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Preview the new Current.com homepage

  2. rnaber
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It's been just over 3 months since we dropped Baby Current.com off at Pre-K and today we gave her two exciting booster shots.

The first is a preview of a new homepage design @ http://current.com/homepage.htm (with the option to keep the old one) and the second is a "Video Screening Room" that lets you watch videos right on the profiles pages of video producers.

-- Screening Rooms --
To see the Screening Room in action, take a look at the profile of any member with original uploaded (or webcam'd) video. Try out our own Laura Ling @ http://current.com/people/lauraling or VC2 Producer Joslyn Rose Lyons @ http://current.com/people/Jog9

At the top of the page you'll now see a video player and playlist of that person's most recent video uploads. We think this feature will help you quickly discover more stuff from Current and VC2 producers you like, while giving producers a more robust profile page to better showcase their contributions.

-- Homepage --
To sneak a peak at the new homepage, click the link in the upper-right corner of the homepage or go to http://current.com/homepage.htm

Overall, our goal was to give you quicker access to all the exciting pieces of the Current.com universe.

Here are a few of the additions that we hope you will enjoy:

Top Stories
While Current Picks continues to deliver an endless stream (or, <ahem> "current") of compelling content, we wanted to have a place to highlight the most important stories of the day without fighting the flow of the Interweb's relentless pulse.

We're packing 6 top stories at the top of the page in a nifty rotation, all timed and indicated by our new breakthrough in background Progress-bar Technology.

Topic List
On the left side of the page, you'll find quick access to the biggest and baddest of the over 30,000 (!) topics in the Current.com Topicsphere. Click that green arrow when you rollover a topic slot to see even more related badness to the badness you were just about to get into.

Current TV
On the right side of the page, you'll find easy inline access to our TV schedule and a dropdown filled with our featured pod families -- alas, you'll have to search no further for your favorites like SuperNews, Infomania, Daily Fix, Joe Gets and more.

TV Contenders
Right under our Make TV assignments, we're adding a window into the videos being uploaded by our VC2 producers. Vote for your favorites and help us decide what should be picked for TV!

With all these glorious additions, you might be asking yourself why we're hiding it in preview mode. Why not let this new page shine its light on the world, you ask? Well, there are so many changes packed in there that we wanted to gather your feedback while we tested out all the new functionality. So, please let us know what you think -- either right here on this thread, via the form on the bottom of the new homepage preview or to comments@current.com.

Happy browsing -- and let us know your thoughts!
rnaber

38 responses // Preview the new Current.com homepage

  • when do they roll out? the link above didn't work for the homepage.
    shampton
  • Dear maber

    I do like the new -- Screening Rooms --
    I was starting to think this was a NO option in the new current.com If this is the case I take my word back. Why however you do not like smart scrolling on the vc2 producers? Thank you I know you been working a lot on this
    NOTOTHEWALL
  • Hey Rod! How about a black background!?!

    <ducks to avoid Rod's stylus>
    joebrilliant
  • Thanks NOTOTHEWALL

    What exactly do you mean by "smart scrolling"? It sounds like the future :)
    rnaber
  • Sweet...
    Dflo
  • I love it...my only suggestions is to allow the video option of going fullscreen...

    I'd be great to watch fullscreen pods sometimes. Just my thoughts...

    Keep up the great work! Ciao.
    mexisurfer
  • Will this new version load any faster than the current one? At times, the load time on this site is excruciating. I have broadband, latest browser with proper settings, and do regular geek maintenance to my system and still things just seem too slow to load, or I get errors within various portions of the posting process.
    barkway
  • I love the screening rooms. It is great to see the work each producer has made all in one place.

    QUESTION: Will paragraph formating work on Intenet Explorer the way it does in FireFox? Viewing this site on Explorer always runs all the words together in threads. Or am I the only one that happens to? could be my broken head.
    twodee
  • The homepage looks great. And the "screening room" feature on VC2 contributors profile pages is a much needed improvement. It brings us out of the dark ages when people would visit our profile and only see the things we commented most recently on, not our own work.
    Kudos to Current for staying so fresh and new.
    hisStoryFilms
  • I like it.
    ConditionedGoods
  • I like the changes, they are long overdue. Kudos!

