Action Bar Feedback
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TY dandelionsalad for mentioning 3 dots because that’s where it was at. Had you never pointed that out, I’d still be wondering.
So found and TY again.
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Great that you found it. I use Flickr for my photos, and they also use the 3 dots for “more info” and additional links. It is not as user-friendly as the designers may have thought. Many people on Flickr didn’t understand it either. It is well stated with pictures on the WP blog post (link at the top of this thread).
Btw, WP never approved my comment on their blog post from Aug. 26th.
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I know I mentioned this in a comment in the original post.
It as been said here as well and my opinion as well that the update is unnecessary.
Truth is it is only available when logged in. I would not want it when logged out either. So it only has its use when you are on.
The nature of it is becoming an annoying popup constantly going and popping up again. It was mention popups are a nuisance.The old follow button was clear and simple. I am pretty sure most post we visit are already blogs we follow so only for those doing the 101 will have some benefit. Second is that the new reader option you guys added takes away visiting the page in order to follow. Making the button useless.
The old top menu under ‘my site’ was way shorter in the old version showing the top link at the top together with the three most important links.
You said that you wanted a cleaner top bar. My reaction. Barely a year ago you stuffed it with more options. taking its clean look away.
Yeah I am one who loves to go back a year and a half when simple things were one click away.
It is as Bkr0sen said: “Great functionality is provided, but accessing more than the most elementary stuff involves many steps”One final remark. An answer like “Sorry you feel that way, I hope if you give it a little time you’ll find it more useful.” Just sets my blood boiling. It is like saying we don’t have a choice or say and there to stay.
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For various reasons I have been offline for some weeks and logging in to my blog this morning was like coming to a place I’ve never seen or visited before!
Why ‘fix’ something that’s not broken?!
Like many have said before me, to perform a simple function now takes three or four more steps than it used to before these ‘improvements’.
The flickering Follow button is annoying and only appears when it feels like it. I also inadvertently clicked on unfollow, had to re follow and then change all my notification options for that blog.
Where has the Reblog button moved to?
Can you please revert to the original style, where all the relevant and useful buttons were in one place, at the top of the page and more visible.
If you need to accommodate mobile users (I think you’ll find the majority of serious bloggers prefer and use actual computers and not phones), then have a separate design for them.
Could you not consider polling your users before making unnecessary changes? -
“Follow”, “Like” and “Reblog” buttons on the “Admin Bar” were much more useful, than that “Action Bar”, as it is at this time.
Looking forward for tne new improved “Action Bar ” versions, or the return of lost buttons on the “Admin Bar”
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Just noticed today that the Edit button is missing from the “My Sites” drop-down menu. When was it eliminated?
Has the “new” Action Bar replaced this Edit button?
The fact that the Action Bar pops up and then disappears makes using it for editing the post very inconvenient. Now we have to scroll around looking for the Action Bar to pop up again to click Edit.
Not a problem with short blog posts, but definitely a hassle for long blog posts. When looking an already published post and finding an error that needs to be corrected we used to be able to open the post to the editor right where we were reading in the post, or open in a new tab so as to not lose our place.
Bring back the Edit button, please. We need it. This extra scrolling is not an efficient use of our time.
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@longshotsblues, sorry I didn’t catch your question about shortlinks sooner, but I’m glad to see everyone here helped you sort it out!
@rantingcrow, I don’t like hearing that you were so upset over a comment reply. I can tell you that we always considering a number of factors, in addition to feedback like yours, as a basis for decisions. If we make a mistake, we will always try to correct it, but we try to do it in a way that moves forward and not backward. I have been reviewing more and more feedback and working on more and more testing as part of my job, and I can tell you that we do listen to feedback and care a great deal about WordPress.com users as we work to find the best balance for a majority. This is a large undertaking. Thanks for being a part of WordPress.com and for blogging here and also for including your feedback.
@loracrolyat, there are more updates than usual happening at a much faster rate right now than have happened in the past. My apologies for the disruption! Still, things should definitely not be taking three or four more steps, and I think when you mentioned that you might have been referring to longshotsblues’ comments earlier which were resolved.
Regarding the reblog button. We’re going to work on some changes to reblogging, so it will come back to the toolbar or action bar in the future in a better form but I don’t have a timeframe I can give you for that update because there are some other changes in line to happen before that one. In the mean time, the reblog button that appears on individual posts should still be there for any blog where the blog owner has not disabled that feature on their site.
Something else you said about the action bar caught my attention. You said it’s flickering in your case. Can you tell me a little bit more about that so I can try to help do some additional testing to make sure it’s working as intended? May I ask what OS and browser version are you using? It should not flicker, but I’m wondering if by flickering you’re talking about how it hides when you scroll down and reappears when you scroll up?
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from designsimply:
In the mean time, the reblog button that appears on individual posts should still be there for any blog where the blog owner has not disabled that feature on their site.
Except that is not accurate. One must also have “Likes” enabled for the Reblog button to show. Why the two are interlinked, I do not know or understand.
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It is accurate. Please see the WP Admin > Settings > Sharing > WordPress.com Reblog Button option.
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@designsimply
What loracrolyat said about needing more clicks is true.at least a PC user has at least twice the amount of clicks than previous versions.Please do not get me wrong but what has been considered a move forward in this very case is just a step back.
The reblog button is back in the post next to the like button. A perfect place for a blog you just read. That is if you do not use the new reader form you introduced. (extra click if you missed it)Mistakes are made when being to presumptuous. Improve what is there no need to fix what works. You try to achieve a clean look but from where I sit it is cluttered since last year. And it is making me look elsewhere.
This is even noticed while testing, though a programmer or designer might be to biased as it looks better.
