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 favored 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: News, Music, Tech, Earth and Science, Movies, Art and Style, Comedy, 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 shoot us your feedback, and if you're around tonight join us for a Town Hall chat about the new release at 7pm PST / 10pm EST here: http://current.com/townhall
Let us know what you think!
Best,
Mario
Online Community Team
Subscribe to our blog: http://feeds.current.com/topic/77589461.rss
Connect on Current.com: http://current.com/users/mario_a/all/0.htm
Follow the Current.com team on Twitter: http://twitter.com/current
Follow me on Twitter? http://twitter.com/manima
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- mario_a
- added this
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Oh so that's what happened. I thought that i messed with my settings too much and it was just stuck like that :P
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it's giving me a headache...
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- numinant
- 9 months ago
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I don't like it. :(
Bring back the old one, it was far, far better.
recommended by cerealforeal, Conniepae, metalcookiesxy70, justright, mako2424, petarro, donkeyfly69, maasanova, anglcazn, brad62, jubal, unimatrix0, Saladin, VegaNerDiva, WorldPeaceTV, clayjj05-
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- Vierotchka
- 9 months ago
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i like the older one better, the sections work good. but i would remove that featured video in the center of the page.
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I JUST GOT used to the other new homepage....its getting even more complex....I liked the old one better, but whatever you say guys...
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'~'
I liked the old homepage.
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What the...?
My eyes are all over the place. Not very pleasing to my sight.
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- MornRail
- 9 months ago
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Haha I like the all the opposition to change here. With regards to the homepage: whatever, I just hate having to get used to a different format :P I will get over it though.
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I guess quixotic is right, I'll just have to get used to it a bit.
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- FallenMorgan
- 9 months ago
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For those that liked the old home page, the news and politics page is pretty close to what it used to be. It can be found under the news and politics tab:
http://current.com/topics/88816361/news_and_politics/default/0.htm
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- Thomas_Morse
- 9 months ago
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This will be quite the adjustment...
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Well, in all honesty...I like it. In addition, I think this is a great way of varying the news.
I just love how current keeps evolving!
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hey everyone,
thanks for the feedback. it's a pretty big change, we know. but as Thomas_Morse points out, each channel is essentially a new version of the old homepage, but dedicated to specific topics. now you can pick the topic you like, and watch your submissions gain popularity within context of things like news, music, movies, tech, etc.
it will take some time to adjust. keep the feedback coming!
mario
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is there a way to switch back to the old way? too many options now.
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Wow, real intelligent responses and valid criticisms there guys. "I like the old one better" is not going to help anybody, just FYI.
I like it. I think it's a LOT cleaner, clears out the clutter and separates the topics a lot better. Much more pleasing to my eyes as well. Kudos to Current for being able to tweak things so subtly (it's not a huge change, really, get over it) for greatly increased usability.
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I don't like the new one , please put an another option for whom still loves the old style...you can put it in settings section so people can personalize it to their own style.
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There's pretty much nothing you can do about these changes. Just stand by and take it...
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- UrbanGypsy
- 9 months ago
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Actually, I think I'm starting to like it. It looks more um...professional. I dunno.
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I like it, I think it addresses the needs and defining qualities of the community much better. good job.
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It seems to be....organized? Yeah. seems to have a lot of points, deep within its interior of each and every tab..Just a random question: What ever happened to the robot of news?
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- metalcookiesxy70
- 9 months ago
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do not want.
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I don't think this was a good choice. I liked current because the home page had a variety of stories, from politics to health to any little random thing. You could find the most interesting thing on any given day, and now it is no more. I have to look in topics that interest me? I like them all, but I'm not going to spend five hours trying to find funny, controversial, weird, and serious stories in the same day. Is is possible that Current can return to its usual form? This is starting to look like an AOL or Yahoo home page. It seems that now we are forced to look at all the topics and videos of the day. That is bad. If Current starts letting advertising on, it'll lose everything its known for.
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By the way, what's with the videos on every single page? Some of us have computers that crash if a web site tries to constantly run a video when all you want to do is scroll down the page. Be considerate of those with slow connections.
It is also quite rude. Whoever said we wanted to watch that specific video? Really, Current needs to go back to normal, normal being the home page before the last one. That was plain, simple, and quiet. (Perfect.) Now Current is loud and forcing you to read the headlines of fifteen different stories.
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- ajiacoysancocho
- 9 months ago
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I don't like it either. I miss the stories at the top, and also i miss the video version that used to always be up with the current stories. I really enjoyed watching that.
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But no celebrity gossip section? WTF!?!
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- TheColorYellow
- 9 months ago
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