I would happily change my T to a profile picture…but how the heck do you do that? I went to my profile and preferences…and got no option to change my avatar.
Please provide directions here.
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Hello from the Prep School Section!
Maybe it’s because I’m a Gen Z, but some of the new features I love! Like being able to see when people are typing. And seeing your post formatted as you type it. And the new categorizing features. And… is that a poll feature I see? All of these features are so amazing and I think it will be amazing for the College Confidential community. However, I see a few flaws with the new platform. Many of these flaws are more technical and others on this thread has done a great job of covering them. However, let’s talk about the implementation of the features as a whole, which is where the real problems lay.
I might be a middle-schooler, but I have also done extensive work with my own online businesses and communities, and I think that the main problem with this new platform is your implementation strategy. These new features are amazing, but whenever you implement them all at once, overwhelms the user and it feels crowded. I would’ve introduced the new site design first without all of the cool new features, to give users the chance to adjust to this big change in design. This version would include the basic features of College Confidential that we have all grown to love, and maybe 1-2 new features MAX. After this period, I would then continue to introduce features little by little, taking the time to explain each one to the community and it’s purpose. So this would all happen over the span of 2 months maybe? Of course, there is so much more that goes into this all, but that’s a summary of what I would’ve done.
But you’ve already introduced the new platform. Now what? Well, from this point, we can obviously tell some of the members of the community seem to be overwhelmed. So the very first thing I would do is detail the new features and how it works in text. If you have already done this in some way or form, make it more clear. We don’t have time to be searching the whole website looking for this, and many of us don’t have time to watch a video. It should be, like the first thing you see logging on.
Also, the way to stiched together all of these different features seems…off. Like, it seems less simplistic and clean, and more like you are trying to crowd these features in. If possible, I would maybe consider looking into a setting where an individual can turn some of these features for themselves. The huge influx of features combined with the new design has made CC the opposite of “simplistic” and “clean”.
Note: Sorry if I’m repeating anything. I wrote this over a longer period of time.
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I believe the box next to where you type is supposed to be a preview of any formatting in your post. And there’s an option to hide it – there’s a button at the bottom right that says << hide preview
And I was trying some things out and if you go to the post listings and hover over the far right avatar, it says the “Username - Most Recent Poster”. I agree though it’s pretty unintuitive. The far left avatar is the original poster and the middle three are frequent posters apparently.
A while back, Jon created the Forum Index which made this site very accessible again. For some reason that has been abandoned. Why can’t the column on the left side of my iPad screen be that forum index? Everything was easy to find. If you want to add additional features, that’s fine. But you started to change it up and you made it better…this new format needs some accessibility work.
You need a blend of what will be pleasing for new folks, but you also need a piece of familiarity for the folks who have been long time contributors to this site, and wish to pay it forward.
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I am normally a very patient person. I am usually open to change and innovation. However, I am very frustrated right now. Please please tell me how to find the last post I’ve read on a thread. I was very excited to see some new posts on the COVID 19 Hitting Close to Home thread. However, in order to read them, I need to scroll from the beginning, using the clunky and sometimes non-responsive scroll bar. Please help!
I have other complaints, but I’m willing to wait for the bugs to work their way out.help!
I have no idea where/when this reply will post. Maybe I should have put it in the “Say It Here” thread.
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Additionally, people who just drop in to CC occasionally are simply going to give up and leave, rather than try to muddle through and figure out the unnecessarily complicated steps to participate. CC will end up with overall fewer users ever seeing their ads or participating. This is good for no one.
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Thanks for working through all the bugs.
I loved being able to search within a thread. Pretty please add that back.
And add me to someone who desperately wants page numbers and mobile friendliness back.
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I was working through the tutorial and found out that you can search within a thread!! Hit the search icon and select “Search this topic”
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@CC_Sorin
Thank you. So far I think this design is a huge improvement over the previous design.
I was a big critic of the previous design. This new design has much less wasted white space and it’s easier to visually see the context of where you are.
I’m sure there are some kinks that will need to be fixed.
Also, I did have to clear my browser cookies before using the new site.
Thank you.
It looks like the main page http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com now lists all of the forum sections and subsections, although not necessarily in the same order as before.
On desktop, it shows the list of forum sections and subsections on the left, with a list of latest posts (regardless of which section they are in) on the right. On mobile, it lists a few of the latest posts for each forum section (including subsections) under that forum section.
(By “section”, I mean something like “Parents Forum”; “subsection” refers to something like “Parents Cafe”.)
How the hooey do I change pages? I see, eg, 18/18 but how do I get back to the prior page? Or on a big thread, how to get back dozens of pages?
Edit is not working for me. It takes my fix, supposedly saves, but no change to the posting.
What’s up with repeated msgs that I’m composing in a different box?
Sheesh.
Same. And I don’t like how each post (like this one) can have a reply where I have to click on “1 reply” to see it? I guess that is like Reddit but I hate it, I want to see everything without having to check if I need to click something else.
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Amazing that the things users complained about when you rolled out the beta version are still here. I can’t imagine how you could have made this update any worse. Seriously.
Discussion boards have been around the net for 25+ years. How did you end up with something this bad?
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I wanted to look at a few replies recently done on the “Residency is next” or whatever it’s called thread. It has 1838 posts and I was taken to post ONE. So…I tried to use the bar at the side…and really, that’s just as slow as scrolling.
I never got to the end of the thread.
Please, please bring back page numbers.
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No flag under each post??
Never mind …I found it… had to hit the …
I’m getting a repeated “server error” message when trying to come back to the site. Is anyone else experiencing that?
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Yes, I also got the server error.
Additionally, when I tried to quote @momofsenior1 as a reference to my response, I received a message that the “system” user removed the quote. Not sure what that is about.
I have an add right on top of this post- I can only read the last few lines! No way to move it or make it go away. Very frustrating!
How can I tell which threads have had new posts since I last looked? I am logged in and it brings me to the next post, but how do I know if there is something new? The old view had the number of new replies next to the title (and I think the title was in bold type?) Now all thread titles are bold and I have no idea which ones have new info.
Please include the date of each post (or time, if it’s today) in the post. We have no way to assess the timeliness (which can also indicate accuracy of info) of the post.
“Oh, we’re fixing it after launch because we didn’t want to be read only” is PRECISELY why beta testing of the entire project is done before launch. Used to work for a benefits consulting firm where we did online and phone enrollments, and this would NEVER fly. The people who did do beta testing for you clearly didn’t get to see much, and their advice seems to have been ignored.
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