Back in June 2024 we announced several sign-up experiments related to tags, including a proposal in which unregistered users who clicked the “Home” button on the left nav would be prompted to set up their homepage, by choosing tags that are of interest to them. In October 2024, we announced changes to the homepage for registered users. As a continuation of that work, we’ll be rolling out the homepage set-up prompt for registered users with zero watched tags.
Who is affected by the change?
All users who don’t have any watched tags will eventually see the “Let’s set up your homepage” modal when they click the “Home” button. This change will apply regardless of whether they’ve had watched tags in the past (and have since removed them) or whether they have ignored tags.
The change will be rolled out gradually to all users, with full deployment expected by the end of January 2025.
What does the update look like?
Clicking the “Home” button on the left navigation bar will prompt a modal to be shown to users who have no watched tags. This modal allows users to add tags to their watched tags list and then choose their theme (light or dark mode). It will look something like this:
Users who see the modal can choose to dismiss it, and they will still be able to add tags in the same way they currently do (upper-right corner widget on the homepage, etc.). Once dismissed, the modal won't be shown to the user ever again.
But… the “Interesting posts for you” feed doesn’t show posts that are interesting for me…?
Please have a look at this answer for our current plans regarding changes to the feed’s behavior. Our intention is that the two changes together will result in users viewing more questions that are relevant to them, which hopefully leads to more meaningful interactions on the site.
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If you have any concerns or questions about this change, please post them as an answer below. We will be monitoring this post until the end of January 2025.