Another option that is always available is the PM option. Any discussion can take place with a group via PM and can include politics, religion, race relations, gun laws, anything.
I was wondering If Doschicos was able to take her info to a group via PM.
@Lindagaf here’s the link. I agree it’s hard to find. @CCadmin_Jon, can you make it more visible?
I try to flag when a post is put in the wrong college thread or wrong section. Maybe I’m wrong but I was told that it was difficult for moderators to see everything so it helps when people flag posts that should be moved. I agree that it is annoying to have to wait in between flagging posts. The warning is as if my hand is being slapped when my intent is to help out.
I agree that the new tagging of posts is pretty worthless. I’m not sure who it helps and if anyone uses it as a search mechanism. I would much rather be able to follow a particular college and any new posts related to that college.
As far as the COVID threads, I tend to come onto CC to get away from COVID news. I was following a couple of the larger threads until they got too heated and there were too many posts to keep up with. The College in the Fall thread is getting that way with way too many posts not related to college in the fall. I feel for moderators who are volunteers and appreciate when they step in and try to clean things up.
I don’t care for the “in jail” or “banned” or “on probation” type of public shaming. I have no idea if the individual is being punished for giving out information that is not factual (in which case I will ignore their opinion), if a parent and kid were sharing an account or if they called someone a name.
I am not 100% sure of your intent in creating this thread and what type of feedback you want from us. I haven’t been around as long as others but am willing to be on a subcommittee of sorts if you are looking for a more in depth conversation about what can be done to help this website.
The Community and Forum Issues section of this forum is one of THE most difficult to find. It’s not one frequented by the vast majority of posters, because it’s just hard to get to, and some folks probably don’t even know it exists.
It should be included in the “Highlights” list if the PTB really want folks to see the info posted there.
It’s not at all obvious, but if you scroll down a bit (depending on your platform), you eventually get to a section where there are four choices - “College Admissions and Search”, “Professional & Graduate School”, “Pre-college Issues”, and “College Confidential Community”. As far as I can tell, everything that exists on this forum fits under one of those four categories. This thread is under “College Confidential Community” (in the “Community & Forum Issues” subforum). It’s really confusing because there are lot of other places like “Highlights” and “Top Forums” that include some but not all of the content. If those four breakouts were place closer to the top, and if you could actually see (or click to expand) what’s in each of them, it would be much more user-friendly (and closer to the old “forum index” page).
@CCadmin_Jon I hope you can add that to your list of feedback.
I still have trouble finding the “majors” forums! The engineering forum used to be very active but it’s quiet now.
Same here @MaineLonghorn . The engineering majors thread seems very difficult to find. Some of the other stuff seems more straightforward to find, but the majors type stuff still seems difficult to find (at least for me).
During the last upgrade which I think was a downgrade…a lot of regular posters in the premed area just disappeared. My guess is they couldn’t find the area.
I’ve been bookmarking threads I read a lot. That helps.
@O2BonCC the home page you are talking about does not look the same on different devices. It looks different on a computer than on a tablet than on an IPhone or other phone. What you are describing might not be what all users see. It would be very nice if this forum could be consistent from device to device. For example…you can’t start threads on an IPhone. Never mind that reading this forum on a phone requires scrolling and scrolling and scrolling.
It’s not just MY info. It’s a lot of people’s info on that thread - and others. And PM is not an adequate tool for conversations with more than a two person conversation. Anyone who has attempted that knows that is an ineffective tool for group conversations.
Lots of issues with CC and much more important ones than mega threads. Don’t make it about my posts.
IIRC you can have something like 30 or more people in a PM group.
Oh I totally agree it should be more consistent across devices/browsers, I was just trying to share that all platforms eventually let you get to those four key high-level groups. I can see them on various desktop pc browsers, on an iPhone (safari), and on a fire tablet (silk browser). It’s just that they are so far down the page that if you don’t know to look for them, they’re not that helpful.
I have been on this site maybe 9 years, and I’ve never read the TOS. I’ve also only ever received any type of moderation once that I recall - when I posted something that was clearly in the wrong thread and someone let me know they deleted it and if I wanted it posted in the other thread I could do that myself.
I don’t know that it’s reasonable to create a rule for every situation, and I appreciate that mods are trying to be flexible during this crazy time. I think they are only trying to do their job well - and moderate according to the rules they are supposed to follow, and/or consulting with each other to try and figure out how to be flexible, even if everyone may not like the choices made.
I like the fact that this site is moderated, and am willing to live with an occasional “bad” decision, if the other choice is no moderation.
ETA - I have flagged posts only a handful of times - when something seemed really odd or there was some other issue, such as a real name being used by mistake.
I’ve never seen the call for mods - and if it’s down here in a forum that takes several clicks to get to then I never would have.
I’m too hot headed to be a mod but I appreciate the work that you guys do. I’ve been on the receiving end of many of those insults that get edited out so I do appreciate it. But that’s also why I like the ignore button :).
I only get to this thread through the pinned link in the cafe - which is annoying because it doesn’t show if there are new posts. I could bookmark it but since bookmarks go to my email, I don’t particularly want to be spammed with this thread. (My other bookmarks I’m fine with getting an email about.)
In the last couple of days I’ve taken a couple of discussions to PM when I felt they might derail a thread. The problem as I see it is that in practical terms you can really only do that with three or four posters and even then people basically have to agree to discuss the issue civilly, Discussions of politics in particular can turn uncivil quickly in our current climate. Plus it’s not great for the site in that it means new members don’t have access.
