I do think it's probably mostly about what you're used to. I could go to the most perfectly-designed threaded board ever, and I'd still find it hard to navigate.
This. Basically, if you're used to the TT/WebX look, it seems cleaner and crisper and righter than anything else.
If you aren't, you might get frustrated.
I do think our lack of searchability might make us harder to use for people who want to see one specific post, but I know implementing a search engine isn't really an option right now.
Thinking out loud: Would making the "board how-to" link more prominent and possibly adding screen shots ease some of the frustration? Alternately, if we have a post that's likely to be linked to, we could put it on some sort of "highlights" page. Which is how Nillytown functions, but if you don't know who Nilly is...
Edit: X-post with bicyclops.
Nillytown does say "Pointers To The Important Stuff." I don't know how much clearer you could make it.
Could we beef up the "How-to" a little? With a section on "How do I find X?" And then brief instructions on how to find episode discussion for the various shows, spoilers, and Nillytown?
Nillytown does say "Pointers To The Important Stuff." I don't know how much clearer you could make it.
But I have to scroll down to see it. If I'm new, I'm already clicking on shit.
Nillytown does say "Pointers To The Important Stuff." I don't know how much clearer you could make it.
It's clear, but if you were completely new to the board, would you know what we considered "important stuff," or the difference between that thread and Press? Would you even look there, 3/4 of the way down the screen and with an obscure (to outsiders) thread title? I know I could easily overlook the thread in that circumstance.
We could expand the slug to say "Pointers To The Important Stuff: Links to VIP posts and episode-specific discussion", though that might blow out the sidebar a bit. We might also want to move it higher on the page.
Okay it could be a little clearer. I've gotten so used to the board I forgot that it took me weeks to grok the COMM and almost six months to figure out Message Center.
Maybe we can use all the blank space at the top? Between the board name and the random quotes?
I found the board looking for discussion about Firefly. And I read all that thread, and then I read more of the other threads, because this was kind of cool, and I didn't sign up at first because I didn't want anyone to know I existed, bunch of weirdo freak fan types (insert smile here). So I marked the post number down of whatever thread I was on and I'd leave and come back and just keep reading, until I'd read all the open threads and some of the closed threads, and then I signed up, but even after I signed up, for awhile I thought the right hand threads were for management of the board and none of my business.
I tend not to look for the easy way to do things, though. I prefer the sneaky. I have no idea if this is of any assistance at all.
I came to b.org about 15 months ago (I was also part of the great Firefly invasion) after years of at least lurking on a wide variety of boards, and I don't recall having any trouble. This is a community, rather than a place to quickly look up what Joss said about X. To me, b.org is amazingly easy to use. There are other boards about things like medical conditions that would probably be useful to me, but they're so hard to use compared to this one that I tend to flee in terror. Plus, of course, people spell really badly.
I certainly understand wanting to respond to usability concerns, but aside from adding to the description of Nillytown, I can't think of anything else that would be useful. The only confusion I can see about "next" and "previous" is that the How-To describes them as buttons, and they're text links.
and almost six months to figure out Message Center.
OK, yeah, I had forgotten that it took me forever to figure out this most handy of handy functions. Was like a whole new world when I did.
