Changes to answer sorting menu: moving menu, "Newest" sort option, renaming sort options [duplicate]

Question

Update (Feb. 8, 2022):

I appreciate all the thoughtful feedback on this post. Your input caused us to rethink some of what we originally proposed. Rather than update this post with all the changes, I started fresh with a new post.

Please see the new post for the latest screenshots and details:
Revisiting changes to answer sorting menu: better use of space, moving menu into a dropdown, ascending/descending sort options, clearer descriptions

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Original post:

Over the coming weeks, we will be making some changes to the menu that allows you to sort the answers to a given question. We are making these changes based on a user survey that indicates that the names on the current sorting menu are confusing. This work is also part of the Outdated Answers project for Stack Overflow. 

Moving the sort menu

The Sort menu currently appears to the right of the header that shows the number of answers. 

We are moving it so that it appears underneath that header. We will run an experiment on Stack Overflow to make sure that moving the menu doesn't negatively impact the number of clicks on the sort menu or the number of answers created. Assuming no negative impacts, we will change the placement of the sort networkwide.

Creating a Newest sort

We currently have an Oldest sort that sorts answers in ascending order based on the creation date. In our survey, 51% of respondents felt that a Newest sort would be valuable. We are now adding a Newest sort that sorts answers in descending order based on the creation date. 

Changing the names of the sort options

We are changing two of the sort names as follows:

• Active will be changed to Last updated. Our survey revealed that 49.6% of users were confused by the Active wording, and many thought that it meant that answers with the most recent comments would appear first. In fact, this sort only takes into account the date that an answer was created or edited, so we feel that “Last updated” makes this criteria clearer.

• Votes will be changed to Score. Answers are currently sorted based on the score (upvotes - downvotes), not the number of votes (upvotes+downvotes). This language makes that distinction clearer, and is a long-asked-for change that we are delivering. (This is now completed.)

Adding an info icon and popover

To make it clearer how each sort works, we are adding an info icon and popover that explains what each sorting option does.

• Last updated - sorts answers by most recently created or edited

• Oldest/Newest - sorts answers by the order of their creation date

• Score - sorts answers by the number of upvotes minus number of downvotes, highest first

Feedback

I’ve posted this primarily to give the community advanced notice on changes that are coming. But I welcome feedback on two ideas:

1. "Last updated" sort name. We debated internally whether "Last updated" was the clearest way to describe a sort that looks at most recently created or most recently edited. Keeping "Active" as the sort name is NOT on the table, as a substantial percent of users are confused by it. Do you have an alternative name? Needs to be succinct: 1-2 words.

2. "Last edited" sort. As an alternative to changing the name of the Active sort, we could also consider replacing the Active sort with a new Last edited sort. We now have a Newest sort that sorts answers by most recently created, so we don't necessarily still need a sort that combines last created and last edited. Is there any value in making Last edited a standalone sort? Why or why not?

Please provide feedback no later than Friday Feb. 4, 2022.

Answer 1

"Last updated" sort name. We debated internally whether "Last updated" was the clearest way to describe a sort that looks at most recently created or most recently edited. Keeping "Active" as the sort name is NOT on the table, as a substantial percent of users are confused by it. Do you have an alternative name? Needs to be succinct: 1-2 words.

We don't use the word "updated" much in the UI; I'd opt towards using "last modified", which is consistent with most of the wording around the site.

I don't see the point of moving it to the other side, but IMO it does create a more "cluttered" look - everything is all in one place instead of being spread out where you can see everything separately.

I do appreciate the "newest" sort option, though, that's been sorely lacking in the past. Thank you.

Answer 2

I disagree with "moving the sort menu" - for consistency it implies that the other sort menus will be moved from right justified to left justified:

Currently:

In particular, with the Tags menu it will be rather cluttered on the left.

Generally, similar items are in close proximity and different items are spaced further away.

It will also cause the ℹ️ pop-up to clobber the choices, instead of seeing the help and being able to click on your choice simultaneously:

Moving everything to the left places all the tappable elements in too close a proximity, unless the vertical spacing is also generously increased; both to avoid misclicks (fat fingers) and to delineate them according to best UI design practices:

• UX.SE - "Spacing between UI components"
• UX.SE - "Minimum distance between click targets"
• JustInMind - Design Guide - "Your guide to space and layout in UI design"
• Neilson Norman Group - "Proximity Principle in Visual Design"

Answer 3

Moving the sort menu

The Sort menu currently appears to the right of the header that shows the number of answers. We are moving it so that it appears underneath that header.

Why oh why are you giving up precious vertical space when there is ample space to keep those buttons in their original location?

Making a responsive UI does not mean "everything must look identical on a 300px flip-phone and on a desktop computer".

Answer 4

Combine the oldest/newest buttons to "age", and have each button switch direction with a second click.

This is a pretty standard feature across sorting UI. The buttons could be labeled as such:

[Modified] [Age] [Score]

As you click each one, an arrow appears to indicate if it's sorting ascending or descending:

[Modified ↑] [Age] [Score]

If you click it again, it switches direction:

[Modified ↓] [Age] [Score]

This will add functionality and reduce clutter.

