[Thomas Paine]

#5344

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Interesting that this new message format no longer permits anonymous questions and it also has wiped out most of the past content on the site.

Would a green check mind explaining the rationale (and the timing) behind these changes?

[OAHopeful]

#5420

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It still permits anonymous questions, you just need to provide something in the name and email fields.

[Curious]

#5432

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The deletion of past postings is a big hit to the utility of this forum. Can a green check please comment on what’s happened to that valuable body of knowledge that many of us were hoping to draw upon to plan our futures?

[Crickets…]

#5479

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Green check, we know you’re busy, but this question has been out for some time. Could you please comment on why the forum’s format change was made and why old posts were deleted? Is all the knowledge of the old conversations gone for good or is there an IT specialist working to reformat the past records and incorporate them into the new database?

[fs_sme]

#5543

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Thanks for noticing! Careers.state.gov made its first major transition to a new platform, following the lead of http://www.state.gov and our U.S. Embassy and Consulate websites, which you can reach via the directory at http://www.usembassy.gov. As part of this process, the majority of the Forum Q&As were archived offline. The most popular questions and sought after information remain on the FAQs pages of careers.state.gov. Those who want to refer to older posts can use services such as Wayback Machine, for example, https://web.archive.org/web/20161009014415/https://careers.state.gov/engage/forums/careers-state-gov?sortBy=lastPostDate. Tell us what you think of the new platform.

[Forum User]

#5564

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The new format does not allow filtering by response (or additional posting) date. Also, if there’s a green checker reply, an indication does not appear to the left of the question.
I would agree with others that the historical information was a helpful reference, but I can Google topics and used the cached option to view archived posts.
Otherwise, the new format is a lot cleaner.

[Forum User]

#5565

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I just noticed there IS a green checker indicator next to the topic.

[Former FSS candidate]

#5579

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It would have been nice to have had all the recent questions re-posted, especially the ones that had not been answered. Family Life questions a couple months old made the cut, but there were a few Consular Fellows questions that hadn’t received official responses that disappeared.

I’d recommend posting the link to the “Wayback Machine,” with an explanation of what it is on the main page so that people will know where to find old posts. Otherwise it does no good to have them archived. It’s also far more helpful for those who answer questions to search.

The FAQ is comprehensive, but it doesn’t include any discussion on the topic. It seems odd to word it “when a topic receives 10 or more replies” it’ll get moved to the FAQ, but when you go, it’s just brief answer. Possibly delete reference to number of responses and instead say something like, “Before asking, check here to see if we’ve already answered your question.” And would suggest editing the list — “What is a Diplomat in Residence” is on there three times, and “Is sexual orientation a factor considered in hiring?” is on there twice. You could add “When will we know if there’s going to be an XXX class,” though.

The look — meh. Personally, I don’t see any improvement and far prefer having one list on my screen instead of massive scrolling. It’s also annoying that as I move the mouse to try and click a topic, all the menus drop down and get in the way. But it’s better than some of the other stuff we deal with.

[Author]

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