Notifications are horrible, and more...

[dswallow]

• I want to see the threads I've posted in that have replies, and I want a thread with replies that I've read to then not show up again.

 

Notifications show me separate entries for replies to threads, sometimes more than one, and if I even just look at notifications, they all reset as if I'm done with them. It's a pain to figure out what's left to read among those items. I've had to resort to keeping the browser window with the initial notifications separate and open each item in a new window. It's also obnoxious how little that drop-down displays and how much real estate each entry in the list takes up in that little window.

 

It's also a confusing set of options regarding notifications. I don't want emails. I just want to be able to come to the forum and see what's new that I'm participating in since my last visit, and/or since what I last read (i.e., don't assume I read every thread with new posts every visit, track what I've read properly to provide what's not yet read the next time I visit).

 

Am I missing something? I've been through, I think, all the pages about notifications and have tried a few things and just can't seem to get something that behaves as I believe it should/has behaved before.

 

• I want to see the threads I'm subscribed to even if there are no new posts.

 

Countless times I want to post something in one of the roll call threads for a future cruise, and it's now almost impossible to find those threads except doing a Roll Call search. I'm subscribed to them, there should be an easy place to see a list of threads I'm subscribed to, though it'd be better to differentiate them from threads I've simply posted in and am participating. But either way, it should be simple to see these threads without painful clutter. Maybe a way to identify a thread as a "favorite" and then a way to see favorite threads.

 

The classic vBulletin/XenForo style user control panel works, and has a good basic workflow. It's designed to show me the state of things when I look, not an accumulated bunch of notification events that have duplicates and spend more space identifying different posters in each, and are more focused on telling me I've seen the notification not that I've read the new posts referenced in the notification.

 

• Is joining/unjoining a roll call something that can be done somewhere anymore?

 

I've booked a few cruises after the forum software change and when I've gone to find roll calls for them, I can't find a way to join them and become part of the listed group of folks in the roll call; I just get to the thread and can post messages. Am I missing someplace that joining is done, now? If not, there's verbiage on those pages leaving it unclear (aka "why you should join the roll call"). I see myself listed as part of it coming back some time after I post in the thread, but let's say I cancel a booking sometime later; is there a way to unjoin the roll call?

 

• Just to be clear, the good outweighs the bad 🙂

 

Otherwise, I'd have said the forum software upgrade/change was good, overall. Functionality increased in many places. I can quibble over formatting and wasted space/excess blank space (but I probably can customize css to fix most of it when I am up to taking the time to do so), but functionally, all but the reliance on notifications instead of a more intelligent what's unread state seems like an improvement.

 

And what I feel right now is a large impediment to new conversations in roll call threads. And seem to see it in the lack of posts in threads that seemed to have had some regularity before. And I'm internet savvy; I can only imagine how difficult it is for someone not familiar with inner workings of forum software in general to find things again without easier to navigate features available.

 

[broberts]

Activity | Content I Follow (https://boards.cruisecritic.com/discover/followed-content/) will show unread posts bolded. Sadly, it will also show lots of other posts, but those can be ignored. (When next you look at the list they will not appear.)

[John&LaLa]

30 minutes ago, broberts said:

Activity | Content I Follow (https://boards.cruisecritic.com/discover/followed-content/) will show unread posts bolded. Sadly, it will also show lots of other posts, but those can be ignored. (When next you look at the list they will not appear.)

 

Love the Content I Follow in Activity Streams.

 

I only get notifications for folks that quote me or react.  Easier that way

[dswallow]

Yeah, I had tried that; same problem... an entry for every single reply. And as far as I can tell no way to just see threads I've subscribed to.

 

[John&LaLa]

3 minutes ago, dswallow said:

Yeah, I had tried that; same problem... an entry for every single reply. And as far as I can tell no way to just see threads I've subscribed to.

 

 

I click on the first bold entry towards the bottom and work my way up within the thread.  I do most of my posts within the Royal sub category, so the only stuff I see in content I follow is roll calls and D, D+, PC thread

[Aulanis]

Your post has turned into a bit of a rant

For me it is too long to read.  You would be better to split it up and make each query a separate post.

