MacCentral Undergoes Re-Design
As probably nearly all readers of this site know, I am a volunteer moderator over at Macworld’s Forums. Macworld recently revamped their website and accompanying website, MacCentral, which a new design. It’s a radical change for sure, but uses CSS heavily to improve portability and loading speed.
It has also moved Macworld’s news site into the main site and pointed the comment system for those stories into Macworld’s existing forums. This had couple changes that went along with it. The first being that existing MacCentral users had to get new usernames at Macworld’s forums (resulting in 0 post counts). It also meant that existing discussions were in a different forum system.
Before I give my personal spin, let me give a warning that this is my own personal spin. It has nothing to do with Macworld, so if you don’t like it, you have a problem with me, not Macworld.
- Instead of carefully examining the situation and seeing what the actual changes were, most users jumped to a series of rash conclusions which was joined with a lot of crass comments and childlike threats. It was fairly obvious what happened, at least to me. Macworld had two forum systems and migrated people from one to the other for the purpose of commenting on stories. Macworld left MacCentral’s forums in place, but they are no longer in use for story commenting. They did not “delete user accounts” as a few users suggested.
- Due to the number of overlapping users, merging the two forum systems wasn’t possible. I had logins for both sites, which was common. Additionally, some users that weren’t the same on MacCentral, registered on Macworld’s forums. Those logins couldn’t and shouldn’t have been wiped to be replaced by MacCentral users. That’s not fair. Instead, users are given a new account at Macworld.
- Avatars and image signatures are not allowed at Macworld. They make pages load slower and I for one applaud Macworld for never enabling those features. If you don’t like that, you can read the next point.
- MacCentral’s existing forum system is alive and well. It’s still accessible through a link available in Macworld’s forums. Use it.
- Being crass and making threats helps no one. It only aggravates those running Macworld. This goes for any business or institution. It’s like the old saying goes, you’ll catch more flies with honey than vinegar.
- If you don’t like something about the way things have changed, specify them. Don’t just reiterate the moronic “it sucks”. Describe them very specifically and be extremely clear about what you mean. Posting “I can’t make new topics” isn’t clear. Explain that you’re talking about creating a new thread about a particular story. Also, offer suggestions. “Go back to the old site” is not a suggestion. If the type is too big in your opinion, suggest smaller type. I think you can get the idea.
- That said, there has been, in my opinion, excellent feedback on the new design. There are a few users in particular that I can think of. They did all the things above I suggested. more importantly, they are going to wait to see how things play out for the next couple weeks. Others have not, opting for immature threats.
I’d like to see Macworld utilize the ability of different CSS style-sheets to be used. That way, they could offer a “Classic” style sheet that closely emulates the original style. Users could choose which style sheets to use. (For those of you didn’t pick up on it, that’s an example of constructive feedback.) The possibilities are many and certainly too early to pass final judgment on.
Addendum: I forgot to mention that post counts are not a functional thing at all. It’s completely for vanity. If your points are salient, post counts are unnecessary to back them up.
Howdy, Erik;
I was playing with the MacW css on some saved pages; saw the link to this blog; clicked; here I am
Wanted to chime in, as both a board “consumer” and as a recovering moderator (from back in the day — AOL, eWorld, Fool, etc.).
Expecting “most users” to carefully examine the situation is expecting too much. Sad perhaps, but true. Boards are all about user expectations; when those are frustrated, angry electrons are gonna fly. When users are telling mods to “eat shit and die” in the wake of unannounced changes, the moderators either gotta eat-shit-and-grin or just start banning…. Jason (for one) did a good job of the former. From my experience, if mods are letting users get to them (”aggravate”), then those mods need some further training, and some time away to decompress. (That is, “catching flies” is the mod’s job; it’s best done with deflection, educating, and humor.)
Your point 3) is a great example of why accurate information from the board owner is so important. MacW’s boards FAQ would seem to indicate that images are perfectly normal in posts and sigs; see these two items at http://www.macworld.com/forums/ubbthreads/faq_english.php: “How do I add an image to my message?” and “Is there a limit to signature image size?” Both indicate that sig pix are gonna fly…so users who took the time to “carefully examine the situation” p’bly came away confused (at best; “irritated” at normal ;-).
Timely information is also important. For many of the riled-up MacC posters, the day began with a failed link to a place they’d been visiting for years (like, since well before the MacW buyout of years ago); after-the-fact articles about site changes conveyed nothing reassuring…. (Imagine if your parents had closed up the house and moved north without giving you advance notice; your 8-27 post might well have started with “WTF!”
This is strictly IMO, but a “good” board owner/head mod would have had an apology up, prominently, ASAP — “We’re sorry; please forgive; welcome.” Kinda like being a parent or a spouse; making peace is more important than being right.
All in all, the MacW mods did a good job “that day,” but it read like you guys had been left on your own. That is, direction/involvement/concern from management seemed missing; made it difficult to build on feelings of community, and easier to fall back to “us vs. them” reactions.
Re: Addendum — If vanity weren’t important, the titles and counts wouldn’t be there. Ergo, the counts are important. That’s user-logic, and it’s got nothing to do with reality
S2
Thanks for the feedback Stu (or, thanks for reading
). I guess it’s been a difficult experience all involved, but I’d like think we all came out of it with limbs attached and in the right places.
Oh, and a friendly note, my name is actually Derik. My parents were indecisive choosing between Erik and Derek, and so I got Derik. It makes for a half minute story, but that’s it.