We're listening! Give us your feedback on the Just About Beta here
Thank you for your interest in submitting feedback on the Just About Beta! This thread is the place to do it. We're interested in anything you'd like to share about your experiences on the platform, especially:
What you're enjoying about Just About;
What you aren't, whether that's a broken or misconceived feature, a bug, or anything else that's spoiled the experience;
Your ideas for new features, refining existing ones, or how to make things better;
What you would say are the most urgent priorities among everything discussed here.
We can't make any ironclad promises about when or even if your feedback will be acted on, but, as per our Core Values, we do promise that it will be listened to, discussed, and carefully considered alongside our own plans.
Please reply below and tell us what's on your mind.
I really like the engagement increase since moving into Beta. Naturally, I'm waiting for more communities (specifically tech, you know me...), but I think short-term benefits would come from letting people add a short, optional bio that includes the communities they're involved in. It's great talking to people but I effectively don't know who I'm talking to besides a name. It's also unclear who does what on staff aside from the fact they're general employees. The profile section could be more robust, but as I say, entirely optional so a user isn't required to show anything they don't want to.
Oh, and as an additional: I'd love to know what the achievements are and how to earn them. There might be a page out there that I'm missing, but hovering over them in someone's profile just tells me the name of them. I have no way of knowing what the requirements are to get the badges myself.
Are there also any rewards after earning the achievement beyond the profile badge? It'd be nice if earning certain ones or so many earns you a more trusted status or a unique frame around your profile picture. The latter might ruin the clean aesthetic, though, and walk too close to Reddit's weird profile picture thing they have going on.
When I got the invite, to be honest, I thought it was just another "let's add another YouTuber to your community" but, after some conversation, I signed up, since I've been here, I have enjoyed myself, the bounties are great fun and it also enables me to express my creative side somewhere other than youtube.
I have seen zero toxic behavior and this has been a real plus for me. It's just a great place to hang out and chat/post stuff with people who have the same interests as me.
My only complaint is we don't have an active "Your bounty submissions" tab, I really think this could be a good addition to this, there is a lot of bounty and for someone like me who has a VERY bad memory, I would like to be able to keep track of what I have posted in.
Keep up the good work, because I am here for the long haul :)
I very much second the "Your bounty submissions" tab :)
Or I would also very much appreciate the ability to bookmark or favourite (beyond just the browser bookmarks) partuclar pages that I would like to return to, whether it's a bounty I like the look of but need to plan the submission for, a discussion I've been following but am not directly engaged with, a particularly valuabe curated article I'd like to refer back to for a while etc.
Oh also, I love the What's Happening? feed, but with the increased activity, if I don't log in for 12+ hours I feel I miss so much good content! Perhaps the ability to filter by type or community etc in that feed would alleviate that a little :D
Just an idea, all because obviously as the site gets bigger and more and more bounties become a thing, it's going to be hard to keep track of where you've posted and so on, so like when you post a bounty the post goes yellow for "bounty submission" so maybe when we have posted in a topic, the topic can then have a red outline so it says "active" in the thread or something.
I also second a personal bounty submissions page. There are historical ones I submitted for that come up in conversation and I've no way to link to them beyond scrolling back in time, which gets more difficult the deeper into Just About we go.
Doubling up on this suggestion I made in the Community Code of Conduct, just so it's centralised in the correct place:
It’d be helpful if denied posts cited which rule or code of conduct it doesn’t meet. If there’s no rule present for why something is denied, it should probably lead to changes in the code of conduct so denials are clearer in the future.
That's a fair comment and thanks for pointing it out. We never want the rules to feel arbitrary or unfairly applied.
We need to continually develop our moderation practices to keep up with the changes to the platform, and this is an area we're giving some time and consideration.
My giveaway post being denied wasn't a surprise. I figured out it could be seen as unauthorised advertisement, but it could simultaneously have been deleted because it was a graphics card giveaway and that's not inherently video games in topic. Knowing exactly what's wrong with the post helps people not repeat the same mistakes again.
If it's seen as advertisement, is there a difference between me posting it because it's my employer's giveaway and someone unaffiliated with the website I work for posting it?
These are more hypotheticals as food for thought rather than something I want answers for right here and now. I just know it isn't an easy line to walk.
I've just posted something in the wrong thread (JAJA instead of Video Games) but it doesn't seem easy to delete or move it. Do these functions exist at all?
