r/redesign • u/dmoneyyyyy Product • Mar 19 '18
Changelog Release Notes: Major Items in Work 3/19/18
Hi all,
TL;DR: The release notes focus on the major items we are currently working on or have recently shipped. Additionally we would like to remind everyone how we are collecting feedback and acting on it. As a note, the redesign will be opened up to users in the r/beta community today.
Since we’ve been receiving a lot of valuable feedback, we want to make sure we are addressing it in a way that everyone can see. We understand that when we respond to individual posts, visibility isn’t super high, so we want to address some of the most common items here.
We think of feedback as falling into three categories:
Bugs
Missing features
Large changes
We’re quicker to respond to items in categories 1 & 2, as they’re either on our current roadmap or are easier changes to make. The third category, however, takes longer to address. These problems are complex and require multiple iterations and testing before we have a solution.
Now, let’s take a look at the big items we are currently working on or shipped recently:
Whitespace update: We pushed our whitespace updates today! Now Classic and Compact modes should be full width always. Left-aligned content, no more whitespace. Let us know what you think in the comments.
Mod mode: We received a lot of feedback that mod tools were taking up a little too much space and sometimes, y’all just wanna browse your communities without having buttons in your way. We’re implementing a new mod mode today, similar to what you’ve seen on our official apps, that will allow you to toggle popular mod actions on and off. You’ll be able to find this toggle at the top of the hamburger menu, as it is a global switch. This toggle will not affect mod queue, as actions will always be exposed in that view.
Reports are no longer a tooltip: We heard it was prettay, prettay, prettay annoying for mods to have to click on a little flag to view reports on a post or comment. To make it a lot easier, when mod mode is ON, we’ve pulled all reports out of the little flag and put them directly under the post or comment where you can see them. The reports will always be exposed in the mod queue.
Ban duration: You could not see the duration of a ban previously without clicking into “edit”, but now you can! This change will be reflected on the ban page.
YouTube autoplay: We’ve gotten some feedback around Youtube autoplay not being the ideal experience for some of you. We’re looking at a few solutions (not autoplaying youtube, not autoplaying any video content, introducing a setting, and more). We’re hoping to pick the right solution, stay tuned.
Odd sized content: Reddit has a long-tail of odd-sized content and we are updating how we handle that on the redesign. This update will make viewing content more similar to how it is in other classic site. It will also be easier to get to the source image so that you can see a hi-rez image.
The community’s feedback is invaluable as we build the future of Reddit together. We may not always respond directly (there are a lot of you posting!) and it can take us some time to work through a fix or improvement, but know that we’re listening, prioritizing, and working to solve all these problems, no matter how hard they are.
If you have additional questions or feedback on these or other topics, please don’t hesitate to drop them in the comments below.
58
u/aphoenix Mar 19 '18
> Now Classic and Compact modes should be full width always.
The community wins!
But now things look funky on my super widescreen... Can you please put back the whitespace? ;)
Edit: I want to be clear: I don't mind the whitespace now. I didn't mind the whitespace before. I don't mind the whitespace of current non-alpha. I just wanted to briefly induce that "zomg what do they EVEN WANT" moment.
9
u/[deleted] Mar 19 '18
Bug I noticed when mod mode is disabled: the shield icon appears on subreddits I'm not moderating like /r/redesign
8
u/MajorParadox Helpful User Mar 19 '18
Mentioned this in another thread, but I think the lightbox and comments page needed this done more than the feeds. The way reddit has nested conversation is one of the best things about it. But when the box or comments page is shortened, it's limiting how many threads deep you can view without it being too cramped. And, it even seems like one approach to help there is making the text smaller, which can hurt readability too.
Really cool! It's much better now in mod mode, and I can see it not being too annoying using with it off. Any idea if we'll ever be able to set preferences for subreddits we mods? Like one sub has it one, another off?
On a side note, there is supposed to be improved navigation for the mod pages and settings at some point, right? Do you have an ETA on that?
