Our Fresh New Look Is Here

College Confidential Community
401

@jym626 wrote:

First, I wasn’t the one who explained how to make the font smaller. In fact, I read the suggestion of how to do it (click “control” and the minus sign) and that did nothing for me. I’m on a Mac laptop. Also, I don’t use CC on my phone. I don’t own an iPad. I only use CC on my laptop.

In this new design, one post takes up the whole screen!!! And if I view a forum, I can only see a few thread titles, and have to scroll very far past pinned and featured posts to find anything new. Someone new to the site likely won’t do that. I find the whole site pretty unusable in its present form and I’m unlikely to participate as much if they don’t fix it.

I can’t think of ANYTHING positive about these new changes…except, well, I might read and participate less and admit it can be a time sink. But it has been a habit for 17 years. This might do me in.

402

Can anyone recommend an ad blocker for Safari on a Mac laptop? Between the nonstop video ad and the horrible new layout I’m about to give up and go away for a week or two but I’ll try the ad blocker first and see if I can get used to the layout at least. But I will add my voice to the many who say “too much scrolling!” BTW I only access this site via laptop, never by phone or iPad.

403

I’m another parent whose child is heading to college this fall and I probably won’t come back to this forum unless the owners do the smart thing - roll back the changes and do a lot more user testing before trying again. It’s a strain for my eyes, and I almost never have this problem on other sites.

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@washugrad Like you, I only use CC on my laptop and I am on a Mac and use Safari. I block ads with “AdBlock” and so at least I don’t have that annoying video. If I scroll way down the page, I think I see it, but it is not visible in the window otherwise. I don’t see ANY ads.

405

Exactly; much more effort required for very little return.

406

Some of us dont need the font any smaller, jym. My problem. Is how small some of it is, on my cell. Some speak of large buttons, whatever, but without mentioning the platform.

My comment about humanities in stem projects comes from my own work experiences. Of course, not all non stem kids can do it. I cant go back to quote just what a few here said, sigh.

But my point is, another perspective, a different set of analytical strengths, checks and balances. I did this.

407

UGH…I tried again to make the font smaller. While the directions had been “control” and the “minus sign”…it actually was “command” and the “minus sign” on my computer. Well, it did make the font smaller, BUT…at the same time…it put the #%$^^WQ#Q% video on the upper right side of my window, that everyone is complaining about! UGH. Before I only saw that video if I scrolled to the bottom of the page. This trade off wasn’t worth it.

408

The “SQL injection attempt” sounds very concerning.

The ad blocker I installed yesterday works to keep the video away, but it’s a power hog. I’d prefer to be without it. However, the video’s presence renders the website entirely unusable for me. I thought my head might explode from it.

As for the layout problem, I might describe it as an issue of proportion. Here are a few suggestions for the designers, a start, from a nonprofessional (perhaps those website professionals who are users here would want to alter these or offer additional suggestions):

(1) Make the post content text font black. Choose a slightly thicker one (but not on the level of bold). It doesn’t need to be smaller; the proportion between post text and the rest of the page needs to change.

(2) Expand the width of the post column.

(3) Within the post, remove number of replies and discussions, unshade member type, move time/date to top, shrink all of that (not priority info), shrink and unbold the icons for Likes. Think compact!

(4) Rethink the amount of white space all over the place. I’m a fan of well-placed white space on book pages and such and have my share of vision issues, but screen space comes at a cost. Scrolling is a huge negative. There does not need to be a >1" margin between the top menu bar and the text/thread title area – entirely wasted.

(5) Delete the “recent activity” section at the bottom of a thread

(6) Main page should not require any scrolling to see forum list. (Example: I didn’t even realize the forum list on the main page was even THERE at all until this morning – too far down)

(7) Get rid of most active user list and related lists. Users might prefer more privacy.

(8) Autoloading video that cannot be stopped - or paused for more than a few seconds, or ever end after it plays entirely through the first time - is absurd.

(Dear web designers, I had to edit to put the paragraph line breaks in so that you might be able to actually read this. You’re welcome.)

409

This is not very mobile friendly. I will try it on my computer to see if it’s any better. From the post above I don’t have high hopes.

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@soozievt - I saw the original comment yesterday about making the computer screen smaller/larger, but thought you’d posted something s little while ago to which I was responding. This is so hard to follow, and with only 15 posts/pg it changes pages quickly and its hard to follow, especially on rgw phone Arggh!!!

