What a nice thing for you to do, Accipiter! THANK YOU! Cathy

Thanks Accipiter. I'll try that for a future similar posting. In the meantime, will just hope what I sent was easy enough to read.

Howdy, Accipiter-

Well, much of what you say is accurate, and speaking from the perspective of a technician, I certainly can see that side of things. I recently was discussing this subject by email with some other board members, and to save time and energy I am going to cut and paste some of that conversation:
"I'd suggest the addition of a "how to" page, up at the top with the main headings, with suggestions and advice on "how to" get the most out of the site. Sort of a technical primer, but written in very plain English. Those of us who are are either unafraid or stupid enough to experiment (and possibly break a few things along the way) have figured out a lot of stuff by trial and error, but I'll bet that there are a whole lot of folks who are completely intimidated by all of the various bells and whistles."
(Parenthetically, I am reminded of a familiar saying in electronics: "When all else fails, read the manual".)
"As a radio technician for SF 911, I was often acting as an intermediary between the technical setup and the non-technical users, our "customers". Trust me, it is only too easy for technical folks to forget that many normal people have neither the intuitive feel for, nor any real desire to acquire, understanding of the underpinnings of either software or hardware. Whenever I was in the situation of designing something that had a user interface, I spent a LOT of time sitting down with the end users and seeing if and how they liked what we were proposing. Almost always I found that our initial interface approach could be significantly improved by simply listening to what they had to say. (I will have to concede that frequently the design effort necessary to make the whole thing appear "simple" or intuitive meant an enormous additional amount of stuff going on underneath where nobody could see it.)"
"I am particularly uneasy about the perceived loss of some of the more provocative or interesting FA posters, and I have a hunch that perhaps some of them are simply intimidated, and don't think the effort to learn all these new tricks is worth it. I'm in my 70's, and you would be amazed at how many people I know in our age bracket who are still totally intimidated by computers, and in fact basically use them only for email and maybe Google. My wife and most of our friends come to mind, for instance. We should do our best to try and coerce these folks into (or maybe back into) the community."
"Specifically, a number of the regular FA posters who are usually reasonably pliable and adaptable seem to be very negative with respect to the general overall format since the inclusion of the "response" feature. (BTW, I have no problems with it, and have been attempting to argue the case for the present setup as best I can.) The thread: "5 new messages, same topic. Am I the only one finding it difficult to pick apart a message thread???" is just the latest along these general lines."
"I am a webpage ignoramus, and I do realize that a request that sounds simple may in fact be anything but. Gets back to the subject of user interface, yet again. Sometimes the time and effort needed to make an interface more acceptable seems totally disproportionate to the end result, but we are dealing with human beings here, not computers, and that's unfortunately the way it is."
By the way, the very little that I do know about html I learned from www.w3schools.com, and for those with the time and curiosity for a little self-help that is an outstanding resource. I also agree that we are in some cases asking for conflicting options, but again, differing perspectives are unfortunately a basic design flaw of human beings.
Personally, I think that it's a shame that you deleted your suggestions and hints. I think that a page like that would be quite useful. You look at this stuff and it's second nature to you- and perhaps don't stop to think that the reason that others don't immediately respond and help is simply because they are overwhelmed and intimidated. Look at the basic raison d'être for FA, and this site too: People come here for mutual support and information on financial matters, and the premise is wildly successful.
If you see these very same people failing to achieve that success in the area of technical expertise, it obviously isn't because they aren't built to help... it's because they are out of their field of knowledge.
Regards-OJ

Howdy Accipiter,
I have set all preferences, except the 2 "wall" notifies. I will find what comes about from this.
Thank you for your time and efforts.
Regards,
Catch

