UI and Feeds Update

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:

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:

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.

 

[danny]

New here.

In the Forums section, for each topic and each Sub Forum, there are "STICKY THREADS" and "NORMAL THREADS". I get Sticky, but Normal? Shouldn't Normal be renamed "NEWEST THREADS" or "LATEST THREADS"?

Also, I followed the Web Tutorial listed under Meta, for starting/sending a Conversation. Problem is I can't find the red 'Start Conservation' button mentioned in the tutorial. I am new, so have no conversations to list, but can access a blank list by selecting 'Show all". Is this under development?

Yeah, "NORMAL THREADS" is probably a bit of an unnecessary label. I'm not sure we need that divided section for Sticky vs. Non-Sticky.

Regarding Conversations, that functionality is limited for brand new users, but I have reviewed your account and upgraded it manually, so please give it a try now.

I will try make that more clear in the Website Tutorial.

 

[jebinc]

Thanks! That is so much better on my phone. And I have the brightness almost all the way down.

Same. Less jumped and slow to react. Less is more!

 

[jebinc]

@danny What/who is driving this UI rewrite? I ask as when I switch back to the old TMC (thanks for reactivating) I breath a deep sigh of relief. Smoother, buttons are well placed (like the alerts button on the edge of the mobile floating bottom menu bar, close to the thumb), cleaner and less busy looking, etc.

 

[danny]

I am going to play around with the dark style a little and see if I can get it a little darker while maintaining legibility. I figure if we are going to have a dark style, it might as well be properly dark.

Same. Less jumped and slow to react. Less is more!

Less jumped and slow to react? Not sure what you are referring to.

@danny What/who is driving this UI rewrite? I ask as when I switch back to the old TMC (thanks for reactivating) I breath a deep sigh of relief. Smoother, buttons are well placed (like the alerts button on the edge of the mobile floating bottom menu bar, close to the thumb), cleaner and less busy looking, etc.

Most of the UI was done by developers, but I have been mainly involved in configuring some of the details, and setting thing like brand color, etc.

I don't quite see how you view the newer style as cleaner and less busy. From a design aspect, it is actually more minimalist in many respects.

Having been through these kind of UI updates many times now, I can confidently say that the majority of people have a strong bias for what they are used to. The novelty of a new UI is perceived by our brain as more busy and less clean as our brains are still distracted by the newness.

 

[JRP3]

LOL. I mean, there are legitimate issues with the Discussion feed which are preventing some users from using it as a replacement, but aside from those issues, I am still waiting for someone to explain to me what the "What's New" feed does that Threads (at least in concept) does not do.

Assuming equal functionality it might just be a labeling issue, "What's New" instantly communicates the message where "Community" and "Discussion" are a bit more vague. If the What's New button were put in place of the seemingly never used Groups button that might answer some of the complaints. But as you say people are stubborn and resist change, every forum update is a "disaster" until we all get used to it.

 

[jebinc]

I am going to play around with the dark style a little and see if I can get it a little darker while maintaining legibility. I figure if we are going to have a dark style, it might as well be properly dark.


Less jumped and slow to react? Not sure what you are referring to.


Most of the UI was done by developers, but I have been mainly involved in configuring some of the details, and setting thing like brand color, etc.

I don't quite see how you view the newer style as cleaner and less busy. From a design aspect, it is actually more minimalist in many respects.

Having been through these kind of UI updates many times now, I can confidently say that the majority of people have a strong bias for what they are used to. The novelty of a new UI is perceived by our brain as more busy and less clean as our brains are still distracted by the newness.

@danny. My question remain, "What is driving this change"? Was there a problem, many complaints from members about the old version, or are we changing the UI because someone just "wants to" (for unspecified reasons)?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

Firstly, New Posts is still accessible. We don't plan to turn it off. Secondly, I don't know what Workarounds you are referring to. Discussion is the same as New Posts. If we changed the name of Discussion to New Posts, most probably wouldn't notice. Again, it is the same thing, just with additional options for those who want it.

OK, I have identified the issue and it is a bug that is affecting this and a couple other threads. I will get this fixed ASAP. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

I have gone ahead and turned off the realtime updating of feeds. Please let me know if this solves the issue for you. I can't guarantee that we will keep this off as we may find a way to keep it while preventing it from disrupting your flow.

I will make sure this gets fixed, as I will not 100% replace New Posts until Discussion does everything at least as well.

I've noticed several of the threads that were missing from the Discussion page are showing up today. I did find another one that is missing from Discussion:

Email from Tesla - Powerwall uses 3G Cellular Please connect to Wifi or Ethernet

I received an email from Tesla telling me 3G is shutting down and to use the Tesla App to configure Wi-Fi. The instructions in the email are Open the Tesla app, find ‘Settings’ and select ‘Configure Wi-Fi' On my iOS app, I don't have an option for 'Configure Wi-Fi' under Settings. The Tesla...

teslamotorsclub.com

I kind of liked the real-time feeds. Is there any way that could be configured as a user preference or is it an all or nothing setting?

