Quick Sidebar Major Update #2

[EpicNPC]

A second round of updates are now live that add additional functionality to the sidebar. Below are the new features.

• New status indicators
  • Apart from read/unread indicator (gray circles on right side), we have added the ability to see if you're threads are bumpable. Those threads will show a greenish circle instead of gray.
    
• Pin Forums
  • The 'Recently Visited' list now has a pin to stick your favorite sections to the top.
    
• Remove Threads
  • Threads can now be removed from your lists by clicks the X icon.
  • Threads will not be added back unless you reply again to the thread.
    
• Combined Sections & Sorting Changes
  • The "My Threads" and "Other Threads" sections have been combined so all new activity always appears at the top. User's with long lists no longer need to scroll down to check thread notifications.
  • Because we combined these two sections, we updated the way sorting works.
    • Threads with new replies will appear at the top.
    • Threads that can be bumped will appear next.
    • Below the remaining threads will be listed based on the last reply timestamps.
  • Once you bump a thread, it will re-sort based on last reply timestamps.
    
• Sold, Bought, Closed Threads Removed
  • These threads will no longer appear in your lists.
    
• Watch List support
  • If you watch a thread and that thread is active within 10 days, it will appear in the sidebar. Previously you had to either be the thread creator or comment in the thread.

If you notice any issues, please post here.

 

[MistiServices]

One thing missing , before when there was annoucement,feedback or anything i am interested to see , i would get notification on bell icon and could easy visit it , where is that now ? On bell icon is just warning for thread upgrade , feedback and when someone likes comment on thread. To find this thread before would take me 3 seconds, now i spent 30 seconds to get here and wrote this..

 

[Fluentcee]

Couple of things with the new update I'm observing so far:

1. Just posted a few new threads, they are not being shown in "My active threads". I can confirm that the threads are being watched. Edit: I understand now that it's because they don't have bumps available since they're still on first page, and are displayed below all the available bumps/ active threads. Can be fixed if Bump manager tab is accepted and implemented.

2. Threads with most recent activity are not at the top, I have several old threads of my own that are above threads that used to be in the "other threads" section, that are not at the top, they are lower than these comment-less and older threads. Probably a bug due to rolling out combined sections, not sure if it needs to be fixed or let it play out. Edit: Same as 1: they are all my threads with bumps available, since I can only bump 5, this results in a long scroll to more relevant threads. The bump manager tab again fixes this.

3. Threads that I have watched with no replies are also visible in the same way as 2, have never had comments but are now visible despite being older than 10 day old posts. I'm watching these posts for the chance they get replies, since I have already viewed the original posts. They do not need to be shown.

Recommendations:

1. Add a 3rd tab alongside the existing "Active Threads" and "Recently Visited" sections to the sidebar labeled "Bump Manager" or simply "My Threads". This section should be sorted only by most recent time the thread was bumped, no other type of activity such as replies. Do not RE-SORT this by replies because a seller will already have responded to the question or comment when the reply is posted, but if resorted it will always appear at the top like it is more active than all the others, when in reality it is not continuing to be active. Purely sorting by last bump time is the best for this purpose. Edit: While I'm at it, I would also say that if the thread does not have a "buying, selling, or trading" tag, it shouldn't appear in this list, even if I created it. Those would be best put in the "Other Threads/ community Threads" etc since a sale or purchase is not the point of those threads and will not be bumped.

Since all forums have a limit to how many threads can be on the first page at a time, large sellers will have way more threads that can be bumped, than they can bump. So moving this to a new tab will make sense. If these sections are separated, users will not have to manage both their own threads and interaction across the community in one place. They will also not have to scroll down through potentially hundreds of threads with available bumps (for the big sellers) to get to the relevant community content.

This allows the average user to see the community content and threads that interest them, and the seller can opt to navigate to the bump manager section to manage their own stuff efficiently, and you still have the sidebar accomplishing what you're intending. A complete win for you and us. Please do it!


2. Make the content that appears in the sidebar only have one source: watched threads or forums. I can't stress this enough, if I am not watching a thread, you have to assume I don't want to see activity on it. Any activity relating to or seeing unwatched threads on the sidebar will be actively distracting. I may have simply responded in a help thread at one point, but if users have issues related to that thread in the future, I am not interested in that if I have unwatched the thread.

