Please restore left border to new support theme

[sterndata]

The old theme had important visual clues to distinguish messages by poster. Please restore them as they make it a LOT easier to moderate forums from views like "all replies".

[sterndata]

old and new, side by side

[adamwood]

It will be hard to make the border work for the new single topic view with cards, but it seems like the important use case here is the list views, correct?

[sterndata]

Adam, for my needs, yes. IT WOULD BE HELPFUL (TM) in a single view, but less necessary.

[codente]

I miss the border too as a non-mod. It's helpful visually.

[dufresnesteven]

I miss the border too as a non-mod. It's helpful visually.

What exactly do they help you find?

[codente]

@dufresnesteven They help you find who is who in a thread. Just having the tag without the border is not as helpful and is easily missed and/or my brain has to think about where that goes. With the border, that is very clear and there's no confusion.

[dufresnesteven]

@codente Great. Thanks for that context.

Apologies for the continued questions, if you have the time...

What about knowing who is who is of particular importance?
Do you expect moderator responses to be more relevant than other contributor responses?
Are you trying to sort out questions from answers and/or how they relate?

Thanks.

[sterndata]

I think we've justified this.

[dufresnesteven]

I think we've justified this.

That isn't what happening here. :facepalm

[macmanx]

I assume Steve is referring to the Slack thread: ​ https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQC6RW/p1712846269876139?thread_ts=1712758047.356699&channel=C02RQC6RW&message_ts=1712846269.876139

So, let me copy in my most recent reply:

“I guess historically, a forum moderator’s role was to maintain the forum”

That’s still the main purpose of the roll, and why we need those color borders as context clues when trying to scroll everything.

“It seems now like we’re using the moderator role as the first and maybe last touch person for a topic.”

We would very much like it not to be, but there seems to be a critical lack of support contributing volunteers, where a lot of the time, if we let threads sit, they just sit unanswered.

Ideally, like the old days, there would be a huge amount of volunteers contributing alongside the mods, now pretty much the mods are a decent chunk of the remaining active support contributors, so we’re also contributing support.

If that’s ever brought up on the forums, we’re pretty strict in pointing out that mods don’t always have all the answers all the time, and may not answer all threads.

“Why do we need to be logged in and visually identifying as moderators to answer questions?”

Well, short of saying, “That’s how it’s always been,” two things:

1. We have a strict rule against having more than one account, and moderators are expected to follow that rule.
2. When moderators reply with warnings or any such action, it is important that they are distinct from any random user, as moderator impersonation is why we added the badges in the first place.

“For me, the answer to the question is more important than the role, and optimizing for an experience that prioritizes the current status and answer that is the resolution seems like a more end user-friendly approach.”

We agree! Buried somewhere in meta trac, we have a years-old ticket for an “Accepted Answer” system similar to most other forums.

I want to be clear, the request for the color borders as context clues is two-fold:

1. Absolutely necessary for the (ever decreasing) volunteer moderators to spend their (ever decreasing) time as efficiently as possible. Speaking only for myself, it now takes me twice as long to sweep All Replies.
2. Probably handy for people getting plugin/theme support to separate the “signal” of the plugin/theme developers from the “noise” of everyone else piling on the thread.

[codente]

For me, I provide plugin support and also volunteer time in the forums when I can (non-mod). So knowing a Moderator has responded in a thread draws my attention to that first to see if they've answered the question posed or if it's more of a moderator response.

Typically though if I see that a Mod has replied with an answer to help resolve the thread, then yeah for me they are of particular importance as they know what they are talking about. I look to those responses to help me answer similar tickets in the future.

If it's a regular user like me responding, then I'll look to see if I feel they have actually answered what was asked or if I can add anything.

Hope that helps!

Replying to dufresnesteven :

@codente Great. Thanks for that context.

Apologies for the continued questions, if you have the time...

What about knowing who is who is of particular importance?
Do you expect moderator responses to be more relevant than other contributor responses?
Are you trying to sort out questions from answers and/or how they relate?

Thanks.

[adamwood]

In thirteen thousand five hundred and fifty-five :

Support Forums: Restore borders on list views for mods

See #7573

[macmanx]

Replying to adamwood :

In thirteen thousand five hundred and fifty-five :

Support Forums: Restore borders on list views for mods

See #7573

Thank you!