Changes to Design on Thursday, December 20

[mudaba]

Hello everyone,

Here are today's changes to the site design. These will be the last changes until the new year, as the office will be closed as of tomorrow for a week and a half. We wish all of you safe travels if you're travelling, fun holidays whatever you're celebrating, and a very happy new year.

1. Changed and streamlined the background look of categories and discussions pages. Hope this helps with eye strain. Also removed the texture that was rendering in a variety of ways depending on user's monitors.

2. Added Recipe Galleries to the mobile navigation, so that they can be browsed easily on mobile devices.

3. For logged in users, when you click the center reply count, you will be taken to the first unread post instead of the top post.

4. Locked discussions will now appear in your profile.

5. Some users had formatting issues on their profile, and those should be fixed.

6. We have added the functionality so that users can choose how many discussions they see on their category pages. You can now choose to look at 25, 50, or 100 discussions at a time.

Thanks and hope to see you here in early 2013,

Meredith

[mariacarmen]

soooo.... Mods.... are we done? can we expect other upcoming changes? not trying to provoke, just asking, sincerely.

and thanks for the change from gray to blue, it helps.

[mudaba]

Hi mariacarmen,

I'm a part of the product team of CHOW (it's a different group than the mods), and I can answer your question. There are definitely more changes on the way for Chowhound. We are working on building out functionality for discussions in particular, and you can expect to see some changes in that arena in the next few weeks. As ever, we'll post on Site Talk about changes as they happen, and be here to answer questions as they arise.

Glad to hear that the color tweaks have helped you read the site!

Meredith

[mariacarmen]

thanks Meredith!

[ChiliDude]

Was the format change REALLY NECESSARY??? Did you hire an interior decorator who is a compulsive furniture rearranger on a daily basis? THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE PREVIOUS FORMAT!!!!!

[Sarah]

Thank you and the crew! It's almost as good as the old version. Happy New Year!!

[small h]

#3 and #6 have vastly improved my experience here, and #4 is very welcome also. Two questions, and apologies in advance if they've been answered elsewhere:

1. Is there a way to jump from first unread post to second unread post, etc.? I used to do this by searching for "ago," but that is no longer an efficient method.

2. Why do some threads with unread posts have an arrow next to the number of replies, and others don't?

[JoanN]

#2: Threads with an arrow are threads to which you have contributed that have new postings. Threads without an arrow are those to which you have not contributed.

[small h]

I liked your theory, so I tested it, but it did not pan out. Threads to which I have not contributed have an arrow. I probably can't prove it, because you may not see what I see, but this thread:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/883019

came up with an arrow, and I'm nowhere on it.

[JoanN]

Sorry, small h. I was wrong. Threads with an arrow are threads you have read before but not necessarily contributed to. See this from Jacquilynne: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8814...

[small h]

Aha! That's it. Thanks so much for your help.

[roxlet]

Can we address having a reply to op on the bottom of the thread instead of having to go to the top?

[Harters]

A thumbs-up from me, Meredith.

As it now looks, I find it workable and viewing is easy.

I know it has been an issue for discussion (and admit to having lost track of the responses) but it would still be good to be able to delete threads from my profile. Not a big issue, of course, but it'd be nice.

Have a great few days off from work.

John

[mariacarmen]

I'm sorry, but there have been so many threads and posts that i don't know where to pose this question. Is there something being done about viewing CH on a Droid cellphone? i cannot reply to a post when on my phone, there are no "print" "email" "link" "flag" or "reply" icons. Thanks, and sorry if this has been asked and answered already.

[Dave MP]

Hi mariacarmen,

It's something we're going to be addressing more in January. See this discussion for more info: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/882931

But when you tap once on any post or reply, the icons should all be appearing. Hopefully this will help. Thanks!
Dave MP

[mariacarmen]

yes, that did it, thanks!

[mariacarmen]

Ok so yes, that works, but it is really hard to maneuver with the floating page. i am assuming this is still something in the works.

[EM23]

Yes, I am shouting this – THANK YOU! (esp. for #’s 1, 3 & 6).
Happy Holidays

[meatme]

Brava all around. Easy to read now and #s 3 and 6 are major improvements to functionality

[Veggo]

Wow ! Thanks for giving me my 50 back! It augments my entertainment by 150% over the default of 20, and unfortunately for you increases my annoyances in the same proportion. Happy holidays and New Years'.
Veg

[jackiecat]

Thank you so much! #6 fixes the only remaining problem I had with the new site. #3 Yay! This will make reading long threads so much easier.

Happy holidays hounds and staff!

[KrumTx]

I , too, thank you for change #6. Hope you all enjoy a much-deserved vacation.

[Breadcrumbs]

Thank-you for change #1. This is the first time I've been able to stick around for longer than 10 mins without feeling ill since the re-design. It is much easier on the eyes. That said, I still find the font takes on a somewhat blurred appearance and I'm not sure why. If I contrast this text to the blue font that appears in the "Discussions You Might Also Like" to the right, the blue font is much sharper and clearer. I'm not sure why that would be the case.

Looking forward to the changes in the new year...and keeping my fingers crossed that our avatars will be restored and appear wherever and whenever we post.

[donovt]

Do 3 and 6 affect the mobile site? If so, I'm not seeing it.

[meshane]

Hi donovt,

Sorry to say that #3 and #6 do not affect the mobile site.

We will be addressing the number of posts on boards for the mobile site in the near future, but we don't have plans to implement something like #3 for the mobile site at this time.

- Shane

[donovt]

Thanks, I thought I was just being dense.

[GH1618]

For me, it's pretty nearly perfect, except for one issue which may be due to my obsolete IOS. Good work — thank you!

[antennastoheaven]

I think this new design is much kinder on the eyes. Thank you!

[LindaWhit]

1. YAY on the textured background removal. Thank you so much!

3. Dave MP posted this in my initial thread about Reply going to Unread Post vs. Last Post, and I'm still not understanding *where* to click.

4. Thanks.

6. YAY!!!

Much appreciated on the changes/fixes. But perhaps a wee bit of clarification for #3? (Unless there's something that someone has replied and you've explained it further.)

[LindaWhit]

As I said in another thread, never mind! Found the way to "First Unread Post" - THANK YOU!!!

[carolinadawg]

Meredith - how does one change the number of discussions shown on a page? (number 6 in your list) Thanks.

Edit - nevermind, now I see it at the top right of the first post on the board.

[Dave MP]

From any category (board) page, you can select the number 25, 50 or 100. It's just to the right of the "Last Reply" sort button.

[limster]

When looking a list of threads for a given category (e.g. Site Talk), on the row with Date Started, Replies and Last Reply, there's a part with 25 | 50 | 100 -- click on the relevant number to display the number of discussions.