The Student Room Group

New thread experience - tell us what you think!

We’ve just launched our brand new member’s thread experience to a small section of our newly registered users. :woo:

If you’re seeing an announcement at the top of this page saying “You are on our new thread experience” - then you are one of the lucky few! Right now we’ve only given access to a few new users, as the first release is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). This means that we are still adding new features and functionality to it, which we’ll update on in this thread.

Doing a phased release like this allows us to gather feedback and make this experience even better before opening it to more users.

If you are on the new experience, we would love to hear what you think of it. What are your first impressions? Anything you particularly like? Is there something you'd want to see improved? Your input is invaluable!

Thank you for being part of this incredible journey with us! 🙌 We can't wait to hear your thoughts! 🗣️
(edited 9 months ago)

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Reply 1
Something I hate about TSR is how much space the top banner takes. You're losing so much real estate that can actually show content. I'm not sure if it's meant to be filled with ads since I don't subject myself to that but it makes for bad UX
Original post by jackien1
Something I hate about TSR is how much space the top banner takes. You're losing so much real estate that can actually show content. I'm not sure if it's meant to be filled with ads since I don't subject myself to that but it makes for bad UX


Yeah I second this, it's something that we all flagged in the initial feedback on the React design (and to be fair, they did acknowledge it and tried to make it a bit better), but having turned off my Adblock to understand all the fuss, you'll probably be unsurprised to know there's a big old banner ad in the header.

I get it, it just sucks. From memory, the React version of these pages is able to load ads in between posts - but I don't know how much extra CPM/revenue that banner ad in the header brings, probably quite a bit more. I don't imagine the people that work on TSR's UX are too thrilled about it either, so I'm guessing lots of conversations have been had about it and it's been decided that the ad space is too valuable to get rid of. As someone that blocks ads, I don't really have the right to complain about it.

That said however, the React version is about 400 billion times faster than the older showthread, amazing work!
Original post by jackien1
Something I hate about TSR is how much space the top banner takes. You're losing so much real estate that can actually show content. I'm not sure if it's meant to be filled with ads since I don't subject myself to that but it makes for bad UX


Thanks for you feedback @jackien1. You're right that we do have a banner Ad in the header. We tried a few different designs for the header when testing the new thread experience - but I agree, we haven't quite cracked it yet!

We'll take another look at it and see how we can make it more compact.
New feature update 🚀🎉

We have added the PMs, notifications and a user menu to the header of the new thread experience.

This now allows users to access and view their messages, notifications or user menu options - wherever they are on the site.

Screenshot 2023-07-24 164226.png
(edited 9 months ago)
I hate it. I can't search within threads and the ability to search for posts has all but disappeared
Original post by Hiktrail121
I hate it. I can't search within threads and the ability to search for posts has all but disappeared

The search functionality has changed significantly, but you should still be able to use the "old" way of searching via the Advanced Search tool.

A @Evil Homer said above, what has just been released is a "Minimum Viable Product", with some features and functionality still to be added.
Reply 7
Original post by Evil Homer
We’ve just launched our brand new member’s thread experience to a small section of our newly registered users. :woo:

If you’re seeing an announcement at the top of this page saying “You are on our new thread experience” - then you are one of the lucky few! Right now we’ve only given access to a few new users, as the first release is an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). This means that we are still adding new features and functionality to it, which we’ll update on in this thread.

Doing a phased release like this allows us to gather feedback and make this experience even better before opening it to more users.

If you are on the new experience, we would love to hear what you think of it. What are your first impressions? Anything you particularly like? Is there something you'd want to see improved? Your input is invaluable!

Thank you for being part of this incredible journey with us! 🙌 We can't wait to hear your thoughts! 🗣️


If 7 is excellent then I give 5.
Reply 8
The new search model is horrible, looks horrible, works horribly and is a significant backward step.

I fully expect to see TSR implement it.
Another update from the development team, the following are now available on the new thread experience! :biggrin:

- New post in current thread notification
- Ability to edit your post
- Ability to edit your thread title
Original post by Trinculo
The new search model is horrible, looks horrible, works horribly and is a significant backward step.

I fully expect to see TSR implement it.


Original post by mouseman 5
If 7 is excellent then I give 5.

Would either of you be able to share anything more specific about what you dislike/feel it is missing, please? :smile:
I like the ability to edit posts and messages, but I liked the old searching feature. Maybe you could incorporate the editing into the old one..
Original post by FlyingSquirrel10
I like the ability to edit posts and messages, but I liked the old searching feature. Maybe you could incorporate the editing into the old one..

Would you be able to tell us why you prefered the old searching feature to the new one ?
Original post by Evil Homer
Would you be able to tell us why you prefered the old searching feature to the new one ?

So before, all the forums were on the top of my screen, so if I wanted to go anywhere, it was very quick and easy, but now I have to search it up and it's a little time taking.
Reply 14
Original post by RainbowLapras
Would either of you be able to share anything more specific about what you dislike/feel it is missing, please? :smile:


It is worse in every way than the existing search method. It looks worse, is slower, is more difficult to read, and intuitively feels like fewer, or less relevant results come up. I can't understand why this change would be needed. I don't see anything wrong with the existing.

Are TSR really going to go down the road of "If it's not broken, we'll fix it until it is"
Reply 15
It’s not the best I think mumsnet might be a bit better make it more like that
Can’t see how to get newer posts on top? So I have to scroll down the first page and then click on the last page number, then scroll down again to the last post.
Original post by BriantheSnail
Can’t see how to get newer posts on top? So I have to scroll down the first page and then click on the last page number, then scroll down again to the last post.

We currently do not have the ability to sort posts but it is something we are looking into!

Thank you for the feedback about having to scroll to the bottom of the page to get to the last page, I will raise it with the team :smile:
Original post by Trinculo
It is worse in every way than the existing search method. It looks worse, is slower, is more difficult to read, and intuitively feels like fewer, or less relevant results come up. I can't understand why this change would be needed. I don't see anything wrong with the existing.

Are TSR really going to go down the road of "If it's not broken, we'll fix it until it is"

I appreciate the feedback.

We've done lots of user testing over the last few years and a common theme in almost all of them was that search wasn't up to standard for users trying to find specific content. That's why we've looked to change and hopefully improve it.

Regarding speed specifically this is something that should be functioning much faster than the old search and has for me when I've tested it just now, is this still a problem you are seeing?
The new thread version looks sterile, it's all the same blue and white. I miss the colours on different buttons: visually the colours really help to navigate a page, and now they're gone.

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