Going further, I don't want to be inconvenienced when this happens by having to manually remove it from "My active threads" category so it won't show up. And I definitely don't want to have to randomly comment in order to effectively re-watch a thread. The manual remove option is a solution to an unnecessary problem. If you do this, you will not have any issues of members needing to add or remove threads on a case by case basis to the sidebar, they can simply do it by watching or un-watching a thread. Much simpler than finding and clicking a thread off your sidebar.

3. If both 1 and 2 are accepted, then you may want to rename the Tabs themselves to make it more clear and navigable. I would recommend:

1. Watched Threads (Or Other Threads/ Community Threads)
2. My Threads (Or My Thread/ Bump Manager)
3. Recent Forums (Currently withholding judgement on how useful this is, but it's not bad with the pins)

 

[Schizoflexia]

How do i check newest thread on watched forums? It was in alerts tab before, now i only can get email notifs about watched threads

 

[The Integrity]

It seems to show watched threads but not watched forums. I didn't get notified of this new thread in announcements like I usually would have

It's better but things are still missing.
Most of what I said in my previous post still stands. Still don't understand why are you developing a separate list for the sidebar instead of using just the watch list.

 

[EpicNPC]

One thing missing , before when there was annoucement,feedback or anything i am interested to see , i would get notification on bell icon and could easy visit it , where is that now ? On bell icon is just warning for thread upgrade , feedback and when someone likes comment on thread. To find this thread before would take me 3 seconds, now i spent 30 seconds to get here and wrote this..

How do i check newest thread on watched forums? It was in alerts tab before, now i only can get email notifs about watched threads

Feedback alerts still appear in the bell icon. "Announcement" alerts don't exist, what you're referring to is the 'Forum Watchlist' alerts for the 'News/Announcement' section. If you have that section on your 'Recently Visited' list, it will show "NEW" anytime there's a new thread. You can also pin it to the top to more easily keep track of it and that forum will never be removed from your list.

Forum alerts appear in the "Recently Visited" tab.

2. Threads with most recent activity are not at the top, I have several old threads of my own that are above threads that used to be in the "other threads" section, that are not at the top, they are lower than these comment-less and older threads. Probably a bug due to rolling out combined sections, not sure if it needs to be fixed or let it play out.

This was answered above.

• Threads with new replies will appear at the top.
• Threads that can be bumped will appear next.
• Below the remaining threads will be listed based on the last reply timestamps.

3. Threads that I have watched with no replies are also visible in the same way as 2, have never had comments but are now visible despite being older than 10 day old posts. I'm watching these posts for the chance they get replies, since I have already viewed the original posts. They do not need to be shown.

Bumps count towards activity. If a thread has been bumped within 10 days, it is considered active.

Add a 3rd tab alongside the existing "Active Threads" and "Recently Visited" sections to the sidebar labeled "Bump Manager" or simply "My Threads".

A 3rd tab is planned that will integrate the chat inboxes to the sidebar. We do not plan to split threads between 2 tabs, sorry.

2. Make the content that appears in the sidebar only have one source: watched threads or forums. I can't stress this enough

It already does.

Create thread = Automatically added to watch list and sidebar
Reply to thread = automatically added to watch list and sidebar
Manually add thread to watch list = added to watch list and sidebar

If a member disables the feature to automatically watch threads, that is the only time a non-watched thread will appear in the sidebar.

 

[Fluentcee]

A 3rd tab is planned that will integrate the chat inboxes to the sidebar. We do not plan to split threads between 2 tabs, sorry.

Then don't separate them, but find a solution.

Edit: I think the collapsible sections recommendation from other members was a great idea for if you won't add a new tab. Put My threads above and let it be collapsed, then put community threads underneath.

It already does.

Yes, but it also adds threads you replied to, regardless of if you still watch the thread. I'm asking for that to be removed.

 

[The Integrity]

"Announcement" alerts don't exist, what you're referring to is the 'Forum Watchlist' alerts for the 'News/Announcement' section. If you have that section on your 'Recently Visited' list, it will show "NEW" anytime there's a new thread. You can also pin it to the top to more easily keep track of it and that forum will never be removed from your list.

So I have to manually open the sidebar, click on recently visited, look whether there's a "NEW" tag next to announcements every time I visit the forum in order to not skip an announcement instead of just getting an alert whenever one is made?
That's not a major downgrade of functionality to how it worked before?

It already does.

Create thread = Automatically added to watch list and sidebar
Reply to thread = automatically added to watch list and sidebar
Manually add thread to watch list = added to watch list and sidebar

Why two lists then?

