Forum Feedback

Hi, neighbors!

In case you haven’t noticed or are new to the Community, we recently made some major updates to the forum. While we still get use to the new layout, please be patient while we tackle some of the hiccups along the way. I’m working on perfecting what is flagged vs what isn’t, but ensure that as long as your post follows our Community Guidelines, it will eventually be approved.

I wanted to create this post as there may be features you want that we don’t have yet, or perhaps you see something that could be done a little differently - maybe give a little love on the new design?! Although I can’t promise that we’ll follow everyones ideas and changes, I certainly want to hear your feedback on the new forum and ensuring we’re making the Ring Community the best experience for you :slight_smile:

Thanks, neighbors! Have a great weekend :blue_heart:

2 Likes

Hi @Jennifer_Ring,

The new design will take some time to get used to but It’s more efficient to view than the previous design. Can you confirm how many votes we get for the feature request board? I can’t vote on any topics.

Dislike;

When in the forum the last update was 2 days ago, but when I click on the link the only post was from April.

I like;

  • Sections seemed more organised and reduced from the large number we had previously with the UK section being separate.
  • Easier to see updates from previous visit with new topics separated.
1 Like

Hey @F1N1!! Thank you so much for your feedback here. In regards to voting, I made some adjustments to the system and it should also up to 10,000 votes per user, so please let me know if you still have the restriction when it comes to voting. Should be fixed now! :slight_smile:

In regards to your dislike - just wanted to shed some light onto why these may show as recent posts for you. Whenever an edit is made on the original post, it shows up as a more recent post since it has to be published again with the new edit. This may float the post to the top, and the reason you saw those floated to the top is we had to make some edits into the posts after the data was moved over from the old platform so that the content was still accurate and had working links. You can see if a post has been edited by seeing if there is a number/pencil icon at the top right.

Screen Shot 2020-12-28 at 10.45.18 AM

In regards to what you like - I have to say I personally loved this new aspect to our Community as well, so great to hear you enjoy it too! :slight_smile:

1 Like

A post was split to a new topic: PC app feedback

the new Community forum seems a bit awkward to use compared to the old, but maybe that’s just because it’s new and still being tweaked??

one particular thing that seems to be missing is easy filtering of posts, once you are in a topic.

for example, if you go to the Feature Request section, there doesn’t seem to be any way to (for example), just show the Ring Alarm feature requests. I’m pretty sure that was something you could do in the old forum. Now as it stands, all you seem to be able to do is scroll through the endlessly long list of feature requests for all products - aside from being able to sort by “top”, “latest” etc. Quite annoying!

also, speaking of annoying, I notice that like the old forum, the new forum automatically logs you out after a very short time. This is a pain because if I leave the computer for a short period I’m forced to log in again to community.ring.com along with 2FA. It does not make it conducive to wanting to stay engaged with the community

There’s no other product-customer forum I participate in anywhere that won’t let you log in on one computer and stay logged in on a given device.

what’s the reason there’s such a short automatic logout time anyhow? why not just let a user on any one given computer stay logged in? I don’t really see how this could be a security issue, instead it’s just a huge PITA.

Hi @abc ! Thanks for the feedback :slight_smile: The log out time for being inactive is 30 minutes, same as the previous Community. I do hear where you’re coming from, some days it feels like I just logged in and then I’m logged out again. I’ll check and make sure everything looks good on our end, but know the 30 minutes best practice!

As for the filtering, you are able to click on the tags, and filter posts that way. Another way I like to filter is by using the search icon top right of page, next to your profile badge. I can search for ‘Alarm’ and then pick which category , tap submit. Hopefully this helps, but we have taken your feedback seriously and will look into any improvements we can make on our side :slight_smile:

@Jennifer_Ring Posted this before but I’ll try again. Ring’s logins and 2FA implementation makes no sense. The community forums have stricter security than either the mobile app or the main account site.

With the app, you are kept authenticated with no option of requiring a pin or fingerprint after having the app closed for a while.

The dashboard/account site allows you to “remember this browser” and bypass 2FA after getting auto-logged out.

