This is terrible. Response is a gamble. No date joined…No count…click on something and end up who knows where…Ugh.
This is about the fourth or fifth format revision I’ve endured here. I’ll probably get used to this one, too. It just takes a while. Use Rich Formatting…I called Rich, and he hung up on me…
So far, I can do this…
Ah…there seems to be no way to edit my own posts once they’re out there.
Also, we persevered last time and got more posts per page shown…let’s see if we can do it again. I had to go clear down to Page 3 to resurrect the Trackside Lounge just now (and it still wants to correct “Trackside”!).
I agree with Zug…I like to know how long someone’s been around. The post count isn’t important, but the seenie date is. I also don’t see any way of accessing personal information about other posters.
To get personal info, just click on that person’s avatar or name on the header of the post.
To edit, there’s a little pencil button on the bottom left of your post. That opens up the edit thingie.
When I mentioned a post without a reply button, I was referring to only post #1 of this thread. There is no reply button there. All other posts have reply buttons.
All posts will start in plain text as a default unless you select rich text. With that, you get all the font choices, sizes, colors, etc. To quote somebody, you have to hit reply, and then you have to select rich text. Rich text is necessary for the quote function to work.
I get the impression that everyone is seeing something different here depending on what browser they are using, you know, kind of like gmail.
(edit) Yes, that little pencil is the edit function, but I don’t see how to delete a post.
??? There’s a reply button on the first post for me. Firefox here.
test
(edit) I tried to delete test by editing it as a deletion, but it won’t accept an empty post as an edit. So how do you delete a post? I am guessing you can’t.
But I didn’t study.
I see the reply button on all posts, but the “Use rich formatting” link is only on the last post of a pagefull. I am using IE-9.
I also see that in the list of threads on the forum, threads that get updated do NOT get added to the “UNREAD” list! OUCH! That makes that “feature” kind of useless!
Guess I have to go back to the way I used to do it before I discovered the “Not Read” feature of the old software… That is, just try to remember when I last logged off and look down the list for the first posting after that date/time and then read upwards on the page looking for threads of interest.
I used to always log-off at the same time every day so that was relatively easy, but since I retired I am on and off all day long at my whim, so it will be more difficult to remember what I have already read and what has some new content, so I expect to be re-reading some posts and not reading others as I miss-remember when I last looked.
Tis sad when an “update” is a “downgrade”. But it sure seems to happen more often than not!
It happens every time software is improved. It is a cultural thing.
The rich formatting option becomes available in any post once you press the reply button in that post.
Is it just me, or is there now some blue background on here? Looks like they are still playing with it.
There is light blue, blue-gray, and gray around the features of the post box. I don’t know if that different from at first or not.
I can probably get used to most of the changes. It is noticeably slower for me. And the last version was slower than the one before that.
But problem #1 for me is reducing the forum page post count by about 60-70% The same reduction occurred the last time they improved the program, and we finally convinced them to get more posts listed on each page. Apparently, the reasoning for doing so was not all that clear because we are back to a minimum number of posts on each page.
It is bad for business. It is a marketing issue.
Seems like many discussion sites (of various topics) are slowly dying. Probably the facebook and other social media influence. I know there’s several RR-related groups and organizations I follow on there.
All good things must end…
Perhaps so. But while that may be a trend, there is vast potential for a forum to boom or bust just based on how it is managed.
Policies and structure can make or break it.
Hmm… usually I find that a small handful of posters (sometimes 1 or 2) can do more to hurt a forum than any policy or structure. Nature of user-supplied content, I guess.
Forums are like selling soap. They are as market driven as any product ever was. They need to draw in the customers. What draws in customers is the attention and reception of the other customers. This is often thwarted by the forum structure.
I have had some ideas about a vastly different type of forum operation and structure. It would take a lot more thought to get it to a clear definition. But it would take communication to a very high key. The main challenge would be to run this new structure with a sort of automatic editor.
It would be a radical departure from just adding messages to a list of messages.
Maybe it is me, but the over all look is less professional.
James,
I agree completely. Reminds me of an instant messenger window from about 10 years ago.
When I first access the forum on the afternoon of the 14th the response time seemed acceptable. Now, on the morning of the 15th - it is horrendously slow. Glad to see the e-mail box is now not checked automatically.
Tried replying to three different threads’ first post…and I get a popup warning that I don’t have permission to reply. IE9 and WIN 7 machine.