I see that you have done your research, but is there a way to prove it? I honestly think that somebody should do a poll on NSG and see what happens.

SteezyJapaneezyI see that you have done your research, but is there a way to prove it? I honestly think that somebody should do a poll on NSG and see what happens.

Here ya go: https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/804898/Do-you-like-the-new-Newschoolers-homepage--

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Its a balance. 2/3 of the left side of the page is still dedicated to user content, then the right 1/3 is for advertisers. If this was a magazine it would be 50/50.

Our goal was to separate the two things instead of having them blended together. Just scroll more.

SteezyJapaneezyI see that you have done your research, but is there a way to prove it? I honestly think that somebody should do a poll on NSG and see what happens.

boomieHere ya go: https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/804898/Do-you-like-the-new-Newschoolers-homepage--

There's a few problems with answering this question by using a simple forum poll.

1) Forum posters represent roughly around 10% of the people that come to Newschoolers. So its a very tiny data set and doesn't at all represent the other 90% who don't contribute/post.

2) Simply asking whether you Like it or not, doesn't address the huge set of factors that make a successful homepage. Many people exploded with hate when facebook changed their layout, stating they would immediately rage quit and never come back. Hell I did the same when Gmail changed their layout. However, the User Interface designers knew what both myself and all the angry facebookers didn't - that the new layout once they adapted to it was much more efficient and over time would perform better. Usage of both Gmail and Facebook has skyrocketed since their 'major fuckup in design'.

3) Design by focus groups can fail miserably when you're trying to change user behavior. Thinking ahead of the curve is really hard, and there's an adaptation phase. We're trying to build the newschoolers of the future, not just the newschoolers of today. Its like how tight pants are catching on... sure the first time I saw someone wearing tight pants I flipped out and was like 'FUCKING NEVER' - but the more I see it the more it grows on me. I'm sure 90% of us will be wearing tight pants on the hill inside of 3 years.

Accept change, give it a chance and scroll deeper. Facebook and reddit both have a scrolling-style layout, and are massively popular.

Mr.BishopThere's a few problems with answering this question by using a simple forum poll.

1) Forum posters represent roughly around 10% of the people that come to Newschoolers. So its a very tiny data set and doesn't at all represent the other 90% who don't contribute/post.

But arent those people the most important? Who cares about inactive members. And NS is NS, not FB or Reddit.

SteezyJapaneezyBut arent those people the most important? Who cares about inactive members. And NS is NS, not FB or Reddit.

Well in the forums, then absolutely the forum people are the most important thing ever. Wouldn't ignore what they're saying at all! That was why we did so many of the suggested changes when we overhauled the forums last summer.

However, the audience for the homepage is different. NS is a community content platform as well as a discussion platform, and many of the people who enjoy taking that in don't contribute in the forums. They're just as much NSers as any of us - and having an audience for our community is vital to its success. So they must be taken into account when we're looking at the media side of the site.

Its a huge balance that we have to maintain, and two very different types of visitor.

Also to give some perspective, check how negative some of the feedback was about the old homepage when we launched it.

https://www.newschoolers.com/forum/thread/715861/New-homepage?page=7

Let me be able to delete reviews now please?

Why did you even ask for feedback? Seems like you had your minds set on the new design no matter what people said? Like %90 of the feedback in this thread is against the new design. But you still went with it. I want to see some poll results supporting the new design. Seems like things like this should be decided by the people. After all. We are what make up Newschoolers.

I know this is a very small sample size and doesn't represent much of newschoolers, but I do think there is still a problem with these numbers.

Full caps titles on all of the things in the stream is getting on my nerves.

XWXWhy did you even ask for feedback? Seems like you had your minds set on the new design no matter what people said? Like %90 of the feedback in this thread is against the new design. But you still went with it. I want to see some poll results supporting the new design. Seems like things like this should be decided by the people. After all. We are what make up Newschoolers.

