So with our new system, I’m noticing not as many members are responding. I wanted to reach out to everyone to see if they are having any difficulties with it and how we can help. If you are finding it easier or like it, please let us know that as well!
Thanks, Moltroub! Our cool and light new look is one that was specifically designed to be compatible with the needs of people with visual and processing problems. Many of our members are finding it to be much easier on the eyes than the previous layout. What do you think?
If you haven’t had a chance to have a look yet, why not head over to your community,
bafsupport.org (click on that)
and have a look.
And we’d love it if you would leave us a comment on the thread.
Seenie
Email: modsupport@bensfriends.org
PS Everything works the same as before, even if the icons look a bit different. We hope you like it, but let us know what you think.
cc: @trust_level_0
I like the look, but not having replies immediately below (and tabbed) under what they responded to is hard. It’s o.k. for short conversations, but not when a bunch of people reply.
For example:
Clare Question:
Mike Answers Clare
Molly Answers Clare
Stella answers Mike.
Preferable:
Clare Question
Mike Answers Clare
Stella Answers Mike
Molly Answers Clare
I got a security error when I hit the link to the site.
That’s interesting. Thanks for telling us about that, Mary. TJ will get back to you, that’s more his “thing”.
Seenie
Yes, Trekhard, I agree with you. The thread is constructed in time sequence, not in “reply to” sequence. I’ve always been annoyed with that. That’s how Discourse seems to set discussions up. I’m wondering if there’s a way to alter that. TJ will know, he knows all those things.
If I had my way, it would look like this:
Is that the kind of thing you were thinking of?
Thanks for the comment!
Seenie
The new look is much better for my brain, I wonder if it’s the colors…
That example for trekhard looks great Seenie! Now if TJ can only do the configurations in Discourse. But I wonder how that will effect the response to multiple members. Your earlier entry on TJ being one who knows all has now firmly planted the Wizard of Oz in my head 
suppose we could, it would take about $3500.00 for a Ruby engineer and about $1600.00 to maintain. This set up isn’t different. Threading would require customization to the search notification and thread layout. Then we would have to go to self hosting use programmer time to manually install system updates at least twice a year.
Here’s the funny thing the number on complain about two of the largest social media platforms out there was the inability to immediately see new posts when logging in. and the difficulting scrolling long threads on mobile devices when they use reply threading as opposed sequencing That Seenie showed above there was a very LOOOOOONG and heated discussion n the developer Platform (MetaDiscourse) on how to compromise. The end result was a change many have take advantage of and no one even noticed which was to tag each new post if they were answering a previous post
Not be the best picture as this is mod support answering mod support but the upper left corner of every post lets you know if its a new post on the topic or a reply to another post. Now we dont on BAF have long topic normally but we do on several of our other communities. Nothing is worse than to come in new into a topic that has been going for a week and write a thoughtful post to member and never have it seen because its two pages back. It discourages activity. Also It really keeps Threads from being hijaced a couple of folks having a “discussion”
FB uses reply threading not because its a better way of doing it for members and encourages discussion they do it to enable the data robots to better classify the posts. Their metrics reward reply to specific posts. In short it is to force pages to buy post boosts and ads. Bottom line is we are encouraging discussion and want users to see every post and not have go looking for them. So we will be now that you brought it up adding to our user guides which are being redone that importance of that upper left hand corner thingy. Might even share the secret of clicking on your avatar clicking on preferences going down to interface and being able to change what you see when you log in:
For example new or unredad posts instead of categories or latest threads:
TJ
My goodness TJ…all I can think this early is that’s a heck of a chunk of change! I haven’t won the lottery, yet. When I do, I’ll be sure to let you know. Don’t hold your breath, I forget to buy a ticket and if I do remember, I forget to put the winning numbers down.
Thank you for the detailed description!
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Yes, #ModSupport, like that. Thank you!
Good intel (Not 100% understandable) but i picked up on why FB and other socials do it their way. What’s interesting to me, is that I really dislike when threads are hijacked, and I was thinking by tabbing away the reply, you could easily tell which conversations are not in immediate response and therefore scroll past them. Hope this makes sense.
REALLY like seeing which category right under the post!!
Clare, thank you for the feedback. You have no idea how we appreciate it: even if it’s not something that we can do anything about right now, it’s great to know what our members are thinking.
The software we are using is called “Discourse – civilized discussion” and like other plug-n-play items, comes with some options, but not everything is exactly as we would have it if we were designing something ourselves. The tech “intel” message was from our technology ED, TJ (he’s supposed to sign when he messages but forgets … LOL) who, like other tekkies, speaks his own dialect. Me, I’m the techno-peasant on the team, and my knowledge ends at how to make the site do what I need it to do. 
We like the category right under the post too. And we’re getting good feedback on the colours, so we’re making headway! But like life, we’re still a work in progress.
Thanks again for your comments, and stay in touch!
Seenie from ModSupport
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