A few suggestions

Again, love the site, but a few things…

One annoyance I have is that the project videos can’t be put on fullscreen. Sometimes there’s something that I want to see in better detail (not all of us have the best eyesight) and going to youtube so I can see it seems a pain.

Another thing - why don’t posts in the “Project Feedback” section show up on my main feed? Many projects go with little or no feedback and I suspect this is the reason. I’ve tried to make an effort to go and seek out projects especially from beginners. I hate to think about that beginner that’s finished his Tribute Page, and nervously posts it and then no one responds. I’ve had several projects with no feedback. I think there’d be more if people didn’t have to go looking for them.

Regards,
Kevin

For the project feedback, there are theads for each of the projects that start with “Lets talk about…” where people will post a link to their project once theyve finished. Theres a notification option (on every thread on here ) where you can choose to be notified of every reply the thread gets. Select that and you’re good to go. Alternatively, theres a tab on top with categories, select the Project Feedback category to see all the new posts listed in there.

Yes, I know they can be found. My point wasn’t that they were impossible to find. If they were part of the normal feed, more people would find them. Out of sight, out of mind. I just finished reading a book on UX and “not making the user work for it” is one of the main things.

I think project feedback is important, especially for new people. When I first started, my feelings were a little hurt that no one was commenting on my request for feedback posts. It was a month before I realized that it was because most people probably weren’t even seeing them.

Yes, in a perfect world, everyone would be conscientious enough to take the time to go to the feedback section. But most people are lazy and just think about what is in front of them. Yes, in a perfect world, people should make that effort. But I’m not talking about how they should be, I’m talking about how they are.

My evidence that people aren’t seeking out the feedback posts? The fact that I can scroll down that page and see dozens of posts with zero feedback. That’s how things are working. The debate about how things should work is moot.

Maybe people don’t think feedback is important. I think it is very important. Of all the things that I feel lacking on this forum, that is the biggest one. I’m certainly not alone in that, and I suspect I am not in the minority. I’m guessing that there are a lot of beginners aching for some feedback and feeling discouraged that no one looked at their project. Without a teacher “grading our homework” we have to depend on peer feedback. I think it could be better with an easy change.

The sheer volume of feedback requests would drown out the forum. Rather than increase feedback, this would probably drive many community members away from the forum.

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Okay no worries, I was just trying to help.

Perhaps. It’s unfortunate that the solution seems to be to sequester them somewhere where they largely get ignored.

And maybe my math is wrong, but I don’t know if “swamped” is the right word, but I guess it’s subjective. I just think that feedback is a major part of the sense of community, especially for beginners that need more encouragement.

I’m not sure why saying that people can go and hunt for the feedback category is better than saying they can deselect it if they don’t want it.

I guess I am more concerned than others about the dozens of feedback requests that get ignored each week.

Maybe just a shift in perspective will help? The thing to remember is that the majority of people on here are students themselves, also trying to get through the coursework balancing life / work / study. Admonishing the community for not making it a point to comment in every project review thread isnt the most positive vibe.

Ive only been here about 2 weeks, but whenever I have free time, I will go through and respond to a project review. But even then, i dont set aside a block of time as something to work on.so its not like Im purposely trying to ignore anyone, Im just selective about which ones I do reply to. If a project blows me away or something is super cool about it, Ill jot a quick note, or if I see something that is a bit wonky Ill jot a quick note to let them know.

Conversely…when I do post project reviews, I even specifically ask if anyone notices something wonky to let me know…no one responded to my portfolio project, and I take that to mean no one who looked at it noticed anything wrong with it that they needed to point out to me. Im def not sitting here feeling like people are ignoring me or that anyone owes it to me to respond to my project. I completely understand, everyone is a student like me, and doing the best they can.

For a touch of irony, many of the projects I have commented on, either to say its cool or hey heres this thing to take a look at, the poster never responded back. Nothing I even thought of til you are now bringing up the subject, but def dont feel like they are ignoring me either. Just not something to take personally.

