What do you think about the new forums?

[Admin]

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[Anonymous]

Love It Very Much Trains.Com,Very Nice New Look It needs to laod faster takes up to almost a minute for it to load on the screen to see it tho,Looks better then the Old One.Hope you guys plan on Updating the Rchelle Railcam to soon with a Bigger Picture and a Lower (FPS)Frames Per Seconded,Keep Up The Good Work

[Dad Howe]

Vast improvement over old format. Thanks!

Dad Howe

[bfsfabs]

Definately shows considerable promise. Tell Ya more after I get well oriented.

[Anonymous]

strong potential. it will take a little getting used to.

[Anonymous]

A lot better. A whole discussion can be read at once (no need for a hundred click-and-downloads).

Nice job, guys.

[JoeKoh]

a lot better thank you
joe

[eolafan]

This is really going to take a few days to figure out, but I'm certain it will be ok in the long run.

[foamer4000]

This is awesome!

[csxns]

IT SUCKS.Thanking about droping my magazines.

[ironhorseman]

wow! this is different! i can bold text, italicize, and underline (cool).

i can put sentences on the right

in the middle

or keep them over here on the left

[:)] sweet

i can make words red, orange, or even blue

all this uses html code, which i am already used to, or i can just hi-light and click on these little boxes up here.

The only real drawback right now is navigation from topic to topic but it's something I'm sure I'll get used to. Railroad.net has a similar format, but very very complicated. It has topics and subtopics and sub-subtopics and even sub-sub-subtopics. They get very specific over there. I was so lost and confused I came back here.

The only REAL complaint I have is when I tried to submit a reply several minutes ago. It said: An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator at [e-mail]. Thank you.

I ended up posting my reply twice. Oh, well, no big deal. I'll just ignore it next time. Just remember to copy your message to a word processor temporarily just in case it gets erased.

Good luck with the new system.

ironhorseman

yad sdrawkcab s'ti

• Reply

[Anonymous]

Every time you change something I have to log in with a different name. It will not reconize my old names. If you check you will find I am logged in under 3 different names.

[Anonymous]

It's great but ADMIN if your reading this i would li,e to see

* PM on other websited you can actually Pm other online users.

A photo place ot put our best phtos

and an online RR chat!

But it really is great!!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator at [e-mail]. Thank you.

Thank you for pointing that out. I was trying to figure out why we had so many duplicate posts and now I know why. I was busy throughout the day tweaking stuff and didn't encounter that error until tonight. We'll get that taken care of in the morning. So please bear with us in the meantime.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by ARGUBRIGHT TIM
Every time you change something I have to log in with a different name. It will not reconize my old names. If you check you will find I am logged in under 3 different names.

Hi Tim,

I'll send an email explaining what happened and how it can be resolved. If you don't receive my message, then send a message to [e-mail] with ATTN: David Voss in the subject.

- - - - - - - -

For anyone else who has had trouble registering accounts, have had to create multiple accounts, etc., please contact me either through the email link in the forum or through [e-mail]

--Dave

[Anonymous]

hey thanks man for looking into the error!

[ironhorseman]

having trouble posting replies. keep getting message: "An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator at [e-mail]. Thank you."

[sooblue]

Generally I like this new format but there is one negative that I see.
There are posts that have been a reply to another post in the message string. On the old forum the reply posts said reply to Sooblue or reply to Mookie etc. this new forum has the replies one after the other and It doesn't make any sense. You have no idea what is a reply to whom.

Does this mean that there is no way to reply to one of the people who have replied to a certain topic?
I.e. I would like to reply to kevinstheRRman in this topic could it be done?
Sooblue

[Anonymous]

Well...at the moment there isn't anything that shows who replied to whom.

This type of forum is usually referred to as a "flat view" forum. Visually the relationships between posts isn't displayed as you were used to in the old forums. I have seen instances where posts are numbered (#1, #2, #3, etc.) and a line is inserted at the top which says something like "In Reply To #1".

If you are replying to something in particular, there is always the "quote" option. This will identify what part of the message you are replying to.

QUOTE: Originally posted by sooblue
I.e. I would like to reply to kevinstheRRman in this topic could it be done?

Is it perfect? No. Is it simple? Not at first. Does it work? Yes.

Give it some time. Try it out for a couple of days and let us know what you think.

