Well, I guess I am like a lot of others and don't have the desire to spend as much time on the forum anymore. Too bad this upgrade/downgrade had to have these results. I miss the old format and won't put as much time on here as I used to.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Train Modeler As far as post counts--it is helpful to know if someone is new or has been at it a long time. I would like to see them divided up by categories such as General, Electrical, Prototype, etc. so we can know more about those with whom we are "conversing". I suspect a few somebodies complained that some had more than others and the green monster came out. At any point in time there's between 30 and 50 people online so it's really a small universe anyway. Richard
As far as post counts--it is helpful to know if someone is new or has been at it a long time. I would like to see them divided up by categories such as General, Electrical, Prototype, etc. so we can know more about those with whom we are "conversing". I suspect a few somebodies complained that some had more than others and the green monster came out.
At any point in time there's between 30 and 50 people online so it's really a small universe anyway.
Richard
Post counts can be deceiving at best. Just because they have a high post count, doesn't mean they are more knowledgable. If anything, it says they spend way too much time online when they should actually be putting what knowledge they have into improving their skills and their layout !
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Oh .... and as for the new format, I really don't see where it's all that different. I haven't been around for at least a month, and aside from my old favorites link not working, everything I needed to know, or use, was right where I expected it to be.
But then, I really don't care about people's personal business, where they live, what the temperature is or what they are having for breakfast .... that's what Facebook is for !
It seems a bit plain but will adjust maybe they are experimenting
As some issues I have had are gone so hopefully next month
All will be better.
CB&Q
I'm not feeling this new format. I'm of the old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" school of thinking. At the best of times I hate change, and as far as I am concerned, this change wasn't really necessary.
Frank B.
Dorval, Canada
dexterdog I'm not feeling this new format. I'm of the old "if it ain't broke don't fix it" school of thinking. At the best of times I hate change, and as far as I am concerned, this change wasn't really necessary.
I think it would be quite helpful to the mood around here if the powers-that-be did explain the need for the change.
Reading between the lines, my guess is that the backbone of the old forum was out of date, may not have been supported by its creator anymore, and could not be enhanced for the evolving web. We already know that it had fallen behind in terms of being able to support modern browsers on PC's and hand held devices. If the old forum platform had reached the end of the line, there may have been no choice in the matter. I guarantee that migrating this forum was no small task, has taken hundreds of man-hours and has probably cost quite a lot as well. This was not done for fun to pee-off members or for some intellectual game for an IT department.
All those saying that you are leaving and not going to spend as much time here, I wonder why you were here in the first place? Surely it is all about content? This place is nothing without content, and that comes from the contributors, it has nothing to do with particular features, locations of buttons etc. The format really is not all that different.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
For folks like RB and the rest of actually wish we had an option to custome the colors to out preference like I wish I could turn the post red print to like dark blue and the ones you have read to black. tool bar if we could change the color of that would help also
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
simon1966 All those saying that you are leaving and not going to spend as much time here, I wonder why you were here in the first place? Surely it is all about content? This place is nothing without content, and that comes from the contributors, it has nothing to do with particular features, locations of buttons etc. The format really is not all that different.
I have to say, since the change, I have found the forums less user friendly to me visually. It looks like big letters for the vision impaired and not much content on the screen. Less content means I'm less interested. I have found myself returning to check things out here half as much as before. If others are doing the same, this can't be a good change.
Another observation, model railroading is dominated by older men especially in the 50-75 age range. Something the IT crowd should have considered is the demographic that frequents the forum does not take change and "new fangled" internet stuff nearly as happily as the young folk. So if they are sitting there scratching their heads at the reaction to the new format, let me edumacate them - see above!
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
For me there's too many colors I have trouble seeing. Being somewhat colorblind I have trouble with grays and some shades of blue. The reply box toolbar looks almost white to me. Text above the toolbar I have to highlight to see as it disappears into the white background. Light grays go white, medium grays very light silver, darker grays go black. Some blues show greenish while some show black. Other blues look, well, blue.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
For myself, I wish people would quit griping and just learn to live with it.
I'd also like to point out that I'm managing a big IT transformation at work, and I can tell you that, while some user input into a new system is definitely important, user preferences are rarely a driving force in an upgrade or re-tooling. Yeah, we sometimes spin it as an "improved user experience", but really, it's generally not about that. The biggest obstacle to any change is always resistance to change -- like that old, ratty shirt that you just won't get rid of because it's so darned comfortable.
While our hosts should be making some effort to document bugs and at least solicit requests to bring back features that are no longer present (or tell us where they're hidden now), they didn't make this upgrade for us. Go ahead and vote with your feet if you want, but really, it's not as bad as some are making it out to be.
That said, I did find the post count, joining date, and location to be convenient features (although their absence isn't going to drive me away). Joining date gives some idea of how experienced someone is, and how familiar with content, and maybe some insight into how long they've been modeling. Location is important -- because it tells you whether your market and hobby experience in the US is valid to their situation, and also whether English is likely to be the poster's first language (an important factor in effective communication, which some of us actually strive for).
Post count is a little different. Personally, I try to make most of mine count, but is "Nice job on that model" or your weather report in the diner a valid indication of your experience in the hobby? Probably not. In general, though, I find that those of us with the higher post counts are trying to answer questions and give advice, not just posting fluff. I am a little suspicious, though, when someone with a couple of dozen posts who was recently asking questions about which train set to buy, or what kind of track to use, is suddenly providing reams of advice on all aspects of the hobby (granted, this person could have been scratchbuilding models for years and just suddenly decided to find a home for all this stuff on a layout, but still).
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Even a darker red would be an improvement. This color is too washed out.
On my desk top and now off and on with my laptop desktop = xp PRO laptop = WIN7 I can not save in my favorites to take me back to the page I was on. I can save the index page but not a specific topic and page and when it will let me on my laptop it goes to page one not the last page I viewed even thou that number is at the end of the saved URL. I'm having more trouple with this new forum than I have ever had.
CTValleyRR For myself, I wish people would quit griping and just learn to live with it. I'd also like to point out that I'm managing a big IT transformation at work, and I can tell you that, while some user input into a new system is definitely important, user preferences are rarely a driving force in an upgrade or re-tooling. Yeah, we sometimes spin it as an "improved user experience", but really, it's generally not about that. The biggest obstacle to any change is always resistance to change -- like that old, ratty shirt that you just won't get rid of because it's so darned comfortable.
Some of us don't like it and won't be muzzled. It might help also if MR reps came and acknowledge the feelings we have.
Speaking of big IT transformations, I'm also in the middle of one at a gov agency who I am a contractor for migrating roughly a thousand users from XP to Windows 7 and dealing with all the growing pains, missing software and things that don't work right.
Yes, there is resistance to chance but sometimes it isn't a ratty shirt, but something isn't broken and doesn't need fixed, just maybe.
I'm starting to think thats the problem as they decieded to make it iPad compatable and doing so it made it harder for some of us on computers