I really, really miss the old forum....

[Bergie]

Sorry guys, but this has degraded far enough so I'm locking it.

If you have specific problems, please, please, please e-mail me directly. If you post a question directed at me in the forum there's a chance it will be missed.

Bergie

[marknewton]

Railphotog wrote:

< "Everyone in the world is out of step but me!">

Have you not been paying attention? There are known compatibility problems with the forum software and certain browsers/platforms. Who do you reckon is out of step?

[IRONROOSTER]

...
I think the fact that to post you have to act like you are personally replying to the last poster is a bit strange though.

I agree that is strange. 

Enjoy
Paul

[marknewton]

runton wrote:

<"Boycott a company because they offer a free product which works on most mainstream computers but won't work on yours without you having to load a specific software program to use said free product to its fullest? Great! It isn't Kalmbach's problem that YOUR system / browser of choice doesn't function properly with their FREE product.">

You know, I hadn't expected such a facile response to my comments. I wasn't going to reply, but your supercilious tone got the better of me.

You make a big issue of things like the forum and browsers being free, as if that were relevant. It's not. As a consumer in a free market economy I'm free to take my business elsewhere if I don't like the product or service. And I'm free to express my reasons for doing so.

I'm free to point out that it *IS* Kalmbach's problem if potential customers for their products and their advertisers products are turned away by a software problem that didn't previously exist. As another poster quite wisely noted, this forum, and indeed the whole Trains.com website, is a shop window for Kalmbach, and their advertisers. What sort of shop obscures the window to prevent certain customers from seeing inside?

<"And you're going to stomp away in a snit because YOU would have use a different browser that WILL work properly.">

I'm in a 'snit' as you put it because I'd rather be free to use a browser of my choosing, not one forced upon me by the forum developers. And FWIW, my current browser *DOES* work properly, on every other website I visit, bar this one. It was this forum that was changed, remember?

<"Someone is trying to help solve YOUR problem for YOU, and the best you can do is a snide, churlish reply. Well aren't you just the salt of the earth?">

Are they? I haven't seen anything to suggest that. All I've seen is the rather arrogant instruction to change browsers and/or platform.

(And mate, I wouldn't be accusing me of being "snide and churlish", if this is how you reply to a post that wasn't addressed to you in the first place. :-)

All the best,

Mark.

[trainfan1221]

Aah..another "This forum stinks" topic.  I am not a huge fan of the new design either.  But I have gotten used to it, largely because I have no choice.  After awhile you just deal with the changes.  I think the fact that to post you have to act like you are personally replying to the last poster is a bit strange though.

[marknewton]

tstage wrote:

<" Mark N,

Your using a FREE forum...and all you need to do is download a FREE 4MB browser to rectify the issues...I guess I just don't understand your beef.">

And I guess I don't understand your lack of comprehension.

Whether the forum and the browser are free or not is utterly irrelevant. I've mentioned earlier in the thread why I won't/can't change browsers - but to recap, I use a drawing application that WON'T run under OS10, and the suggested browser WON'T run under OS9.1. Since the drawing program is integral to both my job and my modelling, I'm not going to give it up just to have a different browser to view ONE forum.

But since you make such an issue of being free - on principle alone, I object to being effectively denied the freedom to use a product of my choosing by an third party, in this case the forum software developers. I would have thought that as an American, you'd understand that?

All the best,

Mark.

[ukguy]

Well I guess maybe I will say something after biting my tongue for a while...... the 'new' forum works OK for me, no glitches, everything still 'works' the same. ie posting pics from rail images, quoting, read threads changing colour ..... in my view things that have changed are the built in features..... it seems that even though we have got a new colour scheme to spruce up the place we have actually lost more than we have gained with this new 'improved' version of the forum ..... I'm still waiting to find some great new developement hidden under a secret subscriber link somewhere...... ie :

Seeing whos on the forum when I am    
Seeing who is in the same thread as I am
Seeing the entire thread when I write a reply .... this is my biggest gripe
A plethera of posters either arent here anymore or are too busy bitching about problems on the new forum to make it an enjoyable visit.
Maybe its just me but the atmosphere (to me) definately seems to have changed

I was gonna quote PC   "I'm going to the train room" but I couldnt scroll to his post and copy it,,, oh well.