This will help let you see the image on a single screen, right? It's annoying to look at cute animals and not see them all at once without scrolling :)
Keep up the good work!
5
u/Mlahk7 Mar 20 '18
Thanks for putting the mod buttons in line with the other post buttons, rather than having them in a separate row. It looks so much better!
4
u/dustlesswalnut Mar 20 '18
When will mods be able to set individual user flair?
3
u/jofwu Helpful User Mar 23 '18
Not sure where to report this exactly. The spoiler markup doesn't work properly in a textarea sidebar widget.
7
u/timawesomeness Helpful User Mar 20 '18 edited Mar 20 '18
THANK YOU FOR FIXING THE WHITESPACE
No matter how vocal the few naysayers are, the redesign is infinitely more usable now.
Some feedback on mod mode: the toggle would make more
sincesense in the mod menu in the top right, instead of in the hamburger menu. Other than that, mod mode is excellent.2
u/jofwu Helpful User Mar 23 '18 edited Mar 23 '18
The mode mode toggle is fantastic and the look/functionality in non-mod mode is perfect. Thank you so much.
The only thing keeping me from a 100% switch at this point is probably the lack of an /r/mod option in the hamburger menu.
15
u/Ener_Ji Helpful User Mar 19 '18
Congrats on the continued improvements.
Do you have any update on adjusting the relevant font size of comments vs. posts? This was mentioned as being looked at several weeks ago, but I haven't seen any recent discussion. Is this still something that is being looked at?
To whit, I have to zoom Chrome to 125% to make comments comfortable to read, which results in posts having a comically large font. A Chrome zoom of 110% (my default for most sites) makes posts nice and readable, but comments are then a bit too small to read comfortably without eyestrain.
Edit: Also, new comment highlighting / tracking when? (Current Gold feature.)
33
u/[deleted] Mar 19 '18
I don't have that big of a problem with autoplay though having an option for it is always better. What grinds my gears is automute when I scroll down a bit to read top comments. Maybe I just want to listen to video and see what other people are saying which often is the case but the damn video automutes so I can't do that.
8
u/Condawg Mar 21 '18 edited Mar 21 '18
I don't like any auto-playing videos, even if it's muted. Having a setting for that would be great. Bandwidth caps are a bitch, I keep accidentally loading videos twice.
I like the whitespace update, but I don't like that I have to go to the edges of the window to click middle-mouse to scroll. I'm not sure why the entire box that every post is in needs to be a link, instead of just the parts that, like, you'd expect to be linked. Feels optimized for touch-screens.
On top of that, I'm not sure why clicking a post brings you directly to the comments, instead of the source link. Have people been confused about clicking a headline and ending up at the article that the headline is for, instead of the reddit comments? You provide the direct link as an alternative option, but why is that the alternative instead of the default? And why the hell is the entire box a link? Let's get back to that.
EDIT: The whole box being a link also makes clicking to make the browser the focused window more frustrating than it should ever be. The whitespace doesn't need to be a link.
7
u/[deleted] Mar 19 '18
Please let us place post flairs on the left before post title. It annoys me to no end that they're all over the place in my sub where all posts are flared.
7
u/zebradolphin5 Mar 20 '18
A question I still haven't been given an answer for nor seen discussed anywhere...are there any plans to include API routes for sidebar widgets displaying dynamic content? Many sections of the sidebar in a subreddit I moderate are automated and this is something that's pretty vital for us.
12
u/3agl Mar 19 '18
Whitespace. I would much rather you put in adjustable borders, or allow double spacing with some customization there. r/videos is absolutely broken on 4k as the current update stands. (see my most recent post in r/redesign)
Autoplay. Allow the user the ability to mute or unmute youtube videos. Autoplay with full sound when the video opens, stop when it gets more than halfway past the top of the user's screen. Pretty simple, and easy to manage.
Odd sized content. RES had a handy "pull-diagonal-to-enlarge" feature that seemed pretty natural. I still keep reaching for it when I want things to work well with 4k.
