Mark Uraine 2:47 pm on August 19, 2016
Tags: design ( 20 ), forums ( 18 )

Support Forum Preliminary Mockups

The next revision of the support forumSupport Forum WordPress Support Forums is a place to go for help and conversations around using WordPress. Also the place to go to report issues that are caused by errors with the WordPress code and implementations. design is ready, as we get closer to coding, hopefully by next week! In order to move to the next stage, I want to get these mockups in front everyone to gather comments and feedback. These are definitely preliminary mockups; things can and will change, especially during the implementation phase.

If you haven’t followed along before, take a moment and review the Design Research post and the Wireframes post from earlier.

The Homepage

Homepage

Mobile view

Homepage Notes

Search is prominent in the blue title bar, which follows the design pattern from the new PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Directory and Get page.
3 columned jump points to various popular documentation destinations.
Forums have a grid layout, as seen in the wireframes, but the most recent topic links have been removed. Instead, longer descriptions have been added. The support team can customize these to make it easier to locate the relevant forum and dive into it, without be overwhelmed with text.

Forums page

Mobile view

Forum View Notes

Two columns in the table now use icons instead of text descriptions to minimize their width. This should reduce wrapping of the topic title.

Topic/Discussion page

Discussion page

Mobile view

Discussion page Notes

The initial post is given a grey highlight, to separate it from replies.
If the post has been resolved, it’s marked as such and the specific answer is noted with a green checkmark.

Search results

Search results page

Mobile view

Search Results Notes

As of right now, search will be use the built-in bbPressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org. 2 search, so it will only return forum posts in the results.
If the user doesn’t see an answer or post about their question, there’s a button to quickly move this into a form for creating a new discussion.

Feedback

I’d love some some feedback on these mockups! Feedback on anything is great, but in particular I have a couple of questions:

Should comments from moderators, authors, and plugin authors have a different style than regular comments?
Where should the “All Topics” and “No Replies” links go? Perhaps on the homepage?

Leave your feedback below and let us know what you like and don’t like. 🙂

#design, #forums

Presuming this is bbpressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org. 2, then when you click the reply or submit buttons, nothing happens to say that you are submitting. It would be great to have that change to “submitting..” Easy to do with a small amount of code and some js.

add_action ('bbp_theme_before_topic_form_submit_button' , 'rew_load_submitting' ) ;
add_action ('bbp_theme_before_reply_form_submit_button' , 'rew_load_submitting' ) ;

function rew_load_submitting {
	echo '<button type="submit" id="rew_submit" class="button submit">Submitting...</button>' ;
	}
		
	
CSS
#rew_submit {
display : none ;
}


JS
$('#bbp_topic_submit').click(function() {
		$('#bbp_topic_submit').hide();
		$('#rew_submit').show();

Joy 4:13 pm on August 19, 2016

I feel that the Home Page has become too unfocused. It is difficult to see where to go, compared to the current Support page.
Considering that the menu link to get here is “Support” or “Forums”, I wonder if that starts the fuzziness. On the proposed Home Page, the first of the 3 jump points is “Welcome”, and it mentions forums and then the link to “Start Learning” would take them where? The big title on this page is “Support Forums”, and most of the page is about forums.
Then the 2nd jump point is “Documentation”, which is already in the menu. I think having one link to some front page of the Documentation is less useful than the current Support page that links to various places in the codex, including the support handbook.

Finding the right forum is more difficult when they are presented three across (I know they are not on mobile). The list view of the current home page is much easier to parse. And stating forum descriptions as questions is a bad idea. People go to support for answers and more questions can be overwhelming. And if you remove the number of topics, the user has no idea how busy the forum is or whether to bother to search first.

For the Forums page, having each entry with two lines makes it harder to parse. The current layout has no interruption between topic titles, making it easier to scan topics. The proposed one has the author in between, so each is taller and that extra text slows down the eyes as they scan for topics. Also, having two columns of numbers is bad, and having them next to each other is worse (have to scroll back to find the headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen sizes. to tell them apart).

