We're baaaaackkkk......!

[Geared Steam]

[da_kraut]

 Hello,

thank you Stein for your great information.  Still all I can look at is 10 of my previous posts.  That is not as good as the old site on which one could see the very first post one had.  This function I find quite useful for keeping track of responses from other forum members and also when doing some research.  So here is hoping that this will be changed to what it was on the old site.

Frank

[D&RGWRR476]

 Ooowwww, my brain. A new MMR forum look and a new Comcast/Firefox email look all in one day.

 

[Milwhiawatha]

I judged this site last night. And I still stick with what I said about busy. It does look nice other than all the ads. I will have to investigate more on the site when I'm ready.

[steinjr]

Texas Zepher

Well now I am getting this error on several of the threads:--->    

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

I see no way to report it to the system operators.  When I choose "contact us",  I either get the magazines contacts or another error --> "The system cannot find the path specified."

 I don't work for Kalmbach and have no inside information on how they do things, but I do work with troubleshooting computer problems.

  I think that as a general principle you can safely assume that sql timeout errors will not need to be reported as bug reports - that is likely to be some temporary problem - maybe a database is responding slowly during database backup or database reindexing or some such thing.

 If you experience other errors at the same time, it is highly likely to be related to the same temporary problem.

 In my experience, those kinds of situations are likely around 7-8 am in my timezone, which would correspond to about midnight-1am or thereabouts in Wisconsin - a typical time for database maintenance jobs.

 Of course - if the problem accessing those same threads persists over more than 24 hours during the work week, it probably should be reported. Then it might very well be a data error or a functional error.

Smile,
Stein

 

[steinjr]

da_kraut

 Hello,

thank you Stein for your great information.  Still all I can look at is 10 of my previous posts.  That is not as good as the old site on which one could see the very first post one had.  This function I find quite useful for keeping track of responses from other forum members and also when doing some research.  So here is hoping that this will be changed to what it was on the old site.

 Click on your screenname (in the right hand margin, under the "My profile" heading). Then click on your underlined post count. That gets you all of your previous posts (or at least all that have been indexed thus far - for me currently about 34 out of some 900+ posts - guess it takes quite a while to index everything from the old forum).

 Smile,
 Stein

 

[selector]

Stein, thank you very much for helping out...I appreciate it, and so does Bergie and the other mods.

All those who have "issues", if you post them here, Bergie and his staff will read this thread and act on what they understand are common problems, and will probaly have answers for your unique one, which are no doubt very frustrating.  Please be patient while they diagnose the problems and correct them...I'm still getting the text running to the right border, while what I have typed wants to run off to the left out of site. 

-Crandell

[tomikawaTT]

Hello, everybody,

I've waited until I had a chance to play around with the new forum before posting.  So far, I think I've got it about as well figured out as I did before the change.

As for my previous posts, I see a few more of them every time I go to look.  At the rate that they're showing up, all of my archived 'wisdom' should be available some time in 2010...

So be it!

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

[cordon]

Two complaints I have so far:

    It goes back to the top of the thread list when I exit a thread, instead of to where I was in the list before selecting the thread.

    It apparently will not preview a post.

In general, I don't see any improvement. 

Here is a test photo.

OK, that works, at least until AOL tears down its web hosting service.

And the insert photo function works, too.

 

[scottychaos]

After playing around with the new forum for a bit, I think it works fine..but there is one feature that makes it "worse" than the old forum..

Yes, "active topics" and "my discussions" show up..but there is no way to tell when new posts have been made in any of them! I always used this forum (old version) with the "active topics" feature..which show all topics with activity since the last time I logged on..that way I knew there was new discussion I could check out if I wanted to..

 now, with the new forum, there is no way to tell if threads have new posts without opening up each one individually..much less convienient..

Is there any way to bring the "new posts since you last visited" feature back?

thanks,

Scot

 

[jackn2mpu]

vsmith

I dont like the new layout at all, but then I dont own it.

