Weekly Rugela Bake for October 30th through November 5th, 2026

It's nearly Shabbat and that means it's time for a Rugela bake. This is a big one folks!

The context bar!- On the home page on desktop, there's a sidebar to the right showing recent comments. That new bar is the Context Bar. We have lots of big plans for it. For now, it shows recent comments at a glance. On mobile, the context bar is available as a page in the hamburger menu.
Formatting help- If you're writing a new post, the context bar shows up and shows you how to format posts. Yes, we support lots of Markdown here, and if you're unsure of how to use it, the context bar is there!
Notifications show up automatically!- As you use the site, notifications show up automatically. No need to reload the page anymore! Notifications also change the title bar of your browser too, letting you see your notifications at a glance!
Context Filter Switch- If you have context filters because you don't want to see violence, antisemitism, etc. you can now flip those off temporarily by going to your avatar menu and flipping the switch! Turning them off won't remove them from your settings, so you can turn them off temporarily and then put them back up when you want. This means you can have a sneak peak at the full stream without losing your normal filters.
Refreshed look on stars and reply- We're trying a little cleaner look on the starring and reply interface. We think this looks a bit cleaner.
Improved Search- Now when you search, your search results have highlighted results! That makes it easier to see why something matched
Context bar on search- We even put the context bar on searches! On the search screen the context bar shows you how to use search more effectively.
Sharing a Rugela link now gives you a page preview- If you post a link onto a chat site or another social media site, they can now get a page preview for the link!
If you make a report, you can get a response- If you make a report over context, a moderator can now respond back to you about the outcome.
If you are reported, you'll get a response- If someone reports content about you, you'll now get notified about the outcome.

What do you think?

What's your favorite new feature? Do you like the new look? Prefer the old look? What do you think of the context bar?

What's something you wish was a little different?

Reply below with your thoughts! Or as always, you can send your feedback to suggestions@rugela.com!