Short version: Bad.
Too much empty space on the sides.
Why? Before, space felt like it was being used effectively. Now, huge swathes kept empty for… I don’t know.
My profile name/link were up high on the side where it felt like a sensible pace for it. I had the search box there. When I clicked to make a new post, the post box was right there. It felt good.
Now, “Home” directs to a blank column. The search bar is replaced by “Explore”, something I’ve learnt to associate with “look at a bunch of suggested accounts and posts and stuff that I don’t care about in the slightest”, and requires me to click to open it before I can even begin to search. I’ve seen in another thread that this also replaces “Trending”, something else “Explore” doesn’t put me in mind of, and means I have to focus more on remembering to search rather than being distracted by other stuff. I have great difficulty directing my focus and have to take meds each day to be able to function as much as I do. You are wasting that.
The custom feeds and followed hashtags are beneath that. I don’t have much of an issue with those as I barely use them, though they feel less important than being able to post and possibly should be beneath…
“New Post”
I click this, and the post appears way down at the bottom of the screen, not where I’m looking or where any of my focus is directed. Also not where the new post will actually appear. Instead of going right from making a new post to seeing it posted, I have to click the button, make a detour down to the bottom to compose the post, then back up to the top to see the post.
As well as that, the content warning button is gone. I have to open a sub menu to find it. That means more work to access content warnings, if people even know it’s in there, which new users won’t, encouraging less use of content warnings and thus more potentially upsetting stuff hanging out in the open.
I don’t see how hiding the CW button invites new users, but I do see how it increases the amount of effort required for everyone.
The columns of actual posts feel too narrow.
I think I saw in another thread that the columns themselves haven’t changed in width, but the space text takes up within them has. Whether true or not, things feel squashed and uncomfortable now. Combined with the changes in character and line spacing, and the new colour scheme, this makes it harder to read posts, requiring more effort to focus on them. Again, you’re wasting my focus.
Given that posts are like, what Mastodon is FOR, this seems really bad.
I don’t like the new icons for boosting, replying, and such. I tried to reply to a post, only to then have to close out of the share menu, which seems to be trying to open some ms-people thing. Why is that even there?
Instead there’s the new icon which, unless I look close enough to see the little spike, looks like a circle.
I also strongly prefer the star icon over the heart because I don’t feel strongly enough about most things for anything related to love, but a star to say “yeah this is good” was fine.
Everything lags. When typing, when scrolling, everything I do has lag that wasn’t there before. I even got interrupted trying to like a post by someone else about the lag, by the page deciding it needed to refresh.
I really don’t like the circles everywhere. I know I’ve said this before, and I will likely say it again.
There’s bound to be more stuff that I haven’t found yet, but so far this redesign feels awful, to the point where I’m wondering if I should try to find a third party client that doesn’t do this, or even look at other platforms altogether.