, one about gardening that I did reply too @ZOS_Kevin any idea what is going on here?

Grizzbeorn

@ZOS_Kevin a mystery is afoot.

freespirit

Can you open and interact(post and reply) with the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section as shown above?

@redlink1979 do you see discussions dated recently(ie June/July/Aug)?

Or are the ones you see in the Housing section all older?

Edit:- Typo

redlink1979

Can you open the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section but get no options to post a discussion or reply to an existing one?

freespirit wrote: »

@redlink1979 do you see discussions dated recently(ie June/July/Aug)?

Or are the ones you see in the Housing section all older?

Edit:- Typo

Yes I can see the recent ones in Housing but I can't create a discussion or reply to any, recent or older.

freespirit

Can you open and interact(post and reply) with the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section as shown above?

Just a quick screenshot to try prove to myself I am not 100% crazy!!

Here you can see two threads I've opened in the past few days, ironically the one that was closed was me also trying to prove to myself I could create a discussion in that section!

freespirit

Can you open and interact(post and reply) with the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section as shown above?

So I've just refreshed my memory as to what Kevin said last year when the categories were consolidated under Game Systems and it appears that what I can see and can do is likely not intended behaviour.

Interestingly the new threads I started and the recent ones of other people in the Housing section DON'T appear in the list of recent threads under Game Systems.

I also get the option to start a new thread under Tales of Tribute but the crafting section is just an archive. I'm weirded out, time to go play the game!

DenverRalphy

Might be helpful to provide which browser, and the exact URL in your URL bar. As that could possibly make a difference.

LunaFlora

Can you open the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section but get no options to post a discussion or reply to an existing one?

No.
here's screenshots of the Game Systems and Housing categories


and one of your Sheds post to showcase no comment option.



it's been impossible to make Housing threads or comment on them since Game Systems was added.
And since Game Systems got added i have been making Housing threads in that category as that was the purpose of the new category.

Sordidfairytale

I made this point about a year ago as well. It was explained that several years ago the decision was to consolidate a number of ingame mechanic categories into "game systems" and sunset those other individual categories.

But it's clearly not happening and it is causing a great deal of confusion, because some of us can access and post in those areas and our posts/comments won't show up in the intended area of the forums. They should abondon this consolidation because it's a horrid user experience.

LootAllTheStuff

Other:- Such as, I cannot even open that section

When I looked at that test thread you created (now locked), the "Reply" button was present and visibly in its active state, but I didn't actually try using it. As I noted in the other thread where we had this discussion, I personally did not get a "New Discussion" button.

Edit: Actually, I can see a "New Discussion" button if I click through to the ToT sub-category, and I see that others have posted there since the change too.

freespirit

Can you open and interact(post and reply) with the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section as shown above?

DenverRalphy wrote: »

Might be helpful to provide which browser, and the exact URL in your URL bar. As that could possibly make a difference.

@DenverRalphy I use Edge on my PC and Chrome on my Tablet, both allow me to access and post in the "Housing" section.

I presume you mean what I see as the address by my URL(sorry not that savvy on terms) I see this for the sheds discussion

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/681615/show-us-your-sheds#latest

and this just for the actual "Housing" section

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/housing

For just the Game Systems I see this

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/categories/gamesystems

For the first two I will repeat I can create threads and at least one person has answered my sheds one. I can also post replies in the threads that show in that section

ESO_player123

Can you open the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section but get no options to post a discussion or reply to an existing one?

I can open the Housing subforum, but I cannot create a discussion or reply to posts there (including the one you created to show that it's possible for you). I use Chrome on my laptop.

cyclonus11

Can you open and interact(post and reply) with the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section as shown above?

Yes.

Northwold

No I can't post there (nor can I reply, including to your thread) but more or less as soon as they moved to the games systems structure and supposedly closed down as archive the housing section I noticed that housing continued to be active.

I wondered if it was mods moving threads in there and so not using the forum categories as they had been supposedly designed. If people are actually posting without that having happened it seems even weirder.

