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UI and Feeds Update

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We have just updated the site with a new UI and features. Please note that we are still making some adjustments and configuring things. Please let us know if you see any issues or bugs.

[If you would like to continue to use the legacy "What's New" page, I have added the ability to add a "What's New" link to your primary navigation bar and mobile bottom navbar (only effects the non-pro 2022 styles, as the pro styles already have a "What's New" link there). You can turn this on by going to your Account Preferences.]

The main updates are the following:

1. New UI Style: We have new style/theme called "TMC 2022" and TMC 2022 Dark". These are very similar to our old styles, however they are a little more streamlined, should provide better performance on both desktop and mobile, and significantly improve readability (in particular for the dark style). There are some more consequential changes that you will notice, such as: the sub-navigation bar is no longer sticky on scroll-down; on mobile, the Conversations, Alerts and Account/Profile buttons are now merged into one in the top navigation bar; and on mobile the bottom navigation bar now has the navigation menu button as well as other useful links. If you are unhappy with any of the changes, please use the "TMC Pro 2022" and "TMC Dark Pro 2022" styles which are almost identical in function to the older style. You can change/specify your preferred style on your Account Preferences page.

Or you can change it by scrolling down to the bottom of your screen:

Style Chooser Screenshot.png


2. New Feeds Feature: Feeds is our new way of making TMC's Community content more accessible and easier to navigate and filter. Feeds will ultimately be taking the place of the "What's New" section, as it provides the same functionality and much more. What's New will remain accessible for those who still prefer it, however we will be removing What's New from the navigation bar at some point, so please bookmark it if you really want to use it and not Feeds.

You will notice on the Community homepage, a tab bar which allows you to switch between the various feeds that we offer. By default, existing logged in users will be taken to the "Forum list", which hasn't changed. However, you can switch to other Feeds easily, and even change your default feed from "Forum list" to a feed of your preference. This can be done in your Accounts Preference page in the section entitled "Default feed". You can also set a feed as default by going to your preferred feed, and selecting the "Set as default" button as seen here:


Set as Default Screenshot.png


3. Voting: We have added the ability to vote on threads. This affects a given thread's vote score, which can be used as a sort option for your thread. Vote scores are also used to help determine which threads make it into the "Hot" feed.


Below are sections from the new TMC Website Tutorial that cover Voting and Feeds.




Feed tabs:
On the Community homepage there are various feeds that you can view:

  • Blog: A selection of curated article threads from our community.
  • Hot: A curated list of some of the best and most recent threads created by TMC members.
  • Discussion: A full list of all threads (similar in function to the older “New posts” page).
  • Questions: Displays all Question threads. Each of these feeds can be filtered by forum and more. For example, you can display only threads with unread content by clicking here.
  • Social: Shows the latest social status updates (AKA profile posts) from across the community.
  • Forum list: Not actually a feed, but rather is a shortcut to jump to the traditional list of forums, which can also be accessed by clicking on the “Forums” link in the sub-navigation bar under “Community”. On this page you can select.

You can choose between two different formats for thread feeds:

  • List: The classic, more condensed, view of the threads.
  • Card: A richer layout which previews the actual content of the thread’s first post, allowing you to take actions such as reacting to the post.

There is also a “Set as default” button. This option allows you to change what feed is shown by default when you come to the TMC Community homepage. This option can also be adjusted within your account settings in the “Preferences” section.


Feed Filtration:
The “Filter” section allows you to drill down to the specific content that you’d like to see. You have many options for filtering, including:


  • In forums: If you’d like to limit the feed to content only from specific forums that you select..
  • Unread content: If you’d only like to see content you haven’t previously seen/read.
  • Watched threads: If you’d only like to see threads you’ve created, interacted with, or manually watched.
  • Watched forums: If you’d only like to see threads from forums you’re watching.
  • Unanswered content: If you’d like to see content that doesn’t have any replies.
  • People you follow: If you’d only like to see content from your members that you have followed.
  • Order by: This option gives you a variety of sort orders such as:
    • Promotion date - when the threads were promoted to the feed by TMC Staff.
    • Last post date - when the latest reply to the threads were posted.
    • Thread creation date - when the threads were first created.
    • Vote score - the number of votes the threads received.
    • First post reaction score - the reaction score (incl. Likes, Informative, Helpful, etc.) of the first post of the threads.

