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@sunnyflower We conducted hours of research, member interviews and user experience testing when updating the functionality in 2017. So let me go all geeky on you.
You are referring to something called "threaded discussions." We used to have threaded discussions, but that was even more confusing and received daily complaints from members. Threaded vs. flat discussions have long been debated by user experience experts. https://blog.codinghorror.com/discussions-flat-or-threaded/
The +show/unhide and @mention functionality is a prop that helps remedy the limitations to flat discussions, which were preferred by 80% of members interviewed.
To quote a fellow geek colleague:
"Personally, I have yet find any threaded discussion format I like. ...threaded discussions are painful to use. You're forced to click through to see the responses, and once you do, there's far too much pogo-ing up and down the hierarchy of the threaded discussions. It's all so.. unnecessary.
Flat discussion views have their limitations, too. But they're minor compared to the trainwreck that is threaded discussions. Until we can come up with a new discussion model that doesn't add a slew of new problems, let's take Joel's advice and stick with simple, flat discussion views."
Replies to "@sunnyflower We conducted hours of research, member interviews and user experience testing when updating the functionality..."
Hello Colleen and moderators and mentors,
I read through the dialogues and the pros and cons of flat vs. threaded on the link provided. There also seemed to be a fair amount of disagreement between the two which are not straight forward in and of themselves when considering branches, etc.
I found it to be a difficult read for my brain and being married to a computer programmer/architect, I was cognitive of who was participating in the discussions and likely designing the protocols and the differences of my and other, especially female, brains.
Speaking as an average female who is tech challenged, yet could save a life, and uses an average of 20,000 more words per day than men,
this quote sums it up for me: "In the end, it comes down to your audience: Them being tech-literate geeks or more of the general public"
Reading all this helps me understand why I struggle on Connect. However, I can usually figure out how to get where I want to be, just not as easy or quickly as I wish.
I think there are so many factors in the equation such as many if not most if us bloggers suffer from some cognitive impairment due to extreme pain and medications known to cause these. Memory is very affected thus forgetting to stay on topic!
Thank you all for your help and investment to improve our well-being! Hope this helps you understand the struggles and wher I 'm coming from. Blessings, Sunny
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Hi Colleen, great info, good to know, love to learn. I'm always trying to simplify and make everything more user-friendly and efficient, not challenge and am definitely not resisting. That is my heart. Not to make anyone feel defensive. Not at all, ever.
I believe I have acknowledged the tremendous amount of time and effort you and the admin team have invested into setting up Connect to function in the best possible way for all of us in a prior message /post.
Sincerely, Sunny