For the Discussion page, each entry should be consistent. Your mockup has the date in two different places.

As a user, I’d like to see more data sooner, to help find what I need with fewer page loads and clicks. That means I’d prefer to see tags or topic titles on the Home page if possible, and excerpts of questions or tags on the Forum page if possible. Leave off the avatars until the detail page, and show more info about the actual question higher up the hierarchy, so I can tell if my question has already been asked.
- Marius L. J. (Clorith) 2:30 pm on August 22, 2016
  
  I can agree that it’s a bit hard to peruse them when they are just 3 columns, perhaps if something was done to distinguish each one, I’m thinking along the lines of the make landing page where the background is a diffuse gray, and each segment is in a white box so you know they are individual elements (just a quick idea that would obviously need to be worked on if anything)
Joy 5:55 pm on August 19, 2016

For the Forums page, you say you used icons instead of text to reduce wrapping of the topic title. You should try your mockup again with actual topic titles from the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party forum, which has long titles.
James Huff 11:10 pm on August 19, 2016

These look great!

Should comments from moderators, authors, and pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party authors have a different style than regular comments?

I’d suggest sticking to badge colors, for example what we have for plugins now: http://d.pr/i/4Xti/4w61XSEl

The badges are enough to notice, and sometime highlighting the entire reply looks cool offhand but may be more of a distraction overall.

For Moderators, we could do a similar badge, but maybe more of a blue that fits in with the overall design instead of the green.

Where should the “All Topics” and “No Replies” links go? Perhaps on the homepage?

How about on the Home Page, centered below the list of individual forums?

Here is my poor attempt at a mockup: http://d.pr/i/1aUC4/5CrYleOX
- Mark Uraine 10:00 pm on August 22, 2016
  
  That mockup rocks! Please tell me that was Comic Sans. 🙂 I’ll get these links in there and work some moderator icons too.
  - James Huff 10:26 pm on August 22, 2016
    
    Oh most definitely Comic Sans, it’s the only legitimate time to use it. 😀
Kathryn 9:55 pm on August 20, 2016

Great to see this coming together. It would be super helpful to make it clearer that there are individual forums for each theme & pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party in the repo. Right now, people requesting help with a theme often post in the general Themes & Templates categoryCategory The 'category' taxonomy lets you group posts / content together that share a common bond. Categories are pre-defined and broad ranging. (or post in Plugins & Hacks instead of the plugin’s own forum) where then it gets lost — and the theme or plugin dev/support staff often miss seeing it, especially if it’s not well-tagged.

If there could be an indication somewhere — perhaps in the blurb for those forums — that might help get more theme- and plugin-specific questions routed to the right place. For example, right now, the two forum blurbs in the mockups start with “Specific theme questions…” and “Specific plugin questions…” In fact, in most cases, those general forums aren’t the best place for specific theme or plugin questions, since themes and plugins in the repo each have their own forum, which developers and support staff monitor and make sure all questions are well answered.

I’d love there to be a way to make it clearer where users should go to ask questions about a specific theme or plugin, to get the best quality support faster.

Rough possible wording for discussion:

Themes & Templates
Need help with a theme in the .org repository? Go to the theme’s directory page and then to the “Visit support forumSupport Forum WordPress Support Forums is a place to go for help and conversations around using WordPress. Also the place to go to report issues that are caused by errors with the WordPress code and implementations.” link. Post here for any other theme-related help.

Plugins & Hacks
Need help with a plugin in the .org repository? Go to the plugin’s directory page and then to the “Visit support forum” link. Post here for any other other plugin-related help.

