Welcome to the new-new Sonos Global Community Forums
If things look a little different today, that's because they are. The refresh I teased a couple weeks back is live. Here's a walk through what's changed and what to expect from here.
A new look
The first thing you'll notice is the color. We've refreshed the palette and the overall look so the Community feels like it belongs alongside the rest of the Sonos experience you’ll see on other channels (and eventually the website). Same place, better outfit.
A simpler front page
The front page has been streamlined so anyone walking through the door gets value and direction right away. Less clutter and clearer paths to the good stuff. A few of you flagged early that new and recent topics were harder to get to, so those are back on the front page in a spot that doesn't fight everything else for attention. Keep that kind of feedback coming. This is the sort of thing that only gets right through use.
Threaded Replies
You can now reply directly to each other and have side conversations within a topic instead of everything stacking up in one long line. You'll also notice the page numbers at the bottom of topics are gone. That's by design. With replies branching off into their own threads there's less need to jump to page 12 to find the end of the story. It'll feel different for a bit (As we all get used to it) and I think it's going to be one of the best changes to how conversations happen here.
Community Rituals
This is our name for the regular events and updates you can count on here. Office Hours, regular update posts, announcements and conversations with key Sonos staff, all on a rhythm you can plan around. Outside of our regular update posts, the first Office Hours will be taking place here on Friday, October 30!
Global Translations (coming very soon!)
One of my personal favorites. The entire site will (soon) translate into your local language and you can switch to any other language on the site whenever you want. For everyone in our German and Dutch communities, this is a big piece of bringing all of us under one roof and I'll have more to share on that as the work continues.
Location-based Groups
With everyone coming together globally, Groups are now organized by location: US, UK, Australia, Germany, Netherlands and France. That's where the local stuff lives. Finds, sales, concerts, whatever's happening in your corner of the world. The older groups have a TON of topics attached to them and will need to be moved to the appropriate new categories (outlined below). Once all of the topics have been moved, the old groups will be deleted and Groups will return to the top toolbar (between Discussions and Request Line).
Request Line
Speaking of! Feature requests have a proper home now. Post an idea, vote on the ones you care about and follow where each one lands with status updates along the way.
New category names
"Get help with your Sonos Products" is now Fix & Optimize and "Talk About Sonos Speakers" is now Setups & Spaces. Smart Home and voice assistant topics have moved under Setups & Spaces for the moment and the moderation team is going through those to make sure anything that's really a fix-it question ends up in Fix & Optimize. If a topic looks like it's sitting in an odd spot for a bit, that's why.
What's next
- Still checking how everything fits on mobile and chasing down a couple of small things. If something looks off, tell me.
- Talking through default sorting for topics with Gainsight, now that the way we talk to each other here has changed.
- I'm learning about a lot of the new features right alongside you. If you have a question I don't have an answer to yet, I'll go find one.
As always, I want to hear what you think. What's working, what isn't, what you're excited about and whatever else you’re thinking about. Thanks for helping to build the next generation of the Sonos Global Community Forums.