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  • #2248180

    [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

    Locked

    by jdclyde ·

    Just started to look around and right off the bat see a few things I like and something I HATE.

    First, the active post that you are reading is MUCH easier to find. How many times have you opened a link from your subscription in a 200 pluss discussion and then want to see what that person was replying to? Was a bit of a pain to find, but now it is BOLD and DARK Black.

    What do I absolutely HATE? The posts that you have read do not show up differently than the ones you have not, so it is hard to tell which you have read and which you have not. [b]Hatehatehate this BUG.[/b]

    A dislike is the “NEW” is too close to the color of the posts, so they don’t show up very well.

    Both of these changes will make discussions less appealing, as it greatly hinders the ability to follow along and stay up.

    General feel seems nice. Wonder about the large font and avitar size in the contact lists thought. Seems like making that a little smaller would allow you to see more at a time.

    I also wonder about the pushing of “TAGS” over discussions so much. Why?

    The pages SEEM to be loading well, but late on a sunday night, the server probably isn’t under a lot of strain, huh?

    What does everyone else think so far?

All Comments

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    Replies
    • #3280843

      [b]seems like discussions are not very important?[/b]

      by jdclyde ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Looking around the site, it seems like the discussion community is being downplayed greatly.

      Is this the case, or am I just experiencing “growing pains” to the new layout?

      The choice of fonts and colors makes the pages listing the discussions hard to read and harder to follow.

      • #3280824

        another “not like”

        by cbalness ·

        In reply to [b]seems like discussions are not very important?[/b]

        I am having a hard time finding discussions, in that it used to be mapped out under general topics, and conversations thereunder…

        eg:
        miscellaneous, friday yuk

        this doesn’t seem to be quite as user friendly.

        • #3280821

          Discussions by Category

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to another “not like”

          There is still a breakout of discussions by category on the [b]Browse[/b] tab of the [b]Forums[/b] page. When you drill down into a category (e.g. Windows, Networking, etc), the discussions are listed in reverse chronological order of when the discussion was started.

          Note: “Miscellaneous” has been renamed to “Off Topic”.

        • #3280103

          discussion tree

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Discussions by Category

          Two things that have been discarded with the new design that I’d like to see brought back:

          1. Please differentiate discussion posts that have already been read from those that have not (I’m guessing this would have something to do with an a:visited CSS property). Without that, it will be far more difficult to keep track of what we have or have not seen in a discussion, which will in turn be a disincentive for those of us who use the dicussion forum to come to TR.

          2. I’d like to see the asterisks by the word “NEW” reappear, or something similarly unique on the page. Something I habitually use for discussion navigation here is the search bar in Firefox, with [b]*new*[/b] as the search term, so that I can jump forward and backward through the list of recent posts. Now that there aren’t any asterisks around the word “NEW”, that doesn’t work any longer, which makes keeping up with new material somewhat more of a hassle.

          Otherwise, I quite like the new design. If only the max discussion depth had been increased, and the above two introduced problems were fixed, it’d be about perfect.

      • #3280523

        I think you’re right, not just “growing pains”.

        by absolutely ·

        In reply to [b]seems like discussions are not very important?[/b]

        Where are “My Discussions”? It’s now less convenient to find discussions in which I have recently posted without subscribing.

        Verdict: HATE!

        Other dislikes:
        1) baby blue color scheme with alternating message titles in white/baby blue, but max message level limitation still not fixed

        2) commercials more important than messages?
        How about moving the commercials and other page clutter from the right side of this page to the emails that notify us of new posts to our subscribed threads? Then at least the max message level could be a bit greater, and less limiting, if you can’t eliminate the limitation. I promise, I’ll still follow the links – to the advertisers selling something [b]I want![/b]

        • #3280104

          re: advertising

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to I think you’re right, not just “growing pains”.

          I don’t think their business model would survive removing the advertisement column from the discussion pages, and that column is also used for stuff I would like to keep handy anyway. For instance, I love the new Recommended/Contacts/Updates block. That’s an excellent use of space.

          I do agree that additional width, in part to increase the “max depth” level, would be good. I think the best way to get that, though, is to either remove the thin floating “Hot Spot” bar on the right-hand side or somehow integrate it with the width of the rest of the page content. Maybe a narrow horizontal band across the top somewhere, if it absolutely [b]must[/b] be prominent and present. If not, just chuck the damned thing. Getting it out of the width of the page would allow the main content area to be widened and, where it is now, I just ignore the thing anyway.

