Cafe Announcements 📣 Simplified NEW

[Pete Thomas]

I am experimenting with the user interface (sorry!) and made what for many is the most important page of the forum a bit less cluttered.

This will also help when we do the next big forum update later this year.

 

[mizmar]

Hi
Not a big deal, but the link to "latest-activity" seems to have gone.

Latest activity

cafesaxophone.com

Is using this page discouraged?

 

[Pete Thomas]

You beat me to it and I'll merge your post into the one I started. (Now merged)

The page is not discouraged, just that I didn't think many people used it. I'll try to find a way to get it back without going back to the cluttered look.

 

[Pete Thomas]

OK put latest activity under the forum tab.

 

[Pete Thomas]

What this means, if everyone is OK with it, is that the NEW page has more content, less guff at the top, ie title, breadcrumbs and links to really used stuff which (I think) you can get easily elsewhere now I've added the latest activity to forums.

 

[Targa]

What are breadcrumbs?
Things that get you back to where you started from?

 

[Pete Thomas]

What are breadcrumbs?
Things that get you back to where you started from?

Yes.

Or where you might have started from.

 

[nigeld]

When I press “New” to view the latest threads, there is no “Mark Forums Read “ button.
If I view a thread then the button reappears.

 

[Pete Thomas]

When I press “New” to view the latest threads, there is no “Mark Forums Read “ button.
If I view a thread then the button reappears.

That's right. It is still available in many other areas e.g. under the main forums tab where it seems to make most sense and where it was designed to be originally.

This is not just for decluttering the New page, but also making things simpler and less likely to cause issues for a big software update that is coming up.

 

[skeller047]

This is not just for decluttering the New page, but also making things simpler and less likely to cause issues for a big software update that is coming up.

Is this the “simpler is best but it’s complicated to make things simple” mantra in action?

 

[Pete Thomas]

Is this the “simpler is best but it’s complicated to make things simple” mantra in action?

I don’t know, I’m not sure I understand.

 

[skeller047]

I don’t know, I’m not sure I understand.

Sorry Pete. We need a “tongue-in-cheek” emoji…. but that would be too simple.

 

[wakyct]

This is not just for decluttering the New page, but also making things simpler and less likely to cause issues for a big software update that is coming up.

Simple is good IMO but, maybe after the update, I would thumbs up a more accessible mark forums read button, as currently it's three clicks to do so from the new posts page: click on Forums -> mark read link -> click on modal dialog confirmation (is this modal really needed?).

 

[Pete Thomas]

is this modal really needed?).

I could definitely look into seeing if it’s possible to lose that.

Just out of curiosity, what is the advantage of marking forums read? (I've never had a reason to do so, hence just wondering)

 

[nigeld]

Just out of curiosity, what is the advantage of marking forums read? (I've never had a reason to do so, hence just wondering)

My normal way of accessing the forum is:
- Press "New" button to see what has been posted since my last visit
- Read the threads I am interested in
- Press "Mark Forums Read" to get rid of the rest

 

[Pete Thomas]

- Press "Mark Forums Read" to get rid of the rest

I just tried this and it didn’t get rid of anything

 

[nigeld]

If I press "New" after pressing "Mark Forums Read" then I don't get any of the previous (unread) new posts.
If I have looked at all the new threads then "Mark Forums Read" doesn't do anything, as one would expect.

 

[Pete Thomas]

If I press "New" after pressing "Mark Forums Read" then I don't get any of the previous (unread) new posts.
If I have looked at all the new threads then "Mark Forums Read" doesn't do anything, as one would expect.

I think this must be based on how your filter preferences are set then.

 

[nigeld]

My filter is "Show Only: Unread threads".

 

[Pete Thomas]

If I have looked at all the new threads then "Mark Forums Read" doesn't do anything,

It should remove the bolder text from threads you haven’t looked at,

But I keep forgetting different people see different things based on preferences.