Forum Testing Update

[GolfSpy_APH]

EDIT: Please check above post for several updates that have been made which have addressed several of the comments and concerns raised later in this thread. 

 

Hello all, 

Over the last few weeks we have been receiving a variety of questions about the new forum testing feature and how it is working as well much more questions regarding its placement and so on. In this post I am going to do my best to guide/answer most of those questions to hopefully clear any confusion up that any member may have. I will also include some screenshots which will hopefully help with getting a good visual of where we are at and how to understand this change a little better. 

As always changes can be difficult and at times frustrating, however the end result of this change should provide great benefits to the site and assist in new members and guests to more easily able to find the product reviews and simplified ratings they want. 
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lets start with where reviews will be- All reviews will be housed in the testing opportunities section. However we will do our part in updating the titles to ensure everyone is aware of where each test stands and at what stage it is in. This will look like the following

Stage 1- Testers Wanted: (item tbd) - This will be when the testing item is in the signup stage. There will be a banner up top notifying there is a test available for signup and the rest is pretty self explanatory.

Stage 2- Sign Up Closed: (Item TBD) - We will change this within a day or so of when the sign up is closed to help prevent additional posts in the comments section saying pick me pick me! This will stay until we are ready to announce testers.

Stage 3: Testers Announced: (Item TBD) - This we already have and is pretty self explanatory, but we will keep this title until we have heard back from all the selected testers and got the information we require. In general this will stay as is until our testers are ready to post their introduction post.

Stage 4: Test In-Progress: (Item TBD) - Again this we have already started, but this will determine when a test is underway and will signal  for all of us as members to ask our questions, get to know the testers and for the testers to have received their product and start putting it through its paces and given it the thorough review our membership so often provides. 

Stage 5: Official Review: (Item TBD) - This will be the final title for the test and will be changed once we have the official reviews from the testers. 

With all of this we will update the titles as frequently as possible and put them in the appropriate box so you can select them (apologies for those who don't use dark or night mode, but my eyes have a really hard time with a white screen so all screenshots are with nightmode and on computer. I can look to do mobile screenshots on request in a follow up post. The red box indicates the status (currently only open and closed options) will have added selections thus being able to only see open, in progress and so on. Here you are also able to search for specific reviews by product name, vendor or equipment type (ie drivers, putters and so on).

I hope this makes sense to everyone and will assist in clearing any of the testing opportunities section confusion up. 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now the reviews themselves. As some of you may have seen already there are two tabs when you click on the review. One for review and one for comments. 

At the top when you look at the test you will see a few notable things- avatars of all testers, highlights of star ratings and the initial testing post. 

I have highlighted the follow, testers, and star ratings which I will come back to in a minute...

Just below from that there will be your reviews and comments- If you want to see reviews simply stay on the tab and scroll down. You'll be able to see all reviews right here. This is essentially what the old "placeholder" post was and is where we will see introductions, important updates, unboxing and final reviews for all of our testers. (currently working on like system for reviews as well)

The comments section acts as the rest of the thread would normally be and is where we ask you to post any and all questions to the testers and where some smaller updates may be. 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now to back to what I was going to talk about with the highlighted features above. Again before I dive into this I would suggest that if you have questions about why reviews are not showing up in the recent content tab that you check out @GolfSpy MPRthread on setting up a custom stream. This will help all of these tests to show up in your recent content so you don't miss a beat.

There are also a few other ways to make sure you are able to keep up with the reviews. I have gone over one feature, but we have two other quick ways to make sure we don't miss any of the new content coming from the tests we want to follow, which most of us know and use already, but still worth mentioning for those who have not used or know about these features.

One: Follow the thread! Simple easy and gives you notification on any new post or comment that comes up within the thread. I use this a LOT... it also means I have a good few notifications each morning, however it is without a doubt one of the easiest ways to ensure you are not missing anything you want to see even if you do not set up a new stream. 

