I found the place to click for the forums, other than under "Community." It is way over on the right on the home page with the ads, which I normally have blocked out so I don't have to look at them. Dumb me; they must think I'm a real klutz at Kalmbach for sending them an e-mail saying I couldn't find it.
zardozFWIW, I have noticed that the site is much quicker when using Google Chrome, instead of Microsoft's IE.
I've also noticed that the site is much more responsive with Firefox than with IE8.
Murray zardoz: FWIW, I have noticed that the site is much quicker when using Google Chrome, instead of Microsoft's IE. I've also noticed that the site is much more responsive with Firefox than with IE8.
zardoz: FWIW, I have noticed that the site is much quicker when using Google Chrome, instead of Microsoft's IE.
I don't really doubt anyone's feeling that one browser is "faster" than another, but I am wondering how you are reaching this conclusion.
Have you been running one browser for a while and then using the other one for a similar period of time to base your conclusion or are you running them simultaneously trying to access the same web pages?
Are you testing using two different computers? Even if the same make and model, cache loadings and disk drive fragmentation will affect the speed of the computer to accomplish tasks.
Do you reboot between tests?
Do you clear the cache between tests?
Do you test browser "A" and then "B" and then repeat the tests by using "B" first and then "A"... To eliminate the possibility that the first browser used to access a certain page has not preloaded some intermediate cache with the data for the second one to access quicker (nor having to going through the whole web to fetch the data)? Even anti-malware software might be re-using cached malware database files that will speed up subsequent malware testing and thus affect apparent load times.
There are many things that go on in the internet that are almost beyond the reach of understanding to know why things seem to behave one way or another. I have noted several times that just one particular page from some web site will load at different speeds depending on which random advertisement is called each time. Some will load rapidly and others will load slowly... some I know I have "blocked" the URL and the web page then senses that the advert didn't load, so it selects some other advert to substitute for the 1st one and that will affect the load times. System caches, both on my PC and on the various servers will affect the load time. Time of day (and thus overall web traffic) will affect load times also (i.e.: did you test one browser in the morning and the other in the afternoon).
I appreciate people attesting to their favourite browser, but I'd like some bona fide test data, too.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Semper VaporoI don't really doubt anyone's feeling that one browser is "faster" than another, but I am wondering how you are reaching this conclusion. Have you been running one browser for a while and then using the other one for a similar period of time to base your conclusion or are you running them simultaneously trying to access the same web pages? Are you testing using two different computers? Even if the same make and model, cache loadings and disk drive fragmentation will affect the speed of the computer to accomplish tasks. Do you reboot between tests? Do you clear the cache between tests? Do you test browser "A" and then "B" and then repeat the tests by using "B" first and then "A"... To eliminate the possibility that the first browser used to access a certain page has not preloaded some intermediate cache with the data for the second one to access quicker (nor having to going through the whole web to fetch the data)? Even anti-malware software might be re-using cached malware database files that will speed up subsequent malware testing and thus affect apparent load times. There are many things that go on in the internet that are almost beyond the reach of understanding to know why things seem to behave one way or another. I have noted several times that just one particular page from some web site will load at different speeds depending on which random advertisement is called each time. Some will load rapidly and others will load slowly... some I know I have "blocked" the URL and the web page then senses that the advert didn't load, so it selects some other advert to substitute for the 1st one and that will affect the load times. System caches, both on my PC and on the various servers will affect the load time. Time of day (and thus overall web traffic) will affect load times also (i.e.: did you test one browser in the morning and the other in the afternoon). I appreciate people attesting to their favourite browser, but I'd like some bona fide test data, too.
It was not my intent to extol the virtues of the Firefox browser. Actually my preferred browser of choice is IE8. Additionally, my computer and ISP are geared for high speed broadband use.
However, I am finding a noticeable "lag time" on the trains.com site when using IE8.
I do not find this to be the case with Firefox.
Good point zugmann, it's a stop signal, I not going to read any farther cause it's probably all been said. Let's see what happens Tuesday after the holiday weekend.
Ed in Kentucky
Murphy Siding What used to be my PM option(?) is now headed "Conversations". It shows Conversations (16). What exactly does the 16 signify? When I open that area, there are 80 conversations ( what used to be called Private messages). These go back as far as March, 2007 (!) (Huh?) Does anyone have a good understanding of this feature yet? -Thanks
What used to be my PM option(?) is now headed "Conversations". It shows Conversations (16). What exactly does the 16 signify? When I open that area, there are 80 conversations ( what used to be called Private messages). These go back as far as March, 2007 (!) (Huh?) Does anyone have a good understanding of this feature yet? -Thanks
Number in parantheses show how many unread PM's you have.
