The question still is " who knew what and when ? " That includes moderators.
Now have a partial answer . The November trains mag has a "from the editor " article. Jim Wrinn mentions this "upgrade" ( downgrade ? ) of the forum. Suspect at least 2 weeks to put November issue to bed and another 1 - 3 weeks to finalize all writing ? Why no beta testing and forum users vetting these changes ? ?
BTW why was site down this afternoon ?
Just sent the following letter to editor and presidentof Kalmbach. Even took two tries to read correct validation code.
Mr. Jim Wrinn Mr Charles R. CroftGentlemen: Are you both aware of the mess occurring over your staff's changes to the Trains' magazine forum?. It appears that your IT told others of your staff that no program changes were to be made which seems incredulous giving what cannot be done now that could previously been completed. Your attention to this matter will be appreciated by other posters
Note: Spell check worked in the letter to editor no tpyos missed.
Style without function = chaos The droppings of a constipated bull does not human perfume make!
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Not a lot of posting happening while people figure out the changes.
Not right to drop this bomb without notice and appearently little testing.
Gonna just sit and watch for a bit.
Norm
When I was posting earlier today, many of the editing screen control buttons (like for photo insertions, etc.) disappeared for the next post attempt. I actually had to restart the computer to get the buttons back … for one post, then they disappeared again. That is NOT exactly what I would call an improvement …
Nor is the incompatibility with WORD an improvement.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Switching 'compatability' setting shows the link, picture and video icons for 1 pass....then they disappear again
OvermodIf we are going to have to use systems with menu actions like Format -> Blocks -> Blockquote, Div, Pre ... someone in IT better get off their duff and either provide a help system or set of tutorials showing how to use the fancy stuff they've generated. Most of the people on this list aren't gamerz, techies, or kids brought up to relish 'playful discovery of key functionality through aleatory activity'. It isn't exactly fair to make them have to learn by guessing or surfing the Web for clues and then guessing...
Just tried updating another post to embed a video and it did not work. Since the TESTING FORUM is not yet using this new 'style', apologies for testing it here:
----------------
EDIT - looks like another Kalmback IT Fail - someone needs to tell us what the 'secret sauce' is for the new Insert Video dialog.
Links to my Google Maps ---> Sunset Route overview, SoCal metro, Yuma sub, Gila sub, SR east of Tucson, BNSF Northern Transcon and Southern Transcon *** Why you should support Ukraine! ***
The new pages are so JITTERTY, always jumping to places you don't want. What's the story on that? Also, at the top of the pages, you can't click on something anymore that brings up the range of Kalmbach forums. (To get to Classic Trains from Trains, for instance, I must seek out the former at the bottom of some other page.) Whose bright idea was that?
And, in the lineup, why "6 hours ago" and "6 days ago" instead of the old times and dates? Does somebody think this lack of specificity is helpful?
This episode confirms me in my suspicion that a lot of IT programmers -- like the copy editors I knew at newspapers -- are people who don't get out much, don't see the world as normal people do, and really don't belong in the communications business.
And why the heck should we now have to jump back to the top of the page to change topics, instead of having that option at the bottom, as formerly?
Am I watered? Sure. TRAINS is on that short list of institutions that have been constants in my life for more than 50 years. I hate to see it drifting and dreaming, like so many other things.
Why does Kalmbach continually reinvent the wheel - go out an buy some wheels that actually work and decrease the IT staff.
BaltACD Why does Kalmbach continually reinvent the wheel - go out an buy some wheels that actually work and decrease the IT staff.
AMEN!!! And flog the IT severely before firing them.
Watch my videos on-line at https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewNeilFalconer
I think I'm going to like it better than the previous version.
Two problem areas: 1) the lack of color contrast between read and unread topics previously mentioned by Blue Streak, and 2) sometimes you can not email subscribe to a particular topic (this is an apparently random fault in the previous version also).
Don't you mean contrast between red and unred posts? I second your vote, the 2 shades of red are just too close together. Can we get designating colors that look a bit different from each other?
I also want to add my vote to an afformentioned complaint that "posted ... hours ago" etc is not as good as "posted on [date time]". I'd prefer the date and time.
Hopefully the IT guys can do it without coding changes :)
Patrick Boylan
Free yacht rides, 27' sailboat, zip code 19114 Delaware River, get great Delair bridge photos from the river. Send me a private message
Hi,
I reviewed your suggestions. Please know that I will do my best to get some changes made. If/when items are changed/updated, I will let you know.
Thanks for your patience.
Ang
Angela Pusztai-Pasternak, Production Editor, Trains Magazine
Angela.
Suggestions.
1. As any change is built please let some posters and modrators beta test it before it is implemented.
2. The site has become not user friendly except for persons that have or will use the site alot. Please make it user friendly for new viewers ! ! Other rail sites are much more friendly and we can loose new viewers to those sites.
3. New posts that K.P. Harrier has previously done would be sorely missed if he cannot post the pictures except for the present difficulty. See his post about it on the Sunset double tracking thread.
For those of you who want spellchecker, "Quick Reply" still has it, in case you don't want to get too fancy in your replies.
I agree about the lack of contrast between "read" and "unread" red.
Regarding my comment earlier that the web cam wasn't working, I found that it's there, but I first get a "Page or Resource Not Found" headline, then if I scroll down, it is there. I don't think this has anything to do with the new format.
