Users have access to a bunch of different content views on the homepage
Latest
New
Unread
Starred
Categories
Top
I would like to propose the following behaviour.
Suppose a user starts out on the homepage (let’s say that the default view is “Latest”)
The user has a particular preference for the “Categories” view, so they click categories and from there they read some topics.
The next day, the user returns to the homepage.
Instead of seeing “Latest”, they now see the “Categories” view (because when they clicked categories, we stored their preference in a cookie)
Why I think this behaviour is preferable
Reverting to default on the homepage (the way it works now) is a way of pushing the user in the direction of the default view. Yes, you can click categories, but the default view is the way you’re supposed to use the site. Eliminating this behaviour would give the user freedom to use the system however they chose.
In some communities (the ones used to classic forum software), there can be a strong preference for the category view among the existing users (who dislike the “Latest view” because they’re not used to it)
By introducing this feature, anyone can use whatever view they want.
That really isn’t the same at all. You have to remember to use that bookmark, have it bookmarked on all the devices you use to access the forum and still if you click the logo it’ll take you to the “wrong” page.
However, if you make it a user preference in the sense that it would be a setting that hidden somewhere in the personal preferences menu, I reckon most users would never find that setting.
If you simply use the “last used” view, people can intuitively discover what works best for them, without have to explicitly configure any settings (easier)
Several power users of our Discourse installation think that /categories is best for new users to discover what kind of conversations are happening, but that they’ll eventually start to prefer /latest and after that decision, it should be the default for those users.
Having this exact same “problem” at Stack Overflow, my previous project, I can tell you that both solutions will leave about 50% of the people unhappy. Automatic can confuse people and mess up default home pages, Manual is work for the user.
This is usually a good sign that the setting should be a user preference.
There are also other topics on this here already, with lots of discussion, that reached the same overall conclusion.
One thing you can do, as they do on community.imgur.com, is make it so that the initial page is catgories, but all subsequent clicks on the home image take you to latest.
Here’s that code, since @ljpp asked for it, if you want to put it in Admin, Customize, CSS/HTML, </body> on your site:
<script type="text/javascript">
require('discourse/components/home-logo').default.reopen({
click: function(e) {
// if they want to open in a new tab, let it so
if (e.shiftKey || e.metaKey || e.ctrlKey || e.which === 2) { return true; }
e.preventDefault();
Discourse.URL.routeTo('/latest');
return false;
},
linkUrl: function() {
return Discourse.getURL('/latest');
}.property()
});
</script>
BTW, I am very interested whether the user selectable home screen or this “remember the view” is on the development road map?
Me and my community love Discourse (<10% resist after migration from SMF), but this topic keeps coming up. The Latest view serves active regulars well, but may not be very welcoming for a non-frequent visitor or a newcomer.
We are just pondering our options with the staff, them being Latest, Categories or the Imgur way.
While you are at it, the setting might need to be separate for Mobile and Desktop views. On limited mobile display real estate I find the Latest much more better starting point than Categories, but on the desktop things can be different.
Here’s an approach I can recommend to fellow Discourse admins, who have ongoing debate/concerns about the default view.
As I wrote above, after first two-three months my users were heavily split regarding the default view 50/50. That was not the end of the story however.
As the discussion regarding the views continued, couple of weeks later I set the Categories view as default for a week and then had another vote. The results changed dramatically, as Latest view crushed the Categories in votes (90/10 or so), and I started receiving requests to immediately revert back to Latest during the trial.
When we suddenly switched to Categories as default, the users quickly realized the benefits of Latest, especially in mobile. Nobody has been romanticising our decade with the SMF anymore, and have been happy campers ever since.
So to summarize:
Run with Latest for a while, let users get used to it and out learn the old paradigms.
Discuss the options with the community, run polls.
If the opinion is split, do a trial run with the alternative view and run another poll.
