I just went to post a topic in the Maya forum. From what I understand, when I’m looking at that forum, the posts should be listed from the latest post going backwards; because the “Latest” sort order/tab on top is highlighted. But the first three posts that I see are from April 2002, Mar 2003, and Jan 2003. I’m really, really confused : / And if I post a topic (thought I posted one asking for help on my question), are others going to see it?
That first post (the first post that comes up from the Latest sort order/tab), from April 2002, I think the forum page (the main Maya fourm page, where these posts are listed and you can click on them to go into the post) showed the last activity on that post as mid Oct. Does that mean that there hasn’t been any other activity in the Maya forum for a month and a half? I can’t imagine that to be the case. I’d imagine there are people posting things every day … no?
Also, the norm is that in a forum, the posts have a date next to them showing when they were posted. I think this would be very helpful. I’m saying this b/c the “Last Activity” isn’t making sense to me … Maya forum couldn’t have gone a month and a half without a post; and how could it be that the last three replies/activity are on posts from 15 and 16 years ago. I stopped even trying to figure out the forum after that : /
My point isn’t to complain … just feedback, in case it helps with user experience.
Ok, I just figured it out … but it does make another point. I figured out that those are Stickies, b/c there’s a pin next to them. So, two things about this:
1). Usually when I see stickies in forums, the Backgrounds/Titles are in a different color … somehow they stick out more easily than other posts. So I think something more prominent, in addition to the pin, would be helpful.
And here’s why just a pin may be easy to gloss over,
2). The symbols that are around the site aren’t necessarily intuitive. The first time that I posted something on this new site, it took me a while to figure out how to upload a picture along with my post. The thing is … once you’re an adult, you forget what it’s like to be a kid … so sometimes we don’t relate to why kids have a hard time learning or what would help them learn (that’s when we resort to … “duh, why doesn’t he/she get it?”). Once a person knows what these symbols are, sure, they then make sense or then seem “intuitive”. But the real test is whether someone new can navigate around easily. Today I saw the symbol on the top right that looks like a heart-rate wave. Clicking on it, I found that it’s for notifications. I don’t really get the connection or the relation : / There’s a cloud with three dots next to it (I haven’t clicked on it yet) … I’m guessing, without having clicked on it, that it’s to make a comment? But I’m already wondering … where would that comment go? comment on what? B/c usually you make a comment on a forum or on someone’s photo or work, etc. So I wonder where a general button like that would lead to.
Again, just giving user experience feedback.
Sorry, and one last thing to add to other posts/feedback above … the thing that confused me when I looked at the Maya forum (I realized now), is that all the posts on that first screen (before scrolling down) were all Stickies. I didn’t know that before because I couldn’t see any other posts on the screen other than the stickies, so not having the context of seeing other posts below (and not having something prominent to show them as stickies) made me think that these were a part of the normal posts and that something was wrong with the forum. The feedback above about the font sizes (and even dead space around each result; so just the formatting) being too big, resulting in fewer results being visible on the screen relates to this.