I realize this is copy feedback rather than design feedback, so maybe it’s too early, but I wanted to plant the seed earlier rather than later. Thanks for considering.
- Samuel Wood (Otto) 10:08 pm on August 20, 2016
  
  I was thinking to just hide the plugins and themes forums entirely, and let them be only used for those specific forum views in the theme and pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party areas. So, they’d still be there, just hidden from the main view. Then add something to theme and plugin directories to redirect the user to specific theme/plugin support views.
  - James Huff 5:34 am on August 21, 2016
    
    I like this very much!
modemlooper 9:49 pm on August 22, 2016

forums look great, homepage needs larger headers to break it up. Looks too blocky making items hard to read.
Mark Root-Wiley 4:40 pm on August 24, 2016

The ability to mark the correct answer would be so so so great. That’s probably my favorite thing here.

————-

@Otto42’s idea to hide the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party and theme forums on the home page seems to make a lot of sense.

Two comments on the home page:

1. A grid often isn’t a great way to lay out options for scanning (due to F-pattern scanning). The second and third columns often get overlooked, so I wonder if that layout would steer fewer people to the right forum. I’d stick with a row-based list. (this is always relevant: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/list-entries/)
2. There seems to be two types of forums a) support forums (troubleshooting, multisiteMultisite Multisite is a WordPress feature which allows users to create a network of sites on a single WordPress installation. Available since WordPress version 3.0, Multisite is a continuation of WPMU or WordPress Multiuser project. WordPress MultiUser project was discontinued and its features were included into WordPress core.https://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network., installation, themes, plugins, advanced, localhost, accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility)) and b) “metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress.” forums (alpha, request/feedback, reviews). I wonder if these should be further distinguished. Doing so would especially help new users quickly limit the potential forum choices further, hopefully leading to posting the right forum more often.

————-

For this:
Should comments from moderators, authors, and plugin authors have a different style than regular comments?

I think plugin author answers deserve a different styles. I’d stick with a small badge for moderators and nothing for authors (I assume you mean the OP author).

————-

For both forums and search I would double the number of results per page. On the search results, the meta details feel too large/prominent.

These are coming along really nicely! Can’t wait to see these changes in production!
kmessinger 8:15 pm on September 1, 2016

The actual forum pages are a lighter blue than the mock ups. Please consider a higher contrast blue and a larger type size.
- Martin Stehle 9:56 am on September 3, 2016
  
  +1
Josh Pollock 8:44 pm on September 1, 2016

Right now (1 September around 4:30 eastern time US) I am experiencing the following issues:

1) The list for the topics in a forum uses grey and blue text on a grey background. I have mild color blindness which effects my ability to see shades. I literally can’t read the text.
2) The reviews section is empty.
3) Sticky posts are no longer visible or sticky.
4) There is no way to mark a thread as resolved.
5) There is a menu like set of links at the top of the topic list “Description, Support, Reviews” It’s just kind of hanging out and looking odd. Those links should probably have title tags and the wrapping element should get a navigation role or something.
- Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 10:59 pm on September 1, 2016
  
  Josh – I mentioned in SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. that this post was for discussing the Theme issues, not migrationMigration Moving the code, database and media files for a website site from one server to another. Most typically done when changing hosting companies. ones. I know it’s a little confusing but basically if it’s a THEME issue, please keep it here. If it’s not, it belongs in https://wordpress.org/support/topic/forum-bugs-and-broken-things/
  
  1) Can you possible make a screenshot to show exactly which bits are illegible?
  2) Reviews will be down until Sept 5 – See this post
  3) Known
  4) Known
  5) I don’t see that, screenshot please
  
  Please remember – when you’re talking about visual issues, it’s best to include as many visual examples as possible to make our designers cry less.
Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 11:04 pm on September 1, 2016

First? Thank you guys SO MUCH for reinventing a *mumble* years old theme from bbPressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org. to this one in WordPress! Having converted enough themes, I know the headache.

