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Could This (new discussion format) Be Any Worse?

I've been participating in the Apple support forums for a good many years. They have been very useful and I've supplied a number of useful support answers. But now it's pretty much all gone. It's very difficult to find specific things and it's now impossible to see, at a glance, how many people have both viewed and replied to individual threads. That's critical for identifying big issues--especially those that accompany a signficiant operating system upgrade. Further, the text is so large that much less information can be displayed on a computer display. Finally, when you go to Apple Support your display is completely taken up by big square blocks--can you say "Windows R/T?" I guess all good things come to an end.


The best that Apple Discussions ever was was two changes ago. The previous iteration was tolerable even though it was confusing for newbies.

Posted on Jun 21, 2014 10:42 AM

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198 replies

Jun 22, 2014 3:06 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

The Kindle help forum uses the same setup & that too makes it impossible to see which are new questions or which have new replies, this & the new Apple forum setup seems more of a step backwards rather than an advance.

I've noticed that since the change on the Kindle help forum many of the users who helped people no longer post due to the change.

On a personal note the problems for me are as follows: can't see which are new posts or which have been updated, now the pages have a 'more' button while this seems a positive step if you read a post & then go back to the discussions list it doesn't go back to the page/post you were viewing so you have to click on 'more' again which gives you a new set of posts rather than the ones you were originally looking at.

The only positive is that now there's no delay when typing a message.

Jun 25, 2014 4:37 PM in response to Scott Newman

Since I wrote on the 21st of June (a few posts above this one) I have to say I am slowly coming to terms with it all. It still takes ages to reply to some posts and there are a few odd ball changes; no one has yet explained why Safari provides over-sized pages for my 20" iMac that need zooming out in Safari > View menu, while Firefox is the right size without attention. Then there is the strange squared off message that tells me that an error has occurred in processing my request ... then promptly disappears leaving no sign of a problem at all.

But in the main I like the cleaner, uncluttered look, the Communities page and its' alternate features and the Content page, from which I can review past posts. Yes, we shall get used to it and with some refinements we may even grow to like it.

Jun 25, 2014 4:49 PM in response to seventy one

Yes, we shall get used to it and with some refinements we may even grow to like it.


Unless some of the lost/missing functionalities are reinstated, I will not. I do not want to spend most of the time I have allotted here trying to find stuff. I'd like a homepage which clearly shows the last poster, what time, new content, signature/profile (mandatory, please), less scrolling/waste of space, more than 10 topics on one page, etc, etc. And no, I will not install anything to make it look different - it shouldn't be necessary. And, most of all, I don't care for social networking sites. I have cut my participation (browsing/answering questions) by 99% and am currently in a waiting pattern to see if changes will be made to help the helpers rather than be greeted by an iOS look starting page and "meet new people and get answers" while searching for something.

Jun 25, 2014 10:26 PM in response to Ronda Wilson

Ronda


Seems like BrowserBookmarks (I still use MacSpeak all the time) is the only solution for now.


BookmarkFoldering is also helpful to me.


Once one finds the right pages...


I prefer Firefox, which has the feature of hot key access to a SideBar that can show Bookmarks(shown below) or History

User uploaded file

A bit tidier than the ShowBookmarks button on ToolBar in Safari and neater than pulling down menus in both



best regards

CCC <= turning over a new leaf

Jun 25, 2014 11:07 PM in response to babowa

Good morning, Babowa.

I'm not actually supporting this system, just trying to allow myself some flexibility. For people like your good self, it must be totally inefficient (and I just found another nuisance replying to you; clicking the reply on your post returned me to your post but with your post at the top of the page. I could not read the previous posts without going off page.) I shall certainly pay far less attention to the boards until it has been modified.

Jun 25, 2014 11:41 PM in response to Doctor9fan

Doctor9fan,


You said (formatting is mine for comments in context):

On a personal note the problems for me are as follows:can't see which are new posts or which have been updated,


This frustrated me as well.My workaround, oddly enough, is eMail Client, eMail Foldering, eMail Rules and eMail Notifications from here.


WorkFlow goes like this:

  1. Turn on eMail notifications (duh)
  2. Follow posts (ditto duh)
  3. To organize latest replies, In eMail Client,
    1. create Inbox folders to taste
    2. create rules to sort incoming mail into tasty folders
    3. sort views to taste
    4. read the post
    5. if I wanna reply, click link that jumps to the post on the page ( do my replying)
    6. I choose to delete the email, which
    7. selects the next email automatically
    8. repeat 3.1 - 3.7 until
    9. el finito


You continued:

now the pages have a 'more' button while this seems a positive step if you read a post & then go back to the discussions list it doesn't go back to the page/post you were viewing so you have to click on 'more' again which gives you a new set of posts rather than the ones you were originally looking at.


Command + Click & Command + W are my best friends


From Ian's User Tip - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7311


- From https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6414838


(This my workaround - CCC)


PROBLEM: When I use the 'View More' button, then the browser 'Back' button, then 'View More' again, I do not get the next oldest page but an older one. This makes viewing older posts very cumbersome.


Click the 'View More' as many times as you want, yielding a really long list.


Use that page as kind of a Base Camp.


Instead of a plain Click on a link and BrowserBack to navigate, try command Click to open a new tab with the target link.


When done, close the Tab - and you are back where you started.


The link you command Clicked will likely be Underlined to remind which you clicked.


You may even find that you like this better. I like the idea of a Base Camp. We can go 'Home'.


Also, you continued:

The only positive is that now there's no delay when typing a message.


I find just the opposite is often true for me. There are times when the previous sentence I just keyed may take 30 seconds to draw!


I think, it has to do with AutoSave feature, but can't prove it. I VERY often get this alert - I mean VERY OFTEN

User uploaded file

Aside: The thing lasts 5 seconds. By the time I attend to it and start to read, it disappears. The link is DEAD. Nuthin. Nada. [Close] is DEAD. Ditto.


It is only after these start, that only sometimes the slow draw of keystrokes follows.


A handful of times, the [Save Reply] does nothing. Actual Post of Reply is hit and miss. I first copied my post before trying reload => Reply again, but AutoSave appears to actually work often enough to Restore when doing so. I have been rolling the dice since Restore has been working and not copying. so far so good I guess


[Restore] and [Delete] anomalies are for a post I will start later, after I can make some sense of them.


Hope the Tip(workaround, actually) and workarounds help.


Ian's whole User Tip has some neat tricks


CCC

Jun 26, 2014 12:59 AM in response to ChitlinsCC

ChitlinsCC wrote:


Ronda


Seems like BrowserBookmarks (I still use MacSpeak all the time) is the only solution for now.


BookmarkFoldering is also helpful to me.


I have always used bookmark folders to get around on Apple Support Communities (and on Apple Discussions prior to ASC).


If the site software changes, my old bookmarks often work, and if they don't, it's usually a simple matter to change them (once you figure out the new URL).

Could This (new discussion format) Be Any Worse?

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