New Community homepage is live! :)

[Martin-O2]

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

[Mi-Amigo]

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@Glory1 wrote:

Web designers snd architects should be made to use the system/room design they're upgrading themselves before they go changing things. They might then find there is very little to change.

And the problems we actually raised prior to the update still persist. So what exactly has been achieved. It may be easier for new members, though I have my doubts about that from the number of questions posted after the change, but is a nightmare for those of us who visit the community continually throughout the day, every day. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, most new members post once and are never heard from again. You are a very welcome excception @Mi-Amigo and it's a pleasure to have you with us. For one thing you talk sense!

---

Of course designers should test out their system themselves but the fact is that seldomn in the real world, away from forums, they don`t. That`s why companies employ marketing analysis (whethr or not the company takes any notice of marketing analysis is another matter).

I can understand the frustration and nightmare it is to those who had a method which was acceptable.

From what I read - as an outside observer if you like - is that it is not about longterm users refusing to accept or encompass change but the reality is that members, whether longterm or new, continuously experience difficulties.

As you said @Glory1 , members post once and disappear. It could be argued that is because they`ve had their question answered, but that is an excuse not a reason. As I have said before, I have experience in marketing, and the tricks of the trade is using methods to keep clients on-board, even after they have "bought in" to whatever is being promoted. Sadly this is not the case with regard to the Community.

All the efforts to attract members are/will be lost because of the inadequecies of the design of the system.

Thank you for your kind comments.

I always have been an exception to the rule, and have only expressed my opinion as to how I see things. I never have and never will say I have the answers but hope - yes, hope - that the discussions, comments and views of all the members  will see the changes needed and wanted by those who are regular contributor, who want this Community to survive and grow.  

[Glory1]

Is it just me or is anyone else getting duplicate email notifications? Not every one is duplicated and it's not every day but it's often enough to become irritating in the extreme.

And this has only started happening since the introduction of the new homepage.

[Cleoriff]

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@Glory1 wrote:

Is it just me or is anyone else getting duplicate email notifications? Not every one is duplicated and it's not every day but it's often enough to become irritating in the extreme.

And this has only started happening since the introduction of the new homepage.

---

Not me @Glory1 

I have been seeing unread posts twice though. A long standing problem which keeps re-reoccurring.

[Marjo]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update that the Activity section at the bottom of the homepage has been updated - more specifically the number of Solved topics is no longer stuck at 25, and the link points to a page where you can view the solved topics per category.  

We continue working on the rest of the things pointed out in the homepage feedback and will update when we have more info!

[pgn]

Looks good. 

[Glory1]

Certainly a lot better than 25. I saw it in the early hours this morning. That it links to solved topics even better. Thanks @Marjo for the information.

[Marjo]

Oh I forgot to mention also (sorry, slipped my mind for some reason!) that the Latest News section also got an update, which means we are able to update it quicker with new content as it comes in. We had some older topics "stuck" there for a while earlier which was fixed.

[gmarkj]

Looks like they have pushed an update to the community without warning:
https://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Discussions-and-Feedback/Community-Messages-pm/m-p/1212373#M108457

[EmilieT]

Good morning guys,

We have some good news. 

Our developers have been working on improvements to the homepage based on your feedback as well as some things that we noticed on our end. You've probably already noticed some of these (very quickly spotted @gmarkj!), but here's the full list of what went live early this morning:

• Community Topics section: Top and Unanswered topics have a timeframe now: top topics from the past 30 days, unanswered topics from the past 14 days. Staff names are bolded. Preview text cut-off point has been made consistent across the 3 tabs.
• Unread PMs number is now displayed next to the Messages link at the top of the homepage
• Unread PMs in the PMs inbox are displayed in bold again
• My Latest Posts was a bit misleading so it's renamed to My Latest Topics and the reply count has been corrected
• Top Contributors list now excludes staff and a design issue with the icons has been fixed
• Number of Solutions in the Activity section at the bottom of the homepage now displays correctly
• 'Solved' icon added to the Popular Topics section

We're still looking at the rest of your feedback, and will let you know once things progress some more

[Cleoriff]

Not had chance to check everything out @EmilieT  but thank god the PM function is now showing a number next to it. I was amazed to find I had 3 unread....soon read those!

Thanks again for that