The light blue link for visited links is difficult to read, especially on the grey-er background (top example). Can it be darker?

https://make.wordpress.org/meta/files/2016/09/Screen-Shot-2016-09-01-at-4.00.08-PM.png

Closed posts have a different link and text color. This is good, but it’s way too pale, especially on sticky posts. Also related, the color for links to usernames is incredibly pale and difficult to read.

https://make.wordpress.org/meta/files/2016/09/Screen-Shot-2016-09-01-at-4.00.51-PM.png
- Stephen Edgar 11:10 pm on September 1, 2016
  
  The “Closed posts color” is noted in #1543:43, need to test the proposed patch and go from there.
- Martin Stehle 10:15 am on September 3, 2016
  
  Hi, it is great the WordPress team has a focus on accessibilityAccessibility Accessibility (commonly shortened to a11y) refers to the design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design ensures both “direct access” (i.e. unassisted) and “indirect access” meaning compatibility with a person’s assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessibility) for users with special needs (as I am one of them). It would be greater if this topic is also carried on in the forum. The current font sizes and colors can be improved for a better visual accessibility of the forum contents.
  
  Please to make sure that the combinations for foreground colors and background colors are sufficient for everybody use the fine and tiny Color Contrast Analyzer. It checks picked color combinations against WCAGWCAG WCAG is an acronym for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. These guidelines are helping make sure the internet is accessible to all people no matter how they would need to access the internet (screen-reader, keyboard only, etc) https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/. 2.0 color contrast success criteria.
- Mark Uraine 2:54 pm on September 6, 2016
  
  As I’m creating the theme, I’ll definitely make sure the color contrast works everywhere, including the closed posts.
ancawonka 3:49 pm on September 2, 2016

Wow, big changes. I like the direction this is going, to fit more within the overall theme of WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/. Here’s some feedback

The forums homepage should reflect the busy and helpful nature of the activity going on in the forums. Just listing the names and descriptions of the forums doesn’t say anything about what’s happening in there, or whether anything is happening at all.

On the search page, in the right-hand column, there are lists of forums and numbers next to them. Is that supposed to reflect the number of posts in that forum, or the number of posts in that forum with my search phrase? Because it’s a search results page, I would imagine the latter.

On the list of forum posts and replies, it would help if the titles of the posts were a different font size / weight than the rest of the text. It’s harder to scan through the list and just look at the titles when the metaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. is also the same size. It’s also harder to tell where one should click to get to the post, since the dark blue link is almost the same color as the rest of the text in the row.

To answer the questions:

1) Yes, please use a different style for posts from the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party/theme authors. If possible moderator posts should be the same as “regular folks”, unless the post is about a moderation-related request. Labeling the user as a moderator is great, but visually distinguishing those posts might make it seem like they are more relevant or important than other answers in a forum.

2) The link to “unanswered posts” should go somewhere prominent on the forums landing page. It would also help to have a “Posts with no replies in this forum” link on each forum’s landing page.
- Mark Uraine 2:58 pm on September 6, 2016
  
  The forums homepage should reflect the busy and helpful nature of the activity going on in the forums. Just listing the names and descriptions of the forums doesn’t say anything about what’s happening in there, or whether anything is happening at all.
  
  I initially showed recent topics under each forum on the homepage, but some thought it was too busy, so I removed them.
  
  On the forum’s topics page, there are some minor changes happening which should help with scannability.
Robswaimea 4:31 pm on September 4, 2016

I moved this “snippet” out ot the Request and Feedback… because they said it was in the wrong place. But I doubt anybody will see it here, especially “users” that care.
Oh well… I doubt anybody will care or give feedback or make any decent changes.

1.) I really think making the “”border-top: 1px solid #000;” would be a huge improvement….
Particularly the Topics “List” page….

It could also apply to the actual topic QandA page as in this picture…. but doesn’t effect my reading as much.
I do like the new way the actual Topic’s original poster and question is shown in a box…
https://i1.wp.com/make.wordpress.org/meta/files/2016/08/Discussion-page-v3-1.png?ssl=1

2.) If when a person hovered over a Topic… the pop-up would be an “excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox.” . As opposed to just the “Title” of the post.