_____________
"A stranger's just a friend you ain't met yet." --- Dave Gardner
Something even worse seems to have happened to the forum. Now, even non-WORD text doesn't transfer to the composition screen! I give up ...
Not my Quick Reply on IE11 - notation if you want any editing abilities to use the REPLY button. In addition on IE11, not having the icons for pictures, videos etc; I also don't have the INSERT button on the tool bar at the top of the reply panel.
Johnny
Spell check also works in the blog comment section, but not here...
The site does seem to run faster.
Had noted that news wire is dropping articles randomly. Then they come back. I went to the news wire that stated about the revision and tried to send an e-mail to Wrinn. The link in red on the below quote sent my computer into a heart attack. So every time selected any trains item got a link asking for e mail, face book, or twitter. But the links would not work. re boot no help but a quick system restore has the computer working OK. Any ideas ?
"Our new website is a great step forward to continue to deliver great stories, news, and compelling images to our customers," says Trains Editor Jim Wrinn. "We hope that everyone will enjoy the new experience, and if you have ideas as to how to make it better, please send feedback to me at editor@trainsmag.com."
This is not a political statement! Did Kalmbach hire the programmers and analysts that caused the initial roll out of the Affordable Care Act software to crash?
BaltACD This is not a political statement! Did Kalmbach hire the programmers and analysts that caused the initial roll out of the Affordable Care Act software to crash?
blue streak 1 Had noted that news wire is dropping articles randomly. Then they come back. I went to the news wire that stated about the revision and tried to send an e-mail to Wrinn. The link in red on the below quote sent my computer into a heart attack. So every time selected any trains item got a link asking for e mail, face book, or twitter. But the links would not work. re boot no help but a quick system restore has the computer working OK. Any ideas ? "Our new website is a great step forward to continue to deliver great stories, news, and compelling images to our customers," says Trains Editor Jim Wrinn. "We hope that everyone will enjoy the new experience, and if you have ideas as to how to make it better, please send feedback to me at editor@trainsmag.com."
It is possible that something got stored in the browser cache or in a cookie that needed to be cleared to get back in control of the system again. There are ways to clear these things but not so easy to do so selectively or even to know which to select to clear or not clear!
I am sure your browser has a way to completely clear the cache and to delete all cookies ("how", depends on which browser you have) and there are programs that you can get (some for free) that will allow selective cookie deletion.
Clearing the cache is not usually a problem as it is only used to reduce the time to fetch data from a web site a second time (i.e.: if you open a page to read it, go away from it and then come back, the data to display is already there so it does not need to be downloaded, but the browser does do a verification that it has the latest data so on things like a forum list of topics, it might need to download everything all over again anyway).
Deleting all the cookies is not so free of problems... many websites store configuration information in a cookie on your computer (things like what colors you have selected or what order you want informatin displayed or your password so that when you go to the website each day, you are automatically logged on). So if you delete all cookies you risk losing your preferences on some websites for your use. You may have to re-log in to those sites again (do you even remember your password!?), and/or do some Preferences setups over again.
The 3rd party programs that will do this "house cleaning" will often let you list which cookies you want to keep when you have the program "toss your cookies"... the problem being that you need to know which to keep and which are okay to toss and when you have a problem like described above you might have to toss one that you would otherwise want to keep... such as, it is possible that the Trains dot Com cookie stores not only your password, but also has a flag that says you are trying to open an e-mail program to send feedback. So to clear the problem you would need to toss that cookie and thus would also lose the indication that you want to log-in automatically and have to set it again.
I do recommend "CCleaner" (yes, two "C"s at the beginning) as a program to clean junk off your computer. The default setup is pretty safe to use, but don't go changing the setup without knowing what you are doing (I have shot myself in the foot many times when learning what all the options do, but then I accept the problems in exchange for the education!). Also, remember that you need to tell it which cookies to keep if you don't want to lose certain ones. Most systems will have hundreds of cookies and only a half dozen or less are important to keep and the first time you mess with the program you will be overwhelmed by the lists of garbage that you need to sort though to find the good ones and toss the useless ones! It can be daunting to the average user.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Thanks: --- the cookie problem is why I did system restore to just before the problem. Still it was a good thing that no Trains ITs were near by.
Biggest peve is still not being able to permanently select descending order as have to go back thru an ascending order thread.
Next is not having spell check working as I make many tpyos n
blue streak 1 Semper Vaporo Thanks: --- the cookie problem is why I did system restore to just before the problem. Still it was a good thing that no Trains ITs were near by. Biggest peve is still not being able to permanently select descending order as have to go back thru an ascending order thread. Next is not having spell check working as I make many tpyos n
The sorting thing... look just below your user name at the top right of any Trains dot com page... click on the "Settings" link. On the page that comes up click on the "Advanced Options" tab near the top, then click on "Reverse" next to "SORT POSTS:" and see if that will alter the sort to your liking... I assume it will remember that setting, but since I like the "Oldest to Newest" sort, I have not tried to change it. Be sure to click on "SAVE" at the bottom of the page!
Funny thing: if you use "quick reply" you don't have the tool bar with all the options, but you do have spellchecker. If post then go back and edit, you have all the tools but no spellchecker.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.