Help! Can I go back to "old" home page?

First of all, I read this stuff this AM.  Second I don't want to look at every post that anyone I subscribed to posts, that was in that other tab I only looked at if I was bored.  Plus the settings aren't seeming to hold, I keep having to reset them.  The home page earlier today was fine.  I want to go back, we'd finally gotten it close to "right".

Also much prefer the "classic" activity feed where I can go to "page" 5 or whatever as I can usually judge how many pages I've likely missed.  What I'd really prefer is to be given ALL of the pages I've missed and nothing else, like the old days.  

Yea, I'm not a fan either. I'd rather see my subscriptions and the recent post count next to them than the most recent posts in my subscriptions.

What happened?  My home page is suddenly all messed up.

+1.  The previous concept of subscribing to a user was better.  It was a way to see the most recent posting activity by any of a small set of users.  The folks whose input you value most and wish to follow even when you can't keep up with all threads.  Sorting by time order was important for this function.  The new sorting order by person first and including stray actions like changing their photo or editing their profile doesn't further this goal.

 If you click on Subscriptions (above the bar on the right) and turn off all other content, does that help? So leave Profiles selected, but deselect everything else... or have you already tried that?

Also, try using the settings and switch the Summary View to ON... it rolls up quite a bit of the smaller detailed updates, and it summarizes some content... Settings is just underneath the Subscriptions Only button.

The Home Page now has an activity stream.  You should customize it by clicking the Subscription Only button on the right side in the control bar.  You will see a setting button there as well, if you click it, you can set the view to summary or detailed by clicking the check box.  In summary view, the activity feed looks like the old home page.  When you mouse-over the activity feed, you will see a "first new post" on the right side.  Be sure to use that link, rather than clicking on the thread title. 

One advantage I have seen with the activity feed is that it seems to include subscriptions from private forums like the supporter lounge.  This feature is working for some forums for me, and not in others.  I'm looking at this for the first time,same as everyone else, so lets figure out what we have here and try to give feedback.  I heard one request for the old home page.   This looks like it has possibilities to me.  Maybe give it a chance and explore it a bit.

This is what got pushed today to the forum platform.  There are still refinements to be made, and we still don't have the permissions fix in for some forums. :

• New activity stream displays content from around the site.
• Variations on the new activity stream display on the home page in place of the Recent Discussions and subscription modules, and on a user's profile in place of the former activity stream, and on the new brand pages in the new Industry Insiders feature
• A beta version of the activity stream is available to logged-in users as an alternative to the "classic" All New Posts page
• Content is pulled in from forums (like new threads and posts), products (new additions to the site and new reviews), Wikis, and user profiles
• Content can be narrowed down at any time to view a subset of those content groups
• Content can also be viewed either in a detailed view or in a simplified summary view
• Some action items can be expanded to display more information - for example, in the expanded view of a thread, you might see excerpts from the most recent few posts
• From the home page, logged in users can filter to view all recent activity on the site or just their subscriptions
• Icons identify content types
• User, timestamp, number of replies, views, and other stats are displayed accordingly with different action items
• Industry Insiders feature released to bring brands into transparent and open conversation with the community and increase site monetization
• This feature is multi-faceted, however it is primarily a great revenue and content generator
• Each brand associated with a product existing on the site will have a brand tag and brand page
• The brand page will include an activity feed of content related to this brand from all around the site; this will include recent community reviews about their products, threads and Wikis tagged with their brand tag or any related product tags, etc. 
• A basic page will be displayed for brands who are not officially enrolled in the program
• When a brand enrolls and elects to have an upgraded brand page, they can choose to display a banner on their page, contact details (contact name, email, URL); their most popular products will automatically be displayed on the page
• Brand reps can join the site and have their accounts affiliated with the brand - this will incorporate all their site activity on the brand page's activity stream.  Reps can also upload an additional profile picture as well as their name on the brand page.
• Reps can also have a special signature file which will set them apart in the community indicating that they are brand reps.  The signature file can have a small logo, up to 4 links, and 150 characters of plain text.  A brand can select to upgrade to use this signature file, without upgrading to a full Industry Insiders brand page
• Private content subscriptions are now included in email digests
• In this release, users with access to any private forums will now receive updates via email for any of their subscriptions.  As with other subscriptions, these will follow the user's global email preference
• Product ranking improvements
• Average star rating calculations and the overall product rank calculations within that category have improve
• Ranking should be much faster, based on new reviews and review edits
• Users will be able to better sort by rating
• Forum expansion/collapse preferences are now saved as a user setting
• This is now a user setting saved based on user ID
• Regardless of what browser/computer the user is using, their setting will be saved

That's a whole lot of bullet points, but it seems it STILL doesn't include the ability to see new, unread posts only.

and the settings don't save. i've tried a handful of times now and it resets every time i return to the homepage.

"That's a whole lot of bullet points, but it seems it STILL doesn't include the ability to see new, unread posts only. "

And the ability to do a 'search' improved how?

I love this site but my analogy is - you just added the $50.00 and ounce wax to my skis even though I can't carve.  I'm sure it's better but how does this hep "me"?

I just got used to cruising through the "All New Post" and wammo!  Gone.

I suppose we'll get used to this too and once comfortable you'll change it and we'll ask why (whine) you did that then too and request that you move it back to this.

...some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time...

i agree with everything in this thread. The functionality was more effective yesterday, and to top it off, the custom settings are NOT getting stored.

