Here's a statement of the obvious: The opinions expressed here are those of the participants, not those of the Mutual Fund Observer. We cannot vouch for the accuracy or appropriateness of any of it, though we do encourage civility and good humor.
Not sure I "have a problem" with this, but I agree that it isn't a great idea. And speaking of things like "Anonymous Steve", isn't that awfully silly? Either you're anonymous or you're not. If MFO somehow knows who you are without logging in, then you are not anonymous, just not logged in. None of this makes a lot of sense to me.
It turns out that it’s pretty hard to improve on Roy’s invention. At FundAlarm I could scroll down and see immediately 1) who was posting; 2) what their subject was; 3) who was replying to them; and 4) what sub-threads might be popping up.
I could also see which posts I had already read (the color changed), and if I wanted to find that hilarious post about annuities, I could simply search for annu-. After a week or so posts fell off the edge of the earth, but everyone knew that. In the meantime, there was a lot of great stuff to learn, all the time, right there in front of your eyes.
I know a horrendous amount of work has gone into designing MFO, but the beneficial excitement of the intellectual fray and the ease of finding a post or a poster just isn’t there. It’s more like thumbing through a card catalog - and my thumb is getting numb.
About that old format (i.e. FA), discussions there for better or worse felt like walking into the neighborhood bar or corner cafe where you knew everyone unlike the present format which feels like standing in line at the DMV or similar government entity. You can't see who posted where or about what without practically opening up every discussion that doesn't display the yellow 'New' balloon. I'm sorry but it's just not all that engaging and I don't see how to correct that.
Already read posts - I'm with you although when you log into MFO you do see the 'New' balloon. However, unless you close the window and/or log off and then log back on that 'New' balloon doesn't go away. Therefore when one is working through their current session it can be hard to remember which discussions you already looked at and which ones you haven't. I'm not a programmer so I have no idea as to what's involved in changing this. I do know that at the M* discussion forums that once you've read through a discussion the discussion heading font format changes from 'bold' to 'normal' but whether or not that can be implemented here is unknown.
I agree with you on video links as well and I have a broadband connection. I'll always choose the print version if that's available. I guess we're just crotchety in that regard.
Comments
I could also see which posts I had already read (the color changed), and if I wanted to find that hilarious post about annuities, I could simply search for annu-. After a week or so posts fell off the edge of the earth, but everyone knew that. In the meantime, there was a lot of great stuff to learn, all the time, right there in front of your eyes.
I know a horrendous amount of work has gone into designing MFO, but the beneficial excitement of the intellectual fray and the ease of finding a post or a poster just isn’t there. It’s more like thumbing through a card catalog - and my thumb is getting numb.
Already read posts - I'm with you although when you log into MFO you do see the 'New' balloon. However, unless you close the window and/or log off and then log back on that 'New' balloon doesn't go away. Therefore when one is working through their current session it can be hard to remember which discussions you already looked at and which ones you haven't. I'm not a programmer so I have no idea as to what's involved in changing this. I do know that at the M* discussion forums that once you've read through a discussion the discussion heading font format changes from 'bold' to 'normal' but whether or not that can be implemented here is unknown.
I agree with you on video links as well and I have a broadband connection. I'll always choose the print version if that's available. I guess we're just crotchety in that regard.
That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.