[barmar]

mr1303, on 2013-April-02, 16:30, said:

Yes. That's the point. The change will annoy most of the regular posters here to avoid things being a tiny bit confusing for people who post here once and then never post again.

I like to think that accomodating newbies is very important. Power users don't need hand-holding, they can accomodate. And while the regulars may post more, I think over time there are more of the newbies looking for BBO support, so this change benefits more people.

Quote

As for the question being biased - did anyone read the thread name?

Not only is the question biased, but the pollees are not a representative sample. The people who will benefit from this change will never participate. It's like doing a poll about homelessness by postal mail.

If the organization had been like this for years, I don't think anyone would think there's anything wrong with it. It's only because it's different from what you're used to that it's even an issue.

[barmar]

lalldonn, on 2013-April-02, 16:03, said:

You should also consider that what, 95% maybe, of all the posts made are now going to be less convenient, with the rest more convenient.

That seems like an overbid. How much time do you spend in the top-level, selecting forums? When you're reading and posting, I expect you spend much more of your time in the forums you participate, looking at the list of threads, than in the top-level looking at the list of categories.

Also, do you realize that when you're going from forum to forum you don't have to go all the way out to the top-level? You can select the category from the breadcrumbs list at the top. Or you can use the menu at the bottom to jump directly to another forum. So this inconvenience only hits you when you first login, after that you can navigate conveniently within the areas you care about.

I wish the forum software allowed you to customize the forum list -- there's no "one size fits all" answer to this.

[dustinst22]

I think the negative unintended consequence of this will be less participation in the bridge-related discussions by either newer players or newer people to the forums. In fact I think there will be less discussion even by experienced members. And that's a bad thing imo. In fact it's the exact opposite of what you should want on this forum.

Sure, the forum may have originally been created to be BBO-focused. Instead it became the best Bridge discussion forum on the internet. Is this such a bad thing? What resulted was different than intended, so why not keep the focus on what the forum does well -- that is to provide a hub for Bridge-related discussion.

[cherdano]

To be honest, I am quite offended by this change. It looks like you started the forum trying to attract people to discuss bridge, and now you turned it into something to discuss BBO. (Yes I am exaggerating to make a point.)

BBF is already inferior in various ways to its main competitor offering online bridge discussions. I am not sure why it thinks it is a good idea to add another way to make the bridge content one step further away to find.

I am not sure why so many people claim that it's not a problem because of "View New Content". BBF made this link almost unusable a while ago, by adding the Bridge Laws Forum, and the foreign language forums, without updating the forum software to adequately manage these additions from the user point of view.

[Fluffy]

It should be so easy to program the forums to show up bridge topics on top for regular posters, just that nobody is gonna dig on the code to do it.

[barmar]

Fluffy, on 2013-April-03, 19:45, said:

It should be so easy to program the forums to show up bridge topics on top for regular posters, just that nobody is gonna dig on the code to do it.

It's not our code to dig into. We purchased this software, and it's quite complex. All our customizations are done through extension facilities built into the software: getting the login information from the BBO user database, bbcode for suit symbols, hand viewer links, and the hand editor tool. AFAIK, they don't provide a method to tailor the forum layout for different users, and we're not going to rewrite the software to add it.

Anyway, I'm going to put it back. I think I just overreacted to the most recent time I had to move a post. I think I only have to do this about once a week, it's not really that bad. Additionally, the day after I made the change, someone posted a question about equipment for bridge clubs in the General BBO Forum, and I had to move it to Offline Bridge (but after I did that I noticed that he'd posted a duplicate there himself).

[Fluffy]

Is this the unnoficcial thread to complain that the forums have moved again when I was starting to get used to it?

[aguahombre]

Fluffy, on 2013-April-04, 08:59, said:

Is this the unnoficcial thread to complain that the forums have moved again when I was starting to get used to it?

Heh. I nominate your post for the "Keep stirring the pot" award. Love it.

[lalldonn]

Yay for barmar. The motto I live by is "whining works" and this is one more example.

[gwnn]

Thanks!

[Zelandakh]

POTY?

[mr1303]

Thank you Barmar. Much appreciated.