Regarding Full-screen login change. I was able to revert it for now, but I prefer the modal version—it lets users see the page behind it, so they know (can see) exactly what they’re logging into.
Is there harm in keeping this as an option? How can forum owners maintain the legacy login inside modal?
The full-screen layout feels like a step backward—unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t feel as seamless as before. I updated Discourse today and was surprised by the change. At first, I thought something broke—either the CSS or the forum itself. I’m only using a 2K screen, but the layout looks extremely bare. My immediate reaction was to search the forums for a fix.
The revert option looks like it will be removed, but I really prefer users being able to see what they are logging into:
I was not aware, interesting. Thanks for pointing out the source!
This choice makes sense from a maintainability point of view. Keeping legacy code will only add technical debt over time.
I understand that the fullscreen may not be your preference.
It has many advantages like consistency across devices, better accessibility, and more robust authentication flow.
While it’s true that you may lose the immediate context, once you intend to log in, you’re aware of the page you’re on, right? Since it requires user interaction, it’s reasonable to assume that the user knows what they’re accessing.
To be fair, both ways reload the page after logging in. The only difference is the background. Though I understand that on a large screen, it can feel jarring and disconnected because the design may appear “empty”.
Do you think it would make a difference for you with a stronger visual identity that makes use of the available spaces?
Unfortunately it is very difficult to keep both login paths working forever. Login/signup are critical paths for users, and there are many variations available. There are local logins, oAuth2 logins (via Google, Apple, Facebook, Github, etc.) and SSO logins via DiscourseConnect. Plus, instances can customize various parts of the process (login required or not, choice on what fields to show, etc.). Maintaining all this for 2 completely different UX flows is very, very hard long-term, it’s prone to breakage, and we can’t run that risk on such a critical path for users.
I should add that on mobile and tablet, the full page layout has some definite advantages. It’s easier to navigate, especially on mobile phones, the software keyboard behaves much more nicely.
There are plenty of modern websites using a modal or login window approach without relying on legacy code. Just to clarify, are you saying that the seamless login overlay, where the login box appears over the Discourse forum in the background, can only be maintained using legacy code?
Legacy has its place. For example, https://discussion.fedoraproject.org, one of the most active Discourse forums that I know of, still uses the dropdown nav bar instead of the left-hand sidebar. My view is that changes should be necessary, subtle, and ideally requested or clearly beneficial to end users.
To be honest, the new login approach feels more like a 1999 vBulletin interstitial login page than an improvement. From a user experience standpoint, I don’t see the benefit. (IMO)
EDIT
Thanks, I did spend some time looking for a thread like this.
Another note is that some forums niche will be more desktop than others. My forum (and WordPress blog) both see less than 25% mobile traffic. Currently, 22.74% last 30 days. So I would prefer to prioritize the 3/4 than the 1/4. Maybe this full-screen login can be mobile only.
My WordPress gets 89% and forum 92% from mobiles. It is actually quite rare that a site has so low part from mobiles as you are experiencing, and may tell more about niche than market share.
I’ve moved this conversation to a new topic since fullscreen signup / login is not a design experiment, so it didn’t feel appropriate to keep discussing it there. We can keep the conversation going here!
@haydenjames, we’re moving everyone over to these new designs because the fullscreen pages offer a focused, clear experience through signup and login, which are critical paths into the community. I can understand that you preferred the previous designs with the modal to show the community information behind signup / login, but due to the reasons @pmusaraj shared about the burden of carrying multiple signup / login paths, we will be removing the modal login/signup screens at the end of April.
I would be happy to start exploring how we could improve the new designs to work better for you. It sounds like your biggest concern is whether your members will feel confident about where they’re going to end up after completing signup / login — is that right? What other concerns do you have with the fullscreen designs?
I noticed this today. I’ve always manually updated Discourse. Where is this connection for this auto-update? I prefer being in control of updates as this is a self-hosted app.
That message means that the site setting and the code for modal screens will be removed from core on that date. You’ll only receive that change if you update your instance.
lol