 

One thing - Having joined a Roll Call you cannot unjoin ( I dont believe you ever could)  You can however do a "leaving" post to advise the members you have left/cancelled and ask to be removed from any spreadsheet or M&M List

Edited November 29, 2018 by Aulanis

[dswallow]

Frankly it is a rant. 🙂 But in general I tend to converse, rather than post snippets with little context, and try to explain rather than just post a sentence with a feeling. If it's too much for someone's attention span, I really doubt they're going to have much to contribute anyway

 

If I had just said there's no good way to follow threads and easily get to just unread posts in threads I'm following, someone would likely point to this notifications and content-i-follow setup and think that answered my query. It's a terrible implementation and comes close to making this an unpleasant place to visit and participate in with regularity. I say that with the knowledge of how other forum software works well in that regard. The notification implementation here feels more like someone is jealous of Twitter.

 

I have hunted and experimented and read through comments of others, hoping there's something hidden or some options that just had names that misled me to thinking they didn't do what I was trying to find. So, I don't expect a real useful "here, this is how you do that" answer, and wanted to express what I wanted and how what exists simply does nothing to help streamline the process of interacting in this forum, to the detriment of the forum. Maybe in the hopes it can be added to some wishlist or in combination with feedback from other people might help move someone to create a solution.

[Aulanis]

25 minutes ago, dswallow said:

I have hunted and experimented and read through comments of others, hoping there's something hidden or some options that just had names that misled me to thinking they didn't do what I was trying to find. So, I don't expect a real useful "here, this is how you do that" answer,

 

If you have done that and dont  expect an answer  you should email your concerns to help@cruisecritic.com.

That  might put it one step up in bringing it to their attention.

Always assuming they also dont feel it is TLTR

 

Further to the roll call query,  I think the ability to join a Roll Call  direct from the Roll Call page has gone.

You have to make a post to join.

 

That at least will get rid of all the spurious entries

in roll calls  asking us to welcome members who had

clicked the join button to find out what it did, and who

were just looking around and not on the cruise.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Aulanis

[Globaliser]

16 hours ago, dswallow said:

Am I missing something?

 

Yes: Activity Streams. These are the way to do what you want to do. Learn how to use them - in particular, creating custom Activity Streams that do exactly what you want them to do - and you will find that this will solve all of the problems you mention.

 

If you need help with specific settings to achieve certain results, then post again and we can help.

[dswallow]

6 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

Yes: Activity Streams. These are the way to do what you want to do. Learn how to use them - in particular, creating custom Activity Streams that do exactly what you want them to do - and you will find that this will solve all of the problems you mention.

 

If you need help with specific settings to achieve certain results, then post again and we can help.

 

I've tried those, and I just get more frustration.

 

How do I get rid of seeing threads listed on these activity streams more than once? If there's an unread post, I just want to see it ordered with the most recent unread post; when I go there I'll see every other unread post, and don't need to have them listed. I want to be able to see an overview of threads with unread posts, not a list of each and every unread post.

 

 

 

And then is there any way to show a list of forums I'm interested in without it making every individual post/reply in the forums show up in the above sort of list?

 

 

Edited November 30, 2018 by dswallow

[Globaliser]

6 minutes ago, dswallow said:

How do I get rid of seeing threads listed on these activity streams more than once?

 

In the first setting - "Show me" - change the setting to "Content items only". You will see each thread listed only once.

 

6 minutes ago, dswallow said:

And then is there any way to show a list of forums I'm interested in without it making every individual post/reply in the forums show up in the above sort of list?

 

No, that is one thing that I haven't found a decent way of doing.

 

You can follow forums as well as threads (just as in the old software). You'll find your followed forums here - https://boards.cruisecritic.com/followed/?type=forums_forum&change_section=1 - but that is, I think, the only way of doing this. I've been trying to discourage people from using Manage Followed Content to keep track of new posts, but I think those considerations don't apply if you're following a limited number of forums and you don't need the list to show you which forums have new posts and which don't (as that list doesn't show that).

[dswallow]

Thanks for the pointer. That's getting close, I think. Next to play around with some client-side scripts to adjust things a bit and put the link to the content stream someplace simple to get to. 🙂

[Globaliser]

1 hour ago, dswallow said:

... and put the link to the content stream someplace simple to get to.

 

I've got four bookmarks in the bookmarks bar. It's been the fastest thing for me so far. 

[dswallow]

Somewhat rudimentary but successful basic functionality/proof of concept:

 

 

 

Simple TamperMonkey script (just am grabbing the link associated with the custom activity stream I created, so that'd be user-specific; might play with grabbing them automatically though. But for now, figured I'd share the first step.

 

 

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Activity stream link
// @namespace   http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      0.1
// @description  Add link to custom activity stream!
// @author       You
// @match       https://boards.cruisecritic.com/*
// @grant        none
// @require http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js
// ==/UserScript==

 

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('<li class="boards"><a href="https://boards.cruisecritic.com/discover/602/"><span>Posts</span></a></li>').insertAfter('.boards');
});

[Globaliser]

Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well.

[John Bull]

17 hours ago, dswallow said:

Somewhat rudimentary but successful basic functionality/proof of concept:

 

 

 

Simple TamperMonkey script (just am grabbing the link associated with the custom activity stream I created, so that'd be user-specific; might play with grabbing them automatically though. But for now, figured I'd share the first step.

 

 

// ==UserScript==
// @name         Activity stream link
// @namespace   http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      0.1
// @description  Add link to custom activity stream!
// @author       You
// @match       https://boards.cruisecritic.com/*
// @grant        none
// @require http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js
// ==/UserScript==

 

$(document).ready(function() {
    $('<li class="boards"><a href="https://boards.cruisecritic.com/discover/602/"><span>Posts</span></a></li>').insertAfter('.boards');
});

 

2 hours ago, Globaliser said:

Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well.

 

 

I haven't got a clue what either of you are talking about - you might as well be conversing in Chinese. 

 

G - do you have Obi Wan's e-mail address? 

 

JB 

[Peregrina651]

23 hours ago, dswallow said:

 

And then is there any way to show a list of forums I'm interested in without it making every individual post/reply in the forums show up in the above sort of list?

 

 

 

For those who are code-phobic and don't want to mess with anything they don't understand, I have found my own work around to this problem and actually I have been doing it since before the migration to this new platform. I like tabs on my browser and I keep dozens of them open. I have a tab for my customized activity screen, and one for each of the forums I like to follow. I just work my way through the tabs until I have seen everything I want to see. IT people will call my solution inelegant but it works for me.

 

As for a list of subscribed threads, it is available but well hidden: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/followed/

Our subscriptions are now called "Followed Content" and to "Manage" the "Followed Content", click on your screen name at the top of any page (). "Manage Followed Content"  is one of the choices. My problem is remembering from time to time where they have hidden it!

[Peregrina651]

On 11/29/2018 at 1:20 PM, Aulanis said:

 

 

 

That at least will get rid of all the spurious entries

in roll calls  asking us to welcome members who had

clicked the join button to find out what it did, and who

were just looking around and not on the cruise.

 

 

 

YES!!!! I really disliked those silly posts and will be happy to see them gone. My next cruise is a river cruise (so no Find Tool and no spurious posts) and with no ocean journeys booked I haven't been following any ocean roll calls to be able to note the change. It is something to look forward.

[Globaliser]

41 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

As for a list of subscribed threads, it is available but well hidden: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/followed/

Our subscriptions are now called "Followed Content" and to "Manage" the "Followed Content", click on your screen name at the top of any page (). "Manage Followed Content"  is one of the choices.

 

I would, however, caution that this page is not a good way of actually following your followed content. It is, as the page suggests, for managing it - for example, changing settings for an individual thread (if you can find it). It is ordered in descending chronological order of the last time when you began to follow the thread, and that order does not change. So it's pretty useless if you're looking for a thread that's had recent posts to it - that could be anywhere in the list on the Manage Followed Content page.

[Globaliser]

 

9 hours ago, John Bull said:

11 hours ago, Globaliser said:

Impressive. Most impressive. Obi-Wan has taught you well.

 

I haven't got a clue what either of you are talking about - you might as well be conversing in Chinese. 

 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080684/quotes?item=qt0358487