This site has improved, little bugs ironed out etc.
But I find the whole community thing was just taken too far. I started using all the different links and features as they were introduced but found most were just links to the same info the last feature provided too.
I am a person who is contracted out to improve office efficiency, discover and remove redundancy and website and market optimization. One of those guys where everyone says, uh oh, when you walk in. They are never sure if their job will be found redundant (VERY seldom do I recommend letting people go) or if their workday will be mad emore efficient and they will end up working more, not harder though.
The first rule I learned about websites, ALL websites, is ease of navigation to retain users, not getting them lost so they will stick around a while. This site, whlie great for peope who have been here and used it for a while, would be quite intimidating for many people, though it's a tech site, many peers are new users, people with the simplest issues to resolve etc. When it comes to those people, NEW members, they can't even figure out where to post questions MOST of the time.
That's what heppens when techs get too inbolved in layout and useability. They see all these cool codes and forum goodies they want to add, but many users just want to get some help or share an opinion. Sales reps and techs don't get along too well though, they view the world of business through different lenses or something.
As for all the work done here, it's great, everyone is more than hapy to chat with members now and it's really improved. But you can spend all day overformatting a Word doc too, it happens all the time. The more bells and whilstles you get, the more people try and incorporate all these doo-dads and it detracts from the useability.
Some of the most effective and well positioned sites I have built were also the simplest and easiest to get around, people just keep coming back because they feel comfortable.
