Get involved: your thoughts on forum board structure

[Marjo]

Hi everyone!

We have seen feedback and comments related to the forum board structure from many of you, so it would be awesome to collect your views and ideas in more detail in this thread and get a discussion going.

We would like to make the forum boards structure easier and clearer so that it would be better for both old and new members to find the content and help they're looking for and easily engage with each other.

Please let us know your thoughts on how you think we could improve:

• Board structure: what categories/boards would you remove or add and why?
  
• How would you improve the clarity of board names and descriptions? For example, would 'Guides & Reviews' be clearer than 'Community Knowledge Base'?
  

Thanks a lot in advance!

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Your feedback so far Updated 11 September:

Board names and descriptions:

• Clarify the purpose of 'O2 Home' section | Update: the name of the board has been clarified as "O2 Home (Smart home products)"
• 'Guides and reviews' would be a little clearer than 'Knowledge Base'
• Current signposting is ok. Only add/change what is needed.

Board structure:

• Clearer structure: show 'mobile', 'apps', 'smart home' under products & services, and then clear subsections under that
• Apple devices shouldn't be its own area in the Knowledge base unless other device areas added
• Less main categories on home page (e.g. 4,5,6 max)
• Remove the standalone section of O2 Home
• Separate boards for PAYM/PAYG?
• Enforcing community rules and guidelines (new board?)
• Have a hardware or device section (like the get help with your device) and then split to manufacturer/type?
• Move O2 home from the top of the page
• Apple, Android and Other Devices are valid. How about adding Roaming etc.?

Other feedback:

• Mobile skin: mobile view on smaller devices and in general should be improved
• Mobile skin: With a 6.1" screen the view is not too bad, however cannot make long posts
• Mobile skin: have a separate mobile app instead
• Ideas section: not working, revive/archive?
• Re-design: clarification that this is not customer services but a peer-to-peer / self-help community
• Re-design: change the layout of the home page and community forums in general
• Re-design: display full path (instead of just name of section) in the new post dropdown list
• Re-design: hover-over description over the make a post dropdown that lets you know what the section is about
• Re-design: old forum preferred; it was more logical and clearer to use than current forum
• Re-design: have out-of-date articles auto lock
• General: The forum is currently good for an older person and for a deaf person.
• General: Bulleted info easier to read in community page description.
• General: Clarify that O2 community is self help and not Customer Service
• Lithium bugs: fix them & a list of current bugs visible to community (e.g. in a thread)
• Feedback to O2: making sure changes are made and forum members listened to
• Feedback to O2: change the Lithium platform to something else
• O2 website top header changes: not fit for purpose, i.e. it is more difficult for regular users to navigate it in order to help new users

[gmarkj]

Re your point about personal details @Beenherebefore, I would suggest it is also on the post new message and full reply screens as well.
I also wonder if there is an outstanding work log (or current defect log) that could be used to keep us up to date? Seems silly to be suggesting things that are already raised/passed to Lithium @Martin-O2 @MercedesS. Would you agree?

[MercedesS]

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@gmarkj wrote:
Re your point about personal details @Beenherebefore, I would suggest it is also on the post new message and full reply screens as well.
I also wonder if there is an outstanding work log (or current defect log) that could be used to keep us up to date? Seems silly to be suggesting things that are already raised/passed to Lithium @Martin-O2 @MercedesS. Would you agree?

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hello everyone, thanks for all the amazing feedback so far!

We are not asking about forums issues. This topic was to ask for feedback about 'how to make the forum board structure easier: what categories/boards would you remove or add and why and how to improve the clarity of board names and descriptions.'  However, we will make a list with all your suggestions - for the future so they don't get lost. 

If one idea is a bug, then we can open a ticket to Lithium to be fixed. While some suggestions can be done for admins, maybe others might need a long-term fix.

And @gmarkj, would you like the community team to create a topic to keep a track of the reported bugs? Is that what you meant ? 

I hope it helps! 

[Cleoriff]

As a community MEMBER I have no interest in keeping track of problems or bugs. Not my job to do so. I am happy to report them as before but Admin need to monitor progress of fixes. I also raised the unread posts issue again as I doubt this is is as unfixable as it appears to be. Other than that my O2 Home comments remain relevant

[Marjo]

Hi all, there is now a recap list of the main ideas in the first post so everyone can keep track of what's already been mentioned. Please do keep adding suggestions here if you can think of more regarding the 2 items! (We will collect the other feedback as well)

A few questions regarding your responses:

@Daddydoink you mentioned that some tweaks could be made. If you have any ideas, could you let us know how you would change the names and descriptions in more detail? cheers!