It's very confusing since, on phone at least, the forum interface doesn't clearly say that you can't create new threads. The button just doesn't appear.

Since, also, no clear explanation appears on either the game systems page or the housing page of what they're now for except as a click through, it also seems likely that people may try to post in housing, see that they can't, think it's bugged and just not post at all. Even renaming "housing" "housing (archive only, new posts to game systems)" or something would be an improvement.

LootAllTheStuff

Other:- Such as, I cannot even open that section

I had a look at the Vanilla forums documentation, and the permissions options are pretty simple. Basically, if a category is set to "no new posts", only moderators/administrators should be able to actually post there. Unless there are additional custom options that a forum instance owner can set up, my guess would be that there's something in the actual coding that is being handled differently between different browsers, versions, and/or platforms. IOW it's likely a Vanilla rather than ZOS problem.

ZOS_Kevin

Hi all. Thank you for highlighting this. This seems like unintended behavior. The idea was to give access to still view the older housing threads, but have posting happening in the main game systems category. We got user feedback that we had too many categories, so we tried to consolidate some. But Vanilla has some odd things happening on the backend that makes interacting with the category funky.

We will look into this, but I guess the follow up question I have is, would you rather just having the housing thread back? We were trying to accommodate feedback, but if the consensus is that you would rather the housing channel back, we can do that.

j3z3b3l

I prefer the housing channel.

Northwold

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all. Thank you for highlighting this. This seems like unintended behavior. The idea was to give access to still view the older housing threads, but have posting happening in the main game systems category. We got user feedback that we had too many categories, so we tried to consolidate some. But Vanilla has some odd things happening on the backend that makes interacting with the category funky.

We will look into this, but I guess the follow up question I have is, would you rather just having the housing thread back? We were trying to accommodate feedback, but if the consensus is that you would rather the housing channel back, we can do that.

The housing subforum was actually why I signed up so I'd love to have it back as a standalone!

LootAllTheStuff

Other:- Such as, I cannot even open that section

For me, the biggest issue is that "Game Systems" does not immediately suggest any of the categories lumped under it - it always seemed like a bit of a misnomer, but I'm sure even coming up with that name was difficult. Crafting somewhat overlaps with housing, but ToT doesn't really seem to fit with either of them. I'm not sure what the best option is, tbh. If housing is the more active of the three, it might make sense to split it off?

Sadras

LootAllTheStuff wrote: »

For me, the biggest issue is that "Game Systems" does not immediately suggest any of the categories lumped under it - it always seemed like a bit of a misnomer, but I'm sure even coming up with that name was difficult.

I was thinking the same thing, though I like that it's under General. I can imagine separate tiles under General may be a bit much to ask to implement, but that would be immediately findable if that's an option.

WolfStar07

Can you open the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section but get no options to post a discussion or reply to an existing one?

There have been a lot of housing discussions I've not been able to participate in since they did the forum revamp last year. I've complained about this before in other threads. For me, the current Housing board is where threads go to die because for some reason so many of us can't post to it, which effectively stifles or stops discussion. ZOS have said they pay attention to what sections get a lot of activity, and with a much lower participation compared to other areas, it creates this false perception that interest in housing has waned. There's no point in me checking the topics on the housing board because I can't reply to it, and I don't want to have to search for or create a thread in the general board where it will very easily get overlooked. If Kevin hadn't replied and it showed up on the dev tracker, I'd have missed this thread entirely.

DenverRalphy

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all. Thank you for highlighting this. This seems like unintended behavior. The idea was to give access to still view the older housing threads, but have posting happening in the main game systems category. We got user feedback that we had too many categories, so we tried to consolidate some. But Vanilla has some odd things happening on the backend that makes interacting with the category funky.

We will look into this, but I guess the follow up question I have is, would you rather just having the housing thread back? We were trying to accommodate feedback, but if the consensus is that you would rather the housing channel back, we can do that.

I could be remembering incorrectly. But I think there was a bit of a disconnect between what the forumbase was recommending via feedback, and how it was interpreted and put to practice.

