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New Community homepage is live! :)

Martin-O2
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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! Smiley Happy

 

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. hugging

 

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.

Notifications.png

 

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 Smiley Happy

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. hugging

 

Cheers,

The Community Team

COVID-19 support - Help and support from O2 during the lockdown
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If you'd like to take part, why not register? slight_smile
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Glory1
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@Cleoriff wrote:

@jezza1234

We haven't been discussing lack of email notifications?

The issue about notifications was in relation to Private Messages. If we had a PM in the past there was a number next to messages. So we were aware immediately that someone had sent us a PM

That's the part which is no longer working.

 

Yes I get an email notification that I have received a PM, though as I don't keep flicking back to check emails it could be 4 hrs before I know I have received one.

 

Change is a good thing ONLY if it improves a service. This change hasn't improved the community at all. It now takes a lot longer to answer a question if you need to provide links. What used to be a one click process, now involves a lot more clicking about.

As someone who posts on here on a daily basis, I can't see any improvement whatsoever.

 

I embrace change as a general rule. So I can't be accused of not trying.


I'm 100% with you on this @Cleoriff. Change that brings improvement and makes things easier, I'm all for it. But change that makes life more difficult I can definitely do without. And the recent changes fall into the latter category.

 

And like you I post here on a daily basis several times throughout the day, night and early hours when most of you are asleep. Only 2 other members are around in the early hours apart from me.

Lover of all things Samsung. Currently using Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus 128gb


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jonsie
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Cleoriff
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@jonsie wrote:

@Cleoriff

This link takes me straight to the sign-in page and then straight to the unread posts from there.

https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/forums/unreadpostspage/tab/message


Thanks @jonsie

I have bookmarked that. wink

Veritas Numquam Perit

Girl in a jacket
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pgn
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Workarounds galore, needs must... 🙄🤯

Thanks everyone.
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pgn
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And another oddity of the new Community Forum Homepage (on mobile at any rate):

Screenshot_20190209-165947__01__01.jpg

The blue text in the big search box does not go away when you click into the box, you've got to delete it yourself in order to type in a search term. 

 

Most other sites' search functions zero or clear the text in the box when you click into it...

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jonsie
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pgn
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I think that Sign In at top right relates to the O2 website itself, not the Community Forum, @jonsie

 

Still annoying, though, you're right. dart

 

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pgn
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And when I search for something, it invariably changes what I type into what it thinks I meant, as this search for 'Oswestry' shows... 

Screenshot_20190209-182323__01.jpg

Stoopid computer thinks I was looking for posts to do with 'ancestry' Horrified

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Cleoriff
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@pgnthe part about leaving the wording in the search box doesn't happen when on PC.

However, the search  box changing the word from the one you are looking for isn't new. This has been going on ever since I joined the forum. Hence google being a better search engine that O2's own. scream

Veritas Numquam Perit

Girl in a jacket
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pgn
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@Cleoriff wrote:

@pgnthe part about leaving the wording in the search box doesn't happen when on PC.

However, the search  box changing the word from the one you are looking for isn't new. This has been going on ever since I joined the forum. Hence google being a better search engine that O2's own. scream


Thanks, @Cleoriff, must check it out when next on the laptop - still, behaviours on all platforms should be broadly similar - let's say the Search Box behaviour is a "bug' for @Marjo to take back to the Lithium team, I think. 

 

As for the dictionary Lithium uses to determine what it thinks you typed... That's a bug that has been around much longer, I agree. It is one I have seen on other forums that rely on Lithium (Virgin Media, for example).

 

The new forum layout is not perfect, partly because some of the underlying bugs remain yet, I think. 

 

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