accipiter:
A bit of a "rantback":
I believe your rather civil, well-intentioned "rant" in defense of the overburdened, underbudgeted MFO team is unnecessary.
1. We all know this is being put together on a shoestring, and largely with David's free time. We cannot pay him back his time, except with love and respect ;-) We can, however, make the shoestring a bit bigger (because he does have $ costs as well). I am assuming that anyone sufficiently invested in the board to take the time to comment extensively on functionality is also sufficiently invested to throw, say, a $50 start-up contribution David's way using the Donate button at the bottom of the Support Us page. If you have not already made such a contribution, stop reading and correct this oversight right now.
(Suggestion to the team, make that Donate button visible "above the fold" by making it a peer of the Amazon link, instead of something you have to scroll down to see.)
2. Accipiter: I, too, have been in software development. In fact I still am. Trade-offs between user-requested customizations and long-term supportability are, as it were, my meat and drink. But a basic principle I have learned over the decades is that people read "help" text only under duress -- they go there when all else fails. If the functionality is perceived to be simple and familiar, and people can't figure things out, they don't read "help" -- they leave. So "blame the user" is not an effective response to issues.
The reality is, any time you invite comments about a software project, you get both conflicting and redundant requests, unrealistic expectations about things that seem like they should be so simple, ill-thought out requests to start all over, and so on. That is all just part of the game; I am sure David's technical team expected all this; I hope David did, too. If not, now he knows.
When I am a user on this board, I don't want to be obligated to read a "how to" list for features, or browse a forum to find out that a bug has already been reported. I am here for the content, plain and simple. I want the functionality to be as close to self-evident as possible. I want any learning about the board software that I have to do to be organic and situated in context. It is particularly important that this degree of ease-of-use be achieved with an online community that needs to continually be renewing itself with new members who start out as casual visitors.
Unlike some others, I don't think replicating the functionality of the FundAlarm board software is a particularly worthy goal. I never liked it much; I had to overcome my initial confusion with the format over a period of months of casual visits before I felt comfortable posting. So I think transparency and ease-of-use for new visitors should take priority.
But speaking only for my present day self, my prior experience with the contributors to the FundAlarm board means that I personally have an extremely high tolerance for everything short of a complete failure of the site to function. So any issue reports from me are not mainly for my own particular benefit. As long as David is writing and contributing, and rono, Investor, BobC, catch22 and (... countless others equally worthy of being named...) are posting, I'll be here.
3. Is 21/300 contributors to the book suggestion list a good proportion? A fairly robust generalization about social computing, and social networks in general, is that the frequency distribution of contributions per contributor is long-tailed. We have terminology to account for this -- "lurkers" in online discussion groups, "long-time-listener-first-time-caller" on talk radio, and so on. So 21 of 300 is not a bad ratio.
I will also note that in contrast with my lack of preparation before making my comments about apparent bugs or features, I took the time to read all previous contributions about book suggestions to make sure I was not making a redundant offering. I also read David's request twice, to make sure I understood what the two categories of books he was looking for were. I suspect others did the same, and that this is why a) there were no repetitions, and b) there were not more contributors. I saw some books identified I have heard recommended by other long-time FundAlarmers who did not post a response -- I suspect they said to themselves "ahh -- they've got it covered".
Now, for me, back to the main event -- investing issues.
gfb

Hey rono-
Accipiter is correct. I've already sent you via email a pre-cropped jpg, with a light background and enhanced contrast. It's grayscale (B&W) to increase the detail. Maybe give that a try.
OJ

Thanks again Accipiter. First downloaded Picasa 3 photo edit from Google as was working without a photo program. Cropped it a bit and presto!

Also showing option of incorporating Original Poster in message if not implemented in software at a later date
results of poll a few weeks ago, in case anybody missed it or is interested in it.
Has the number of people buying a certain fund (or a particular poster that you respect) in these discussion groups influenced your purchase of a specific fund, especially in the case of new fund startups?
Name Your 3 Favorite Funds

