11/15/2020 changes SA basic New article/comment format ?!

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Dear SA developers and IT, This new format for following articles is currently very confusing adapting from the previous version . Can you provide adjustments tutorial? i.e: where did the article "like" button go? , where is the Track/Untrack button? Why aren't all new comments not highlighted orange anymore in sync with the comment thread as replied to specific commentators using the (@ symbol) or not ?


The "bell" notification of new comments on articles followed is not showing new notify on the home page , I have to cursor prompt check?


It would also be nice to have some transparency to the endgame SA rationale for these changes ....whatever happened to sending out notices of changes /discuss/implement process?!


https://seekingalpha.com/news/3636393-rcep-trade-pact-is-signed-after-years-of-negotiations

Thank you in Adv. for your considerations and replies .

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SA Jacob Maltz
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  • Answered

Hi all thanks so much for your feedback.  Our primary reason for making these changes is to use the same page across our desktop and mobile platforms using Responsive web technology.    We have already finished our home and portfolio pages, and most of the symbol page, and we are now working on the news and opinion article pages.  At the moment we are testing a new version of our responsive news page on some of our users which is why you are seeing it.   

As you mentioned in your feedback, we do have an issue with the button for turning on tracking comments, our developers are working on it and it will be available ASAP inside a menu at the top of the comment section next to the sorting. As shown below:

Also, we created a new design for the "New" articles which is highlighted in green and works for mobile as well as desktop.  We also bold the new comment, which is currently in focus, so it is clear which comment you jumped to via the "Next" button although we are considering changing this bold design to a background color instead.  For example: 



Please keep in mind that there are a very large number of screen sizes and screen resolutions that people can be using and it is impossible for us to test all of them.   When you see a problem, please assume that it looks perfect on my laptop and that I need to understand what you are seeing so I can figure out if it is indeed something that we can fix for you and all users with a similar setup. The best way to do this is to paste a screenshot right into the report.  

All the best,

Jacob

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Joe de Mencia

Amen. New format is very meh. No "track" comments button + its very narrow format is bad for reading on a nice wide screen. Too much wasted space.

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canyon

Agree!  The new format is bad.  AND, THERE IS NO TRACK BUTTON - FIX THAT PLEASE!!!

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RealRural

I am totally confused with what appear to be format changes on  SA pages when you go to read one of your expert's posts. Sometimes it comes up exactly as it has in the past. Other times it comes up with different font and way too spacious leading, and the comments section is also all spaced out and comments appear in bold. Was there some notificaition somewhere of a format update or change to let us know what is going on/  

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canyon

@realrural

Classic example of "fixing" what isn't broken (actually, breaking what needs no fixing).  So frustrated with SA over this, no way I'm going to by a paid subscriber when the site doesn't offer such basic functionality (as tracking comments).

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SA Admin Kushal Mehrotra
  • Under review

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback, i've relayed the same to our product team.

Regards,
Kushal Mehrotra
Data QA Analyst, Seeking Alpha

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tennis111

The Tracking Comments feature was very useful, and now it's missing in half the articles.  Please bring it back for all of the articles.  Thanks.  

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SA Jacob Maltz
  • Answer
  • Answered

Hi all thanks so much for your feedback.  Our primary reason for making these changes is to use the same page across our desktop and mobile platforms using Responsive web technology.    We have already finished our home and portfolio pages, and most of the symbol page, and we are now working on the news and opinion article pages.  At the moment we are testing a new version of our responsive news page on some of our users which is why you are seeing it.   

As you mentioned in your feedback, we do have an issue with the button for turning on tracking comments, our developers are working on it and it will be available ASAP inside a menu at the top of the comment section next to the sorting. As shown below:

Also, we created a new design for the "New" articles which is highlighted in green and works for mobile as well as desktop.  We also bold the new comment, which is currently in focus, so it is clear which comment you jumped to via the "Next" button although we are considering changing this bold design to a background color instead.  For example: 



Please keep in mind that there are a very large number of screen sizes and screen resolutions that people can be using and it is impossible for us to test all of them.   When you see a problem, please assume that it looks perfect on my laptop and that I need to understand what you are seeing so I can figure out if it is indeed something that we can fix for you and all users with a similar setup. The best way to do this is to paste a screenshot right into the report.  

All the best,

Jacob

Avatar
canyon

Jacob, this is such a bad approach.  I use my desktop because the phone is limited (in functionality, in rendering, etc.).  In making it all the same, you are taking the most robust offering (desktop) and dumbing it down to the lowest (cellphone).


The bolding concept FAILS.  One wants to look at the page and see multiple new comments (not read them, but visually see them on the page), and the one-at-a-time bolding doesn't show new comments at once, it requires clicking through each one as opposed to scrolling and reading (some re-reading) chronologically.

The requirement to constantly click "show more" also fails when any of the "more" are a muted user but not all of the more are muted.


This project is so far failing, ignoring or not adequately studying user behavior and interaction, unexpected consequential effects you are putting in placing, and waterfalling.  You're ruining a good thing at SA, please take a step back and get it right.

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Bitzap

I would also add that the hiding of some comments behind "show more replies" is really bad.  There's no good reason for that, it makes skimming through comments harder, and, it hides comments from searches -- if you search the page for some text you know is in a comment, then you'll fail to find the comments hidden behind the "show more replies" button.  Really bad usability.

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Bitzap

Also, at least in Chrome, clicking the "next" button to move to the next comment often reloads the whole page instead of just scrolling down.  That's really annoying.

Also, the react based interface is _much_ slower than the older one on desktop.