Currently you can edit or delete your post, but there isn't a way of moving a post from one community to another.
We've got some really nice updates to the Post page & editor coming early in the new year which will make it a lot easier to create new posts, and it'll be clearer on that page which community you are in as well.
That sounds great, I can't wait to see what you folks have in store.
For what it's worth, though, I can't see any way to edit or delete a discussion I've created. I can with comments or bounty submissions easily enough, but not the overarching post. There's the save and share button, that's it. Nothing appears when I hover the text box. I'm not sure if I'm missing something or this is a bug or what.
It's seemingly on all discussions I've made from what I can tell.
It's on all browsers I'm using on Windows 11, including:
Firefox version 121.0 (64-bit)
Microsoft Edge version 120.0.2210.77 (Official build) (64-bit)
Google Chrome Version 120.0.6099.130 (Official Build) (64-bit)
As for removing the post, it's okay. People seem to respond to it even if it's in JAJA instead of VG. I just apologise for putting it in the wrong section.
I noticed that for some time... probably around a month, the "show anyway" button on a comment of someone you blocked doesn't work anymore. (Yes, I blocked someone but I consider them... an unsavory and inflated person for things that happened outside of Just About).
I'd like to propose enhancements for the notification system that could enrich users' experience on the platform.
Notification Filtering
Notifications are essential for tracking activity and maintaining focus, especially when multiple discussions are unfolding at once. They empower users with a sense of control. However, the current notification setup could be streamlined.
Proposed Notification Categories:
Informative Updates (FYI): These would include system messages, status updates, and other notifications where no action is required on my part. Examples are moderation flag statuses, bounty outcomes, daily rewards, likes on posts, and new submissions on bounties I've already entered.
Actionable Alerts: These would prompt user interaction, such as replies to comments or invitations to participate in new bounties.
Sample:
Email Notification Stability
I've observed inconsistency with email notifications. At times, they come through for all activities, while at other times, only select notifications are received. A more reliable approach might be a digest format, consolidating several updates into a single email to avoid inbox clutter. There were some episodes when I got like 8 emails at the same time (usually then bounty ends), it could be just one email with a list of changes.
Notification User Experience
Finally, the user experience with notifications could be more intuitive. For instance, a notification about a flagged reply should link directly to the specific content in question, rather than to the general topic. This is already technically feasible since each post has a unique ID that can be appended to a URL for direct access. Implementing this change would make the notification system more user-friendly and efficient.
Lastly, I'd like to address the direct accessibility of content through notifications. Currently, notifications such as 'Heads up! Your reply has been flagged for review' direct users to the general topic instead of the specific content in question. This can be frustrating and time-consuming. However, I've done some digging into the system and found that each post has a unique ID. By leveraging these IDs, we could enhance the user experience significantly. For instance, appending the post ID to the URL allowed me to directly access the relevant content. Implementing this could streamline our interaction with notifications, making them more precise and user-focused.
These are spot on, and i couldnt have detailed them any better myself! I literally came here to type about the notifications and bulk emails I seem to get from JA! Great post Sturmer
I really like this platform. I would like to see a Just About miniature painting/ hobby as that is a huge community that would benefit from the friendly and encouraging environment 👍
I’m just getting to grips with the platform and so far liking it. What bothered me though is that I cannot just post a response on a bounty in the thread underneath but have to do it via a link in Twitter or Instagram. I understand that this of course covers more ground, but I’m someone who tries to stay away from those platforms. Additionally I’m called differently in those profiles and I do not wish to share that here so I can’t participate in bounties which is a shame. Feel free to let me know if there has been discussion about this already or if I missed something, but did want to point it out.
Yeah I understand why they do it like that for the social media buzz but I agree, I had to sign back up to twitter/X to post a screenshot to. I think a few people here aren't on social media and have closed thier accounts down, or have one that's real name so don't want to link it up to here. I caved and set one up as "DaveOnJustAbout" for it after ignoring loads of bounties that had the X or Instagram requirement.
It does seem off that you have to sign up to a site like X with it's content and community, to take part in the non toxic community here fully. YouTube is fine and neccesary.
For video-based bounties, there's several reasons we insist on using a connected YouTube/TikTok/Instagram account. Of course, increasing the reach of Just About and the content being created is important, but it's also about leaning in to those established platforms in terms of hosting, tech, their copyright processes and verifying authorship of the content.
