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Are They Ashamed Of The Forums?

ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,427
edited February 2020 in The Pub at MMORPG.COM
Why are the forums not up there with Home Games Reviews Articles etc? The forums are the lifeblood of this site, everyone else has reviews and videos, dare to be different and read what other players think about games!

Is there a need to be so much like mainstream social media that they have to pretend the forums are an after thought?
AmatheKyleranMendelTEKK3N

Comments

  • MeddleMeddle Administrator UncommonPosts: 758
    There 5 different links to the forums in the header drop down menu labelled "Community".

    Not to mention links in the footer, latest activity feed above the fold in the side bar on desktop and on mobile directly underneath the homepage feature carousel.

    And soon there will be forum activity feeds on each game page as well.

    More exposure than was ever given to the forums on the previous site design.  Not to mention forum search results come up on Google as well.
    UngoodKyleran[Deleted User][Deleted User]Thupli

    - MMORPG.COM Staff -

  • AmatheAmathe Member LegendaryPosts: 7,630
    I take @Scot's point, but they do have a list of most recent forum posts on the front page (ironically now including this one). They also have a hideous Big Bird colored button to direct you to the forums. So they may not be featuring it, but they are not hiding it. 

    EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests

  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,427
    edited February 2020
    Meddle said:
    There 5 different links to the forums in the header drop down menu labelled "Community".

    Not to mention links in the footer, latest activity feed above the fold in the side bar on desktop and on mobile directly underneath the homepage feature carousel.

    And soon there will be forum activity feeds on each game page as well.

    More exposure than was ever given to the forums on the previous site design.  Not to mention forum search results come up on Google as well.
    If I click on Hardware I go to Hardware, if I click on Community nothing happens, I have to select an option. Apparently the most important forum activity we have on here is Live Streaming.

    You could have a Community or even better Forums Button that takes you to the forum list.

    The other features mentioned I like the sound of.


    P.S> The community button now goes to the forums!



    Amathe said:
    I take @Scot's point, but they do have a list of most recent forum posts on the front page (ironically now including this one). They also have a hideous Big Bird colored button to direct you to the forums. So they may not be featuring it, but they are not hiding it. 
    Putting that button on top of Recent Posts would be a help, at my magnification I have to scroll down to see it.

    Post edited by Scot on
  • VrikaVrika Member LegendaryPosts: 7,989
    @Meddle

    Could you make that "Latest forum activity" on front page a link? The yellow "Visit the forums" -button isn't visible without scrolling webpage down, so that "Latest forum activity" would be much better place for a forum link.

    At least for me. I'm using Google Chrome and 1920 x 1080 resolution.
    ScotThupli
     
  • MeddleMeddle Administrator UncommonPosts: 758
    Vrika said:
    @Meddle

    Could you make that "Latest forum activity" on front page a link? The yellow "Visit the forums" -button isn't visible without scrolling webpage down, so that "Latest forum activity" would be much better place for a forum link.

    At least for me. I'm using Google Chrome and 1920 x 1080 resolution.
    I'll see what I can do.
    UngoodThupli

    - MMORPG.COM Staff -

  • MeddleMeddle Administrator UncommonPosts: 758
    Scot said:
    Meddle said:
    There 5 different links to the forums in the header drop down menu labelled "Community".

    Not to mention links in the footer, latest activity feed above the fold in the side bar on desktop and on mobile directly underneath the homepage feature carousel.

    And soon there will be forum activity feeds on each game page as well.

    More exposure than was ever given to the forums on the previous site design.  Not to mention forum search results come up on Google as well.
    If I click on Hardware I go to Hardware, if I click on Community nothing happens, I have to select an option. Apparently the most important forum activity we have on here is Live Streaming.
    "Community" now links to the forums.
    KyleranVrika[Deleted User]ThupliScot

    - MMORPG.COM Staff -

  • UngoodUngood Member LegendaryPosts: 7,534
    Main Page.. Upper Right hand side "latest Form Activity".. which is what we all look at anyway.. outside the Necro's at least.
    Sovrath
    Egotism is the anesthetic that dullens the pain of stupidity, this is why when I try to beat my head against the stupidity of other people, I only hurt myself.

  • MeddleMeddle Administrator UncommonPosts: 758
    Meddle said:
    Vrika said:
    @Meddle

    Could you make that "Latest forum activity" on front page a link? The yellow "Visit the forums" -button isn't visible without scrolling webpage down, so that "Latest forum activity" would be much better place for a forum link.

    At least for me. I'm using Google Chrome and 1920 x 1080 resolution.
    I'll see what I can do.
    Done.
    VrikaThupli

    - MMORPG.COM Staff -

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    As Al suggested on the first day, just redirect your bookmark to the forums and use that as your landing page :) 

    It's clean, lean, and with the initial bugs fixed now a fairly smooth route. At least if you're mainly here for the forums.
    Ungood
  • TEKK3NTEKK3N Member RarePosts: 1,115
    Yes, but why the latest forum post aren’t under the slideshow like in the previous design?
    They are cramped on the right side of the main page as if it was just a secondary feature while the forums are the main attraction of this site and should be in a more prominent position.
  • MeddleMeddle Administrator UncommonPosts: 758
    TEKK3N said:
    Yes, but why the latest forum post aren’t under the slideshow like in the previous design?
    They are cramped on the right side of the main page as if it was just a secondary feature while the forums are the main attraction of this site and should be in a more prominent position.
    The sidebar latest forum activity is actually higher up than it would be in the main content stream and is just as usable as the previous version which spanned a larger area.

