If you had complete control over the forums...

[Joseph41]

... how would you change them?

The forums at the moment aren't necessarily the most easily navigable. We're well and truly aware that they could be better and more intuitive - particularly for new users.

Obviously, we want to make it as easy as possible to start (and continue) contributing, and a big part of that is simply the forum layout.

SO, what are your thoughts?
- Change the order of the boards on the index?
- Delete inactive boards altogether?
- Entirely new boards for greater discussion?

Think as big or as small as you like, here - we'd really love to canvass everybody's opinion (new and old). Y'all are the foundations of this community, and there's literally nothing more important.

So - what are your thoughts? What are your qualms? What do you find most difficult? What functionality would you like?

[Joseph41]

Just bumping this. Obviously got no traction at the time. All sweet if nobody has any input - that's fair. But just in case anybody wants to raise their thoughts or concerns about forum functionality and the like, this is the place to do it.

[EEEEEEP]

... how would you change them?

The forums at the moment aren't necessarily the most easily navigable. We're well and truly aware that they could be better and more intuitive - particularly for new users.

Obviously, we want to make it as easy as possible to start (and continue) contributing, and a big part of that is simply the forum layout.

SO, what are your thoughts?
- Change the order of the boards on the index?
- Delete inactive boards altogether?
- Entirely new boards for greater discussion?

Think as big or as small as you like, here - we'd really love to canvass everybody's opinion (new and old). Y'all are the foundations of this community, and there's literally nothing more important.

So - what are your thoughts? What are your qualms? What do you find most difficult? What functionality would you like?

If I had control...

I would love to have indexes in big threads so that people (E.g. my mega HSC threads). So that people can find the information that they want.

Additionally, big useful threads should be stickied! (there are so many good useful threads that are lost  in the sub sections of the threads (aka uni threads, vic education threads)

[Joseph41]

If I had control...

I would love to have indexes in big threads so that people (E.g. my mega HSC threads). So that people can find the information that they want.

Additionally, big useful threads should be stickied! (there are so many good useful threads that are lost  in the sub sections of the threads (aka uni threads, vic education threads)

Thanks EEEEEEP.

1. Could you link to a type of thread you're talking about? How would you envision the index working? Like, links to particular posts in that thread?
2. As above, what type of specific threads are you thinking of here?

[EEEEEEP]

Thanks EEEEEEP.

1. Could you link to a type of thread you're talking about? How would you envision the index working? Like, links to particular posts in that thread?
2. As above, what type of specific threads are you thinking of here?

1. https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=173744.msg983523#msg983523 .

Yes the index would have links to created posts.

2.
Generally threads that take ages and ages to produce and are not just relevant to say.. one single question.
- How to guides: https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=166576.0
- Important topics:  https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=166346.msg886692#msg886692
- Good resources: https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=166410.msg888013#msg888013
https://atarnotes.com/forum/index.php?topic=170296.msg935612#msg935612

I know these are my own links (but there could potentially be many of  other people's links/threads that are buried under the pages and pages of threads).

I and others could have spent hours on writing threads to help people, only for it to be buried under the pages and pages.

[Joseph41]

...

1. Yep, cool - I think I see what you mean. I initially thought you meant something more like this, where individual posts within a thread are linked.

I wonder if we can get this done automatically somehow as to make it all less manually laborious.

2. I'm less convinced with this one, but appreciate the sentiment. IMO we actually have too many stickied threads as is; my personal view is that it clutters the forums unnecessarily.

I definitely get what you're saying. Like, I reckon I'd have dozens of threads I spent a veeerrryy long time on that are buried at the moment. That's obviously not ideal, which is why threads like what you've linked in point one are good and necessary. What I'm thinking at the moment is that, for each sub-forum, we just have one stickied thread, linking to all other useful threads in that area. Your thoughts?

Of course, that's not to say that very many other threads don't deserve to be stickied or whatever. All other things equal, I'm sure ATAR Notes would have hundreds and hundreds of stickied threads, such is the effort and altruism that goes into making them (not to mention their extremely helpful nature!). But yeah, just logistically and so far as forum functionality goes, I personally don't think adding more stickies is the way to go.

Thanks again, EEEEEEP - appreciate your posts, here!

[EEEEEEP]

1. Yep, cool - I think I see what you mean. I initially thought you meant something more like this, where individual posts within a thread are linked.