So yeah, I can tell that project reviews are something you are very passionate about, there are some people who are really great at help requests and spend a lot of time making sure questions and problems are answered, others who are super motivators and inspraition for the job categoery, maybe the project review category is just your niche, which is great, def focus and concentrate on replying to those, but other categories are important to others too, esp depending on where they are in their studies and in their journey here. There are so many ways to contribute and be a part of the community, not just one.

I hope you find some peace though!!!

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Admonishing the community for not making it a point to comment in every project review thread isnt the most positive vibe.

I don’t think I was “admonishing the community”. I commented the site might consider a different design that made it easier for people to find feedback requests. A suggestion is not an admonishment and it was a suggestion for the site, not the community.

One last attempt at sharing what seems obvious to me:

The pulldown menu on the forum page says “All Categories”. It took a long time before I understood that “All” did not mean “All” but means “All Except for Some”. When I started here, I just assumed that “All” meant “All” and assumed that I was seeing “All” categories. I wondered why no was responding to my feedback requests. I just assumed that everyone was seeing them and I felt dejected. I didn’t see many feedback requests so I assumed that this community was smaller than it really is. I am a reasonable person so I must assume that I am not the only one.

But if we can’t agree on the definition of “all” then I guess we’ll have to leave it at that. And if we can’t agree that feedback is very important for a sense of community in a site like this (especially for beginners) then I guess we won’t see eye to eye.

Oh no, I didnt mean you were admonishing for making a suggestion, it was for saying youre more concerned about project reviews than anyone else and how feedback requests go ignored. Thats why I offered perspective that others are offering what they can, when they can, and in the categories they feel to be of the most help in.

From what you just said though, its totally possible we are seeing something else…[quote=“ksjazzguitar, post:8, topic:113843”]
It took a long time before I understood that “All” did not mean “All” but means “All Except for Some”. When I started here, I just assumed that “All” meant “All”
[/quote]

When I click on All Categories, a drop down shows 8 categories and Project Feedback is listed second right on top and as far as I can tell, there arent more categories other than the 8 shown. Ive never looked at this site on my phone so not sure if maybe all the categories dont show up there (and as luck would have it, my battery died so I cant even check right now :laughing:)

Anyway, I think we got to it the heart of things! Truly am sorry you feel dejected because no one responded to your feedback requests. I checked out your posts, and there are quite a few that youve gotten feedback on, but the more recent ones you posted are beyond where I am in the map…full disclosure, I only give feedback to projects at my level and below cause I wouldnt have anything constructive to say til I know what Im talking about… Im sure others feel the same way, even if they want to respond, they leave it with the hopes someone who knows more than them will. I do that often…

I just noticed…I happened to be the first person to respond to your question about branding… ironically, you didnt acknowledge my reply of course, Im not upset over that…I dont take it personally and I wont hold that against you :smiley: . Just an example really of not everything is always going to get a response.

You seem to be doing great…keep moving forward, you are doing this for you. If its any consolation, I practically have to drag my kid to come see my projects when Im done and she just says…looks great and runs back into her cave. My dog is my rubber ducky and biggest source of feedback. How bad is that?! :laughing:

When I click on All Categories, a drop down shows 8 categories and Project Feedback is listed second right on top and as far as I can tell, there arent more categories other than the 8 shown.

I guess we disagree about how those category dropdowns usually work. When I see “All Categories”, I assume that that means that “All Categories” are selected. I can’t remember seeing it ever work differently. It is extremely misleading to let the user infer that “All Categories” are selected and then not give them “All Categories”. Perhaps it would be less misleading if it said (“List All Categories”). But to the user, there is no indication that you are not in fact seeing all the categories and that the user needs to go and select the categories that have been deemed bothersome. That is bad design, as I see it.

As to your reply to my branding post, by the time I responded, 5 different people responded. I read and appreciated yours, and the other’s responses. I did not know that I was expected to acknowledge everyone by name. But I think this is a false equivalency with the issue I’m raising. It is a red herring.

I truly hope things get better for you… happy coding.

