About the Changes to the New Topic Fire-hose

First, thank you for extending the Fire-hose to 24 hours. This allows us to catch all of the new topics no matter what time of day we manage to visit the site. Its something I've considered suggesting for a while now.

I use the fire-hose every day. It is my primary source of news headlines and I read all of the new thread titles, opening the ones that catch my interest in new background tabs as I go down the list.

Prior to the changes made a few days ago, the page would auto update but not refresh, which was great. Now unfortunately, it auto refreshes frequently. This means that I get part way down the list of new topics, the page refreshes which takes me back to the top of the page, and I lose where I was. This happens a few times as I try unsuccessfully to race to the bottom of the list without missing anything.

The other issue is that now that flag counts are not displayed on the Fire-hose I have no way of noticing threads of significant importance that I would not normally click on due to the title. For instance I don't have time to check out every thread that has a title like "Check this Out". However, if it has 150 flags in two hours I will take the time to open it because it may mean there is an asteroid about to wipe out the planet.

And sorry, one more little nit pick. I found it much more reader friendly when the topics were listed vertically in chronological order because you didn't have to zig-zag your eyes across the page dozens of times to read the list.

By the way, thank you Skeptic Overlord and the ATS staff for your continuous efforts to improve our experience here. Still, by far the best managed forum I've every visited.

I agree with that it's refreshing too often/fast, but that seems to be what they want.

When the topics come in slowly, it's not too bad, but when the topics come in fast, lots of new threads, then you're chasing the links. Read fast, click fast, if you miss your link, go get coffee or a drink if you need something stronger after the frustration

The band across the bottom of the page, with the most recent "current topics", hasn't refreshed for 3 days now. I've tried manually refreshing and logging out and in. It's just stuck.

The top three currently listed (copied and pasted) are:

Elusive mountain man stirs fear
Other Current Events: 29 minutes ago
What's wrong with the "NEW TOPIC" (live headlines) function ?
ATS Freshman's Forum: 45 minutes ago
US drones monitoring clashes in Syria
Breaking Alternative News: 52 minutes ago

the same as when the "fixed" the firehose page.

Originally posted by dainoyfb
... I found it much more reader friendly when the topics were listed vertically in chronological order because you didn't have to zig-zag your eyes across the page dozens of times to read the list.

This has honestly made me A LOT more than slightly bugged. It was far more legible before. I can barely read it, especially when I'm on ATS during the later hours... which just so happens to be the majority of the time I browse this site.

Flagged!

And sorry, one more little nit pick. I found it much more reader friendly when the topics were listed vertically in chronological order because you didn't have to zig-zag your eyes across the page dozens of times to read the list.

Agreed. And for bringing these issues to light.


Also. Thanks SO for the hard work.

reply to post by dainoyfb


I've sent a message to SO with this thread, I'm sure he'll get back to you guys once he has a chance.

Well the bonus is that since the firehouse no longer works to display active threads I'm only spending about ten percent of the the usual time on ATS anymore. Good thing since spring is coming and outdoor season is upon us.