Bergie I can see why you locked your announcement of the wonderful changes. You would been overwhelmed with objections. Why fix something that isn’t broken? The biggest change I can see is that I have to wait as much as 10-12 seconds while each logo, image and print box appear , one at a time, every time I go back to a forum or finish a post and that is with a DSL. The site would be totally useless on dial up. Nothing is better, all is slow. We don’t care about all the pretty colors and art work. We are here to read and it takes forever.
No, seriously man, tell him what you really mean…
Waaaaaaaaaaa!
Whaddya mean “We”? Who appointed you to speak for the rest of us?
Sheesh. You strike me as the kind who’d complain about a free lunch.
Megadittoes to the first message![soapbox]
I don’t see a difference in loading. It works just fine on this end.
One thing I would like to see is more topics on page one of this category of the Trains Magazine forum. None of the other categories scroll as fast as this one, and once a topic scrolls to page 2, fewer people will see it. They should move the “Powered by Community Server” logo to the side and explore other ways to try and keep as many topics commented on during the current day on the first page.
No offense, but isn’t this post a bit ironic, then? I mean, provided that you ARE here to read about railroad content, why post this in the forum? Wouldn’t it have been better to e-mail Bergie directly so that non-RR posts like this don’t further clog up the forum?
Just my [2c]
Without having exact ‘stopwatch’ timings the mechanics of the forum take longer to operate in all area of use than the previous forums software.
Internet forum software is not exactly a cutting edge product that should need months of development and refinement to operate as intended and at an acceptable speed to the user.
Fact is, we’ve already discussed the initial problems with the new forums, and things seem to be coming together. After awhile you get used to it and just accept how it is, at least IMHO. I like the new look, yes things are different but the main thing is that everybody still gets to share opinions.
That being said…I still hate the silhouettes.
Roy
You people all look alike to me…[}:)] ( [:o)] )
What is the point of the default silhouette avatar? What is it supposed to mean? If it is intended to convey that people posting without avatars are anonymous, it makes no sense. Most people who use avatars are anonymous. Somebody please explain it to me.
I second the initial comments. The site response has suffered with each “improvement”. Stuck in the dial-up environment and response is now borders on glacial.
One improvement would be to load the important content/option choices first and leave the ads, etc, go until after the reader gets to see what he actually asked for.
It appears fast enuf for me,but then im old and slow and enjoying it. I earned it .
DITTO
Perhaps it is there to encourage us to individualize our on-screen presence–just a way of allowing us to have a touch of whimsy, or to show off one of our photographs.
Or, for those of us technology challenged, a chance to ask someone else for help on an avatar picture. Perhaps replacing the generic silhouettes with something else would be better? Like the Trains Magazine logo? [:P]
Different isn’t bad, per se. The more I play with the new forums the more I like 'em. I like the new format.
Adding an avatar is really easy - all you need is a suitable digital image. (Standard disclaimer about copyrights, etc).
Of course, not all of us have an image editing program available, but virtually everyone has a cell phone with a camera, and odds are if they are here on the forum, they have an email address.
So -
Step 1: Find a picture you like (one of your own is best, of course). If you can edit it (crop, etc) and it needs it, do so.
Alternate Step 1: Get out that cell phone camera and get yourself trackside (safely and abiding by the usual rules). Take a picture of something you like. Send the picture to your email address (yep - you can do that). When you get it on your email, save it to your computer. Be sure to rename it.
Step 2: In the “My Profile” area on the right side of the screen, click on “Update Profile.”
Step 3: Scroll down to the section for Avatars. Find the picture you’ve picked. Upload it.
Note: I don’t recall if there’s a max file size. If there is, you’re going to need a way to reduce it. There are try-ware and free-ware programs that will work if you don’t want to spend the money on Photoshop or the like.
Ta-Da! You’ve got an avatar.
Disclaimer - I didn’t go thru the process as I wrote this, so I might have something slightly amiss here. But you can figure it out. It’s
I understand the point of having an avatar, and have nothing against those who want one. I only raise the question on behalf of those who don’t want one, and might feel somewhat patronized by having a rather odd, generic, one-size-fits-all, house avatar foisted on them.
Point taken. Perhaps an outline of a locomotive would be more appropos.