The most vocal group is the unhappy group. Personally I don't like the new homepage. But at least give it a couple weeks and see how you like it. Try and give constructive criticism rather than just complaining ya dig

rsvpThe most vocal group is the unhappy group. Personally I don't like the new homepage. But at least give it a couple weeks and see how you like it. Try and give constructive criticism rather than just complaining ya dig

I'm honestly confused by the new homepage. I think I like it better, but it's like it brought back the look of the old old homepage without much of it's substance or soul. Yes the background ad + flashing side and top banner + moving highlights page make it a bit of a head ache. There's too many different bright colours and textures and too much movement for sure so it's a little overwhelming, but the previous version was like a shitty version of tumblr/pinterest where I didn't get to curate what content I recieved, my eye had to jump all over the place, and ads were snuck in periodically to trick me. Everything flows nicely now, everything is in order and has it's place, and it's more intuitive for the eye to follow.

Back when I first joined NS, and in the year plus of heavy lurking before that, I spent tons of time on the homepage. I much prefer having things separated out a bit (especially the ads, god damn I hate when the ads try and act like content). Once we switched to what is now the 'old' homepage I pretty much left and never returned. You've got visual separation now, but you're not really separating much - you have the scrolling box of mixed top content above the long list of top content, beside the list of sponsored top content - it's selected differently but it's basically 3 versions of the same thing. Plus, this new homepage, like with the current one, doesn't provide a good mixture of content - I currently have to scroll past 10 videos before I get to a single photo, news piece or discussion. Obviously videos are what's getting the most attention on NS right now, but if all I wanted was videos I'd be in the video section. So although having all of the user submitted content mashed together could work in some ideal world, I feel your metric isn't there yet. What I want easily accessible from the homepage is a mixture most popular of the new pics and movies, the most relevant news, and whatever cool convos are happening.

I can't say the loss of content selectivity bugs me. It never worked the way I wanted it to. As you mentioned in this thread, if before I wanted to just look at pictures I was probably on the pictures page anyways. What I have always wanted is the opportunity to filter out specific types of content. For example most of the time I'm on NS I'm in class, at the library, riding transit, on mobile, have a crappy internet connection or am in some other situation where videos weren't an option - if I could deselect videos and just get a mix of the remaining content I would be a happy camper. Similarly, if I've been hanging out in the forums in awhile it would be nice to deselect discussion so that the home page doesn't get clogged up with threads I've already read.

If we are going to keep the new homepage (which, weeks in I still think is gross). I think that forum posts should be excluded from the main feed. It is getting cluttered with too many crappy forum posts instead of more videos and images. If a good forum post really deserves the spotlight someone should manually add it near the top. Having dozens of crap forum posts in there seems silly, as people who are in the forums are going to see them anyway. Also, seconding the all caps is kind of grating post.

XWXWhy did you even ask for feedback? Seems like you had your minds set on the new design no matter what people said? Like %90 of the feedback in this thread is against the new design. But you still went with it. I want to see some poll results supporting the new design. Seems like things like this should be decided by the people. After all. We are what make up Newschoolers.

I take every drop of feedback into account in the master plan. I also store it for later, use it for suggestions, etc. There's huge value in taking feedback, but my job is to sift through it, combine it with everything else I have and then come up with a decision as to direction.

We didn't set out on this to for sure launch the new one. When we did it, it was an experiment, and it was launched to a bunch of different private testing groups before you guys ever saw it.

This thread has gone extremely badly, I do agree. I also agree that the NSG poll is bad, but again - tough to really take that as a good data set for me.

This is a permanent change. The only thing from here would be to think about a future re-design of the homepage (which we used to do every year TBH) where we come up with a new strategy.

This thread has gone extremely badly, I do agree. I also agree that the NSG poll is bad, but again - tough to really take that as a good data set for me.

