What still needs to be done here?

[cee-dee]

Some things have been improved, like having the threads last posted on moved up the board but what do you think still needs to be done to improve the boards?

It's good that when you click a thread that's got new posts, the thread opens where you left off. However, if you return to the main RT page, then think you'd like to either check what was said or decide on a reply and click that thread again, look what happens. For example, the gif thread. OK, you've looked at the last post(s) and closed the thread, then go back to it (when there's no new posts), see where it opens? I've just opened the thread again and it now it opens on the top of the last page you looked at rather than the last post. 

It would be good if "Latest reply by...." was clickable?

Another thing which would be handy is "message listings", remember that? After you'd read the last post on a thread, clicking "message listings" took you straight back to the top of the main RT page. Now you have to go back to the top of the page and click The Round Table. Why do programmers think it's cool to replace a single click with two (or more)?

What do you think still needs "improving" or "changing" to help make navigation easier?

[cee-dee]

Plenty of views, can no-one think of any imrovements?

As well as the above in my OP, how about having the time the last post was made as well as or instead of the date?

If it was just the time, when the next day kicks in (without another post) the time then reverts to the date?

[fallen-archie]

It really is too messy for my liking, as I think you have said I would prefer to see just a list of threads on opening rather than the entire initial post, surely that is achievable within the realms of what is and is not possible/affordable. 
I appreciate that is oldies are not as tech savvy as the younger generation however surely that should not exclude us from a little enjoyment?

[avaltec]

How about some staff or moderators on the forum who actually do something?

[margaret*e]

A list of threads is a better idea.

I still can't understand why they changed it, changed not improved.

At least last time they changed it, a good few years ago now they made it easier to use, not so difficult it drove the posters away.

[theelench]

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@avaltec wrote:

How about some staff or moderators on the forum who actually do something?

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    Like explaining why something that worked so well was changed at all.  Until they recently started "Improving" them, the boards were probably the least glitch ridden and efficient aspect of the site.

    Perhaps, if they do appear 🤣, they could bring with them a list of staff fired for what is effectively vandalism.

[cee-dee]

If people don't post with what they think should be altered for a better experience on the boards, ebay will think it's all OK and leave it as it is?

See posts 17/ 18/ and 19/ on here?:-

Re: What would we like to have? - The eBay Community

[theelench]

    Forgive me CD but I loose patience with obay and all its c**p.  Perhaps you remember, some weeks before the boards were vandalised they went haywire over several days.  That was when this was a "work in progress", when the "development" was going on and replacing something that worked far better than its even now, merely adequate replacement was being scheduled.

    It  was, possibly the latest point in time when obay should have been asking what was wanted and listening to FB and replies in discussion.   Any discussion should have, if the changes had been community-led, taken place well in advance of that point.

    Did it??   No of course it didn't.   The usual obay attitude prevailed.  "Here's what we've done, hope you like, if not  --  suck it up anyway."

    So here you are (and I have some admiration for your tenacity in trying to turn a Pigs Ear back into a Silk Purse), wasting your time pushing back at a bunch of staffers who have no interest in (possibly no knowledge of) "Community".

    To them it's just the next "project" on their managers list of "Things to do".    Frankly, I can't be bothered.   If a bunch of coders, seemingly utterly detached from the reality of what they are destroying, decide to rip-up something that has worked so well all the years I've been here, they can get on with it.

    I'll make what limited use I can of the wreckage they leave.   But help them out by telling them what they should have studied BEFORE they started.   NO WAY.

    If they are getting paid to IMPROVE how things work, they should do their job in a professional manner or be shown the door.

    After this fiasco, most of which they are having to (all to slowly) undo, they should be looking for  someone charitable enough to employ them at all.

PS.  Why doesn't UNDERLINE work with caps lock??

[cee-dee]

Ahhhh, now that's the wrong attitude. You should keep trying to get the point over, instead you're doing exactly what the meddlers want = just accept it!

CAPS LOCK ON.  Just tried it, it works OK.

[theelench]

    You carry on CD, I wish you good luck.  This isn't some aspect of the site vital to the buying or selling process, these are meant to be Community Boards.  They worked very well.   A community discusses matters that affect it before it embarks on changes.  Top-down management goes ahead and makes changes, then sets about reversing some of what its done only if the rest of the community shouts loud enough.

