LSWrr it could be worse, the company I work for was very excited to upgrade from XP to Vista recently. MS gave them an “exceptional bargain” to switch.
Someone ripped them off. Full Vista support ended in April of this year. The last service pack was 2 years ago, and all support ends in 2017.
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
It becomes increasingly obvious that one thing this new forum software does is to work well on Smart-phones and Tablets. It is also much better integrated into all the social media outlets like Face book, Twitter etc. Note all the links to "like" and "Tweet" at the top of the main forum screens.
Think about all the threads that have been hashed out such as "The hobby is dieing" "How to attract the youth to the hobby" etc. etc. etc.
Guess what, this is a step towards modernizing the hobby and making it more acceptable to the new lifeblood that will have to flow in.
We are all behaving like the grumpy curmudgeons at a model railroad club that frowns upon the kid that wants to run a bullet train, and then complains that there are no kids entering the hobby.
Just a thought........
tstage Garry, While I agree with your first statement about better communication from Kalmbach about the changes, I think a survey would have just opened a whole can of worms. Then a few folks would have been offended because "their" suggestion(s) or recommendation(s) were not implemented into the new upgrade. I do think it would have been wise to at least forewarn folks that the reason for the recent 24-hr. forum closure was for an upgrade and what things we should expect with the new format. But - even then - folks would have complained about the proposed changes - just like they have been over the past week. On second thought...perhaps the way Kalmbach handled it was the logical choice. Make the changes and let folks figure things out. Either way it was going to be a lose-lose situation for them. Tom
Garry,
While I agree with your first statement about better communication from Kalmbach about the changes, I think a survey would have just opened a whole can of worms. Then a few folks would have been offended because "their" suggestion(s) or recommendation(s) were not implemented into the new upgrade.
I do think it would have been wise to at least forewarn folks that the reason for the recent 24-hr. forum closure was for an upgrade and what things we should expect with the new format. But - even then - folks would have complained about the proposed changes - just like they have been over the past week.
On second thought...perhaps the way Kalmbach handled it was the logical choice. Make the changes and let folks figure things out. Either way it was going to be a lose-lose situation for them.
Tom
Tom ..... Thanks very much for the reply. I think most comments are intended to be "constructive criticism" . People should be encouraged to express views as long as they are respectful.
Ulrich ........ I fully agree we all should be thankful to Kalmbach for this forum regardless of its format.
Also, we, the forum members, certainly are thankful to the volunteers who spend their own time as monitors or helping with needs of the system
GARRY
HEARTLAND DIVISION, CB&Q RR
EVERYWHERE LOST; WE HUSTLE OUR CABOOSE FOR YOU
simon1966 It becomes increasingly obvious that one thing this new forum software does is to work well on Smart-phones and Tablets. It is also much better integrated into all the social media outlets like Face book, Twitter etc. Note all the links to "like" and "Tweet" at the top of the main forum screens. Think about all the threads that have been hashed out such as "The hobby is dieing" "How to attract the youth to the hobby" etc. etc. etc. Guess what, this is a step towards modernizing the hobby and making it more acceptable to the new lifeblood that will have to flow in. We are all behaving like the grumpy curmudgeons at a model railroad club that frowns upon the kid that wants to run a bullet train, and then complains that there are no kids entering the hobby. Just a thought........
Simon
I think the only trouble still with the move towards tablets and schmartphones is that for me I still cannot load pics from my photo hosting site onto the forum from my schmartphone, I still have to access that using my desktop, as I have to open multiple windows and copy/paste the image tags, don't know how that would work out on a tablet as I don't have (or want) one as I can currently do 90% of my online needs thru my schmartphone. What we need is a review (maybe I missed it) of a member using a tablet to try to the common things like posting pics in the new format.
Have fun with your trains
Copied pasted and posted from Picturetrail to.the forum on my Droid smartphone
Back to the PC for editing. Not without hassle I might add. The cut and paste bit works fine and I can log onto my Picturetrail account and the Trains forum at the same time and toggle back and forth between messages, but nothing beats a keyboard for text entry.
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Simon, exactly my point, IT doesn’t always know what’s best
BM1 Lee Soule USCG (ret) L.S.&W Railroad Serving the Lower Great Lakes
LSWrr Simon, exactly my point, IT doesn’t always know what’s best
Sorry, not sure which point?
I guess I might as well put in my comments about the new format. Gave it a few days to get used to it before commenting. What I miss most is the page count. It doesn't matter for posts that are only one or two pages long, but it makes a big difference to me in the Diner. I used to make a note as to what page I left off on so that next time I could go to that page and continue reading the posts in the order they were submitted. Now, if I go newest to oldest I'm reading posts that are replies to other posts and I don't know what the original post was that elicited that reply. If I switch to oldest to newest, I get the very first post to the Diner at the beginning of the month and have to scroll through many pages to find where I left off. Please, please bring back the page count.
I too would like to see the poster's location come back. It's nice to know where the poster is when he's talking about his weather. And, if one is going to be travelling, it would be nice to know where certain people live so that one could contact them when in their location. I know that's in the profile but it's a lot of work to go through all the profiles to see if there's any one in locations A or B or C when a person would be travelling.
I know that some people feel the post counts have some negative connotations which I won't get into, but it is nice to be able to identify the newbees on the forums. I think they deserve a little bit of extra attention when they venture on line here.
I'll get used to the new format in time, I'm sure, but right now I don't have the same enthusiasm for trolling the posts, especially the Diner, that I used to have, and the Diner was my favourite place to troll.
I guess I have to quote the army general from the episode of M*A*S*H where Radar was in an officer's club with Hawkeye and B.J. and wearing B.J. captain's bars and when Hawkeye told the general it was a corporal-captain rank, the general said, "I don't like it. No sir, I don't like it one little bit."
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
simon1966 LSWrr Simon, exactly my point, IT doesn’t always know what’s best Sorry, not sure which point?
Upgrading to Vista now at his work. Has no relevance whatsoever for this forum upgrade, where software was upgraded to a new (and supported) version.
It seems to be VERY labor intensive to get to an earilier date (br scrroling). If a better way is avaliable, please let me know at WROB@fuse.net.
simon1966 Copied pasted and posted from Picturetrail to.the forum on my Droid smartphone
just a test to see if i can post another user's picture.
now i'll try one from my website.
nope...still a problem.
please advise?
What is the URL of the JPG file you are trying to post?
Darren (BLHS & CRRM Lifetime Member)
Delaware and Hudson Virtual Museum (DHVM), Railroad Adventures (RRAdventures)
My Blog
Stourbridge Lion What is the URL of the JPG file you are trying to post?
http://home.comcast.net/~marxtrains/trains/Marx/Joyline/350-351-1.jpg