We have our Home screen set to Categories, so that newbies and occasional visitors are aware of the structure and content on offer (it’s important for drawing in new members to our organisation). However, “core” users are already used to how things are laid out and would rather see the Latest stream.
The interface would be a simple dropdown in User Preferences, containing the items from the Top Menu (as set in admin).
This could further be controlled by an “Allow users to set home screen” tickbox underneath the Top Menu options in admin.
(Yes, I know “bookmarks” is an answer, but this isn’t great for mobile or logging in from a new device, and it’s always easy to hit the site logo.)
I still recommend what http://community.imgur.com does over what you are proposing. That is, first arrivals get categories page, all subsequent clicks or taps on logos goes to latest.
My counter-argument is that it takes more than one visit to get accustomed (especially if you’re an infrequent visitor).
Our forum is a tool for a real-world community, so some of our members don’t use it very often, preferring to talk face-to-face. This might be skewing the desire for this feature, compared to a purely online community.
Feels like a simple plugin, if one of our members ever dare to pick up that baton and run with it
Oops, apologies for not bumping the old thread(s).
I quite like the idea of “learning” the user’s preference, but it might feel a bit like the “invisible elves” are doing something random, rather than a smart adaptation.
Also, in the case of a newbie exploring the options, they might get “stuck” in a view they don’t like. My preference remains for a site default that can be deliberately overridden.
I prefer the first too, a user preference that overrides the default.
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