This is a permanent change. The only thing from here would be to think about a future re-design of the homepage (which we used to do every year TBH) where we come up with a new strategy.[/quote]

You say that the thread has gone extremely bad, and that the poll is bad, but yet you say it is a permanent change. Seems kind of odd to me.

It's like your admitting that the homepage is bad, but don't want to do anything to fix it.

boomieYou say that the thread has gone extremely bad, and that the poll is bad, but yet you say it is a permanent change. Seems kind of odd to me.

It's like your admitting that the homepage is bad, but don't want to do anything to fix it.

No I'm not admitting its bad at all - its great and many other places where I have asked for feedback it has gone outstandingly well. Its just two places its gone bad.

There's nothing broken, right now we have the problem of adapting to a change. I'm confident that with some time, even those who think they don't like it will come around. The success and the new UX concept will grow on the detractors, and the supporters already like it and have left the conversation.

Right now this thread is the vocal minority. I'm really sorry guys, I am - I hate to be so adamant about this, but I'm also confident in my decision as it will play into the permanent betterment of Newschoolers. Some of you will be upset - but some of you were upset when we changed to the old version of the homepage. THe people that loved it were silent then too.

I take each and every one of your opinions very seriously. I just have an enormous amount of people to please, so It is impossible to deliver one experience that right off the bat stokes everyone out. Over time is a different story.

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Hit me up by email, we've tried to fix this a couple of times, but we're only getting it from you. Lets just get on the phone and we can work on figuring it out.

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Welcome to web development.... man its fucking hard to figure out WTF is going on sometimes.

Is there any way to filter news/articles?

Like the fact pictures and videos is all I seem to find now on splashfeed makes me think how many new articles are being made and missed out?

Bring back the filter option pleaseeeee

-SnowSnoli-Is there any way to filter news/articles?

Like the fact pictures and videos is all I seem to find now on splashfeed makes me think how many new articles are being made and missed out?

Bring back the filter option pleaseeeee

We may bring this back on the homepage, but for the time being I highly recommend trying out the Top Rated news and video sections. They are very popular.

https://www.newschoolers.com/news?c=toprated

https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/toprated.0/Top_Rated

not homepage but this happened.

Krotchnot homepage but this happened.

Came to say this.

Krotchnot homepage but this happened.

CaptainObvious.Came to say this.

God dammit. Working on it.

This is very minor but pisses me off, the top bar ad on homepage, no matter what it is, it says "SUMBIT A VIDEO" and should say "SUBMIT A VIDEO"

Been using the new homepage for 2 months maybe? is that how long the beta has been out, not sure. Missed the old one at first but used to the new one, really like the sideways moving part at the top and then find it easy to scroll down and see more content in a simple column.

The only thing I have found I miss from the last homepage is the occasional GIF playing, use to enjoy seeing a good gif on the homepage as I don't check all the categories in photos so would be nice if that could be integrated somehow?

Apart from that it's a thumbs up from me!

No more full caps titles!

can we have the old homepage back? this is garbage.

J_BISCHOFcan we have the old homepage back? this is garbage.

Thanks for the constructive criticism!

I think the new homepage is pretty good. It really makes the interesting content stand out, and is especially useful when visiting once a day or so. Understandably, those of you on here 36 hours a day won't get constant refreshes, but then at that point you would get past all the new content pretty quick anyway so I think it works out. There have been occasions where I have spent 3 or 4 hours on NS at a time, and eventually you just start to go through older threads, watch recent vids etc, rather than using the homepage. Its great for getting an overview before getting into the nitty gritty details deeper in the site.

Well done bishop, keep it up and fuck the haters! People are naturally opposed to change from an evolutionary standpoint, so that is understandable.

Was in the shower and just thought of an awesome idea. What if there was a third "feed" where you could follow people and any photo/video/news that the people uploaded would be shown, but nothing else?

gavinrudyWas in the shower and just thought of an awesome idea. What if there was a third "feed" where you could follow people and any photo/video/news that the people uploaded would be shown, but nothing else?