Crucially it also means we're not forcing people who are focused on creating and building their audience on those platforms to split their focus or increase their workload. We felt that's a really compelling proposition: you can still earn as per normal from your views on YouTube, but by doing new and different content you can pick up some bounties too.
But it's certainly not ideal if we're pushing people towards X though!
If we added more alternatives (Blue Sky?) would that help? For images/screenshots, we could perhaps offer to host them ourselves without using an external platform, although we'll need to think through the repurcussions of that... definitely one we'll talk about as a team this week.
I do think the X thing is putting people off. I convinced someone in my fortnite squad to sign up this weekend. I mentioned the screenshot challenges, they don't want to link their instagram as its a personal account and as soon as I said the other option is X for the screenshot bounties they weren't interested as don't want an x account.
youtube for video is fine and a platform everyone uses, they were quite interested in that as they are making videos anyway.
BlueSky integration would be a nice addition! Not sure how popular it currently is, hopefully that changes though!
Alternates to X I have been using are BlueSky, Mastodon and Threads.
(Threads has a shocking Website currently, worth bearing in mind as it lacks functionality of the others and I am not sure if BlueSky is accessible other than via the app?)
Hi JA team! I'm curious about Notifications and I'm sorry if this is a known issue I just haven't seen a post on.
I haven't received any notifications, email or on-site, since joining. I've tried different combinations and saved them, but on mobile and on-site, my notifications are always empty. At the moment since the community is small and I'm particular about what I post where, I'm able to mentally track and navigate back for updates, but I'd love it if notifications would make it easier =)
We've just pushed a change to the platform which we think should fix this issue. Please LUK if you receive a notification for this reply! Or not - although I guess you won't know if that's the case and I'm just commenting into the voooooiiiiid 🕳️
This is very much on our radar! There's a small bit of complexity in terms of deciding how edits are handled with regards to the AutoMod system (ie. if the first post/headline passes AutoMod, but the edit doesn't) but we should be able to give an edit option - perhaps on a time limited basis, as another member suggested - before too long.
If you’re open to time limit suggestions I’d guarantee giving a 90-120 seconds grace period for edits before sending to AutoMod would be more than enough for the linguistically picky user =)
I only heard about Just About this morning from a friend, and so I came to check it out. After spending about 20 mins on the site I am starting to understand what it is and why its exciting...but that's after quite a bit of tooling around, looking at the different parts of the site and piecing together WHY this is a really interesting new vision for online communities and a potentially game-changing new platform.
When I arrived I didnt have any idea of what Just About even was. I would have liked to have seen a welcome asset of some sort (like a video or overview page) that is just called 'What is Just About' that explained to me why this site is so interesting and potentially ground-breaking in an easy to digest way, so that as I was looking around I had more of an over-arching context for what is happening here and where the roadmap is going.
It would be beneficial to have a visual indicator or flag on the interface to easily identify which bounties I've already responded to or submitted work for. There have been instances where I prepared a response but got distracted and failed to post it. Days later, I mistakenly thought I had submitted my answer, probably because I spent significant time working on it. Such a feature would help avoid confusion and ensure that all my prepared responses are actually posted.
The US dollar is unique as it's paired with every other fiat currency globally. Introducing another currency into the bounty UI presents three challenges: First, exchange rates are constantly fluctuating. A bounty might be £3.42 now, but in 15 minutes, it could change to £3.48 or £3.41, and at the moment of reward, it could be £3.45. Secondly, accommodating another currency would require the UI to display two additional digits, as rounding off isn’t feasible. Lastly, this could lead to confusion during payouts. Users might see transactions of £3.42 and £6.15 in their logs, but what actually gets deposited in PayPal could be $12, given the exchange rate.
Exactly as Sturmer says. There would be a lot of complexity and UI clutter associated with displaying different currencies but the main issue is consistency and exchange rates. $5 will always be $5 irrespective of what dollars are worth in GBP. Dollars are universal in the sense that almost every world currency has a visible exchange rate to $. And pretty much everyone worldwide can receive $ into a wallet (e.g. PayPal) and withdraw down into their native currency. This means we can spend less time on our UI and a lot of very complex and security-conscious backend development and instead spend that time making the platform more usable, engaging, and rewarding!
On pages for mobile, the new ribbon at the bottom covers up the ability to select page numbers (like in the posts section where you see all the posts you’ve made under notifications.)
Even if you scroll up and hold, you can’t press the numbers/next page buttons.