[edblysard]

Hard to navigate at first, but think folks will get the hang of it quick.
Now, how do you post the photo in your profile?
Ed

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by edblysard
Now, how do you post the photo in your profile?

The photo isn't uploaded directly to the server. To include a photo in your profile, you will need to type in the url (location) for the photo in the field labeled "Picture URL".

[dknelson]

So far so good -- am still getting used to it all. Seems to me most of the complaints have been at least addressed if not resolved.

I am a little surprised that we have no railroad themed icons and smilies to add.
Dave Nelson

[cabforward]

questions:

the reply form has 'html off'.. what does that mean?
when would i need html? how is it turned on?

topic / reply subjects are limited to 100 char in length.. what is that?

what do the stars mean for average, senior, etc. member?

why must i login a second time to edit or delete messages?

[Anonymous]

i'm still having trouble sending replys. it keeps telling me that there is some sort of URL problem and to contact the webmaster. also it will delete items in my profile on its own and won't update my number of postings. i hope you can work out the bugs soon

marty , drailed1999

[Anonymous]

sorry about that . you must have been fixing it while i was typing

[Anonymous]

Excellent questions.

QUOTE: Originally posted by cabforwardthe reply form has 'html off'.. what does that mean?
when would i need html? how is it turned on?

When the forum is setup on a site, the administrator has the option to allow HTML or to not allow HTML. Allowing HTML on forums is highly discouraged because of various ways people can exploit it and put others at risk. I'll save everyone from the technical details and not go into them.

Which brings up a good point. If we'll never turn it on, why even display that message?

There are tags which are referred to as "forum code" which are really psuedo HTML tags. You can find out more about them here:

FAQ: How to format text with Bold, Italic, Quote, etc...
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/faq.asp#format

QUOTE: Originally posted by cabforwardtopic / reply subjects are limited to 100 char in length.. what is that?

That is referring to the field labeled "Subject". If you look above the date a message was posted, you'll see the subject line in bold. You can change the subject line or leave it as is.

For example, the subject of this message is:
RE: RE: What do you think about the new forums?

QUOTE: Originally posted by cabforwardwhat do the stars mean for average, senior, etc. member?

The stars and member ranks (which is what you are referring to) are tied to the number of posts a member has made. There are different tiers or levels.

Here's the current setup:

Level 0
Rank Name: Starting Member
Post Count: 0-49

Level 1
Rank Name: New Member
Post Count: 50-99

Level 2
Rank Name: Junior Member
Post Count: 100-499

Level 3
Rank Name: Average Member
Post Count: 500-999

Level 4
Rank Name: Senior Member
Post Count: 1000-1999

Level 5
Rank Name: Advanced Member
Post Count: 2000+

Administrators
Rank Name: Administrator

Moderators
Rank Name: Moderator

The Rank Names are the defaults from the initial setup. In regards to what the Rank Names will be changed to, that hasn't been decided yet (getting the site live was a bit more important).

QUOTE: Originally posted by cabforwardwhy must i login a second time to edit or delete messages?

The intention of this was as a precautionary measure. I believe the idea behind this is to validate who you are before you edit or delete a post. It also acts as confirmation that you want delete the message.

One example why this would be useful is if you're using a computer that many people have access to. If you leave that computer and somebody comes back to the site, it prevents them from editing or deleting your posts. However, they would still be able to post messages while using your account which could be just as damaging (if that person meant harm). So then what's the point?

I'll think about if that's really necessary and what it would take to modify that feature. The above example is valid, however people using public computers (at libraries, colleges, etc.) should always log out whenever they are done with a website -- it's just a good habit to get into.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: An error occurred on the server when processing the URL. Please contact the system administrator at [e-mail]. Thank you.

The error that was appearing when posting a message has been fixed.

If anyone encounters a message like that again, please send me a message through the forums, provide a brief description of what you trying to do and I'll look into as soon as I can.

Thank you for your patience!
Dave

[Mookie]

Mookie wants to vote, but you have not provided a "grumble" or "hate change", so she will just have to say - I will do it, but I hate change, grumble!

[JoeKoh]

Jen
these aren't like taxes and other gov't rules.these changes are for the better.
stay safe
joe and matt

[adrianspeeder]

I seem to like the new format. I have slow internet, so it would take forever to get through a topic. I can now load in one shot, do something else, and come back to read the whole thing, or even disconnect to use the phone. Now if i could only afford cable internet...

Adrian