What's New - Update

[danny]

We just updated the What's New feature. It includes the following feeds:

• Recent Posts: All latest posts
• Recent Threads: All latests threads
• Unread Posts: All unread latest posts
• Recent Post (Watched Forums): Latest posts from forums that you watch
• Recent Threads (Watched Forums): Latest threads from forums that you watch
• Unread Posts (Watched Forums): Latest unread posts from forums that you watch
• Unread Posts (Watched Threads): Latest unread posts from threads that you watch

Note: If you click on the 'What's New' link in the navbar, it will automatically take you to the last feed that you were viewing, so if you are only interested in one of them, you can easily navigate to it in this way.

The "Unread Posts" feed above should function the same as the "New Posts" feed, when you are logged in.

We intend to remove "New Posts" from the navbar once we have confirmed that there is no missing functionality.

To watch a forum, go to the forum list page of interest, and hit "Watch Forum". To view your watched forums, please visit: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/watched/forums

To watch a thread, go to the thread of interest and hit "Watch Thread".

 

[Dax279]

Not sure what was wrong with New Posts and why it would be removed?

Open to trying something new, but wonder how many people use this functionality? And if it is a lot what is gained by removing it.

 

[danny]

An FYI: We notice that in some of the What's New feeds, the little mini avatar indicator which shows threads you have posted in is missing. We will get that added.

Not sure what was wrong with New Posts and why it would be removed?

Open to trying something new, but wonder how many people use this functionality? And if it is a lot what is gained by removing it.

"New Posts" isn't being removed. It's just being repackaged into "What's New" which provides additional filters. As I explained, it's essentially the same as "Unread Posts" feed from "What's New": https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/unread-posts/

 

[Old Man Mike]

Two button presses to do what one press did before.

 

[Gwgan]

Two button presses to do what one press did before.

One click if it is your habit. Only need to Hover/click to change which list to view.
"Note: If you click on the 'What's New' link in the navbar, it will automatically take you to the last feed that you were viewing, “

 

[JRP3]

Is this related to the, (IMO), unnecessary two new bars taking up even more screen space? I click on Unread Watched Threads and this is what I get, pretty much everything on the screen except a list of unread watched threads unless I scroll down.

 

[jaguar36]

What happened to bringing back the mark forums read button?
And now when you scroll down the lower nav bar hides the alerts/profile/search buttons.

 

[Gwgan]

What’s New (viewing new posts) gives all that extra button bar stuff and no “mark forums read” but New Posts gives a smaller header and has the “mark forums read” button so they are really not the same thing. I much prefer the less-is-more when it comes to the headers/button bars and really use the “mark forums read” button all the time and which it were prominent and persistent so I didn’t have to scroll or page-back for it.

 

[brianman]

One click if it is your habit. Only need to Hover/click to change which list to view.
"Note: If you click on the 'What's New' link in the navbar, it will automatically take you to the last feed that you were viewing, “

@danny - Hover doesn't exist on some devices. How do you choose on such devices?

 

[brianman]

The "Unread Posts" feed above should function the same as the "New Posts" feed, when you are logged in.

We intend to remove "New Posts" from the navbar once we have confirmed that there is no missing functionality.

- For Unread Posts, the ad area is twice as tall as for New Posts. Just a bunch of offwhite area. Don't know if it's a bug or what, but it's a degradation by wasting vertical space.
- For Unread Posts, the 7 buttons tends to wrap to two lines where (for me at least) the 3 buttons never does. Wastes more vertical space.
- Unread Posts is missing the "Page 1 of 25" and numbered links that follow it right below the 3 (New Posts) / 7 (Unread Posts) buttons. Loss of functionality.

 

[NOLA_Mike]

@danny,

Using Safari on OS X I find this "dynamic" top bar extremely annoying. When I select a thread and expect to be taken to the first new post it pops down and hides the top of said first new post until I scroll.

 

[Old Man Mike]

One click if it is your habit. Only need to Hover/click to change which list to view.
"Note: If you click on the 'What's New' link in the navbar, it will automatically take you to the last feed that you were viewing, “

Correction noted. So it is two actions instead of one. Still a step backwards (and try the "hover/click" action while walking with your smart phone vs a single click)

Why not just keep the single "New Posts" on the main Nav bar and relabel the "What's New" to "Recent/Unread Menu"?

I guess the education system today never discusses Human Factors Engineering. In the "good old days" programmers had a metric of keyboard actions required associated with a list of most used functions. This list was then presented as part of the formal design review process. Yeah, I'm an old fogy but at least I recognize it.

And by the way, I made a financial contribution to TMC and still get an alert about contributing to avoid ads. Seems like doing the minimum things necessary to keep contributors happy would be a higher priority than changing NAV menu buttons.