    It'd be nice to have a voting option and a cut and paste embed/direct link option, from the videos seen on a producer's profile.

    Clicking on the video once it's playing on a producer's profile should take you to the page where comments and voting are located.

    Also, just curious, how is it that Joslyn Rose Lyons is listed by you as a VC2 producer above (VC2=viewer created content), when IMDB lists her as a HOST at the Current TV network (2007-2008)?

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481978/

    So confused.

    -zen
    zenbeer
  • I like the new homepage BUT!!

    Give the VC2 competition a more prominent role!
    Right at the the top of the page.

    This is the core concept behind Current. You killed the leaderboard and many VC2 producers felt betrayed.
    Now you seemingly give it back but once again it's not prominently featured.

    The 'tv contenders' box should be right next to the 'top stories' box.
    Don't put it bellow 'playing on current tv' and 'get on tv now'.

    The screening room is OK, in fact it should have existed from the beginning, but there are still no links to the different activities.
    Mixing videos with comments and greenlights makes the whole profile page pretty much useless.
    Create filters, please!

    " At the top of the page you'll now see a video player and playlist of that person's most recent video uploads."

    Exactly what does ''most recent" mean? We can't watch a producer's 2-year-old videos on his profile page?
    I think the playlist should be comprehensive.

    " On the left side of the page, you'll find quick access to the biggest and baddest of the over 30,000 (!) topics in the Current.com Topicsphere. "

    And just what makes them the "the biggest and baddest"? The staff's decision? Or our votes? Or what?
    Looks pretty arbitrary to me.
    stardate
  • twodee: No, you're not the only one that happens to....I get that too. It is kind of irksome, from a wriiter's perspective, to not be able to use any conventional formatting in posts. Who writes anything in one big paragraph? Being able to use Bold, Italics, adn Color would be nice too. (although PLEASE do NOT add emoticon functionality!)
    barkway
  • now that I have seen it a few more times today it is kinda freakin me out. There is now way too much stuff packed into a few square inches of space and it keeps movin around. gimme that damn remote!!!
    twodee
  • I am still trying to figure out how to work it.. lol
    EricaJaye
  • My opinion as a designer and communicator of 30+ years is that this is just too Web 2.0. I'm as anxious to see that trend die as I am reflected logos.

    I love Current's logo and know some folks involved in the launch, but this redesign is just a bit bland and reflects little of the spirit of the community here.

    The appearance is so similar to that of far too many e-commerce sites and portals of every stripe that it lacks a distinct personality.

    I think I know who designed this and I love their work generally, but this one ain't rockin' my boat.

    The CSS however, rocks, at least on my mac.
    progresswear
  • What I didn't find on the new homepage is a link to the new(est) articles and uploads that aren't on the "top stories" or "current picks". I think such a link should be included. :)
    Vierotchka
  • Hey Vierotchka,

    You will fnd the latest uploads and articles by clicking the "new" sort instead of "current picks"
    Justin_Gunn
  • put some D's on it!!
    phukna
  • they need hot sauce!!
    phukna
  • hi JustinGunn- could you guys put a 'recent comments' option up? I think that show which things people are talking about and could lead to some faster-growing discussions...
    BubbaParisFan
  • do something about a voting system for PODS. The system is a total farce! Or at least stop telling participants their votes matter.
    twodee
  • I like the new homepage. I find the new homepage easier on the eyes. I think you guys have made a nice site containing an enormous amount of information easy to navigate through. It looks like, to me, that you put some good thought into the navigation and the visual architecture of current.com.
    mjsmith11
  • I like how it is. SCROLLING. That's too modern, complicated and !LOOK AT ME" for my likeing.
    steadward
  • Thanks for all the feedback everyone... here are a few notes to clear up some questions.