        • #3280084

          [b]re: re: advertising[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to re: advertising

          One thing that is nice that they fixed was the way the page would load. You would get content and then at the last second everything would shift to make room for the ads. Was VERY annoying.

          I don’t mind the ads, provided they load quickly. Some of the very animated ones always make me go “hmmmmmm”.

          The “Hot Spot” bar has up to this day never had anything in it I have cared about, so it has always been a complete waste of space to me (but if it generates lots of revenue, it doesn’t really bother me).

        • #3221371

          Good point.

          by absolutely ·

          In reply to [b]re: re: advertising[/b]

          Everything stays put. I didn’t remember how annoying that was until you mentioned it. How appropriate.

        • #3221222

          I do like the

          by zlitocook ·

          In reply to [b]re: re: advertising[/b]

          New site but yes the ads, should be in the side bar not how to and other things. And when some of the ads load it will do a screen refresh. It reloads the whole page quite annoying.

      • #3279990

        Discussions? What discussions?

        by too old for it ·

        In reply to [b]seems like discussions are not very important?[/b]

        No discussions button, no way to find the discussions I was involved with.

        ARRRGGGHHHH!

    • #3280815

      number one critical error

      by jaqui ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      “TechRepublic requires javascript for most site functionality. If you are seeing this message, please check your browser settings and enable javascript.”

      bad, very very bad.

      • #3280775

        [b]In the age of increased Linux use[/b]

        by jdclyde ·

        In reply to number one critical error

        it really is surprising to still see this. 🙁

        Was REAL cool over the weekend! Dell has a comercial for Servers with pre-installed Linux. While the experienced user would wipe and reload, think how this can help get new users pulled in if it is now an off-the-shelf option?

        • #3280671

          chuckle, its susie

          by danlm ·

          In reply to [b]In the age of increased Linux use[/b]

          We are looking at those servers right now.
          And no, that was nock at susie. It’s just not what management wants right at the moment.

          Dan

        • #3280616

          Not only Dell…

          by dawgit ·

          In reply to [b]In the age of increased Linux use[/b]

          HP, IBM, FSC, Thomas Kern, and, and, and….
          maybe I just spolied over here…
          It’s been that way for a while. (and the costs are amazingly lower, w/o all the MS Licencing load)

        • #3280544

          [b]yes, only dell :p[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to Not only Dell…

          You have Linux servers advertised on TV “over there”? Cool. This was the one and only time I have seen it on the tube.

        • #3280020

          Seen it for IBM for a long time….

          by jamesrl ·

          In reply to [b]In the age of increased Linux use[/b]

          But they don’t advertise as much as they used to.

          James

        • #3221742
          Avatar photo

          IBM where saying at their last meeting

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to Seen it for IBM for a long time….

          That they where currently running at a 60-40 mix of Linux to Windows on their server products which they found amassing. They thought that they would have greater % of Windows Sales but have found more are using Linux.

          With the promise of having a fix for a problem in 48 hours MAX for either Red Hat or SUSE why would anyone consider using Windows on a Mission Critical Server?

          Col

    • #3280794

      judgement reserved

      by shellbot ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      dunno guys..
      ok, i like the cleaner look..but maybe its too clean?

      -I don’t like browsing by tags..
      -I want to see a list of My Discusions..not
      a list of each post i’ve read recently. (maybe i’m clicking on the wrong thing??)
      -In the discussions list (hot, new etc) the font is a wee bit large or soemthing..dunno..just looks off..

      i suppose it will take a while to get used to..its not all bad guys..but for us creatures of habit its a bit bewildering..(ok, maybe thats just me)

      • #3280774

        [b]Yes Shell, it is just you…..[/b]

        by jdclyde ·

        In reply to judgement reserved

        :p

        The discussions really seem to have taken a back seat. Sad. Don’t I look at their pretty ads on the pages, providing them lots of hit?

        I even buy books now and then!

        But it is the discussions that bring me back. Would be a shame if this broke my addiction.

        • #3280766

          slinks away quietly

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to [b]Yes Shell, it is just you…..[/b]

          ok..if its just me then 🙁

          ya, if we complain enough, will they sort it out though?

          i don’t want my addiction broken. most of my days are just not so good lately, and its nice to come on an whine, or share with others..or just feel better because others are having a sh1t day as well..

        • #3280762

          We are listening

          by jfpsf ·

          In reply to slinks away quietly

          We are listening, and will keep tweaking

        • #3280760

          wow

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to We are listening

          that was quick..

          you guys are on the ball at least 🙂

        • #3280753

          [b]This might get interesting[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to wow

          did they add another layer before the “max level”?

