ᐅ What do you think of the new design of the house building forum?
Created on: 14 Jan 2026 12:17
H
hanghaus2023
I can’t say anything about that. First, we need to wait and see what stops working as usual.
New does not always mean better. The fact that information about the post authors can no longer be accessed, and that the history of individual forum members' posts is no longer visible, is a real disadvantage. In this context, it becomes uninteresting for me to participate in the forum.
I don't care at all about design in terms of appearance; a forum must be easy to use, and this test environment clearly isn't working yet. Why wasn't a test simply conducted within a group of key accounts (such as moderators and frequent contributors)?
Without avatars, clarity is lost; it becomes harder to quickly see what useful members have responded, or to scroll past the trolls.
Currently, it's neither possible to quote nor to like posts.
My signature has also disappeared.
What matters most to me are:
- the benefit for those asking questions
- ease of use for all participants
- very IMPORTANT: how fast the pages load (also because of data amounts when accessing via mobile devices)
- that it takes little of my time to assist the questioners
- ease of finding and linking to posts where the content of an answer has already been discussed earlier
(I hate duplicate content and therefore *need* a way to make previous information useful again through linking)
if I can only handle a FAQ by answering the same questions again, I won’t do it.
I am "working" here without payment. If it becomes too tedious, I will have to stop.
The efficiency of my "voluntary work in this clinic" has already been borderline.
A change without (significant) improvement is a deterioration and therefore nonsense!
What does not serve the target group has no value.
Just like with a print trade magazine, an online medium is only as valuable to advertisers as its subscriber base. This means: it’s about users who feel well served enough to return. Information like the post count or when a member was last online is also an important indicator for those asking questions.
I will check back in one week to see if the forum is working again.
As I said: I am not paid in money here, so it has to be the sense of purpose and the willingness to contribute that motivates me to participate. Otherwise, the internet is well known to be full of alternative channels!
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Without avatars, clarity is lost; it becomes harder to quickly see what useful members have responded, or to scroll past the trolls.
Currently, it's neither possible to quote nor to like posts.
My signature has also disappeared.
What matters most to me are:
- the benefit for those asking questions
- ease of use for all participants
- very IMPORTANT: how fast the pages load (also because of data amounts when accessing via mobile devices)
- that it takes little of my time to assist the questioners
- ease of finding and linking to posts where the content of an answer has already been discussed earlier
(I hate duplicate content and therefore *need* a way to make previous information useful again through linking)
if I can only handle a FAQ by answering the same questions again, I won’t do it.
I am "working" here without payment. If it becomes too tedious, I will have to stop.
The efficiency of my "voluntary work in this clinic" has already been borderline.
A change without (significant) improvement is a deterioration and therefore nonsense!
What does not serve the target group has no value.
Just like with a print trade magazine, an online medium is only as valuable to advertisers as its subscriber base. This means: it’s about users who feel well served enough to return. Information like the post count or when a member was last online is also an important indicator for those asking questions.
I will check back in one week to see if the forum is working again.
As I said: I am not paid in money here, so it has to be the sense of purpose and the willingness to contribute that motivates me to participate. Otherwise, the internet is well known to be full of alternative channels!
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
W
wiltshire14 Jan 2026 16:09I’m handling this about as well as a blind person whose apartment has been rearranged for optimization: the familiar paths no longer work. At the moment, I’m too frustrated to make a meaningful assessment of the changes.
D
derdietmar14 Jan 2026 16:41Hello,
the usability hasn’t really improved; it feels like Usenet forums from the early days of the internet... But at least it’s consistent with the "UX design."
You can no longer jump to the latest post. It also no longer shows whether a topic has already been read or not (previously shown in bold).
You can’t immediately tell who posted anymore.
And so on, and so forth...
More advertising wouldn’t be a bad thing. I seriously wonder who voluntarily pays to get rid of ads, since this can be done for free with an ad blocker. In this case, it’s more of a self-defense against illegal data collection (German law applies under a German domain).
Best regards
the usability hasn’t really improved; it feels like Usenet forums from the early days of the internet... But at least it’s consistent with the "UX design."
You can no longer jump to the latest post. It also no longer shows whether a topic has already been read or not (previously shown in bold).
You can’t immediately tell who posted anymore.
And so on, and so forth...
More advertising wouldn’t be a bad thing. I seriously wonder who voluntarily pays to get rid of ads, since this can be done for free with an ad blocker. In this case, it’s more of a self-defense against illegal data collection (German law applies under a German domain).
Best regards
Hi
Sorry, but the new version is unusable. It’s a huge step backwards. Who conducted the UI/UX tests here? It seems like no one who regularly used the forum actually did. Even just reading posts is awful with the new layout.
Many individual points have already been well expressed, from the simple “What’s new since my last visit?” to a clear thread view where you can see who wrote what (the lack of avatars is a no-go), no user info (someone like nordanney/11Ant/... appears the same as a low-contributing user like me, which is bad), all the way to the overall appearance (worn out like everywhere else, why would anyone want to use something like that?).
Going from “Works quite well” to nearly unusable is a big decline and an achievement in itself.
MY recommendation would be to immediately roll back, then continue developing the new version separately and run it on something like “test.hausbau-forum.de” (with access to the same database). Invite people there for feedback (if both versions run on the same dataset, it’s easy to compare and see which parts are better). Only switch the main site once most of the initial problems are fixed and at least feature parity for the most used functions is achieved.
As it is now, it will only drive users away. There are too many other forums that are not as terribly handled as this new version.
It’s a shame, as it was a good place until now.
Regards
Sorry, but the new version is unusable. It’s a huge step backwards. Who conducted the UI/UX tests here? It seems like no one who regularly used the forum actually did. Even just reading posts is awful with the new layout.
Many individual points have already been well expressed, from the simple “What’s new since my last visit?” to a clear thread view where you can see who wrote what (the lack of avatars is a no-go), no user info (someone like nordanney/11Ant/... appears the same as a low-contributing user like me, which is bad), all the way to the overall appearance (worn out like everywhere else, why would anyone want to use something like that?).
Going from “Works quite well” to nearly unusable is a big decline and an achievement in itself.
MY recommendation would be to immediately roll back, then continue developing the new version separately and run it on something like “test.hausbau-forum.de” (with access to the same database). Invite people there for feedback (if both versions run on the same dataset, it’s easy to compare and see which parts are better). Only switch the main site once most of the initial problems are fixed and at least feature parity for the most used functions is achieved.
As it is now, it will only drive users away. There are too many other forums that are not as terribly handled as this new version.
It’s a shame, as it was a good place until now.
Regards