Forum team update: Shortform is now called “Quick takes”, has a section on the Frontpage, and changed in some other smaller ways. 

Here’s what’s new:

• Shortform is now called “Quick takes” (Shortform was confusing to many people)
• There’s a section for Quick takes on the Frontpage to improve visibility (you can still post Quick takes that don’t show up on the Frontpage; just deselect the “Frontpage” tag). Those will only show up in the separate view
• Some other design changes to make things clearer and easier to use:
  • There’s an input field in the section on the Frontpage, so you can add a Quick take there directly
  • Improvements to the page where all of an author’s Quick takes are shown
  • Other visual changes to the Quick takes and the creation flow

Rationale/context:

In some cases, Forum users want to share (and read) less polished ideas or other content that doesn’t seem like a full post on the Forum. Shortform was designed years back to fill this gap, but the Shortform feature was tucked away, hard to read, and had a name that most users didn’t understand. 

Over the past few months, we’ve been exploring ways to encourage lower-barrier discussions, culminating in this latest version of Quick takes.

As always, we’d love feedback on these changes. You can comment on my Quick take (or email us if you prefer). We’ll also monitor how this feature gets used and improve it over time.