@MI5 What do you think would be easier for new members in terms of understanding the name/description of 'O2 Home'? Any suggestions?

@gmarkj could you elaborate a bit on your structure idea ("clearer definition of what is where") so we understand it a bit better? Thanks!

[adamtemp64]

@MercedesS unfortunatly the board structure has been discussed at lenght many times including the splitting and merging of some sections .

Some of us that have been here for the long haul form beta testers (superusers) during the transition to lithuim that @jonsie aludes to changes that are sugested very rarley lead to a change and in the past have led to tense times between admin and users.

I feel that as this is a customer driven community too much influnce has come from the top and not from the core usres. Feel free to pm me to discuss in private I may even have some of the pm's about the issues etc .

[MercedesS]

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@adamtemp64 wrote:

I feel that as this is a customer driven community too much influnce has come from the top and not from the core usres. Feel free to pm me to discuss in private I may even have some of the pm's about the issues etc .

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Do you know the song: Today I'm Gonna Try and Change the World?  [si, si, I do listen to weird music! I give you that]

[jonsie]

Forgive us long standing members being sceptical but we have been dumped on too many times @MercedesS by almost every community manager since conception. 

However, fair play. I for one am willing to give you respect for trying. Good luck in changing things for the benefit of all members. 

[darrengf]

Good evening all.  Hope you are all fine and well.

a few things for me is that the Forum has stopped displaying on my IPhone. So where is there going to be a proper app.  We have a app for everything else?

I also now have to use My IPad in landscape as it's stopped displaying the subjects in a readable format in the horizontle mode.

there are still bugs I agree like the ones above,  some times I have to edit things or save twice because it says this can't be added due to HTML issues.  What issues. All I'm doing is typing a reply, 

then on occasions it says we have resolved the format issue.  Again what issue. It looks no different to what I've done and hasn't even removed any thing.

i know this has been mentioned, but for me. Having a Pay as you go and contract together is some what hard and confusing for answers.  They should be separate to make it a much more streamlined and logical approach. There kept separate at o2 like phone numbers and on webpages at o2.co.uk. So why are they not separate in the forum.

I still think having Apple, Android and other devices are valid. If not people would start to muddy updates all over the place.  But what about a place for Roaming etc.  This would be beneficial with all the answers in one place.  A lot of the times you get same questions with same answers, it's because people can't find what they are looking for quickly, or don't understand what is returned as on many occasions it comes back with very strange returns.

also if a article say for instance hasn't been updated in a year, then have it auto lock.  A lot of new people just find the first thing on search and just write on it which then may have the wrong info etc.  It's safer for them to write a new article to get the most up to date answer.  A safer soloution.

i also do remember the first o2 forum. Those were the days lol,  if honest I preferred the old one to this one,  it was more logical in use and just things much easier sometimes.I find this on occasions not as easy to navigate or use on occasions

A massive Must is clear Guidelines.  Explaining in massive bold when people sign up and uploading for the first time a article etc.

" This is a customer a Forum, run by Public.  We don not work for O2 and can't help with xxx or xxx etc.  

Do not post your account, address, mobile or details like this and so on.

the first post to me should be verified by some one or the system it self, just to make sure that they are following the guidelines.

Then another welcome update just to re update them with simple bullet points.

I think that's it for now.  I have a few more but for the life can't now remember them. Old age I think lol.

thanks daz

[gmarkj]

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@Marjo wrote:

@gmarkj could you elaborate a bit on your structure idea ("clearer definition of what is where") so we understand it a bit better? Thanks!

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The structure of how different boards sit within each other.

For example: Get help with your device has Apple (iOS), Android and Other.

Get help with o2 Products and Services has Pay Monthyl and PAYG (joint), Tu Go, Apps, o2 Home and Others.

Tu Go no longer exists (it is Tu), and it is an app from o2. Not consitant.

Personally I think it should run more: Mobile services (then split to Monthly and PAYG), Apps, Smart Home and Others.

Likewise the Knowledge Base has Try the Tech, Apple, Pay Monthly, Apps and Others.

This should really be Device Reviews (including TTT), Mobile Device Guides, Mobile Services Guides, Smart Home and Others. This is more consistant.

Going back to my point about viewing the site on mobile, I tried to reply to this last night but because I had to keep flicking from one page to another I gave up - hence why I am replying now...

[Marjo]

Great thanks very much @gmarkj for the clarifications!