 

[Fluentcee]

The criteria for sidebar content should not be: if member watches OR member replied to.

It should only be: if member watches.

That's all that should be showing.

 

[Fluentcee]

Bumps count towards activity. If a thread has been bumped within 10 days, it is considered active.

Also for this one, I would request that bumps of other sellers not be show in the sidebar. It is not activity that I care about seeing. Nothing has changed on the thread, no one has replied, and I've already viewed it. I do not need to know that other sellers are bumping their threads.

Bumps of other members counting as activity that shows in the sidebar will lead to being distracting from actual active content that a member might want to view.

 

[The Integrity]

No one else commenting here because no one got notified

 

[Fluentcee]

Found a potential bug. When you delete a thread, it will still show in the "bump available" section. All items with "buying/ selling/ trading" that are deleted/ closed/ bought/ sold should be removed from sidebar content.

 

[EpicNPC]

So I have to manually open the sidebar, click on recently visited, look whether there's a "NEW" tag next to announcements every time I visit the forum in order to not skip an announcement instead of just getting an alert whenever one is made?

This was already explained in the previous thread.

"members who watched multiple forums, many members had thousands of unread alerts because of this ... Members who receive too many alerts like this can also easily overlook more important alerts."

We will continue to work on improving the sidebar forum alerts so members can get to the content they need faster.

The criteria for sidebar content should not be: if member watches OR member replied to.

It should only be: if member watches.

When you reply to a thread, it is automatically added to your watch list. For 99% of members there is no difference. If you happen to reply to a thread and don't want it on your list, you can simply remove it.

Also for this one, I would request that bumps of other sellers not be show in the sidebar. It is not activity that I care about seeing. Nothing has changed on the thread, no one has replied, and I've already viewed it. I do not need to know that other sellers are bumping their threads.

Bumps of other members counting as activity that shows in the sidebar will lead to being distracting from actual active content that a member might want to view.

Bumps from other sellers do not change anything in the sidebar. They simply count towards thread activity.

For example, if you're watching a thread and the seller is bumping it daily, that thread will remain in your sidebar because it's considered an active thread. However that thread will not appear at the top because the sort is based on last reply. Bump has no bearing here.

If your own thread has a bump available, then it will appear at the top of your list, but this is only for your own threads, not others.

Found a potential bug. When you delete a thread, it will still show in the "bump available" section. All items with "buying/ selling/ trading" that are deleted/ closed/ bought/ sold should be removed from sidebar content.

I'm unable to replicate. This is not a bug. You can still see the thread because you're a moderator which gives you the ability to see deleted threads.

 

[Fluentcee]

All my feedback is for the purpose of improving the feature, but thanks for clarifying some of those things.

I hope you will consider implementing:
1. All sidebar content appearing based on watch threads only.
2. All content displaying in the sidebar is new or has new activity (excluding bumps because it really isn't activity).
3. My threads section sorted purely by bump timer, that is collapsible to display other threads underneath.

The merits of each are:
1. Members have more control of their sidebar without the needs to manually remove via sidebar, or manually readd via commenting. I've tested this and know if I remove a thread and rewatch it later it will not appear, only when you comment again. This is unintuitive and messy. Watched only is simpler and more effective.
2. Members watch threads with no comments. If no replies happen, no activity had occurred and they likely would not have a reason to view the thread again until something happens. Bumped threads being shown will only add clutter and make finding content to interact with more difficult.
3. Beating the dead horse here, but your big sellers use this type of feature to rotate listings into forums to they can get viewed and purchased. A bump time based my threads will allow Members to do this easily. Making it collapsible will allow Members to quickly navigate from "My content" to "other content", which is intuitive since they know what they want to look for when they're scrolling through the sidebar. When it's all mixed and mangled together it is needlessly confusing.

Hoping to see improvements. I think what I'm recommending is a good start and would receive support. Hoping this doesn't just die out as people become apathetic to having a good on-site experience

 

[EpicNPC]

1. All sidebar content appearing based on watch threads only.

In the next update we are adding options to better sync the thread watch lists and sidebar.

If you remove a thread from your sidebar, it will unwatch the thread.
If you unwatch a thread, it will remove it from your sidebar.

2. All content displaying in the sidebar is new or has new activity (excluding bumps because it really isn't activity).

This could cause problems.