What concerns me is the removal of closed bounties from the bounty list.
This means the only way to access them is by scrolling through the entire community board. As more posts are created, locating a bounty that ended months ago becomes increasingly difficult. The search feature lacks filtering options, which complicates matters. I often need to link to or reference specific answers to provide context and enable further reading for those interested. A simple list or table with the names and statuses of bounties (time remaining or closed) within each community would be a helpful addition.
Additionally, this feature could be placed within personal profile settings. In such a case, the table could include a third column indicating whether I've made a submission and, if so, the outcome of my submission (amount won or not won). This would make tracking and referencing past bounties much more efficient and user-friendly.
Having this information readily accessible is likely a matter of page layout design and setting up the appropriate database queries. This feature could significantly enhance user experience by providing easy access to past submissions and outcomes.
Let me know if you need a broader explanation or a mockup.
Sometimes when I type words it adds extra letters. It only happens here so I know its not my phone. Below is an example of me attempting to type; "avoid", "don't" and "shout" as they were the words it happend with at the time.
Hi Paul, sorry this is happening, and thanks for letting us know.
Our tech team just confirmed that this is on their radar, and that it will be fixed in an upcoming update.
I'd like to request a new feature. As more people are using the 'new discussion' functionality, I've noticed a significant limitation for regular users like myself: the inability to edit a post after it's been published.
I understand the rationale behind locking content once it starts receiving audience interaction (likes, comments, etc.), but there are instances where a typo is found, a link is broken, or, as in the case of EveOnlineTutorials , a video needs to be re-uploaded (example).
It would be immensely helpful if the original poster could make edits and submit them for human moderation. The moderator could then view the original post alongside the edited version (with changes highlighted) and make a decision to approve or deny the edits, providing reasons if necessary.
BTW! A standing/trust system for JA members. After a certain profile level, you get access to the edit function by yourself. Will save time on moderation. It can be also time-based, let's say the first 60 min after a publication post is editable.
Yeah that was very annoying, we had an issue with copyright and we didn't want to mute the video so we had to take it down, then a team member had to re-edit it and re-upload it and I couldn't change the YT link. As you stated, I get it, but as the post author, maybe a system of if people abuse it they lose access to edit posts etc.
It's Feedback Sunday! Many of you know that to qualify for most bounties here, there's often a minimum word count or video length requirement. While it's straightforward to gauge a video's duration during rendering or uploading, having a word count feature directly in Just About's post submission form would be incredibly convenient. This small addition could streamline the content creation process for all of us.
Thanks Sturmer! You'll be pleased to hear that there is a word count function in the new text composer designs. It's still TBC whether it will make it into the upcoming composer release, or whether it will follow in the subsequent release (it depends on the build complexity) but it's definitely a function we recognise as being useful, especially for bounty submissions as you say. I'll let you know when I know more 🤝
My feedback is about the profile sections and setting a profile picture. I use safari, so like a lot of things this could be a safari issue. :D
Initially I could not see how to set a profile image to begin with. The camera icon to set a new image was way off to the right for me.
Now I have set a profile image, there does not seem to be a way to delete the profile pic and have no image again, I only seem to be able to replace my profile image.
As someone else posted before, I would love a little optional bio section, or one where to display pronouns and interest to start with. Thank you! :)
Thanks for the suggestion MargotCandy! Profiles are definitely something that is on our radar to improve and I'm fairly sure bios and an optional pronouns field will make up part of that work. Your point about being able to return to having no image is a really good one. I have raised a bug ticket with the tech team to see how soon we can get that added and I've also submitted bios and a pronouns field as feature requests for profiles - meaning we'll have those features on our list when that piece of the platform bubbles to the top of the pile, which I expect will happen towards the end of the year 🤝
I've been trying to utilise the 'saved posts' and 'my posts' tabs as a means of streamlining my navigation around JA and staying in touch with ongoing posts and articles, but I have found the articles aren't actually linked from these pages and contain very little information.
However all I can see is the poster and a little bit of the text from the post, nothing else. And it is not linked, the only links available in this instance are to Alex's profile. So in all honesty, in it's current form I find both tabs pretty useless.
My ask would be that the original posts are linked from these tabs, or if that's not possible, the original post/article title be included so that I at least know what to put into the search bar to quickly navigate to it.
