Poll - Next Steps for Community Site

** BRING BACK THE OLD FORUM FORMAT ***

I have STOPPED using DCF since the new format was introduced. 

This format is terrible!!

I only logged on today to respond to this survey after being notified about it in another forum.

To me navigation is the biggest hassle, but there's a bunch of other things - I doubt any are really new but they bear repeating.

1) The Navigation bar should be a fixed, permanent tree (or have dropdowns or whatever) for quick access to different sections of the site.   As it is it seems almost deliberately counter-intuitive.   Currently have to wade through multiple pages to get from one forum section to another, let alone to blogs or wikis.   When I first logged in it literally took me hours to figure out how to get around without getting lost and having to start over.   Being lost in a web site is oddly disturbing, especially for someone who goes back to pre-Google days.

2) The "Rules of the Road" links for forum help currently go to the main Tutorials Wiki page - all 17 pages of it.   It needs to link to a single specific Wiki and/or post with detailed navigation help, posting tips etc.  The forum "Terms of Service" needs to be easily accessible too - I can't
find them anywhere.

I can see the Wikis being quite useful too if they were better organized and moderated, but not now.

3) Group forums have "Unread" and "your discussions" sort options; would like those available in the main forum too.  The Unread section under Common Links works but it's unwieldy and inefficient.

Conversely,  the Group forums need the previous/next thread options that are available in the main forums.

4) Would prefer links to other sections or sites be set by default to open in a new page or tab - or better yet, be able to set that as a personal preference.

5) Would really like to know what "New Updates" in the user panel means and if it has any function attached to it.

6) Search function is not good. Advanced search does not use all words, and the date sort didn't work at all when I tried it yesterday attempting to find a post made on a specific day.  Have only gotten good results manually experimenting with Boolean terms (quotes, and, etc.).

Also can't find a way to open search in a new page or tab (right click doesn't work); kind of a pain when trying to keep a thread open at the same time.

7) A relatively minor thing, but the forum addresses themselves don't tell you what they are - for example, Desktop Audio is just en.community.dell.com/forums/3513.aspx .  When redirecting someone to a more appropriate forum it would be nice to be able to tell at a glance that it's going to the right place.

8) I know it's already been mentioned, but please fix the favorites so more than 3 show.  Right now it's the only way to keep track of anything.
I think that favorites at one point were also supposed to act as a thread subscription,  but that's not the case now.

There are a couple things I do like:

1) Having post content in the email notification - saves a lot of time

2) Seeing all the recent forum activity when going to the Forum main page.  I frequently spot interesting posts I'd miss otherwise.  The only minor quibble is that the "posted in" section doesn't distinguish between laptop and desktop General Hardware, Audio, etc.

1. Another vote for fixing favorites (only 3 showing)

2. Show dates when thread was started and date of last reply.

3. add an unread tab for the technical forums (as we have it in VIP or XPS groups) (I know one can get to unread from the common links box, but one then has to select the forum; easier if it is available directly in the forum of interest)

New poll? You (Dell) didn't listen to the +70% majority of responders to the initial poll who gave the this social oriented format a thumbs down, so you replace it with a new one worded with options designed to produce the desired result (Dell's). What an absolute shame...

I picked 'other'.  The navigation and design on this are terrible, but mostly it's just broken.  I couldn't post (or often even access the site) for the first two months of the new forum.  Even still I sometimes can't get in (was locked out yesterday again).  Doesn't work with Firefox-at least not with Noscript, and Dell.com and Dellcommunity are the only sites I've had any issues with ever with NoScript.  I want our community here back together :(

What happened? I was away for a couple of months and came back, I kept thinking I was in the wrong site. This forum is horible to navigate now. I used to post mostly to the laptop section to general harware, video, audio, upgrades, hard drive, now those sections are gone. It's no wonder nobody responds to answer posts any more. Every other forum I belong to is seperated into easily navigateable catagories. The colors are pretty but this site is just sad. Too bad this used to be a top rate forum. Obviuosly DELL has not learned to keep what works and fix the broken. I this forum stays like this i may never post again.

ah1f,

That's what we're trying to tell them. Forums can be found here.

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/

Rick

Dell should have folowed the old saying. "If it ain`t broke, don`t fix it." The whole site is to complicated for the average consumer/user to try to get help. What and where are the new updates? The number shown to me bounces wildly around and it dosen`t matter what I look at. You might try to pattern the user home page more like it is done on Ideastorm. This shows what the new updates or replies are and the link to take you there. I have already suggested three different things on IS to help with this.

Could not log on using my original username/password. Could not create new username/password. Having trouble navigating in new forum. No No log off that I can find.

You need to fix this poor broken community, it doesn't seem to work any more. Witness the large number of unsolved entries.

--the forum needs lots more posts per page.

--be able to subscribe to a thread with out posting.

--be able to print just one post and not the entire thread.

--you have to scroll back up the page to get to Previous/Next. Previous/next should also be at the bottom of the page.

--the old forum format was so much easier to use. The new forum seems like "clutter."  Separate all the social forums from the tech forums.

I think that anything we bring here is useless, Dell seems to be determined to carry on this type of forum even if they loose thousands of clients by not going back to the old format, it is pssibly too late anyway because so many experts have found other forums.

Claude

This Forum is horrid. I couldn't access this site (Dell Forums) at least for a couple months, I kept getting a page error, now I finally can access the site and itsucks.

# 1 Problem: TOO HARD TO NAVIGATE,

# 2 Problem: I come here for info, tech help. I do not need Asthetics. or a FaceBook looking site

# 3 Problem: You are not listening to some of your best Posters (People that have THOUSANDS of POSTS on your site)                                         Maybe this is Number One Problem!!!

Put it back the way it was, Its to hard to get anywhere. I dont get it, what was wrong with the way it was.

Malron

I'm a newbie of Dell mini Inspiron 12 and of Ubuntu. I hope with better user interface, to find less difficulties.

Crashed twice trying to reply to this thread and once searching for a topic. "Sorry, there was a problem with your last request!"

It is the slowest site on the net.

How did this get by UAT?

Constructive point: I want to be able to search within a forum! e.g. "stop omsa" should not bring up "stop button XPS PC......."

I will not returning for a while.

I hope when I hit post i don't crash...

Search really needs some work.

First it needs to return (at the user's option) topics instead of individual posts, that makes it far easier to follow a topic once you have found it.

Second search needs to exclude user-names and signatures, try searching for posts about a 2350 and you get all the posts by a user with that name.

Overall this is the most difficult forum I visit on a regualr basis and I dread having to come here, I'll often call for support rather than fighting this system.