The menu’s have doubled since every button link to stats edits pages posts is damn everywhere. I for one still use the old Dashboard as it has everything I need. But everything there is shown on the my page site in the my page menu in the top bar if opened.
I prefer the old dash and the old creation pages over the new ones.By adding stuff your are not necessarily improving or moving forward.
These are but my own opinions and thoughts. I thank you for answering the way you did. Sorry if I went ranting just that I am not the person to keep my mouth shut.
Do you use users (non-employees -programmers )for testing?
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Here’s a screenshot showing that my blog has enabled Reblog function: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lorri37/20857919278/
The Reblog button does NOT appear on my blog posts since the arrival of the “new” Action Bar.
Still don’t understand why this is related to the Action Bar??
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It’s not related to the action bar, but it came up in this thread for some reason. Thanks for the screenshot! Now I see what you mean about them being linked. In my test, I had turned on both likes and reblogs on in Settings > Sharing and then I can see the button on my individual posts, but since the reblog feature never had a per-post switch similar to likes, it looks like reblogs only appear in the per-post setup if likes are also on. Yeah, I agree that’s a little confusing if you’re one of the small percentage that has a setup like that. This is exactly one of the things that will need to be reviewed when it’s redesigned. I see your point. :)
Do you use users (non-employees -programmers )for testing?
Yep. Both.
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@designsimply, I asked questions in this comment that were never responded to:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/action-bar-feedback?replies=52#post-2454149
Are these eliminations separate issues, or are they related to when the Action Bar came out?
See also this comment on the Edit Button missing:
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/action-bar-feedback/page/2?replies=52#post-2456027There have been other comments and threads on the missing Reblog button, including the WP blog post on the Action Bar. So I am not the only person noticing this elimination.
On the Reader, there is now no Reblog button but there is a “Like” button, even though I don’t have “likes” enabled. Why are the two different functions linked?
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I am very new to blogging so I will have to take some time looking into these changes before I comment on them. However, I notice a change that happened during the last week and I wonder if its connected.
eMail followers of my Blog used to receive a notification that there was a new post. They could then visit my Blog page itself to read the post. While there they could read other posts as well. As of this morning they receive a full copy of the new post by eMail. It is not all that obvious how to get to the blog home page if you want to. Doesn’t this discourage visits to the full Blog? -
@dandelionsalad if by any chance someone I follow had an issue with his reblog button as well. He is a frequent user of the button so he was pretty upset.
As you mentioned it can be turned on or off, but how well does that fare in the new bar.
There is some inconsistency within WP. they had that with the dashboard giving 3 names for one and the same thing.
I would wish a roll back and rethink this bar idea.
When it comes to the comment one. I better not start on that since I am sure one or two of mine still need approval after months. And I do try to be nice and give well thought comments about how what is wrong with an idea. I know I am very straight to the point LOL
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Seriously you got non-employees testing and they did not mind an annoying pop-up.
Nobody likes a pop-up no matter how small. And even more if you can’t get rid of it.I sure would love to read that report.
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I am very new to blogging so I will have to take some time looking into these changes before I comment on them.
Welcome to WordPress.com!
eMail followers of my Blog used to receive a notification that there was a new post. They could then visit my Blog page itself to read the post.
I think you might be mis-remembering. Email notifications had links to the post, and not directly to the home page, from what I remember.
It is not all that obvious how to get to the blog home page if you want to. Doesn’t this discourage visits to the full Blog?
The goal of the email subscriptions is not to get people to visit the blog home page but rather to get them to visit each new post as it is published.
Since this comment really is off-topic to the other action bar feedback in this particular thread, @alrobro would you mind please opening a separate help request if you’d like to continue this discussion further?
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So, if the “like” button is eliminated on the top black bar, the only way to “like” a post is if the blogger has a “like” button at the end of their posts or through the Reader or email?
That sounds right.
I’ve disabled the “like” button on posts so now no one can “like” the blog posts?
Likes will still be available in the Reader since one of the main functions there is liking and keeping track of posts you have liked. Turning off the display of likes on your own blog doesn’t affect whether or not someone can like posts from within the Reader.
And the “reblog” button is also missing. So now no one can “reblog” until you have finished with your changes? I do have the “reblog” button active, but it isn’t available because I don’t have the “like” button active on my posts.
People can still reblog if the reblog setting is on in Settings > Sharing and Likes are turned on per-post. I didn’t realize those two settings were linked like you were trying to point out until I saw your screenshot and tested that exact configuration, and that this is a perfect example of another reason why the reblog feature needs to be (and will be) reviewed and redesigned. For now, it does appear that you need to have likes enabled on the post in order to also get the reblog button like you said. Sorry I didn’t quite catch what you were saying before!
Are these eliminations separate issues, or are they related to when the Action Bar came out?
This feedback thread is specifically meant to be about the action bar, but there are other toolbar changes happening alongside that are closely related.
Has the “new” Action Bar replaced this Edit button?
I think whether or not (and when) the edit link will move permanently is still under review. I’ll see what I can find out tomorrow and reply back here once I know more.
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rantingcrow, here is the blog post asking for beta testers for the Action Bar and in the comment section is their responses, if you’d like to read them.
I subscribed to the blog so I at least have a heads-up on “new” changes in the future.
I agree with you about all the various changes and different words used for the same thing, etc. I still use the WP-Admin pages for most everything, including the really, old Stats page (without the map).
I also can’t imagine anyone desiring a pop-up, especially one that comes and goes. It’s quite distracting on long blog posts.
One of my followers is very upset as he reblogs all of my posts.
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@designsimply, thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions and comments, much appreciated.
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