The instance I usually log into is sitting on 0.17.4 and I wanted to see how 0.18.0 looks. So I created a new sign in on a good looking updated instance to give it a whirl.
I'm not happy with some of the changes and the interface feels more clunky to me. Yeah there's some improvement in response after dropping web sockets and it's nice the sort orders work better, but that's all I have to say positive about it.
Searching for communities is giving me fits now. When I go to search for a community from the community page it defaults to an "all" search where it should default to a "community" search. So now I have the extra step of selecting the "communities" option from the search page, but first I have to do the default "all" search to get to there. It's just super clunky and annoying.
When subscribing to communities 0.17.4 would get stuck in subscribe pending mode, but I'm having even more trouble with 0.18.0. When I call up a community the subscribe button is missing. I have to reselect the community for it to appear. Then I'm still getting weird behavior in response to pushing the button. In some cases it does nothing and repeated presses are required to see subscribe pending. It rarely shows joined within a reasonable amount of time. There's still a bunch pending since 8 hours ago.
I really don't like how the first reply to a post shows the reply bar. It looked so much better when only a reply to a reply started the reply bar chain. It really bugs me as far as the page aesthetic.
I have some other small gripes with the new version, but those are the ones giving me the most trouble. I mean don't change stuff just to change stuff. Fix things and make them easier to use, not harder. Don't worry about stupid things like changing header fonts and reply bars. Give me the stuff I really-really need;
- a compact view option
- a setting to open all links in a new tab
- granular settings for default sort orders
- clickable headers in lists for sorting.