There are many real posters who ask questions that have been asked before. Some only hours earlier. As a recent example, there have to be 20 variations in the past day of “I got a Y on my AP XYZ exam and I wanna go to QRS University. Am I screwed?” It takes every ounce of my willpower not to write “Yes, U R.”
Maybe not sitting on your hands when such silly posts are repetitively posted might be of consideration. Then again the PTB probably prefer the clicks and posts, regardless of the topics.
Sure, it’s reasonable to look for updates information on some topics, but it’s pretty unlikely “what is the prettiest campus” is going to generate any new ideas.
And perhaps some of those “am I screwed” AP score topics should be merged. Same song, different verse.
I think it is fine (barring a fake poster) to bring up topics that have been discussed before. Yes, if you are a long term poster, you’ve seen it all before over and over but for those who are new to CC, it is new to them. They deserve to have a pleasant first timer experience without someone replying that their questions have already been dealt with 6 months ago, or a year ago, or whatever time frame in your past.
It’s not like CC’s search function is very user friendly, after all.
This thread seems to be turning into any complaints of all stripes instead of complaints about the new format.
@doschicos - agree that the search function is one of many challenges. That said, it bodes for the argument that perhaps threads shouldn’t automatically be locked after a year, as in many cases it might make sense to continue an existing one instead of starting a new one. Sure someone can ask the mods to reopen a thread and it may be considered, but it’s unlikely a new poster would think/know to that. And that assumes that a new poster would use the search function to find an existing thread, and round and round we go.
But it’s fine to go round and round. Such is the nature of internet forums. If it is old to you, don’t participate in that thread. It’s not old to new people and that’s okay in my book.
Alex, I’ll take “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t” for $1000, please.
“Yes, UR!” Love it.
For me, and I mean just me, it’s hard to believe new folks find CC but can’t find Google. You can get your fill of prettiest colleges and best engineering, there.
But when they ask about their AP scores and their dreams, it’s not a vague, general question. And I like the smart kids who can process responses, not go lemming, not answer, “Ok, if you say I have too much A and no B, I’ll add more A. Thanks!!”
Problem is, a lot of these kids are acting as if the GC are all on strike. I know that’s also not uncommon, but more of them, right now.
@doschicos the reason I brought that up is directly related to the re-design.
There have been many complaints about the formatting, the lack of functionality, the organization, Many people have wondered if average posts/day are down as a result. And while they are… I believe the posts/day are actually artificially inflated by this random new posters asking nonsense threads. Do I believe there are plants designed to keep the activity artificially inflated? Yes, I do. Makes the bad news not look quite so bad.
How about CC not let brand new posters start threads in their first few days?
No worries, @doschicos - there is zero chance many of us will participate in the tired old recyled threads that are repeated ad infinitum. But they clog up, especially now, the “latest posts”, which is annoying (as is telling posters to skip threads they aren’t interested in. It goes without say (or should) and is also repetitive).
Completely agree with @lookingforward that google is, or should be, the friend of many who want to know the pretty campuses. Then again, maybe they could pin one of these recycled threads in the parents cafe if posters really want to read about pretty campuses . Or maybe CC Edit_Torrey can write an article on it and pin it to the homepage.
And to clarify, what I meant by “round and round we go” was referencing the fact that the new posters wouldn’t use the search function to look for threads since the functions are not very user friendly in the new format (the search option still has a notable glitch on the ipad version, which I have reported more than one and sent screenshots to Sorin).
@skieurope - there are some old threads that are useless and outdated, and might be better closed after a year’s quiescence. But the ones in the cc and parents cafe, and maybe the parents forum, should be left open so that they can be read, and if updated, reach a bigger audience. Who needs multiple “abbreviation” or “pretty campus” threads when one will suffice and can be easily merged?
Or limit the number of new posts they can make in a 24 hour period.
I went to a “prettiest campus” college and can’t figure out why it matters so much on CC. It’s not how you choose a college. Of course it’s awesome, once there. But all these endless lists of xyzabc aren’t what makes for wise decisions. Nor the endless speculative discsussons on who’d pay more for a USNews top name. You may not even get in and need to make the choice. Ha.
@jym626 My understanding is that closing threads is an all-or-nothing proposition. It is something that is systemically done by Vanilla, and the last sweep closed 25K threads, a number that just can’t be done by examining threads manually to make judgment calls Yes one can posit that it is “easy enough” to run an “if-then-else” scenario, but we have all been told before that these easy enough fixes are anything but.
@lookingforward - I did a search on “prettiest campuses” and 6 threads came up. There are probably more with similar names.
I was largely off CC for the last several days. As I come back to peek I’m really struck by how much the font itself impedes my read. It’s like I can’t read as fast or scan a post for content because the font feels so s p r e a d o u t. Feels like a cutesy font and not a productive font.
I am interested in keeping a parent cafe type group somewhere but reddit is not attractive to me for lots of reasons.
@skieurope - was really more musing than positing as solution, as Roger has already addressed that when it comes to many/most of this suggestions we are making, for many reasons (not just the coding changes of what may be a canned format) we are essentially spitting in the wind.
“. But they clog up, especially now, the “latest posts”, which is annoying (as is telling posters to skip threads they aren’t interested in. It goes without say (or should) and is also repetitive).”
As is the complaining about it. 
Not the first time I’ve seen it regardless of format changes or not, and it gets old as well. And I see it on those threads, too. Seriously, if folks find it repetitive, spend less time here. That’s an option. I don’t think CC protocol has to be designed around what is pleasant or appealing to long term posters only.
Discussing pretty campuses might seem banal to those who’ve been on CC for 10-15 years but not to someone who is new and it is the first time they are seeing one. And it’s just harmless chit chat (as are plenty of threads on CC, especially the Parents Cafe). That doesn’t mean someone is building a college list off such discussions.
But, keep spitting in the wind.
This is a much better idea. New members won’t stick around if they have to wait several days before they can ask a question (which is what starting a thread is).
On other forums I am on we don’t “spoon feed” a new user. They have to search and some actually send a video to show them how. They get the point right away. I told some one on CC that “Google is your friend” but they want the answers right away even though the actual answer was like one answer up. I also don’t want to come across as a jerk but on any forum like 95% of the information they want is on their schools site/internet.