Ticker| Fund Name           |  Count
------------------------------------------
PRPFX | PERMANENT PT        |   9
FPACX | FPA FDS TRUST FPA   |   7
MACSX | MATTHEWS ASIAN GR   |   7
OAKBX | OAKMARK EQUITY AN   |   7
IVWIX | IVA WORLDWIDE FUN   |   4
PRWCX | T. ROWE PRICE CAP   |   4
ARTKX | ARTISAN INTERNATI   |   2
DODIX | DODGE  COX INCOME   |   2
FAIRX | FAIRHOLME FUND      |   2
MAPIX | MATTHEWS ASIA DIV   |   2
AGDYX | ALLIANCEBERNSTEIN   |   1
AQMNX | AQR MANAGED FUTUR   |   1
ARIVX | ASTON/RIVER ROAD    |   1
AVEDX | AVE MARIA RISING    |   1
BERIX | BERWYN INCOME FUN   |   1
CLVFX | CROFT-LEOMINSTER    |   1
DEFIX | THE DELAFIELD FUN   |   1
DODFX | DODGE  COX INTERN   |   1
DRSLX | DRIEHAUS SELECT C   |   1
EIGMX | EATON VANCE GLOBA   |   1
FPNIX | FPA NEW INCOME      |   1
GRTVX | GRT VALUE FUND AD   |   1
HLMSX | HARDING LOEVNER I   |   1
HSTRX | HUSSMAN STRATEGIC   |   1
INCMX | FUNDX FLEXIBLE IN   |   1
JAOSX | JANUS OVERSEAS FU   |   1
MAPTX | MATTHEWS PACIFIC    |   1
MDISX | MUTUAL GLOBAL DIS   |   1
MERDX | MERIDIAN GROWTH F   |   1
MFCFX | MARSICO FLEXIBLE    |   1
MIDSX | MIDAS FUND INC      |   1
MSMLX | MATTHEWS ASIA SMA   |   1
MWHYX | METROPOLITAN WEST   |   1
MWTRX | METROPOLITAN WEST   |   1
MXXIX | MARSICO 21ST CENT   |   1
MYIFX | MONETTA YOUNG INV   |   1
NVOAX | NUVEEN TRADEWINDS   |   1
NWGRX | NUVEEN TRADEWINDS   |   1
OARIX | OAKMARK INTERNATI   |   1
PCVAX | ALLIANZ NFJ  SMAL   |   1
PONDX | PIMCO INCOME FUND   |   1
PRCGX | PERRITT MICRO CAP   |   1
PREMX | T. ROWE PRICE EME   |   1
PRLAX | T. ROWE PRICE LAT   |   1
PRSVX | T. ROWE PRICE SMA   |   1
PSPFX | US GLOBAL INVESTO   |   1
PTSCX | FORWARD INTERNATI   |   1
RIVFX | ROYCE GLOBAL VALU   |   1
RNCOX | RIVERNORTH CORE O   |   1
SGENX | FIRST EAGLE GLOBA   |   1
TGBAX | TEMPLETON GLOBAL    |   1
TGLDX | TOCQUEVILLE GOLD    |   1
THOPX | THOMPSON PLUMB BO   |   1
TPINX | TEMPLETON GLOBAL    |   1
TRRIX | T ROWE PRICE RETI   |   1
VGENX | VANGUARD SPECIALI   |   1
VGTSX | VANGUARD TOTAL IN   |   1
VPCCX | VANGUARD PRIMECAP   |   1
VTSMX | VANGUARD INDEX TR   |   1
VWELX | VANGUARD WELLINGT   |   1
YACKX | YACKTMAN FUND, IN   |   1

Unless I'm missing something, it appears that there is currently no way to search for posts by an individual member. IMO, that's a major omission.
For example, searching for "BobC" returns a total of two hits, both from the "Buying Highbridge Dynamic ..." thread and both by Shostakovich (and, OBTW, it also fails to flag the post by Scott in the same thread which also names BobC (last word in the sentence), probably because it's treating the period as a wildcard and throwing it out). More importantly, IMO, it fails to flag any of the posts made by BobC.
Another example: "David_Snowball" returns a single hit: the dozen or so posts by David, including the thread he initiated on Andrew Foster, don't show up.
In the "wish list" thread, _bk mentioned one could click on a member's name then click on the "discussion" tab to view his or her posts. Unfortunately, it appears that that only works for discussions (threads) started by the poster: there IS no "discussion" tab on BobC's page (despite several invaluable contributions, e.g., his post in the "When do your fire your fund manager" thread), and David Snowball's responses in threads initiated by others (e.g., Walthausen, How do I support MFO, Unable to sign in with Firefox, etc.) do not appear in his discussion tab.
In the "Hints on Navigatin" thread, Accipiter mentioned finding discussions a member is involved in by clicking on "activity" then a member's name, however, that
Am I missing something? If not, I would renew my earlier request for the facility to search for posts by an individual member.

Accipiter, what you have proposed... is actually what is in the works.
Much like you see on sites for spam (auto-linking words to "searches") we will be using it for good... automatically linking symbols to lookups. I just haven't built the feature yet, but it is coming soon.

Yep. On the old board I enjoyed seeing each article by John Ted and others listed separate. Like Accipiter, I tended more to the discussions, but the links were helpful.
Here, however, everything seems to take up a lot more space and when things get going afraid we'll be scrolling through several pages a day. So your idea to John makes some sense. Now, if I compress the font size I can get more on a page, but than it becomes hard to read.

hi accipiter
I'll try that from now on [perhaps only a few links posting each subgroups each day, one link on MF news, other on bonds news...etc...]