Autumn changes on Habré and Geektimes
In this publication, we want to talk about the ongoing reform of the content categorization system at Habré and Hiktimes. The process of changes will be divided into two stages: the first, which we announce today, and the next one, which we will discuss later.
In the course of a prolonged redesign, we received regular feedback from users and ardent fans. Among all the messages, one request was clearly distinguished, which was associated withkarma "multithreading", or rather, with the division of "Habr" into threads. “Remove”, “Untie from the hubs”, “I’ll give you all the marketing”, this is an approximate palette of emotions about flows. We had to do something about it ...
It's no secret that today not only programmers or administrators come to Habr. Therefore, in May 2016, when it was decided to return “Megamind” to the “Habra”, and also to break all the hubs into 5 (later - 6) large thematic streams: “Development”, “Administration”, “Design”, “Management , Marketing, and Miscellaneous.
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Then it seemed to us that such a division of the audience would kill at least three birds with one stone:
In general, the way it worked, but as they say, there are nuances.
The first was the hard linking of the publication to the same stream. This really increased the level of order on the site, but created another problem. A good example: if your publication is about administering SaaS services, you can place it either in the SaaS hub (the Development thread), or in the System Administration hub (the Administration stream). If you want to publish a publication with a review of a book on PHP, you will have to decide who will not see the publication: either programmers from the “PHP” hub of the “Development” stream, or those who went to “Habr” in search of books - in the “Professional literature "(stream" Miscellaneous "). And there were quite a few such examples.
Further observations are connected with the first “rabbit”: the analyst has shown that the majority of readers still prefer to start reading “Habr” from the main page or the “Everything in a row” section, rather than choosing the flow they need.
And third, about the order: we use our own efforts to check every publication (including the design and correctness of the choice of hubs) and it turned out that there were not too many fatal errors.
Therefore, after a year and a half of observations, we decided to combine the comfortable with the pleasant:
Developing the idea of reforming the content categorization system at Habré and Hiktimes, we got carried away and came to another interesting observation. Let's explain with an example. Now, when creating a publication, the author must classify the content twice: first choosing hubs, then tags. At the same time, as experience and analytics show, the tags (keywords) at the end of the publication are often “nobody reads”, and they are clicked on as often as they are “read”.
Thus, continuing the idea of simplification, we came to the following thought: what if we abandon tags to publications, replacing them with hubs? Having made these changes, we will definitely get a simpler system, and users who post publications will use only one field for categorization.
A more understandable and simple categorization system will help us literally in everything, including in matters of closer integration of our projects with each other. We will be able to more accurately link the hubs on Habré and Hiktimes with skills on My Circle and orders for Freelance, not to mention the questions on the Toaster. In general, the process has begun, stay tuned.
One more thing ...
This is the third version of image hosting for publishing on our content projects. Interestingly, someone else remembers the very first version written in Flash? )
In the updated version, we rewrote the whole backend, refreshed the interface for the new GUI, made an adaptive layout, added a few little things, useful when inserting a large number of images into the publication.
Image of Habrastorozh flooded on Habrostorozh
Initially, the updated HS was available only to some users, but now, without a separate announcement, we are making it available to everyone. In this regard, we ask you to push the buttons and test the service in every possible way for bugs.
We also got rid of problems with downloading GIFs; plans to add support for SVG.
In the course of a prolonged redesign, we received regular feedback from users and ardent fans. Among all the messages, one request was clearly distinguished, which was associated with
Hubs without hard binding to threads
It's no secret that today not only programmers or administrators come to Habr. Therefore, in May 2016, when it was decided to return “Megamind” to the “Habra”, and also to break all the hubs into 5 (later - 6) large thematic streams: “Development”, “Administration”, “Design”, “Management , Marketing, and Miscellaneous.
')
Then it seemed to us that such a division of the audience would kill at least three birds with one stone:
- Adding another level of content categorization will help those who don’t want to rummage through hundreds of hubs, but simply want to read interesting directions. For example, a designer does not need to search for all “designer” hubs — he will enter the Design stream and see all publications from colleagues in the workshop.
- Hard binding of each publication to one stream will add even more order to the site - the authors will not choose the hubs as they like, they will only choose from a small list of hubs relevant to this stream.
- The number of minuses that flew to publications according to the principle “I didn’t subscribe to this, why should I have it in the tape.”
In general, the way it worked, but as they say, there are nuances.
