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Less comments on Wowhead blog posts--tell us why!
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Post by
Rhod
I know it's probably either been said, or it's just considered a stupid reason, but I really didn't care for the coloring on the Wowheadnews site. I much prefer this colorset.
Consequently, I've used the Wowheadnews site less often then I did the blog layout.
Post by
Ashelia
We read your feedback and we have some fixes in mind for making commenting easier. That said, the new layout is here to stay--however, we will be tweaking it and adding a lot more. I think we can also look into making it lag less and be less busy, as that seems to be a common complaint. It is simply not as elegant as Wowhead Original is.
For people who said they didn't know about it: a lot of that is because we have not formally advertised it yet. It is hard to find on purpose. We want our Wowhead core to like it before we make it widespread =)
Post by
pelf
Ashelia, I think it's really cool that you opened this thread. The motivations and goals implied by you doing something like this are very heartening. What would be really great is if you managed to establish and maintain a significant dialogue with the users here -- be the Ghostcrawler of Wowhead? (Ghostcrawler 1.0, of course, not 2.0.)
The people who run and maintain the site are great and really nice people (some of whom I got to meet at Blizzcon last year); but, even when Malgayne was around, there wasn't ever anyone (blue) who really spoke a whole lot and in depth with the world outside your staff forums. I'm not sure what your interpretation of Community Manager is; but, hopefully it's more like this
:)
.
Cheers, ma'am.
EDIT
: Damn English grammar and forgetting to bold my smileys.
Post by
hatman555
EDIT
: Damn English grammar and forgetting to bold my smileys.
!Where was I to catch this!
On topic: I really like having this open communication. The Feedback Forum is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places to be.
Hat
Post by
Bruunpala
I don't know if this is the right place to put this, but instead of making a new topic I'll go right ahead:
To me it seems that most of the general forums is filled with blog/news post, don't know what you call them blue ones.
Would it be possible to make a seperate forum for these posts themself? Personally I have a hard time catching them all while browsing in the forums and while I'd like to comment on threads, not finding the ones I'm actually interested in, makes that harder.
At the same time, I think that the general user base might have become more aware of what their are posting, which from time to time has been pretty useless. So instead of all the "I love
X
because of
Y
" you will get more discussion and/or further explanation on the topic at hand.
Back to the idea of making a "Blogs and News Forums", I'd really like to see a forum where the topics don't move up and down when a new post is made in the specific thread, but stays in the chronologial way that they were originally posted. I don't know if the format of your forums can actually support this, however the layout of the page looks like you can sort, while that is infact not possible (afaik).
Post by
Adamsm
Um, Bruun.....
*cough*
Post by
442759
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Erorus
Light theme is much easier to read than the dark theme. If you're going to have a different layout than Wowhead proper anyway, I suggest making the Light theme the default. Otherwise it's "close but not quite" and more difficult to use anyway.
The text of your first actual post is way below the fold. Are those giant story buttons ever actually used?
Your
bluepost background
isn't doing you any favors.
If you insist on collapsing some blockquotes, I should be able to click anywhere within that collapsed bar to expand them, instead of having to mouseover to the "Expand" link on the right side.
If I'm logged in to Wowhead, then Wowhead News should be able to sniff that out without requiring its own login page. I understand it's a cookie domain issue. Work it out.
I should be able to login straight from the comments area without having to bounce to a separate page. Even better: post and login at the same time. If my password is incorrect, save the post and let me try again without retyping it.
Allow anonymous comments.
late edit:
I sound like a bit of a snob here, and I apologize. Overall the site looks good, I just get nitpicky sometimes. I gotta stop posting at work...
Post by
Squishalot
Um, Bruun.....
*cough*
Admittedly, Bruun's suggestion means that WoW General won't get filled up with blogspam as it regularly does...
Post by
Adamsm
Um, Bruun.....
*cough*
Admittedly, Bruun's suggestion means that WoW General won't get filled up with blogspam as it regularly does...
Even in the days of the blogs though they were always transferred over to the other forums; such as General, L&RP and Randomness(as all those Rift whiners were so found of complaining about).
Post by
RyukaiSan
We actually already ticketed it this morning, another user had submitted this, but more people getting it is "good" in that we can pinpoint a solution. Can you give me your browser version and OS please? Thanks!
Internet Explorer 8
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
Thats my OS and browser too
Oh, and the comment box still isn't there :(
and PLEASE give us links to the database/forums on the news page :(
Post by
Gnub
and PLEASE give us links to the database/forums on the news page :(
Top right corner - it's there :)
Post by
235435
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
500251
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
giga
I'm late to the party and I don't post much anyway, but I do use Wowhead a lot for both blog/news and the database. Here's my two cents on what could be causing a drop in numbers:
1. Separate domain name. I'll be blunt about that: incredibly stupid. There is nothing wrong with using the existing wowhead.com domain for blog/news entries. Using news.wowhead.com, wowhead.com/news, etc would have been far better choices. If the existing site can't handle it because of how you rewrite URLs or whatever, then that is just a set of bad rules and can be fixed.
2. New layout. People don't like that much change. You guys can defend the new layout all you want (and saying it is "here to stay" when people are asking you for change comes across as very arrogant to be honest). It looks nice but the plain and simple Wowhead layout is better. The people have spoken. The new one is slower to load, brighter than Wowhead and has gone overboard with pictures. It's also terribly slow to load on my iPhone (which has no speed problems with Wowhead).
