Changes to the forum's layout and navigation

Forum Feedback
1

Hey all, I’ve turned on Discourse’s new sidebar navigation, which you can access by clicking on the “hamburger” icon next to “iNatForum”:

image

For more information about the sidebar, see https://meta.discourse.org/t/an-overview-of-features-in-discourse-sidebar/258478 Like any change, it make take some getting used to. If you have some feedback or thoughts after trying it for a few days, you can share them in this thread.

Also, Discourse changed the notification menu, you can read about that here: https://meta.discourse.org/t/rolling-out-the-new-notification-menu-to-all-discourse-communities/260358

7 Likes
2

I would use the Latest button all the time in the old navigation. Also, the link to my iNaturalist homepage.

I did not see those navigation choices in this new layout. Did I miss spotting them?

Edit: I found the way to get Latest.

3

Thank you. Mine was on by default, and I was just about to post a thread asking how to toggle it off.

3 Likes
4

not sure if it helps, but there’s also a setting in your forum account preferences under Interface that will allow you to set the Latest page as the home page.

earlier when i was looking at the forum on my phone, i had to look around for a few seconds to find the Latest posts under the dropdown menu rather than having the big dedicated button, too.

1 Like
5

The Discourse link says they will default to on at the end of April.

6

Omg, I’m glad it can be turned off, everything is weird with forum today!

2 Likes
7

I still cannot find the link back to my iNat (.org) page. Am I missing that, or was that link omitted?

1 Like
8

I’ll get used to navigating the forum but it would be nice to have a link back to iNat somewhere.

1 Like
9

I’m still seeing one in the footer:

image
image1148×96 11 KB

10

Ah ha, that will work. I searched every menu at the top and sides but didn’t think to scroll to the very bottom.

1 Like
13

Hmmmm…. The sidebar takes up real estate that I would prefer to have available for the larger fonts I use on my devices.

So, for me, the drop-down style worked better.

Also, I cannot find the link to switch to INaturalist.org; is that gone? I used it constantly, myself.

1 Like
14

I think I asked this before, but I’m curious as to why the link to iNat is so essential? Is this for cases where you’re reading this on a mobile browser? On my computer I generally have forum tab open, and iNat tabs open, so I just switch tabs.

Are you not able to see the footer I referred in a few posts ago?

Do you mind sharing a screenshot of what this looks like?

4 Likes
18

It’s quite annoying that the sidebar visibility isn’t sticky, and there doesn’t seem to be any preference setting for it either. I will never want to use the sidebar, so when I hide it, I want that to be permanent.

Another annoyance is the deeply hidden log out button. It now takes three clicks to log out, when it should be directly accessible at the top level of the menu.

4 Likes
19

I use my phone and iPad to read the forum and I typically set larger fonts on my devices. Also, I often zoom in with finger gesture to make reading easier.

Here are iPad screenshots.

IMG_0109
IMG_01092732×2048 535 KB

IMG_0108
IMG_01082732×2048 611 KB

IMG_0110
IMG_01102732×2048 404 KB

IPhone screenshots

image
image1170×2532 124 KB

image
image1170×2532 126 KB

1 Like
20

It took me a while to find the iNat.org link in the footer. It feels less efficient to get there, though I may not be using the optimum method.

Before:
Click avatar to open dropdown menu
Click link to iNat.org

Now:
Click avatar
Click summary
Scroll down to footer

So, liked the prior drop-down because I could see my link immediately. Now, I have to remember how to navigate to it.

1 Like
21

Anyhoo, as I have some visual challenges (:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: and cognitive ones, too), I find the new sidebar layout does make using the Forum more awkward than the dropdown menus.

I did not find how to turn this feature off when I looked in settings.

1 Like
22

I just noticed this a few days ago after refreshing a forum page and thought it was something I had triggered accidentally. My first urge was to try everything I could to get rid of it. I liked having the hamburger icon in the upper right corner with the search and profile icons, and putting it on the left means I sometimes click on it when I’m trying to hit the bird link to the forum homepage. I’ve mostly gotten used to it by now, but still prefer the old scheme.

3 Likes
23

Is it possible to hide that side bar display?
I have had a few days to realise I never use it.

2 Likes
24

It’d be nice if notifications bar would go back too, it’s too complicated for me now.

2 Likes
25

I would like a one click logout button here on this page.

1 Like