 

[danny]

Two button presses to do what one press did before.

This is not correct. As I have mentioned a few times now, if you only are interested in the content that shows in the New Posts page, then that is the same content you will see in the Unread feed from the "What's New" page. And if you click on "What's New" link, it will take you back to the last feed you viewed in the "What's New" area, such that you only have to click once if you are only interested in one feed.

"Note: If you click on the 'What's New' link in the navbar, it will automatically take you to the last feed that you were viewing, “

Thanks for reading my explanation, or noticing that.

I click on Unread Watched Threads and this is what I get, pretty much everything on the screen except a list of unread watched threads unless I scroll down.

We can improve that. Thanks for mentioning.

What happened to bringing back the mark forums read button?

Mark Forums Read button is supposed to appear at the top of every feed on What's New. Some kind of bug is hiding it. We will fix.

@danny - Hover doesn't exist on some devices. How do you choose on such devices?

As I have said, if you only use one of the feeds, it will automatically remember that last one you were viewing. And if you want to switch feed, you click on one of the tabs.

For Unread Posts, the ad area is twice as tall as for New Posts. Just a bunch of offwhite area. Don't know if it's a bug or what, but it's a degradation by wasting vertical space.

Agreed, we will fix. That is actually a modification that we need to make as it comes that way. So this wasn't like this by our design.

For Unread Posts, the 7 buttons tends to wrap to two lines where (for me at least) the 3 buttons never does. Wastes more vertical space.

Yeah, well that's the price to pay for having some more options. Of course for those who don't care about the extra feed options its worse, but for those who do it's worth it.

- Unread Posts is missing the "Page 1 of 25" and numbered links that follow it right below the 3 (New Posts) / 7 (Unread Posts) buttons. Loss of functionality.

Agreed. Will get that added in.

Using Safari on OS X I find this "dynamic" top bar extremely annoying. When I select a thread and expect to be taken to the first new post it pops down and hides the top of said first new post until I scroll.

This has already been noted and discussed in the thread about Navigation. We are working on a solution for this. This has nothing to do with the "What's New" feature.

And by the way, I made a financial contribution to TMC and still get an alert about contributing to avoid ads. Seems like doing the minimum things necessary to keep contributors happy would be a higher priority than changing NAV menu buttons.

Sorry about that. We are actually finally about to introduce an automated system to take care of this. I will review your contribution manually and upgrade you accordingly. Please feel free to follow up about it.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

The new options take up more than an entire screen on mobile.

Are people actually requesting and using all of these What's New categories? I never use any of them and find it confusing just trying to figure out the differences. Honestly, I only use Watched Threads, Watched Forums and New Posts and never use any of the other options.

 

[danny]

The new options take up more than an entire screen on mobile.

I'm guessing if we changed it to a dropdown, then some would complain that it takes two clicks now.

 

[Old Man Mike]

As I have mentioned a few times now, if you only are interested in the content that shows in the New Posts page, then that is the same content you will see in the Unread feed from the "What's New" page.

Still appears to be two actions: Pull down the "What's new" menu (action 1) and Click on "Unread feed" (action 2).

Previously it was just a single click on the New Posts button. Also, don't know understand why "Unread Feed" would be easily understood as doing the same thing as the "New Posts" did.

 

[3Victoria]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I use New Posts all the time on my phone. It used to be in the header. Now I have to drop-down the menu and select it. I would leave New Posts alone.

 

[danny]

Still appears to be two actions: Pull down the "What's new" menu (action 1) and Click on "Unread feed" (action 2).

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I use New Posts all the time on my phone. It used to be in the header. Now I have to drop-down the menu and select it. I would leave New Posts alone.

I'm not sure how many times I have to address this issue. For logged in users, "Unread Posts" in the "What's New" area is the same as the "New Posts" feed (any discrepancies that have been mentioned are being fixed/added). If all you read is the "Unread Posts" feed, then every time you click on main "What's New" link, it will take you there. 1 CLICK.

This is not a matter of fixing something that ain't broke, it is a matter of added additional options and filters that have been requested. Just because you don't care about those additional options, doesn't mean others don't either.

 

[Gwgan]

For logged in users, "Unread Posts" in the "What's New" area is the same as the "New Posts" feed

Feed, yes, layout and menus, no.
I do appreciate the effort and the updates but usability is declining just as it is in car firmware AP updates.
How about swapping menu bars? Let Group / Vendors / Connect be the pop-up and move Members and Media to that line and then the much more often used What’s New / New Posts / Mark as Read be the persistent menu bar. It is all about the discussions after all.

 

[danny]

What’s New / New Posts / Mark as Read be the persistent menu bar

What's New is already in a persistent navbar.