Also, I noticed when you had the Community/Groups/Forums for the mobile buttons earlier this week, the site finally worked properly in mobile on my Android tablet. When you changed it back to Community/Alerts/Conversations/Account, the site now only runs in desktop on my tablet (so no sticky buttons). Would it be possible to have Community/Alerts/Conversations/Account sticky for Android tablets as they were earlier in the week? If not, is there a mobile URL that I could use to force the site to work in mobile mode? Thanks!

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I just liked a post and was redirected to a confirmation screen for the first time. Is that a intentional? I don't think we really need to be redirected to a confirmation screen to like a post as it interrupts the flow. Maybe for disliking a post (or if disliking multiple posts in a row)...but it seems a bit much for other actions such as Like, Informative, etc.

 

[jebinc]

I just liked a post and was redirected to a confirmation screen for the first time. Is that a intentional? I don't think we really need to be redirected to a confirmation screen to like a post as it interrupts the flow. Maybe for disliking a post (or if disliking multiple posts in a row)...but it seems a bit much for other actions such as Like, Informative, etc.

"Less is more..." The message doesn't seem to be getting through. I wonder who is providing the user requirements for all of these changes? TMC member's, coders looking for something to do, other?

 

[danny]

I just liked a post and was redirected to a confirmation screen for the first time. Is that a intentional? I don't think we really need to be redirected to a confirmation screen to like a post as it interrupts the flow. Maybe for disliking a post (or if disliking multiple posts in a row)...but it seems a bit much for other actions such as Like, Informative, etc.

I have no idea what this is. Can you please take a screenshot?

 

[MorrisonHiker]

I have no idea what this is. Can you please take a screenshot?

It looks it might be browser plug-in related but it seems to be new starting this afternoon. I've used the Adblock Plus plugin for years and never seen an issue until this afternoon. I also noticed that when replying to this post, it took me to a new screen instead of just allowing me to reply inline in the thread. That's never happened before this reply.

 

[danny]

It looks it might be browser plug-in related but it seems to be new starting this afternoon. I've used the Adblock Plus plugin for years and never seen an issue until this afternoon. I also noticed that when replying to this post, it took me to a new screen instead of just allowing me to reply inline in the thread. That's never happened before this reply.

View attachment 745430

That is very strange...I'll see if I can figure out what's going on.

 

[wk057]

Is it possible to consolidate Alerts the way they used to be years ago? Formerly a comment which had say 20 reactions would show a single alert until I checked the alert, then all reactions would be shown and the alerts would go away until another reaction was given. Now a comment with 20 reactions shows 20 alerts.

Ah yes. This would be nice for sure.

 

[cwanja]

It looks it might be browser plug-in related but it seems to be new starting this afternoon. I've used the Adblock Plus plugin for years and never seen an issue until this afternoon. I also noticed that when replying to this post, it took me to a new screen instead of just allowing me to reply inline in the thread. That's never happened before this reply.

View attachment 745430

Had this same issue happen once, I did confirm and it never happened again. And has yet to happen since that one time.

 

[cwanja]

@danny. My question remain, "What is driving this change"? Was there a problem, many complaints from members about the old version, or are we changing the UI because someone just "wants to" (for unspecified reasons)?

I obviously have no horse in this race, but I am sure it was just driven by changes in web development, UI / UX and modern design changes. Some of the Home Screen / landing page functionality is less so that, and more so "new features".

 

[danny]

I have figured out the bug that was causing many threads to now show up in the Discussion feed. This is rather unfortunate because this bug has contributed to a poor first impression of the Feeds system and made many think that Discussion is different to New Posts, when in concept it isn't. I am trying to figure out how to resolve this as soon as possible. In the meantime I will try make "What's New" link available later today or tomorrow on lower sticky tabbar for mobile users.

@danny. My question remain, "What is driving this change"? Was there a problem, many complaints from members about the old version, or are we changing the UI because someone just "wants to" (for unspecified reasons)?

"Less is more..." The message doesn't seem to be getting through. I wonder who is providing the user requirements for all of these changes? TMC member's, coders looking for something to do, other?

Not all users want the same thing. When we do updates, most users who are satisfied say nothing, whereas we are far more likely to get feedback from those who are dissatisfied. This can give the false impression that no one is happy, and also that everyone uses the forum in the same way. The fact is, the main purpose of our recent update was to provide a more useful and simple experience for our more casual users, while providing our power users with more tools for navigating the forums and its threads which many had asked for. When we had our big update in the Spring of 2021, we lost a few features. This most recent update basically brings many of those features back, plus a lot more.

