Too Dense

meher

May be some of the inanane chat threads on old style and arms should die as in messaging and not be saved, meaning the conversations just disappear. Also it would be helpful if a search brings up several threads on a topic they are looking for, letting the person choose and click on a title that sounds interesting to them, for instance saute of gnocchi, rather than a 10000 page long thread. You'd not find such interesting titles in any case because all you'd ever find would be a slow-loading-ever-so-long thread with a title mushroom instead because it would all be filed away callously. Sorry I'm not a fan of long threads specially when logging in from alternative systems.

strangeotron

Since such neuro diverse conditions can't be cured and since there's no software means to compensate and that i have poor eyesight there's nothing that can be done. The point is simply this: the forums are dreadfully organised. There are simply way too many of them. Not to mention the actual posts themselves are surrounded by a ton of other visual info beyond the forum tools: twitter feeds, adverts, more adverts, links, more links. The golden rule for website design is Keep It Simple, but unfortunately most web designers don't get that. It's great for them, because it's what they do, but it's wildly impractical. I'm not exaggerating when I say the design of this site is the worst I have ever seen.

DCFC79

strangeotron wrote: »

Since such neuro diverse conditions can't be cured and since there's no software means to compensate and that i have poor eyesight there's nothing that can be done. The point is simply this: the forums are dreadfully organised. There are simply way too many of them. Not to mention the actual posts themselves are surrounded by a ton of other visual info beyond the forum tools: twitter feeds, adverts, more adverts, links, more links. The golden rule for website design is Keep It Simple, but unfortunately most web designers don't get that. It's great for them, because it's what they do, but it's wildly impractical. I'm not exaggerating when I say the design of this site is the worst I have ever seen.

What twitter feeds ? Do you mean martins twitter feed box at the bottom of the page and the moneysavingexpert feed ?

What adverts as i dont see any ?

What links ? Oh the latest mse news and the FREE MSE email.

You tried emailing Martin about the issue.

Like i say im sure you cant be the only 1 who suffers from ADD that uses the forum.

Tina20

When I first tried to join, I spent 20 minutes trying to find the forum while my eyes were battered by links, articles, and all kinds of stuff that was so in my face I couldn't see what I was looking for.

Those who have been here a while won't have an issue, because they know where they want to be and how to find it. But it's very very hard to sift through the masses of cartoons and links and sub forums etc when you are new.

There is no doubt this place is fantastic, but it could be even better

bluebeary

you have to understand how forums work, mse along with other large forums did not start out this big, they grew and different forums and sub forums were added when needed to make for a much neater and tidier display and easier navigation

if you are only interested in a certain section, save the link to said section on your favourites and you should have little more trouble

there is also the option to hide various forums on the main forum page using the up and down hide arrows, feel free to fiddle around with your settings in your cp

Tina20

I am a member of MANY many forums so I do understand how they work but take this page for an example.

As I'm looking at it now, the very top of the page has:

Home; Weekly email; News; Blog; MSE stuff; Students; Financial ED Forum; (search bar)
Underneath that is the MSE banner with martin, link to facebook page and twitter.

Then:
Card loans; Reclaim £1.000's; Shopping Deals; vouchers ;Utilities Phones; Banking saving; Travel motoring; insurance; mortgages homes; income family.
You hover over any of these, and a MASSIVE drop down menu appears, offering hundreds more links.

The there are the blue links, which are handy to tell you where you are Main site> MSE forums> Moneysaving and the site> etc etc

Below this a cartoon of stick figures being friends, and a warning to be nice with another link to an email address.

THEN another bar of links

Main site; Forum; User cp; community; new posts; forum search; quick links; log out.
Your little welcome message, and link to your PM's and profile.

Turning to the right of this message box I see a picture of some mods, and yet another link to contact them. Below that, forum jump. Below that a large advert for the email newsletter, with pictures, links etc IT EVEN HAS ITS OWN SCROLL BAR. Links to FAQ's; privacy policy; unsubscribe.

Then 'latest MSE news' box with 5 links to stories, a link to RSS, and news centre. Then a box about forum ettiquette.

THEN still more, a box all about deals, MORE LINKS 8 of them.

Martins blog box, with 6 links to entries, and a link to the MSE team blog

'Ones not to miss' box, with 7 links in total

MSE twitter feed, 5 tweets and 4 links to twitter etc

'Free tools'! box with interactive features to select your Tool.

'Todays top currency rates' Just in case, because right at the bottom of this page is always where you look for currency rates... Link to travelmoneymax.co.uk

'Fun stuff'! box, I'm starting to lose the will to live now. No less then 10 more LINKS to articles games and FAQ's.

Finally, thank god, Martins twitter feed ends the eyebashing

Right at the bottom of the page, yet more links, 19 no less directing you to things you've already been told about a billion times!!


Now, I'll start by saying. LOTS of these are totally essential and really important stuff.
But 90% of it is, pretty shiny colourful rubbish you don't need!! Lots of different colours, lots of different links, lots of different little clip art and pictures. And thats just ONE page I've taken as an example. I've not even got into the sub forums and main forum page!

It's such a massive overload of information!! Luckily I've been around long enough to ignore most of it. But very off putting to a newbie.

There is such a thing as too much choice.

Tina20

I started counting all the links but gave up at 160.

strangeotron

DCFC79 wrote: »

What twitter feeds ? Do you mean martins twitter feed box at the bottom of the page and the moneysavingexpert feed ?

What adverts as i dont see any ?

What links ? Oh the latest mse news and the FREE MSE email.

You tried emailing Martin about the issue.

Like i say im sure you cant be the only 1 who suffers from ADD that uses the forum.

The right side of the screen is filled with stuff: adverts, twitter feeds, links, blogs, everything bar the kitchen sink. If you are telling me you can't see that stuff I must conclude you are being deliberately provocative.

cajef

This is a money saving website not just a forum, the links are all there for people to be able to go to items that may be of interest and use to them on the website, I am afraid it is unlikely that MSE will change the format for a minority of users.

Tina20

It may not be changed but we do have a right to express an opinion, even if it's a minority.

How many people use the currency converter widget (for want of a better word)? MSE should have the information regarding how many of these links are used, I did when I had a site.
They need to evaluate if these are necessary, and trim off the ones that are never used. Even a simple 'do you use....' poll would do!