Once you have specified your filtration options, you can select the “Save” button if you would like them to be saved and selected by default the next time you visit that specific feed.

Thread Voting: On any thread list page, such as a forum or a feed, you can up a thread. You can also up vote a thread on each thread's first post. The vote score is taken into account for curated feeds such as Blog and Hot. It also is a sort option that you can use in order to see threads with the highest vote score.
 
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We could but it would be unnecessary clutter and redundancy as the "Discussion" feed is virtually identical. If the Discussion feed is not working correctly for whatever reason, please let us know so we can make sure it gets fixed. Thanks.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, in the near future, you will be able to configure and save multiple filtration configurations, which you will be able to switch easily between, so it will be vastly more powerful than it already is compared to the New Posts feed.
@danny I would be curious to see what others think. For instance, I would use a “New Posts” quick access button a lot more than the existing “Account” button you chose to put in the floating quick menu at the bottom. Maybe make the four buttons at the bottom user assignable? And if not, consider replacing the infrequently used “Account” button with the more frequently used “New Posts,” or “What’s New”?

What does everyone else think? Maybe a quick poll to decide?

@WilliamG
 
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@danny I would be curious to see what others think. For instance, I would use a “New Posts” quick access button a lot more than the existing “Account” button you chose to put in the floating quick menu at the bottom. Maybe make the four buttons at the bottom user assignable? And if not, consider replacing the infrequently used “Account” button with the more frequently used “New Posts,” or “What’s New”?

What does everyone else think? Maybe a quick poll to decide?

@WilliamG
I'm a heavy user of What's New/New Posts, so until multiple filters are implemented I'd like to see that remain.
 
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I'm a heavy user of What's New/New Posts, so until multiple filters are implemented I'd like to see that remain.
I understand, but the new Discussion feed already does what the New Posts feed does. So I don't quite understand what the issue is here.

Also, regarding the ability to save multiple customizable filter sets, the New Posts feed never did that to begin with, so I'm not sure what the purpose is to wait on that feature to come to the Discussion feed.
 
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Also, I could add a "New Posts" link (for reasons I am still trying to figure out), but we will have to take it out later for various reasons, so unless there is truly compelling reason (like a missing feature that I have overlooked), I prefer not to put something there that will only get taken away.
 
I understand, but the new Discussion feed already does what the New Posts feed does. So I don't quite understand what the issue is here. The ability to save multiple customizable filter sets is something the New Posts feed can't do.
@danny The issue for me is having one quick button in the floating quick menu at the bottom when using a mobile device. I constantly check alerts to threads I watch or post in, and monitor new posts to see if I want to engage in discussion. I suspect many do the same, so please make it easy, and in one place, for us to do that.
 
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I understand, but the new Discussion feed already does what the New Posts feed does. So I don't quite understand what the issue is here. The ability to save multiple customizable filter sets is something the New Posts feed can't do.
Ah, but the filters I have on New Posts are different than the filters on Feeds. I had them in place before the upgrade, and they still work.

Unread posts, Watched Threads, Watched Forums are what I use with New Posts.

For Feeds, I leave it blank (no filters) so I can see all new content.

To switch between them, I select Feeds or What's New from the top menu. Fast and easy.

Just using Feeds, I have to check/uncheck three settings on the filters. Which is why I suggested an option to save multiple filters. You agreed to do that and I appreciate it.

But until they are ready, can we keep What's New?

Thanks.
 
@danny Another consideration is removing that large red round “back” “reply” button at the bottom right on the mobile UI. Less is more in this case. Too busy and that large round button covers up other buttons/menus I’m trying to get to. I often press it accidentally. Would be interested to hear others thoughts on this one as well.

Thanks again for taking and considering input! Greatly appreciated!
 
