How can we improve the Forums?

[Sophie_M]

Hi all,

 

This discussion is a space for all members to share suggestions and ideas to improve the Forums. This can be anything. Navigation, notifications, topics and themes, moderation, community rules, or something else!

 

We'd love to hear about what you think we can do better. We are really grateful to everyone who has contributed their ideas already, and we're always keen to hear more. 

 

Kind regards, 

 

Sophie M

 

Please note: This is not a thread for discussing the moderation or editing of individual posts - if you have questions about this please contact the team offline via email modsupport@beyondblue.org.au 

[mmMekitty]

Thanks Paws, I hadn't thought of that. I will give it a go.

Hugzies

mmMekitty

[mmMekitty]

Indeed, Paws's recommendation works! [LRC does happy dance with Woofa]

[mmMekitty]

Hi again, Sophie M

Now I am opening some discussions expecting to see latest post first but I am seeing the last (oldest) page. I hav checked my setting in Options, & even swapped over between Newest to oldest & Oldest to newest to no avail. I'd like to see the Newest to O ldest all the time - newest post up top & the 1st page is the latest page. I thought that is what I'd set in Options.

& in the Notifications I am seeing the 'speech bubble' frequently too, when prior to a week or so ago I'd only seen the speech bubble in relation to you having posted. I'd always seen the thumbs up before. That doesn't bother me much - just curious..

Hugzies

mmMekitty

[yours_truly]

When you click the support button, it shows up as added by increasing the number, but if there are multiple replies and I would like to show my support, when I come back I don’t know if I have supported or not because I can’t recall the number. I recommend shading the heart in when you click support, so i know I have read this response and supported it.

[mmMekitty]

Hello Sophie M, Yours Truly & everyone

Frequently, now, I don't remember if I have supported individual posts in the thread, so now, I will click the little blue heart under the posts I'm not sure of & see if the number goes up or down. If it goes up, I know I had supported it before, & simply click it again.

Yours Truly, your idea would be good enough for now.

However, when even the extreme levels of zoom won't be enough for me, I will need there to be some sort of notice my PC or the text-to-speech software I am using can recognise & read for me, to tell me whether or not I have supported the posts.

Similarly, I'd like an announcement when a new notification has arrived.

Always moving around the screen, if I must use my keyboard, would be very tedious, to have to repeatedly check if any notifications have arrived.

I am persisting with this website because I can still use my mouse,  cursor & zoom in a lot. I would be very sad & disappointed if such practical considerations are what would lead me to leave BB.

Hugzies

mmMekitty

[Croix]

Dear MK~

I don't know if you screen reader will register this but if you put you mouse over the "support heart" but do not click text appears telling you to support/withdraw support

-C

[mmMekitty]

Hi Croix, & thank you.

There is text, which my my cursor partrially covers, turning into the upward pointing index finger, however my text-to-speech reader will not read it aloud.

I just found out that if I was to navigate to the support heart, using my keyboard, it will read the text aloud. But I can't necessarily 'tab' there. I have to get to it using arrow keys when I am close to the place. 

I feel I'm getting around so slowly now, without having to use tedious ways of finding out what is on the page.

Given my memory, too, I often hav to go & read the post I'm responding to while I am editing my response, usually 2 - 3 times, but sometimes more.

It's just getting so hard.

Hugzies to you, Sophie M & everyone, again!

[ProjectTeam]

Hi mmMekitty,

By design, the post that appears at the top of every page of a discussion will always be the original post. This is true regardless of your chosen order.

When you use the "Sort Oldest to Newest" or "Sort Newest to Oldest" options, the order will change for all the reply posts that sit below the original post at the top of the page.

Thank you for your feedback! We will look at how we can improve this experience.

That's a great question regarding the Notifications page. You're seeing the speech bubble icon more regularly on that page, because an ongoing notifications issue has recently been fixed! You can read about the change in our "Forums updates" discussion.

Kind regards,

Project Team
Beyond Blue

[ProjectTeam]

Hi yours_truly,

That's a great suggestion, thank you! That would make it easier for members to show their support. We have noted down your feedback to refer to when we improve the Support button experience.

Kind regards,

Project Team
Beyond Blue

[ProjectTeam]

Hi again mmMekitty,

Your feedback on the text-to-speech experience of the Support button is very helpful and appreciated. We will refer to it when we improve the Support button experience.

We're sorry to hear you're finding the Forums cumbersome to navigate with text-to-speech software. We hear you. Real-time notifications for those using text-to-speech software is a great suggestion. If there are apps and other platforms that do this well in your experience, we would love to hear about them!

Kind regards,

Project Team
Beyond Blue