Two: Follow a tester: Again one I use a lot as there are so many good members here and its nice to follow along with the content they post in. This is great because if there is a tester that is similar to you it will enable you to follow along specific to them and again not miss any relevant information within the test as well as any other threads they may post in. Example you follow me and you'll see a lot of Fantasy Golf content haha

These are some easy ways to follow along and make sure you are able to keep up with the testing that is relevant to you and take part in the testing as you see fit. 
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Since this post has gone on just about long enough, again we as a Mod team are doing what we can to make this transition to the new system a little smoother and being a newer Mod team we are hard at work making sure tests are running on time and keeping everyone up to date as best as possible. With backorders and so on it has certainly been a tricky season, but we are excited for all the tests we have running as well as the tests that are coming! 

We hope that this helps clear some of the confusion up and will continue to work to streamline the testing section to make it easy and accessible for all. 

Thank you, 

Mod Team

[null]

So are the active testing threads going to be continuations of the sign up threads?  The only reason I ask is some signup threads have pages and pages of banter and it would hard for newcomers to know where the actual testing starts.

[GolfSpy_APH]

6 minutes ago, jlukes said:

So are the active testing threads going to be continuations of the sign up threads?  The only reason I ask is some signup threads have pages and pages of banter and it would hard for newcomers to know where the actual testing starts.

Yes it will all be a continuation. What I will look to do is post a hyperlink in the "main post" which will go to the end of the testers announced portion. Also testers can link important posts of theirs under their review section if they have updates they want to share, but don't want to include in their review. Again the testing, introduction, review, unboxing and so on will be under the review tab, which will be nice and easy for them to see. 

Also important to note we are actively looking at fixing the mass amount of photos that appear at the beginning of some of the signups. CC5 may be the exception here where the review will be done in the testing opp thread, but the challenges and so on will likely be in a follow along thread...

[null]

2 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Yes it will all be a continuation. What I will look to do is post a hyperlink in the "main post" which will go to the end of the testers announced portion. Also testers can link important posts of theirs under their review section if they have updates they want to share, but don't want to include in their review. Again the testing, introduction, review, unboxing and so on will be under the review tab, which will be nice and easy for them to see. 

So day to day updates and Q&A will happen in a separate thread from the formal reviews?

[GolfSpy_APH]

2 minutes ago, jlukes said:

So day to day updates and Q&A will happen in a separate thread from the formal reviews?

As it stands right now (CC5 being the exception) all testing comments and so on will be in under the testing opportunities and the item in which is being tested. So Voice Caddie for example- Intros, unboxing, testing and final review will be under the review tab of the Voice Caddie Testing Thread. All comments, updates and other will be under the comment tab. 

[null]

21 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

As it stands right now (CC5 being the exception) all testing comments and so on will be in under the testing opportunities and the item in which is being tested. So Voice Caddie for example- Intros, unboxing, testing and final review will be under the review tab of the Voice Caddie Testing Thread. All comments, updates and other will be under the comment tab. 

Is there a way mods could delete or hide posts in the comments section that were made during signup/before the actual testing began? Just trying to think like someone coming to the site to look for forum reviews rather than someone who is an active member that understands all of the nuances of the forum

[GolfSpy_APH]

1 minute ago, jlukes said:

Is there a way mods could delete or hide posts in the comments section that were made during signup/before the actual testing began? Just trying to think like someone coming to the site to look for forum reviews rather than someone who is an active member that understands all of the nuances of the forum

Certainly something we can look at. The nice thing is the review will be right there and easy to find and read. They won't be hidden at all and very accessible. For the other posts again I would look at putting a hyperlink to page X and that could skip past pages that include signup/testers announced to the beginning of the other parts of testing. 

[null]

6 minutes ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Certainly something we can look at. The nice thing is the review will be right there and easy to find and read. They won't be hidden at all and very accessible. For the other posts again I would look at putting a hyperlink to page X and that could skip past pages that include signup/testers announced to the beginning of the other parts of testing. 

