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Today on TeX.SE I noticed two cards below a question that I did not see before, one to ask a question yourself and one that offers tag links:

cards with ask question button and tag links

Transcript of first card:

Start asking to get answers
Find the answer to your question by asking.
Ask question (link)

Transcript of second card:

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags

Question: When have these been added? And why? Is it permanent or an experiment? Is it announced somewhere? Is it there for all users and all sites?

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    I see this on several sites, including here on MSE. I first noticed it yesterday. Both cards seem redundant; neither seems needed. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 14:07
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    the wording on that first one feels very weird to me Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 14:42
  • The content is also completely redundant. All that content is visible already on question pages, and it's already visible above the fold if the question isn't particularly long. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 15:15
  • It's by-definition redundant, but I can also see value to having this, particularly on Q&A pages where there are a handful of answers which makes the page fairly tall. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that someone would get done reading/ skimming through all the answers and want to keep reading through tags, or ask a follow-up question of their own. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 15:27
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    Indeed the location directly below the answer input box may persuade visitors to ask a follow-up question of their own instead of (incorrectly) posting that follow-up question as an answer. That would be great (although they should also be aware that a comment should be used if they have a clarification question instead of a follow-up) - but I would like to know if this was indeed the intention behind adding this or not. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 15:40
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    Honestly if a UI requires redundant stuff at the top and bottom of the page, it needs work. (Thinks fondly of the olden days when we could choose to have the top bar come along for the ride as we scrolled) Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 15:42
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    I don't see a problem with it existing at the bottom of the page, yea it's redundant, so is having a site footer with most of the same links that exist in the header yet every site has one. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 15:46
  • You know what would be nice is if the "Explore related questions" would do a search with all of the tags together instead of each being a separate search and having to know how to refine it by adding in the other tags. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 15:55
  • @KevinB Having a footer with duplicate links is not good UI just because it already exists. Frankly, the SE interface is really cluttered and confusing. We have text you can click on that doesn't look like a link, duplicate links all over the place, "Welcome back!" fluff and the hamburger menu to switch between sites is not as useful as just a bookmark because it doesn't go to the page I want. There is a whole section of "Related" questions that are different from the list someone gets by clicking on tags. It's a mess. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 16:03
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    I simply don't see "it's redundant!" as really much of an argument. Yea, it's redundant, a lot of things are. But is it serving a good purpose? I think widgets down here can, but the current two are a bit lacking. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 16:04
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    @KevinB Redundancy is a symptom of bad design. I wouldn't tolerate a bunch of copy-pasta in code I was reviewing just because it was more convenient than writing a function with a unit test. Why should it be tolerated here? Putting the entire site into tutorial mode for every user all the time is not a good solution to the new user engagement issues. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 16:38
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    @Marijn I'm not convinced of that since you have to scroll down (after you see the answer box) to see this. We know the users who post follow up questions as answers do so because they can't or don't read, so it's unlikely that displaying more guidance they can't yet see by the time they get to the answer box is going to change that behavior. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 21:29
  • I am sure nobody will ever click/use those things (won't go in details, it's plain obvious), but if devs are happy and think they are doing good work - let them. Commented Mar 14, 2025 at 17:15

1 Answer 1

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TLDR: We improved the UI of the call to action at the bottom of the question page, so users can more easily access next steps (browsing the tags or asking a question) if they didn't find what they needed on that page.

There was already some text at the bottom of each question page, below the "Post Your Answer" button, inviting users to browse the tags or ask a question of their own, but it was extremely easy to miss (see the screenshot below, sorry about the image quality), which is why even long time users may not have been aware it was ever there.

image showing the bottom of a question page with text that says "browse questions tagged" with several tags, "or ask your own question"

So once a user scrolled down to dig into a question and its answers, the "Ask Question" button and clickable question tags were essentially no longer available, which could be a barrier to figuring out next steps for trying to solve their problem - especially for newer users who don't know where to look.

We decided to update the UI so that these options are readily available to users who have reached the bottom of the page, which is especially helpful in cases where a user may have spent time reading through multiple answers to a question only to find that none of them solve their problem.

If they come to the conclusion that this is not the right question for the issue they are facing and want to either explore additional questions in those tags or ask a question of their own, they can now see those options right in front of them, versus having to remember where to find them, and then scroll all the way back up.

As Marijn mentioned, this also helps to point newer users in the direction of asking a new question rather than posting their follow up question as answer, which is a mistake that sometimes gets made.

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    Thank you for explaining, this change makes sense. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 18:22
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    "after spending time reading through multiple answers to a question only to find that none of them solve their problem." - It appears on unanswered questions, too... or questions with only one answer. Can we please avoid explanations that leave people thinking that this only shows up in specific situations? Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 18:43
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    @Catija fair point, I just meant that as an example of one type of situation we had in mind when making this change. Edited to add a bit of context. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 18:56
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    Does the "Explore related questions" actually search for related questions, or does it just show questions with the chosen tag? The option to search should take precedence over the option to ask. Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 19:18
  • i mean... it links you to a list of questions that have the clicked on tag, so, technically, they are related. i'm not so sure i'd consider search a great alternative given the current state of site search (though, it's probably fine on much smaller sites.) Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 19:31
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    I admit, this old blurb that got replaced was definitely easy to ignore, because it completely faded out of my memory after so many years on the site. So you definitely improved its visibility. I doubt, however, that it'll fix the point you mention in final paragraph raised originally by Marijn, for reasons I mention in this comment. But that's a problem for another day... thanks for the explanation! Commented Mar 12, 2025 at 21:31

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