I think users would like the ability to find an answer to a question as quickly as possible, as opposed to just asking a question and waiting for a reply.
This might improve that process.
- Mark Uraine 3:02 pm on September 6, 2016
  
  Just letting you know I’ve read your feedback! 🙂
  
  1. I’m not sure where you think a black 1px border should go on that page. Can you be more specific?
  
  2. Adding more text to the list can cause more clutter and make it more difficult to scan. This might be solved with more padding, larger topic titles, etc. I can take a look at this option.
  - Robswaimea 10:34 pm on September 6, 2016
    
    I know you guys want to make the best experience possible for us Users of WP.org.
    And most certainly busy with the transition.
    I was frustrated at having to move this discussion over here, but my bad for not putting it in the correct “Thread.”
    ==================
    Take for example the WP.org page….
    https://wordpress.org/support/forum/requests-and-feedback/
    
    1.)
    We have a list ot “Topics”……
    Using Firefox Inspector (or whatever you use)…
    “inspect” a “Topic”… in this case the first one… or any of them…
    It will be the “blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.”… thusly each contents of the UL…
    and your will see something like this…..
    #bbpressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org.-forums li.bbp-body ul.forum, #bbpress-forums li.bbp-body ul.topic {
    border-top: 1px solid #eee;
    overflow: hidden;
    padding: 8px;
    }
    
    Thusly changing…..
    border-top: 1px solid #eee; to…
    border-top: 1px solid #000;
    
    I think would make the visualization better.
    
    2.)
    It’s probably not worth laboring on this point….
    I am speaking about when you mouse over on a Topic…
    but I’ll try to explain a little more on my concept…
    If you have ever been to a Vbulletin Forum… you have seen what this is like.
    
    ——————
    Ahhhhhh…. Interesting…. I just notice some ambiguity and why the confusion on this point.
    If you go to this link
    https://wordpress.org/support/
    and “mouse hover” on the “Forums” List (right hand side of the page)…
    You get a little PopUp with the Title of the Forum.
    
    What I didn’t notice before… is that is you go to a specific Support ForumSupport Forum WordPress Support Forums is a place to go for help and conversations around using WordPress. Also the place to go to report issues that are caused by errors with the WordPress code and implementations.… say a pluin…
    https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/events-manager
    
    There is no PopUp… for the “Topics” List Item…..
    
    I hadn’t noticed this “ambiguity” before…..
    And it may not have even been available before…. I just “click and go…” most of the time to get answers….
    
    The casual user many never even make use of a PopUp over a specific Topic… with an “excerptExcerpt An excerpt is the description of the blog post or page that will by default show on the blog archive page, in search results (SERPs), and on social media. With an SEO plugin, the excerpt may also be in that plugin’s metabox.” of the information.
    
    I do when visiting my favorite Forums for my hobbie.. but that’s just me.
    ======================
    In conclusion…
    Point 1.) border-top: 1px solid #000; should be easy.. but then I don’t use Buddy Press so maybe it is not.
    Point 2.) I am not talking about add more information to the basic list…. as you would see doing a search… just the a PopUP thing….
    Just me noticing some things at 3am in the morning.
    
    Thanks for the great work you guys and gals are doing.
    Best wishes.
    Rob.
Stephen Edgar 10:46 am on September 6, 2016

Each user will also be required to have some moderation information displayed:

• User IP Address – https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1923
• Flag User/Unflag User – Already implemented
• Spam User/Unspam User – https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1960
• BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. User/Unblock User – https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1989

“User” appears to be the preferred unscientifically researched term of the support term, rather than “Author”, i.e. changing the current “Flag Author”, to “Flag User”
Robswaimea 11:07 pm on September 6, 2016

In my opinion… this should go in the Request and Feedback Forum…. more people would see it…

But… when I go to my Profile…
It used to be great… with Topics Created… Topics Replied all nice and neat… on one page.
A very NICE list of….
Topics Created on the Left ———— Topics Replied on the Right.

