Cindy,I have tried to give this new structure of forums a period of time to become comfortable and after having talked privately with others, I know I am not alone in finding this to be virtually impossible. It's gotten to the point that I am avoiding the forum because I walk away shaking my head (and my fist) each time I attempt to catch up on forum postings when I have not had the opportunity to visit the site for a few days.I, for one, would at least like to see a link that I could quickly click on when I launch the forum that says "All messages posted since your last visit" that would go across all areas of the forum (labeled by area) so I could then click on a "Show full thread" link and be able to ferret out useful information to me and eliminate things that don't interest me. The forum is an invaluable tool to your users, but I have to say that this migration has made me not put it on my favorites and I'm hoping it can be tweaked to the point that it returns to the helpful resource it's been in the past. Chuck Motter
FWIW, I agree.
I appreciate the time and effort it took to change the forum and I know the intent was to make it better. So I want to at least aknowledge the work that's been done to improve the CRNet forum. And even this new format. Some changes have already been made based on people's comments.
But I'm not a fan of this new format. I'm trying to like it. I'm trying to figure out how to navigate easily and efficiently. Unfortunately, I'm not liking it and I find myself not visiting as often as I used to.
**Edited to add: I was just checking to see if I'm set up to receive email replies to my mssgs. (My Account, then Edit) While there, I see there are a few other choices that you may want to pay attention to. In case you didn't already know this, there are three different views you can choose for how this forum looks to you. I changed my view. It helped. The three choices are Chameleon, Democratica, Republica. Try them.
Patricia,
Thanks for the recommendation. I believe the forum's default style is Republica. I like Chameleon the best, but miss some of the features from Republica, such as the little yellow NEW ballons on new posts. Chameleon and Democratica both just put asterisks in. And I really, really want to be able to change the font color settings in Chameleon.
If it helps with the website creation, here's what I like about Chameleon, and this may be echoed by some of the other user's comments. The listing of topics are closer together, and in smaller print, and they line up in tight rows. It also "seems" like there are more on each page because they're easier to read. They also take up 1/2 to 3/4 of the page with the meat of the postings being closer to the middle of the screen. Republica pushes the topics to the right, using 1/2 to 1/3 of the page on the far right side. I then end up with a lot of white on my screen, making me feel like I'm not able to see the whole screen even though I am. The centering seems like it's very important for ease of reading and searching.
For what it's worth, I hope that helps with constructive criticism.
Michelle
P.S. I like Democratica, except that if I'm not in a fully open IE window (which I don't like to do) the forum information is pushed down to the bottom of the page after the left margin information is finished. If it's open in full screen, then it starts at the top of the page. I usually use a 3/4 sized IE window so I can have easy access to my other open windows.
P.P.S. It looks like from more testing that most of my problems are due to the fact that I use smaller IE windows and the formats don't adjust well to that. Plus I still don't like Republica not centering the text. It pushes it to the right.
Hi, Michelle.
Glad my post helped. I forget what choice I made (that was a whole day ago, you know!!!:-), but it has helped me navigate this forum better. Thanks for the comments regarding the different views...I'm sure it'll help others.
Simply put... It stinks. The old format was simple. I've never liked this type of format and have avoided message boards that have employeed it. I guess I will be avoiding this as much as possible.
Cast my vote with the vast majority and go back to the old forum. It may not have looked as crisp, but it was usable and this is not.
Jeff Gorb
Jeff,
You said you "never liked this type of format and have avoided message boards that have employed it." If I can ask, what do you mean by "this type of format." I had responded to one of your posts suggesting the vBulletin program, but I have a feeling maybe that's the format you don't like. Personally, I love that format, but maybe it's because I frequent a number of boards. I certainly wouldn't want to suggest a format that no one would like. Really, I think the problem with this new board is there is NOTHING different about it from the previous one, except that now it's just more difficult to navigate.
What I didn't like about the old forum is that nothing was categorized. I, for one, would like there to be separate sub-forums for things like macros, realtime, hardware, etc. If they're not separated, I still end up having to glean from a poster's title what a thread is going to be about. Sometimes it was clear, many times it wasn't.
Joseph B. Armstrong
Official Court Reporter
I agree with Chuck's post. It would be really, really nice to see a list of ONLY the posts that I haven't seen since my last visit, and then be able to click on a thread if I were interested.
I used to visit this site daily, but have been avoiding it because it is really difficult to navigate through to what I want to read.
Renee Baker
It takes a lot more time and a lot of scrolling to view these now, and we're not getting the usual responses we used to because people just don't feel this is a user friendly format anymore. However, it is apparent that Cindy and her staff are trying to make changes as fast as they can to make us happy.
How about this? Someone start a thread of What We Like About the New Forums and another one called What We Don't Like About the New Forums. That way they have one place to look for input from all of us users and can maybe respond to some of our concerns.
--Kimberly
Just wanted to say I agree with Chuck's original post. First, thank you, Advantage for listening and for trying a new format. There were problems with the old one -- such as trying to search for previous threads and only having dates that were five years old... so a change was needed. And this one isn't all that bad. it blends in with the style of the site nicely and it's not too tough to naviagate -- however, it does take more time and it would be great if you could only see new posts, etc. So if you can tweak it, great. if not, maybe consider a different program that will.
Thanks for listening.
Just wanted to add my voice to those who do not like the new forum. It looks pretty, but takes more time to go through than before and somehow just does not have that old comfortable feeling.
Ellen
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Ellen
I have found one way to make it easier to use. As someone above this suggested, I went to My Account, clicked on the Edit tab and selected lots of formatting issues, including the Democratica layout. and I have this link bookmarked: http://www.accucap.com/?q=tracker, so it shows up nice and pretty AND only the recent posts in ALL forums. You might try this after you've logged in and see what you think, then modify your own account and see how you like things.
It's getting a little bit easier to navigate.....
Jan
At least one thing I like about the new forum is that the topic and replies are together.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Elsa