Should Categories or Latest be the default on the home page? I think Categories works well with plenty of screen space but Latest is better on mobile, so I should probably switch it. (Latest was the default btw. I changed it so it’d be easier to view categories as important and to click into the category you want before clicking New Topic.)
0 voters
You can change your own default in your user preferences. I think categories might be a better home page for new people first seeing the forum. But I changed my personal default to Latest and will try that out.
I’m not sure about this. Anyone else have thoughts on which is a better default?
I think categories is best for first time viewers. Regulars can change their own settings. It’s a small disadvantage for people viewing without accounts, but I think first time viewers are more important than people who read but won’t make an account.
Why is categories better for new people?
Regulars who don’t make an account can bookmark the latest posts page and can also use the new posts RSS feed.
An issue I noticed is if I go to the home page on mobile while logged out, it shows 3 posts per category, and some of those limited slots are wasted for repeat visitors by pinned posts.
Because you get better navigation and overview with categories. But perhaps this doesn’t make much difference if there are only 4 categories. I think with more categories it would lead people to choose the ones that are more interesting to them. “Elliot Temple” and Unbounded are often quite similar. “ET” is most philosophy heavy, while Unbounded has philosophy but also lots of general analysis stuff like sharing links and Reddit analysis. It might not be very obvious for newcomers what to expect for each category.
I think I changed my opinion to Latest being better.
Everyone vote in the poll at the top of this topic please.
I voted for categories cuz i like that the first time viewer on mobile can know that CF forum is about tutoring and Elliot Temple’s writing. Categories is my first pick but I think I want to ask friends or family about which looks better.
Desktop shows the both categories and latest right? I’ll show them the mobile version and ask for their thoughts
Hmm. I initially voted for latest cause I thought that was what the current view was at the time, especially because categories on desktop show latest posts.
I went ahead and changed my vote because I didn’t realize what latest actually was. I think I prefer the category view. It gives a nice overview of the areas of posting for CF and it still has the latest view on the side.
Plus a small thing I got used to that I also like: it shows the most recent poster on categories view on desktop. It does this for latest on mobile. odd.
I do like mobile having latest but I’m using pc most of the time. I changed my vote cause I was confused on the two.
I went ahead and changed my default to categories in my settings.
on desktop if your browser window is big enough, categories is really categories + latest. it has space for both with two columns. on mobile it doesn’t have space for two columns, so setting it to latest is meant to benefit mobile. though personally i just use latest on desktop too.
anyone with an account can set their own default. and anyone without an account can bookmark the one they prefer, including setting different bookmarks for desktop and mobile.