Hello again SW Members! Wishing you again a great week ahead. :)
As most users have noticed, we did a significant update last week, which we had to roll-back due to some problems, as well as based on user Feedback.
Thank you very much for the feedback provided, as always, we are here to listen.
We believe we have understood what most users didn't like about the last release, and we made all possible steps to improve this for users, as well as allowed users to submit proposals on how we can better make these changes.
I will now discuss the latest release, as well as the improvements/changes we have made since the last reverted release.
Comments from your Friends and other Relevant users to you may now appear in your Home Feed, amongst the latest posts which you are used to seeing in this feed.
We understand that this change is very new and surprising to many of you, however we hope that you can give it a chance.
We will be listening attentively to your feedback, as we always do.
Our idea with this change is to add more relevance to users on this site.
Previously before this change, the Home feed was filled with mostly random posts, 90% of which are not relevant or interesting to many users.
We considered (based on feedback) that many times users feel the site to be "empty" (while our stats show the opposite). Many times users don't see and engage with their friends and acquaintances often enough, as they'd have to get through 100 other posts which may not be relevant to them.
The aim is that users will now be able to interact with their friends/acquaintances much more often, and join them in topics they would otherwise be unable to find (with the old feed layout), while we also still continue to show all the latest posts on the home feed as we always have.
We have now included the option to completely disable this feature. So, if you do not wish to see comments in your home feed, you can simply Disable this.
You can also adjust the Relevance Level of the comments which appear in your feed (if you choose to show them at all).
This is useful for example, if you find that you are seeing too many comments from users you are not close/familiar with.
○ Less Relevance (More Comments) ○ Average Relevance ○ More Relevance (Less Comments)
• Improvements to Header and Navigation
As explained in another post of ours: https://similarworlds.com/100-Admin-Announcements/1779577-How-can-we-improve-SWs-Main-Header-Navigation
It is sometimes necessary for a website/company like ours to make adjustments from time to time, in order to accommodate new features such as those you our members have been requesting. We do not make changes without taking our user's interests as a priority.
We have now released changes to the Main/Header Navigation again, but this time, made all links much easier accessible, by utilizing Drop-Down Menus.
Please feel free to share your feedback and let us know if this format is convenient for you.
Other recent improvements to Similar Worlds:
• Mute or Block users directly from the post/comment feeds.
• Removed the "Relevant" Feed, as we wish to simplify our website and improve the main feed instead.
• Display "Edited: xx ago" on Posts, to prevent abuse of the Edit feature (eg: changing the original post considerably to cause misleading answers).
Privacy Improvements and Bug Fixes: ○ "Online" status not showing anymore on the Blocked People list. ○ Removed showing of User Tags in Notifications of comments, if the user is blocked. ○ Fix that emails were not being sent if the user was being mentioned/tagged.
We do understand that some users are unhappy with us making sudden changes to Similar Worlds, however we would also like users to understand that this part of the process that any company goes through during its growth.
One difference we have apart from many other companies is that we DO listen extremely closely to our members, and try our best to always accommodate and make them feel comfortable on SW.
Contrary to many comments we've read recently on SW, we have indeed constantly kept users in our development discussions, and have posted many polls and questions over these past months/years, asking for feedback and opinions regarding proposed developments for Similar Worlds.
It isn't possible for us to require feedback from members on EVERY release we are going to make, as it would stifle progress and innovation. We are constantly releasing updates and fixes to SW, even though many may not always realize it.
As well, there are many ideas which we can only receive proper feedback after users have been able to experience it. As always, we do react very quickly to user feedback, as we did last week.
We hope that there can be some understanding regarding our need to experiment with new updates in order to make Similar Worlds better for everyone in the long-term.
We will also make more efforts where possible to keep users more informed about plans we have for future development.
Thanks again for your attention and support! - The SW Team
Update:
Just Released:
[b]• Refresh Button on both Question and Story feeds. Based on feedback, this should help users reload for new content without needing to use the new drop-menu links.
• Improved the "See More »" button in feeds to allow loading of more content.
• Fixed the "Books & Literature" questions category being broken: https://similarworlds.com/questions?category=34
New Planned Feature:
• Super Bookmark
We will discuss adding a new "Super Bookmark" icon into the main header/navigation, which users can utilize to access their favorite page at any time in just one click.
We are still also considering having a "Regular Bookmarks" feature, whereby users can save a list of their favorite SW pages for easy access.