Definitely like the reviews being front and center which is great.

However, as someone who has done multiple forum testings over the past few years, the best part about them is the interaction with the community as the testing is happening.  It seems like this new format is going to trivialize that part of the testing.

[GolfSpy BOS]

58 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Definitely like the reviews being front and center which is great.

However, as someone who has done multiple forum testings over the past few years, the best part about them is the interaction with the community as the testing is happening.  It seems like this new format is going to trivialize that part of the testing.

I can see why you'd be concerned there.  But I think if it's handled like @edingc is working it with the Maxfli Tour ball review he updated the "review" section then had a post in the "comment" section with that info and even expanded on it.  In a way its not much different than having the placeholders at the top for reviewers official posts, its just on a second tab.

I do agree that it might be beneficial to clean up the pre-selection chatter as some of the tests can have a lot of pages there too.  

[Peaksy68]

Great to see some communication about the changes, it really is a pity that this didn’t happen at the start. Hopefully now people will be able to find reviews more easily and the reviewers efforts will be worthwhile.

Also hope the photos in the intro issue can be sorted out quickly, as you have to scroll through them all to see the Review and Comment tabs, which could prevent traffic on the reviews, especially as more reviews are posted

[russtopherb]

To me, and this is my opinion only, this feels like segregating the testing threads from the rest of the forum. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the explanation above and I'm overcomplicating it in my mind, but one of the best parts of MGS for me has been the testing threads that were easy to find and encouraged lots of questions and comments from the testers. This seems to change that aspect and removes testing threads from the main forum. 

[null]

Just now, russtopherb said:

To me, and this is my opinion only, this feels like segregating the testing threads from the rest of the forum. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the explanation above and I'm overcomplicating it in my mind, but one of the best parts of MGS for me has been the testing threads that were easy to find and encouraged lots of questions and comments from the testers. This seems to change that aspect and removes testing threads from the main forum. 

Very well said and what I was trying to get at. The forum reviews just feel like they becoming more article-like and less discussion thread based.

 

I know there will be a tab for comments and discussion, but if they aren’t showing up in the unread section of someone’s feed without the person having to jump through hoops to add it to their custom feed then there is no doubt that there will be far less eyes on the review and a drop off in back and forth discussion throughout the testing process 

[tommc23]

12 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Very well said and what I was trying to get at. The forum reviews just feel like they becoming more article-like and less discussion thread based.

 

I know there will be a tab for comments and discussion, but if they aren’t showing up in the unread section of someone’s feed without the person having to jump through hoops to add it to their custom feed then there is no doubt that there will be far less eyes on the review and a drop off in back and forth discussion throughout the testing process 

I’ve noticed a lot less discussion in the sub70 review. I try to plug it often because heck I’m competing with the biggest review this forum does the cobra connect! I’ve tried to put pictures up showing where the threads are so people  come and visit the threads

[TBT]

8 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Very well said and what I was trying to get at. The forum reviews just feel like they becoming more article-like and less discussion thread based.

 

I know there will be a tab for comments and discussion, but if they aren’t showing up in the unread section of someone’s feed without the person having to jump through hoops to add it to their custom feed then there is no doubt that there will be far less eyes on the review and a drop off in back and forth discussion throughout the testing process 

I agree, like you I’ve been a part of several tests and I’m getting ready to do another on the Honma Driver, my favorite part of the testing threads are the interaction with forum members. It always seems that I stumble across a great question that someone asked that I never thought about….the questions and answers are an invaluable part of the testing process, I hate to see them pushed aside.

[null]

20 minutes ago, tommc23 said:

I’ve noticed a lot less discussion in the sub70 review. I try to plug it often because heck I’m competing with the biggest review this forum does the cobra connect! I’ve tried to put pictures up showing where the threads are so people  come and visit the threads

Honestly I had no idea this testing had started and you guys received the equipment because the thread doesn’t appear in my feed. 