Thanks Wadd Enderas! We're currently in the design stage for an improved bounty submission flow. Part of that work includes laying the foundations for better saving of bounties to your profile. I can't put an exact date on when this will be coming but I can tell you that the functionality you've outlined above will form part of the spec and that design work for it will be complete this quarter (unless we have an unexpected change to our scheduled programming!) 🤝
Hey Wadd Enderas, great minds! I submitted a feature request not too long ago covering the things you've pointed out. We can't pin a date on it as Tom says, but it has been brought up for discussion.
Hey, it seems there's some confusion around 'profile levels' being mistaken for notifications—I've noticed a couple of topics discussing this. Perhaps adding a clear indicator on the profile page could help clarify this?
I'm not sure about your plans for this feature or how it might tie into achievements. For instance, profile data could potentially be used to adjust moderation thresholds or similar functionalities. To reduce confusion, a simple progress bar (taken from the poll UI or payouts UI) labeled 'Profile Level' could be very effective.
As usual, I've included an MS Paint mockup to illustrate this idea.
Hey Sturmer, thanks for bringing all of this together. Profile levels are something we've been discussing internally, but with it coming up more often I'll bring it up with the team today.
This has been sorted BTW. You can now see your level in the drop-down menu if you click on your profile picture, and your progress towards the next level is the green circle around it (I think!).
It feels genuine, I like the vibe of comradery. Unlike many platforms, I feel like a part of the community without being here long, it has been very inviting from the start. I like that you don't have to jump through hurdles to get noticed or to begin contributing. I think the idea is awesome, especially for someone like me that's looking for a community to converse with and share interests with. That's really the type of thing that draws me in as I'm not the most tech savvy individual. I can't wait to see where things go moving forward, I'm excited to be even a small part of it!
Hey JA team. I’ve noticed twice now that I’ll get a notification about someone responding to one of my posts, but there isn’t actually a response until a few minutes/hours later. The first time it happened, the response contained a picture, so I’m assuming I was notified, despite it not having passed moderation.
Thanks! We just made some notification changes and it sounds like your diagnosis could be right. The notification might be sent before the image successfully passes moderation.
I propose introducing a new type of notification for when a bounty ends and you aren't chosen as the winner.
This 'Failed Bounty' alert would provide a valuable learning opportunity by prompting you to review the winning entries. This can help you understand what set the winners apart and improve your future submissions. Currently, bounties conclude without much fanfare, leaving participants without a clear idea of how they could improve. A notification like this would not only encourage self-assessment but also motivate participants to seek feedback and refine their approach.
I was scrolling through the bounties and wondered if there is a possibility of a couple of features for the thumbnails.
Where it shows the reward and how many awards, could you also show how long is left as it would save some time having to go in to each bounty (which also puts you back at the top of the list) and could there be an addition to see what bounties you have already entered for the same reason. Some times I think I have entered one when I haven't.
It seems the ability to highlight text and add a link is broken on mobile. When I hit the link icon, the screen flashes briefly, but nothing happens. When I hold the link icon, the window for entering a URL pops up, but touching/holding in the field makes it go away before any paste options.
I tried on iOS (iPhone 14 Pro) and Android (Samsung S23 Ultra and the Fold 4 both folded and unfolded).
When someone mentions you or responds to your post, comment, or bounty, you receive a notification. However, there's an issue: if the post contains URLs and/or pictures, it's likely to be held for human review. Despite this, you still receive a notification (bell) and an email, but when you click on the message, you see nothing. This can be very confusing.
Solution: Trigger the recipient notifier events only after the post has passed moderation.
Good point, well made. You should now be able to identify the Bounty Setter if you view the bounty in the feed. We'll see about getting it re-inserted on the bounty page itself too.
Suggestion: Implement a word count feature, or even better, do not allow submissions that lack the minimum word count.
I keep losing my entries because of this issue. Sometimes, especially when I'm on my phone, I don't have the tools to count words effectively. I tried to count manually, and while I was sure I reached 500 words, it turns out I was mistaken.
I know this is my fault and my problem, but adding a verification tool would be really helpful. It would allow us to focus more on content without worrying about the word count.
It seems I'm not the only one experiencing this issue. [Link]
Thanks for raising this, Sturmer. Funnily enough, there have been a lot of internal discussions about this over the last couple of weeks. It's no fun to have to reject otherwise great submissions because they don't meet the minimum wordcount. We're devising a tech solution similar to the one you suggest that we hope will be implemented in the next update of our bounty system.