Number is wrong initially - seems like either all or a number of your PMs have been marked "unread" (even if they were already read) by the transition to the new forums.
Could also be that more (and older) PM's will be flagged as unread while content is being re-indexed over the next week or so.
Just click on the already read PM's one by one to reset the count of unread PM's (or Conversations), if it bothers you.
Yes - someone apparently goofed on that part of the migration.
Smile, Stein
It's slow and the print is too small. I don't feel I've been helped. What waqs your goal?
The forum operates much slower than before for me too. With the old forum, if you quoted somebody’s post, just click “quote” and it happened instantaneously—a split second and it was done. Now it takes about 15 seconds because it has to load for some reason. Before, if you only wanted to quote part posts, you just highlighted the part you wanted, and clicked “quote” and it happened. Now, if you highlight only a part of a post to quote, it still quotes the entire post, so you have to go back and delete the parts of the quote you don’t want. This takes still more time.
There is no rhyme or reason to the font size control and paragraph set-off by spacing. Sometimes it reduces the font size by one step when you post. Sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I post 12 pt. when I want 10 pt., and it displays in 10 pt. Sometimes when I post in 10 pt., it displays 10 pt. This discrepancy also operates between what is composed as a post and what it previews.
With paragraphs, sometimes double spacing displays as double spacing. But sometimes it displays as triple spacing. And sometimes, it just single spaces (no space). This stuff just goes round and round.
And then these discrepancies may change between the preview and the final displayed post. So preview is worthless, because it means nothing. You can use preview to proof read your post, but you might as well go ahead and post without preview, and then proof read the actual posted message. If you want to change something, just edit the post.
It is a waste of time to preview because the preview may not be accurate, so you may have to edit the post even after you previewed it.
I agree with a comment by someone earlier about software developers and programmers always wanting to add razzle-dazzle bells and whistles as an end in itself rather than for a useful purpose. Programmers and marketers show off to each other rather than give the customers what they need and want. A lot of times, you need more computer just to run the new bells and whistles.
This forum upgrade was announced well in advance as a big improvement over the old forum. How many users think it is an improvement? As I recall, the promised improvement was said to lie mainly in the member-to-member networking. Was this something to sort of jump on the social networking craze that is sweeping the country?
Per your request for comment: I am gratified that I can learn, and also modestly share, railroad-related subject material on these forums. Kalmbach has graciously provided this forum (no doubt with a desire to increase magazine subscriptions thereby - that's OK) for anyone.
Having been software engineer myself, and then corporate executive thereof, I am aware of the problems that arise in "beta tests," as may be the current version of which we now have available. There will be "continuous improvement' in all things in life, including this forum, which tries to satisfy the demands and expectations of a diverse group of anybody. Give the guys a chance !
Regardless, we inevitably get used to various "systems" in life, that initially seem stupid or inadequate. (Remember the "hue and cry" decades ago about how these new-fangled seatbelts that were going to lead to trapped deaths of car drivers ?)
I am happy with whatever forum is offered, and can deal with it, just as I hope that others will deal with the manner of my football coaching, letter writing, conversation, etc. that may seem inadequate.
Meanwhile, I have found Kalmbach "Customer Service" to be a kind and willing provider of assistance and information.
Jerry Pier It's slow and the print is too small. I don't feel I've been helped.
It's slow and the print is too small. I don't feel I've been helped.
It could be that you just wanted to complain, and were not looking for suggestions or information. In which case I apologize in advance for offering practical advice instead of just commiserating with you :-)
Slowness is reportedly most likely due to re-indexing of old posts still underway - expected to last another week or so. Hopefully it then will improve.
But be advised that one thing which has been reported by quite a few people is that the reading experience might be worse if you are using a too old web browser - e.g. Internet Explorer version 6, which no longer is recommended for general use.
If you are running an old web browser, it may be time to upgrade your web browser to something more modern - if you can. Some companies use old functionality for work related web sites and thus has a company policy that force their users to use old browsers.
But you probably should not use a company owned computer to surf the web for private reasons anyways, eh? :-)
Anyways - hopefully speed will improve in another week or so. If not, you might want to consider switching to a newer browser.
Font size you can adjust yourself to more suit your preferences, in several ways.