          Haven’t seen it yet, but wonder if they fixed having to follow a thread back a level and post a reply to that to add your reply in! How hard is it to just reply and have it throw the reply at the end on the max level?

        • #3280752

          [b]Just going for max level[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to [b]This might get interesting[/b]

          to see how they handle it!

          B-)

        • #3280737

          Max Level Reached

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to [b]This might get interesting[/b]

          JD, that hasn’t changed. In order to post a reply you have to go back to the tail.

          Oh well.

        • #3280736

          [b]Handling of max level still bites[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to [b]This might get interesting[/b]

          The only difference now is the notice to inform someone that they have reached it does not stand out because the black text blends in with everything else.

          Good thing this isn’t THAT big a deal, and surely not a deal breaker.

        • #3280615

          tweekie-tweekie :^0

          by dawgit ·

          In reply to We are listening

          Yup, I can hear the sound of busy tweeking all the way over here. :0
          (good little TR elves, 😉 now you keep up the work, ok?) :p

        • #3279954

          So speaks….

          by vetch_101 ·

          In reply to We are listening

          The voice from on high….

        • #3280754

          [b]Exactly Shell[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to slinks away quietly

          No fuctionality or changed screen colors and layout mean anything to me if it means giving up the discussions in the manner we have been using them.

          Sure, I have been working on getting more and more into the technical discussions (it was a goal of mine, that has been going well), but that was in ADDITION to the personal discussions, not instead of.

          Things I need is to be able to find EASILY are:

          1) Posts by my contacts.
          2) Know which posts I have read and which ones I have not read.
          3) “NEW” posts NEED to jump out more.

          If I get these three, it is happy dance time! But not until.

        • #3280734

          Right there with you, JD

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to [b]Exactly Shell[/b]

          I have been trying to figure out what I have read and not read.

          I think that they lost some of the user experience with the change. *sigh*

        • #3221221

          I have also bought books

          by zlitocook ·

          In reply to [b]Yes Shell, it is just you…..[/b]

          And pay a fee for Techpro or techrepublic pro. Hmmm

    • #3280738

      Ok, won’t pull any punches….

      by gadgetgirl ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      jd, I’m in agreement with you for the most part.

      This is a lot less intuitive than it used to be; in total honesty, if I’d just found the site now, I don’t think I’d have had the time or patience to hang around and “learn” it.

      Yes, it’s a nice, bright, clean feel, and I understand why TR PTB has gone primarily for blue (W3C accreds) but for those of us with normal-ish site, it’s not that easily readable. Font size seems small (and yes, my reading vision is still perfect, it’s double decker buses in the distance I have trouble with!) but the prime fault here is the same colour being used for the “NEW” posts in the thread.

      Like the idea of knowing which post you’re reading on a thread; but agreeing again with jd (make the most of it, babz!) unless I remember the title, I don’t know which posts I’ve read….

      Took me a while to find the Water Cooler, too, but I remembered the hint Jay gave last week, so got there within about 10 mins.

      Number of posts to a thread is no longer available until you get into the thread; and then you may find one post you haven’t read…. some of us leave the thorough reading until it’s worthwhile…and use the print button which I’m relieved to see still working.

      Now. Sorry in advance, but which BRIGHT SPARK took the help files off the site??

      I’ve been trying to chance my pm address since May, (intermittently, I admit, but when time allows, I was re-trying) and at least prior to the site change, there where some help files that I was working my way through. Now they’ve gone. Eh? Do I have to plague Jay/Smorty/Doug to change it for me?? (yes, it’s the email addy currently in use bit…)

      Like the idea of seeing who’s online when I’m posting! Love that one! 10/10 from me on that.

      I STILL think it’s a good idea for SOMEONE from TR to check these auto links that decide the Hot Topics – then you’d stop promoting the spammers……. I understand why it’s an automated process, guys, but surely considering the number of times this has happened, or you’ve had obscenities through it on the home page, I would have thought you’d have put a process of checking into place by now.

      Search funtion seems good – even if it doesn’t understand my sense of humour!

      Oh, and if you’re using timed posts, I’d suggest putting somewhere on the site which time you’re using You have more than one timezone over there! S’not fair! It’s confusing – this is a world wide site! (remember my chronological challenge, please. If I’m at home, I can have my world clock on another tab, but at work we’re still IE )

      All in all, I think the site is brighter, but you may want to rethink some of the discussion side of things before it’s too late for reversion, and you start leaking members like a colander.

