Testing a new feature - Threaded replies

[rebecca@ebay]

Starting today and on this board only, we are testing threaded replies.

A few notes:

It is set to 3 layers of nesting, and will be tested that way here for a week or so, but we are considering one level. We'd like your feedback about whether three layers feels comfortable or feels like too many.

• It will get some design changes, just small ones to help the replies look a little more "grouped" visually. 
• It will not be suddenly rolled out to the whole community and can be turned on board-by-board. The most likely place to see it tested next is in next week's Weekly Chat.
• It will definitely be in use in some areas of the community - threading is the way of the future. The question here isn't yes or no, but how to make the yes feel as comfortable as possible. 
• If you reply to the OP, it'll be the first level of replies. If you reply to a reply the nesting will start, up to three levels.
• It is retroactive to past threads, so you'll see it on older content here in Platform Feedback starting now. 

Please bang around on it and share your thoughts. I appreciate your feedback and partnership on it! 

[lacemaker3]

Jeff convened another group of active board users in 2014, and didn't even show a threaded format when they were demonstrating the new boards (which rolled out shortly afterwards) in the test environment.

As I recall, the only format for the threads that was proposed (or at least demonstrated) was the standard, chronological format, which was generally well received. There were comments about this aspect and that, but the general format as it was demonstrated looked like it would be effective.

Unfortunately, when it was implemented, there were a number of aspects that were quite different from the way it had looked in the test environment. This made it much less effective than it potentially could have been.

These included the illogical display order (random) that is used for threads in the Knowledge Base, which had not been presented as an option. It has persisted no matter how many people point out the illogic. I don't recall ever seeing any user express a preference for this, nor has any explanation been provided for why it might be preferable, in what circumstances, or what advantage it is supposed to provide.

[coffeebean832]

---

@pburn wrote:

Here's a thread that's a hot mess because of the new nesting protocol. Good luck making heads or tails of it. I can't, and I've been participating in it . . .

Notification Bell 

---

Agreed @pburn - I'm having trouble following all the discussions on this board.

Can we please roll back this board to its original format- no nesting and no hidden quotes? If something's not working- and this isn't- move on from it.

I tried to come up with some suggestions early on to make nesting less painful- but the bottom line is what I've said before- the chat is the only place nested replies would have any value. Even then it only helps after the chat is already over. If you're following the chat in real time then the nesting means you have to keep going back and forth to page 1, 2, 3, 4, etc constantly to see which questions got an answer so you can ask a follow up if you have one. Often times follow ups are posted by people who didn't ask the original question and follow ups really help to clarify an issue. With a nested process where we have to keep flipping pages nothing will be accomplished in that short hour- and I'm sure the eBay team will miss our follow up questions to posts they've already responded to since our follow ups will go back to the page the original post is on. Does the eBay team really want to keep flipping back and forth? Questions will take so much longer to answer and it will make their job even harder.

On every other board nesting is pure chaos. If eBay insists on going forward with this incredibly confusing format then they need to give posters the option at the profile level to turn off nesting.

As @lacemaker3  pointed out- this board with its nesting test ignores our profile preferences to sort oldest to newest. It defaults newest to oldest which makes the discussions on this board even more confusing. I did figure out that below the OP of any discussion on this board you can change the sort order and it will apply to all threads- but why should we have to do that when our profiles already have our preferences set?

rebecca@ebay 

[coffeebean832]

Oh my gosh thank goodness for the option to switch back to linear format in the board options drop down. Thanks for alerting me pburn.

[scpete8755]

Threaded replies suck.               That is all.

Well that and not having the thread title on every post even though you apparently thought it was just "visual clutter" (is that the new buzz phrase for the month?)

[fern*wood]

I hate threading!!!!   I somehow got myself into this, and pburn (a very helpful poster) explained to me what had happened and where to select the option to get out of it.   So far, I'm still having some trouble getting it off my posting ID, so I hope I wasn't permanently opted in or something.  If so, I'm done posting.  The rereading already read posts is maddening.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Past discussion board formats (before eBay went with Lithium/Khoros in 2013) did have a way of highlighting read vs unread posts, which made threading scannable and feasible. On these boards, it's utterly unworkable.  If that happens, let's set up a Facebook group called "Refugees from eBay's Threaded Community Boards."

[fern*wood]

Well, I've tried my settings both ways now and can't seem to get out of this.  I've signed out and even waited overnight for this to fix itself---still nothing.  I guess I'm in some test from thread h*ll.

[coffeebean832]

rebecca@ebay tyler@ebay brian@ebay 

Now that you've seen the big mess and how difficult it is to follow posts here- seriously, read any thread on this board from start to finish and try to follow it- can you honestly say that you still like threaded replies?

Why has this setting not been turned off yet? I've read several posts from users that are having difficulty turning it off on their individual profiles even with the linear format settings. It shouldn't be that hard.

[coffeebean832]

@fern*wood- In addition to changing from threaded to linear format, did you adjust the sort order? Scroll up on this page and look for the option to sort oldest to newest-

Even if your main profile is set to sort all boards oldest to newest- this board with threading will ignore that setting and sort newest to oldest unless you manually change it. Changing it within this discussion topic will apply the setting to all threads on this board.

[fern*wood]

Thank you so much for also taking the time to help me (along with pburn).  I also just received a message from a mod telling me things I need to do.  I haven't tried that sort order yet, but will be doing so soon.  I thought I had checked that and it was already set that way. 

How did I get into this?  I wonder if  they switch some posters over on their own or if I did something.

@coffeebean832 

[coffeebean832]

Supposedly this is the only board set to threaded format, and it's set that way for everybody unless they manually change it- but you said you saw it on the Selling board, too? I haven't seen other posters say that yet but it's still early.

[fern*wood]

I have it on the selling board.  I only came to this board because my original post got quickly moved over here.   I haven't seen others saying anything either, so I guess it's just me. 😋