[schalliol]

I've noticed that either I don't know where old feedback threads have gone or they get removed. If those stuck around, topics wouldn't be beaten to death multiple times as effgee notes happens below:

Originally Posted by effgee 

...This horse (full page rendering of forum content) has been beaten to death so many times, it's not even funny any more...

Beat it to death once and unless something changes, there's no reason to keep bringing it up. I posted the thread to which effgee is referring, and I probably wouldn't have if it was clear there was a consensus for doing things the way they have been done.

Thoughts?

[OreoCookie]

They are not removed, you have to make them visible via a filter. Go to the thread list and look for a pop-up on the bottom in a group called Display Options. Choose your time scale of interest and click in show threads. We don't hide anything unless it's necessary

[reader50]

No real content gets deleted here. Spam gets soft-deleted, along with a few off-topic posts, and the occasional death threat from former members. Feedback in particular is left freer on the off-topic front.

You may be thinking of the Theme Beta forum, which is currently switched off. Search won't return results from that at present. I might be able to make it read-only, until the next redesign round.

[schalliol]

Very cool. I guess I didn't notice the transformation to this better UI, and I agree that you've implemented a good tool. I'm used to the old pages of threads view, but I see it now!

[effgee]

Originally Posted by schalliol 

... Thoughts?

Yes: Asking about this in the 900px thread would have saved you the trouble of creating a new one.

The majority of the discussions I was referring to did not take place publicly, but were taken to other communication channels at the appropriate time - no point in a handful of people bickering in public while 500 others are leaning back in their chairs, getting out the popcorn.

In case this hasn't become apparent yet - I am neither affiliated with MacNN or the good forum mod-/admin-folk here, nor do I (ever presume to) speak for them. As such, I can't just change stuff on this or any other MacNN site ... well, technically I could, but that's not something I'd do unasked. Plus, my time is generally neither free nor particularly cheap.

And a last general statement, since I'm beginning to get that (mildly creepy) vibe from this thread: Not all design decisions should be 'made in public' and/or 'made by a more or less anonymous mass of users'.

Let me explain ... it is one thing to conduct a proper user test with a carefully selected (aka: representative) group of users as an important part of an informed, productive and user-oriented design process - it is however, an entirely different beast to 'just throw stuff out there'.

The former being a wonderful tool that can greatly improve your project result, and the latter being a completely useless, frustrating and unproductive exercise that will – always and without exception – turn your project to sh*t in no time.

The primary reason (among others which I'm too lazy to get into here) for 'design by committee' being utterly useless is that it is impossible to a) get a representative sample of your target audience, and b) properly communicate with everybody. Such a 'process' will always be dominated by a very vocal minority, who (most likely without ill-will) will attempt to force the design process into a direction of their liking, regardless of whether or not their preference is representative for all users and/or congruent with that of the silent majority.

The worst case scenario here would be to have two (or more) 'factions' of minorities with opposing views starting to heckle each other - that will speed up the 'project down the toilet' process in ways a lot of people can't begin to imagine.

'Design by committee' is the best way to ruin a project from the get-go.

[schalliol]

Originally Posted by effgee 

And a last general statement, since I'm beginning to get that (mildly creepy) vibe from this thread

I'm sure getting that vibe now. I don't think I'm willing to get into design theory discussions in response to the heavy handed tone used here, which of course would be off-topic in this thread anyway.

Everyone, thanks for all the responses!