Do you miss the old forum?

[Artbesico]

I'm still not used to not having the usual Chit-chat, Discussion, Question and Promo forum sections. The old forum was like a central place, a lounge where everyone can walk in and out at ease at any time. A place where all the activities were happening and you were free to join in, meet up with others, have a conversation or discussion with others or ask questions. You get help from others and sometimes you also help others. There was a lot of information, interesting and helpful to read. You get to meet other sellers and also buyers. The old forum was alive and interesting. 

The re-structuring is like our lounge has been taken away, we are all wandering around, feeling lost. It's not easy to establish the interaction and connection that was there in our old forum. Threads/posts on the new forum are hard to follow, very easy to get lost, can't follow up so discussions/chit chat are broken and it feels cold. 

[WarmWeenies]

I wish we had our big "department store" back where we could wander from place to place and see something interesting or relevant at a glance and then find our way back in a moment and a quick couple steps. I used to be able to bump into neighbors quite often. Now we have a "Mall" with walls, doors, stairs, elevators and barriers. We are forced to walk a mile to get anywhere just to find that we don't even recognize anything and what we really needed was to possibly be back where we started (but probably not). It's really awful. I even have a hard time getting to a particular team. Why in H-eedoublehail does it have to be so awkward, convoluted, stupid and ? I don't even have words enough to explain how disappointed I am with this setup. I keep trying and thinking "it's just me and it's new and I need to get used to it".. but that thinking has not helped one iota yet.

I even have to change from my choosen browser to one I don't want to use in order to participate in the forums (yes I've reported the "bug"). I'm even feeling paranoid.. am I allowed to voice my disappointment so vehemently?

[Artbesico]

You have given it a good description of how it feels now on here, it's like a maze, quite exhausting and forever feeling lost = { 

[LohsArt]

Agreed. This is a major reduction in the formerly very valuable (to both sellers and investors) superbly functioning forum format. Among the sellers ranks are untold numbers of literal geniuses with a huge wealth of Etsy, and general internet selling, experience. These “wise ones” generously, selflessly, and freely voluntarily shared their knowledge in those forums constantly to the immense benefit of buyers, sellers and no doubt Etsy profits. I no longer see this information sharing happening. It may be happening somewhere, but i don’t see it. This change is detrimental to Etsy in its entirety.

[Artbesico]

There might be still information floating around but it's not easy to catch them and if you happen to catch something useful, helpful or interesting to read, you can't keep track on the thread/post. There is no following up on anything, just broken pieces.

[designbcb]

The only real change is moving chit chat to teams. other wise, it's the old forum with more categories. i think etsy can move the chit chat section out of teams and put it back in the open.

for those folks who said it was a distraction, having it in a section all it's own should have been enough to move it out the way as they didn't have to enter the topic and then read the threads. i don't quite buy into the notion that it was removed because people wanted it removed. that's like moving from your house because the neighbors don't like the way you decorate. my neighbors don''t have to enter my house and then they'd never know to complain.

other than that, i'm not seeing anything different. it does feel different but it won't to a new seller who knows nothing else. i can't say it will have less people coming to the forum. i tended to see the same folks over and over anyway and we never knew how many people use it anyway.

[Artbesico]

Having chit chat in the open rather than pushing people to teams is a good idea. Chit chat in teams is not the same as chit chat in the open, traffic is a lot less, less active and it gets quiet. Chit chat in the open was like a big family, with everyone joining in, meeting up with both familiar names and strangers, lots of different voices =]

[SignsByDiane]

To me, the little that I've seen there is a lot less activity on the main forum.  I just don't see the same number of posters as there was before.  

[Artbesico]

It's definitely a lot quieter.

[TheGoodLuckDuck]

I miss it too! I never really got used to this one! I think the categories were better on the old one, except for the "creative process" section, which I really like in this new forum. But I miss the promo section, where buyers could just scroll through the photos and if they fould something they liked, they would click and buy it, which happened quite often. Also, now not even our names appear anymore, that's such a shame! 

I can't get used to this forum. It's too messy for me. Although this team reminds of the old forums, it's just not it in this format... :( I think it's ging to affect my sales too... :(

[Artbesico]

I believe the change does have an impact on getting traffic/views/favourites/sales. All have dropped quite obviously since the change, the old forum certainly helped people to find the shops. It was a needle in the haystack before but still there was a chance, now I feel like I'm underground, hidden, invisible.

[That70sChickVintage]

@Artbesico 

Yes! And very well said. 

“the old forum was alive and interesting” 

so true. 

[Artbesico]

Alive and interesting no more, miss it = {

[SignsByDiane]

Yes it was very much alive and sadly this one seem to be on life support...almost dead!

[Artbesico]

It certainly testing my patience LOL I often find myself going round and round on here but find nothing much happening.

[Lionfishvintage]

Yes and no. Mostly yes I miss the old forum because it was SO  much easier to navigate.

I don't leave the confines of this and 1 other team I joined. Unless it's a bug and then I go there to report it.

No -I don't miss the old forums for only 1 reason:

because I don't miss all the mean people. I haven't seen one of them here in either team.

[ElizabethRosenArt]

Amen to that!

[Artbesico]

I don't miss the overwhelming game threads in the chit chat section =]

[philosophiacreations]

I'm getting used to the new forums in a lot of ways, but miss things the way that they were. That doesn't seem to be subsiding at all; if anything, it's intensifying. The way things are now, I agree that everything feels quite cold and impersonal. I'm not having trouble navigating, but I don't find this platform as user friendly as it was. Relative to the older forums and even though I was more of a lurker in general, it really helped to pop in each day to see what sort of dialogue was occurring. It made some days seem a lot less lonely where I do work from home. I also really did benefit from the Promos section and found lots of stores I otherwise wouldn't have come across. People selling products I didn't know I was interested in & wouldn't have searched for personally, but when I saw it there, I realized a need.

Things seem so quiet in comparison now.

[Artbesico]

That's a good point about the Promo section, I just realised that I used to click on shop links a lot more before on the old forum. The Promo section was very visual, you tended to click on the shop to see more if you came across something interesting/listing photo.

[StarrFoxDesigns]

I miss it too. It was a lot easier to navigate and find friends too. I've been spending a fair bit less time here because of it. :(

[Artbesico]

Me too Starr, less time on here now too. Not much going on here now, losing interest and patience.

[GatheringCharms]

Same here.   I didn't post a lot, but I spent a lot of time reading in the old forums.  These days.... meh.

[Artbesico]

I'm still trying but find myself scrolling a lot but nothing much to read or reply to. Most of the time nothing much is happening on the forum especially the teams. It's pretty quiet at all times, nothing like on the old forum which was more alive.

[Artbesico]

Old forum - alive, interesting and informative.

You feel relaxed coming on the forum, just browsing, reading or posting, at any time day or night.

New forum - quiet, nothing much going on, not easy to follow up on threads. 

You spend hours walking around then end up not doing anything much on here. It's almost dead, no activities. 

I feel like it's testing my patience, if it goes on like this then it really can push away a lot of people, both sellers and buyers.