We have the option to choose what we want displayed as the default view on the homepage of the forum. Which do you prefer?
Vote here and reply to this discussion to explain your reasoning
Note: whichever option we choose as default, both categories and latest will be options in the main navigation.
Categories - a list of the different forum sections with a short description of each.
Latest - a list of the most recent topics and replies (See example)
Hybrid - a combination of the two other options: a list of the categories in one column and latest topics in another (side by side on desktop or latest posts within category headings on mobile) (See example)
I find two columns side-by-side visually looks better. And I think itâs good to have two âentry pointsâ into the discussion - either see what the most recent stuff is, or find the category that youâre interested in.
That said, if they stack below each other on mobile, I wonder if âLatestâ should come first. Thatâs probably just personal preference though.
Do users get to choose their own view in their personal settings?
I prefer hybrid too - you get more information but itâs not overwhelming. Think itâs a clearer entry point into the community.
I was wrong about the mobile view (now updated in the first post). On mobile, latest posts appear within category headings in hybrid mode, which seems like a good compromise.
And yes, good point - users can change their default view in user settings (to categories (the hybrid view), latest or unread). So this question is most important when thinking of new members or unregistered visitors.
Agree that the hybrid view is probably the best. But once I go into a category, Iâm really struggling with the order of posts and especially the inconsistent behaviour of pinned posts. Generally I would like to see pinned posts, and next the newest posts. But when I sort by âActivityâ, I often donât see the pinned posts. They seemingly become unpinned after Iâve read them (the pin flips vertically). But many of the pinned posts are intended to be reference material, to be revisited.
I believe there are some kind of underlying Discourse settings governing this. @neil@james?
Yeah, I think we need to figure out a way to fix the position of pinned posts (especially for the Restart Party Kit resources). Most recent is at the top by default, so pinning them, posting in each (in reverse order) and then locking them would do the trick.
But at moment, what youâve described is the default behaviour: once youâve seen a pinned post, it unpins itself automatically and you have to manually click on the pin icon to repin it.
This can be disabled in your user preferences if you want pinned posts to always remain on top, but not sure whether this default setting can be changed globally. Something else to look intoâŚ
