New recent activity list on support community home page

[Community_Help]

Hi Tom, actually (if I understand your response, let me know if I don't): You can still see Recent Activity on the main page of the SAS Support Communities (see this screen shot with notes).

PS: I just added recent content to the right nav. So in other words, Recent Activity will show all community activity..

[Tom]

My understanding (and it seems to match what I see by looking into the variable discussion groups) is that the front page RECENT is only for discussions that are accidentally created under the root node instead of being created with one of the discussion groups.  So it is no longer showing ALL of the recent activity.

[Community_Help]

Tom, yes you are correct -- I added that widget to the right nav. Please see the new layout I just published (I included a screen shot in my recent post). I found a widget called "Unanswered Questions". It behaves exactly like "Recent Content" but the only caveat is that it is possible some of the questions may be answered (it will be a matter of recommending to community members to mark a question answered).

I think this widget has value because if someone does mark a question as "answered" it disappears from the list.. I hope you all like this one -- I think it might be a good option.

The Recent Content widget in the right nav may be confusing -- It might not have that much value and those questions would still surface under "Unanswered questions".

I know I've made a lot of changes on the fly. Thank you for understanding my questions and responding. I will set up that private testing ground over the next few weeks for those who are interested.

Lainie

[Quentin]

Hi,

Unanswered Question widget looks great to me!  May even create useful peer pressure for questioners to mark correct answers, awarding more points, etc.

And like the recent activity widget right below that.  Actualy the recent activity widget could grow on me, what with the little photo icons of various SAS friends.. : )  By the time the recursion bug in Recent Content widget is fixed, I may not want it back.

Also agree that Recent Content widget on right may be confusing and is redundant.

Verry nice, thanks again!

-Q.

[Reeza]

Would it be possible to try and move the main communities listing over to the side? That way the discussions are right at the top and then navigation to the different groups is at the side, possibly under the start a discussion widget?

I don't know if this would work, but it seems like that listing takes up a large section of the page and doesn't seem that useful if people aren't categorize or posting appropriately anyways.

[Community_Help]

I like this idea a lot : what do others think?

[MichelleHomes]

Good idea Reeza. I think some time spent on rearranging the widgets to put the ones that are updated more often in a more prominent position would be good.

Lainie, perhaps while you are in edit mode you could take a few screenshots of different layouts and set up a poll or a new discussion to get feedback. Considering this change could impact members first interaction with SAS Support Communities it might be worthwhile to get others opinions rather than making too many changes to a layout people are familiar with.

[Community_Help]

Michelle.. that is a great idea..What I'll do is create several versions in the testground private community I just set up (will invite you all to it soon) and take screen shots for poll.. excellent idea. I love all your feedback!! (makes my job easier) -- your input matters.. thanks again!!

[MichelleHomes]

I'd be interested in being part of the private community to test ideas.

With regards to the changes you have made Lainie, it seems that you have tried to balance our requests with the limits/issues of the software. A reasonable approach to me.

As a suggestion with the layout, the Featured Content widget and the SASWare Ballot ideas widget could be moved to the right panel as they are smaller which will create more room for the Recent Content & Recent Activity. Also I am not sure whether the Featured Content provides much value?

Thanks,

Michelle

[Community_Help]

Michelle, I've moved ideas and "Recent Content" to the right nav per your suggestion ..

[MichelleHomes]

Looks good. Thanks! Can you explain the purpose of the Featured Content widget? With one item I question it's value with all the other surrounding widgets.

Thanks,

Michelle

[Community_Help]

Michelle, I agree I don't think we need that featured content widget.. if everyone is okay with it I will remove it for now (to prevent confusion).. I will do that - and then we can make additional improvements in the future.

[Quentin]

Hi,

I'm happy to be part of a test group as well.  Interesting issues.

If I don't risk being expunged from the test group for an early flip-flop, I think I may have to change my vote, given your latest explanation.

When I looked at the site today, my first confusion was "What's the difference between recent content and recent activities".  Then I read your explanation, and okay, due to the recursion bug sounds like Recent Content can't actually show all the recent content from the communities.  Now (with the recursion turned off to avoid crashing the site), it only shows content that was accidentally (in my mind) posted without tagging a community.

Knowing that limitation of the Recent Content widget (until the bug is fixed), I think I might prefer the Recent Activity widget be first.  (As you had done intially).  Even though I don't like the layout of the recent activity widget, it at least accurately conveys all the recent activity in all communities, which I think makes sense for the home page.    Just a thought.  If you do set up a test environment, maybe could give that a shot.  Agree also with Michelle's suggestions that list of commmunities and even ballot ware ideas could be in a side panel.

Thanks much!

--Q.

[Community_Help]

NEW Info:

All, based on your recent comments (thank you!)  I have made the following changes (see screen shot). I have also added a new widget that looks like Recent Content, but it is called Unanswered Questions.  I really like this option but want you to know a few things about it:

About Unanswered Questions:

Pros:

- this widget will show all recent questions -- just like the former "Recent Content" widget -- from all communities.sas.com communities.

- there is not a recursive bug with this widget

- it is a good way to keep watch on questions that really are unanswered

- We might be able to get rid of the 'recent content' in right nav if this widget serves a good need

- the only difference between this widget and the "recent content" widget from before is that only questions that have not been marked "answered" will show up (here is an example of a question marked answered):

Cons:

- not all members of the community mark a question "answered". So it is possible that a question will be answered and still show up on the list.. this might be just an educational item for the community. What do you think?

- Community Admins have the ability to mark items "assumed answered"

[Community_Help]

An update:

I have created a private "testing ground" community and will be sending invites to those who are interested. If anyone else is interested in participating in this temporary testing ground community let me know. The purpose of this community will be to dicuss different aspects of the Online Support Community layout and functionality (such as we have done using this post). The reason I created a separate communtiy is so that we can "test drive" different layouts and concepts without affecting the live site.

Look for an invite in the day or two for those who indicated interest in this post. Let me know via this message if you would like to also be invited. Thanks in advance for your participation and valuable feedback to help grow the community!

Community Admin (LainieH)