I agree Alana,

However, I do not miss the heated political discussions.

This site is far less user friendly.

It's certainly been quieter around here.  Whether or not that has anything to do with the new website I do not know.

I see more people using Facebook asking the same questions as on this page. 

I thought I was the only one who noticed this, Alana. This forum has gotten really boring over the past year and I dislike the new layout and format. There used to be many robust discussions on a variety of topics. Every morning, I come here thinking there might be something exciting to discuss or contribute to, but, usually its pretty boring. Zzzzzzzzzz.

facebook has taken over.  ever since the hurricane 

Much less user friendly. 

Totally agree with others - there's a lot less activity and the site is not at all user friendly.

I agree. I don't care for the new format so I'm a lot less involved.

Hi -

I agree. All the extras and do-dads complicate a simple activity. Sign-in procedure is confusing, too.

pt

After initial set up, I never logged in on the old site. Now, about every month you need to sign-in again. 

The update to this site reminds me of the whole “New Coke” fiasco. They tried to improve on something that was already working great.

Thanks Alana for bringing it up. We were just discussing this on Tuesday. So, since the conversation is started, I am going to tag onto it. 

Layout:

1. Can you provide a list of what you don't like about the new layout/format? And what you do like?

2. From the old or previous layout/format: what did you like? 

Facebook:

1. Do you use Facebook as your main "Q&A" place? 

2. Do you prefer the Facebook platform, over message boards? Why yes or no. 

Thanks for your feedback. 

I find the site cumbersome to use overall. Although the moderators have answered any of my questions promptly the complicated user friendly part doesn't improve my experience.

I am not on Facebook, and find that site far too public to express my opinion/help on relocation questions without incurring quite a few disparaging comments - while that negative commenting was sometimes evident on the old version of this forum it was discouraged in most cases by community involvement. facebook seems to foster reactive vituperative commenting  - I currently read one public site as a non member and see some very rude threads every time.

Not being able to go directly to the 'last post' , is my biggest  problem to reading the forum daily, it can be quickly found but frequently it is not the last post in a consecutive time frame and is confusing to me.

The current format is not likely to encourage new users and the previous very easily used site was a good resource for people considering a move to the USVI. I always recommended it before but do not find it helpful as much anymore.

I don't do facebook.

This new site main page for each forum doesn't show who made the last post, only the last post time.  That's annoying.  

Normally I am signed in all the time and I always have the web page open anytime the  computer is on.  So when the web site decides to log me out I don't notice and may look through what looks like unread posts.   And then when I figure out I need to log in again and log in, it shows all the posts that I read while logged out as unread again.  Annoying.

My pet peeve about the new format is that Rather than having a link to bring up the last post in a thread it’s should instead bring you to the last post “unread” post.  As it is now, you have to go to the last post and scroll your way back to find any other unread post that may have been added since your last visit.  

Like others said, getting logged off every so often is a bit of a pain.

It’s obvious the new format is not appealing to new people since the number of new threads has dwindled to a mere fraction of what it use to be.

Agree also with Exit Zero and Scubadoo.

Anyway the administrators could simply return to the old format/layout? 

Maybe take this one and ship it off to wherever they dumped “New Coke”

@afriend

YES! Scrolling to page 3 or 4 is a huge pain to see the most recent response. Seems easy for the admins to click on the sort button icon so the most recent appears at the top of page 1.

I only have to log in when responding. It seems to load okay. 

Visually it's much cleaner. 

I don't post often but have been on this site for 3 years prior to our move last Christmas.

FB is much more robust for quick info on vendors, outages, news, community info. This site is much better for in-depth analysis specifically related to the move. Since I moved here I am on the site much less because I researched it, seen it, heard it, done it. Would like to see more posts about navigating through life. Also, the posts about moving here are 10 years old or more. It would be nice to see more recent accounts. 

@afriend

There is a button at the top to select only unread posts. 

Hi -

Complaints and problems associated with VI life never change, only the "formats" they get expressed in have changed.

But as a new topic I'd like to suggest thoughts on the gentrification taking place in the St. Croix condo community: short-term rental of units becoming the new thing versus long-term rentals or permanent residency by the owners. Real estate agents are happy to encourage this, but more so, the greed, perhaps, of a new class of  amateur entrepreneurs.

pt

pt42,

Start a “New Topic” with your concern.

Posted by: @cruzaniron

@afriend

There is a button at the top to select only unread posts. 

Soory, but on the top of my page I only see a box labeled  "Last Post".  There is a "down arrow" in that box which might indicate an ability to select a different option but it doesn't seem to work for me.  When I click it the screen jumps to the last post. 

@afriend

on the opening page, after you log in:

@pt42

How much are you renting your units for ? 

@the-islander

Islander: I am also off island, but I do keep up here. I also follow on "What's Going on St Thomas" on Facebook. My feeling is that the people who are thinking of moving to the VI are much more phone oriented, not laptop oriented, if that makes any sense. I know this is drawing with a broad brush, but they seem to want answers quickly. They are frequently pointed here (by former VINow participants!) but I rarely see them post. I don't think Facebook is a good platform for the kind of research one should do before moving to the VI, but I moved there before VINow and Facebook. LOL.

Best wishes to you!

I'm on the Facebook sites and when I see somebody ask about moving to the VI I point them to this site. (Among other things)  But I warn them that the "Moving Stories" are really old.