After using this for awhile, I’ve managed to find my way around. It takes a lot more clicking and scrolling than it used to so I don’t look at as many different forums now. I now look only at the Latest Posts and two other forums on a regular basis where I used to look more broadly. I still haven’t found an efficient way to navigate. After checking one forum, I have to go back to the front page and work through it again to get to another. If there is a way to go directly from one forum to another, I haven’t found it.
I’m going to try a few suggestions, though I think most of these have already been mentioned…
When you go to the main forum page, you should see forums. Not pictures with links to articles. Those should be on the article page. On the main forum page you shouldn’t have to scroll way down to find the forums.
Featured threads should be eliminated altogether. They serve no purpose, and only require more scrolling to get past them.
The font needs to be smaller and more readable. This font is not good.
The unread threads should be bolded and threads that you have read should be unbolded. The current bolding convention is backward.
And finally, the timestamp for a post should be at the top, not at the bottom. This is especially important with this new format where a entire post no longer shows on a single screen.
On my mobile I tend to use the “Brave” browser (download from the application store). It automatically blocks ads. No butterflies or anything ?. It’s also a secure browser etc. It just works.
I was also snookered into replying to a thread that may have been invented just to boost post counts right after the junky redesign. I feel really dumb and also kind of angry.
You are right, those who said we are giving free content to the owners of CC. Yes, we’re the “product” blah blah. Frankly, I would pay to have the regular CC (from before two “upgrades” ago) back as a subscription service.
"To me this seems to come down to whether the people who own this site are willing to admit that they goofed and go back to the old format, or will the site disappear for lack of participants. " – @DadTwoGirls
Please don’t move the parent forum or parent cafe! It took me a while to find them and I don’t want to search again for a different spot. As noted, their location hasn’t changed
I’m guessing that traffic is way down, despite any attempts to boost it, based on data presented many pages ago. Personally, I’ve only been active on a few threads in the days since the relaunch, and that isn’t usual for me. It remains too hard to find posts that I want to comment on.
I appreciate the help you and the other moderators have given in the past, but it’s pretty clear we’re being ignored now on all but the most basic level. Why would we continue to inform moderators about issues when nothing will be done? The posters here are more savvy than Hobson’s gives us credit for, and it’s pretty clear to some of us that some posters have more rights than others.
There’s a legend about a Hobson who used to rent horses to Cambridge students. The students weren’t allowed to pick the horse they wanted; they had to take whatever horse was offered. It’s referred to as a “take it or leave it” business model. That may have worked 100 years ago. I don’t believe it’s a viable model for the computer age.
Please do not conflate the issues. You took my quote without the context; I was referring to flagging a post or a user to bring to our attention to review, as has been done in the past. The moderators have been very clear that we are not web designers and that issues of font size, background color, layout, etc are not something that we as mods either created or can fix.
The moderating team takes every report seriously. If you don’t see any action, it’s because the team does not feel that one is needed. And if one moderator disagrees with another, we always reconsider. We really do try our best. But we don’t ban/warn users just because they rub other people the wrong way.
Important we not take this out on mods or Sorin. It’s clear they’re as frustrated as we are. There needs to be a trust relationship.
Once again, kudos to @Knowsstuff for clarifying directions to the Parent thread. I spent at least 30 minutes last night, looking following, tracing and missed that. Still missed it.
Any good transition includes directions!! Most designers are proud when the end-user is satisfied.
@lookingforward Couldn’t agree more. The mods are here to enforce community rules and aren’t employees of cc. Everyone on the moderation and Forum Champion team are volunteers. No use badgering them. And I agree, people should not get mad because a poster didn’t agree with what they were saying. There are not that many moderators for all the threads they need to watch for. I have a hard enough time with one forum and they do all of them. Cut the mods some slack.
The only time I get really frustrated is when we get an angry report that says, “Why have you let this post stand?? You deleted mine! You are so biased.” Uh, we can’t read thousands of posts - there’s a good chance that if a post is not reported, we won’t see it.
We DO appreciate the eagle eyes of our users. Some of you are amazing - you can spot people who reregister whom I don’t even remember!