    Also the forums account for roughly <10% of the traffic to our website. So what you view as the main attraction to the website for yourself is not actually what draws most people to MMORPG.com

    - MMORPG.COM Staff -

  • TEKK3NTEKK3N Member RarePosts: 1,115
    edited February 2020
    Meddle said:
    TEKK3N said:
    Yes, but why the latest forum post aren’t under the slideshow like in the previous design?
    They are cramped on the right side of the main page as if it was just a secondary feature while the forums are the main attraction of this site and should be in a more prominent position.
    The sidebar latest forum activity is actually higher up than it would be in the main content stream and is just as usable as the previous version which spanned a larger area.

    Also the forums account for roughly <10% of the traffic to our website. So what you view as the main attraction to the website for yourself is not actually what draws most people to MMORPG.com
    If those 10% of people who read the forums, read 9 news each, that doesn’t necessarily means that they are here for the news.

    I do come here for the Forums, but I also read the news (why not?).
    But if it wasn’t for the forums, I probably wouldn’t come here to read only the news.

    It’s a bit like the Supermarkets discounts.
    People are attracted by the discounts, but then they end up buying far more things full price since they are there.
    The discount is what got people there in the first place though.
    Without the discount people might have gone somewhere else.

    The forums are your discounts, but I might be wrong of course.
    Feel free to do what you think it’s best for the site.
    These are my 2 cent, just food for thoughts.

    PS: Out of curiosity.
    If I comment under a news/article, do you count that as a news traffic or forum traffic?
    I guess you count that as news traffic right?

    Scot
  • learis1learis1 Member UncommonPosts: 169
    People really butthurt over this or are we just joking? You click community, then click forum. It's like that on so many sites, not sure how you can be offended by this. And quite frankly I don't blame them if it's harder to get to. I wouldn't want someone who first visits this site to have the forum link right in their face only so they can come here to read old farts (myself included) complaining about how awesome MMO's were 20 years ago.

    Mend and Defend

  • MMOExposedMMOExposed Member RarePosts: 7,400
    Are you talking about this forum? If so, I say problem is this site is now hard to navigate on mobile after all the changes to the new forum.

    Philosophy of MMO Game Design

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    Meddle said:
    TEKK3N said:
    Yes, but why the latest forum post aren’t under the slideshow like in the previous design?
    They are cramped on the right side of the main page as if it was just a secondary feature while the forums are the main attraction of this site and should be in a more prominent position.
    The sidebar latest forum activity is actually higher up than it would be in the main content stream and is just as usable as the previous version which spanned a larger area.

    Also the forums account for roughly <10% of the traffic to our website. So what you view as the main attraction to the website for yourself is not actually what draws most people to MMORPG.com
    That 10% can be VERY misleading.It could be 90% but still appear to be otherwise.It would be no different than saying Mobile gaming has the best games because it makes 45% of the entire gaming market.

    Every single person could come here for the forums but see nothing interesting so then targets other areas of the site.Also i am not even sure how one would assume <10% and that is knowing this site uses counters .This would be based off of the "forum activity"as i highly doubt people would actually click the forum icon which i assume is what is being used for the assumption of less than 10%.

    Simple numbers are not always simply read.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    Overall and just my opinion but this site design+Forum design is far worse than many years ago,so it has gone downhill.

    Also my opinion is that this site has changed for business reasons,money reasons and not really in the best interest of the user.I would say it was about 5-6 years ago we noticed a distinct change in catering to businesses way more than the user.

    Pretty much this site is based on clicks..more clicks to links,needless double clicks etc etc.

    As a long time avid gamer i would assume like others we want to see and take part in gaming specifics and be more turned off by the business side of websites.There is obviously a lot of money being made here through clicks because stuff like hardware has shown almost no activity or VERY little yet remains and to who,if nobody seems to care?So there is money being made there even if nobody is actually saying anything.This again does NOTHING for the gamer who is looking for gaming related stuff,this is simply a business design more so than gaming.

    IMO gaming addicts will click anything,reviews are often clicked ...just because and imo would NOT be why someone would come here.Example i highly doubt people turn on their computer and think to themselves.i need to go to mmorpg to see a review so even if there were some counter that shows 5k clicks on reviews everyday it would NOT give an accurate assessment of why people come here.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 24,427
    edited February 2020
    Well Community now clicks directly to forums, that's really all I was asking for, so thanks for that. Others have come up with other issues, I like the changes overall but I think every suggestion made deserves to be looked at.

    I would like "proper articles" to be highlighted in some way, by this I mean articles which are not the common fodder about a MMO update or cash shop news. We have good gaming articles on here that look at all sort of issues, that needs promoting.

    Finally we do realise that money needs to be made, a balance just needs to be made between the clicks and the good stuff. People come back to read the forums, even if they are not interested in a specific MMO that day and are exposed to advertising because they do so. Not sure that's true of someone dropping in because they want to hear about a specific MMO article, do they return again and how often? 

    AlBQuirky
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