Dear Chowhound Community,

A quick note to let you all know that I've accepted another job offer and my last day at CHOW is this Wednesday, March 13. I wanted to announce it publicly because I hate it when familiar names stop posting, and wanted everyone to know the reason you're not hearing from me anymore with release notes.

These past 6+ years of working on the CHOW/Chowhound site have been incredible for me. Seeing the dedication and passion of Chowhound users raises the bar for any future community I may work with, and I've learned a lot from you all beyond simply where to get the best xiao long bao in San Francisco (though there is nothing simple about that).

The rest of the team you know and love--Jacquilynne, DaveMP, meshane, and DeborahL--will all still be here. As always, they will be working to make Chowhound strong.

I won't be leaving the forums, just not working here anymore, so I hope our paths cross again very soon.

Thank you all,

Meredith Arthur

It sounds like there are some questions about why we would change default avatars. I can answer those: we want to bring more color and variety to the page, making it more engaging and easier to browse. We saw in user testing that there was confusion about pages that had numerous forks/spoons, and that the idea of the back-and-forth discussion was being lost on those long pages for those who were new to Chowhound.

We are also hoping this can be a reminder to users that they can and should choose their own images to represent themselves!

M.

Hi LindaWhit,

We did push a fix for the bounce in yesterday's release. Are you still seeing it happening?

M.

Thanks for the heads-up on rendering issues. We'll be pushing a fix for this later today to make sure the avatars are properly rendering everywhere.

M.

Hi everyone,

Some of you may notice that the avatar that represents you have changed. For people who have not chosen their own avatars, we are now defaulting to the first letter of your username in a colored circle instead of the red fork and spoon on the plate.

If you want to change your avatar, you can do so on your profile. Just click "view profile" in the upper right corner of the site, and then you will see your avatar on the righthand side of your profile. Underneath the avatar you will see the words "upload avatar." Click on that in order to update or personalize the image that represents you!

Let us know if you have any questions,

Meredith

Hello everyone,

Today's release included a change to the way that discussions can be viewed by users. There is a new button on the upper righthand corner of the discussion (see attached screengrab). When clicked, it will allow you to see the most recent "parent" post. That is, it sorts all of the non nested replies in reverse chronological order. Clicking that button holds your preference around the site, so just click it again if you want to look at discussions the "old" way, in chronological order.

In addition, there was a release to allow for continuous loading on user's profile pages on mobile, in addition to the category pages. So you can now browse back as far as you'd like with ease!

We hope that these improvements help your Chowhound experience. Thanks,

Meredith

Testing one more time

Testing posting

Hi everyone,

Here's a change we think you'll like. On the mobile site, we have now added continuous loading onto category pages. This means you can continue to scroll down and not be limited to 5 pages of discussions. It's something many of you have asked for, and we're happy to have added this functionality to category and Chowhound homepage. It will also be added to the profile page very soon.

We also have worked on the "bouncing post" issue, and hope you see improvement there, as well as an expanding post bug that occurs when you open one post that is already read, and other posts within its family open as well at the same time.

Thanks, Meredith

Hi hyperbowler,

Our mobile experience is an intentionally stripped-back version of the desktop. The link button does not appear on iPhone posts because it is not part of that streamlined experience. Sharing options on mobile devices are done through operating system of the phone itself.

Thanks, Meredith

Strange, LindaWhit. I'm not seeing that at all. When I go to a partially read discussion, or a fully read discussion, I can click any of the collapsed posts and they open, just as they always have. Which browser are you on? We can test for exactly what you're experiencing. Thanks,

Meredith

We released four changes to the way discussions work today that I wanted to describe to you here. These are not huge changes, but they may be slightly confusing initially for users, especially those of you who are used to the way "already read" has worked historically.

1. As a logged-in user, when you've read an entire discussion, that discussion will now be in a fully collapsed state. In the past, it was in a fully expanded state. We have changed this in order to make it clear that collapse works to help distinguish what you've read. You can expand a fully collapsed discussion by clicking on the + button at the top of the page.

2. We have added a new feature that allows users to hide nested replies if they choose to. You can do this by clicking the > next to the number of replies at the top of the discussion. Logged-in users will have "show all nested replies" as their default. If you would like to have a "hide nested replies" as your default view, you can set that yourself in your profile. Go to Profile, then click Settings, then click Chowhound. On that tab, you will have a choice about your "Default View."

3. When you reply to the original post on a discussion, your reply will now show up to you at the top of the page. If you view the page again, it will appear in chronological order with the other replies. This is only for replies to the original poster.

4. We have moved the login to a stand-alone page which is secured. This is as added security measure to protect user e-mail addresses and passwords.

Thanks for your continued feedback, and for being loyal users of Chowhound,

Meredith

You can just tap on your name, Mr Taster. It will take you to your profile.

Meredith

Hello Mr Taster, I'll try to answer what I think is going on for you. I hope this helps with your issue.