411

Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.
The font. The ads.
I mourn for the “family” I feel I am going to lose because of not coming back.

412

CC Moderators are a great bunch of folks who put in tons of unpaid time to make the site better. They had (have) no control over these changes. My hope is that they encourage the Forum Administrator(s) to come to this thread and address the concerns or respond in some fashion. It makes good business sense to do so. Here we have LONG term contributors to this forum who have helped to make it great. But it feels like we are talking amongst ourselves here or simply venting. So, mods, if you are reading, please try to encourage an Administrator to revisit this thread and respond in some manner. Please and thank you!!!

413

The main page of the cafe sure seems quiet. Wonder why.

I did reduce my font size - that helps but the font is still a bad choice for reading more than a few sentences.

Again, I have rarely had any issue with ads on any pages I visit…the ads on this page are those you experience when you go to a less than stellar “news” page or entertainment site. Who clicks on those ads anyway???

Notice I’m trying to address several comments in one thread. Don’t want to get myself in the limelight of being too active a poster… :slight_smile:

414

Would that explain removal of the open search box? You used to be able to just type something into the search box at the top and click once. Then they added a drop-down where you had to choose to search the forum. Now there is no visible search box until you click the spyglass icon.

Three clicks now just to do a simple forum search? Not exactly simplifying things.

415

As I wrote above, I have now just been able to reduce the huge font size which is better, but the page layout changed so that the video now appears on the right side of the page. It is not an AD. I have an AdBlocker and don’t see ANY ads. This is a featured “CC Editor Pick” and I think it stinks to have a video constantly appear on the page and keep replaying, as it is such a distraction and annoying. I might have to put the font size back to the ridiculously HUGE size it was before where I could just view one post on a page, if I can even manage to do that. I felt lucky before when I could not see the video with that format. I now see what everyone was venting about and it is terrible!

416

As I’m going from page to page ,I can barely tell which page I’m on. “Bold” is barely darker than the already too-light numbers.

Last time we had an upgrade, the background was darkened and various items bolded after complaints after the initial release. Shouldn’t be that difficult.

Threads with 1000+ pages have their page numbers run together without space between them. Clearly the developers do not know for whom they are programming and the volume of some of these threads!!

One can upgrade periodically, in increments, without having to rebuild from scratch. Every time CC does an upgrade, it’s major upheaval. This tells me that those making the decisions don’t know project management and they sure don’t value input from the people who moderate the site or the heavy users, many of whom are tech professionals or tech-competent themselves. Can’t imagine 17 yos wanting to scroll endlessly through ads and articles they won’t read. The developers misjudged the student population here, too.

Go look at Washington Post chats to see a readable font size, though it too has ad bloat on the right side and doesn’t use enough of the screen.

417

See? Evergreen, a self confessed “nonprofessinal” just summarized the issues. Probably not all, as Apple vs Android, different browsers, present differently. Some user panel could have done the same, before this release.

The Recent Activity may be an attempt to draw attention to those- but it interferes with actually using a page. Scroll too far and you miss the Reply box.

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@evergreen5 , yes, the font is too pale and too small, at least on an iPad and desktop. I haven’t tried it on a phone yet.

I’m just finding this site to be a big blurry mess now. It’s looks like a Word Doc with a few stock photos on the side, and an annoying video playing nonstop on the desktop.

Why are some posts in grey and others in white? Really confusing.

I’ve been looking around. Everything just blends into everything else.

If CC paid someone to do this redesign, they should demand a refund. Seriously poor job.

419

No thanks. I’m calling it quits. I can barely find the Parent Cafe and can’t find the College Majors section where I sometimes posted. Not enough time in my life to bother with this new format. By the way, I’m getting double spaced as I type this which is a bit odd. I wonder how it will appear when I hit “Post”.

Edit - Posted as single space. My problem is that the format I see as I compose is not the format that will print so I can’t tell if I have added lines before new paragraph for ease of reading.

420

I don’t understand the huge empty l & r margins?! So much wasted space. It’s so hard to read now and the video/advertising is an obnoxiously huge presence. The thread columns on the original platform were SO much easier to read and navigate. I won’t continue to use the site if it stays as it is.