Hell when I tried to actively seek it out right now I went to two incorrect sub forums before I found it - in the Testing Opportunities sub forum. Not in Reviews. Not in Official Reviews. The discussion thread is the continuation of the signup thread in Testing Opportunities.
 

That’s a problem 

[russtopherb]

9 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Honestly I had no idea this testing had started and you guys received the equipment because the thread doesn’t appear in my feed. 

Hell when I tried to actively seek it out right now I went to two incorrect sub forums before I found it - in the Testing Opportunities sub forum. Not in reviews. Not in official reviews. 
 

That’s a problem 

Same. I legitimately thought this testing hadn't started yet. The Titleist testing thread is in the Ball forum, so I've been able to follow that... I think. But like you, and I'm assuming many others, under the new format I had no clue this was ongoing. 

EDITED TO ADD - I went and checked out the Honma testing thread. According to the main screen, the last post was in May. But when I clicked on the thread, there were posts right up through earlier this month. This is very counter intuitive as a reader, and actually has me kind of upset that I've been missing out as a reader, and upset on behalf of the testers who have been missing out on a lot of traffic as @tommc23noted above. I sincerely hope that this new method of presenting testing threads gets reconsidered. I, for one, had no problem with review threads being made a stickies in the appropriate forum.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

3 hours ago, EasyPutter said:

Perhaps an approach that could be considered is the tabs approach, tab for Stage 1 sign up, tab for Stage 2 and 3, tab for Stage 4 as discussion during testing, Tab for Stage 5 final reviews.  That way it would be possible to discern what part is being looked at and avoid the scrolling to find what is sought.

My 2 cents.

This

[tommc23]

8 minutes ago, russtopherb said:

Same. I legitimately thought this testing hadn't started yet. The Titleist testing thread is in the Ball forum, so I've been able to follow that... I think. But like you, and I'm assuming many others, under the new format I had no clue this was ongoing. 

EDITED TO ADD - I went and checked out the Honma testing thread. According to the main screen, the last post was in May. But when I clicked on the thread, there were posts right up through earlier this month. This is very counter intuitive as a reader, and actually has me kind of upset that I've been missing out as a reader, and upset on behalf of the testers who have been missing out on a lot of traffic as @tommc23noted above. I sincerely hope that this new method of presenting testing threads gets reconsidered. I, for one, had no problem with review threads being made a stickies in the appropriate forum.

 

13 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Honestly I had no idea this testing had started and you guys received the equipment because the thread doesn’t appear in my feed. 

Hell when I tried to actively seek it out right now I went to two incorrect sub forums before I found it - in the Testing Opportunities sub forum. Not in Reviews. Not in Official Reviews. The discussion thread is the continuation of the signup thread in Testing Opportunities.
 

That’s a problem 

Yea it’s odd I’ve done reviews before and had no troubles getting questions or involvement in the past. This new way to sign up makes sense the reviews being in the same area doesn’t make sense to me. I guess because we may be used to the old way and that it takes searching to find. That’s my biggest complaint about it is you have to search for the threads and the forum has a section that says official threads!!! Why not at least link them to that area so people can still see the threads. We don’t have to have two threads even a link in that area would help.

[Peaksy68]

17 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Honestly I had no idea this testing had started and you guys received the equipment because the thread doesn’t appear in my feed. 

Hell when I tried to actively seek it out right now I went to two incorrect sub forums before I found it - in the Testing Opportunities sub forum. Not in Reviews. Not in Official Reviews. The discussion thread is the continuation of the signup thread in Testing Opportunities.
 