I also only see 8 categories in the drop down menu, and when I click on “Categories” it shows 8 categories. One of them is “Project Feedback”. I don’t see a problem. Maybe a browser issue?

We actually did display the Project Feedback category in the main feed until fall of last year. It didn’t work out. I don’t have hard numbers to show you, but I would estimate that at least 75% of the feedback requests were for tribute or portfolio pages. Unsurprisingly, the share of requests for each project decreased the farther it got into the course, and I think I saw only one or two full stack projects in all of 2016. I tried really hard to make sure everyone had feedback, and it took a lot of my time. I rarely saw people return to the forums after getting feedback on their first project. Again, I don’t have hard numbers, but I would estimate a 20:1 ratio of the number of people who wanted feedback to the number of people willing to give it. Memory being what it is, I’m sure my numbers are off, but they definitely represent how the situation felt.

There’s a warm fuzziness to the idea that everyone and anyone can come here with their modest beginner project and get the encouragement they need to fight through the self-doubt and discomfort of learning, but it doesn’t happen. Part of it that supply doesn’t meet demand, but I also think people just don’t care if they did well on something they know is a simple introduction to something much, much bigger. I think that hiding the feedback category was the right thing to do, though I agree that the interface should communicate that the user’s isn’t looking at the full feed. Campers should be encouraged to share their successes with friends and family, but the community is more for general discussion and technical questions.

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The forum’s main feed is already busy enough as it is, especially with many new posts asking questions that have been answered countless times. It is very appropriate that project feedback requests do not flood the main feed. Every new thread popping up is a distraction and takes time away from getting work done. It would be sweet to see reminders to all members once in a while to do a search first by clicking that magnifying glass icon on the upper right.

My point wasn’t that “Project Feedback” isn’t one of the options in my pulldown menu. I never said that.

I made two points:

  1. There is very little traffic going to the feedback category. I see this a weakness and a lost opportunity to build a sense of community, especially with new people. Clearly I am in the minority here. Fine.

PointedStick, those numbers seem extreme compared to the quick count that I’ve done, but if you say it was too much, I’ll accept that it was. But I have to think there was another solution other than hiding the entire category off in a way that people don’t even realize it is filtered out. For some of us, the feedback is an important part of this experience. There are no professors to provide feedback. The idea (as I see it) is that we rely on each other. It is stressed in the learning materials. If people were posting a lot there, it’s because it was important to them. I guess it isn’t considered important to others. But that’s OK, it’s not my site.

  1. The dropdown menu is misleading. It says “All Categories” That leaves the user to to assume that all categories are currently being displayed. If I click “Wiki” it shows “Wiki” on the dropdown and shows “Wiki” entries. That is true for every other entry on the pulldown. Except for the all inclusive (but really selectively inclusive) “All Categories”. There is no indication that some categories are being filtered out of the main feed. It takes work to figure that out. That is bad UX design. I assumed that “All Categories” meant that I was seeing “All Categories” and not “Click Here If You Want to See All the Categories Including the Ones That Are being Filtered Out But You Have to Guess Which Ones Those Are”. Now I understand that “All Categories” is meant that there is a list here of all the categories. Perhaps it would be clearer if it said “Categories” or “List Categories”. But then there is still no indication that some categories are filtered.

If that’s not bad UX, then I don’t know what is. Perhaps it would be better if there were and indication of what categories are being filtered out. As it is, I went more than a month without figuring that out. Assuming I’m not the dumbest guy here, that means that others are going even longer. I guess I need to go and reread some materials on UX, because clearly I understood it the exact opposite of how it was intended. My understanding was that everything should be super intuitive and an moment of confusion of the user’s part was bad. My mistake.

Clearly I am in the minority (at least of the 4 that chimed in), and no one cares. So, whatever. I think it would improve the site and sense of community, but it’s not worth fighting over. I’m done with this thread. We’re going in circles now.

How about making the Categories page the forum’s front page?

It shows all categories on the left and the latest threads on the right, though threads from #project-feedback are still not visible (but at least that category itself is visible).

I don’t know if the layout breaks on mobile though