Also, I could add a "New Posts" link (for reasons I am still trying to figure out), but we will have to take it out later for various reasons, so unless there is truly compelling reason (like a missing feature that I have overlooked), I prefer not to put something there that will only get taken away.
@danny the thing that makes the "Discussion" page useless for me is that if I tap to read a post and then go back it jumps to the top of the page so I lose my place in scrolling through the threads. The "New Posts" page doesn't do that, it goes right back to where you were in the list. Also it seems weird that it has page navigation at the top, but not at the bottom. (It has the "endless scroll" "load more" option at the bottom. But again, if you have loaded more a bunch of times, tap on a post to read it and then go back you are now at the top of the page again and have to scroll down and "load more" a bunch to hopefully find where you left off.)

Also, the new dark theme seems to have less contrast to me, I can't put my finger on what is different. (Maybe the background is brighter than it was in the old dark theme?)
 
Thank you all who are working on the UI.

Please be sure to test it on large tablets, such as the iPad Pro (which is what I use almost exclusively for the site).

The mobile phone experience does not really scale up too well to the larger screen—that is why I had reverted to the previous UI.

In particular, the control icons and borders that contain them are way too large.

I generally prefer a large fonts though in this case the fonts are too large, except for the smallest. The smallest is okay though a bit small for me (even though it is blown up on the iPad).

Editing while writing replies also exhibits some strange scrolling behavior.

Again, I appreciate the work. Just trying to provide constructive feedback. Hope this helps.
 
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@danny The issue for me is having one quick button in the floating quick menu at the bottom when using a mobile device. I constantly check alerts to threads I watch or post in, and monitor new posts to see if I want to engage in discussion. I suspect many do the same, so please make it easy, and in one place, for us to do that.
I am not sure if I am missing something, but again, if you set your default feed to "Discussion" you get a feed that is virtually the same as "New Posts", so I do feel I have fully addressed this issue. However there are some specific aspects that we can improve which I address below.

Ah, but the filters I have on New Posts are different than the filters on Feeds. I had them in place before the upgrade, and they still work.

Unread posts, Watched Threads, Watched Forums are what I use with New Posts.

For Feeds, I leave it blank (no filters) so I can see all new content.

To switch between them, I select Feeds or What's New from the top menu. Fast and easy.

Just using Feeds, I have to check/uncheck three settings on the filters. Which is why I suggested an option to save multiple filters. You agreed to do that and I appreciate it.

But until they are ready, can we keep What's New?

Thanks.
I don't believe the filter options on New Posts are different to the Discussion Feed's filters., except for maybe one or two of them which we don't believe many care about in any case. "Unread posts", "Watched threads", and "Watched forums" are all available on the Discussion Feed. But yeah, you are basically making a good argument for being able to save multiple filter sets, but my point is that before this update, you only had the "New Posts" feed, so it's not like you lose anything from switching from one to the other, rather it's that you are benefiting from having both at the moment for reasons that as we discussed, we intend to address.

@danny Another consideration is removing that large red round “back” “reply” button at the bottom right on the mobile UI. Less is more in this case. Too busy and that large round button covers up other buttons/menus I’m trying to get to. I often press it accidentally. Would be interested to hear others thoughts on this one as well.

Thanks again for taking and considering input! Greatly appreciated!
So that button was there on the previous style, the only difference is that the icon was a pencil before, but now it is the standard back-arrow-reply button which can be confusing to some users but is more consistent with the rest of the UI which uses the arrow icon. I am certainly open to removing it, as I see your point, and I was kind of not sure myself if I liked it. Would be nice to know if anyone finds it useful, or if there is generally a consensus that it should go.

@danny the thing that makes the "Discussion" page useless for me is that if I tap to read a post and then go back it jumps to the top of the page so I lose my place in scrolling through the threads. The "New Posts" page doesn't do that, it goes right back to where you were in the list. Also it seems weird that it has page navigation at the top, but not at the bottom. (It has the "endless scroll" "load more" option at the bottom. But again, if you have loaded more a bunch of times, tap on a post to read it and then go back you are now at the top of the page again and have to scroll down and "load more" a bunch to hopefully find where you left off.)

Also, the new dark theme seems to have less contrast to me, I can't put my finger on what is different. (Maybe the background is brighter than it was in the old dark theme?)
OK, now this is helpful, and I totally agree. I will look into fixing the back button issue that you mention. Regarding endless scroll, that I can turn off easily, so I will test. I like the idea of endless scroll, but have mixed feelings about it. Certainly if it is causing issues, then its probably not worth it.

