I already mentioned this at the FME UC (to @NatalieAtSafe for instance), but I believe the forum could really do with some major improvements. Just dropping this here, so people can take notice :)
1. Improved Upvote/Downvote system, Best Answers and Q&A Overview
Although technically, an "upvote" means that the post should actually be moved upwards, I believe that it makes a forum thread incredibly messy. Call me old-fashioned, but I much rather see a all messages in the thread in a chronological order. I have noticed by several reactions on this forum that other users sometimes also find it confusing (where did the message go?).
I propose that the system behaves more like a Like/Dislike, but that the message stays where it is.
If the message is turned into the Best Answer, I propose that a copy of that message appears at the top of the thread (just below the question), but that it will also appear at the original location within the thread, like they are doing here, for instance.
2. Expose some message functionality as individual buttons
Each message shows a little grey gear in the upper right corner, that will display a context menu if you click on it. I would like to see the most important functionality in there exposed as clear buttons. I'm mainly thinking of an "Edit" button and a "Mark as Answer" button, but also the "Reply" option should be a lot more visible. This makes it clearer to first time forum users and it stimulates them to mark a message as the Best Answer, which not only serves as a "thank you" to the person who answered the question, but it's also important for future users with the same problem to know that their question was already answered before.
3. Flatten structure, ditch the comment option, add anchor link to original message for replies
When you respond to a question, you can choose to post a comment or an answer. When you post a comment, it shows up as a hidden message underneath the question (or an "answer"). Not everyone notices this - it's too subtle. Furthermore, if a comment happens to provide the answer and the person who asked the question wants to mark it as the Best Answer, this is not possible. Instead, he/she has to mark the parent answer, which is a bit silly.
I propose that the comment option is removed, so that it's no longer possible to create these "nested" posts. It makes the thread a lot cleaner and easier to read, imho. Replying on a message could then work like this:
- User clicks "Reply" on a message, types something and posts it.
- The message does not appear as a comment below the "parent" message, but as an answer at the bottom of the thread (chronological order).
- The message displays a link above it that says "Replying to @<username>" and links to the "parent" message using an anchor tag (for example). This would also allow people to share a link to a specific message and it causes less redundancy than using some kind of quoting system where the "parent" message gets included (because people are lazy and often quote the whole message ;)).
4. Moderation, Question redirects and grouping of Ideas
Safe should maybe hire someone who constantly moderates the forum, but it would be better if they assign this task to a few forum regulars (I noticed that @takashi for instance already has the "power" to mark something as "Best Answer"), who should have the ability to:
- Add tags/topics to messages if the user forgot that so it's easier to find it in the future.
- Remove offensive posts or spam (which is rare here, fortunately!).
- Close and redirect a question to another one if it has been answered before (there is a lot of duplicate stuff on this forum).
- Group ideas together if they are (partially) similar under a <new title>. All votes will then be accumulated (duplicate users filtered out!), so that we can truly see which ideas matter the most. The ideas can remain within their own threads, but at the top of each idea, you will get a link to display the other similar ones. If a user votes for the idea, the linked ideas (i.e. the group) will also receive that vote. In the Ideas overview, we will see these grouped ideas under their <new title>. Clicking on that will expand all linked ones.
5. Introduce emoticons! ;)
Of course, it's all a matter of personal preference, but I hope that some of the stuff I said makes sense :)