The 3 forums Housing, Crafting, and ToT, should each still be fully functional sub-forums that can be posted to. However the parent forum (in this case Game Systems) should only be a container that contains all the threads from all 3 sub-forums that can be read and replied to. IIRC, this was suggested in the past due to there being significantly less activity in those 3 particular sub-forums.

So essentially any post created in Game Systems wouldn't appear in each of the sub-forums. But any post created in the sub-forums would appear in Game Systems. Basically making Game Systems a catch-all for posts to the 3 sub-forums, and for posts that aren't easily categorized into any of the 3 current sub-forums.

Hope that makes sense.

OH! And I'd like to make a formal request that the forum title "Game Systems" be revisited. Game Systems sounds like the topics would be based around PC-XBox-Playstation specific subjects.

Elvenheart

Other:- Such as, I cannot even open that section

I voted other because I never go there anymore because it’s so confusing now. I loved it when we had a separate topic just for housing on the main list.

Elvenheart

Other:- Such as, I cannot even open that section

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all. Thank you for highlighting this. This seems like unintended behavior. The idea was to give access to still view the older housing threads, but have posting happening in the main game systems category. We got user feedback that we had too many categories, so we tried to consolidate some. But Vanilla has some odd things happening on the backend that makes interacting with the category funky.

We will look into this, but I guess the follow up question I have is, would you rather just having the housing thread back? We were trying to accommodate feedback, but if the consensus is that you would rather the housing channel back, we can do that.

Me me, me, me me, me me! I would like the old housing thread back!

Ilsabet

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all. Thank you for highlighting this. This seems like unintended behavior. The idea was to give access to still view the older housing threads, but have posting happening in the main game systems category. We got user feedback that we had too many categories, so we tried to consolidate some. But Vanilla has some odd things happening on the backend that makes interacting with the category funky.

I think there are two factors that combine to make the current layout more confusing than it was intended to be.

1) "Game Systems" as a catch-all category is a vague name that doesn't actually tell people what topics are discussed in the folder.

2) Meanwhile, there are subfolders with names and descriptions that invite discussion of those topics, but there's no indication that these are meant to be read-only archives of older, inactive threads.

If I were a newcomer to the forum who wanted to discuss housing, I would first have to click around to even land on the Game Systems folder, and then I would see the Housing subforum and think that's the place to be. Then I would either be confused why I couldn't post in any of the threads, or be confused why some threads worked and some didn't.

The fact that some people can still post in the archived folders/threads is its own functionality issue, but if you decide to keep the layout as it currently is, then labeling the old folders as archives and changing the descriptions to explain that they're read-only would be helpful.

SilverBride

Can you open the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section but get no options to post a discussion or reply to an existing one?

Elvenheart wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all. Thank you for highlighting this. This seems like unintended behavior. The idea was to give access to still view the older housing threads, but have posting happening in the main game systems category. We got user feedback that we had too many categories, so we tried to consolidate some. But Vanilla has some odd things happening on the backend that makes interacting with the category funky.

We will look into this, but I guess the follow up question I have is, would you rather just having the housing thread back? We were trying to accommodate feedback, but if the consensus is that you would rather the housing channel back, we can do that.

Me me, me, me me, me me! I would like the old housing thread back!

Add my name to want the Housing forum back, too!

LunaFlora

Can you open the Categories > Game Systems > Housing section but get no options to post a discussion or reply to an existing one?

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Hi all. Thank you for highlighting this. This seems like unintended behavior. The idea was to give access to still view the older housing threads, but have posting happening in the main game systems category. We got user feedback that we had too many categories, so we tried to consolidate some. But Vanilla has some odd things happening on the backend that makes interacting with the category funky.

We will look into this, but I guess the follow up question I have is, would you rather just having the housing thread back? We were trying to accommodate feedback, but if the consensus is that you would rather the housing channel back, we can do that.

i would rather the Housing channel return yes please. it definitely seemed more active than the other Game Systems categories.

edited to add:
Game Systems would not make me think of Housing if i did not already know its purpose.