Suggestions for Updates to Apple Communities.

If more tutorials are needed (& they certainly are!) then it is a very clear indication that the interface is not very intuitive or user-friendly!

Isn't this the opposite of what we expect from Apple?

Ronda Wilson wrote:

Okay. I thought ~Bee meant that you could see it in the resulting profile box when mousing over your avatar within a discussion thread.

That would be slightly better, but only slightly. We really need to be able to see location info for each post in a thread without having to mouse all over the page. It often provides important context for the topic.

In general, the new layout has far more white space than it needs. Functionally, white space is just a separator that makes content stand out. But it becomes counterproductive when it replaces content that should be there to begin with.

Okay, I've been working a little in the iBook forum, and I find that the poster's joined date is missing from under his user i.d., too. I always welcome somebody who has just signed up, but I'll be darned if I'm going to click on someone's profile to see if that's the case in order to welcome him. The only indication that it is NOT a new poster is if there is a Level dot under his name.

Of course, if someone says they are new, then I'll extend a welcome greeting, but I'm not going to click on their profile just to see. It just happened to me, and the poster had registered in 2008. One time of that was enough for me.

I don't know if that was their intent but it certainly seems to be what they achieved. Maybe they tried to optimize things for touch screens or something, but even so there are way too many extraneous user actions required in the new interface to see & do things compared to the old one.

For some of us, this won't be just a minor inconvenience but a serious health issue. In far less than an hour of trying to use the new interface I started feeling more RSI type symptoms in my wrist, arm, & hand than in even an entire evening spent using the old one.

Some of that I'm sure is due to the learning curve but even when I confine myself to one "community" or even just one topic, I seem to have to click, hover, scroll, etc. far more than I ever did before.

Not good. 😟

After being locked out for a couple of days, I come to bedlam and am totally lost. I have no idea how to do things or where I'm really at. The tutorials are useless. I tried to set a view, but don't understand any of the items, such as layouts (there are multiples on the page), I have no idea what the widgets are for or why, who am I publishing for? I have no idea what popular is supposed to signify. I don't want to wade through things searching for stuff. I;ll stop now before I further confuse myself. Anyone have a sane answer?

The first surprising thing I found is that my old bookmarks all work - yes! That made things easier.

Next, set the view (where the tabs are) to "Discussions" - that's the closest to what you had before.

That should help to get going.

And, they changed my username (I've wanted that for years!!). 😎

Barbara

Quick question everyone:

In the old discussion board we have on the right the "my post" this would give us everything that we have answered or even our own thread.

I cant seem to find it now. I can see the threads that I have started but not those threads I helped answer in the past

they've gotten away from Jive

Nope...

That's from the top of the stylesheet.

What bookmarks? The only one I ever had was to log into AD. That didn't work, but I was redirected and somehow did get logged in, but still don'e know where I'm at. The breadcrumbs say

Apple Support Communities > Using Apple Discussions > Discussions but I haven't a clue how communities are distinct from discussions and how I can be at a lower level of them.

I would like to second romad's suggestions. The "Previous" and "Next" Buttons were an important functionality in browsing new content in areas of particular interest. You could easily and quickly review just for new content when you visited AD. Apparently the bolded feature in the new "Discussions" tab replaces the old blue dot, but I have not been able to find any equivalent for the "Previous" and "Next" buttons to quickly more to the next message to view new material. It now takes several movements and mouse clicks, and the "Up to Discussions in [Topic Area]" does not appear at the bottom when there is only one message in a thread.

I see that WZZZ thinks that suggestions will not be implemented. I hope that at least the functionality sought will be considered, even if the specific mechanism that formerly provided it is not. Romad's comments are well taken IMHO.

One thing I do think is a big improvement is the new editor. Its MUCH easier to add bolding, underline, insert links, etc. And shortcut keys (Apple + B, for example) work. 🙂

Re: Questions regarding "Apple Communities" (in response to romad)

I'm sure there will be some improvements, some changes finally implemented from the "list," but I'm also afraid it may be chaotic, at least to start. I'm in no hurry.

I'm still in no hurry. That's what I wrote last September after the intial announcement. And you, you couldn't wait! ;-)

The new interface is more "modern," slicker looking, but, where it really counts, much less user friendly.

I can't easily find topics I'm in the middle of answering or following, any longer.

Why is thread author, the OP name, or the last to reply missing?

Why is this thing using https/SSL? (I'm seeing it's partially encrypted.) I use Firefox and I like its popups which occasionally notify one of entering or leaving an encrypted site, and the degree of that encryption. I've had to disable that, since each time I make any move here I get a dammned popup. which has to be clicked on before I can go any further.

Where is preview?

It's using much more CPU; it will be hopeless on my G3 or on any slower computer.

This thing should have been beta tested by some of us who actually use it.!

Obfuscation!

Too late to edit.

I'm feeling that the result of many of these very user-unfriendly changes (I don't have the time right now to specify which ones), will be to reduce participation among those who have been or would want to be helpers -- isn't answering questions the point of this whole thing?-- and, ironically, since Discussions has been renamed Communities, erode whatever sense of community there actually was.

This thing should have been beta tested by some of us who actually use it.!

Or, is this now the beta testing?

I agree completely with WZZZ. I am sure it is easier for new & occasional users to ask questions but so many things that regular participants rely on to help answer questions are either missing completely or buried in a maze of non-intuitive features (often with meaningless or ambiguous names) that regular participation has become frustratingly difficult.

Example: I just tried to cut & paste a bolded italic phrase about functionality from a previous post & now I can't turn those style features off in this or following paragraphs ... without going into the HTML editor.

Apple is supposed to be the king of user-friendly. What happened?

WZZZ wrote:

Or, is this now the beta testing?

Whatever it is, it feels like I have been unwillingly dropped into a maze designed by M. C. Escher. 😕

Well, hopefully there are more configuration options available to the hosts, or this might take a while...