Yes, the new dark theme is different, and it does have less contrast, but that was intentional. There is such a thing as too much contrast when it comes to readability. The contrast on the previous dark theme was just too strong, and thus harder on the eyes. What we have here we believe to be a more balanced approach. You'll notice we adjusted the reds as well. We did this with the advice of UI experts. Of course, everyone eyes are different and there is a subjective nature to this, but we believe this to be better for most users (though not all).

Thank you all who are working on the UI.

Please be sure to test it on large tablets, such as the iPad Pro (which is what I use almost exclusively for the site).

The mobile phone experience does not really scale up too well to the larger screen—that is why I had reverted to the previous UI.

In particular, the control icons and borders that contain them are way too large.

I generally prefer a large fonts though in this case the fonts are too large, except for the smallest. The smallest is okay though a bit small for me (even though it is blown up on the iPad).

Editing while writing replies also exhibits some strange scrolling behavior.

Again, I appreciate the work. Just trying to provide constructive feedback. Hope this helps.
Thanks, I appreciate that.

If you are able to take some screenshots and point out exactly what you think is sub-optimal, that would be much appreciated. We can adjust the responsive behavior if there is a good reason to, but I just need some more details so I can look into the issue, especially as I don't personally have an iPad to test it on, though I do use browser generated simulations of what it would look like on an iPad and it seemed fine to me (though these things are rather subjective). Also, it may depend somewhat on the settings you have set for your iPad. Please note that you can adjust font size in your account preferences: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/account/preferences
 
@danny The issue for me is having one quick button in the floating quick menu at the bottom when using a mobile device. I constantly check alerts to threads I watch or post in, and monitor new posts to see if I want to engage in discussion. I suspect many do the same, so please make it easy, and in one place, for us to do that.
Could you use the Community button (with default set to Discussion) and then Watched Threads (or the Clear Filters link) to accomplish that? That would allow you to view new threads and then using the Community button would reload your filters. It works for me to toggle back and forth between watched content and new content.
 
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Could you use the Community button (with default set to Discussion) and then the Clear Filters link to accomplish that? That would allow you to view new threads and then using the Community button would reload your filters. It works for me to toggle back and forth between watched content and new content.
Yeah, exactly. Choose your filters, hit save and also hit the "Set as default" button. Then when you want the feed without filters, just hit the "Clear filters" button/link. Then if you want your preset filters back, just hit community (or the TMC logo in the top left). So basically, you can pretty easily toggle between the two feed configurations.

Anyway, as mentioned, we intend to provide the ability to switch between various feed configs in the future.

The reason why it is important that we move away from "New posts" is:
1. Having both WhatsNew/NewPosts and Feeds will be confusing to new users (redundancy and more clutter).
2. Feed is simply much more powerful, and can allow us to provide better options now and in the future, and it kind of brings all the content together and makes it much more accessible.
 
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@danny the thing that makes the "Discussion" page useless for me is that if I tap to read a post and then go back it jumps to the top of the page so I lose my place in scrolling through the threads. The "New Posts" page doesn't do that, it goes right back to where you were in the list. Also it seems weird that it has page navigation at the top, but not at the bottom. (It has the "endless scroll" "load more" option at the bottom. But again, if you have loaded more a bunch of times, tap on a post to read it and then go back you are now at the top of the page again and have to scroll down and "load more" a bunch to hopefully find where you left off.)
OK, I am pleased to say that I think I have already figured this out. So firstly, I can confirm that one does not lose one's place in scrolling normally. The only time that was happening was when one activated the unlimited scroll by clicking the "Load more" button. This seems to mess with the pagination such that the browser doesn't know where to put you once you click the back button. However, I have gone ahead and tuned off unlimited scroll, and now this issue is completely gone. If you click on "Load more", it will now just take you to the next page. Please give it a try and let me know.
 
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@danny Another consideration is removing that large red round “back” “reply” button at the bottom right on the mobile UI. Less is more in this case. Too busy and that large round button covers up other buttons/menus I’m trying to get to. I often press it accidentally. Would be interested to hear others thoughts on this one as well.
OK, so I have gone ahead and made it so the large red round button (also known as a Floating Action Button) only appears on scroll up. I am somewhat reluctant to remove it all together given that some may use it, so I see this as a potential compromise. Let me know your thoughts on this, if it's better, or even if it's worse.
 