[b]• Refresh Button on both Question and Story feeds. Based on feedback, this should help users reload for new content without needing to use the new drop-menu links.
• Improved the "See More »" button in feeds to allow loading of more content.
• Fixed the "Books & Literature" questions category being broken: https://similarworlds.com/questions?category=34
New Planned Feature:
• Super Bookmark
We will discuss adding a new "Super Bookmark" icon into the main header/navigation, which users can utilize to access their favorite page at any time in just one click.
We are still also considering having a "Regular Bookmarks" feature, whereby users can save a list of their favorite SW pages for easy access.
The header and navigation isn't an improvement. Now I have to click twice and almost thought something was removed. No need to group things when there's a huge unused space to the left and right.
@Nunoooh right i get it now, the "more" and "less" refers to how much comments we will see in total after the selection ... yes, thank you very much Nuno you're awesome!
The one thing that irritates me about this new format is the showing of the latest responses on the home page instead of the whole question/comment of the original poster.
I'd much rather see the entire original post than see the latest answer. Here I am seeing half the original post then an answer/comment. It means that I have to click on the post to see just what it was the original poster is saying/asking. It doesn't help when trying to just scroll down to see the original subject of that post. I am more interested in that than in the comments that others have made. Many times, I just post something in relation without wanting to see what others have said.
Why can you only see comments when you show posts from everyone. Wouldn't it make sense that you could see your friends comments too when you only show posts from circle and friends only? :?
And can we disable our own comments from showing up?
@SW-User, this is something we will discuss and may release soon.
SW-User
@Andrew Thanks, it just makes no sense at all, that people who have their replies set to private will show up now in the feed. It's clunky and messy and I don't like seeing the comments.
The header stuff (orange VIP bar, Post buttons, and Customize Feed button and text above it) does not fit well into my smartphone screen when the white post regions below are aligned with the width of my screen. I am using Chrome on an Android phone on a Samsung S6. The VIP bar goes off the screen to the right. It is way too wide to fit. The text above the Customize Feed button overlaps the orange Question button.
SW-User
This is off topic but could you consider reducing the time it takes for posts I've deleted to be permanently deleted? Six months is a ridiculously long time.. a few days or a week is more than enough time to change my mind..
This is a huge improvement, thank you! Although now I see my feed getting spammed with comments by people I argue with, so gonna customize that to friends only real fast, heh.
How can I delete my entire conversations (PM's) with a user that had left SW? I only see an "archive" option, but I'm not interested in saving them anywhere for later.. I want to erase them forever. Seems lots of people leave SW suddenly..
OK... Once I move a conversation to the "archive". How do I go to the "archive" and delete it? I just cant find it... need to know how to get there from home? my profile? my messages? were is the beginning?
@Nuno THANKS SO MUCH.. It works.. The secret is in knowing where to find it.. Never thought to delete something would require archiving it.. BUT no matter..
Too many options of very minor importance. And the drop down boxes are a drag. I imagine others appreciate the changes, but to me it's just enhanced garbage sifting with little hope of finding anything.
Thanks Andrew, I'm still learning my way around some of these latest changes. I was gone when some happened and was pleasantly surprised when I came back. ⭐Nice work, thank you.
@gregloa yes (for those who allow the setting to show their activity), however, you won't be able to join a friend's live discussion in a timely manner, as the comments in feed now allow.
@JoyfulSilence hello, Recent comments have always appeared on the homepage of SW (in the sidebar for desktop users).
What you are referring to is a different type of privacy feature, as it disallows users from browsing through all of your past activity/comments via your profile.
Comments appearing in the home feed are only the most recent comments, and cannot be used to view a history of someone's replies.
Also, they are mixed together with everyone elses posts and replies.
However, we understand your concern, and will be discussing having a new privacy feature which will hide the user's comments from ever appearing in feeds.
Like this change, though i liked the other one to. People seem to just be too damn lazy to learn the new changes or to lazy to make 1 extra click which takes like not even a sec unless people using wifi dial-up.
This comment is not me being an SW stuck up. I and a few people awhile back have suggested a clutter free website so it is easier to navigate through "certain" or "Specific" things a user is looking for and this is what they gave. Soo great work SW Team.
I hope the next thing they add in is #tag search. Example if i wanna see Only recent Mildy Adult content i can click that and itll only show recently Mildy Adult thread.
Personaly I don't mind the change as it's fairly customisable, I would still prefer the "stories and questions" tabs to be pinned so I don't have to navigate a drop down window though..sue me I'm lazy like that
