Hi David,
I'm so glad you have been able to recoup your start-up expenses - yea!
I still have a problem trying to find which posts I haven't read. Since there is no "LAST DATE" posted when members add updates, I frequently found myself accessing the same posts over again - only to find that there are no updated posts I haven't read. Gets very annoying to the point that I now just don't access any posts that don't have current dates on them.
If there is a problem adding this feature, if posts that have had all of the follow-ups read by a member could be highlighted (lightened out) like M* and FundAlarm used to do, that would be a big help.
Thanks again for continuing this great Forum! I've made lots of Amazon purchases - and you even gave me the excuse to "splurge" a little knowing that a portion will go to such a worthy cause.
Cathy
Comments
I'll forward your question to Chip for her consideration. Brad, who handled most of the programming, needed about 2.5 hours to convince the system to include the name of the first and last poster. I'm not sure whether it's possible to add the date, but there's no harm in asking folks with tech savvy.
Thanks for your support of the Amazon link. It's providing in quiet but steady drip of cash - $5-10/day, depending on the time period you ask about. Not a mint, but enough to offer some compensation to the tech folks and to cover web host costs and such. I'm pretty happy with it.
Take care,
David
One suggestion. If you are using the back button of your browser, stop doing that. Instead when you open a thread, to go back to main listing use "Back to Discussions" link at the bottom or click the appropriate category link at the top right. Unlike some other sites, this forum software does not work well with back button.
If you use the links to return to main listing, the threads that you have read will no longer have the yellow "New" listed next to them.
But, I agree on one thing. It is hard to figure out what posts in an individual thread are new. Since the site software already knows if a thread has new posts to me, It would be great to have them indicated with an icon when I open the thread. I often scroll up and down in a thread to find what was the new posting (as the post could be in the middle in response to some particular post).
Alternatively, perhaps it could be made as a Vanilla plug-in. Less intrusive and require less maintenance.
JUST KIDDING!!!
I still think the forum listing for posts is too crowded and hence taking too much vertical space.
Take a look at the following:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/security
Basically, it is organized like this.
[Title] by [Starting post user] | [Post count/Number of times the thread was read] | [Last post user] [Last Post Date]
It is all in one line.
The audience of DSLReports is diverse. There are teens and there are retired people willing to learn or looking to solve their computer related problems. Given the number of posts daily and the number of forums available there, I would say the site is functioning well for all. I do not think the font is too small. In fact if the seniors on this site can read the date or poster information, they can definitely read slightly smaller font. Registered users can actually customize some of the visual elements. I think the font, colors etc. were customizable to some degree.
There is a huge amount of wasted space on Vanilla forum listing. We do not need the bookmarked threads on the right. They are already in "My bookmarks". I think we do not need to list forums on the right column either. It could be a combo list box (with drop down list) element on the tabbed line to switch lists.
As a programmer, I often would like to see spaces on both sides of equal sign and other operators. Otherwise, if one side has space and other does not, it looks unbalanced and ugly.
Here is my suggestion... (even keeping two line format) For the top post:
changed registration procedures by David Snowball
Last post by Old Joe, August 24, Off-Topic 1 new / 2 posts
if date original is required as well as the author it could be.
changed registration procedures by David Snowball, August 24
Last post by Old Joe, August 24, Off-Topic 1 new / 2 posts
If the topic did not fit the allocated space it could be trucated and when user hovered the cursor on the line full subject line could be displayed. In fact, on DSLReports this hover feature is used to show part of the first post so more capabilities are available.
I still prefer to use one line for column titles and that way do not repeat the fixed text for each and every post, this keeping each post to one line.
A would also change [Announcement] to an icon. Same for [Closed]. Such a waste of space!