<p>Good morning...in an effort to break through some of the clutter in this forum we unpinned a few threads. This will make it easier to browse the new content here and minimize the need to scroll. However, we understand that those threads are still of interest and have received requests to consolidate them (and others) into a single, stickied thread. If you could please respond with links to the threads you would like to be included that would be great. Thank you! </p>
<p>These used to be stickied, we refer to them often:</p>
<p>Very Low Cost OOS Schools
<a href=“VERY LOW COST OOS COA universities......less than $25k COA for everything! - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>VERY LOW COST OOS COA universities......less than $25k COA for everything! - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;
<p>Competitive Full Tuition/Full Ride Scholarships
<a href=“Competitive Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1461983-competitive-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>I agree with Brown Parent…those two threads should get pinned…again.</p>
<p>Any chance some of those could be UNLOCKED so that current information can be added?</p>
<p>Shouldn’t be a problem to unlock them. I’d have to view any moderating notes about why they were locked in the first place (if there are any).</p>
<p>I unlocked one of them, though the others seem to have been locked due to the amount of information already contained in them. Really not 100% sure…even on the one I locked!</p>
<p>I pinned those two threads above separately (again), and now we’re back to being cluttered. So, with what we have now, let’s consolidate. I can keep those two separated, and put the rest in a single sticky (so we’re back to three stickies). Would that work?</p>
<p>I do NOT think that five pinned threads is cluttered. These are important threads to the HS students and their parents who are looking for financial aid information. </p>
<p>As a point of reference…there are SIX pinned threads on the parents Forum. And one is for schools that give good merit awards (started on 2005 but is still open).</p>
<p>Just my humble opinion!!</p>
<p>With all of the sub-topics, the two featured threads, and five pinned threads there is quite a bit scrolling required to see the new content. We also need to show some consideration to users who are posting questions and may miss out on responses because others can’t find their threads. Then again, cutting back from 5 to 3 pinned threads isn’t really accomplishing a whole lot.</p>
<p>Here is a thought…how about two pins…one for looking for links for lower net price college costs (first three pinned threads could go there), and the second for links to financial aid info threads (second two pinned could go there).</p>
<p>Thank you thumper1…what do others think of that?</p>
<p>I think the BIG question…do others think the pinned threads really cluttered the top of the forum?</p>
<p>To be honest, I find the hot topics post to be more of a nuisance since some clearly are NOT hot (as can be evidenced by their post count). I think THOSE should just be in the regular list of posts. THOSE clutter the top of every forum, and are SOOOO unnecessary.</p>
<p>I appreciate your passion, but no need to shout :)</p>
<p>I think we’re over-analyzing this. I will go ahead and take your own suggestion to make two threads and we’ll see how that works out. Thanks!</p>
<p>Sorry…didn’t mean to shout. I don’t know how to do italics for emphasis here!</p>
<p>thumper doesn’t use caps as shouting. It’s her posting style of stressing things. </p>
<p>I agree about the “featured threads”. They’re generally by the big wigs (in fact, the only ones I can think of are from Dave Berry and CC_Lydia) at CC and often generate little activity. </p>
<p>Let’s look at college life’s featured threads:
<a href=“http://i.gyazo.com/5961d5440763b58d0480d08092f0d174.png”>http://i.gyazo.com/5961d5440763b58d0480d08092f0d174.png</a>
</p>
<p>0 and 1 response respectively. The ones in the Parent’s Cafe are from June. Others are from March and last year. </p>
<p>Missed the edit window 
</p>
<p>ETA: Anyway, I wish there was a way to get rid of links from the early 2000s that link to scholarships as the schools have likely changed policies since then.</p>
<p>Yes I think having a couple of Info pins with links inside works. As long as they are labeled well.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>For those who don’t know that, it comes across as shouting…just sayin’ 
thumper1, try this. Use an ‘i’ in brackets and then close with a forward slash followed by an i (in brackets as well). </p>
<p>@romanigypsyeyes - Wonder how many such threads there are, and how easy/difficult they’d be track down. It would no doubt be a substantial project. Thanks for the input, as we do want to ensure the newest and most popular content is easiest to access…as opposed to letting ancient, inactive threads stick out like a sore thumb. I know on many of the sub-forums there are outdated featured threads. It’s just been such a huge undertaking.</p>
<p>@BrownParent - I think we’ll go with thumper1’s suggestion and see how that works, then. Thanks!</p>
<p>As a further note about featured threads, we have traditionally showcased threads generated by the community as a means of showing appreciation for contributions. Also, those threads were often featured a day or two (or more) after they were posted. So, they were featured after already exhibiting some traction within the community. Creating and featuring threads internally can be tricky, since we are pushing them out cold. I can certainly have some internal discussion with our product manager on optimizing the featured thread area. I agree those two College Life threads aren’t making best use of the space.</p>
<p>Here’s my suggestion.</p>
<p>Get rid of the 6 separate scholarship subtopics on the top of the page (Gates, National Merit, etc.), in favor of ONE subtopic called “Outside Scholarships” – and then simply move all those subtopics to be subtopics of the new “outside scholarship” subtopic. </p>
<p>so you have </p>
<p>–> Financial Aid
----------> Outside Scholarships
--------------------> 6 moved subtopics</p>
<p>Then create a new, #2 subtopic called “Specific College Financial Aid Policies” – and under that you can have suptopics or stickies for topics like which colleges offer guaranteed merit aid based on specific stats, which colleges promise to meet full need, which other colleges have generous merit aid, etc. </p>
<p>So now you have uncluttered the main financial aid topic by turning the 6 subtopic at the top into 2, or perhaps 3 – and you will be able to move your stickies to either be subtopics or stickies under the appropriate subtopic. For example, " Automatic Full Tuition / Full Ride Scholarships" (now a sticky under the main financial aid topic) would be moved to the “Specific College Financial Aid Policies” as a sticky on that page instead. </p>
<p>@romanigypsyeyes how did you post that image?</p>