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New forum -- feedback please!

WMK
WMK Posts: 1,747
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
We are nearly ready to attempt a switch over to the new forum.[p]Every effort has been made to accomodate everyones' issues; however, it is not possible to keep things exactly as they are and move forward at the same time.[p]The font size can now be set using the combo boxes at the top of the index and message view screens. The default is 14px with Times New Roman face which is similar to this forum. We are also working on a cleaner, and more flexible, way to do this; but what we have now at least works.[p]The header size has been reduced when viewing messages to make better use of available screen space.[p]We will also be working on the gallery, recipes, and forum image upload options once the basic forum operation is complete. [p]This work will include integrating the forum with recipes (i.e. so you can post a recipe on the forum and in the recipes section at same time; ) and, similarly, we will integrate polls into the forum so that ya'll can post a poll directly on the forum and let the server tally the results.[p]We will be adding some more forum options to your user profiles for those of you that wish to disable some of the new features; or, change some of the default settings.[p]We are still having some trouble with some Mac browsers. I do not have a Mac to test these issues; so, it is difficult to work them out; but perhaps with help from those of you that do have Macs, we can do something about them.[p]WMK
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Comments

  • Meinbmw
    Meinbmw Posts: 157
    WMK, Who underwrites the cost of maintaining this forum? Donations accepted? Been so very pleased to be able to glean so much knowledge from this forum in the 6 weeks I've owned an EGG ... the members of this forum have made me look like a genius in my wife's eyes. For this I thank all of you - Lord knows I couldn't have accomplished THAT ONE on my own!!! LOL, and ROTFLMAO!

  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    meinbmw,[p]I am glad you're finding our forum a useful resource. BGE covers the server and a little of our time, but much more work is required than is covered. Donations would be much appreciated -- I'll have to add a Paypal link ;-).[p]But the forum would be nothing but a computer program without the many knowledgeable, helpful eggsperts that take their time to help each other to get the most from their Eggs.[p]It's a special place; and, we're trying to keep it that way; and, to make it even better too![p]Welcome aboard![p]WMK
  • Smokey
    Smokey Posts: 2,468
    WMK,[p]The new site looks GREAT, but I find it a good bit slower and I hate that I am assigned a password (and cannot sellect my own). Did I miss a step?[p]Smokey
  • Jingles
    Jingles Posts: 21
    I am a Mac guy. Use safari and sometimes explorer. I am new to the forum but will be happy to test.
    Charlie
  • Jingles
    Jingles Posts: 21
    I am a Mac guy. Use safari and sometimes explorer. I am new to the forum but will be happy to test.
    Charlie
  • Jingles
    Jingles Posts: 21
    I am a Mac guy. Use safari and sometimes explorer. I am new to the forum but will be happy to test.
    Charlie
  • Smokey,[p]Yes.[p]Todd
  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    Smokey,
    You may assign your own; or, I can change it for you. During the registration process there was an opportunity; and, you may change it at any time with "Profile -> Edit my profile".
    The speed is a largely factor of how many messages are displayed in the index (though this forum takes a similar amount of time to display for me.)
    The number of days displayed is computed based upon the average number of messages per day and hits about 11 days right now, but I'll cut it in half -- that should help a little.[p]WMK

  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    Jingles,
    Thank you -- looks like it's working for you at least.
  • Toy Man
    Toy Man Posts: 416
    I think it is looking pretty good. I like the default layout.

    Great idea on the PayPal link.

    Toy Man
  • Spike
    Spike Posts: 37
    WMK,
    Just a thought you might want to consider. On the ytmag website forum they have an (expand) button next to the original post. This opens all of the replies at one time and makes it easier to read all of the posts. My 2 cents worth!!!

  • Toy Man
    Toy Man Posts: 416
    I noticed a small glitch.

    In the profile, it says the city will be visable but it is not.

    Toy Man
  • ajay
    ajay Posts: 47
    WMK, Is the new forum down? Just tried to get in and my Mac timed out.
  • WMK,

    I mentioned to you last week about being able to pull up the last post on a thread. Right now I use the Flat/Wide version, I would like to click on the last reply icon and have it take me to the last reply, currently it takes me to the top of the last page but I have to scroll down to the last reply.

    Only bug I have found, and I use the "new" board all the time.

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    Spike,
    This is similar to our "flat view" of a message though ours does paginate the output based upon a configuration setting (8 messages per page I think is the current setting.)[p]We could add the ability to dump them all in a single response; though that would mean that all 78 of "Re: !!!!Nature Boy Turns 45!!!!" would come back in one gigantic response -- pictures and all. In fact, I just noticed that the flat view doesn't work on that message for some reason -- I'll have to add that to the list too.[p]And we'll add an "expand" feature to our list.[p]Thanks for your input,
    WMK

  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    Smitty,
    I'll take a look at it. I just discovered also that the flat view does not work on the message about Nature Boy's birthday. Perhaps the number of replies? Not sure yet.
  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    ajay,
    No, the new forum is up and running. Sometimes I get a time out, then it goes away in a few minutes -- not the site -- just an internet glitch. Sometimes I can't get any sites, sometimes just certain ones. Depends on the problem. If it doesn't come back soon, then there may be a Mac related problem.
    Can you get to the home page.
    WMK

  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    Toy Man,
    I'll take a look at it.
    Tx.
  • dhuffjr
    dhuffjr Posts: 3,182
    WMK,
    One thing I like on other forums is that posting causes a thread to bump to the top of the list. Does this happen and if not could you make it happen? Sometimes threads folks are still talking about get lost way down on a page otherwise.