As for gramatical correctness.... lets leave that for another bitching thread all of its own, thats just plain downright off topic for this thread

As always, have fun & be safe
Karl

[Railphotog]

"Everyone in the world is out of step but me!"

[Anonymous]

Theis forum is a piece of ****!!   I just typed a whole response and hit the ENTER key to go to another paragraph and it went to a member profile page.  I was talking about how the page jumps and is getting on my nerves.  I notice below after I type a word where DONE is on the bottom left it reads Searching for links that begin with 'S' or the last letter at the end of my words.  And all the while the page continues jumping and driving me crazy.    I am so aggravated that I am going to perhaps stay on the Atlas forum where thse problems do not exist like  The page jumping, The pain in the butt way to post pictures like on the old forum and lastly difficulty of seeing what a members last post were like it used to be in the members profile.  Any ideas on the page jumping

[skiloff]

Goldmine, I experience that on occasion, too.  I believe it happens when your connection isn't all that quick and the page is still loading the images for the editing bars.  It will bounce around until everything is loaded the way it should be.  At least, that is my assumption.

[Bill H.]

In this new fangled forum ease, the use of asterisks is used to denote a tone or emotion. You see, I was trying to express that what I was saying was to be taken as sarcasm. I was not quoting the word sarcasm... if I were I would have used the quotation marks. Example: This is five minutes of my life that I will never get back. *sarcasm*
Good luck. Dave

I see, now I'm having explanations which in reality are thinly disguised lessons in grammar, as believed to be status quo by the poster. Interesting... Let's look at this, shall we?

First, the tone of your post:

con·de·scen·sion (knd-snshn) 
n.

1. The act of condescending or an instance of it.
2. Patronizingly superior behavior or attitude.

Now, in the matter of your use of the asterisk:

Not much reinforces your contention.

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing -

asterisk

<character> "*" ASCII code 42. Common names include: star;
INTERCAL: splat; ITU-T: asterisk. Rare: wild card;
gear; dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle; glob;
Nathan Hale. Commonly used as the multiplication operator
and as the Kleene star.

Lastly,

If one wants to impart sarcasm, in an intelligent manner, one should first be somewhat fluent in the language being used. The use of random punctuation characters, at the writer's whim, does exactly the opposite.

[dave9999]

 
BTW: Taking my hand off the mouse is cetainly "no problem", not as much as reading posts where the differences between asterisks and quotation marks seems unknown, but then, I was never one to claim to know everything, either...

Bill,
Good thing that you don't claim to know everything, neither do I. But, in this new fangled forum ease, the use of asterisks is used to denote a tone or emotion. You see, I was trying to express that what I was saying was to be taken as sarcasm. I was not quoting the word sarcasm... if I were I would have used the quotation marks. Example: This is five minutes of my life that I will never get back. *sarcasm*
Good luck. Dave

[Bill H.]

Control V ? Hmmmm... Welcome to DOS 1985. (At least it seems to work) Thanks for the clue.

BTW: Taking my hand off the mouse is cetainly "no problem", not as much as reading posts where the differences between asterisks and quotation marks seems unknown, but then, I was never one to claim to know everything, either...

[pcarrell]

That's a new one Goldmine.  What operating system are you using?

[pcarrell]

Dave9999,

 

That's another way to do it.  I'm from the dawn of DOS days, so key commands are natural for me.

[Anonymous]

Ok does anyone else experience this issue I have.?

When I get the reply window and start typing the damn screen goes up and down so it keeps moving and I always think I hit a wrong key.  It does it constantly and every single time.  In fact it is doing it right now as I type.  It is the weirdest thing and this has happened since the new forum.    When and if I make a mistake I have to hit the backspace button to delete it, it may take me hitting it 5 times for three letters because of the way it jumps up and down.  It is aprobably hard for you to understand iunless you are having the same issue?

