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Currently when we edit the "My Communities" list in the top bar, we have to:

  1. Type at least part of the desired site name.
  2. Click the item that shows up.
  3. Click "Add".

Three whole steps! If I want to add 30 sites, it means long minutes spent on this.

How can we make it easier and faster to edit? Suggestions are welcome. :)

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9

I'm on board with simplifying the workflow here in principle, but dragging sites in from "More Communities" doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

For one, it gives the impression that the "More Communities" list is mutable. It's not. You cannot remove sites from it. For another, oh god the scrolling it hurts please make it stop.

(As an aside, I'd expect adding 30+ sites to the list to be an edge case, but we're still monitoring how people use this feature.)

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  • 1
    Good points. What about adding small + icon next to each site in the "More Communities" list when editing, that when clicked will add that community to the "My Communities" list? – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 5 '14 at 18:38
  • @ShadowWizard Hmm, I like that. – Adam Lear♦ Mar 5 '14 at 18:39
  • So what to do now? Change the question to reflect this new suggestion? – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 5 '14 at 18:41
  • @ShadowWizard Good question. Edit to make it a more general "make it easier to add sites" request, keep the initial suggestion (so that my answer doesn't look completely insane :)), and then add the new one? – Adam Lear♦ Mar 5 '14 at 18:42
  • Done, comments on the question itself can be cleared as well. Will add the suggestion from my first comment as new answer too. – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 5 '14 at 23:45
  • @ShadowWizard Great, thanks. – Adam Lear♦ Mar 5 '14 at 23:46
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Another option is adding small + icon next to each site in the "More Communities" list when editing, that when clicked will add that community to the "My Communities" list:

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  • Hmm, that's also probably not going to happen. I was thinking "+" signs on the search dropdown when you're typing in a site name in the editor control. I really would rather not mix the two sections together since the editor right now is fairly standalone and the discoverability of "oh hey, I gotta scroll down to this other place and click a few pluses" is even worse than what we got now. – Adam Lear♦ Mar 6 '14 at 0:03
  • I think there is room for some workflow improvements to this feature (possibly integrating it better into the rest of the site switcher), but for the moment we're still keeping an eye on how it's used first. – Adam Lear♦ Mar 6 '14 at 0:04
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    I like the appearance change here as an indication of a change in functionality, but making me target a tiny little "+" is cruel. – Shog9 Mar 6 '14 at 0:05
  • @AnnaLear sorry for the confusion and no big deal, what you suggest also make sense. Want me to post yet another answer with mockup of this? This combined with Shog idea of keyboard navigation is a win-win situation! :-) – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 6 '14 at 0:05
  • @ShadowWizard If you like. I'm not too worried about it, but it wouldn't hurt to see how the votes would go on that one. – Adam Lear♦ Mar 6 '14 at 0:06
  • @AnnaLear done. Idea is yours, hence CW. :) – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 6 '14 at 7:25
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Keyboard support would go a long way here, IMHO. I have to have my hands on the keyboard to type at least part of a site's name - so why can't I arrow down to actually select it or hit enter to add it?

Failing that, a method that displayed the entire list and let me scroll and click without ever touching the keyboard would still be less involved - but frankly, that sounds awful compared to a solution that lets me just type.

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  • Disclaimer: I haven't used this at all, since I navigate between sites by typing URLs into my browser's address bar and letting it auto-complete them (or selecting from the list in the case of site names that begin with "math") - if I'm going to use on-site navigation, it'd have to beat that for speed and/or convenience, which for all its charms the sites dropdown hasn't really hit yet. – Shog9 Mar 5 '14 at 23:51
  • Such feature is already suggested, unless I missed the point here? – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 5 '14 at 23:52
  • Different search box, @Shadow - there are two of them now. The one that pops up when you're editing your custom list behaves differently from the one that's visible by default. Also, that post is a duplicate of yet another suggestion... (but it's a bit better thought-out, so I've closed the older suggestion) – Shog9 Mar 5 '14 at 23:54
  • True, though I think adding keyboard navigation to both will make more sense. Thanks! – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 5 '14 at 23:59
5

One more idea, inspired by Adam Lear's comment:

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2

One way to make it easier is by being able to drag the sites/communities under "More Stack Exchange Communities" into the "My Communities" list while editing:

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1

Hmm, +, dragging, keyboard... what about making this?

  1. Click on edit.
  2. Communities will be sorted by your activity. You simply click on them, and they are being added to YOUR COMMUNITIES list.
  3. Sort them how you want and click save.

Isn't it easier?

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