 I wanna go back too.

What they all said....  especially the bit about once you get it kind of the way you can live with, it loses it all.  What I really want is all subscriptions showing with only the ones with activity that I haven't looked at,  just like we used to have it.  The way it was two days ago, showing the new post count was close.  But, even then if I was gone for a while I had to keep hitting More.  What I'd really like is to be able to be gone for a week, come back and NOT need to hit More and they'd all be listed even if it was a long page. 

I appreciate the forum here and the flow of information, but vbulletin is a much, much better forum publishing software.  We are here to converse in a simple format.  IMO that is not what we have here.  Too much "stuff" nobody is interested in.

When I've clicked on subscriptions, I want to know what ones have new posts. Maybe a checkbox for 'with new posts only'?

Given the volume of users and the immediate feedback you receive, perhaps a test site with some notice of 'improvements' that can be reviewed before they are pushed live would be of some use.

I though you had it close to perfect yesterday, before this new home page came out.

You earn top scores for a great effort in coming up with new approaches and working on solutions.

MR

Subscriptions only isn't remembered each time i go back to the home page; I'd like it to stick.

Really like the 'plus sign' to show the beginning of the most recent(?) posts in a thread in.

MR

Also, I am adding subscriptions and they are not being added to my subscribed threads list.

This is a bug and should be fixed shortly...

Is there a CTRL+Z for web development?

Edited by krp8128 - 10/22/09 at 9:36am

One thing I want to make sure everyone know is that what's newest will always be at the TOP of the page... so to know what's new, you just have to look at the position on the page... newest will be on top. Is that unclear?

 Please sir, may  I have some search?

Great suggestion spindrift.. Thanks.

But, if I click on the plus sign, it just opens it up to the first few posts.  Pretty soon that is useless.  I mean, I subscribed to it, I know the first few posts, what I want are the new posts I haven't seen.  If it opened up to all the posts I hadn't seen yet, now THAT would be worth something.  

sibhusky,

There is a little "New Posts" hyperlink (somewhere, it might move depending on settings) that brought me right to your post in this thread.

Is it possible to get the count of new posts back?  I see all my subscribed threads, sorted in order of their last post -- but it's not at all obvious which of them actually has new posts since the last time I visited!

(Yes, I can look at the tiny little timestamp text to figure this out, but having an easily-visible indication would be nice.)

(edit: maybe a 'new items only' toggle would be helpful?)

I would strongly suggest that "subscription only" and "summary view" be defaulted on, since that's much more like the old interface.

Also, the 'subscription only' and 'settings' buttons render really oddly while I'm logged in.  They're seemingly stacked on top of each other.

I also can't seem to click 'logout' or 'connect with facebook' in FF3.5.  Works in IE...

Also, the "New Posts" button doesn't really work. I read the post above, left the site, then came back and clicked it only to see what I just read 5 minutes ago...

Yeah, it brings you to the last post, not the first unread post.  Two different things.  Also, at least yesterday when I first came in it was bringing me to stuff I'd already read hours before.  I have to sit there thinking "when did I leave the computer?" deciding if the last post timestamp is after that time.  Like I remember that at my age.  Heck half the time I don't know what time it is right this minute within a two hour guess without looking at a clock. 

....  Actually, I think it is taking me to the last post.  Since I am not getting new subscriptions and I have been checking so frequently, I don't know what the heck it is doing today.....  I just know yesterday it took me to stuff I'd already read....

Summary On and Subscription Only On SHOULD be the default, it's a bug and we're fixing it right now... thanks for your patience on that.

Regarding seeing the newness... so if you view a thread, and nothing happens on it, it travels down the page... are you saying you want the feed to show that you clicked on a thread, and then when you come back to the feed, it's marked as having been read until a new post is put into it? Hmm....

If a new posting happens, that thread will pop up to the top of the page, so that's one key indicator.

Regarding the "new posts" button... are you saying your refreshed the page? Or hit the twirl icon on the upper right? ... it works for me, can you give it another try?

I want there to be a zero there if there are no new posts just like before. 

OR

Thread is BOLD if there is something new and not bold if read....saves adding a column for the number of new posts.  How's that for an idea?  Something that saves me moving the cursor over something to see what the status is.

And I really don't want all the threads that ever had a single comment from someone I subscribed to to show up in the list either.  Apparently they'll keep showing up even if that user is no longer participating.  The only way to escape the discussion is to unsubscribe from that user. 

Bug fix underway (I understand, I build web apps, too)

Most recently posted to the top is fine, however I can't tell which threads for which I have read the most recent post. The number of new posts from before was good. If I click on a thread then the number of new posts should go back to zero, whether I hit all the pages that had new posts or not (if it 'turns' the corner on a post per page count). If I 'back page' to the list I'll refresh to update the count. If I click to the home page, it should be accurate anyway.

Twirl Icon? I hit plus and see a United Technologies logo in motion while it prepares to show the list of posts, but that requires action on my part. Otherwise there is not 'twirl icon'.



Also note in the screen shot above, I (mastersracer) am listed as the creator of the thread Moab Biking in Danger while I am only a contributor. Tromano started the thread. 

When I click on a thread title on the home page I get a javascript error. The page shows as expected.



I use Vista SP2, IE8 and Sun's java, all of which are as up to date as automatic updates make them.

MR