[dave9999]

If you want to paste something and you right click and aren't given that option, you can still do it using the key commands built into windows.  Just hold down the control button on your keyboard and while doing that hit the "V" key and it will paste whatever you've got copied.  To copy like that just hold down the control key and hit "C" and whatever you've got highlighted will be copied.  That's a basic windows function that goes back many generations of the program.  I don't know if IE7 kept that, but it works going back to at least windows 95, and maybe further.

Correct Phillip. I use Netscape and I don't have the paste command in my right click menu either. And
if these folks don't want to go to the trouble of taking their hand off of the mouse(which I know is a
huge problem. *sarcasm*), you can simply click the "edit" menu at the top of the window and then click "paste". These are very minor issues that are being blown WAY up. Good luck, Dave

[GUB]

Me too,  I'm glad to see all the polls and trolls are gone. but it just ain't the same.

A lot fewer posts and new topics. Also before you could see the threads that are new and new replys

since your last visit that were a different color.  I dont know if I'm just stupid or what but I can't

figure out alot of the new features.

I also miss my daily Spacemouse fix.

Just hit the refresh button and the post you just read will turn to grey. I did not use the previous version for very long and really don't remember how good or bad it was compared to this version. But this current version is not bad. As with everything else there is a bit of a learning curve. Perhaps as time goes on additional features will be added to help us along. But, it really is not all that bad.

GUB

[pcarrell]

If you want to paste something and you right click and aren't given that option, you can still do it using the key commands built into windows.  Just hold down the control button on your keyboard and while doing that hit the "V" key and it will paste whatever you've got copied.  To copy like that just hold down the control key and hit "C" and whatever you've got highlighted will be copied.  That's a basic windows function that goes back many generations of the program.  I don't know if IE7 kept that, but it works going back to at least windows 95, and maybe further.

[Bill H.]

Well, Simon 1966 has said it well. 

Bergie was kind enough to send an e-mail explaining how to post pics. I've tried it, and it doesn't work. Apparently the problem is recognition. Hmmmmm. This is a problem to repair?

As stated, my right click button shows no option for pasting anything within this box. I can paste it into the "create link" pop-up box, but no further. Adding tags, whether here or there matters not.

There are others, within this very thread, who are also having problems. There appears to be a certain commonality? Who knows...

[dave9999]

Tom,
You haven't driven since you were 37 years old... wow!

Anyway, other than slow response times (which I experienced on the old forum), I don't see the problems with the new forum that a lot of you are dealing with.


I posted this pic with a simple paste command... sorry, I just don't see the problem. Good luck, Dave

[twhite]

Okay, guys, let me try and explain my situation in the calmest terms possible.  I was born in 1939, so unlike a lot of later generations, I wasn't born with inbred Computer Genes, LOL!  I am a casual computer user.  I do not use any kind of Internet Explorer that I know about--I use AOL to get on line and then Google up this site, like I Google up all of the sites that I am on.  Before the change in the Forum, I was able to post pictures with no problem (well, I needed a little help, but I got it, and it worked). 

Now, I like posting pictures.  I understand from quite a few of you that you like seeing my pictures, because you think my model railroad is kind of neat.  I like sharing my model railroad with you guys and I like having you guys share your model railroads with me, because in turn, I think YOUR model railroads are neat.  It's a kind of nice co-operation we have, realizing that we share the same hobby and--yes--occasional frustrations with the hobby, and letting each other know that when we've done something well, we're ALL proud of it. 

I have tried every hint that everyone has given me about posting pictures (even Bergie) and they STILL won't show up on the site.  Which makes me wonder about the new MR software (or hardware, or whatever it's called) being 'user-friendly'.  I'm on another site for model railroaders, and I have no problem at all.  Now I don't know diddly about Firewalls or Notepads (isn't that something you use to take notes on?), or IE 6, 7 or 1066, and I really don't think that my 66--soon to be 67--year old brain is ready to go back to Computer Kindergarten and start all over again---even up to replacing a computer just to be on a site that I like. 