  • WMK wrote:
    Smitty,
    I just discovered also that the flat view does not work on the message about Nature Boy's birthday. Perhaps the number of replies? Not sure yet.

    No problem viewing that thread from my end, I'm getting all 10 pages without a hitch.

     

    -SMITTY     

    from SANTA CLARA, CA

  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    dhuffjr,[p]Yes this can be made to happen. Some of our members did not like "message hopping"; so, I made the default setting as the original forum is (i.e. threads are ordered by their original post time.)[p]If you prefer, you may select the original ordering (which is by time of last post to thread) by going to "Profile -> Edit my profile" and selecting "Active thread first". That should get you what you want. Let me know if works properly -- it is a new feature.[p]WMK
  • I am using the most current version of Safari, and I am having no problems...
  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    I fixed it. For me, it was starting on an empty page which I took to be a bug.
  • Lawn Ranger
    Lawn Ranger Posts: 5,467
    WMK,
    I can't begin to tell you how much your efforts have meant to this group of people. I occasionally look at other Forums and see an occasional post every few hours. Not here...this is truly a very active family, and your efforts have been instrumental in making it so.[p]Unfortunately, I'm a dinosaur. And, although I promise I will do my best to learn the new system.....I must admit that I am really much more comfortable with the old format, because that's what drew me here in the first place. I find it incredibly user friendly.[p]That being said....I realize that "Nothing is constant but change", and I sincerely applaude all that you are doing to perpetuate this "Family" through all of the changes that are being made.[p]Congratulations on all that you do. You are a hero.[p]Mike

  • Chuck
    Chuck Posts: 812
    WMK,[p]I have to agree with Smokey on the slow part. For me it is slower to the point of being annoying. I have a broadband connection so that isn't the problem. Even hitting the back button has a delay which is a little weird. Hopefully you can correct this problem. I need my forum fix every couple of hours.[p]Thanks for all the hard work that you do to give us this great place to make friends.[p]Chuck
  • WMK,[p]
    Looks good on linux/firefox![p]I also notice the slowness a bit, but I'm used to that (42 Kb dialup) -- so I pop threads open in new tabs. I *do* like the way entire threads are always available, no matter how far down the cascade I am -- and I think that's where the slowness I'm seeing comes in.[p]It's very liveable, IMHO.[p]Tom[p](posted on the old forum so everyone could see it)

  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    Chuck,[p]The new forum is in a database. The old one is literally thousands of flat files. It will always be a bit less work for the server to simply shoot a file down the pipe, but it does not permit any flexability whatever with regard to formating, features, searching, etc. It is also a maintenance nightmare.[p]I'm sure we can improve performance of the new one some over time by optimizing the database access, but there are limits.[p]For now, can you get better speed by fetching fewer days? [p]Also, the back button is less necessary in the new forum because the entire thread is available when viewing a message (i.e. the "thread map" contains the whole thread not just replies to current message.) This means you'll only need the back button to view a different thread.[p]Normally, the new forum shows the most active threads first (i.e. ordered by time of most recent post,) but some have complained about the "message hoping" that this causes; so, I added the ability to order as this one is (by original thread posting time -- the other order can be selected in your profile.)[p]The other side of this coin is that keeping the most active messages first reduces the number of messages that must be fetched, formatted, and downloaded to produce the index. This makes things faster. [p]Also, the "inline post form" (i.e. the post form at bottom of index) takes extra time to generate. At the moment, this can be switched on and off only globaly, but I can add a profile option for it too.[p]Essentially, the features that were added to the new forum to make it more like the old one also slowed things down (or at least some of them did.) We're trying to have everything, but we might not quite get there.[p]WMK[p]
  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    QriousTom,[p]Glad to hear it's working well in Firefox. We've had a few issues there, but have tried to address most of them.[p]I too like the new "thread map" better than the old one. It means less back and forth to view a particular thread which helps moderate the slower index generation time somewhat.[p]WMK
  • WMK
    WMK Posts: 1,747
    Lawn Ranger,[p]The "classic" view mode is nearly identical to the old format. What is it that you find not user friendly about it?[p]WMK

  • ChefRD
    ChefRD Posts: 438
    WMK,
    I've tried to activate my account several times, It always says the account is created but not activated, check your email....[p]I have never got an email that I know of. So tonite I turned off the spam filter to see if that has been blocking it. It has blocked several other sites I have tried to receive email from, so I will give it a try. [p]So will you send me 'another' activation email??
    thanks again, for all you do and say Hi to Brenda for me.[p]later,
    ChefRD.