Comment/Forum System Improvements

samfisher5986 on 03/02/2011 - 12:31
Last edited 03/02/2011 - 13:13

I haven't been liking the current comment/forum system lately for a few reasons.

  1. Anything with a lot of comments becomes very difficult to keep track of, I constantly have to look for the red "new" and if I accidentally refresh, I have to look at the last posted time which is often more effort then its worth.

  2. Once things reach page 2 things get even worse, with a regular link to the topic wiping out the "new" text as reading page 1 seems to say you have read page 2.

  3. Keeping track of a conversations is a lot of work in busy threads.

It never used to be a big problem but with the popularity of ozbargain increasing it seems a lot of topics are heading in the direction where I find it inconvenient to look through.

Would having a regular forum style order be a good idea? You could put in a quoting system so that way you can read things from top to bottom, instead of going up and down like a yoyo.

The other thing, which I have no idea how to improve on is for example, lets say there is a bargain for a USB drive, it takes 2 weeks to deliver.

It then turns out that many people don't receive the USB they paid for, they have two options, make a new topic on the forums, or post on the original topic, something most ozbargainers won't even look at. It would be nice for other people to see it, so they can offer advice on how to get a refund etc.

Is it possible to make it visible to everyone that a older bargain is under discussion so other people can participate? I wouldn't want an older bargain cluttering up the deals section, but I'm wondering if there is something that can be done.

Also while I'm here, I find that putting sort:date doesn't work very well, things are not in proper date order, most of the time its good enough, but its quite strange how its not actually in date order.

And would it be worth putting a checkbox so people can easily select it to be in date order?

I can't imagine why when people type in "Dominos" for example that they would want to see pizza codes from 2008.

Site Discussion

Comments

  • finance on 03/02/2011 - 13:50

    it would be cool if deals can be organised a bit better and have more options of looking at it by date or something.

  • issh on 03/02/2011 - 15:18

    Once things reach page 2 things get even worse, with a regular link to the topic wiping out the “new” text as reading page 1 seems to say you have read page 2.

    +1 to that

    you could subscribe to the forum/thread

  • johnn on 03/02/2011 - 16:34

    And would it be worth putting a checkbox so people can easily select it to be in date order?

    If you go into the search feature and check in advanced search there's checkboxes for 'Sort by posting date' as well as 'No expired deals'.

    It probably would be handy to put these common options underneath the regular search textbox however as people don't often check advanced search :)

    • samfisher5986 on 03/02/2011 - 18:24

      I'm on this site every single day, and somehow I only figured this out now :/

  • samfisher5986 on 07/02/2011 - 11:42

    So what do ozbargain staff think of my suggestions?

    • Mikinoz on 07/02/2011 - 11:57

      By the amount of interaction between them and you on this post, i think it speaks for itself.

      • samfisher5986 on 07/02/2011 - 12:03

        Perhaps, but then they could easily come in and say my ideas are horrible :)

        • Mikinoz on 07/02/2011 - 12:04

          Theres plenty of other people who will criticise dont worry , maybe they are discussing your ideas now :)

      • scotty on 08/02/2011 - 00:18

        Urrgh.

        1. Currently there is only 1 developer for OzBargain, i.e. me, doing it during my spare time. And have been flat out with work this month.
        2. Fixing up the link to first new comment will come in the next couple of months. Things get complicated when you have threaded comments spanning multiple pages…
        3. Commenting on new deals don't bring it back to the front page again, although in forums it does "bump" the topic. You can however see who else have commented on the deals/forum topics you have commented on, in your "comments" page. (And yes, user profile pages need some re-work).
        • samfisher5986 on 08/02/2011 - 01:28

          cool thanks for the reply. :)

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