That's an awesome idea! I approve

MLJThanks for the constructive criticism!

I think the new homepage is pretty good. It really makes the interesting content stand out, and is especially useful when visiting once a day or so. Understandably, those of you on here 36 hours a day won't get constant refreshes, but then at that point you would get past all the new content pretty quick anyway so I think it works out. There have been occasions where I have spent 3 or 4 hours on NS at a time, and eventually you just start to go through older threads, watch recent vids etc, rather than using the homepage. Its great for getting an overview before getting into the nitty gritty details deeper in the site.

Well done bishop, keep it up and fuck the haters! People are naturally opposed to change from an evolutionary standpoint, so that is understandable.

Thanks man! I can tell you're getting the hang of what we're going for. Don't worry, we're giving this a solid run at the gold before we make any drastic changes.

gavinrudyWas in the shower and just thought of an awesome idea. What if there was a third "feed" where you could follow people and any photo/video/news that the people uploaded would be shown, but nothing else?

Oh dude believe me, this type of a thing is exactly where we want to go. Way harder to add than you'd think because the entire back-end database has to be re-built to support it... but something similar to this has been in the planning phases for a while.

Not sure where this should go as it's not really a home page suggestion, but if there was a way to sort members by home mountain I think it'd be really useful. You could find other people to ride with and if you're traveling find locals easier

CashmereCatNot sure where this should go as it's not really a home page suggestion, but if there was a way to sort members by home mountain I think it'd be really useful. You could find other people to ride with and if you're traveling find locals easier

Yeah, this is something we've wanted to do for a LONG time. Its a big feature though.

Mr.BishopAdd together the stuff in the slider and its exactly the same. I'm telling you, its the same data - but to the point of scrolling down the new layout occupies a lot more vertical space. Its supposed to be linear and more organized creating a better scroll flow.

You didn't ignore the sidebar though, you know the top story is TAFT which is exactly what it is. So it caught your eye. Maybe you didn't click, but if you'd have been into the content I'd bet my life you would have - or at least that a lot of people will.

You are very correct that we're trying to make it both feel like more of a homepage and put some emphasis on the hard work that the journalists have been doing. I've heard the 'collage of videos' complaint from a great deal of people, and it took away from what some of the other content actually was.

have you guys compiled enough data to back up these ideas? im interested to know how the data is going. are people staying on the homepage longer, clicking through more? how about the slider and sidebar click throughs?

Tryna make front page during superunknown season like

john18061806Tryna make front page during superunknown season like

Just make something reeeaaaally tight

Didn't know this thread existed when I created one yesterday. basically the homepage doesn't work for me and hasn't since beta. I can still use the rest of the site though

Bishop why do you love the full caps titles.

gavinrudyBishop why do you love the full caps titles.

I can't ever figure out if I should capitalize the first letter of every word like a real title or if I should just keep it casual. but all caps seems to fix the issue:

ex.

"This is My Season Edit"

"this is my season edit"

"THIS IS MY MUHFUKIN SEASON EDIT"

JUST REMEMBER ALL CAPS WHEN YOU SPELL THE NAME

Mr.BishopGod dammit. Working on it.

Hey on the new homepage when you click the top videos all time button it just loads for a little bit glitches and makes your force reload... i tried it like 4-5 times maybe something to look into?

This isn't unique to the homepage but I'm not starting a new thread for this.

This image doesn't seem to want to embed either, but the redbull ad isn't loading properly and it's creating a black square behind the username box. It's in front of the ad at the top, but behind the home, new, forums and whatever bar. It goes over the thread and friends list. It's just a black box and says error loading player, then it's blocked by the username box but I can see "es found" sticking out. I'm guessing it's like no files found or something. There's the broken image icon at the top left of this black box, and that takes me to redbull whatever.

The image I'm trying to embed is a screen cap of the issue. Won't go in with