Too much wasted space, between the big clump on the right and the name block on the left there sure aint much room left to type in.

Its VERY hard on the eyes.

I think there will a bit of tweeking in the weeks to come

 

I hope so. 2 steps to do if you want to quote a post, whereas the old version had a Quote button on the original page. I seem to remember ads on the old version - weren't they interspersed horizontally between posts?

As to being hard on the eyes - yep! It's like watching High-def TV on a small screen. Can be done, but gives one a headache. As I said in another post, the loading speed for me isn't too much of a problem since I just upgraded from 3 MBPS dsl to 10 to 20 MBPS Verizon FIOS. Killer web access, HD TV (which I had to go to since my old analog non-hd set quit on me last week), and clear phone, and all on 1 bill. Now I just hope my laptop's screen doesn't totally go south - getting color bars down the left side, and Mac monitors aren't cheap.

[jackn2mpu]

Texas Zepher

Well now I am getting this error on several of the threads:--->    

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Timeout expired.  The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding.

I see no way to report it to the system operators.  When I choose "contact us",  I either get the magazines contacts or another error --> "The system cannot find the path specified."

 

Another issue.
It seems that the "read" counter is not working on all the threads.  Some like this one show high counts.  Many others seem stuck at zero.  ???

 

 

Noticed that too. Mega replies, but no views?

[shawnee]

I wonder why they changed it?

It seems odd that they buried some stuff that was useful.  It's still there, but you have to fish.  In the olld site, the forums button was to the top of the page, clear and distinct and one push you went there and had all the forums - including the trains.com one there.  Now, towards bottom and side of pages.  Just odd and a nuisance.

The ads on the side are just baffling.  I can't imagine that anyone will pay attention to that white noise.  I'm guessing that since they appear on the message writing page as well they get extra impresssions, but what a mess on the side.  Guess that's why they buried our profile infor among those ads.  But if they like their advertisers, why did they get rid of the premium banner spot at the top?  I generally think it's a more modern but busier and not better design.

I don't really see anything that is markedly better, though maybe they just had to switch because of a operating platform issue.  Or a new web master who needed to leave his mark, sometimes these tech changes happen for entirely internal reasons.

[yankee flyer]

Scott
I have the same concerns. the (active topics and my discussion) showed if I had any response were ones I used every time I logged on. Also in my discussions you could go directly to the page you wanted.    Why are some of the pages larger than others? The text runs off the right of the screen.
Aside from being lost all the time, those are my biggest complaints.

 we're baaaackkk........  Happy railroading

Lee

scottychaos

After playing around with the new forum for a bit, I think it works fine..but there is one feature that makes it "worse" than the old forum..

Yes, "active topics" and "my discussions" show up..but there is no way to tell when new posts have been made in any of them! I always used this forum (old version) with the "active topics" feature..which show all topics with activity since the last time I logged on..that way I knew there was new discussion I could check out if I wanted to..

 now, with the new forum, there is no way to tell if threads have new posts without opening up each one individually..much less convienient..

Is there any way to bring the "new posts since you last visited" feature back?

thanks,

Scot

 

[trainfan1221]

SteamFreak

I like the new look, and I find it easier on the eyes. The beige expanse is gone, and the built-in Firefox spellchecker works with this software.

I'm not crazy about the thread/ad space ratio though, and I notice there's no additional sub-categories, like a tutorial section. Oh well.

In reference to your link to the pics of 385, I just wanted to add that these two engines are safely at the Whippany Museum, saw them both and it was good to see 385 back home so to speak.  The other engine is interesting too.

[Texas Zepher]

jeffrey-wimberly

twhite

just noticed--I've got 6 out of 8 little green Thingies filled in below my Avatar.  Does this mean anything?

That means you're a top 50 contributor.

Well, that is debatable.  It means one has made a lot of posts.  Whether those can be considered "contributor" worthy or not the forum software is unable to judge.

[reklein]

I'm likin' this new format.Slicker'n grease on the track.