I wonder if we can get this done automatically somehow as to make it all less manually laborious.
Thanks again, EEEEEEP - appreciate your posts, here!

In RE:1, yeah that's what I mean. 

Uni has it's own index, science, maths, bio all have it's own index etc..

Ideally, the people under the control of those threads would need to do that =).

No Problem

[elysepopplewell]

Interested about how many forum users navigate through the Articles tab up the top?
A similar thing to what you've raised EEEP, that some great resources get a bit buried, but I think it's a different kind of issue because they don't get "bumped" in there.

I'd like to index that and I've chatted with Joseph41 about it - but keen to know if anyone has any thoughts or experiences with navigating that section?

[K888]

for each sub-forum, we just have one stickied thread, linking to all other useful threads in that area.

I like this idea. Not only does it mean less stickies, but it also lets users have access to all these useful resources in what is potentially just one bookmark in their browser.

Interested about how many forum users navigate through the Articles tab up the top?

Potentially going off on a tangent to your question, but to be honest, I find the articles difficult to navigate. I don't think the tags work properly, because even if I click "VCE Articles" (or HSC) I just get the same generic display. Also, the categories for the articles perhaps aren't the best, I think that maybe they could be more refined/specific, but not really sure what you'd change or expand them to.
I think if a user read a useful article once, but hadn't bookmarked it and wanted to find it again, it could potentiall be really hard to find it agian. And the fact that they're not indexed in a list can make it even hard to locate an article.  IMO, could definitely be improved, and I reckon it'd greatly increase the audience numbers for the articles.

[elysepopplewell]

I like this idea. Not only does it mean less stickies, but it also lets users have access to all these useful resources in what is potentially just one bookmark in their browser.

Potentially going off on a tangent to your question, but to be honest, I find the articles difficult to navigate. I don't think the tags work properly, because even if I click "VCE Articles" (or HSC) I just get the same generic display. Also, the categories for the articles perhaps aren't the best, I think that maybe they could be more refined/specific, but not really sure what you'd change or expand them to.
I think if a user read a useful article once, but hadn't bookmarked it and wanted to find it again, it could potentiall be really hard to find it agian. And the fact that they're not indexed in a list can make it even hard to locate an article.  IMO, could definitely be improved, and I reckon it'd greatly increase the audience numbers for the articles.

Yes I have the same thoughts as you! Needs some tidying.

If I had complete control, I'd also have an option for "tell me if someone quotes this post" to ticket before posting, so the people who don't frequent too often, or the people who are posting right now in the English Q+A and getting their posts drowned out, can locate and see the responses, even if they come days later.

A distant dream: a search button that works

[Aaron]

* Design (not talking about design of the forums in terms of organisation, talking about colour schemes/themes etc).
* Change of forum software
* Ensuring that things that are broken, work properly (e.g. leaderboards).
* Forum reorganisation so I don't have to keep moving threads in incorrect sections (I feel for some users given they are extremely confused as to where they should post). Simplest example is Tech Score Discussion. I have a feeling not many know what this means so they don't post in it. I see the logic in posting their study score q's for Methods (for example) in the Maths Methods board but it clutters too easily.

Probably the four things that are primarily in my mind at the moment.

You asked

[Joseph41]

Thanks all for your thoughts! Have taken each of these down carefully.

Can't emphasise this enough:

We'll be having a meeting soon to specifically discuss this issue in great depth. The issue, for clarity, is simply how to improve ATAR Notes going forward. I really want everybody here to be heard. So, if you have any ideas or concerns at all (no matter how big or small), please either post in this thread, or PM me directly if preferred.

[GalacticProcess]

In the 'Unread Topics' section, maybe we could have an option to select the threads we want to 'mark as read'. Sometimes you only want to mark one or some threads as 'read', and that isn't currently an option. Just a thought.

[prickles]

In the 'Unread Topics' section, maybe we could have an option to select the threads we want to 'mark as read'. Sometimes you only want to mark one or some threads as 'read', and that isn't currently an option. Just a thought.

Yeah definitely agree with this ^

[Joseph41]

In the 'Unread Topics' section, maybe we could have an option to select the threads we want to 'mark as read'. Sometimes you only want to mark one or some threads as 'read', and that isn't currently an option. Just a thought.

Yeah definitely agree with this ^

For clarity, could you please screenshot what you mean?