You can e.g. do it on your forum profile (click (Edit) by Public Profile on the right side of the screen, and then choose Default Font Size to be Large instead of Normal.
Or you can adjust font size in your web browser.
E.g. in firefox under Microsoft Windows I can temporarily increase the font size by holding down the [Ctrl] key and pressing the plus (+) sign when viewing a text page. [Ctrl] and zero [0] resets to standard size.
In firefox I can set a different default font size by going to Tools | Options | Content and choosing a bigger font and/or font size (e.g 16pt Times New Roman) for my default font.
If you are using another browser, hit [F1] or click on "help" in your browser to learn how to change default font size in your browser.
In Windows (pt Windows XP pro on this box), I can get bigger font on everything bigger by right clicking on the screen desktop, choosing properties, choosing Appearance, and then picking font size large or extra large instead of normal.
There is no immediate lack of options for getting bigger fonts, if you want bigger fonts. Only one of these (the profile edit) is specific to this web site.
The others three ways of adjusting font size are part of general computer literacy.
I have no clue what Kalmbach's main goal for the upgrade was. I expect it was partly to stay current with the software - Telligent Community, to maintain their eligiblity (sp?) for support by the software makers.
Maybe partly to get various bug and security fixes.
Maybe partly to try to cash in on the social websites craze.
None of my business either way, I figure. It's a resource provided free of direct charges, which I freely can choose whether I want to use or don't want to use. If it gets too aggravating to use, I'll just go to one of the other model railroading websites.
But so far, this forum isn't half bad. In my opinion. Your mileage may vary.
Smile, Stein, who is just a user like yourself, not an official representative of Kalmbach in any way
I thought the point of this thread was to document the problems so they can learn of them in case they don’t find them on their own. If they read this thread and fix all the problems, that would be great. Maybe they will do that. There is no problem changing font size. The problem is that the font size changes on its own when you post the message.
Sure it’s a free forum, but that doesn’t mean that they or we should not care if it is not working properly. They want people to post and they want the forum to work well. I am sure they want to hear about problems we are having with the new software. Rather than everybody calling customer service, they have this thread as a record of the issues for their reference.
On the forum pages that list the threads, why are some of the thread titles shown in gray while most of them are displayed as the dark red?
Bucyrus On the forum pages that list the threads, why are some of the thread titles shown in gray while most of them are displayed as the dark red?
On other forums that usually represents that some threads have new entries that you, personally, have not read yet. Usually the brigher text is the new and the less bright has no new entries.
Unfortunately, I don't think it is working all that well in this present incarnation of the forum software/databases.
My own experience, verified again this morning, is that when one first goes on-line on a given day, all thread titles are red. But, when one opens a thread (that was titled in red) to read posts, that thread color (and the color of all other threads which you have opened) immediately changes to gray after one returns to the forum list of threads.
Curious, but not particularly bothersome to me. "This too shall pass" when things settle down after these beta test resolutions by the webmaster. Nonetheless, I am sure that a simple query to Kalmbach Customer Service would result in a reply.
Is there a EDIT button....if there is, I don't see it using IE8.
If there isn't - Why Not!
I admit, from time to time I will make a mistake....a mistake I would like to correct. Without EDIT how does one correct a mistake.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
The "Edit" icon is located on a sub-menu that appears when one clicks on the "More" icon at the top right of any post. Kalmbach "Customer Service" is very helpful in answering queries such as this, should you or others have a list of concerns, questions, or perhaps comments.
I just read my Trains Magazine Newsletter for this week, and I saw that "By now, you've noticed the changes we made to TrainsMag.com. All of your favorite features are still there but with better functionality."
It is more difficult for me to log on to the forums. Before, I had one "favorite" web address that took me to all of the Kalmbach railroad forums. Now, I have one "favorite" that gets me to the Classical Trains forum--and I have to go first to the TransMag site and click on the "Forums" to get to the Trains Magazine forums. When I save the address for the Trains Magazine forums in my 'favorites," it is somehow altered to bring up the "Railroad History Quiz Game" thread. I do not consider this to be "better functionality."
Johnny
.....As for this new version of the forum:
I found the other one easier to read.
I too have to go thru 2 or 3 steps now to get to it, as when I click on my "favorites" to bring it up....I get something like: "site not available", so to continue, go over on the right side of the screen and click on "forum", and then from the next screen, scroll down to "General Discussion", and...bingo, we're finally there. Better...??
Quentin
Quentin, I discovered early on that the old addresses that I had no longer worked. At least the new address I have for the Classic Trains forum does not wander off on its own after I have saved it in my favorites.