That’s a problem 

I agree, if the new reviews were listed under Official Reviews, casual readers as well as regulars would be able to find them more easily. The title could be a link that takes you through to the new review section, doesn’t seem to hard

3 minutes ago, tommc23 said:

 

Yea it’s odd I’ve done reviews before and had no troubles getting questions or involvement in the past. This new way to sign up makes sense the reviews being in the same area doesn’t make sense to me. I guess because we may be used to the old way and that it takes searching to find. That’s my biggest complaint about it is you have to search for the threads and the forum has a section that says official threads!!! Why not at least link them to that area so people can still see the threads. We don’t have to have two threads even a link in that area would help.

Snap!

[goaliewales14]

37 minutes ago, jlukes said:

Honestly I had no idea this testing had started and you guys received the equipment because the thread doesn’t appear in my feed. 

Hell when I tried to actively seek it out right now I went to two incorrect sub forums before I found it - in the Testing Opportunities sub forum. Not in Reviews. Not in Official Reviews. The discussion thread is the continuation of the signup thread in Testing Opportunities.
 

That’s a problem 

Same!  Honestly I kept checking the "Official Forum Member Reviews" section, but wasn't seeing a new thread for any of the testing.  I figured there were just shipping/back-order issues to where none of the testing has started yet.

[GolfSpy_APH]

Just been able to go over all the comments and appreciate the feedback. It gives us a good idea of where the membership is at and where we can make adjustments to smooth over the transition to the new system. As with most changes I know it will take time, however we will also look at changing and adapting what we can to make it smoother, user friendly and as most posted more noticeable in the the main thread. 

Of course as updates come we will update this thread and any bigger changes will come along with an announcement bar to ensure that when you are arriving to the site you won't be shocked by any huge change or surprise. Hope this is okay and once again appreciate the feedback from everyone. 

As we work on some tweaks and take in feedback I would highly encourage members to use the follow feature for any and all tests you are interested in and relevant to you. It will not make it show up in recent content like streams, however will give you notifications and easy access to any of the content you may have missed while sleeping, at work or out on the course. 

[PMookie]

Annnnd none of this really helps folks like me that view EVERYTHING via the mobile site….. I very rarely see anything in “Recent Content” where I spend 98% of the time.

[russtopherb]

OK hold up here. 

This is really disappointing.

"Thanks for your comments, sorry you all don't like the new system, we're gonna stick with it anyways" is what I'm getting from this. 

The whole point of a forum is to foster open discussion and get eyes on the content. I think we've all pointed out how this new system does anything but that. We shouldn't have to use specific features that we need to go customize on our own just to follow content that used to be easily found and available in the main forum.

I get it - MGS owns the site, and the owners and mods do what they feel is best to run the site most effectively. As a reader and former tester, I cannot disagree more with this new setup. Announcement bars at the top do nothing to actually put the content in places that can get the most traffic. And like @PMookie pointed out, mobile readers have it even worse. It's bad enough the site doesn't work with Tapatalk anymore so I don't get push notifications on forum content, it's getting more difficult to follow content here. This new testing/review setup honestly feels to me like change for change's sake. 

[GolfSpy_APH]

18 minutes ago, russtopherb said:

OK hold up here. 

This is really disappointing.

"Thanks for your comments, sorry you all don't like the new system, we're gonna stick with it anyways" is what I'm getting from this. 

The whole point of a forum is to foster open discussion and get eyes on the content. I think we've all pointed out how this new system does anything but that. We shouldn't have to use specific features that we need to go customize on our own just to follow content that used to be easily found and available in the main forum.

I get it - MGS owns the site, and the owners and mods do what they feel is best to run the site most effectively. As a reader and former tester, I cannot disagree more with this new setup. Announcement bars at the top do nothing to actually put the content in places that can get the most traffic. And like @PMookie pointed out, mobile readers have it even worse. It's bad enough the site doesn't work with Tapatalk anymore so I don't get push notifications on forum content, it's getting more difficult to follow content here. This new testing/review setup honestly feels to me like change for change's sake. 

