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

[Glory1]

PMs aren't working for me either and I also have a Gmail account. Like @Cleoriff I only know I have a PM when I either check Messages or through an email telling me I have a PM!

And Notifications do seem to 'stick around for yonks'!!

[Cleoriff]

Ditto the above. I have a PM in answer to the test one I sent earlier. No notification of it showing next to messages....I knew only  when I recieved an email ...

(apologies for this being in bold.....not intended but not going back to change it lol)

[Cleoriff]

Just to add to the above, when I checked I actually had TWO PM's

I had emails informing me of both ...though nothing next to messages on the forum.

Normally 2 would be the number next to messages.

My point is, I am not in the habit of forever checking emails, so it could be ages before I pick up that a PM has been sent.

[pgn]

Looks like an e-mail is sent at the same time as the pm now, at least. Not as Handy as a little number next to an envelope on the Forum itself, of course... 😭

[MI5]

Always used to get both.

[Cleoriff]

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@MI5 wrote:
Always used to get both.

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Yes, that's how it always worked....so this is a real step backwards!!

[pgn]

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@MI5 wrote:
Always used to get both.

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Radio silence in my e-mail this morning tho, @MI5.  Despite a couple of PMs from an Admin and one other. 

And no notifications on here still. 

[pgn]

And what is the point of the big empty space between the graphic and the O2 blue bar beneath the URL (Chrome on Android)? 

Oh I see..  Landscape reveals all:

[MI5]

You really screwed then dude. At least I'm still getting emails........

[Glory1]

Well I'm still getting emails, thank God, @pgn or I'd never know I had a PM or anyone posting in threads I'm subscribed to.

And @Cleoriff I'm now checking my emails constantly in view of the [Removed] up with PMs to ensure I don't miss any. 

What a true nightmare all this is!!!