@O2BonCC, yes that’s how I found it, but the fact that there are 3 possible places to look for a topic makes it confusing. What I see on my computer is a large bar on the left reading "Discussion topics, and under that “Top Forums”, which appears to refer to the four categories under it (the ones you mentioned) but in fact refers to the more visible and highlighted topics to the right.
Try looking for “Athletic Recruits”, a reasonably popular topic. Is it in the “Highlights” section under either College Search and Selection or College Admissions? No. Is it under either of those two categories in the “Top Forums” section underneath that? No, although you will find sections on gap years and non-traditional students there. In order to find the athletic recruiting forum I have to go to what my brain interprets as the “Top Forums” section (on the left), find the section on specialty topics, then within that the athletic recruiting forum. What used to be a two step process has turned into a 3 step one. Four if, like me, you type the first few letters of the CC web address into your browser then hit return and go directly to the latest posts page. Without searching for it I would never have known the athletic recruiting forum existed had I not seen and participated in it before the redesign.
I know that’s a bit long-winded but I hope it’s helpful to the site administrators when they’re trying to examine how users experience the site.
@CCadmin_Jon it seems from your recent posts that you are reading these posts and sincerely interested in learning about how the site functions. That is good, as it is important not to make any more precipitate changes. As an example, this thread was moved to what appeared to be a more appropriate area, as a result of which no one can find it, as a result of which many thoughtful posters like @Lindagaf haven’t been participating. I am finding it only by searching on the term “megathreads”. Similarly, it seems that no one is aware the site has been seeking new moderators.
I’ve already expressed my thoughts regarding the Covid-19 thread and the value it provided. Regarding both megathreads and “personal blogs,” I suggest you look through the HKimPossible thread, which shows this site at its best. @romanigypsyeyes thread is another good example - it might just barely skirt the personal blog issue, but it gave us all something positive and inspiring to think about in a dark time. She is a great writer. As to the idea the main purpose of the site is to help kids find colleges that will further their careers, maybe take a look through some of the athletic recruiting threads or the threads regarding kids who have mental or physical disabilities. I once posted a question asking how D3 track meets are scored and had several knowledgeable responses within five minutes. This site does a lot. Since the “upgrade,” the site has, however, become very difficult to navigate and, as others have suggested, doing something about that should be the first priority. New arrivals on the site are not likely to have the patience or the know-how to find what they are looking for.
I am able to locate this thread easily. It’s near the top of my list of topics in the Cafe. I haven’t pinned or bookmarked anything, yet there it is, along with the now biggest COVID-19 thread, which is right at the top of my feed. I’m not saying that the site works well, but maybe it’s my browser or just that I am not on all that many threads, but I’m able to find what I need.
A number of us did not find the Romani thread particularly inspiring or interesting- and I gather it was very blog-like. I was easily able to pass it by, however. I still have trouble understanding why it was such a prime draw in the parents’ cafe, but, hey, we all have different agendas.
I loved the Romani thread., FWIW.
Also i seemed to luckily just bump into this thread and then it disappeared until I did a search for the OP. I then bookmarked it and now it pops up in my feed.
Though I don’t claim be especially good at navigating this site. I became a member in 2014 and then dropped off, so still learning my way around.
I’m glad to see the discussion surrounding the site, it’s purposes, moderation and the Covid thread. Having discussion on the closure of that thread made me feel a bit better about the site in general.
CC should decide what it wants to be. If the site wants the ad revenue from bored parents posting on miscellaneous topics in the Cafe, that’s one issue. If the site wants to be focused purely on education, then does the Parent Cafe need to exist at all? There are a lot of other places on the internet, where you can get cooking recipes or information on COVID-19.
Bored parents?
I’ve been on CC for over a decade. Like almost everyone, I found the site when I was helping my kids with their college searches. I planned on staying until all my kids were in college, but like so many, I never left because of the parent cafe and the enjoyment I get from reading and/or participating in conversations with interesting, intelligent and thoughtful people on a huge variety of topics.
Is there value to CC when people hang around for so long? I say absolutely. When I was looking for college advice, I looked for and valued the advice of those who had already been through the process, not my fellow searchers. It’s the old timers who have experience with applications, types of colleges, specific colleges, majors, programs, financial aid, study abroad, applying to graduate schools, professional schools, internships, job hunting, mental health, Greek life, living off campus, and so, so much more. CC certainly doesn’t need me specifically, but they need the community of experts that have stuck around and who
generously give of their time to help others.
What I find sad about the navigation difficulties is that CC has made it harder to match college searchers with those who can help them. While I have finally figured out how to find and bookmark what I want, I no longer see the large random variety of threads that I used to. With the old format, I would scan the first two to three pages of threads that were on my landing screen and often come across threads that I could contribute to based on my (and my kids) personal experience. Now, I go to my bookmarks and miss out on most of the new posts from the college searchers.
So to the OP, you should absolutely be concerned about keeping this a college site. Obviously, you want to keep the main thing the main thing. But to do that, the site design should be focused on how to get those college threads seen by the greatest number of potential helpers, and that’s not happening since last summer’s redesign of the site.
FWIW - I favor moderation, but light handed, especially on the parent cafe. Coronavirus/Covid-19 threads are a special case. All of us are on a roller coaster of emotions depending on the day. People just need to learn to take a break from them if they are getting upset.