Deggesty It is more difficult for me to log on to the forums. Before, I had one "favorite" web address that took me to all of the Kalmbach railroad forums. Now, I have one "favorite" that gets me to the Classical Trains forum--and I have to go first to the TransMag site and click on the "Forums" to get to the Trains Magazine forums. When I save the address for the Trains Magazine forums in my 'favorites," it is somehow altered to bring up the "Railroad History Quiz Game" thread. I do not consider this to be "better functionality."
Your new home page: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/
Press page down to get past the messages and friends crap, and there the list of all forums are:
This link: (http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/) also gives you all the forums, but in an unsorted and hard to read way.
Several of us that were picked out to do end user beta testing pointed out that a lot of people would not necessarily enter the forums from the magazine page, but would want to treat the forums as a separate web site with subforums from several magazines, and thus we wanted to have a common starting point for all the forums, with the forum list grouped by magazine.
Apparently we were not understood.
Anyways - this is a couple of workarounds to getting a list of all forums on one page.
Murray Semper Vaporo: I don't really doubt anyone's feeling that one browser is "faster" than another, but I am wondering how you are reaching this conclusion. Have you been running one browser for a while and then using the other one for a similar period of time to base your conclusion or are you running them simultaneously trying to access the same web pages? Are you testing using two different computers? Even if the same make and model, cache loadings and disk drive fragmentation will affect the speed of the computer to accomplish tasks. Do you reboot between tests? Do you clear the cache between tests? Do you test browser "A" and then "B" and then repeat the tests by using "B" first and then "A"... To eliminate the possibility that the first browser used to access a certain page has not preloaded some intermediate cache with the data for the second one to access quicker (nor having to going through the whole web to fetch the data)? Even anti-malware software might be re-using cached malware database files that will speed up subsequent malware testing and thus affect apparent load times. There are many things that go on in the internet that are almost beyond the reach of understanding to know why things seem to behave one way or another. I have noted several times that just one particular page from some web site will load at different speeds depending on which random advertisement is called each time. Some will load rapidly and others will load slowly... some I know I have "blocked" the URL and the web page then senses that the advert didn't load, so it selects some other advert to substitute for the 1st one and that will affect the load times. System caches, both on my PC and on the various servers will affect the load time. Time of day (and thus overall web traffic) will affect load times also (i.e.: did you test one browser in the morning and the other in the afternoon). I appreciate people attesting to their favourite browser, but I'd like some bona fide test data, too. It was not my intent to extol the virtues of the Firefox browser. Actually my preferred browser of choice is IE8. Additionally, my computer and ISP are geared for high speed broadband use. However, I am finding a noticeable "lag time" on the trains.com site when using IE8. I do not find this to be the case with Firefox.
Semper Vaporo: I don't really doubt anyone's feeling that one browser is "faster" than another, but I am wondering how you are reaching this conclusion. Have you been running one browser for a while and then using the other one for a similar period of time to base your conclusion or are you running them simultaneously trying to access the same web pages? Are you testing using two different computers? Even if the same make and model, cache loadings and disk drive fragmentation will affect the speed of the computer to accomplish tasks. Do you reboot between tests? Do you clear the cache between tests? Do you test browser "A" and then "B" and then repeat the tests by using "B" first and then "A"... To eliminate the possibility that the first browser used to access a certain page has not preloaded some intermediate cache with the data for the second one to access quicker (nor having to going through the whole web to fetch the data)? Even anti-malware software might be re-using cached malware database files that will speed up subsequent malware testing and thus affect apparent load times. There are many things that go on in the internet that are almost beyond the reach of understanding to know why things seem to behave one way or another. I have noted several times that just one particular page from some web site will load at different speeds depending on which random advertisement is called each time. Some will load rapidly and others will load slowly... some I know I have "blocked" the URL and the web page then senses that the advert didn't load, so it selects some other advert to substitute for the 1st one and that will affect the load times. System caches, both on my PC and on the various servers will affect the load time. Time of day (and thus overall web traffic) will affect load times also (i.e.: did you test one browser in the morning and the other in the afternoon). I appreciate people attesting to their favourite browser, but I'd like some bona fide test data, too.
Regarding "bona fide" test results: if you want such detail, you'd better commission a test lab. I only reported on my own results. I tried both browsers, and in going back and forth between them there was a very noticeable difference in main page loading times: Google in about 5 seconds, IE in about 20 seconds. Granted, not a long time when compared to the average human lifespan or to the age of the universe; but when one is trying to navigate between lots of threads, the delays can become irritating.
