Hide default deck by default

[dae]

Perhaps a simpler solution is to:

• remove the exception that shows the default deck when there are no other decks
• hide it from the browser sidebar unless it's non-empty
• add a new, normal deck like 'my first deck' when new collections are created, or show 'no decks' until the user adds/imports a deck

Originally reported on https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/hide-default-deck-by-default/47663

[brishtibheja]

I largely agree with this. One minor concern is about the presets, because the preset shows the number of decks currently using it, it will confuse many new users why the number appears one more than the number of decks they have.

Is it possible to hide the preset along with the deck?

[dae]

I don't consider the default preset as much of a design wart - it's somewhat useful, as it's the preset all shared decks are assigned.

For the preset usage count, maybe we could subtract one when the default deck is empty?

[brishtibheja]

add a new, normal deck like 'my first deck' when new collections are created, or show 'no decks' until the user adds/imports a deck

I think we should be going with what AnkiDroid does: a no deck screen telling people how to add decks by themselves. This is also important as some new users don't come to Anki with the expectation that its a bring-your-own-content app. I didn't in 2020.

David says,

It helped us. I've said a few times that Anki doesn't give a user a hint of what to click on when they first open the app.

[dae]

That works for me too, but I'd rather we make such changes as part of a rewrite of the deck overview page into Svelte, so we don't end up doing the work twice or more.

[brishtibheja]

I don't consider the default preset as much of a design wart - it's somewhat useful, as it's the preset all shared decks are assigned.

It might solve this?

• [Bug] Export/Import deck options not working when using default options group #3023