Wrong Planet Message Forum Suggestions

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Hello, I am a huge fan and user of Wrong Planet. I find this site has benefited me as well as many other individuals around the world. In addition, I want to thank you for creating this site. I think your idea in creating this site was a wonderful idea!

As a regular user and a web designer myself, I have a few suggestions I feel could make this website more user friendly.

First, I feel like the design of the message forum could be improved in a few ways. First, when a topic is posted, it's hard to find and see the replies the message. When I post a message, I like to read the responces and replies. I find it hard and time consuming to do so on this site. I find I have to dig through messages to find out who replied them, and when I do I have to click through multiple pages in order to read each reply. In addition replying each post is kind of strange in that you often have to copy the "quote" from a specific individual in order to replay their comment so others understand your replying to that individual's post or response. Also, this website has no easy way of notifying you about individual threads being replied or commented. I understand there is a link that lets people know which posts have been replied but it's kind of confusing because it's a long list of all the posts that were replied. It's can be long and confusing if you have commented or posted several posts. Furthermore, posts that you have commented on that may not be that interesting can bumped to the top of the list if many others have responded, hiding other posts that you want to find. There is no way of turning off a post if you no longer want to "fallow" it. Individuals can't fallow a specific messaged or forum topic by referring to an easy to see list or menu like in most forums such as Facebook or Youtube. I feel it would be a huge benefit if you can.

I consider this a major social media site in my opinion and I think you should be proud. I think the solution to these issues come from what I see many major social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube use. They have adapted to a nice user friendly type system in their message and forum posts. Each post on message forum, blog, or news-feed all have a feature of notifying the creator when a comment as been made on their post. Furthermore, the creator as well as the individuals who commented on the post also get notified when someone replies a post. This is done by showing a list of notifications organized by forum topic that the user has participated or "followed". It is very simple, and lets individuals immediately know when a topic has been responded. In other words, a forum message can be setup like an outline. The message that the user post is like the main topic and comments can be a ever ending list of subtopics, the replies to each comment can be a subtopic of that, and replies of replies can be more subtopics. I feel with this approach, users can then benefit obtaining the information quicker, saving time, and reduce the number of users being less interested in the site due to more time and additional steps. Also topics can also be turned off or "unfollowed". There are many posts that I like to comment but then stop following due to hundreds of responses that can clutter my notifications,

Furthermore, many social media sites are transitioning from a page by page list, to a one page "see more" ever ending list where all the posts and replies are on one page. Individuals can click on specific parts of information that isn't visible like replies of posts or more content and they can then twirl down and expand. This again saves time for individuals, allows individuals to quickly see all the content without missing anything. Furthermore this makes it more compatible and easier to use on mobile devices.

So in summery, I think the following things that could really improve this site and encourage the intersts of users is improving the message forum interact. This includes: 1) allowing users to be notified when a specific post is replied kind of like on facebook 2) Have the message setup in an outline kind of way, where comments to a post can have replies that are like subcategories that individuals can choose to look at by clicking on them and expanding it. 3) Each post should be displayed as one page that can forever expand when the user gets to the bottom instead of having multiple pages that the user has to click through. 4) Have the ability to "un-follow" specific threads.

I consider your site a top social media site and I considering this as a major compliment to you. You should be proud of your work. This site is benefiting a lot of people. With that said, I notice some ways that I feel this site could have been improved so I thought it would be nice to point them out. I hope you find my suggestions valuable.

James Edwin Hackett IV

I understand most of us members don't want to see something different and comfortable with the current interface. I'm definitely can relate when I have to be force to try something new and have when facebook changes their interface from time to time. However, I think these changes can be done without having to change anything that already exists. In other words, these suggestions can just be simply added to the current look and ui/ux design of the site. For example, a facebook type thread reply/response notification menu could be added next to the "View Posts Since Last Visit | View Your Posts" area. An un-follow check off box could be added next to the posts you've created or responded in. The message could look the same but has the "twirl down" or "expand" feature instead of having to click through several pages.