Updates to the Smartsheet Community Experience

Gwyneth C

Hello Community,

You may already have noticed that things look a little different here—we’ve upgraded the site to make it speedier and easier to use:

• The upgrade includes a new text editor that you’ll use for discussions and comments. You’ll now be able to check spelling before you post.
• Replies to posts are threaded, so you can track responses more easily within a discussion thread.
• We’ve also updated the login experience on the homepage to make it easier for new members to sign in and contribute.
• And...Community visitors can submit feature enhancement requests for the Smartsheet application directly from the Quick Links on the right side of the community site (more on this in an earlier announcement).

We’ll continue to make improvements, so please reply to this announcement and let us know how we can enhance your community experience. We’d love to hear from you!

J. Craig Williams

In a word: ARGH.

My previous work flow on keeping up with the Community

1. go to community.smartsheet.com

2. scroll down to bottom and start going back through pages

- this used to change the URL so that it was obvious what page I was on.

3. I would select a thread, read it, follow it, and hit back on the browser, which would take me back to the page I was on and I would continue repeating step 3 until I finished the page, then repeat step 2-3 and so on.

Now when I select Back - I am taken back to page 1.

I can not cycle through posts quicker than before, and in fact it is an order of magnitude slower.

Please add the page number links at the top, that will speed things up.

Please add a way to cycle through posts quickly.

This is a huge step backward for my user experience.

Tell me if I missed some feature that will keep me returning here.

Craig

UPDATE 2017-04-22

This is partially resolved. The Browser BACK button will now take me to the page I was on (if I was on page 11, I return to page 11)

Thank you.

Is there a way to jump to a specific page? This is also a feature that is lost.

Shaine Greenwood

Hi Craig,

I understand your frustration. We're definitely looking into bringing you back to the exact page you were on when you hit back—as opposed to sticking you on page 1.

I typically open each discussion in a new tab when I'm navigating the community. This not only allows me to keep the page I was on preserved, but also the scroll level.

I think middle-click (scroll wheel click) or ctrl + click on windows will open a link in a new tab.

J. Craig Williams

Good suggestion Shaine.

I will give that a shot.

Craig

Tim Meeks

Craig...i thought you were just being difficult.  LOL..... However, my navigation pattern is the same as yours.  And when I hit BACK after opening a Post, i took me back to Page 1... not the page the post was on...not user friendly..

I can use Shaine's work-around and open a thread in another Tab but it's not the same. 

But really would like the BACK in a post to return the page it is on.  thanks!

Now I LOVE.. the rich text, spell check features!! THANKS!!!!!  

J. Craig Williams

Tim,

I thought I was being difficult too but I am still unhappy with the changes.

Craig

J. Craig Williams

(RESOLVED 2017-04-20)

Here's another change that screws up my workflow - all update emails for threads I am following now have the same subject.

Before the subject would be something like 

"Comment on 'Number and Fraction Format'"

for the topic, now they all are:

"New notifications from Smartsheet Community"

Can any one tell me (truthfully) that this will save time?

Craig

J. Craig Williams

And one more - I now get notifications when I update a thread.

That might be a feature, I'll need to see how it plays out.

So far, it has been another time waster. 

Craig

Brad Jones

I’ve not played with it much, but one thing I noticed is that we lost an option.

There used to be a “follow this discussion” checkbox option when replying to a post.  Sometimes I do reply to a post that I don't want to follow, so I liked that option.  Now it is gone 

Does this mean that by default we never follow a discussion?  Or that in order to NOT follow a discussion we must comment on it first and then go through the process of ‘un-following’??

 

Please clarify this.  Maybe I am missing something?

 

Also, great idea to allow EVERYONE to submit enhancement requests.  This is a nice REX opportunity for you, and can free me from being the sole mouthpiece of my company.

Gwyneth C

Hi Craig,

I have opened a work item for our dev team for this one. Not sure on timeline.

Keep 'em coming.

Thanks,

Gwyneth

 

 

Gwyneth C

So ... what's your thought on this? As the numbers suggest, of all community members, you are most likely to find this annoying.

J. Craig Williams

Gwyneth,

Exactly.

If a user logs on, asks their question, and sits back waiting for a response, this may be an improvement.

Not at all for someone that is reading every post.

I use Gmail as my email client. If 10 posts are updated today, I get one thread. Threads can't be partially archived so I have to carve out a chunk of time to do them all at once instead of cherry picking during the day/week as time opens up. 

I did some quick tests and back of the envelope calcs and the time requirement for what I was doing is 2x to 3x as much. That is not sustainable in the long term.

If I "lose" a day or two or longer due to work like I did recently, there is no easy way to "catch up". That defeats nearly all of the goals I have for participation.

Craig

 

 

J. Craig Williams

Here's another one. These replies are quickly going to be a long vertical string.

Craig

J. Craig Williams

See the one below on skinny thread posts.

The real estate is being lost - I wonder what an image will look like on the fourth indented reply.

Craig

J. Craig Williams

I would like the default to follow a thread I comment on.

This is another thing that costs me time, not saving it.

So far, I have found NO change that saves me time.

Craig

J. Craig Williams

Am I missing something? There does not appear to be a way to insert images "in-line" without posting the file to some URL accessible to the Community.

I can add the screen shot but it shows up at the end. This removes a lot of flexibility in the formatting of the posts.

I really hope I am missing something.

Craig