New Forum Structure Feedback

Other Courses Talk
#5

Honestly I prefered the old design. At least for now.

The old one the categories were really separated and we could easily see the new posts by course section on the main page.
This design allowed us to browse the other students progress and questions in that section of the course.

Now what we have is 3 categories which is not clear what to do in each and we depend on tags to filter the posts related to that Section of the course we want.
The main page now we have just the 3 recent posts that can be from every course Section from adding a cube to vgx.

In my opinion Ask, Talk and Show could be a Section subdivision and not a whole course thing.

4 Likes
#6

I personally find it a bit cumbersome and unwieldy. With the new structure you just don’t have the ability to find posts the way you could with the old.

4 Likes
#7

Thanks for your feedback.

Ask is different now because it supports solutions, which has to be enabled on a category-by-category basis. The benefit is student instructors can now help Rob in answering questions. Previously questions and discussions were so intertwined it was impossible.

Secondly, re navigation, I’m about to add code that tags every post that has a lecture tag with the course too (and later also the section). This will give you back the ability to navigate by course and section. Sound good?

Anything else I should be aware of?

#8

Yes, but tag naming could be improved, like “Text-01” vs “Rabbit”.
The first one is very generic, the second is specific, but missing context.

Rabbit 3D modelling or Rabbit Unity animation code …
In HTML, CSS development we use something called BEM. Stands BLOCK, ELEMENT, MODIFIER notation.

Maybe tags like:
Blender - Rabbit - Modelling
Blender - Rabbit - Texturing

Just an idea!

I know it’s difficult, because you have two types of users on this forum.
You as maintainers, who need a different filters to manage content.
And me, a student, wanting access quick access to the parts of the course I’m interested in.

3 Likes
#9

Yep, sounds a lot better.
But still the “Last Posted” would all be scrambled to the whole course.

Also agree with @FedPete, even though you have posted an index of tags for the Lectures they need at least some kind of alias so the user may identify easier and be able to tag faster.

Also miss the “Showcase” category which you could post something non related to the course. Don’t think Talk would fit for replacement.

In my head the “Show” is just so you can show the instructor your progress in that Section of the Course and not non-related stuff which would make hard for the instructor to filter which is related to the course and which is not…

#10

I think anything that helps us Identify which course a particular post goes with would be very helpful. For example, I have:

  • Complete C# Unity Developer 3D
  • Complete C# Unity Developer 2D
  • Game Physics - Introducing Gravitation &; Rotation in Unity
  • Complete Blender Creator
  • Blender Environmental Artist
  • The 2D Game Artist: Design Simple Pixel Art From Scratch
  • Unreal Engine C++ Developer: Learn C++ and Make Video Games

and I’m planning on getting a few more. Thus, being able to separate posts by course is important, especially while I’m actually going through the coursework.

Another major issue is the almost random nature of where different topics are ending up. A lot of old threads that ended up in the “Talk” section of the Blender category probably should have gone to the “Show” section. Getting that stuff sorted will go a long way towards finding a balance. It might even be worth just auto-closing any threads that were started before the change-over and haven’t been posted to since; then moving them to an archive section until someone has a chance to actually review them to see which section they belong in.

2 Likes
#11

A small nuisance I dislike, in the tag filter all the lesson specific tags come first. But these are also poorly descriptive. I would suggest to append these AFTER the actual named tags. As now it forces you to scroll down a major list before getting to the tags such as e.g. programming, gimp, godot, etc.

#12

Use ## or ### (2 or 3) course number digits, is sorts better.
01 or 001
02
…
10
11

#13

Thanks guys, we’re waiting on Discourse to fix a bug then @sampattuzzi will improve the tagging using two whizzy features called “intersection” and “tag groups”

#14

Hi Ben & team

I just noticed this feedback after I posted a Q&A question on the Unity course which was this

"Having finished the course last year, I’ve learnt more stuff out of scope of the course and like to offer and discuss methods I discovered along my journey, with fellow students and ex students community. I thought Gamedev.tv would be the place but it seems to be only specific to the course (has it changed? There doesn’t seem to be a out of course scope section to discuss the world of Unity (or Blender, or Unreal etc). I thought there was more out of course scope threads last year.

I know there is Facebook and Discord, but they are just moments lost in time, like tears in rain :wink: They are not a record of searchable knowledge like Gamedev.tv. So for example where could I discuss android controls input or discussing new ways of doing things with newer versions of unity? Or are you keeping discussions strictly related to the scope of the courses? If the latter, I understand, no worries.

Thanks"

--------end of quote----

So, perhaps I can turn that into feedback and suggest a place for us “graduates” to discuss out of scope topics? I am just very eager to share knowledge and learn more with the community you guys built! Discord and Facebook is not for me as I am not fond of live chats and platforms that are only of the “moment”.

Thanks

Tej

2 Likes
#15

3 posts were split to a new topic: Question about C#

#16

Only thing Id suggest is like the remake of the rpg, you almost need to move the old to rpg_old, and keep the new as it could get confusing between the two

#17

Getting the hang of the new layout. The link in each chapter on Udemy to the tagged posts here really helps.

Did notice that the system is getting a wee bumpy.

2 Likes
#18

Thanks, I’ll reduce the bump frequency, appreciated.

1 Like
#19

I’ve been away for awhile, so I’m late to the commenting party. I tend to agree with capa14 that the new interface has lost a few features. I used to be able to scroll through all the posts on a topic and see what people had posted. Now it seems that I have to click into each post individually. That’s enough of a hassle that I probably won’t bother doing it. Sad perhaps, but true.

1 Like
#20

After trying it a bit, I find I still don’t like it much. Clicking over from the Udemy Complete Blender Creator course, I arrive at a page full of text. The welcome message from Mike is lost at the bottom of the posts. There’s nothing to hint at all of the work that’s been posted, not even thumbnails. With the old layout we had a wall full of pictures, which made you think “wow, look at all of the stuff people are doing!”. Now the pictures have been put into drawers; they’re all still there, but we’ve lost the wow factor, and it’s harder to see, compare or even find the ones you like. Maybe I’m just not finding the right link, but it’s what is linked from Udemy. Could you recreate a view where I can scroll through all of the pictures on one page?

1 Like
#21

Hey Everyone! Unreal Engine C++ Developer: Learn C++ and Make Video Games is the course i am currently experiencing and i hope to turn into a code master one day. im tired of construction lol

#22

Well currently I have no idea how to get to anything. Perhaps I have to come here via Udemy? The mess and confusion of the new? I suppose eventually I will find my way. Had no problem with the old set up.

#23
#24

Thanks for the honest feedback. The idea is that this new structure can support many more courses, and is more consistent and simple. Plus, it’s enabling student instructors to support the Ask sub-categories meaning you get support here too :slight_smile:

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