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I was really used to see the "recent tags" and "recent badges" on the homepage of each site.

Now both are no more, replaced by the hottest 12 questions of the network - same list on all sites.

Yes I know it was announced here:

We're going to try putting the hot network questions on the homepage - replacing recent tags and recent badges.

But while I like the hottest questions list, I would also like to still see or at least have access to the good old recent tags and recent badges list.

There is plenty of vertical space in the homepage of each site, showing 50-100 questions so why not leave those lists below the hot questions?

Edit: just noticed the "Recent Badges" moved to the Badges page, I can live with that... so can a new tab "recent" be added to the Tags page as well?

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17
  • I wonder if the new position will be more or less noticable. I must admit I hadn't noticed the hot network questions on the meta homepage until... well now
    – Richard Tingle
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:20
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    I never could figure out what use the recent badges section was. It was almost always at least 50% "Yearling" any time I noticed it.
    – Geobits
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:20
  • Why not just add them as tabs on the 'Tags' and 'Badges' pages respectively? Are you really referring to them regularly enough to merit real estate on the front page?
    – jmac
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:21
  • @Richard well, that's the first thing I spotted. I waited for a while to see if it will be removed... but looks like it's here to stay.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:24
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    @Geobits: for me it was all random users getting Tumbleweed badges and Jon Skeet getting Yet More Nice/Good/Great Question/Answer Badges™.
    – Qantas 94 Heavy
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:24
  • @Geobits I disagree, it used to show diverse tags - not perfect and I even suggested to make it more diverse but still... it wasn't 50% Yearling.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:25
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    @jmac wow, I just noticed the badges page now have the "recent badges" list in the sidebar! For the life of me, can't remember if it's new or always was there.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:26
  • Hmm, maybe I just look at the right(wrong) time.
    – Geobits
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:28
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    see also: Extend the new Hot Questions sidebar
    – gnat
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:28
  • @Sha, yeah, like that -- only with tags too. And as tabs rather than just a side bar. I mean, if they have the info anyway, it should be accessible, but no need for it on the front page, right?
    – jmac
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:29
  • @jmac yes, new tab in the tags page would make sense, edited my request.
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:34
  • @Geobits no, more like "recently used". :)
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:43
  • @jmac, on SO, the "recent badges" doesn't show much that's interesting, that's true. However, the real estate is currently unused, so there is no associated cost, & there is a benefit on sites that aren't as crowded as SO (ie, almost all of them), where the recent badges can alert people to questions & answers that are trending or high-quality, etc.
    – gung - Reinstate Monica
    Dec 4, 2013 at 22:57
  • @gung, white space is not 'unused', it has value in being left blank. Shall we extend the page to the margins on both sides? Indent questions and answers around the score voting arrow bit? remove as much spacing between things as possible? After all, all that space is unused too... My point being that just because there is space to put something doesn't mean something should be put there, especially if even the proponents say they "don't show much that's interesting"
    – jmac
    Dec 4, 2013 at 23:36
  • @jmac, the only site where I suspect they "don't show much that's interesting" is SO. There are 112 SE sites. There is no doubt that some whitespace is useful. No one is advocating eliminating all whitespace on the main page. But the space that used to house the recent badges is now less useful than before.
    – gung - Reinstate Monica
    Dec 4, 2013 at 23:41

2 Answers 2

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The badges still live on ...the badge page!

Recent tags are not available anymore, however the tag page contains similar data, except rolled up by tag.

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  • You mean the "X asked today, Y this week" for each tag? Well, this does make some sense. So it's a plain "no" for bringing it back to the homepage? :(
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:42
  • @ShaWizDowArd we clearly do not have a plan to "bring it back" on the home page or we wouldn't have removed it in the first place. I think that if a reasonable case is made, which I would expect to include a new home for it, then something can be arranged :-)
    – Sklivvz
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:45
  • My case is just users sharing my opinion, not that strong. Was worth a shot, feel free to remove the discussion tag and add nice red status-declined then to put this request into proper rest. :)
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:52
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    The tag page doesn't really provide quite the same functionality... However, it certainly could do so.
    – Shog9
    Dec 4, 2013 at 17:57
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The recent badges and tags list serve no useful purpose in my opinion. They might be somewhat entertaining, though I never use them at all, but they aren't actually useful. I don't think we should clutter up the sidebar with items of questionable value.

If some users actually want to keep those lists, they should be put on a separate page linked from some appropriate place, and not on the frontpage.

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  • They were there for long years, so guess the team had some reason adding them. I consider them "useful stats", if nothing else. :(
    – Shadow The GPT Wizard
    Dec 4, 2013 at 14:27
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    I never cared about recent tags, but on sites where I'm a mod or "senior user" I use recent badges all the time to get a sense of what's going on on the site, particularly involving new users (who I want to encourage). And if somebody does something significant on a small beta like earn Research Assistant, I want to call that out -- congratulate him in chat, encourage others, etc. I'm glad to see that this list is on the badges page now (which is totally fine with me; I don't mind clicking for this info).
    – Monica Cellio
    Dec 4, 2013 at 16:22

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