A nice pretty Table and easy to read all in a list.
The way it is now it’s a complete mess as far as readability.

I used to use that “old” page to go back and QUICKLY find a post I made for information.

And most particularly, if somebody had a question, and I could easily find a link to an answer I had posted…

Now it is just a mess…. and at it’s current format… well, I will certainly become frustrated and not bother to help like I had previously.
Josh Kohlbach 12:12 am on September 7, 2016

Would be great if resolved threads were colour coded with a grey background and unresolved threads remained white. Or whatever other colour scheme you choose as this would help visually separate threads that need attention.
- AITpro 12:14 am on September 13, 2016
  
  Awesome idea. Was going to suggest the same “at a glance” visual thing.
Jeremy Herve 7:21 am on September 7, 2016
I like where this is going! I have very little feedback to offer, since a lot of folks shared their ideas already. Nevertheless, here it comes 🙂

Forums page
- I like the icons used to note sticky and resolved posts. I wonder if we could make resolved threads stand out even more, maybe by adding a different background to the row, as @jkohlbach suggested above.
- That’s a lot of Gravatars. Maybe too many? The page seems very busy, and is harder to skim through. I would personally remove the “Started By…” line to make the thread list easier to read.
Topic/Discussion page
- I like the way you organized the replies, and made the original thread stand out.
- Post author titles are bigger than the actual message text. Wouldn’t it be better to make the message text bigger, since that’s the important part of the thread? It would also make it easier to skim through a lot of replies.
kmessinger 6:08 pm on September 8, 2016

On the home page the 3 top paragraphs are align-center while the others below are align-left. We should probably be consistent. Myself, for those short paragraphs I think centered looks good.
Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 2:29 pm on September 9, 2016
The font-weight on links is set to 400, which means if you put strong tags around the link it doesn’t work 🙂
```
#bbpress-forums div.bbp-reply-content a, #bbpress-forums div.bbp-topic-content a {
background: 0 0;
border: none;
display: inline;
font-weight: 400;
margin: 0;
padding: 0
}
```
Made a link look funny 😀
- Mark Uraine 4:32 pm on September 9, 2016
  
  I shall write, yet another selector to overwrite something that seems to be inherit with bbPressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org.. I’m glad you pointed this out though. 🙂
Stephen Edgar 2:23 pm on September 16, 2016
Users: Topic and Reply author/user information:

A user should have the following 4 attributes on both topics and replies:
- Display Name
- User Name
- Custom Title
- Forum Role
Also the extra “flair” for “pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party/theme authors” should have some “flair” and note that the replier to that topic is the plugin or theme author, see https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1993
Stephen Edgar 8:03 am on September 19, 2016

The “Start a new discussion” button should probably appear on the forums page also, see https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1977
Tara 4:05 pm on September 22, 2016

Looks great 🙂
Sergey Biryukov 12:50 am on October 7, 2016
Some suggestions from my MetaMeta Meta is a term that refers to the inside workings of a group. For us, this is the team that works on internal WordPress sites like WordCamp Central and Make WordPress. tickets:
- #1984 (Forums: ?view=all link should be more noticeable and always shown for moderators)
It’s the link that displays all archived/pending/spam posts in the current thread.
- #1986 (Forums: Move reply permalink from .bp-topic-author column to .bbp-topic-content)
Discussion-page-v3-1.png appears to cover that for replies, but not for topics (the placement of “3 weeks ago” is inconsistent).
- #1996 (Forums: “Stick” and “to front” links should be visually separated)
Or maybe the placement can stay as is, but “to front” should be replaced with “to all forums” for clarity.
Jon (Kenshino) 2:54 pm on October 8, 2016

So we talked a little about this in #forums on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/.

Looks like there is a bug with Open Sans and display the tilde character at 13px. Log at https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/forums/p1475936185008707

But I think, as WordPress CoreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. has moved to Native System fonts, perhaps the forums should move as well.

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