Forum Sidebar layout/feedback

InceptionHosting

I am considering removing the Categories and Popular Tags from the sidebar:

Also this element:

The categories can always be accessed from the top bar anyway, I don't believe anyone really benefits from a visual representation of the tag cloud and all the activities etc are available by just clicking on your profile on the top right so to me it seems like pointless replication with no added functionality.

I would propose to instead replace those elements with a list of the latest posts (automatically updating) and possibly the discord server plugin (not tested on staging yet so that may not work out).

examples (not from this forum obviously):

I wanted a bit of feedback before removing something that perhaps I find completely pointless but potentially a significant amount of forum users enjoy.

Cheers me dears.

Ant.

bikegremlin

For what it's worth, I've never clicked on categories, or tags, from the sidebar.
Always went for categories from the top menu.

InceptionHosting

@bikegremlin said:
For what it's worth, I've never clicked on categories, or tags, from the sidebar.
Always went for categories from the top menu.

Thanks, I suspect that will be the case for most people but want to make sure so it is worth something

cybertech

@bikegremlin said:
For what it's worth, I've never clicked on categories, or tags, from the sidebar.
Always went for categories from the top menu.

same here ...

alwyzon

No need for the categories/tags indeed. But, I actually liked the “My Discussions”/“My Drafts”/etc section. And I don’t see much value in the “Latest Posts” widget. You can see the latest forum posts on the landing page anyhow.

_MS_

I've never understood why the Recent Discussions and Recent Activity widgets were not included in the (Vanilla) forum homepage and each thread page. I think all those "new" icons increase the forum engagement.

The Recent Discussions widget also acts as a shortcut to the active threads for users. They can click on their preferred thread from the sidebar instead of going to the homepage and scrolling. The Recent Activity widget also kind of make the forum look more active that it actually is.

On both of the LE* forums, I only find these widgets in the sidebar on a few pages only, I just checked, and I could only see these two widgets on only 1 page. Here, on the Wiki page, and there, on the "Dark Theme Config" page.

mikho

@alwyzon said:
No need for the categories/tags indeed. But, I actually liked the “My Discussions”/“My Drafts”/etc section. And I don’t see much value in the “Latest Posts” widget. You can see the latest forum posts on the landing page anyhow.

second this.
I've never used the categories or tags section.
But I "often" use the "My Activity" links to find stuff I posted in the past.

What's the upside of the latest posts in the sidebar? As the updated topics are always on top of the front page, what value does it add?

Discord might be a nice addition.

when doing the changes, perhaps continue with the different colour grading for the header and create a block for the links for LES ad order form and the Quick links (General info, Provider list and rules).

beagle

I also don't use the tags or categories. I mostly access the discussions from the main page and then click on the logo to return. If I need anything specific I use the search box.

I don't use Discord, but happy with the plugin in the sidebar if it's useful for other users.

seriesn

I don't think anyone ever actually clicks on tag clouds. Decluttering would definitely be nice

TigersWay

My 1.5 c... Like many others, I never used the "Categories and Popular Tags" part, but I did use my "own" activities and bookmarks!

Mason

Just a heads up, the only link to "My Drafts" is in that sidebar. So if you do end up removing it, kindly add that link to the profile page.

Ympker

@Mason said:
Just a heads up, the only link to "My Drafts" is in that sidebar. So if you do end up removing it, kindly add that link to the profile page.

Good to know haha

AngelofMusic

I rarely look at anything in the sidebar.

SGraf

@AnthonySmith said:

@bikegremlin said:
For what it's worth, I've never clicked on categories, or tags, from the sidebar.
Always went for categories from the top menu.

Thanks, I suspect that will be the case for most people but want to make sure so it is worth something

Pretty much the same here.

flips

"My Drafts" and "My Bookmarks" is kinda handy. Tag cloud etc. I never noticed/paid attention to. It's not really ever a sidebar for me, as I keep it in a narrower window on my laptop, and in mobile it's always narrow ...

(Clarification: I like the My Bookmarks feature, but don't actually use it, as it triggers email for all updates to the thread. For me it would be nice if I could bookmark a post/topic without that meaning I'm subscribing to email notifications.)

havoc

tbh my bookmark points to new discussions & that's pretty much the only part of the interface I use (except when creating a thread).

mikho

@flips said:
"My Drafts" and "My Bookmarks" is kinda handy. Tag cloud etc. I never noticed/paid attention to. It's not really ever a sidebar for me, as I keep it in a narrower window on my laptop, and in mobile it's always narrow ...

(Clarification: I like the My Bookmarks feature, but don't actually use it, as it triggers email for all updates to the thread. For me it would be nice if I could bookmark a post/topic without that meaning I'm subscribing to email notifications.)

I think you can change that in your profile settings.
Under notification settings.

flips

@mikho said: I think you can change that in your profile settings.

Under notification settings.

Ah, thanks, in dark mode on mobile those settings are b0rked (turns white on white), but this is very nice to be able to set.