Old Forum Blues

[Mike]

From: Mike .


Hi All,

As a regular of the Old Forum, I've noticed that some of my favourite Posters have gone rather quiet on the New Forum. Have you got the blues, or something? C'mon guys and gals, snap out of it or I won't be posting much longer, myself.

Regards, Mike

 

[WebBoard]

Reply: 1
From: Dave Tot


I will go out on a limb and say it's due to the new chat software not being user friendly and some what unreliable.

Sorry folks, but had to say it.

Love the content, but alas the move to the new chat forum I feel was not a good move.

One huge gripe I have is that a read a tread and it only highlights the first msge. I come back another day and select 'new msges' and on a tread I have no idea if someone has added a msge to the end of a topic I know i have read, since the first one is highlighted.

So very time consuming, and a little frustrating.

 

[Les]

Reply: 1.1
From: Les .



G'day all,

As an "older hand", I have also had a few challenges coming to grips with the new forum style. The old one showed all threads complete, with a different colour for unread messages. Now, we get a "New" tag - but, even after reading the new item, the "New" tag remains - (am I missing something?)

What I have found is that (having caught up), I can press "Mark Read" and all of the "New" tags disappear - so that helps.

As far as chat rooms are concerned, what's that ???

All change can come with a bit of discomfort (and a bit of grieving for "the old") - I'm working at it. Any pointers re other good stuff with this new style would be welcome,

Regards,


Les

 

[bbruham]

Reply: 1.2
From: Bruce Graham


I wrote when this new web site first went to air that I hated the new web site.
This is the second time since then that I've
been to the site.
The wife has since started her own web site,
www.thewife.cjb.net
On the old site I was always on it,reading
etc, daily.
This site is a copy of some yank shit, with
yank dates. You have to think when you see a
date is this date yank or aussie? What is the correct date here? 12/3/01! Is this December or March?
Nothing on the tele, done all my paperwork,
bored stiff. So hello the Somers.
So you see other people agree with me, flown
to other web sites.
Go back to the old aussie web site, it was
great,and it was all original.Some thing to be proud of.
Bruce g.(sydney)
I HATE THIS BLOODY THING TELLING ME ABOUT MY SPELLING MISTAKES!Wasn't it wonderful to read
everyone's mistakes, it made them real people
who weren't perfect.I now feel normal.

There are ten mistakes in the above!

 

[Sim]

Reply: 1.2.1
From: Sim' Hampel


On 4/2/01 9:58:00 PM, Bruce Graham wrote:
>This site is a copy of some
>yank shit, with
>yank dates.

The software that runs this forum is commercial shrink-wrapped software. You can purchase it and set up your own server and have a working discussion forum that supports web access, email access, and I think even news reader access if you configure it so. The chat feature supports java enabled web browsers and irc clients. All this out of the box. All this without much in the way of effort from the administrators who have much better things to do with their time than run a FREE web service.

You too can purchase this software from: webboard.oreilly.com

Note that this software is not cheap (at least USD$1800... that's approaching $4000 aussie dollars these days) and the Somers' have set this site up for us to use for FREE !

>You have to think
>when you see a
>date is this date yank or
>aussie? What is the correct
>date here? 12/3/01! Is this
>December or March?

Get a grip. You live in a globalised world. Deal with it. Ian has expressed that he is trying to find how to change that in the software. Until then, you know this site uses US date format, so do the conversion in your head. Becomes automatic.

>So you see other people agree
>with me, flown
>to other web sites.

I don't think so. There are lots and lots of people who regularly use this site - check out the stats ! Most of the regulars are still here. Some of them don't post all that often... they're mostly in the chat room !

>Go back to the old aussie web
>site, it was
>great,and it was all
>original.Some thing to be
>proud of.

Yes, but something that didn't work either. Ian Somers stated so in his explanation about why he was moving to the new format. The old site was designed to support a small discussion forum with only a moderate amount of traffic. It is a credit to them that the site handled so much traffic as the forum became more and more popular. But they decided that in order to provide better service that they should spend some of their own money and upgrade to a new server and new software.

>Bruce g.(sydney)
>I HATE THIS BLOODY THING
>TELLING ME ABOUT MY SPELLING
>MISTAKES!

Try this: before you reach for the "post" button, deselect the "preview / spell check" check box. Takes about half a second.

If people find the chat room unrelieable when using a web browser, download an IRC client like mIRC: www.mirc.com
Works fantastically and reliably and has lots more features. If you don't want to or can't, then put up with the browser interface or stay out of the chat room.