Notice how no one from Kalmbach has posted on this thread? It would be nice if for no other reason that to let us know that our observations and issues were at least being considered.
Yes, "zardoz," it is really disheartening that no one seems to be "listening." Even if no one from Kalmbach actually posted now and then, it would be pleasing to know that at least their "ears were on." That is, "Yes, we hear you, forum members."
This thead that, out of frustration, you started a while back has given voice to so many complaints. Frankly, most of the issues have been resolvable over time, as our familiarity improves or as forum members have kindly provided answers. But, it simply would have been better if the new forum changes had been explained on the first day of roll-out, with how-to-do-it-nows.
Now that it is after-the-fact, perhaps it is that Kalmbach folks are just too busy with solving problems, answering questions, etc. Nonetheless, I have found "Customer Service" to be a great resource to get an answer on a specific question. I guess we must remember that Kalmbach is not a charitable organization. Rather, it is in the business of generating revenue for stakeholders. Forums are but another way of attracting attention, building a client base, and incidentally selling subscriptions.
Yesterday, I complained, "When I save the address for the Trains Magazine forums in my 'favorites," it is somehow altered to bring up the "Railroad History Quiz Game" thread. I do not consider this to be "better functionality." Well, this is no longer true. I saved the address that came up through the magazine "Forums"--and it (so far) still gets me to the Trains Magazine forums.
I will try the above mentioned way of getting all the forums with one address, and see what I get.
Folks —
You're right; we should have posted something sooner, my apologies. We do hear you. The online publishing people are working hard trying to get the bugs worked out, but with a project of this size, it's taking some time. Please know that your comments are being heard, and every bit of feedback we on the editorial staff get is being forwarded on to the proper authorities.
We very much appreciate your patience, and we're convinced this will be a better web experience for everyone once we get this initial round of troubles worked through.
Best,
I am becoming completely confused with the colouring of read and unread items in both the forums and News Wire. Earlier this week everything seemed to be working fine, but now it is difficult to tell what has and has not been read. It is a good thing I have a good memory.
I am not asking for anything new, just consistency with what we've got. Thanks.
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
Andy Cummings Folks — You're right; we should have posted something sooner, my apologies. We do hear you. The online publishing people are working hard trying to get the bugs worked out, but with a project of this size, it's taking some time. Please know that your comments are being heard, and every bit of feedback we on the editorial staff get is being forwarded on to the proper authorities. We for one very much appreciate your patience, and we're convinced this will be a better web experience for everyone once we get this initial round of troubles worked through. Best,
We for one very much appreciate your patience, and we're convinced this will be a better web experience for everyone once we get this initial round of troubles worked through.
Thanks, Andy!
I am sure that most of us do appreciate your interest in what we have got to say. I guess we are kind of in the ranks of the kids who sneak into the Circus, and maybe buy peanuts and a drink and enjoy the show, and then complain about something in that show
. Sometimes it is hard to mask episodes of personal frustrations with transferance. Unfortunately, many times our appreciation is moderated by those same frustrations.
I am not a regular reader of the Garden Railways site, but I did post on it recently and I noticed that within that sites general information Threads there seemed to be a lot of the squares with the red x's, such as when a picture fails to transfer into the program for display. It may have been a temporary anomaly, but it was sort of unusual to see. Just to mention it..
Thanks!
steinjr posted: "Your new home page: http://cs.trains.com/trccs/
Press page down to get past the messages and friends crap, and there the list of all forums are:...."
Yes, this does work; even though the forums are not in quite the same order as formerly, it is possible to get to all that I had read with just one address. Thanks.
Also, to Andy Cummings: I trust that you, in time will make it possible to quote just part of a previous post when replying, instead of either having the whole post be copied, or doing as I just did, copying only the pertinent part. And, the first time I replied to a post every time I clicked on the "return" button my comment was posted again, and I now simply go back to the previous page.
Just this afternoon, I seem to have lost the privilege to change the font and size of my posts. Can't figure that out, but it may have something to do with an updated Safari installed by the tech guy today.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
Just in case it is some inadvertant alteration to your forum settings...
Check them by clicking the "(Edit)" text next to the words "Public Profile" on the right side of most any screen on this site (next to your icon).
Make sure that the "Default Content Editor" is set to "Enhanced" (be sure to click "Update Profile" at the bottom of the page if you have to change it).
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.