Well... I'm really disappointed with this new forum format. I really don't see anything redeeming about it vs. the way it was. But... I've griped enough about that in other posts. Providing support in these forums has always been something that I really enjoy doing and I spend quite a bit of time browsing questions and helping out when I can. Since the change, I've done much less since it's so difficult to keep track of things. Since I really don't want to give up and miss out on doing something I really enjoy... I'm going to try and see if there are maybe some things I just haven't figured out or that can possibly be done more easily:
I used to be able to have shortcuts to the individual product forums that I knew the most about since I was more interested in providing support and not asking questions. For example, I would go right to the MacBook Pro forum and see a listing of questions with the most current activity on top as well as indicators showing if there was any new content in threads I had previously viewed.... or just new postings that I hadn't looked at yet. There was a "My Discussions" link on the right that would quickly let me look at just those threads I had posted in and check the activity as well. I would use the "My Discussions" section to see if anyone had posted any follow up questions to things I had posted responses to... or just to follow threads I was involved in.
With the new set up, I can still use a shortcut to get to the individual product pages... so I'm happy with that. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell (that I can see) if there has been any new activity in any threads I may have previously viewed. The only way I can see if something is a new thread is that it is not preceded with a "Re:".
So far as keeping track of my previous support comments. This is the only way I have been able to do it... I go to "Your Stuff" and then "Discussions". This takes to to a listing of threads I have commented in, but they don't appear to be in any discernable order. I'm not particularly interested in checking the status of threads I posted in a year ago, yet some of those appear in the top of the list and, as far as I can tell, there is no way to change the sort order for how they are listed. Regardless, from this page, I can select "Overview" under the "Your Stuff" heading on the right. This seems to take me to something that shows more recently accessed posts, yet they are still in no particular order. The first shows last activity 60 minutes ago... the next is 4 months ago... then one day ago... etc. Again, I don't see any way to sort this list in any way other than the rather random way it is displayed. I realize going forward, I can bookmark threads to make getting to them a little easier. This should work well... but it is an extra step needed by me to do something that was pretty much done automatically before. I can't really say I see this as an improvement.
In the previous system, I would page through the questions until I saw something that I thought I could respond to... or just to browse the questions. I would click on a question I was interested in. If it was something I could respond to, I would... if not... I would just go back to the previous page. It appears that with the new set up, if you use "More" at the bottom of the page to view any threads beyond the first page, when you go back a page, you're stuck on the first page again having to select "More" again to get to the next page. The further down you had gone previously the more difficult it is to get back to where you were and you basically have to scan through pages of threads in some cases where previously we were able to simply go back to the page that actually had the threads we were just viewing.
I really am trying to see the benefit to the changes that have been made here. That's the reason I've taken the time to just point out some of the issues I'm having. Even if providing support here were slightly more difficult than it used to be, I could live with that. The problem I'm having is that it has become much more difficult and certainly less efficient. I see how many aspects of the new set up can make asking a single question easier for the poster to monitor responses. But, there is simply no (as in zero) question that it makes things more difficult for those of us that try to provide support. Keep in mind... it could be argued that this site is for people asking questions so it is geared to them to be able to get their questions posted as easily as possible. That would be all well and good if Apple had a hired staff that was responding to those questions. But, that's not the case, Apple relies on us... the support community... to provide those answers. So, it's just as important that the site be user friendly to those providing support as it is for those asking the questions.
I hope to be able to continue providing support here. I'm just not sure that the new system that has been implemented is an ideal tool for a support forum. I simply don't believe it offers the same type of functionality as the previous system nor do I believe it is designed to do so. I fear that the capabilites of the software itself may make it impossible to get us back to the level of usability that we, as supporters, previously had. I hope I'm wrong and look forward to being proven so.