Bergie's message to me was that I wasn't being specific about what I don't like about the new forum, and that change was necessary, and that we all have to even learn where the turn signal switch is on the newer model cars. 

Hey, Bergie--I DON'T DRIVE!!  I haven't driven for thirty years, ever since I found out about Public Transportation.  I wouldn't even know where the turn-signals were on a 1978 Mustang, for cryin' out loud.  And I AM being specific--I CAN'T POST ANYTHING BUT RANTS LIKE THIS ON THE NEW FORUM.  Okay? 

Sorry, I meant to start out calm about this.     

But from this old fart, it seems like the current Technology runs by the motto: "It ain't broke, but let's fix it, anyway!" 

Stupid motto.

Tom  

 

[pcarrell]

Man, isn't this thread getting ugly?  Everybody is all worked up, tempers are flairing, everything! 

Guys, anger isn't going to solve anything.

Identifying the problem and then working through it objectively will go a long ways towards fixing some of the "issues" that we are seeing.

I'm sure Kalambach want's to appeal to the largest audience possible and so they won't want to leave anybody out.  It wouldn't be in their best interests to do that.  But the problems they need to address first are those affecting the greatest number of people, so if you're using something that is not exactly mainstream, I would expect that it might take them a bit longer to get to those issues, but they will get there.

Tell ya what, since most of the main problems have been identified (a lot of that happened because of this thread by the sounds of it), what say we all go work on our trains and let them work on it a bit.  Then, after they've had some time to goof with it, we can see what they've done.

As for me, I'm off to the train room!

[pbjwilson]

I dont get it. Copy and Paste photo posting is a big improvement. Everything else seems to be the same. I never really noticed much of a change other than the background color. Anyway, lets talk trains!

[selector]

That's right, Simon, I have found that it takes forever to accept my posts.  I was led to believe that this would be one of the great promised benefits over the past system.  I am increasingly inclined to side with the hordes of detractors here between my picture posting condundrum and the same-old-same-old on load times.

[simon1966]

Is it just me, or have load times begun to creep back up to the stratosphere, too?  I have had some unsettling waits lately.  Cuts into my train time!

Sometimes it seems to hang forever.  I have found that if a page does not come right up, that re-clicking can get it moving.  It just took 45 seconds to accept this message by the way!

[selector]

Is it just me, or have load times begun to creep back up to the stratosphere, too?  I have had some unsettling waits lately.  Cuts into my train time!

[Eric Stuart]

Well, blow me down, folks; I'm glad to find I'm not the only one who feels he's lost the plot.  OK, perhaps it's because I'm technologically challenged ------ !  But I understood the old Fora!

Eric Stuart

[simon1966]

Yes it is FREE.  The reason why Kalmbach hosts this Free service is to drive people to their web site.  The more "eyes" they can get on the site for more time, the greater the opportunity to get advertising revenue and sales from Kalmbach products.  This is purely a commercial venture and taken from Internet Marketing 101.  So yes it is free to us, but it is not free to Atlas, Trainland and any of the many companies that are paying to get their message in front of our eyes.  Merketing on the web is all about getting eyeballs on the site and then holding them for as long as possible.

There is a substantial drop in traffic on this web forum.  Some folks never re-registered, some have drifted quietly, some have been quite vocal in their complaints.  I don't like the new format all that much, and the drop in posting has made it far less interesting to visit the forum.  For the first time I have actually looked around the web for somewhere else to spend my MRR screen time.

So you folks can say "It's free, live with it!"  all you like, but I assure you that if traffic is down substantially and the advertisers don't see the same response from their adverts placed here, then this forum "upgrade" will be considered a commercial faliure.

I do not see any advantages of the new format.  It strikes me as offering fewer features and has obviously introduced technical barriers that were not present before.

If dropping the polls and stars has had the impact of making visitors lose interest and drift away, then it has had the exact opposite result to that intended.