This is not that at all and my apologies if it was taken as tough deal with it, as it certainly is not the case. The goal and end product is to enable this new feature within the existing forum to make it accessible for all. It very well may take a few more tweaks and we may end up having to modify some more procedures, however there again are a lot of benefits to this new system. 

I as a former tester know how important it is to be able to follow along and engage with the community with testing. That is a large reason why I have posted this in the first place is to get some knowledge out there and assist in clearing up some confusion within the community. Testing within this forum is a huge part and a huge driver in traffic and engagement of the forum and what gives it that unique feel. This is something that is not lost on me and is still what we want to achieve. 

My goal with this is to further help membership in any misunderstandings of this new system and to work with it to help adapt it to provide the features required or most used by the membership. I cannot say I have all the answers right now as I honestly do not, but am wanting to work with the community to make the appropriate adjustments to ensure we don't loose any of that feel which is so important to this site and its membership. 

[Nolan220]

I agree with most members and maybe because I am used to the old way but I haven't looked at one testing thread since it was changed, and that might be my fault bc I just scroll through see something that catches my interest and read through and post. 

 

Also its kind of ironic that the forum testing update thread is in the recent comments and not where the other test opportunity section ..

[ejgaudette]

As a current tester I can see how the new set up with separate reviews and comments I think in time will be a nice set up. Again easier way to have the reviews front and center. I know this was mentioned but I will plug again, I use my phone a ton and I copied the activity feed built by @GolfSpy MPRand linked below. I made this my book mark and now all the comments to those testing threads show up with content from other threads. I made this my default bookmark now on my phone and computer and this switch has made it much easier. I voiced the same concerns over visibility when I started my test, but I think with just a few small tweaks to how we access the site it will get more visible to follow. 

https://forum.mygolfspy.com/discover/158/ 

[cnosil]

Is the new testing platform perfect? No.   But I believe the staff has the best intentional and will continue to improve the new implementation.   We provide our input and suggestions and it is their responsibility to prioritize and determine what changes will be made.   Just like any software product their are bugs and changes that the user community will need to make on how they view the form.  I personally think the biggest issue is how the new testing section and the forum are integrated; or not integrated.  Since the testing is part of the forum they should functionally appear to be the same and not the two distinct entities that they are.  

[Nolan220]

18 minutes ago, ejgaudette said:

As a current tester I can see how the new set up with separate reviews and comments I think in time will be a nice set up. Again easier way to have the reviews front and center. I know this was mentioned but I will plug again, I use my phone a ton and I copied the activity feed built by @GolfSpy MPRand linked below. I made this my book mark and now all the comments to those testing threads show up with content from other threads. I made this my default bookmark now on my phone and computer and this switch has made it much easier. I voiced the same concerns over visibility when I started my test, but I think with just a few small tweaks to how we access the site it will get more visible to follow. 

https://forum.mygolfspy.com/discover/158/ 

going in there I actually like the new set up with the reviews and comments just to me I go into the recent and the testing section is out of sight out of mind for me, I am going to customize my stream like they said to see how it goes

[null]

23 minutes ago, ejgaudette said:

As a current tester I can see how the new set up with separate reviews and comments I think in time will be a nice set up. Again easier way to have the reviews front and center. I know this was mentioned but I will plug again, I use my phone a ton and I copied the activity feed built by @GolfSpy MPRand linked below. I made this my book mark and now all the comments to those testing threads show up with content from other threads. I made this my default bookmark now on my phone and computer and this switch has made it much easier. I voiced the same concerns over visibility when I started my test, but I think with just a few small tweaks to how we access the site it will get more visible to follow. 

https://forum.mygolfspy.com/discover/158/ 

The problem is 99% of MGS forum readers will NOT do this.

[russtopherb]

7 minutes ago, jlukes said:

The problem is 99% of MGS forum readers will NOT do this.

Yup. And that must be frustrating as a tester to not have your hard work seen and recognized. I'd have to think the OEMs who are providing equipment for all the reviews and tests want as much traction as possible on these types of threads as well.