      I know there were other things, but brain is non-funtional again today (home – sick again, and totally fed up)[oh, that might just explain my presence for the last 2 days all over the new site design like a rash, btw]

      Finally – – -and you knew this was coming – – –

      WHERE MY SPOOLCHEEKER???

      even more importantly – – – – – – – –

      [B] WHERE ARE THE EXTRA EMOTICONS???? [/B]

      😀

      GG

      Edit: remembered something – don’t we have any way of finding out posts made/threads started stats anymore?

      • #3280733

        [b]Number of new posts[/b]

        by jdclyde ·

        In reply to Ok, won’t pull any punches….

        Number of new posts IS important, because it lets you know if you need to bother loading that page vs going somewhere else.

        Hope your feeling better, my dear.

        😡

    • #3280727

      “The Connection has timed out”

      by jdclyde ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      [i]”The Connection has timed out
      The server at ad.doubleclick.net is taking too long to respond”
      [/i]

      Got this message more than once in the blank space to the right were there is suppose to be an ad.

      Back when we were getting a lot of timed out errors, I wondered aloud at that point how much it had to do with waiting to load from third party sites.

      • #3281282

        Hey JD, switch to Firefox, it has some lovely tweaks

        by deadly ernest ·

        In reply to “The Connection has timed out”

        Because I have a slow speed dial up, I have a real issue with ads taking up bandwidth, especially when the ads are usually for products and services I can’t utilise, the USA specials aren’t available to us down here.

        So Firefox 1.5 has this setting where you can tell it to refuse all stuff from particular sites or domains. Thus, I don’t get to see most ads on most sites, and it leads to a better experience with most of the USA based sites. Interestingly, the few sites that have a way to detect I’m Australian and provide ads with Australian content, do manage to get through the adblock program, seems they come from a different domain to ad.doubleclick.net and thus not on the black list.

        What is interesting, is the difference in time loading the pages with block on and block off. Without the block I’d spend most of the day waiting for ads to appear.

      • #3221512

        I get

        by tonythetiger ·

        In reply to “The Connection has timed out”

        “This page blocked by adninistrator” in that spot. (I have doubleclick.net (and others) blocked at my router 🙂 )

    • #3280709

      Edited out

      by ontheropes ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Edited out

      • #3281280

        Hey NB, try giving it a bit more time, they’re listening

        by deadly ernest ·

        In reply to Edited out

        and tweaking to suit the comments. Now if they will only show a 3 letter code for the state, with my posts. In the profile they show NSW, but the abbreviated form that goes with the post still only sayd NS – Hey guys – I’m not in Nova Scotia, that’s New South Wales. I’m a New South Welshman of Welsh ancestry, not Scottish, it’s also a lot warmer down here.

        • #3281270

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Hey NB, try giving it a bit more time, they’re listening

          Edited out

        • #3281265

          Sorry, the last post read a lot like

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Edited out

          Hello, goodbye, I’m out of here – and I thought you should stick around.

          Re the blogs, you don’t have to give up blogging, just start an Off Topic on the blog subject or one called NB’s Blog, and post to it regularly, they may get the message and return it. Mind you I’ve found the majority of blogs to be a waste of time and now only read one if an interesting thread refers to it.

        • #3281237

          about the blogs

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Edited out

          I, for one, abandoned my TR blog when the technical problems and crummy bugs that came with it overwhelmed my patience. All my technical weblog posts started getting made off-site, at [url=http://sob.apotheon.org][b]my main weblog[/b][/url]. I used its RSS feed to dump stuff into my TR weblog in case anyone was interested, but after the second or third time even [i]that[/i] broke, I just gave up entirely.

          The only problem I had with TR tossing out the TR blogs is the fact that my old archived stuff would vanish with it, so I spent several hours copying everything into text files. Kind of a pain in the butt.

          Maybe a link to an off-site weblog in your profile is all that you need. It works for me.

      • #3221219

        My hand is up!

        by zlitocook ·

        In reply to Edited out

        I realy miss the TQandA and I dont mean Hooters. 🙂 I always found it interesting and even used some of them.

    • #3280708

      Well my first reponse to this thread

      by tony hopkinson ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      never arrived !
      Perhaps I should have been more complementary!
      LOL

      Going to reserve judgment on the usability ’til I’ve got used to it.

      A few points though
      A lot of real estate for navigation.

      A filter for questions and discussions would be nice.

      After running around panicing about my blog there it is in all it’s glory ! Huh !

      Some idea of activity on the item would be nice.

      My .. recent etc seem to be listing by post not topic, so repeating. Given the amount of space you’ve devoted to each item, this is annoying.