Example, you add a thread to your watch list. The thread is active (bumps), but the last reply is 2 weeks ago. This thread will NOT appear in your sidebar. Is that's how you want it to work?

I think this could also cause some confusion. Members who see an active thread and watch it might ask why it's not in their sidebar.

If we make this change it would only be for others member's threads. We'll still have to show bump alerts for threads you have created, so those threads would have to remain listed.

3. My threads section sorted purely by bump timer, that is collapsible to display other threads underneath.

The "My threads" section was removed and both were combined. We did this to eliminate the need to scroll. All new replies and alerts are at the top. Since there's only one section, there is no need for a collapse option.

 

[Fluentcee]

1. Sounds good. But if you remove it from sidebar, and later rewatch, will it appear in the sidebar? Currently I can confirm it won't. Only by commenting does it come back. Check on that.

2. I only intend to use the sidebar to monitor activity, so yes, if a thread is not receiving replies then I do not need to see it if it is older than 10 days, even if I'm watching an older post. When real activity (not bumps) occur, I'll be notified of this relevant activity and pay attention to it.

If I want to review all my watched threads that don't have activity, I can look at the watched threads list.

3. Separated is better. It already requires a lot of scrolling generally to get to content that is semi active, but below all of your bumps. If I could just collapse the available bumps and all my other threads, that would be far more convenient. It would also make it easier to know that my content and community content isn't randomly mixed together due to post time or last reply.

Normally a user will have the intention to interact with their own posts (typically the main reason to do so is to bump) or to interact across the community. So being able to quickly collapse all your available bumps (since probably many of these will be impossible to bump due to forum bump limits) to get to other types of active content is a big improvement. Anytime I want to review content that that has been active on the last few days, I have to scroll below many active bumps everytime.

Alternatively, you could simply hide all available bumps if they cannot physically be bumped due to forum bump limits. That would somewhat alleviate the clutter for someone with a lot of threads. Still it would be even better if it was a collapsible section that was sorted by last bump or reply.

 

[EpicNPC]

1. Sounds good. But if you remove it from sidebar, and later rewatch, will it appear in the sidebar? Currently I can confirm it won't. Only by commenting does it come back. Check on that.

Yes, adding it back to your watch list will add it to the sidebar, but only if the thread is active. If it's not active, it will not appear in the sidebar.

2. For now we will keep it as is. If over time we see a need to change it we can then do that.

3. Separated is better. It already requires a lot of scrolling generally to get to content that is semi active, but below all of your bumps.

If a thread is below your available bumps, then that thread has no new activity.

Your suggestion would cause constant scrolling or toggling of the collapse button. New replies to threads where you're not the thread creator would no longer appear at the top. Users would have to scroll down or collapse the section to view them.

If you have the top section collapsed already and get a new bump, you would have to toggle the expand button.

Currently the user has to do nothing to view all new replies or available bumps. Everything is at the top. The only reason to scroll down at this time is if you want to find a thread that has no new activity. Why give priority to those types of threads over threads that actually have new alerts?

I'm sorry, I do not agree with this suggestion and do not plan to implement it.

Alternatively, you could simply hide all available bumps if they cannot physically be bumped due to forum bump limits. That would somewhat alleviate the clutter for someone with a lot of threads.

This is a good suggestion. We can add support for this.

 

[Fluentcee]

1. Sweet

2. OK, it's probably not the biggest deal, just means a lot of 0 reply posts will be shown in the sidebar.

3. I still would advocate for separate since for users who post a lot of threads, they will see a lot of their own inactive threads in the sidebar when they are looking for other people's content to interact with. They'll have to literally read between the lines of their own content.

Collapsing and uncollapsing a section is a minimal amount of work for an extremely handy sorting filter. I think members would prefer it.

 

[EpicNPC]

3. I still would advocate for separate since for users who post a lot of threads, they will see a lot of their own inactive threads in the sidebar when they are looking for other people's content to interact with. They'll have to literally read between the lines of their own content.

Your own inactive threads (no new replies) will only appear at the top if you have a bump available. Otherwise they are sorted by last reply time and will appear much lower in your sidebar list.

If you have reached your first page limit for a forum, your other threads in that section will no longer show the bump available indicator, so they will no longer appear the top. It will only display the indicator if you can bump AND you have not reached your page 1 limit.

This should remove a good deal of threads that cannot be bumped due to page 1 limits. For very active sellers, this should greatly reduce the amount of threads at the top, so I don't think this will be as big of an issue once the next update is live.