# Should we enable the new discourse sidebar?
**URL:** https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588
**Category:** Forum and website feedback
**Created:** [December 6, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588 "2022-12-06T00:32:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@jcfr](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jcfr)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2022, 12:32am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588/1 "2022-12-06T00:32:04Z")
Discourse allows to enable a new sidebar feature for streamlining access to categories an other useful links.
See [Try out the new sidebar and notification menus! - announcements - Discourse Meta](https://meta.discourse.org/t/try-out-the-new-sidebar-and-notification-menus/238821)
It can be enabled on our instance through the `Settings -> Developer` menu.
I quickly enabled the feature and did some experiments.
While user can independently customize the sidebar through their user settings, I configured it globally to add `Announcements`, `Support` and `Development` as default categories.
It also possible to include some tags by default.
Do we think this would be useful ? Or would that be a distraction ?
cc: @lassoan @jamesobutler @Sam_Horvath @muratmaga
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### Author:  [@jcfr](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jcfr)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2022, 12:52am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588/2 "2022-12-06T00:52:53Z")
And here is a comparison of the user menu with/without the new sidebar enabled
| | |
| --- | --- |
| **Without** |  |
| **With** |  |
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### Author:  [@jamesobutler](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jamesobutler)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2022, 1:20am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588/3 "2022-12-06T01:20:14Z")
I can see this new change being helpful.
From the linked discourse post, it seems like the current hamburger menu will eventually go away anyways so switching to whatever they seem to be moving to is fine with me. It appears they have already received rounds of feedback in September/October/November, so I would think is also not very experimental anymore. From what I have read it appears this new design is the default for new discourse sites, but just an option on existing old ones(?). So another reason I’m fine with switching to it like other discourse sites have done.
> The `enable sidebar` site setting enables the sidebar, which replaces the hamburger menu. When it is disabled, a new hamburger menu is used instead for sites that prefer it find it more compatible with their existing theme customizations.
>
> The old hamburger menu will eventually go away.
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### Author:  [@jamesobutler](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jamesobutler)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588/4 "2022-12-06T01:22:26Z")
Also comparing the new sidebar on mobile I can say the new version is a lot better as it uses more of the vertical space. I viewed how the new version looks like on another discourse site with it.
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### Author:  [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2022, 1:23am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588/5 "2022-12-06T01:23:44Z")
Let’s enable it for a few days and if we don’t find it useful then we can switch back.
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### Author:  [@muratmaga](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/muratmaga)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2022, 5:19pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588/6 "2022-12-06T17:19:45Z")
Is this enabled? I saw it for a few hours, and now it is back to the usual one for me.
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### Author:  [@jcfr](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jcfr)
#### Post date: [December 6, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/should-we-enable-the-new-discourse-sidebar/26588/7 "2022-12-06T20:48:00Z")
Thanks for the feedback 🙏
It has just been enabled:
| Expanded sidebar | Collapsed sidebar |
| --- | --- |
|  | |
### User profile
| Before | After |
| --- | --- |
|  | |