Please read - new Forum homepage and rules are live

Sheriff_Rosco

Well I browsed this forum without signing up in the past and it was ok......come back today signed up and....oh dear what's happened

artyclarty

The new style just doesn't seem to be useable on any of my monitors. My 2nd and 3rd monitors are 4:3 and are just difficult to read with only half of the screen to do so. It is really visually jarring and I struggle to read it with the menu/gap on the left.

If I use my primary monitor, the posts are just stuck in no man's land in the middle that look even worse, especially when you scroll down past the "useful" menu tab.

Initially I thought it was a lot more streamlined than before, but the more and more I try to navigate, it become a lot more obvious that it takes twice as long since the update and numerous more clicks to get around. Surely a drop down menu in the top/bottom right would be a lot easier than wasting all the space on the left?

MSE_Laura_F

Hello,

Well, it's been a busy day! BUT before we temporarily close this thread so that the Forum Team can take some much-needed time away from the screen, we just wanted to say thanks to those who've spotted and told us about some really good tweaks we can make to improve the experience of the Forum. We understand that whenever we change stuff on the Forum it can be a bit tricky to get used to it, but we're here to help you find the bits and bobs that you like.

Screaming out at us from the feedback are a few issues:

• You're not liking the big space on the left.
• You reckon the font's a bit too small. [EDITED]
• The layout is looking weird on different devices.
• Compers - don't worry, we've got your stuff logged too. 

This isn't an exhaustive list but they're the main things you're telling us about. We're already talking to our developers in Canada to get it sorted ASAP.

We just want to say to all those who provided constructive feedback in a friendly way: thanks for your support. The Forum Team love the Forum just as much as you do, and we'll be back responding to your posts when we reopen the thread. In the meantime, we ask that you do not start random threads because we really want to keep everything in one place. Please use the feedback form.

Best wishes,

MSE Laura F

cfw1994

J_B said:

I presume/hope that someone will soon be along with a way of hiding all the stuff on the left of the page

Submit your comments on this (I have)
Looks like about 25% of the screen wasted on those indexes, utterly unnecessary.  Wonder why that was done 🙄

cfw1994

MSE_Ben_H said:

J_B said:

I presume/hope that someone will soon be along with a way of hiding all the stuff on the left of the page

Hi @J_B ,

We'd rather people don't alter the display of the Forum as this can mean people miss important messages and could risk security when using the Forum.
The left hand-side is now the main way to navigate the Forum.

 If you have any specific feedback about what you'd like to see (or not see) please use the feedback form.

Thanks,
Ben

Why have you used up around 25% of the screen on that column of indexes?  
Have people complained about being unable to navigate the forum?

It is a huge waste of space for most people: they head into a sub-forum to read topics, and can now see far less than they could yesterday.  

I”d rather you gave the option to completely hide it, like many GUI-based systems do.  Pop it out if you hover or click somewhere.  Don’t force it on everyone.

I’ve provided feedback, but this seems a crazy waste of screen space to me.

epm-84

It's a shame the referrers board has been deleted.  That gave those on low incomes the chance to get things like a free month on their mobile phone bill but I suppose having it there means less money for Money Supermarket (owners of MoneySavingExpert) as people would use the referral links opposed to MSE's affiliate links.

Norman_Castle

cfw1994 said:

J_B said:

I presume/hope that someone will soon be along with a way of hiding all the stuff on the left of the page

Submit your comments on this (I have)
Looks like about 25% of the screen wasted on those indexes, utterly unnecessary.  Wonder why that was done 🙄

Why are MSE selectively deleting posts on other threads? As previously posted, now deleted, 

The grey space is because its been designed to fill a phones screen on portrait and not a pc or tablet screen on landscape.

They clearly think viewing on a phone is all that matters.

Norman_Castle

MSE_Laura_F said:

 we ask that you do not start random threads because we really want to keep everything in one place.

New threads are started because you keep closing the old ones!

MSE_Laura_F

cfw1994 said:

MSE_Ben_H said:

J_B said:

I presume/hope that someone will soon be along with a way of hiding all the stuff on the left of the page

Hi @J_B ,

We'd rather people don't alter the display of the Forum as this can mean people miss important messages and could risk security when using the Forum.
The left hand-side is now the main way to navigate the Forum.

 If you have any specific feedback about what you'd like to see (or not see) please use the feedback form.

Thanks,
Ben

Why have you used up around 25% of the screen on that column of indexes?  
Have people complained about being unable to navigate the forum?

It is a huge waste of space for most people: they head into a sub-forum to read topics, and can now see far less than they could yesterday.  

I”d rather you gave the option to completely hide it, like many GUI-based systems do.  Pop it out if you hover or click somewhere.  Don’t force it on everyone.

I’ve provided feedback, but this seems a crazy waste of screen space to me.

Hey cfw1994,

Have a quick read of our post above. Lots of people are telling us about the wasted space and we're already speaking to our developers in Canada to get it sorted. Bear with us.

Thank you,

MSE Laura F

cfw1994

MSE_Laura_F said:

Hello,

Well, it's been a busy day! BUT before we temporarily close this thread so that the Forum Team can take some much-needed time away from the screen, we just wanted to say thanks to those who've spotted and told us about some really good tweaks we can make to improve the experience of the Forum. We understand that whenever we change stuff on the Forum it can be a bit tricky to get used to it, but we're here to help you find the bits and bobs that you like.

Screaming out at us from the feedback are a few issues:

• You're not liking the big space on the left.
• It looks like we all need to go to Specsavers because the font's a bit too small.
• The layout is looking weird on different devices.
• Compers - don't worry, we've got your stuff logged too. 

This isn't an exhaustive list but they're the main things you're telling us about. We're already talking to our developers in Canada to get it sorted ASAP.

We just want to say to all those who provided constructive feedback in a friendly way: thanks for your support. The Forum Team love the Forum just as much as you do, and we'll be back responding to your posts when we reopen the thread. In the meantime, we ask that you do not start random threads because we really want to keep everything in one place. Please use the feedback form.

Best wishes,

MSE Laura F

My reply (below yours) was posted when I was on an early page: good to see you have heard the point loud and clear about wasted space 👍

I know Ben said earlier that it was tested against a subset of users (us, your non-paying customers 🤣).
Can I ask what the changes were designed to improve?  

Having had a lifetime in IT, I have all too often seen “change for the sake of change”.  Developers have to justify their time!

It will settle down, people will accept things, but the times change works best is when the user community is “bought into” the aims of the change.  

Changing the layout leading to a waste of screen real estate, when the primary use for users reading the screen, does strike me as an odd design goal.  

Share those goals, rather than just delivering a “fait accompli”, would likely get more positive responses!

Hopefully they can very soon address these points 🤞
Thanks for taking time to read and reply, it is appreciated (despite many of the comments here being negative!) - we all love MSE and want it to continue to succeed in drawing us in!