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Is anyone else having problems with this new board format?

I don't think of myself as an idiot when it comes to BBs, having been an admin on others in the past, but this new format doesn't seem to be working. For instance, there isn't a sort to give you all questions. Intuitively, one would think the Home icon would give you all questions, but it does not. Instead it is the same as the Dog category. Also, the sorts don't seem to be showing Most Recent Activity. I checked the Inbox and saw someone had responded to one of my posts a couple of hours ago, yet that question did not show up when I sorted for Most Recent Activity. I also saw many others with activity that don't come up in a generalized sort of the category.

I have sent feedback to Rover but wondered if anyone else has discovered how to make this BB work properly.

4 Answers

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Yep, I sent a feedback message as soon as I got to play around with the changes a couple days ago. My biggest concern is missing the "last updated at xxxxx by xxxxx" from the threads in the categories, which makes it difficult to tell what is new and what is old content when there are new replies. Generally I know about what time I last looked at the forum, so the time stamp is really useful in determining what is new content, especially in threads where I haven't contributed and am not receiving notifications.

Also, the categories are weird. Like, why is this in sitter to sitter? This is about issues with the forum as it impacts all users, not just sitters. (And since yesterday the categories have changed again, so this would make much more sense in the "Using Rover" area.) And why is the sitter to sitter category open to the public? I'm not against the forum being open to all Rover users at all, but this category implies a level of confidentiality that just doesn't exist. I also agree that there should be a way to view all categories rather than one at a time. The sorts by category seem more useful if you're looking for a particular topic, but less useful if you're just coming to see the new content.

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I had sent in feedback about this same issue. Matt responded and said he would give that request to his dev team. I like your idea of limiting the sitter category to only rover sitters. We sitters need to be able to discuss things without the fear of owners seeing and/or responding. Maybe have a separate section just for owners to post questions.

I too like the idea of the sitter to sitter category being closed to the public, but I realize that is not a quick fix, as it requires a more robust form of access controls.

Yeah, I think it would be a cool idea in the long term, but in the short, I think the title should be changed to more accurately reflect what it is (and isn't).

As for why this question is in sitter to sitter, frankly, I don't recall putting it there but I must have. Perhaps my rationale was that, since sitters are the main users of this board, it belonged with those who have more of an interest in how it functions. But maybe not...

Oh, does it let you pick? I haven't tried to post yet, and based on the way it says the categories were designed (sorted by certain keyword tags) I figured it automatically put it in this category.

Yes, you pick the category, which I can see they haven't updated to the new names. You also provide the keyword tags.

Hey all, great feedback and thank you for having this open discussion about it. @Cari, we've made the Sitter-to-Sitter section private like you suggested. Both Sitter-to-Sitter and Using Rover are specific to our Rover.com users, and both require sign in. The timestamp you mention will be fixed

@Karen and all, we started with these 3 main categories because a majority of the questions fall into one of these 3. It does not mean we won't open more up in the future, and listening to your feedback can definitely influence that.

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Please, please, please! The time stamps are so important and could you make the color of that time stamp information darker? It is so ridiculously small and light, as are the tool descriptions. I have old eyes. It is so difficult to read which are the new posts/'answers. Thank you.

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Hey Karen, I will get your feedback to the project manager in charge of the Q&A.

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I also have problems with the lightness of some of the type, especially when I'm looking for the most recent comment or response. "Answered __ hours/minutes ago" is so so light and tiny. That same light shade is attached to all the tools (edit, flag, close, delete, link, etc.)

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Hi Karen,

I'm the Product Manager for Rover Q&A Community. I received your email, thank you for sending it! As you note, we've made some changes to the entire site to address some key issues in both user experience and functionality. But with changes always comes new issues and potential bugs. So, THANK YOU for sending your feedback and also for starting this thread. Hopefully more will answer.

The most significant change we made is categorizing our questions into 3 main types. Dog, Sitter, and Rover.com general questions. Your question (this one) is appearing at the top of the Sitter-to-Sitter questions since that is the type of question you asked. Do you see it at the top?

Your point about the Home button is totally valid, and we'll work to update that better based on expectations.

I'd love it if more people added to this thread to let us know what works and doesn't work.

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New question categories are missing on smart phone - I have never been able to see questions from the Rover community on the app, but when I access the website itself from my smartphone I could see them. With the new layout I can only access "questions about dogs" and do not have a choice for "sitter to sitter" or "Rover". Is anyone else experiencing this? Note: I have an Android phone.

That's a good bug find Carmen. Bear with us and we will fix it soon. Thank you!