@doschicos It’s the same for me on the iPhone 10x
Ok one more glitch that can be fixed and which has been most likely has been mentioned previously, that I have experienced first hand after trying.
Long megs threads that you see for the first time. You can start from the beginning or the very end. This isn’t ideal. I will read the first few pages to get the feel, then I would prefer to skip along the these from page 4 to say page 80 out of 107 page thread as an example.
^^^That new arrangement of dark bolder posts being ones we have already read and white/light posts being ones that are new or have new posts since the last visit is counterintuitive and opposite of many other sites…even my email box does the opposite of this.
Also, given how now so little can be viewed on a screen or in the window at one time, if you got a a forum like the Musical Theater Forum, first you have to scroll past “Featured Threads” which are very outdated ones, then past numerous pinned posts (and the “pins” are not obvious), and scroll quite far to get to newer/regular threads. A new person would possibly not keep scrolling. And each admissions cycle brings lots of newbies to that forum and many others!
A couple of years ago, moderators could not change/update the featured threads on a forum, and only a forum administrator could do that. Maybe tha has changed but the featured threads are several years old in many cases and while that was not so awful before this forum format change, it is now because so little on a forum can be viewed in one window (sooooo much white space), and one would have to scroll far past the featured and pinned threads…and very well may never do that.
Of course, that is after spending lots of time even finding the particular forum in the first place (they won’t even know, for example, that a Musical Theater Forum exists as there is no master list of forums when opening CC).
UGH.
I’m no techie, but how hard would it be to put the date and time stamp at the top of each post? It really is a critical data point.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the strong reactions to this new site (mine included) and I think it may be that the old site was a maze but it was a quirky, old-attic, discovery kind of maze.
For people who have been on CC for years, the obtuseness was part of the appeal. It engendered a sense of belonging. If you can figure it out, you get to be part of the club. Since there hadn’t been any significant forum evolution in years, we ended figuring out how to subsist on our own (with one of the best being the famous CC thread “Roommate brought 22 pillows, 4 lamps, 7 towels, and a large ceramic pineapple” and we all wanted to see it so the OP used her profile picture to upload an image of the room……now that was awesome).
Now we’re vanilla…we’re every site…and its not even primo generic….its way-too-confusing and mixed up generic. Anyway, as I mentioned a few days ago on redesigns, First do no harm – a rule that I will follow even more after seeing what happened here.
Agree. And to be honest, I personally think most of the articles and general ideas linked by the CC ptb are so generic that they are generic to the pt of not being helpful. The forums are where the helpful info exists. Generic info is, like you said, everywhere. But, a place to ask questions and get personalized answers from multiple perspectives from people who have btdt…that is what brought me to CC yrs ago and paying it forward (bc I have had 2 kids attend on full or almost full scholarship from what I learned from reading posts on CC) is why I have stayed.
If I want to read articles and generic advice, I would (and do) definitely go elsewhere. (I say that having high school, middle school, and elementary students still a time home.)
One positive about the new look - I have been meaning to get myself off of checking CC so often and I find the forum so hard to read now that I am actually reading less and spending less time on line!
Why is the member status now highlighted in blue? Certainly not important…at all.
I’m trying to keep up with any questions on the financial aid forum where I think I spend most of my time trying to pay it forward. So many here helped me, particularly with child 2. But I’m really not seeing many questions being asked…which is very unusual. And some of the very knowledgeable and regular posters like @BelknapPoint aren’t posting…at all. There are folks with very different levels of expertise and experience posting in financial aid…and that helps. But it appears some have already chosen to not be as active anymore.
Maybe @CCEdit_Torrey can just fill in with a bunch of article links about financial aid…since the front page of this forum looks like her personal blog anyway.
Torrey is just the messenger. The authors are others.
Agree, it seems as if question volume is down.
Regarding using Latest Post, I’ve approached CC that way for years. I hop to a couple of school specific threads to keep an eye on things every couple of days (since unfortunately the ability to bookmark a forum was ripped away in a previous “upgrade” and never restored in spite of many requests, so now it is a strictly manual effort). But the scrolling through latest posts on a mobile phone is now excruciating. First, when I get to the site, I have to scroll three times (carefully to not go past it) to get to the “Lastest Post” option. Used to be able to click on the stacked menu at the top and pick it as a pulldown.
