Current.com Release: A Brand New Homepage!

Hey there Currenteers,

It's time for another release, and this one is a big one. Say hello to the new Current.com homepage!

Last time we chatted about our new focus on channels, and one of the things that many people in the community have continually asked about is why certain stories appear to be favoured over others. The truth is, our homepage was always intended to be about "news," and when you think of the way things worked under Current:News, that made total sense. But the site was also set up to display stories based on popularity and votes provided by you, our trusty community members.

This often led to some heated debates. Do entertainment and celebrity stories belong next to important global news on Current? Shouldn't one story be featured over the other?

Well, Current is intended to be home for all types of stories, and we quickly realized that a very news-focused homepage wasn't serving the wide-variety of interests cropping up elsewhere on the site.

Today we launch a new homepage aimed at making this stuff more clear. Here are a few notes about how the new layout works:

+ Current Stories: this carousel will be home to a combination of six featured stories and videos which will rotate throughout the day. These stories are picked from our channels based on popularity trends, and whether or not they are breaking news stories. We'll also slot in some featured updates (like this blog post, or an interview with a notable member of the community).

+ Current Video: in this section we'll feature a series of videos from the vault of Current TV content. Think of it as the greatest hits of what airs on TV.

+ Channels: we have eight channel modules featured on the homepage. These channels are: Editor's Picks, News & Politics, Tech, Entertainment, Sex and Love, Earth and Science, Art and Style, and Virals. Just as a heads up, we will be making some changes to these channels in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

+ Channel Stories: each channel module consists of three stories. The first story is the top featured item from the channel as selected by our online producer, and the other two stories are the most popular stories from the channel as determined by our community. That means your votes, comments, views, and shares on items in each channel helps determine which stories appear on our homepage.

Since we are bound to get some questions, here are a few answers in advance:

"What about the popular list for news?"

Well, each channel now has a popular list, which means that items move up and down just like they did on the old homepage.

"How can I see a stream of all the new items on Current?"

Check out the "Rising News" section. We now have a link to all new stories posted to Current. Enjoy!

"How do I follow a Channel?"

Simple! Click "Follow this Topic" on the channel page, and you're all set. You can even set up your notifications preferences to receive weekly digests from those channels. Try it out!

Well, that's it for now. Please give us your feedback, and in the next couple of weeks we'll be arranging a Town Hall chat, so you get comments back from us in realtime.

Let us know what you think!

Best,
Annie

Online Community Team

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