fing Community user interface

keith · August 2019

If you look closely at this pic you will notice some/many really nice features.
I guess that's why that forum format is so popular.
It's been developed over many many years.
Is it possible to pick up a few of those nice features for the fing community?

Pooh · August 2019

Rather than a just supplying a screenshot @keithatpda, perhaps it might be better to detail which aspects of that forum you like. Also, remember that there may be some aspects that may never be realized, either because the base software just can't support it, or because it'll be too difficult to create correctly.

keith · August 2019

Hmmm I do fully apreciate the likely software limitations, Violet mentioned she selected this package because it suited her needs. (And it looks pretty nice)
Not wanting to propose a list, the features are pretty obvious.

Pooh · August 2019

keithatpda said:

Not wanting to propose a list, the features are pretty obvious.

That's the issue - to you they are - for me for example, not so. It's rather unfair to just add a screenshot and say "like that" because there's a lot of facets there which, for you some are desirable and some are not. If there are features from this you'd like it really does help considerably to specify them.

In addition, when I hit that website on my iPhone the first thing that stood out was that it's non-responsive - that is to say the mobile version is just the desktop version, just smaller. The Fing Community is significantly more response (although still has a ways to go).

The ROMRaider forums are built on a totally different codeet (if memory serves it's driven by phpBB) whereas it feels (@VioletChepil please correct me here) that the Community is driven perhaps by Vanilla forums.

In addition, the ROMRaider forums is a more generic forum app, Fing have other functionality built into these forums, for example they have integrations built in that the underlying software provides to allow them to raise internal support tickets from user issues, thus avoiding double entry.

There are many reasons why companies choose forum drivers, and the user GUI is only one such factor.

keith · August 2019

Thanks for going through all the considerations, I am pretty sure most of us know that stuff. But, it is a big help for anyone new to these things. I have some experience developing good user interfaces, it is not easy.
Given that I have no idea of the limitations of the software, my only point is to look at other successful proven communities on line and see what catches your eye, ideas.
Another impressive mostly, but not always tech forum https://whirlpool.net.au/
(Another old world site)
Another from a very large telco, I hate, https://crowdsupport.telstra.com.au/
This last one is a weaponized site to pretty much firewall the provider from their customers, I hated it, and stopped dealing with the company after 30+ years.
You have probably guessed I am not a fan of the current social internet, points, badges, likes (dislikes) it is all a bit silly. I am here because I love the fing product and look forward to it growing.

Pooh · August 2019

Don't knock gamification, when done right it can have a positive effect for users. Granted it's not for everyone, but it does seem effective.

https://www.bitcatcha.com/blog/gamify-website-increase-engagement/

keith · October 2019

Oh, it does seem to work, some great ideas.

https://abclisten.page.link/WDT2

VioletChepil · October 2019

@keithatpda and @Pooh thanks for your discussion! Yes, these are interesting communities to take a look at for ideas/inspiration. Right now, we're in a kind of growth phase and I think we'll move into a phase of UX improvements come sometime in 2020. And these sites will be of great help to investigate for the best features.

If we can grow and prove the value of the community, it will be easier to get more investments from our team, third parties and invest more in the platform.

One of our biggest constraints when launching was Single Sign On - SSO. This would enable users to have the same Fing account on the community. Given how many products we have - this was really important to keep things simple for users. We chose a platform (with its own set of limitations of course) that did give us SSO possibilities and focused on engagement/gamification and was easily configurable without the need for constant developer intervention!

One of the amazing things about the platform we are using is the API - so when we have more resources assigned to community we can start doing more things.

I hope this clarifies the current situation a bit!

Anyways, always feedback and requests for improving the community are greatly valued @keithatpda and I've enjoyed the discussion here with @pooh. If you have any specific bugs or features you want me to look into you can always post those up here: https://community.fing.com/categories/welcome

fing Community user interface

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