Why do these forums suck?

Started by garry 99 posts 4,972 views

Reply on sbox.game
  1. #1
    garry Facepunch 2,270
    What do you think? What could be better? What's confusing? Should we be making other sub-forums or is this enough?
  2. #2
    Fish 220
    I think it feels too Discord-like in design, as if these are real-time rather than something where you pace yourself.
  3. #3
    Braxen 🐟 190
    it should show who created a thread before you click on it
  4. #4
    Braxen 🐟 190
    you should be able to edit your posts, and reply to posts with quotes
  5. #5
    somewhere_in_universe 2,700
    It would be cool if you added some way to make text formatting with some shortcuts or with markdowns just like in discord or in wiki.
  6. #6
    somewhere_in_universe 2,700
    It would also be cool if you added reactions on messages
  7. #7
    Aleph 755
    I think it feels too Discord-like in design, as if these are real-time rather than something where you pace yourself. 

    I feel the same way, that it feels like a chatroom, but I also like that. The most important thing to me is that we have a searchable, indexable forum where context is maintained, and history is preserved.

    This is a bit silly, but I was curious if you could you add a button to make the text editor a floating popout window so we can move it around/expand it on its own? my eyesight pretty bad now and I have to zoom in pretty frequently. Would be a compliment to that.
  8. #8
    Aleph 755
    Also, obviously not super important but, It would be awesome if we could use markdown to write threads? maybe the pandoc style markdown?
  9. #9
    garry Facepunch Started this 2,270
    Edit and quotes are definitely on the cards.

    Markdown/bbcode - no. Don't see any reason for this.

    Reactions, maybe.
  10. #10
    matt Facepunch 20
    Forum thread/post history on profile maybe? It can be useful when searching for stuff
  11. #11
    somewhere_in_universe 2,700
    it's also kinda weird that the "last read" line just goes to the bottom of all messages instead of disappearing when you read all of the messages in a thread 
  12. #12
    Trundler 996
    Request list:
    • Reactions (thumbs up, middle finger)
    • Ability to ignore users
    • Allow us to display achievements from s&box games on the side of our posts, near our avatar
    • Add a hot threads / recent threads filter we can access from the sidebar
    • Forum stats section somewhere (total posts, total threads, posts today, etc)
    • Polls
    • Spoilers
    • Forum info on user's profile page (all threads / all posts by user links)
  13. #13
    Trundler 996
    Also allow us to subscribe to threads so we get notifications for replies
  14. #14
    Trundler 996
    Ability to mark a thread as read
    Ability to mark all posts as read
  15. #15
    tytimp4_ 40,383
    oww trundler has some good ideas 
  16. #16
    matt Facepunch 2,045
    show gamer score
  17. #17
    Jammie 5,505
    Thumbnails for posts if they contain images
  18. #18
    garry Facepunch Started this 2,270
    how would that work?
  19. #19
    Jammie 5,505
    Similar to reddit maybe
    image.png 31.33 KB
  20. edited Feb 2025 #20
    fishy 1,548
    Feels so cluttered with just double ups of the same/irrelevant information.

    Remove the whole middle column, 95% of it is just listing the exact same threads that are already shown in the main window aside from a new thread button, move new thread button into the main window, probably where all the dead space is in the top right, this would give us 15% of our screen back.

    Having the sbox -> Forums -> General feels irrelevant as well. There are no sub categories (at the moment anyway) so you can already see what category you're in via the sidebar, clicking Forums just takes you back to General, and clicking sbox is the same as clicking the logo in the top left. Having some kind of sort by new/unread/popular/etc. would probably be a better use of this space. Could then throw the forum category in the middle of the new thread and the sort field.
    image.png 340.94 KB
    In terms of suggestions, adding tags to threads that are visible from the thread view and also searchable would be good, while letting OPs update them as needed (particularly if they make a question thread which is later answered, they can update the tag to answered). Would allow for easier filtering for people wanting to provide help as well as just finer categorization without further cluttering or adding new columns to the UI.  A few suggestions of possible tags might be:

    • Question/Help
    • Answered
    • Request
    • Release
    • Official (limited to FP obvs for things like news posts etc.)

    Ability to see number of replies since last read would be nice too.

    Shit example below
    image.png 37.61 KB

    Personally any kind of avatar or profile customization or reactions/ratings I couldn't give a shit about - so long as the forum posts are organized and readable.
    edited:
    Deleting replies and threads (or even locking) would be nice to indicate it's outdated/incorrect/answered, even if the content is still available. 

    Editing replies and threads (in a non-reply way like it is now) is a definite must.
  21. #21
    tytimp4_ 40,383
    wow fishy some Idea!!!👍
  22. edited Feb 2025 #22
    fishy 1,548
    Also I have no clue what these numbers indicate?

    image.png 208.76 KB
    Would be nice to add a little dot next to the numbers to indicate new replies to commented threads or something? I guess once I know what the numbers are supposed to mean it might help though.
    edited:
    Broke my edit chain :(
    edited:
    Oh nevermind it appears there already is one so ignore this one.
    edited:
    If I could edit or delete my original message it'd be easier.
  23. #23
    Austin 2,540
    i think it's a bit redundant to have the list of threads displayed twice.
  24. #24
    Braxen 🐟 190
    edited:
    whoops, don't upload phone pics people, it keeps exif data including gps
  25. #25
    k0fe 318
    would be nice to show forum on the main nav bar next to documentation and api reference

    it is as important if active
  26. #26
    fishy 1,548
    The only way I am able to see if a thread is locked is if I go into it and scroll down to the reply section - needs some kind of visual indicator from even before I click on the thread (and maybe even a visual indicator while you're in the thread?)
  27. #27
    k0fe 318
    Anyway we could get a list of threads I've made and/or participated in profile? Makes it easier to follow them topics and access information 
  28. #28
    Trundler 996
    Set up link tags automatically when a link is detected in a post
    image.png 105.06 KB
  29. #29
    Unknown
  30. #30
    Trundler 996
    image.png 142.42 KB
    Quotes should have a little extra spacing or a slightly different background colour, imo