I am a bit more jaded than most people I guess. I’ve been thinking about the changes and most of the changes map one-to-one with increasing the revenue-driving site statistics.
More white space = more ad views per page.
More scrolling = more ads and longer page time views.
More difficult to navigate = more clicks per visit.
After this upgrade, I’m sure the vanilla forums people can show the “measurable increase in user engagement on the site.”
Remember, if it is free, you are the product…
@Dave_N, unfortunately, you’re probably right. What TPTB don’t get, if your instincts are spot on, is that newbies won’t stick around long enough to figure out a difficult-to-navigate forum and will quickly tire of the generic information that is easy to find. No increase in new blood each year, no increase in traffic and ad clicks.
Install Dark Reader on your browser.
https://darkreader.org/
Just showed this new look to my kid who was an avid CC user back in her HS days. Her eyes went large, “What the beep is THIS?” She, a 28 yr old millennial who does some social media marketing at work, declared this new look UNREADABLE.
When was the last post we heard anything from admin? Besides perhaps one question to a poster in response to something they posted - it was very brief.
Must be because it’s the weekend. 
I largely hang in the parent cafe. It’s so tepid in terms of activity it’s pathetic. Is that the case elsewhere on other main forums?
There must be some smart IT person on this board who can create a forum just like the old CC forum. I would PAY to be on something like that. Oh, and I am completely ignoring all ads on here and will never click on any of them purely out of principle.
@Dave_N It doesn’t add revenue if (1) people leave the site quickly because they can’t find anything useful, and (2) the primary content providers (experienced posters) don’t spend time here supporting students and parents who come here for help. The more experienced posters ARE part of the product. A lot of people out here help sort out financial aid situations, help students find merit aid, recommend schools, provide realistic info on what some schools or majors are like, help students figure out transfer options, etc. We know which posters to flag when someone comes with a specific situation. And it is annoying as all get out to have the framework for the product ruined. If CC thinks the articles are the product people come here for, then… more power to them.
This is horrible. I can’t find any of the threads I used to follow. Good thing my kid has graduated college so I don’t feel the need to have to come back.
I like the dismiss thread option and why isn’t it on every thread? I would so dismiss every chance me thread ever LOL.
So if everyone wants to block the ads easily and without thinking about it use : https://brave.com/.
Also your not tracked for things like purchases. It is a very powerful web browser. I use it on my phone and no more ads.
I am also disappointed with the new format. I find it difficult to get a visual context for the information that I’m interested in clicking on to read.
99% of the reason I visit CC frequently is for the community forum discussions. It is now very difficult to find the school discussions that interest me and to navigate through them.
I understand this is a free site, and I understand the owners can change it as they see fit to increase ad revenue, but the site still needs to preserve the “draw” that brought the many users to it in the first place.
Thank you.
The internet is filled with sites that discuss everything about college.
Like many, I have tried them all. What got me to settle on CC were the discussion forums. They were easy to use, which facilitated my frequent visits here.
With these changes, what differentiates CC from the rest of the college sites out there?
Take a look – you’re been on the “Most Active This Week” list. Others also didn’t want their names on the list. There are three lists – Most Active This Week, Most Active This Month, and Most Helpful. And then there are all the badges. ALL of these “competitions” are a waste of space.
The site is trying to force discussions on the articles. Perhaps posters should not comment on these articles? That’s just feeding the beast.
Hurrah, something GOOD! It’s super easy to delete drafts now.
That’s it though. Using grey font is beyond terrible. And using grey font on a dirty dishwater background is beyond that. Is heinous strong enough?
After 10+ years, this may be it for me on CC. The font is too light with thin letters, just too hard to read. I come to CC for relaxation and information, not eyestrain and frustration. Bring back the previous version.
Agreed. I finally got rid of 100+ drafts.
When I open threads I’ve already started reading I’m not taken to the latest post. I seem to be landing 4 or 5 posts back and have to scroll forward to where I left off.
The pages take so long to load that it takes much longer to navigate around the site. It’s a time waster. And the page doesn’t load smoothly. Because of the ad it jumps several times. If I try to click on a thread before it’s fully loaded (I can’t see the ad box because so little is on my screen at once so I can’t always tell when it’s done) I often end up hitting the wrong thread or a username because the page has jumped. So I end up clicking many more times than I would otherwise.
I’m happy to say that the time I’m spending on CC is a fraction of what it used to be. I check the latest posts once in awhile, and since most aren’t very interesting and the majority of the community I come to hang out with don’t seem to be around much I’m not very interested in hanging around either.
HEY!!! @“CC Admin” ! You are using MY avatar (taken from a personal photo I took on vacation) as your avatar http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/profile/CC%20Admin Go back to the basketball crotch shot avatar! Not only is it not ok to use my personal photo (zoomed in, and I think that was in fact what I had previously used when you were trying to fix the cut off section on my home page) but I don’t want anyone thinking I am an admin!! Please fix this!
“All content on the Website is the property of College Confidential.”
From TOS rules.
I, too, am very disappointed in the site revamp for numerous reasons. But for now, just one question: on mobile, how do I find the alphabetical list of schools that takes me to all the threads for that school?