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Hi everyone,
I'm sure you've noticed if you've visited before, that our forum is looking a bit different today. We've been working hard for the past several months on making changes to the community homepage, and finally went live with the new version this morning! 
We have been listening to your feedback from our discussions around what you like or don’t like on the homepage, passing it on to the designers and developers, along with ideas that you’ve come up with, and tried to get as much as possible included. A BIG thank you to everyone who have provided your views over the years. 
The update has brought several changes to the layout and to the different features of the page:
Welcome and search
- FAQs are linked from the top underneath the search bar, for quick look at the most-asked questions.
- If you're logged in, you have quick access to your latest posts right on the homepage. If you're logged out, you will see instead a login box and quick general information about what the community is about.
- Underneath that you have 3 quick links to help you get started: 1) info topic on what's the community about and how to get help, 2) topic listing all the different forum boards, and 3) the how-to guides board.
Notification Feed
A new feature on the right side of your avatar, next to your "My Settings", "Messages" (PMs) and "Unread posts" links when you are signed in. You can see a list of recent activity here related to topics you've participated in, e.g. if someone has given you a Kudos, replied to your posts, or @-mentioned you on the forum.
Community Topics and contributors
- See what everyone’s been chatting about with top and latest discussions.
- You can also help with unanswered questions or ask your own.
- You can see a list of current top contributors on the right
Most Popular Searches
- See the popular searches that others have made on the community to help you with your query
Latest News
- 3 latest topics that we've wanted to highlight!
Popular Topics
- Especially helpful for those looking for help: you'll see 2 most-used community how-to guides, with related Solved topics underneath.
Activity
- Some stats about the community where you can see number of active members and click into member search, number of members online (if they've set themselves visible in their settings) with a link to view all, total posts and questions solved.
We know that big changes can be annoying and even stressful to users if the old layout has been there for long (we had the previous look since 2014!!), and some of the abovementioned elements are both new and different from what we've had before. Now that the changes are live, we will be testing and monitoring over time to see how the page performs.
We'd love to hear your feedback:
We'd love to hear what you think of this new change. Do you like the design and feel of the homepage and its new sections? Do you think it's an improvement to the old design? What is your initial feeling around navigating the forum, finding and replying to topics, etc?
Also, since we've just gone live today, don't hesitate to alert us if you see something that's not quite right. We've done a lot of testing but there can always be some lingering bugs or issues that we might have missed.
Your continued feedback will be much appreciated as always to help us plan for future improvements.
Cheers,
The Community Team
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I have to clarify that everything I have posted on here is PC related. I haven't tried my mobile at all.
To avoid confusion, I think any comment we make should make clear which device we are using. #justsaying
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Well it looks good, excluding the overly large picture at the top of each page.
It takes that bit longer to get to where you want to be as a lot of scrolling here, tbere and everywhere seems to be the key!
I also miss the number of PMs against messages.
Why my latest posts? On mine one is 'Merry Christmas'!!. As we're in February do I really care what I posted in December, no I don't. Come to that I'm not that interested generally in my posts at the top of the screen as I already know what they are.
I rarely scroll through unread posts as a number duplicate what I've already read in my emails.. Like @Cleoriff I enter the forum through my emails. I read my emails so don't need to see those posts again in unread posts. So tend to mark all unread posts as read. Then look at the latest topics posted and add my own post if and where appropriate and, hopefully helpful.
However, I also enter the forum through the main O2 page, clicking on 'help' and then 'view the O2 community'. This is mainly when I have no emails as I want to read the latest topics posted, to see if I can help and also to learn something new; I'm always learning and it, in turn, helps me to help others.
I do like the 'welcome back Glory1', when I sign in very friendly. But why 'Messages' rather than either PMs or 'Private Messages'? I don't think new members are going to understand Messages are PMs. I didn't at first, especially as there was no number next to it.
Oh, and to expand on @pgn's point about mobile versus full view on a smartphone you need full view also to add one of the forum emojis, use the bold typeface, add a video etc. All things easily done on your laptops/desktops. However no problem when I use my Kindle as the forum is automatically in full view. However, you still have to switch back to mobile view as the posts headings are squeezed against the left hand side and unreadable even in landscape.
The new Homepage will take some getting used to, but I suppose we'll get there in the end.
All my above comments relate to using a smartphone to enter the community. My only means as I don't have a laptop/desktop.
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@Cleoriff wrote:I have to clarify that everything I have posted on here is PC related. I haven't tried my mobile at all.
To avoid confusion, I think any comment we make should make clear which device we are using. #justsaying
Yes, for sure. Am on the laptop at the moment, #justsayin' 
Was on the smartphone at 07:28 this morning (not 08:28 as the super new display incorrectly tells me...!).
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@Glory1 wrote:
The new Homepage will take some getting used to, but I suppose we'll get there in the end.
I miss the little number next to the "Messages" link too.
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I'll repeat this here as I posted on the wrong thread before!
Everything I have posted about the problems/issues I'm experiencing are related to PC ONLY
I think, if we are expecting @Martin-O2 or @Marjo to feed this back to the designers, it's probably best if we all clarify what device we are using? #justsaying(again) Lol
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Good point @Cleoriff and I have edited my above post accordingly 👍
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@MI5 wrote:
@sheepdog wrote:Where am I? I feel like I'm being trapped in a store after hours with no lights on? Has Mod14 been involved in this redesign??
Can we have the list of forums back please.
Click on Explore the forum....
Clicking there just takes me to this page
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Welcome-News/Browse-our-different-forum-boards/m-p/1176687#M27824
then a lot of scrolling and squinting for the right forum. I'm not sure about months of planning, in all honesty it looks like something that was cobbled up last drunken weekend. Harsh but really??