It sounds like you've bookmarked your profile (Mr Taster's profile). Whether you are logged in or not, you will see the same title at the top (Mr Taster's profile).

It sounds as though you haven't yet started to use the mobile "drawer" which is where all of the navigation now lives on the mobile site. It is that red box in the upper left corner with the three white lines in it. Click on that, and you will see at the top that you either have "Log In/Sign Up" or "Mr Taster." If the former, you're not yet logged in. If the latter, you are. Hopefully this will become easier to use as you become more familiar with it, and will help you to check and make sure you're logged in at all times.

Thanks, Meredith

Hi Mr Taster,

Just wanted to link to our most recent announcement of user testing that happened last August, just so you know what you should look for in the future: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/863085

The restrictions tend to be that we do the testing in-person here in San Francisco, though if there are opportunities for remote testing we'll also post about them in the same way, on a thread on Site Talk.

Thanks for your interest,

Meredith

Glad it's working for you hbg1. To answer your question, we are working on a solution for people to be able to see more discussions on the homepage, and all categories pages right now. I'll post here when that is released.

Thanks, Meredith

Hello DiningDiva and other Android users,

We believe that we released a fix to for the zooming Android issues today, so hopefully you are all able to browse the site without constantly readjusting the size. We are thrilled about this and hope enjoy it!

Thanks, Meredith

Hello to everyone who's been bothered by Android zoom issues,

We believe that we released a fix to this issue today, so hopefully you are all able to browse the site without constantly readjusting the size. We are thrilled about this and hope it works for you all!

Thanks, Meredith

Non top level reply for you, Dave.

We're working on a change that will make seeing more content easier on mobile devices. It might take a few weeks, but stay posted. Thanks, Meredith

Hi mariacarmen,

I'm a part of the product team of CHOW (it's a different group than the mods), and I can answer your question. There are definitely more changes on the way for Chowhound. We are working on building out functionality for discussions in particular, and you can expect to see some changes in that arena in the next few weeks. As ever, we'll post on Site Talk about changes as they happen, and be here to answer questions as they arise.

Glad to hear that the color tweaks have helped you read the site!

Meredith

Hi Wahooty,

Avatars are back as of today's release. Thanks so much for your interest and your request!

Meredith of CHOW

Hi ramenbound,

We just put out a release today that includes avatars for nested responses, in addition to tweaking the way the nested replies line up. Thanks for your interest and asking about it!

Meredith

Hello everyone,

Here are today's changes to the site design. These will be the last changes until the new year, as the office will be closed as of tomorrow for a week and a half. We wish all of you safe travels if you're travelling, fun holidays whatever you're celebrating, and a very happy new year.

1. Changed and streamlined the background look of categories and discussions pages. Hope this helps with eye strain. Also removed the texture that was rendering in a variety of ways depending on user's monitors.

2. Added Recipe Galleries to the mobile navigation, so that they can be browsed easily on mobile devices.

3. For logged in users, when you click the center reply count, you will be taken to the first unread post instead of the top post.

4. Locked discussions will now appear in your profile.

5. Some users had formatting issues on their profile, and those should be fixed.

6. We have added the functionality so that users can choose how many discussions they see on their category pages. You can now choose to look at 25, 50, or 100 discussions at a time.

Thanks and hope to see you here in early 2013,

Meredith

Once I tried them, it was very hard to focus on anything besides the chicharrones. They were truly incredible. A great snack to accompany beer. Very crispy, with tender meat making them a substantial small bite. All in all, it made me wonder why more office parties aren't "catered" through places like La Palma. I attended another, larger holiday party the night before with more generic catered food...they should have just gone with chicharrones, tamales, chips and guac!

Hello mariacarmen,

There will be changes to the background happening soon.

Meredith

Just to add to what Jacquilynne is saying: We are investigating ways to prioritize up-to-date discussions on the site. We want to help users navigate to newer discussions and make them more visible. This will be an ongoing investigation for us, and involves search work, sorting options, and new ways to think about splitting threads. We appreciate feedback about ways to get the discussions on the site more up-to-date.

Just wanted the people who are taking part of this discussion to know that it's on our radar.

Thanks, Meredith

Hello, Sorry for the delay in posting on this discussion. I actually posted this on another discussion and meant to post here as well: yes, we are going to work on Android issues. It won't be released until January, but this is important to us and something we are actively working on over here even this week.

Thanks, Meredith

Hello everyone,

As we have said elsewhere, the design changes are just the first round of changes that are coming to Chowhound. We are working on deeper functionality offerings for discussions, including sorting options, which affect the way a reply button at the bottom would work.

To answer your question, there is currently no way to respond to the OP on the bottom of a discussion. The easiest method is to press the "To the Top" button and reply at the top.

Meredith

Notifications, and being able to subscribe on a discussion level, is most definitely on the roadmap for early next year, Mr Taster. We definitely agree with you that it is important functionality, and we will work to bring that to you.

Meredith