BuzzerBeater Forums

Somebody wrote about this two years ago, (166486.1). But the point needs to be hammered home.

Seriously. There needs to be one simple and intuitive way to navigate the forums. Maybe I'm just a little dense, but I've been an avid user for a year now and just found out that there is a "Non-BB-Global" forum. And, for that matter, I didn't know this forum existed until I posted a suggestion in BB-Global. I get that it's mentioned in the manual, and so I must've read it at some point. But when you click on "Forums" it doesn't take you to a forums page. It takes you to a favorites page. It ought to take you to a page where there is easy navigation to all the forums that exist. As it is, if you don't decide to change your favorites and then figure out how, you'll think that the only forums that exist are your global, national and help forums. This is especially important because most users rely on intuition rather than the manual.

If the navigation were better, one benefit would be a lot less work for the MODs who have to clean up the forums with brute force all the time. Another would be that it would facilitate discussion and connection via BB. I mean seriously... look at any other online forum site. The first page you go to is an intuitive display of the various forum categories, usually some kind of tree. This the kind of interface BB ought to use, too.

[Side note - as i finally made my way through the awkward navigation that exists, apparently there are defunct private league forums still on the site FROM 2008!!!!! Seriously after 4 years this can't be dealt with? This feature needs to be either resurrected (preferable) or deleted (acceptable). I know other people have made suggestions about that: (83525.1) (35866.1) and the stock response (202503.223). It could be as simple as adding the option to link the federation we're supposed to create on the main PL page. But that's not my main point here, so I'll let it go.]

Anyway... when I click on the "Forums" link in the menu I'd like to see something like this:

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You have 2 replies.
subject1 - manager1 - a one line preview of the post in reply to the one you made...
subject2 - manager2 - another one line preview...

(Links to threads and I've posted in, regardless of forum, that have new posts in the last week)
Thread 1 - 4 new posts, 2 replies
Thread 2 - 8 new posts

Global Forums
BB Global (my language)
Non-BB Global (my language)
Help (my language)
Others

BB-Site
Suggestions
Bugs, Bugs, Bugs
BBAPI Support
Others

National Forums
BB My Country
Other Countries

Federations
My Federation 1
My Federation 2

Leagues
My League
My Past League 1
My Past League 2
Other Leagues In My Country
My Private League (if that ever gets resurrected)
Other Countries

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There could be a number to the right of each forum with the number of threads with unread posts, too. And it would be great if you could customize it. But something like this should be the default.

Poll:  Which forum navigation would you prefer?

I like the layout in your suggestion. One of the things I've complained about before is the inability of us users to decide in which order of importance the forums will be listed on our sneak-peek page. If you're subscribed to Global, it will always be first, the Suggestions and Bugs forums will always show up before your local Country forum, which will always show up before any league forums, with will always sit above any Federation forums.

It almost discourages subscribing to too many forums.

I suppose I just dislike having to scroll down on the sneak peek page to see if there are any new posts in federations and leagues when there's a Bugs forum I nearly ever read sitting near the top. If I could order them myself, the Bugs forum, for example, would be at the bottom, and only glanced at when something is going wrong. My league forum and fed forums would be at or near the top, as I read those far more often. Just a thought.

I'm subscribed to around 40/50 forums :p

Have a little time on your hands?

Totally agree. I think the bad navigation of the forums could be a hurdle for new players to use the forums.

Totally agree. I think the bad navigation of the forums could be a hurdle for new players to use the forums.

I've been playing for years and didn't even know the Suggestions forum existed. I got linked to it today through another thread, and I don't even know how to get back here!

It's very messy.