    Katie has said they are still trying to implement more changes.  If they ever manage to get things back to nearly as good as they were, THAT is the time for her to start a dialogue about what the community wants or thinks needs changing.  Takes whatever is called for back to the tech. support to find out what is practical.  Community building needs respect and involvement from all sides.

     What happened here shows how little obay has of the first, for its user community and no understanding of the second.

    I have to deal with top-down management in other aspects of the site, only because to keep selling I have to "take it" as opposed to "leave it".  I don't have to do that here so I'll let you and those who wield the wrecking-ball try to put the pieces back together (if they can even do that).  If they can't  --  so what?  The boards have now become one more part of the site that is practically useless to me and I'll make as little use of it as I do the others.

[cee-dee]

Faint heart never won fair maiden!

If you just accept things, "they" will never know that you're not happy with the way things are. Just complaining without making a point of exactly what you think is "wrong" won't get anything sorted. The time to continue a dialogue about what the community wants is right now!

[theelench]

    Nothing to do with "Faint heart",  I've made my views abundantly clear.  Obay should cancel this whole thing, go back to how it was before they started mucking it about, then start the conversation about what needs changing (and grow enough community spirit to perhaps explain why).

    Obay managers might even benefit from the experience of treating another part of their community with the respect due to sensible adults, rather than treating them like serfs to be ordered about from on high.   Who knows,  opening a dialogue with some people outside their own bubble might even start them on the learning curve to being able to write their Announcements with clarity, not in ambiguous pidgen English that serves to cause so much of the confusion on the boards.

    Is that a believable outcome, even to me??  I very much doubt it.  The management of ebay has become too used to giving orders that must be obeyed.  Too self-satisfied busying around the site "improving" things that worked better before they started.

    A better aphorism for the situation we find ourselves in would, I think, have nothing to do with winning anything and more to do with heads and brick walls.   Best of luck trying to push-back, for me the (temporary?) gains are not worth the head-ache. 

[cee-dee]

They willl not be reverting to the old format and that's that! The best way forward is to press for changes to improve what's here now.

What needed changing on the old format is off the board for comment now so there's no point in talking about it. Criticising those who dreamed up this new format only serves to cement feelings of a them-and-us situation and isn't helpful. Constructive criticism is helpful and that means on a point-by-point basis. An overall "I don't like it" won't get anyone anywhere!

[theelench]

    Of course they won't be reverting to the old format.

Of course there is a Them and Us situation  --  Them who make decisions about the community and Us that has to put up with them (or perhaps not).

    Personally I'm not interested in that sort of "Community" and by the lack of comments by almost everyone else neither is anyone else.  Evidently they have as little faith in your Point-by Point, constructive critism theory and its efficacy as I do.

    All you'll get for all your effort is a few token bones tossed in your direction.  I'll leave you to it.

[cee-dee]

Seeing some comments and the lack of others will probably lead to "them" following two lines of thought.

On the one hand "Ah, we're better off without that one"  and on the other hand "Ah-ha, they can't be bothered to post so we'll leave it as it is now".

[fallen-archie]

Seriously CD? When did you become so submissive, perhaps you have the ear of the mods however what about the rest of us? This is an horrific site now and some explanation is due! I have no desire to use it any longer, simply because it has been imposed upon us and it is a retrograde step, not at all progressive. What happened to the word cooperation, do the mods not understand it? 
perhaps if I used foul and abusive language they would no doubt come out of the woodwork and ban me, so why is it when they well and truly mess up there's no action we can take, but then I am only a customer😩

[plpmr]

the 'mods' cannot change/alter the setup or layout of these boards. only eBay can do that.

Yes changes are needed to tweek the boards.

[cee-dee]

Me? Submissive? I've only said what I think in a way that can't be construed as contravening any rules.

For example, you can call someone an idiot without actually saying "You're an idiot"!!!

It's correct to say that neither the mods or Katie can actually do anything about the site beyond trying to persuade those responsible to change some things.

Like I said above, if people don't post to actually say what they think or just throw their toys out of their pram saying "I ain't playing no more", will it be any wonder if things stay as they are?