    ----- Profile Screening Room -----
    Glad you all like it! Full screen mode on the video player will coming in the next month or so. And some good notes about being better able to get to the full page for the videos and also being able to grab the embed code. Also, the playlist on the screening room should have ALL the producer's uploads... "most recent" just meant that it will order the most recent ones first.

    ----- Topics -----
    The main topics (the ones in the bigger font) are indeed editorially controlled. However, the "hot" topic that pokes through and submenu that pops out when you click the green arrow are algorithmically generated based on recently active topics that are related to the main one.

    ----- IE Formatting Issue -----
    Also, our engineering team is hard at work a fixing the IE formatting issue that a few of you have mentioned. We’ll be getting out an update to fix that in the next few weeks. Thanks for bearing with our non-line-breaked-untidiness in the meantime.

    Thanks again for all the feedback!
    rnaber
  • macaroni!!
    phukna
  • But rnaber! I don't like it! I DON'T I DON'T I DON'T!...so there.
    steadward
  • it's like making beer light,
    it's fn beer/
    leave it alone.
    phukna
  • go giants!!
    phukna
  • I'd like to see the topics that I've chosen to follow on the left... and the latest posts by my connections... why make it so you have to click on another tab to see what you've said you're interested in?

    In general I love the site, by the way, rnaber, keep up the good work!

    jogglef
  • I'd like to see a video leaderboard return, with a transparent voting system for people to vote pods on TV that they want to see.

    The current "voting system" is indeed a farce, since it's more of an area where we can "suggest" to the staff to maybe put something on TV.

    The new voting system on the redesigned website really pales in comparison to the vibrant system we used to have where we all served as citizen programmers and citizen journalists for the network.

    -zen
    zenbeer
  • http://current.com/items/85108361_how_to_upload_a_pod
    zen, This is the echo chamber. This is where we come to hear our own voices bouncing off the walls. At least when it comes to talking anything about PODs/voting system/leadr board/ citizen programmers. They have special filters that remove those words from our text. Honestly, given that NO ONE from Current will address this issue leads me to believe there are big problems with the POD concept and the claim that they take one POD per day (what did she say at 2:30?). This may have something to do with the financial LOSS they are experiencing. In the day of information there sure is a lack of it when it comes to this particular issue.

    twodee
  • I like it all, especially the screening rooms.
    VoyagerFilms
  • twodee! whadaaya mean echo chamber? i thought we were tight. ;)

    in all seriousness, your concerns are valid and we are working to improve our stuff asap. you have my email, so drop me a line with these concerns, and we can talk about it again. or else call me.

    also, please bear in mind that improvements take time to develop, implement, etc etc etc. nothing happens over night, but with the help of feedback like yours we try our best to make it happen soon.
    saskia
  • Hey saskia, we are tight. :) I only mean to point toward your comment about buying pods every day. I would rather not take this out of the public domain as this is stuff people wanna know. So. My big point here is that there is no explanation of where these pods/per day are bought from. The leadereboard? I know you and other staff are on a big campus campaign. Are ya'll just buying stuff /commissions out right from students before they even post. Just looking for clarification and transparency here. I still think the whole pod vote system is a farce. I rarely go to look at pods anymore because I think it wont help that producer out much if I like something. Hey, it is frustrating and a bit of a downer but I got other stuff to do. When Leader board Pod World is fixed I will participate in that again.

    outside of that. I know these changes take time. now and then my fire gets torched up again and I gotta rant. I can remain calm, cool, collected. I am in the zone now. thanks.
    twodee
  • and 5 days later.... still no explanation..........
    twodee
  • Hey, twodee, at least they acknowledge your existence!

    I posted a public rant elsewhere about Current.com and I got disowned by the disfunctional Current TV family - and that was after 2 years of volunteering here. Thanksgiving will be awkward with them this year for sure. I might cry into my pumpkin pie!

    This is how they're handling the community now, they ignore the loudest people, and tell the quieter ones that "they are working on it" and to talk to them in email because it's bad to have criticism out in the public arena where people might see it.

    -zen

    zenbeer
  • 27 days later.....still no explanation.
    twodee