by: cnet.aaron July 22, 2009 9:40 AM PDT
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What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums?
by cnet.aaron 
- 7/22/09 9:40 AM
We're always trying to make things better for the community over here at CNET, and I would love to hear what people think of the forums. What do you like? How can we make them better?
Let us know!
Thanks,
Aaron
Total posts: 49 (Showing page 1 of 2)
A good thing.
by R. Proffitt 
- 7/23/09 6:17 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
It's nice to see more Apple coverage and should be interesting to see what people have to say.
Bob
not up to MFIF
by jchuzi - 7/27/09 6:09 PM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
The CNET forums are more difficult to use than MacFixit Forums (MFIF). I have to type UBB code manually (a pain in the rear) as well as type smileys manually. The interface is not intuitive and it is not as easy to look at replies. Personally, I prefer not to have updates emailed to me but to look at the threads themselves. However, the interface doesn't make this user-friendly.
You would do well to emulate the format, interface and ease of use of MFIF. I'm a bit discouraged here after participating in MFIF for several years with over 20,000 posts.
I agree with Jon
by rahja - 7/27/09 6:27 PM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
I agree with Jon, the forum format here is several steps backwards from the MacFixit forumware. to find new posts one needs to click through every category.
I think you would have been better off to just put a big CNet banner on top of the old MF forum page...
good luck.
Bad main page.
by gesplus - 7/27/09 8:07 PM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
Very non-standard forum design for the main page.
You should at least make it so one can click on a forum title and go to a page that shows the list of subforums for that forum with unread post count, also the unread post count needs to be in the threads list of the subforums. A total of unread posts on the main page would be nice also.
Different style to the thread lists in the forums than MacFixit but I can get used to it, it seems easy to follow.
Merging of General Topics into PC and Mac Combined Forums
by sturner--2008 - 7/28/09 7:31 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
While I understand that merging the topic forums of networking and internet related into the general population, the mixing of Mac and Windows is VERY likely to produce friction. I understand that it is cheaper to maintain one forum topic rather than two, but I think that it will likely cause Mac users to shy away.
I also think that because of the interface differences it will cause lots of confusion if someone posts without mentioning all the specifics, or a responder posts without realizing the OP is a Mac.
I think you may find flame wars errupting as well in the mixed environment.
Second Class Citizens
by sturner--2008 - 7/28/09 7:45 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
I am also upset that Mac Forums are not a selectable item on the left column. I have to go to All Forums to get to the Mac Forums.
Treating Mac users as second class citizens is a prime way of chasing us away. If the business decision was to garner additional users then DON'T IMMEDIATELY institute policies that **** off those users.
As you can tell, my posts are getting less friendly the more I'm on this site.
The NUMBER ONE reason businesses lose customers is by making them mad. I would venture to say that cnet has start that process.
Not sure about this but,
by mrmacfixit - 8/7/09 6:57 AM
In Reply to: Second Class Citizens by sturner--2008
you said, "I have to go to All Forums to get to the Mac Forums".
While I have not tried this from all the forums on CNET but I do see the Mac OS mentioned in the left hand sidebar in all the forums I have been to.
Of course, that may have been changed since you mentioned it
P
Not a godsend
by gbdoc - 7/28/09 8:32 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
"What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums?" I can hardly believe you're surprised that former MFIF denizens are thoroughly dissatisfied. MFI wasn't broke, didn't need to be fixed, and what you're done so far looks more like a downgrade than anything else. While I may be additionally moved by nostalgia and habit, what you've got here is a lot less helpful and user-friendly in its structure than MFI and MFIF was.
We'll see what you evolve into as you mature, and I hope it's something good. But know that you've got a long way to go. Like any startup, you deserve my best wishes. But in your case, those wishes are tempered by the fact that you destroyed something good.
Subject line is required for a reply? That's dumb.
by tacit - 7/29/09 6:38 PM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
We're always trying to make things better for the community over here at CNET, and I would love to hear what people think of the forums. What do you like? How can we make them better?
For starters, the forum software is pretty appalling--poor visual design and layout, limited functionality, few threading options that I can find. It's not the wort Web-based forum software that I've ever seen, but honestly, it's pretty close.
Threads always default to the beginning
by sturner--2008 - 7/30/09 8:00 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
I can't emphsize this enough. The lack of a control to take me to the first unread post in a thread is VERY, VERY IMPORTANT!
If you revist a thread that is ongoing, and it has more than 5 posts I don't want to have to scroll through to find the newest unread post! It's one reason I find cnet forums to be unfriendly.
If a thread has say 30 posts I really DON'T want to have to scroll through several pages to find where they new posts are!
This is a major failing of your software.
I Think Not
by Kevin M. Dean - 7/30/09 8:28 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
"We're always trying to make things better for the community over here at CNET, and I would love to hear what people think of the forums. "
The better question is what does Cnet think of these forums since apparently not much thought as been put into them. They resemble something from the '90s functionality-wise. Try upgrading to a modern professional forum package because this one is pure amateur hour.
terrible
by deniro567 - 8/8/09 4:26 PM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
Oh for God's sake, just go back to the way they were. Nothing was broken and now it's a mess.
Hate it
by boni777 - 8/8/09 4:53 PM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
Previously, i had the Mac part of the CNET forums bookmarked, so I don't know about the "how to get to the Mac part" part. But I do know, that once I'm in the Mac section, I don't like it at all. I'm fairly new at Mac's and like to check in everything to see if anyone asked anything I might be able to learn from. Now, however, I have to work my away around inside and it takes a lot longer. I just thought it was me, but it looks like I'm just agreeing with most people.
Keep trying, you'll get it right(until then, you could go back to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it.")
Tough to read
by deniro567 - 8/10/09 4:55 PM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
There's a lot of clutter on the screen without any real sense of hierarchy.
And why is the type so small, with no option in the preferences to change it (or much else)? No, I'm not changing my browser's type size just for one web site.
NEW Mac forums
by joyss - 8/16/09 10:55 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
Attention forum members! NEW Mac forums
I just tried to get to the Mac OSX from the above page, but was told the page did not exist (#_#)
Unread threads in a Forum
by sturner--2008 - 8/18/09 8:16 AM
In Reply to: What do you think of the new CNET Mac Forums? by cnet.aaron
I detest the fact that I have to enter a forum to see if there are any unread threads. This is a MAJOR inconvienence/problem.
As stated before, your software isn't designed as a normal forum.
YOU NEED TO INVESTIGATE ACTUAL FORUMS!
Total posts: 49 (Showing page 1 of 2)
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