The first was the hard linking of the publication to the same stream. This really increased the level of order on the site, but created another problem. A good example: if your publication is about administering SaaS services, you can place it either in the SaaS hub (the Development thread), or in the System Administration hub (the Administration stream). If you want to publish a publication with a review of a book on PHP, you will have to decide who will not see the publication: either programmers from the “PHP” hub of the “Development” stream, or those who went to “Habr” in search of books - in the “Professional literature "(stream" Miscellaneous "). And there were quite a few such examples.
Further observations are connected with the first “rabbit”: the analyst has shown that the majority of readers still prefer to start reading “Habr” from the main page or the “Everything in a row” section, rather than choosing the flow they need.
And third, about the order: we use our own efforts to check every publication (including the design and correctness of the choice of hubs) and it turned out that there were not too many fatal errors.
Therefore, after a year and a half of observations, we decided to combine the comfortable with the pleasant:
- The hard binding of hubs to threads is canceled. Now, when creating a publication, you can select up to 5 hubs (relevant), regardless of the stream.
- The “Threads” selector on the main Habr remains, but no longer as a hard switch, but rather simply as a “preset” - so that even a novice can enter and in two clicks turn on his tape for his own interests.
- A publication placed in hubs belonging to different streams will be displayed in all the streams whose hubs are specified during publication. If we take an example with a book about PHP, now the publication will be visible both in both hubs (“PHP” and “Professional Literature”), and in both streams (“Development” and “Miscellaneous”). Selecting a stream on the publication page is no longer necessary.
- A similar thread selector appeared on Geektimes: “Software”, “Gadgets”, “Scientific-Popular” and “Miscellaneous”.
Discard tags
Developing the idea of reforming the content categorization system at Habré and Hiktimes, we got carried away and came to another interesting observation. Let's explain with an example. Now, when creating a publication, the author must classify the content twice: first choosing hubs, then tags. At the same time, as experience and analytics show, the tags (keywords) at the end of the publication are often “nobody reads”, and they are clicked on as often as they are “read”.
Thus, continuing the idea of simplification, we came to the following thought: what if we abandon tags to publications, replacing them with hubs? Having made these changes, we will definitely get a simpler system, and users who post publications will use only one field for categorization.
A more understandable and simple categorization system will help us literally in everything, including in matters of closer integration of our projects with each other. We will be able to more accurately link the hubs on Habré and Hiktimes with skills on My Circle and orders for Freelance, not to mention the questions on the Toaster. In general, the process has begun, stay tuned.
One more thing ...
New Habrastorage
This is the third version of image hosting for publishing on our content projects. Interestingly, someone else remembers the very first version written in Flash? )
In the updated version, we rewrote the whole backend, refreshed the interface for the new GUI, made an adaptive layout, added a few little things, useful when inserting a large number of images into the publication.
Image of Habrastorozh flooded on Habrostorozh
Initially, the updated HS was available only to some users, but now, without a separate announcement, we are making it available to everyone. In this regard, we ask you to push the buttons and test the service in every possible way for bugs.
We also got rid of problems with downloading GIFs; plans to add support for SVG.
What else
- We still continue to work on the redesign of "Habra" and Geektimes: I want to make a real and high-quality renovation on both projects, and not cosmetic in the spirit of the USSR (when new wallpaper looks like a good look, but the cabinet is not hung). The biggest (display of the tape, publications and comments) is over, now we are completing user profile settings and other “system” things. In the near future, roll out a separate section for beta testers who will be the first to test new features that we will begin to introduce at the end of the redesign.
In general, we are satisfied with the work done, even more satisfied with the fact that users also liked redesign (judging by the voting and reviews), despite the negative reviews immediately after the release. - Corrected minor bugs that appeared after the release of new comments . If something else is left - let me know.
- Returned the asterisk, which marked the profile hubs. It was removed, since after the appearance of Geektimes, most of the hubs on the “Habré” became specialized. With the advent of PPA on Geektimes, they decided to return the profile designation so that it would be easier for the authors to understand which publications in which hubs would be encouraged. By the way, the number of core hubs has grown on both projects, and in the foreseeable future we plan to give access to PPA to a greater number of users.
- Increased the threshold of karma required for publication in the hub "I am promoting". Previously, this required karma +20, although we were relatively loyal to good publications from authors with less karma. They began to abuse this almost every day, so we had to slightly tighten the screws, raising the threshold to +30.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/340934/
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