With the forum there is no “remember” option so you have to go through 2FA each time. There is no security or “best practice” reason for this. It’s not like the forums are integrated into the main site.

1 Like

Thanks for the feedback!

I agree with @estmatic 's comment that it makes no sense having stricter security (ie 30min timeout) for the forums compared to mobile app or main site.

what is it really trying to protect, by auto-logout of a browser looking at this forum, on my password protected personal computer, locked in my house… which, BTW is protected by Ring alarm system and camera ???

Seriously, what logic is there behind logging users out automatically after 30 minutes??

this place is supposed to be a “community” and should be a great place to learn new things about your products and exchange ideas with others. But the needless logging out just adds unnecessary FRICTION to participating on a regular basis. I can’t think of a single other example of forums I particpate in that have this same weird, annoying sense of “security”. How difficult it is to “remember this browser” after the initial 2FA ?

re: filtering and tags - I see the tags now, I will give those a try to find things. I notice some of my old posts from the previous version of Community didn’t seem to have the logical tag I would expect (e.g. some were missing the obvious “ring-alarm” and so I couldn’t find them in the new site.) I guess the tags were auto-generated.

For the most part, the tags are new. They were not heavily enforced in the previous Community.

Also, again, the 30 minute inactivity has not changed… it is the same amount of time from the previous Community. I hear your feedback and will see if we can adjust it in anyway. Thanks

Ok it’s getting to be a pain to get on here. First each time it requires 2 parts. A log in name and password and a code sent to your email. I can see doing this the first time logging in but every time? Second if I log in on my tablet and then later log in on my computer I can’t even get a code sent to my email. I must first go get my tablet then go into control center then to account verification and then authorize a new device and get another code. If I try to log in later with the same computer I have to go through the same steps all over again. If you authorize it once you must know it’s my same computer next time right? I will definitely Google the issue before I go through this each time.

Hey @abc! Thank you for your feedback on tags. I wanted to add in an additional thought on our thought process behind the tagging. The reasoning behind the change (and removal over some older tags/not being able to make your own) are so that tags that are applied are more specific to a neighbor’s concern, as a concern about your Ring Alarm, should already go into the Ring Alarm category when posting. Thus, the tag “ring-alarm” is not needed, but if it’s about your Base Station, tagging it with “base-station” will allow other neighbors searching for a concern on their Base Station, under the Ring Alarm category, makes it much easier for them to find!

We are still going through all of our tags, new and old, to give neighbors a wide variety of pre-set tags to choose from, while making sure we do not leave too many and cause confusion when others are searching through the Community. Let me know if you have any other additional feedback in regards to tags and filtering. :slight_smile:

Notice you mention a few times regards the timeout and the tags but no mention about the 2FA

Why do we keep having to verify our browser every time we log in as the email states ‘Ring account signed in on a new device or browser’ … am always using Firefox and PC with same IP (except when using Ring App on mobile).

It really is a PITA having to do this every time (username and password can understand but not the email verification code)

As the login is the same email address and password as your Ring App, it then requires the same verification as the app. If you don’t like signing in to the Community, you can always give our support team a call for device assistance or check out support.ring.com for helpful content. Please note, the Community does not require you to log in to view pages, only to participate in activity :slight_smile: Regardless, thank you for the feedback.

@Jennifer_Ring … are you saying because Ring app and this community are using same email address then that is why keep getting verification code ?

If so then if I use different email for Community it will stop sending verification code ?

Hi there, @whydoIbother! As described in our New Community Member Guide, if you want to participate and post in the Community, you must register to do so. If you do not have a Ring account, simply head to Ring.com or click ‘Sign Up’ on the Community, this will redirect you to the Ring.com. As we value your security and privacy, any platform accessed by a Ring account will have a secure sign in process, as mentioned in this help center article.

The unused plan will take a few time to urge utilized to but It’s more productive to see than the past plan. Can you affirm how numerous votes we get for the include ask board? I can’t vote on any themes.

Hi there, @Cecil_n! Our Feature Request Board is the perfect place to post a request or vote on an existing one. This is a place where other neighbors can share their interests in one place, that we can organize and share with our teams here. :slight_smile: