Are They Doing A Major Change To Knowledge Base Board & Will There Be More Changes?

[labs118]

I had noticed the other day the Q&A added next to Selling 
Now many of the boards are gone and some have Archive Category next to them
alan@ebay  ?

I am sorry to see these boards go, many don't want to post to Discussion boards

and go back & forth 
The Member to Member doesn't offer a Category Like the Knowledge Base boards did.  These boards had been a simple way to post & get a quick answer
Is everything on the boards changing?
It was nice warning for Editor V2 Pinned so we knew .
Why no notice about these boards being retired ?
I was wondering why on some boards like Buying & Selling Basics & others  had  no new posts to answer for about a week  !
Thanks

Old Boards 

 

New Boards 😔 (Frowning)

[labs118]

Still drinking coffee so a little slow on the uptake
so this is why the Tags on the right changed to Labels with categories on the Selling board months ago the I posted about !!!

 

[lacemaker3]

I suspect that this is happening because there has been little traffic recently on the boards that have been removed or archived.

Many responders don't like the thread format used on the Knowledge Board. The posts are not shown in chronological order, instead they are in a random and changable order that is difficult to sort out. It doesn't even stay the same, it changes. Some responders don't care about that, and some don't like it, but I have never seen anyone say that they preferred it. Of course, I could have missed that.

Personally, I find the illogical display of the posts makes them difficult to follow, sometimes to the point of being painful, so I avoid them now. In spite of many requests, eBay has refused to change this format for the threads.

There used to be a very different culture between the Discussion Boards, and the Answer Center, which was scrapped and replaced by the Knowledge Base several years ago. Now, the only difference that remains seems to be the different thread format. I don't really see any benefit any more, to having two different sets of boards, or to having duplicate boards. 

I think that it would be beneficial to provide more apparent, intuitive navigation for the boards, so that new members who are coming here looking for help, would be able to see a logical place to post their questions. We really don't have anything to help with that. 

[labs118]

I liked the knowledge based as many asked questions got answers boom solved done wash & repeat
I find the discussion boards to get derailed a lot anymore and losing focus of the questions at hand because the responders go back & forth to discussion   which of course is fine 
The posters to these M2M boards or Knowledge base seem to just want an quick answer .
But I also agree they may find the boards confusing because there was duplicate spots to post for Selling & Tools & Apps etc.

To me the Knowledge base was fine
new questions landing on top in date order you simply could scroll down the page to look at posts & see the last date someone posted to a topic , I guess many are used to a topic moving up to the top of the board if there was a response but either way they will do /have done what they feel needs done.


 

[lacemaker3]

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@labs118 wrote:

...
new questions landing on top in date order you simply could scroll down the page to look at posts & see the last date someone posted to a topic , I guess many are used to a topic moving up to the top of the board if there was a response but either way they will do /have done what they feel needs done.
 

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New threads moving to the top of the board based on the time of the latest respone, that makes sense, and I agree that's good way to do it.

I was referring to the order of the responses within a given thread. On the KB, they are not in chronological order, or in any logical order. They are in a random order that changes sometimes. They are supposed to be somehow sorted by the "quality" of the response, although it doesn't seem to work out that way a lot of the time. It just seems random. Sometimes the most accurate and helpful post is in the middle or near the bottom. I find the random order is reallly confusing if responders needed to ask for more info or clarification, and the OP responds several times. It doesn't matter so much if the thread is really short, but sometimes the random order is really confusing.

I also find that hiding some of the responses in the comments, so that they can't be seen at all unless you open up the comments on a particular reply, is very confusing and not helpful at all.

Like I said, some people don't mind it, and some people don't like it. I guess we see this differently, which is perfectly fine. I used to prefer the Answer Center too, until it was scrapped. I kept on trying for a long time, but I have had to give up on it now.

[pburn]

I agree the format was weird for me. I rarely went over there because I found the format cumbersome and illogical. I could never quite figure out if I was clicking on the right links to be sure I was seeing all the responses.

I did like, however, that there wasn't a lot of back-and-forth arguing (for the most part, anyway).

[alan@ebay]

Hi @labs118,

Thanks for posting about this. Please accept my apologies for not posting about this when making the change yesterday. 

I've posted an overview of our thoughts behind the change here. Please take a look and share your questions or feedback. 

Thanks! 

[lacemaker3]

alan@ebay, it's being discussed here.

If you want to get input, maybe you should address the posts that have already  been made here on this thread. Just a suggestion. It would be courteous and respectful. Probably the least you could do to respond courteously.

[labs118]

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@lacemaker3 wrote:

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@labs118 wrote:

...
new questions landing on top in date order you simply could scroll down the page to look at posts & see the last date someone posted to a topic , I guess many are used to a topic moving up to the top of the board if there was a response but either way they will do /have done what they feel needs done.
 

---

New threads moving to the top of the board based on the time of the latest respone, that makes sense, and I agree that's good way to do it.

I was referring to the order of the responses within a given thread. On the KB, they are not in chronological order, or in any logical order. They are in a random order that changes sometimes. They are supposed to be somehow sorted by the "quality" of the response, although it doesn't seem to work out that way a lot of the time. It just seems random. Sometimes the most accurate and helpful post is in the middle or near the bottom. I find the random order is reallly confusing if responders needed to ask for more info or clarification, and the OP responds several times. It doesn't matter so much if the thread is really short, but sometimes the random order is really confusing.

I also find that hiding some of the responses in the comments, so that they can't be seen at all unless you open up the comments on a particular reply, is very confusing and not helpful at all.

Like I said, some people don't mind it, and some people don't like it. I guess we see this differently, which is perfectly fine. I used to prefer the Answer Center too, until it was scrapped. I kept on trying for a long time, but I have had to give up on it now.

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I must agree on the comment section being hidden that is confusing 
And why you have to click to view all answers . The format is very different but I always just rolled with it.

[labs118]

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alan@ebay wrote:

Hi @labs118,

Thanks for posting about this. Please accept my apologies for not posting about this when making the change yesterday. 

I've posted an overview of our thoughts behind the change here. Please take a look and share your questions or feedback. 

Thanks! 

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Thanks alan@ebay 
Will have to adjust to the new labels & experiment a bit 
But hope if you change the format on the discussion boards you don't add the Comment section.
I think most responders would not like the hidden comments you have to click in to see .
When first adding comments you can't attach photos and have to go back & revise so it's added steps