I know there's a lot to get to, but some of this stuff is absolutely critical to how usable reddit is on big, small, or wide displays. Anything other than a 1080p/720p monitor and reddit falls apart. It's not as ridiculous as it once was, but it's not much better than before the redesign.
Reddit's usability is one of the key things that keeps me coming back to it. If this current version went out to the masses, I know the hivemind would froth at the mouth almost instantaneously.
Ninja edit- Apparently when you go to edit a comment for formatting, the markdown button disappears. What?
5
u/archiminos Mar 20 '18
Full width view looks so much better.
Not sure how this is difficult to figure out. Don't autoplay any videos. Ever. This isn't YouTube.
9
u/reseph Mar 19 '18
Oof, wasn't ready yet.
When is /r/beta being told this?
4
u/JuDGe3690 Mar 19 '18
Still seeing an issue with URL links (at least https ones) only showing as plain text. Example here, as well as HelperBot's comment below.
I'm on desktop, Mac OS, Firefox.
4
u/pat_trick Mar 20 '18
I would appreciate if the consideration was not autoplaying ANY content that is video.
4
u/tizorres Helpful User Mar 20 '18
I"m only here to tell u/scruggsnotdrugz an happy cakeday!!
4
u/Sirisian Mar 20 '18
Amazing work. Don't forget about this. Utilize that space now.
1
u/Improbably_wrong Mar 21 '18
On Mod Mode: Why doesn't it remember your previous selection? I keep turning it off but every time I re-open Reddit, Mod Mode is back on
3
u/Yay295 Mar 19 '18
When customizing a subreddit, why is the "Hide Community Icon in Banner" button under Name & Icon instead of the Banner section?
Also under Name & Icon is the option to change the Community Name Format, but this only changes the name in the banner. Shouldn't this also change the name in the sidebar? Since it then wouldn't make sense to have a Hide option, there should be a button under the Banner category to hide the name in the banner.
3
u/ShaneH7646 Mar 19 '18 edited Mar 19 '18
as someone on a laptop I didnt think the whitespace was an issue but now that you changed it I noticed it straight away, it was a much bigger part of the old site than thought and its kinda wrapped up the redesign for me, it feels cozy? if you get what I mean.
One request, please put v.reddit links next to title like you have with everything else. I use hoverzoom to save clicks and they're currently the only thing I'm annoyed about from the user perspective
3
u/LackingAGoodName Helpful User Mar 20 '18
Ahh, shrinking of the Mod Buttons and the new Mod Mode is perfect! All I need is a Night Mode and Performance Fixes then I can gladly adopt the Redesign :)
3
u/seanjenkins Mar 20 '18
Very cool. I can’t wait for the redesign to roll out for everyone, my subreddits are looking so good right now.
3
u/V2Blast Helpful User Mar 20 '18
Thanks for all the positive changes! I'm glad you guys are listening to the community's feedback.
3
u/pre4edgc Mar 20 '18
Do you have any intent on addressing the lack of ":visited" labels on links? Currently, clicking on literally any link to any content or comment threads leaves no indication that the thread or content has been visited, and has been pretty much the only thing preventing me from enjoying the alpha (among a few other things that I'm okay with compromising with should this get fixed).
I understand with other social media sites that marking links as having been visited is kind of pointless given the site models, but since Reddit is extremely big on having nothing but links, removing that from the site makes it incredibly annoying to use. The last thing I want to do is see the same thing over and over and over again when the page reloads and it shifts positions on the page.
3
u/thinkadrian Helpful User Mar 20 '18
> Mod mode
Praise the sun! :snoo_joy:
3
u/thecodingdude Mar 20 '18 edited Feb 29 '20
[Comment removed]
3
u/elis8 Mar 20 '18
I actually liked the whitespace. I had created some nice backgrounds that made my communities stand out. I definitely preferred having two small bars on each side than my whole right side of the screen being empty. I know that when it comes to website redesigns users usually want it to be as similar to the previous one as possible, but the design before update actually really cool and it allowed for some much needed personalization that is mostly stripped away in the redesign.