If you hate accessing the forum through a browser so much, use the email access feature. There are several people successfully using this. Quit complaining. The site works. It works very well. It is just different to what we had and you're going to have to get used to the new quirks. Deal with it. Learn and progress.

*rant mode off*

;-)

 

[Mike]

Reply: 1.2.1.1
From: Mike .


Hi Sim,

I thought I was being overly dramatic until your megaton post. My keyboard is still shaking. Thanks for those tips. This forum certainly has more features. The two I like are Today's Messages which easily shows any replies to threads created weeks before. And reading the Entire Reply as one htm file.

The stats can be good or bad. They told me that some of my favourite posters were in mothballs. I hope they snap out of their moroseness soon. Maybe a drink or two at Phillips Foote later this month will do that. Another conspicuous missing poster is the girl with the curls. If she doesn't post soon I'll have to start taking anti-depressives.

Regards, Mike

 

[aam]

Reply: 1.2.1.2
From: Apprentice Millionaire


Well said Sim'

BTW, the old forum is still there for those who really want it. Every now and then I go there to look for an old post. And I'll tell you what: I much prefer the new forum. The old one takes ages to load!

Cheers
Apprentice Millionaire
(aka Jacques in the old forum)

 

[Sim]

Reply: 1.2.1.1.1
From: Sim' Hampel


Hi Mike,

Just to balance my own arguments a little (I have a tendancy to argue against myself... I'd never make a good lawyer or salesperson !!), there are things I don't like about the new forum.

I HATE the fact that the spell check option is turned on by default. I have a problem with systems that think I can't spell. I know that lots of people find this really useful, and I know I'm not perfect and make mistakes and typos, but I really do prefer to proofread my own posts. I would really love it if this option was configurable: "Do you want us to nag you about spelling or just let it slide ?". But like I said in my post, I just deal with it. *sigh*

I HATE the new message system. I want to be able to mark individual threads as read, so that I can come in when I get a couple of spare minute, read a couple of threads and then mark them read, leaving all the other unread threads for when I have some more time later. As it is now, I have to make sure I've read all threads, then check to see if new messages appeared while I was reading the existing ones, find them, read them, and then when I'm sure I've not missed anything, I go to the "mark read" page and mark the forum(s) read. I find this overly cumbersome. But like I said in my post, I just deal with it. *sigh*

I HATE the fact that the messages are listed one after the other when you view them, but in hierarchy order. This means that if you respond to someone's post, the hierechy determines the order of the message in the thread, so if you respond to something higher up the thread, it appears earlier in the thread list. This can make things really confusing, as it is not always clear who you are responding to. But like I said in my post, I just deal with it. *sigh*

There are a few other quirks that irk, but in general the benefits of the new features vastly outweigh the niggles, so I'm happy with the forum. I think this software is one of the most stable and well written web applications I've seen. It will be interesting to see how it holds up as volumes and trafic mount up.

Keep on posting !!

 

[WebBoard]

Reply: 1.1.1
From: Terry Avery


I am very happy with the new forum style. I set my options to forward all
posts as emails and they just arrive in my inbox. If I want to reply (like
this one) I just hit reply (I am using outlook express). I don't get
attachments or those fancy, coloured signature thingies but then I am not
really interested in that anyway. Oh, and I just hit delete when I have
finished reading or drag the mail to another folder if I want to keep it for
later reference (no searching archives for that great, informative post!!!)
My folders are labeled according to subject matter too for easier searching.

The other advantage is all the new posts download in a couple of minutes and
then I can go offline and read them at leisure.

Anyway, that's how I do it and I like the new forum as I save my online
time.

 

[WebBoard]

Reply: 1.1.1.1
From: Ricky Harriss


I read your post and have tried to have the forum sent by E-mail with no success.I followed the guide check addresses were the same and ticked the forum box in the mailing list and got a changes saved reply.Am I doing something wrong , any help would be appreciated.

Harry

 

[prunster]

Reply: 1.1.1.1.1
From: Grant P


On 4/4/01 3:36:00 PM, Ricky Harriss wrote:
>I read your post and have
>tried to have the forum sent
>by E-mail with no success.I
>followed the guide check
>addresses were the same and
>ticked the forum box in the
>mailing list and got a changes
>saved reply.Am I doing
>something wrong , any help
>would be appreciated.
>
>Harry

I think you may need to have an e-mail address for this function to work. I have subscribed and it works a treat.



Grant

 

[cathyb]

Reply: 1.1.2
From: Cathy Baxter


When i first saw "Mark Read" i thought it was a link to Darwin All Sports - the bookie is Mark Read.

But alas it didn't take me there.

How stupid of me.

lol

Cathy