Lots of discussion about “New Posts” and the several work-arounds like “Discussion” feeds and so on. That said, let’s get over all the workarounds and put back “New Posts” as likely the most-used feature of virtually every website. I don’t want to know the many “improvements” these workarounds give, just put back “New Posts” as so many users have wished for, asked for, and are so comfortably used to. The argument that “New Posts” is confusing to new users vs. feeds doesn’t really hold water to me…again if users have used any other website, they are very familiar with “New Posts” and look for it. Feeds tend to work differently from website to website and are great as users get more experienced. But nothing replaces “New Posts” as universally understood, requiring minimal clicks, and just intuitively obvious. Please just make it happen.
 
Can you please provide more details about this? Is this still happening? Are you sure that it wasn't just being filtered out by one of your filter settings?
Still happening? Can you please perhaps provide a screenshot, as you should be able to configure the Discussion Feed to be basically identical to the old WhatsNew/NewPosts feed.
I happens repeatedly but I can't test it again until someone posts a new comment in that thread. But it's exactly as described, the Climate change thread with unread posts does not show up in Community but does show up in Whats New and with my old bookmark https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/watched/threads. That bookmark shows all my watched threads regardless if unread or not. The Climate thread when unread will be highlighted as unread but so far has not shown up when using the Community tab. My only filters are Watched threads and Unread for both Community and Whats New.
 
I would have thought this was saved in your account rather than in the form of cookies, but I'm not sure. Have you tried again to configure it on your desktop? Please let me know what you notice.
The Desktop is what I normally use and it has been behaving properly, it's the Laptop which does not seem to recognize the Community filters set on the Desktop. Today it was the same, this time I set the Community filters while using the Laptop and it seems to have retained them. Not sure why the Community filters didn't carry over between devices, I might check later with an older laptop and see if it's the same or not, but I guess it doesn't matter much, just seemed odd.
 
The Desktop is what I normally use and it has been behaving properly, it's the Laptop which does not seem to recognize the Community filters set on the Desktop. Today it was the same, this time I set the Community filters while using the Laptop and it seems to have retained them. Not sure why the Community filters didn't carry over between devices, I might check later with an older laptop and see if it's the same or not, but I guess it doesn't matter much, just seemed odd.
I noticed this issue back on Monday when the changes first rolled out. I read TMC on a desktop as well as two mobile devices and I noticed the filters seem to be device specific instead of related to the user account. Once I set the filters on each device and used the Save button at the bottom, they will persist on each device. One way I could test this was to go to one device and change the filters and then save them. I then checked on other devices and they still had the original filters.
 
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OK, I am pleased to say that I think I have already figured this out. So firstly, I can confirm that one does not lose one's place in scrolling normally. The only time that was happening was when one activated the unlimited scroll by clicking the "Load more" button. This seems to mess with the pagination such that the browser doesn't know where to put you once you click the back button. However, I have gone ahead and tuned off unlimited scroll, and now this issue is completely gone. If you click on "Load more", it will now just take you to the next page. Please give it a try and let me know.
That is better. Now after having used the discussion feed more, I can say I still prefer the "New Posts" page. The reason: The threads on the discussion feed keep changing, so things get missed. The "New Posts" page takes a snapshot of the results of your query and you just page through that and no thread moves from one page to another. With the discussion feed a thread may appear on page 2 at first, but once you read a thread above it on page 2 and come back that thread has now gotten another reply so it is moved to page 1 before you see it. It makes it hard to look at everything new when things keep moving on you.
 
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Yes, the new dark theme is different, and it does have less contrast, but that was intentional. There is such a thing as too much contrast when it comes to readability. The contrast on the previous dark theme was just too strong, and thus harder on the eyes. What we have here we believe to be a more balanced approach. You'll notice we adjusted the reds as well. We did this with the advice of UI experts. Of course, everyone eyes are different and there is a subjective nature to this, but we believe this to be better for most users (though not all).
For me the background it too bright, and the red for selecting text is way too bright...
 
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