Observations on the "New & Improved" Forum

Question

I've now lived with the new forum for a bit. I've been posting and replying to similar threads in the Adobe Premiere Video Lounge, since the changeover, but after some reflection, realize that this is a better place to, er-r-r vent. Still, there are some good points, so I'll list those first.
Ah, the new fora. Still getting used to them. Here are some reflections on the Pros & Cons, as I see them with IE7:
Pros: 
1.) The general layout is nice
2.) Being able to add a link quickly, is a real positive
3.) The indentation of replies, to other than the OP. (More on this in the Cons section)
4.) The formatting capabilities are great, and easy to set, plus apply
5.) Ease of adding screen-caps, etc., is greatly appreciated.
Cons:
1.) Sometimes really slow, but could just be server overload, or maintenance?
2.) Sometimes the server will jump fora. You will be replying to a post in, say the PrPro CS4 forum, get the editing window, and hit Post Reply, to see that it went to some thread in the Acrobat forum.
3.) The slight color differentiation between "read," [updated] and "unread" threads on the main page, could be much better.
4.) The loss of the "red flags," is greatly missed
5.) The "New" banner on new posts is greatly missed
6.) The expansion of all replies, when opening an older thread is bothersome. I do like the Reply to and the indentation in Threaded View (not available in Flattened View, though now you get the post numbers, which are good for referencing in later posts). On the Chowhound (food and wine) forum, one has the ability to Reply To and the Replies are indented, as here. The biggest difference is that when one goes to an article for the first time, all replies are open and threaded, like here. Once they have visited that thread once, however, on the next visit all replies and Replies To will be closed. It's very easy to see the new posts since the last visit. Each reply has an "Expand" button, should you need to read it, and there is also an "Expand All" button at the top of the article page. This does away with the need for the old "New" banners from the previous forum. I do have to say that I was one, who championed the Reply To and indentions. I just did not expect it to be quite like this. Be careful what you wish for...
7.) Learning to NOT use Back, once I’ve posted, is coming along slowly
8.) Searching the old fora was pretty easy, if limited. The new Search *starts out* looking good, until you try to limit the Search to just one (or a group) of forum. Then, you have to scroll down a list of every product (and also many languages) that Adobe has ever made. You cannot override the drop-down (that I can find), and just type in "Encore," or "Premiere." The additon of "People" is good, but it seems that the search engine can't find most of them, even some of the forum MOD's.
9.) When a forum has multiple pages and you are past #1, going back to "Discussion" always takes me back to page #1. There has got to be some navigational trick that will get me back to page #X, regardless of whether I’ve posted, or am just reading. When you are doing anything on a subsequently later page, in a multi-page forum, you cannot stay there, even if all you do is read one reply. You are ALWAYS taken back to page 1.
10.) The loss of many stickies, especially some of the FAQ’s and instruction on posting good questions with proper info. Seems that the various MOD's are working overtime on getting many of these back. I applaud their efforts. It is not being missed.
11.) The inability for the cookies to be recognized, when entering the forum and logging-in is a hassle. A bigger hassle is getting logged-out, even if you just posted 40 sec. before. For all longer posts, I’ve taken to using a wordprocessor, as so many of my posts have been lost, because I got logged-out in the process. I have used the "Recover Previous," that in some cases saved having to re-type everything, but like an AutoSave in Premiere, you could still have lost a lot of editing.
I will have to say that often I have been amazed, as I’ve gone three full days and each visit I’ve been logged-in fine. Other times, I will have to manually do it for each and every session.
Just some personal observations, with more in the works, as I explore.
Hunt

Answer 1

Thank you for your comments,
I was happy with the former forum's layout.  This doesn't add anything of value and wastes lots of space on-screen, which can be mitigated with scripts.
I liked the old format as well. There are some features, however, that I like in the new forum format. The "More Like This" frame, for instance. I could have lived with the old, but this aspect of the new is not all bad, IMHO.
Now we have an icon to do it easily, agreed.  But was it really so difficult to type <a href="URL">text</a>?
Well, for things like this, I had a "cheat sheet" of the various HTML code. I think the simple icon is an improvement.
I never want to post in Arial.  The formatting choices often change by themselves from what you have selected, also.  Very quirky editor.  Formatting is definitely easier now, I will admit.
I guess that I spend too much of my time doing titles for video, so Arial is a font that gets used a lot.
True, but using Pixentral for those wasn't exactly a big deal.
I find the new method much easier, and far quicker. I can create and add a screen-cap in moments. The biggest time consuming step is usually opening PrPro and PS, to do the cap, caption it, then Save to my Adobe Forum images folder - click and it's linked.
Agreed, but this is a minor issue.
I do not know how minor. When designing a site (or an ad), readibility is a big point.
This isn't a bug — it's a feature!  It discourages users from following long and complex threads and thereby makes threads simple and short, so that questions get asked, answered, and moved on.  Why should Adobe encourage people to engage in lengthy discussions about color management, JPEG inaccuracy, or other esoteric topics using its servers?  Why not simply facilitate asking and answering?  A user forum isn't a BBS; it's a substitute for a paid help desk!
I'm not so sure on Adobe's motive then, per your statements. It would seem that a software company, such as Adobe, would be most interested in the clients getting the most our of their software purchases. If they can learn color for print, video or the Web, from the forum, it would be in Adobe's best interest to support that sort of discussion. Heck, it would save having to discuss it on Adobe TV. If what you say is the Adobe "party line," why do so many of the fora have "Lounges?" I mean, what would be the purpose of that?
Go back to the top of the page and click on "Up to Discussions in Forum comments".  It will take you to the last page of the forum topic list you were on.  I asked repeatedly that a copy of this link be added to the bottom of the page and was, predictably, ignored.  I have read that once you have done this, you can use the back button to get to the same page, but I have not verified when and whether this works.
Unfortunately, on IE7, that takes one to the first page, of a multi-page forum. So does every other operation, unless you click back up the hierarchy, and then you go up a level in the fora, say from PrPro CS4 to the main PrPro level. Maybe it's my browser, but everything takes you to page 1, or up a level, never to the page you're on.
The comment about the Back button was specific to the view of the page with one's recently posted reply. In the old forum, Back took you to the forum article page, one level up from the thread that you just posted to. Now, it takes you "back" to a blank reply editing screen. I was just so used to hitting Back from the old days, that it's a habit I have to break 100%.
I haven't had the log-out problem during a session, but I haven't been nearly as active here since Jive.  The cookie good for only 24 hours is a PITA.
I've had days, when I did not get logged-out, but too many more, where it happens all of the time.
Again, thanks for the comments,
Hunt