Now that I am in it, I can see (at most) 4 post titles at a time (but often only 1-2 post titles, since the ads and massive white space take up most of the page. The font is also very thin and faint - let’s say I’m standing room only on the bus, and scrolling with one hand while holding on with the other. I can barely read it, when before I definitely could.
I just found a screen shot of the old format. A one line post (so just a few words) takes up around 1 vertical inch on my mobile screen in the old format, from the top of the post space to the bottom. In the new format, that same one sentence (poorly fonted post) takes 2.25 vertical inches. So less than half the content per page from the old format.
Maybe Hobson’s hopes that they can push their article content more than the forums, and they are trying to actually kill the forums off? I know I’ll stop coming here, and recommending it to people if it doesn’t change. I’m certainly not interested in wearing a sweatshirt with the logo on it (I am curious about the timing of that offer, wonder if it was a sort of bribe to experienced posters right before this new mess was released, hoping maybe we’d have warm fuzzy thoughts about CC and ignore how awful the new design is?)
@lookingforward I’m very aware Torrey is just the link poster and not the author. My point is…if this is all the owners of CC want…they can charge her with linking article after article after article.
As noted above, many posters here want an interaction…they ask a question…get some answers…ask follow up questions, and so forth.
The linked articles seem to be taking the main area of this forum as is evidenced by their very prominent and easy access. The actual forums are difficult to access, and not intuitively easy to find.
If this is what CC wants to become, I wish they would just say that they have decided to head in a different direction.
I am so sad as I discovered CC when my D17 was a HS junior and it was so helpful as we were navigating the college app process especially the athletic recruits forum, the HS Class of xxxx threads, the specific college forums, and everything else around the testing and application process.
I totally agree that it was the discussion forums that kept me here as the advice from other posters sharing their knowledge and experience was invaluable. The CC articles and content produced by the editors can be found at lots of other sites but the discussion forums are what make CC unique and can’t be found elsewhere.
I was looking forward to having this community available as we are starting the application process for S20 and can already see how activity and number of postings have dropped dramatically since this new redesign.
As other posters have said, the changes are not so bad if there is a specific thread that you bookmark and you only want to check those threads. It’s the navigation between forums and how the whole interconnectedness between the forums have been lost. The changes make it really hard to stumble on new threads of interest that are posted, which is a big part of what made me come back repeatedly throughout the day.
I feel exactly as someone else stated, as if I amsitting on my porch and following what’s going on in my house, but isolated from the rest of the neighborhood and community.
I also rely on Latest or Bookmarks and only rarely go to any specific forum (just for my kids’ college, but not often.) Can’t think of any time I’ve been drawn to something just because it’s pinned.
On my tablet, when I pull up Latest (no simple matter; sometimes it takes me to a post,) I can view 20 threads, Landscape or portrait, Each requires some scrolling. Same on cell.
<<>> another poster who starts first with the “latest posts” option, but then liked to go (what used to be easily) to the forum main pages and see what threads had new posts. Now that’s difficult, and even when accessed, hard to read/follow. Its just visibly annoying. I dont give a rat’s patoot who is considered the most active or the most helpful or how many likes or replies and discussions they have, or what level poster they are. That can be made MUCH smaller. I am using (clicking on) the bell, the mortar board and the “latest posts”, and used to like to click on my name/avatar at the top, but its only visible with the posts on the computer, not on the ipad or phone. And for go*ds sake bring back the draft save. It claims (somewhere) to autosave but I lost a post yesterday when I tried it.
FWIW if the screen is too white for you, you can install a color temperature add-on. This is the one for firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/screen-color-temperature/
Or the blue light feature, which is already on cells and tablets.
I need the Save Draft. Everytime I’m writing and want to check another page (eg, the first post or an OP’s other threads,) I have to sit there and guess how long for auto save to occur. Or copy my pending post. Silly time robber.
CC ‘jumped the shark’ with this. 
Ok…so now the member status is not blue background but is in a little box. Why can’t it just be the words…and no prominence at all?
mine is still blue on the ipad
Oh geez…now it’s blue again…but five minutes ago, it was member status in an outlined box! Seriously!!