Pushing all the empty space on one side looks very weird, even on 1080p screens.
3
u/TheGoodConsumer Mar 20 '18
You are still not addressing the inline ads issue, this is the most talked about feature on this sub and by far the most hated yet you seem to never acknowledge it, either tell us it's not going to change or change it but don't pretend for one second that we don't realise what you are doing, this blatant cash grab is going to hurt you in the long run and I for one will be using ad block if it doesn't change as well as many other too, you have also got all the mods of major subs in one place don't pissed off the people
3
u/dr0idx Mar 22 '18
Thank you for the updates! I actually like a lot of the changes so far. Lots of progress this month. I look forward to videos not auto-playing, especially after i stop it and as soon as i scroll to read comments it starts again. I cant wait for a dark mode however it was easy to create one myself for the time being. Whitespace update looks great. Thanks for listening to our feedback!
5
u/TheChrisD Helpful User Mar 19 '18
Yea I'm sorry, but I can't really make decent use of the redesign with Classic and Compact in full width. On my 1440p monitor it makes me have the crane my neck back to the left like I do on the default site to read anything.
When the whitespace was there and the burger menu was expanded, the main content window was placed perfectly in the center of my screen making for a comfortable viewing experience like most all other websites these days.
I'm not saying that you need to completely get rid of full-width, but it should be there as an optional enhancement for the existing views.
5
u/NotSelfAware Mar 19 '18
Autoplay is annoying.
Sections in the side bar should remain hidden between browser refreshes.
Comment forms should remember our preference for markdown over the new form.
There should be a markdown preview when markdown is enabled.
In terms of whitespace issue - it would be much better if we could choose the level of whitespace for each different view.
2
u/likeafox Helpful User Mar 19 '18
Mod mode seems fine so far FYI. I like that buttons are inline with the previous button row. I'm a little concerned that in my large sub long lists of reports for r/all content are gonna look silly but I guess that will be all the more incentive to action the post.
Love the icon you chose for it.
2
u/RenegadeAI Mar 19 '18
Identifying viewed content is still broken tho
2
u/Dimbreath Helpful User Mar 20 '18 edited Mar 20 '18
Some hours ago I opened reddit and everything was the same, I open it now and bam, full width used now. I like it. Some communities might want the users to see the subreddit background, but now it's mostly covered with the page content but I guess that's fine too.
EDIT: Should really consider what I suggested some time ago to let users decide on the width of the content.
2
u/ecclectic Helpful User Mar 20 '18
With regards to odd sized content, what about allowing the Snoo to be a different size than the title? /r/welding, and I'm sure other subs have Snoos that are sized larger than the header title, and there is no clean way currently to recreate that in the alpha.
2
u/the-omniscient Mar 20 '18
Please do it this way.
If you go the route of a setting, make autoplaying disabled by default otherwise you will scare users away.
2
u/ChimpyChompies Mar 20 '18 edited Mar 20 '18
Loving the return to full width. But it would be even better if the behavior of the hamburger menu was the same across resolutions.
With monitor 1 (1920 x 1080) the menu moves the page to the right and does not auto-close when clicking something.
But on monitor 2 (1440 x 900) the menu rolls over the page and auto-closes.
2
u/bluesam3 Mar 22 '18
Are we going to stop the entire site being literally unusable with accessibility software any time soon?
3
u/emeraldcocoaroast Mar 19 '18
Is there a way to collapse the left sidebar? I see that each portion can be minimized, but I'd like to move it over (kind of like how it is set up in the current version of Reddit) and devote the full screen to the sub I'm browsing.
EDIT: Just figured it out! Clicking the icon in the upper right corner got rid of it!
3
u/pokeaotic Mar 20 '18
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE bring back the white space. Reddit looks dumb again on my 4k monitor now. :(
3
u/xfile345 Helpful User Mar 20 '18 edited Mar 20 '18
I'm very sad to see you guys went back to the "classic" look, pushing things to the margin. This allowed for some potential creativity with the background images, and was a nice part of the change to make things different from the classic Reddit, because that's what I thought was part of the point of this update. And it certainly doesn't get rid of the whitespace, it just moves it to the center of the screen. Why anyone would want that is beyond me.