Besides that, we added a lot of performance enhancements under the hood as well as set the stage for some other things coming in the future.

Much of what is being complained about are simply bugs, some of which were present before the update, and some which seem to be new. We are working on these and I will do what I can to minimize the impact of said bugs and issues on your experience in the meantime.

It looks it might be browser plug-in related but it seems to be new starting this afternoon. I've used the Adblock Plus plugin for years and never seen an issue until this afternoon. I also noticed that when replying to this post, it took me to a new screen instead of just allowing me to reply inline in the thread. That's never happened before this reply.

View attachment 745430

I don't know what this is but obviously it is not our intention or design for this to happen. We will be looking into this as well as all other issues mentioned. Unfortunately, the holidays are going to slow things down a bit.

 

[n.one.one]

One of the changes I've noticed is that properly linked usernames are no longer red/underlined but rather look like normal (bold) text with an @ before them (unless you hover over the username). This is probably not an issue for experienced users but my guess is that since it's not intuitive most new users wouldn't realize the functionality that is available unless they happen to hover over @danny and see the popup. That seems like a lost opportunity for new users.

 

[JRP3]

I was going to mention the same thing.

 

[danny]

One of the changes I've noticed is that properly linked usernames are no longer red/underlined but rather look like normal (bold) text with an @ before them (unless you hover over the username). This is probably not an issue for experienced users but my guess is that since it's not intuitive most new users wouldn't realize the functionality that is available unless they happen to hover over @danny and see the popup. That seems like a lost opportunity for new users.

Thanks, I will add that to the list of things to fix.

Had this same issue happen once, I did confirm and it never happened again. And has yet to happen since that one time.

Please continue to notify me if and when this happens so we can hopefully start to zero in on what exactly is causing it. Unfortunately these types of bugs that are not reliably reproducible are hard to fix.

It looks it might be browser plug-in related but it seems to be new starting this afternoon. I've used the Adblock Plus plugin for years and never seen an issue until this afternoon. I also noticed that when replying to this post, it took me to a new screen instead of just allowing me to reply inline in the thread. That's never happened before this reply.

View attachment 745430

Has this happened again since?

I kind of liked the real-time feeds. Is there any way that could be configured as a user preference or is it an all or nothing setting?

Also, I noticed when you had the Community/Groups/Forums for the mobile buttons earlier this week, the site finally worked properly in mobile on my Android tablet. When you changed it back to Community/Alerts/Conversations/Account, the site now only runs in desktop on my tablet (so no sticky buttons). Would it be possible to have Community/Alerts/Conversations/Account sticky for Android tablets as they were earlier in the week? If not, is there a mobile URL that I could use to force the site to work in mobile mode? Thanks!

The real-time feeds is all or nothing, and I am guessing that it would hard for us to make that a user preference. I don't mind turning it back on as I prefer it as well, but I would want to determine that it is better for most users.

Can you please take a couple screenshots and let me know what iPad you are using so I can figure out how I may need to adjust the responsive behavior.

I've noticed several of the threads that were missing from the Discussion page are showing up today. I did find another one that is missing from Discussion:

So there was a bug which under certain conditions was causing certain threads that were promoted to the "Hot" feed to get removed from the Discussion feed. I found a way to prevent that from happening (while the bug is being fixed), with slightly more work for myself. However, in the meantime, "Discussion" and "New Posts" should now again be pretty much identical as I manually added those threads back into the Discussion feed. If you notice any threads not showing up on Discussion that do show up in New Posts, please mention them here, as I may missed one or two.

Assuming equal functionality it might just be a labeling issue, "What's New" instantly communicates the message where "Community" and "Discussion" are a bit more vague. If the What's New button were put in place of the seemingly never used Groups button that might answer some of the complaints. But as you say people are stubborn and resist change, every forum update is a "disaster" until we all get used to it.

True, "What's New" does communicate better in a sense, but it also is even less accurate a description of what it even is. I mean, technically the Discussion feed can be put in reverse order in which case it would be better to call it "What's old". Ultimately, if and when we decide to replace What's New properly, I will probably just call it "Discussion/What's-New" until those get strongly associated such that I can eventually remove the "What's New". But I won't do that until I'm confident that all issues have been ironed out.

 

[danny]

Update: As mentioned in my last post, the issue where certain threads were not showing up in the Discussion feed (but were in New Posts) should now be resolved. Please let me know if you see any other discrepancies.

I also have restored the "What's New" button to the bottom mobile tabbar for the TMC Pro 2022 and TMC Dark Pro 2022 styles. For the non-Pro styles, I am having an issue customizing the links there so I haven't been able to update that one yet, but am working on it.