Answer 5

2. "Last edited" sort. As an alternative to changing the name of the Active sort, we could also consider replacing the Active sort with a new Last edited sort. We now have a Newest sort that sorts answers by most recently created, so we don't necessarily still need a sort that combines last created and last edited. Is there any value in making Last edited a standalone sort? Why or why not?

In my book, the first revision also counts as an edit. At the very least as an edit to the entire Q&A page. I don't think a 'Last edited' sort would add any value, and the site search and question lists don't have that option either.

Answer 6

At the top of the page, under the question title, it reads

Asked yesterday   Active today   Viewed 350 times

Will the word "active" there also be changed to "last updated"?

Answer 7

Move Score to the leftmost option

This is the overall default option, it might as well come first (regardless of the past order).

Answer 8

status-planned

As work is now being done to the sort order links, it'd be nice if the team fixed a technical design flaw in the implementation of the buttons:

Only save the sort order selection when the button is actually clicked

Currently, the sort order selection is handled through a GET request on the selection. This means that when following a link that has a specific sort order specified (i.e. contains ?answertab=[sort]), it also changes how subsequently-viewed questions on the same site are sorted. This opens up a cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vector.

Per the past request, Avoid possible CSRF attacks by saving sort selection only when actually clicking:

Now, suppose someone sends me such a link. It looks innocent enough, link to a question on Stack Overflow. I click it, take a look, close the tab and forgets about it. However, when viewing other questions, with more than one answer, I suddenly realize something is really strange. The answers are all messed up, in the wrong order, as I never asked to change the order. It takes a really good set of eyes to notice this change

The sort order selection should only be saved when the user actually clicks on the button, not if they follow an external link to the same URL as that the sort button uses. The easiest way to implement this is to make the button use a POST request rather than a GET request.

When such an external link is followed (i.e. a sort order is requested using a GET request), it should only use that sort order for that particular page load, not for future page loads. The ability to link to particular sort orders is still useful, and should not be removed. As an example, on the Photography site, the links to photo competition posts contain the sort-by-active query string, so that the answers can be sorted in the most recently updated order so as to reduce the benefit of early voting on earlier submissions.

Answer 9

Drop the word "Last" from "Last Updated"

It should be clear enough to just put "Updated" (or even "Modified"), dropping the word "Last". It keeps it as one word like all the other options.

Answer 10

status-declined

Sorting by (#upvotes − #downvotes) is objectively a terrible metric, and using it as the default is worse, as pointed out in a related discussion.

As suggested by a commenter there, Wilson scoring is known to be a superior ordering in similar scenarios, and it stands to reason that an adapted version would also be superior on Stack Overflow. It’s actually surprising that this hasn’t been tried yet. In particular, the naïve sorting by score assumes that upvotes and downvotes are dispensed in equal measure and should carry equal weight, whereas we know that this is not true.

I therefore posit that the default sorting should use an improved scoring with better weighting of downvotes and total vote count. This change alone might fix or at least drastically improve a whole tail of related issues (such as outdated answers/popular but wrong answers being too prominent).

Answer 11

Oldest/Newest should just be 'Date Posted'; allow sorting each item

Although it's probably out of scope currently...

Having two options to just change the sort order seems redundant, and could simply be indicated by an arrow/multiple clicks.

Then you could apply sorting on some of the options:

I'm making this answer to make sure that there's some note of this feedback for when it's ready to be implemented.

Answer 12

Will there be tooltips on the individual buttons or is the info icon i meant to completely replace tooltips?

Can we have a preview of the tooltips on the individual sort buttons? (If they're meant to be kept and there's already a proposal for some of them.)

Answer 13

status-declined

I wonder if enhancing the "Active"/"Last Modified"/"Freshest" sort algorithm should exclude some reasonably ignored "bumps".

What if the the system/Community bumps an answer because it was merely adjusting a url?

What if a FGITW user is striving for maximum attention in the first few minutes while an easy question is getting pummelled with answers? If they keep making superficial edits/bumps to their answer to stay at the top of the page, should this tactic be prevented by the system to discourage the behavior? Should the sort ignore edits within 2 days of the creation date? ...by then the dust has surely settled.

Are there other reasons/occurrences that can/should be ignored when deciding the last modification?

Are we going to have another tab that says "Special Sauce" and uses Stack Exchange's secret algorithm that factors: freshness, votes, copy-pastes, and hover time?

Answer 14

Move "newest" before "oldest"

I feel it's more logical to group "last updated" and "newest" to be adjacent in the list, as they're most similar in intent (and will often give an identical order); it also feels most natural to me to have "newest" before "oldest" in a list.

I'm not sure why this feels most natural (possibly along the same lines as What is the rule for adjective order? - just one of those implicitly things in language that's hard to explain with a simple rule, or perhaps because that's the direction Brenda Lee rocks around the Christmas tree?).