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Quick Poll: What sort of dev tracker would you prefer?

Gaile Gray.6029

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tlenex.7901

tlenex.7901

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I'd go for option #2, but with some improvements in UI/UX:

  1. split threads by each forum category as... a separate table/accordion-menu/expand-menu/filters maybe?
  2. allow users to show only threads from chosen forum category of their interests - I'd like to see only posts that I might be interested in, currently it seems spammy for me.
  3. show each thread with first post summary, just to know the context of the reply.
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Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

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@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@TexZero.7910 said:I'd like a more traditional approach.

Many forums i use have an entirely different way of doing dev tracking which is just to have a page that showcases only the dev post. Think of it like an ANet RSS feed if you will. It showcases the thread title, and a simple preview of the post (1 sentence). This lets the users see the activity and click the post and jump straight to it.

That feels as if it might be what we had in the past. I am not sure, and I will check the helpful archive that a member made, but I honestly can't remember whether we listed posts or threads in most-recent-post order.

I think it was fairly close to that.Here's a few off site links that showcase things closer to what i'd like to see as they are what im familiar with.

Now i know the forum software usage is different and may be prohibitive of doing it in a similar manner, but i feel this layout is far more user friendly and intuitive than what we currently have (or dont).

Those examples you gave are very useful, so thank you for sharing them.

I really like that first example; I'd be fine with what we had on the old forums, including not only 'next post', but 'previous post', as well. This Dev Tracker is, frankly, useless. My front page of the Dev Tracker is more than half-filled with Stickies, many closed with 0 replies, so even the 'newest thread' part isn't even working.

The Carousel is great....except when many Dev posts happen in a short period of time and fill up the Carousel and push other recent Dev posts off. Also, it has a time-limit?, where all of a sudden it will eat a bunch of Dev posts, collapse, and leave a couple of new ones, and 1 or 2 old ones, and all the Dev posts between are gone.

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Zushada.6108

Zushada.6108

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The Dev Tracker should be a thread or threads based on game mode, that features only information/updates from Devs. A closed thread with no comments. Players wishing to comment can create one in the appropriate forum thread. The forums get far too cluttered as is and it gets very difficult to find anything from Staff that is important with no sticky system in place

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Zaklex.6308

Zaklex.6308

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@Randulf.7614 said:The first option seems the easiest and most organic to follow. The second option means havung to search a thread when all i want is a direct link to an exact posting.

Based on what I'm seeing from others and Gaile, the second option would allow you to click on it and it would take you right to the Dev post, so you wouldn't have to go hunting for it. Then, you could click on the little arrow to the right which would take you to the next Dev post. Presuming of course that Vanilla van even do anything close to what is going to be asked for.

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Valdrimari.2769

Valdrimari.2769

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PoE's forums does it best. It is very flexible, to either only see Dev posts — and Dev posts should not be put at the very top (like the second poll option suggests), because viewers may not way to see Dev responses above someone's OP and everyone else's posts — or to see all posts.

The only time a Dev's post should display at the very top within any thread is if the Dev's post is the OP.

Here is a video to show how the Dev Tracker can really be improved:

Note: Watch the behavior of the UI. I go about two different ways to view Dev posts, and one of those ways involve simply clicking on the Dev post icon next to any thread with a Dev post. In GW2's case, that would be the Anet icon (if a similar system is implemented)

https://youtu.be/LtdrXOOGBaU

On another note, I also hint in the beginning of the video that the forums here should have 'sorting' options, because there are none. On PoE's forum, when you open any of the sub-forums, you can sort what you want within any of those sub-forums by: Post + Bump Time, Post Time, Creation Time, and Title. Not only that, there is a sort by 'Descending' or sort by 'Ascending' options.

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Valdrimari.2769

Valdrimari.2769

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@Gaile Gray.6029 said:

@"Illconceived Was Na.9781" said:The "carousel" already shows all recent posts, including ones from the same thread. So I'd rather a "devtracker" just show the most recent thread in which a developer has posted.Ideally, each would have a forward and backward arrow, so we can easily navigate to earlier/later posts.

That is on my request list. It remains to be seen if it -- well, if any of this -- can happen.

Gaile, what do you mean, "Well, if any of this can happen."? This is 2018, lol, come on. Other sites have done forums well, so why do you doubt the company's capabilities? At least, that is what it sounds like.

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Healix.5819

Healix.5819

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@"Eidolonemesis.5640" said:Gaile, what do you mean, "Well, if any of this can happen."? This is 2018, lol, come on. Other sites have done forums well, so why do you doubt the company's capabilities? At least, that is what it sounds like.

