Or why not:
First click of a tab switches to that tab. Second click goes to the full-page list
2 Likes
I like the changes to the category page. However, the colorful border on the left side is still bothering me. For me it’s the last bit of Clown Vomit. 
Can’t we replace the border with the category bullets which are used everywhere else?
13 Likes
I like this mock-up a lot. It also separates each category better, if both of the colors are similar (eg the ux and dev categories)
2 Likes
What ever the new approach will be, and the mockups looks promising, the key improvement would be to make the default view a user option. The user should be able to choose whether he uses Latest, Categories or whatever as his personal default view.
9 Likes
bonjour, pourquoi avoir changé le format de la page d’acceuil? il était très bien et plus pratique. Vous faites des changements sans demander et de plus ça bug! Je me permet de demander un sondage pour voir qui souhaite revoir la page d’acceuil, revenir comme avant?
merci
traduction google :
hello, why have changed the format of the login page? it was very good and practical. You make changes without asking and more that bug! I allow myself to ask a poll to see who wants to see the home page, go back like before?
thank you
While I agree that the categories page needed a revamp and I aesthetically prefer the current version over the previous version, I don’t feel like it’s an overall improvement.
Generally, what the Discourse UI does really well is that each view has a clear purpose and draws your attention to what is important with that purpose in mind. This, in my view, is one significant improvement that Discourse brought to the forum paradigm. Other forum software often feels messy and hard to navigate. Discourse achieves this feeling of clarity through its singularity of purpose. This view does not.
It is has been noted that some people use it as a homepage. The discussion has used this as a touchstone to justify having both the category list and latest topics in one view. To justify its hybridity. While this may satisfy some folks, it runs counter to Discourse’s normal pluralistic attitude insofar as it takes a more opinionated approach to what matters in topic discovery.
In other words, I see each single-purpose view in the Discovery stream as the standard upon which variation can be added. To have one hybrid amongst a stable of purebreds seems out of place. In this vein, I would say that if some people want to use a combined Latest and Categories page - or any other combination - as a homepage, they should make a plugin to do this.
I know I’m coming to this a bit late, but I would suggest a slightly different direction, more along the lines of the NodeBB default, without the ‘Recent Topics’ boxes at the top.
In other words, have a single row for each category and subcategory spanning the width of the discovery view with a single featured topic in the row to give you a flavor of the category or subcategory. The featured topic criteria could be smart, using a mixture of time and engagement.
I think that would be more inline with the Discourse approach of simple, single purpose views.
12 Likes
That’s the Category view on Discourse stable.
On Discourse beta the team is trying a new approach to this view.
If you have strong opinions about changes in the software, you should stick on a stable version, and read changelogs before updating.
3 Likes
There’s been a fair bit of this now and I’m not sure it can all be dismissed as “fear of the new”
The new hybrid view is great, but I think a standalone Categories view is still needed. After all, there’s still a standalone Latest view isn’t there?
3 Likes
I’m thinking rather than redesigning the Category page it might be nice to offer “hybrid” as an optional “home” page.
Granted, I’m familiar with the page’s layout, and to me the horizontal rules tie in each of the category’s Pinned and latest topics to the corresponding category.
Perhaps what might confuse newer members is the use of the word “Latest” as the column header when it more accurately is “a few of the latest topics for the category to its left”.
6 Likes
Sorry for joining the discussion late, but i couldnt seem to find discussion on the mobile view. Currently we use categories view, because we think it provides a great mix of entry to the categories and featured topics. However, on mobile, the interepersing of categories and then 5 topics, starts getting overbore. I wish we could look at optimizing the mobile experience.
Some ideas
- offer option to choose different default screen for mobile
- introduce a featured category view for mobile with a link to view all
- offer option to group featured topics at the end of all categories
- offer option to show reduced number of topics on mobile vs desktop
This is just brainstorming, and not sure if we should have a separate topic on how to handle the home screen for mobile devices
And I’d still love to see how we can get a loading Image appear on mobile devices the moment they connect with the server 
The current plan is for @zogstrip to urgently add a site setting for “category page style”:
- Default - the new default with the 50/50 view
- Classic - for old default
- Categories Only: for categories only without listing topics.
We are already using different styles on mobile vs desktop so we will have settings to pick your poison for desktop vs mobile.
Longer terms the work on “Themes” becomes very strategic here. Cause my theme would ship my particular quirky view of how this page should look.
The category page is very divisive. Something that seems like an enormous improvement to some is a huge step backwards for others. Part of the issue is that Cheese Shall Never Be Moved. Another part of the issue is that some are looking for a directory and other users want a home page.
We will get there, but our #1 priority is to get a setting in place that allows the sites that want the old look to keep the old look, we are practically blocked from deploying quite a few sites till we have this in place, so it will happen really quick.
17 Likes
To be clear, moving the category counts over to the left as we have already helps a lot in unifying category info, as well as new and unread counts per category which now go in the same place. In retrospect I don’t know why we had the category counts way over on the right!
It also conveniently makes the rightmost column completely independent. So what the site setting will determine is the contents of the rightmost column:
- default → latest topics
- classic → latest topics for each category
- categories only → nothing
15 Likes
The desktop_category_page_style is now in
I changed the name of the style a bit
- Default → “Categories and Latest Topics”
- Classic → “Categories with Featured Topics”
- “Categories Only” stayed the same.
12 Likes
Liking the new default category page very much, as do my colleagues. Nice work! 
4 Likes
How did you reposition New Unread and Top Near the Latest ?
It’s the Top Menu setting. Here’s mine:
EDIT: Hang on, you mean in my image? It’s just a mockup. I used photoshop
I meant the image , you have done some great per category view optimization on your forum
1 Like
On mobile, the default category page is now pretty boring. Is there a way to display the traditional latest view as homepage on mobile, and the new categories/latest view on desktop?
1 Like
You can cancel the display none for the description on mobile :
.category-list-item .category-description {
display: inline;
}
or display block.
I did that on my forum, and I think it looks pretty ok on mobile.