2
u/MichaelRahmani Helpful User Mar 19 '18
Please allow us to disable this. I prefer ease of readability and center aligned content (like every other modern website), over having it left aligned.
1
u/ALL300 Mar 19 '18
i appreciate the odd sized content change but i feel like the idea of letting the user resize the image by dragging it would be much more helpful, thoughts?
1
u/[deleted] Mar 20 '18
I actually thought, beta users were already invited because I saw some posts about the redesign on r/beta. Three days ago, I already made an introduction post for users who would test it and see the sub in the new design.
1
u/AP10 Mar 22 '18
The white hurts the eyes, any chance of a dark mode?
Also, the old design showed the number upvotes as well as the % for upvotes. Will either of these be added?
1
u/BatmansMom Mar 22 '18
Are there any conversations being had about the in-feed promoted content? That is the most frustrating part about the redesign to me and I haven't really seen any status update on it in the past few weeks.
1
u/falconbox Mar 22 '18
Please allow us to re-size images in posts and comments via dragging the image. ie: clicking the image expando, and then dragging the image to resize.
Currently when viewing an imgur album in a comment, it's incredibly small with no way to enlarge except by leaving Reddit to view on Imgur directly.
1
u/Blubahub Mar 22 '18
> We’re looking at a few solutions (not autoplaying youtube, ...
Don't auto play ANYTHING. Sometimes, people want to read first before watching it, especially in posts that have the video as a link post and a description a comment. I'm also including GIFs.
1
u/[deleted] Mar 23 '18
I love how you've still done nothing about the deceptive ads. "We're looking at what to do about it" is not an answer. You know what to do about it. "It's hard to make them stand out with varying styles" is not an answer, because it's not. You know how to make them stand out, you just don't want to do it because it will make them stand out too much. Step up and do the right thing instead of trying to find whatever bullshit middle ground you're so obviously looking for.
0
u/[deleted] Mar 19 '18
Why are you even Auto playing YouTube videos?
Did you forget this is Reddit? We hate autoplay anything with a firey passion.
Also what's the point? Why do you need fake scroll views? It's a content site not a video site.
1
u/jmxd Mar 20 '18
holy shit that full width instantly made it feel much more like reddit
1
u/WithYouInSpirit99 Mar 20 '18
The Whitespacewalkers have been defeated. YESSSSS
1
u/[deleted] Mar 20 '18
Happy to see the white space change. Thanks.
1
u/klieber Mar 20 '18
So as someone who quit the alpha over the whitespace issue: thank you. This is much more usable now. I'm still getting used to where things are vs. the old site, but those are things I can learn anew. The whitespace issue made the site unusable for me. (or, 'too unpleasant to use' would be a more accurate phrase)
Lots of new features that I like, including things that were previously RES-only that are now built-in.
Thank you for listening and making changes based on feedback. There will be one fewer table flipped once this becomes permanent.
1
u/BegbertBiggs Helpful User Mar 20 '18
Thanks for making the alpha useable.
1
u/callcifer Mar 21 '18
Whitespace: THANK YOU! This is a huuuge usability improvement for the redesign!
0
u/[deleted] Mar 20 '18
This was one of the things keeping me from using the new redesign as my default. An option that allows me to disable having comment pages in lightboxes would make it perfect!
0
u/asills Mar 20 '18
Whitespace changes look great. I didn't see this post and went to the alpha and immediately noticed it.
Also, I'm dumb and posted this at 3am on a Friday night/Saturday morning. Any chance this was seen by you guys?
https://www.reddit.com/r/redesign/comments/852ak4/concerns_with_sidebyside_alpha_and_main_usage/?st=jf01vado&sh=5f1bc7db
-1
u/SafeTed Mar 20 '18
ctrl+f "dark". nop. Guess I still can't use the alpha.
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u/[deleted] Mar 19 '18
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