These are generic forums by Vanilla Forums. Vanilla isn't going to go out of their way to create a custom dev tracker for ArenaNet, they're just going to give them what they already offer. They also seem reluctant to help, considering the safe draft popup apparently couldn't be moved, yet they intentionally moved it there in the first place.

The first option is definitely possible, considering it's the standard format and already implemented.

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Valdrimari.2769

Valdrimari.2769

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@Healix.5819 said:

@"Eidolonemesis.5640" said:Gaile, what do you mean, "Well, if any of this can happen."? This is 2018, lol, come on. Other sites have done forums well, so why do you doubt the company's capabilities? At least, that is what it sounds like.

These are generic forums by Vanilla Forums. Vanilla isn't going to go out of their way to create a custom dev tracker for ArenaNet, they're just going to give them what they already offer. They also seem reluctant to help, considering the safe draft popup apparently couldn't be moved, yet they intentionally moved it there in the first place.

The first option is definitely possible, considering it's the standard format and already implemented.

Ah, I see. I didn't know that. My bad.

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Darlgon.9273

Darlgon.9273

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@"Gaile Gray.6029" said:We're talking to Vanilla Forums about improving our Dev Tracker. (Hoorray and cross fingers!) There are two ways we can do this, pending their ability to make the changes we request.

Please keep in mind that any changes are still tentative, and that if we are able to effect improvements, it will be a long-range project, not something we'll see in the next few weeks or months. Still, we'd very much like to have a more effective and useful Dev Tracker, so your input would be very welcome.

Hi Gaile.. Can I make a .. maybe silly comment about option 1?

"Have each and every dev post show up in the tracker, with the most recent at the top. This means the front page of the tracker may have 10 posts from the same thread."

Unless I miss my guess, you are talking about the "Latest ArenaNet Posts" section on the front page, when referring to 10? Because, when I hit the Dev Tracker, I have over 40 threads pop up. (I gave up counting at 40.) Also, isn't the likelihood of 10 ANet employee posts in one thread, and no other ANet posts in other threads, .. a very rare occasion. The player posting changing the raising and falling ranking of the threads is beyond annoying, when all you are looking for is "official" wording on an issue. Which makes option 1 more valuable. I would also like it to actually GO to that dev post. Most of the time, if I have read any of the thread, it will go to the next post after the one I read.. and I have to dig thru pages, looking for an ANet post to hit the ANet symbol.

@"Gaile Gray.6029" said:Here's what I think: If we have a thread listing, you'd click the thread and that would take you immediately to the most recent dev post. You wouldn't need to "dig through the weeds." If you wanted to see previous dev posts you would click the little (hopefully it will be larger, soon) arrow to the right of the dev post which would take you to the next dev post. If you're at the last dev post in the thread, you'd move to the first in the thread and, using the arrows, move through each dev post in order posted.

This would be ideal.

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Kitta.3657

Kitta.3657

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I think the option of showing threads rather than singular posts would only be beneficial over singular posts if there was a preview of what the content of the dev's response was because there are many times they could simply be responding to a player posting in the wrong thread or whatnot per example (read: irrelevant to what you're looking for in that thread) and thus still make the experience clogged. Being able to see the content of the posts is in my opinion far more important and you can simply skim through a post and scroll down instead of having to open the page and come back to where you were if it does not interest you.

Another idea, if possible, would be to order by thread and bump to the top only when a dev responds in it like suggested but have the option to expand (with an arrow) the thread to preview all dev posts in that thread so no need to open the thread to know if you want to read the discussion. This suggestion is probably the hardest to execute but honestly the one that would benefit everyone :)

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StinVec.3621

StinVec.3621

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@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:I've posted this elsewhere (Bugs sub-forum), but I'm not sure if it will be seen before discussing the Dev Tracker with Vanilla.

It seems one of the problems with the Dev Tracker is it is tracking backwards: the newest Dev posts/threads are on the last page, and the oldest Dev posts/thread are on the first page.

Good luck.

Very interesting. It appears that the discussions are also being sorted by when they were created and not by when the last response in the thread was made on each and every page instead of a continuous descending order across pages. Seems to be double bugged. :)

Example:Page 29:

  • top thread created August 17, 2018 at 01:44pm
  • bottom thread created August 1, 2018 at 01:15pm

Page 30 (most recently created threads):

  • top thread created August 22, 2018 at 03:59pm
  • bottom thread created August 19, 2018 at 03:26am
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