Also why can't you use the standard Wowhead menu system on the blog? The Wowhead one works perfectly and we're all used to it. Not to mention I have to click "Browse the database" and then "database" to get back here. Consistency is the key. Two sets of menus is silly and I would say turns people off.
3. Commenting in Firefox is horribly slow. I saw a Wowhead staff post saying you know about it and will fix it, but that is a huge turn off for me. Typing in that damn box is so painful because the live preview can't keep up. It doesn't happen on the forums but it's a major pain in the rear on the blog. That should be top priority to fix if you expect people to use it considering how popular Firefox is. The fact that it's still happening is a worry.
4. A lot of Blizzard news lately has been boring and there's been a lot more news from them. I think we're all getting used to predicting what Blizz will do these days so we all have a pretty good idea about something before they announce it. By then there isn't much more to say about it.
If everything was fine before the launch of the new domain and new look then the answer is obvious. Maybe concede defeat, put the blog back to how it was (if it ain't broke, don't fix it) and see what happens.
Post by
224056
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
HoleofArt
My biggest gripe is the size of everything. Wowhead is loved for its simple and easy to navigate pages, along with a minimalistic formatting style. Wowheadnews is the complete opposite of that. The entire page just feels too big -- for what purpose? You have to scroll almost a complete page down just to see a few blog posts.
The color itself is alright. I don't mind it as much as other users, however I agree with this:You guys can defend the new layout all you want (and saying it is "here to stay" when people are asking you for change
comes across as very arrogant
to be honest)
You ask for the users opinions and thoughts. We told you them. Instead of forcing this on users and then going "why u no liek r news site?" maybe you should consider changing the format. You don't need to completely redo the website, just read what the majority of Wowhead users want from the site *cough* we can make a poll for it with all the general changes people want*cough* and start tweaking.
We want our Wowhead core to like it before we make it widespread
And many don't. So now what?
Post by
Ashelia
We want our Wowhead core to like it before we make it widespread
And many don't. So now what?
I don't think it's arrogant to say that removal of a layout isn't going to happen; it's not. There may be other options, like a return of an old layout as an option or the URL being put back or a simple forum only blog, but I can tell you now that no one is going to
delete
a layout a lot of people love from existence that cost money to make and I think that's a real (and blunt) assessment. You state that many have said this needs to happen, but there are something like I want to say 20 (if not less and I think it's actually less who have called for a removal vs. tweaks) complaints here in that degree from a more vocal minority. That is far from resoundingly negative feedback from everyone and it's also far from a majority, which means it's not going to make an instant chance happen (like how the Meebo bar was revoked after we got over 200 complaints in a day).
That said, as I have said before, I appreciate feedback. I want to make this site good for every single user--those who love the new layout, those who are indifferent, and those who hate it. I wrote a proposal the Sunday before last about Wowhead and sent it to the president of ZAM on the whole. He read it. He liked it. It echoes my personal feedback, which surprisingly would be a lot in vein with yours, though you treat me like it isn't.
But that may not get it changed. It certainly won't get it removed. And as I said before, I hope we can reach a compromise because I think there is one to be made.
Getting angry or calling me arrogant, though, does little in your favor. Especially when the call is not mine to make alone and I can only advocate for you as a community manager does. There's little desire to advocate for you when you're telling me I'm the reason why it's not fixed.(##RESPBREAK##)2##DELIM##Ashelia##DELIM##
Post by
giga
but I can tell you now that no one is going to
delete
a layout a lot of people love from existence that cost money to make
Wowhead has released a lot of new features over the years. Everything costs money to make. Most things released here are of a high quality and generally leaves no room for complaint.
No one is perfect though. You can't get it right every time. No one can. In this case I think going with a completely separate site and design was a mistake, but that's just my opinion. Others may disagree.
That said, as I have said before, I appreciate feedback. I want to make this site good for every single user--those who love the new layout, those who are indifferent, and those who hate it.
I definitely appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback too. It's great to have that choice and have the people in charge reading it.
Getting angry or calling me arrogant, though, does little in your favor. Especially when the call is not mine to make alone and I can only advocate for you as a community manager does. There's little desire to advocate for you when you're telling me I'm the reason why it's not fixed.
I only said it comes across as arrogant. I wasn't personally attacking you or anyone at Wowhead. I know you all work hard and do a great job.
What I meant was that asking for feedback on something but basically saying we can only comment on certain things because things like the layout are staying regardless seems wrong. If the problem
is
the layout (and maybe it is, maybe it isn't) then you shouldn't automatically say it's staying just because a lot of time and money were put in to it. Sometimes a lot of time and money are spent on things that just don't work and/or the customers/visitors don't like. That is legitimate feedback and something that should at least be considered instead of being immediately ruled out.
If you want this new blog to succeed and insist on leaving the design as-is, then the highest priority for Wowhead staff needs to be fixing the Firefox live preview issue. That should greatly allow more people to comment without getting frustrated and just saying "forget this" and moving on. If you can't fix the problem straight away, then at least disable the live preview for Firefox users until it is fixed.
After that you can continue to tweak whatever you want until your numbers get back to normal.
Post by
Fulgorater
The biggest thing for me now that I've gotten used to it is the large size. The huge wall of articles that come pre-expanded for example. It makes browsing at first very cumbersome. Is it possible to have each article collapse-able? or make better use of the "continue reading" button?
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