Cafe Announcements 📣 Testing new feature: Social Feed

[Pete Thomas]

As some of you have noticed we are testing a new forum feature that may or may not be made permanent. It is still under development so any critique, bug reports are welcome.

This is a different way of viewing recent posts, in a social media type view. This is never going to replace the existing traditional forum / subforum and new posts view, rather it's an alternative if you like that kind of view. So we don't need need an opinion on the feature itself. In fact I don't really like it myself. The reason is to make the forum more familiar and hopefully less perplexing for new users who may be used to this type of view but not the traditional forum format.

Currently the access to Social Feed is a sub menu item of New (along with the various different New views). You can also switch back and forth between the SF view and trad view via a link at the top of each thread. Social Feeds shows the latest started or replied to threads showing the first post and latest two or three replies. The Load More Replies link opens up each thread to show all replies (but we may reduce that to 10 or so at a time)

If you reply to a post in SF format it will show as "nested" but when viewing the same post in traditional view it will have the post it is replying to as a quote. (or rather, it should do with any luck)

Please supply any comments in this thread, so not interrupt normal threads with comments about the Social Feeds system.

Again: this is totally optional and will not replace any current view so we won't be taking a poll on whether you like/want it or not.

What will be most useful is if those of you who are used to this kind of feed with social media can comment in this thread which may be sticky for a while

 

[MikeMorrell]

As some of you have noticed we are testing a new forum feature that we may of may not be made permanent. It is still under development so any critique, bug reports are welcome.

...

What will be most useful is if those of you who are used to this kind of feed with social media can comment in this thread which may be sticky for a while

One of the very many things I love (and value) about the cafe forum is it's (your) willingness to try out new innovations and get feedback from members as to whether they're useful or not. From a quick 30-second try-out I certainly recognize the 'SF style' from 'Reddit' and formerly from DPPreview. Interestingly, DPP forums recentetely (April 2026) changed back from a forum on which posts and comments (and comments on comments, ...) were 'nested' to a non-nested' forum', Much as the 'traditional view' cafe is today.

From a quick (30 seconds) google search, I see a lot discussion about 'nested' forums. Some users hate them. Some organisations (Meta) are introducing them.

So I'm looking forward to trying the SF (nested comment) option out!

 

[skeller047]

I like seeing replies to specific posts grouped with that post. But I would like to see the first post in a thread, perhaps abbreviated, without all the rest together, then see the next thread, so I can decide if I want to pursue it.

 

[Pete Thomas]

perhaps abbreviated, without all the rest together,

I don't quite follow what you mean.

 

[Pete Thomas]

One of the very many things I love (and value) about the cafe forum is it's (your) willingness to try out new innovations and get feedback from members as to whether they're useful or not. From a quick 30-second try-out I certainly recognize the 'SF style' from 'Reddit' and formerly from DPPreview. Interestingly, DPP forums recentetely (April 2026) changed back from a forum on which posts and comments (and comments on comments, ...) were 'nested' to a non-nested' forum', Much as the 'traditional view' cafe is today.

From a quick (30 seconds) google search, I see a lot discussion about 'nested' forums. Some users hate them. Some organisations (Meta) are introducing them.

So I'm looking forward to trying the SF (nested comment) option out!

Thanks Mike. What I like about this (as oppsed to the previous experiment when we tried nested replies,is that you can choose and swap between the Social Feed nested view and the traditional view. I'm not expecting many existing members to like or use it, so they don't have to. I think it can work well for short threads, as can the continuous scroll for the thread list.

But I'm hoping some new (dare I say younger?) members might like it.

Starting a thread still needs you to choose which forum or subforum to post in. We have reduced the number over the last year by using the thread prefixes more widely and I'm please with the way the forum list is now much less cluttered.

 

[mizmar]

I quite like it.
I still think it takes some shortcuts on following the threading. Otherwise it's quiet good.

 

[skeller047]

I don't quite follow what you mean.

Show the first sentence or two of the first post, then show the same for the next thread, and so on. When I hit the Social Feed button, I saw the whole conversation about malware tracking.

 

[skeller047]

I don't quite follow what you mean.

Second reply - I see now that it is condensing the thread somewhat. But it’s still too much info in one box. A couple of sentences and an indication of the number of replies would be sufficient. But I do like the nested replies.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Show the first sentence or two of the first post, then show the same for the next thread, and so on. When I hit the Social Feed button, I saw the whole conversation about malware tracking.

Can’t do it per sentence but have done it with pixel height. I think that it works well. Hoping this is what you mean!

 

[mizmar]

I kinda feel that, in normal thread view, the thread title is missing from the top, where the new "View on Social" button now is. Or maybe I'm misremembering - but in feel it's missing.
On Chrome/Mobile.

Edit :
From my social view post

Same thread now

 

[turf3]

Well, SOTW forced us to see the "indented view" when not logged-in. When I complained about it, I was told "this is the way it is, go pound sand".

If you want to put various viewing alternatives that are the user's free choice despite their lesser intelligibility, I supppose that's OK, but please don't degrade the default appearance of the posts.

 

[Pete Thomas]

but please don't degrade the default appearance of the posts.

We have not done that, default appearance is not changed. Check out post #1. This does not affect in any way the normal traditional viewing of the forum. It is entirely your choice to use the traditional viewing or the social feed view.

Again: this is totally optional and will not replace any current view so

Different people may like different things and so I think it is a good idea to present options.

However as the survival of the Cafe is important for me I will be doing what I can to help it survive.

 

[mizmar]

thread title is missing

FWIW - it's fixed

 

[Pete Thomas]

FWIW - it's fixed

I missed your initial post, but this got fixed in a regular update.

 

[mizmar]

I missed your initial post, ...

I did have the impression that notifications weren't quite working for posts via the social view...

 

[Pete Thomas]

I did have the impression that notifications weren't quite working for posts via the social view...

This should not be the case but I will do some testing.

The software doesn't differentiate between posts made either in traditional view or in Social Feeds. Any post, wherever it is made, is exactly the same in the as far as the database is concerned, the difference is only in the display which shows all post in either view - whether or not they were made in Social Feeds. And you or I (as a user) will not know whether a post was made in one view or the other unless specifically told. For eample I am making this post in trad view...

 

[Pete Thomas]

I did have the impression that notifications weren't quite working for posts via the social view...

...and this one in social feeds (although you probably won’t get an alert for this one as it was posted immediately after the previous one)

 

[mizmar]

Yes, I got just 1 notification.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Yes, I got just 1 notification.

And you should get one for this reply

 

[Curtis]

Test reply