      I wsn’t at all happy with your attempt to glean company name and contact details either, one hopes that sort of thing won’t become a habit.

      • #3280695

        Null Response

        by tig2 ·

        In reply to Well my first reponse to this thread

        Just like “3 Day Walker” isn’t a city. I was pretty put off by the REQUIREMENT that I provide a street address. I finally provided the information that I was comfortable with. Good luck to anyone trying to find 000 Main St!

        The ability to obscure personal information was one of the good things…

        • #3280689

          This preoccupation with…

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to Null Response

          This preoccupation with truthfully answering every question is overrated. We were all taught it as little boys and little girls and it still haunts many of us.

          I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about Tigger.

          There’s an old cynical saying that covers this well: [i]Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.[/i] Good advice for adults (but not to be taught to children).

          My aging mother is still too timid to just cut off the telesales callers who bug her at her home at her dinner time. I’m WAY over that and don’t even break stride anymore. Wasn’t always that way.

          You did the right thing.

        • #3280673

          Thanks TechExec

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to This preoccupation with…

          You only have to deal with ID theft one time and it changes you completely. I am VERY careful with my personal information and likely always will be.

          Pity about the world we live in that one must be so careful.

          The terrible thing is that I was taught to answer truthfully. I have had to add my own caveat- unless the information is going to an online resource. I draw the line there.

          *sigh*

        • #3280654

          added value

          by lowlands ·

          In reply to Thanks TechExec

          For me there seems to be no added value to providing a lot of personal information on this website. Not to me at least, it just feels like one of these things where you end up with having your personal info sold to who knows how many marketeers.

          I believe that for this site I was actually pretty honest for a change, hmmm, must have had a lapse in judgement the day I signed up 🙂

        • #3280611

          I don’t give stuff like that away

          by tony hopkinson ·

          In reply to Null Response

          I don’t consider the opportunity to recieve better targetted spam a suitable payment.

          I’m thinking a TR mug per letter, Great Britain as a location should mean I always have one available and that the dishwasher is fully utilised.

          Oh I forget us types from the mother country don’t get anything off TR do we ?

          More seriously I cannot see any value at all that I accrue from this site by handing out that sort of personal information, not to mention the problems with construing that somehow my opinions on anything were in any way representive of my employer’s.

        • #3280564

          I thought I had beaten this crap the last time

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to Null Response

          but it still came up.

          Now I work for X and live at 0 Y.

    • #3280702

      I know it is just me

      by onbliss ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      My first impression about the “Forums” tab was that the old user interface was better than the current one.

      The “Browse by Tag” box that appears on the right could have been placed below to get more reading real estate.

      The whole box with the user name, job role, location, member since with the “recommended”, “my updates” tab does not do much for me.

      Learning new navigation is fine, by large fonts and graphics seem to have occurpied the screen real estate.

      It definitely delayed my posting this weekend . Kind of drove me way 🙁 .

      • #3280559

        It’s not just you.

        by nicknielsen ·

        In reply to I know it is just me

        I would prefer to have more horizontal real estate devoted to the thread.

        * I know who I am and have seen the recommendations at the Front Door; if I want to check them out, I already have.
        * If I’m in a thread, I’m not usually interested in browsing messages by tags; I’ll use a separate tab for that from the Forums door
        * If there has to be an advert on the thread page, mount it horizontally between the page header and the message.

        I do like the lighter appearance and have the same problems everybody else does finding new posts. As for following what I’ve already read, I almost always Print the thread, so it only takes half a sec to realize that I’ve already been there.

    • #3280698

      hmmm….not sure

      by lowlands ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      The general “look” is ok. And maybe I haven’t gotten around on the site too much yet to totally understand it. But…

      I am not sure why I can’t view questions seperately from discussions.

      The tags thing, looks to me like TR wants to be a little too much Web v2. Kind of like youtube, metacafe, flickr or any of those post your video/picture sites.

      I’ll give it a while, but I can see myself drifting away from TR

    • #3280696

      I want the old My Discussions page back!

      by tink! ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      I like the workspace and the new look, but I want to have the old My Discussions page too. I used that screen [b][i]all the time[/b][/i] because the best part was that it showed the number of posts, so you could easily tell which ones had new posts [b]without having to click on it![/b]

      Tink

      • #3280686

        Next page? Thread path? New flags?

        by alangeek ·

        In reply to I want the old My Discussions page back!

        Ok, so I’m the only one that uses it, but it was so nice that you had finally gotten the “Next page” function fixed again so that it didn’t go off to a Dice.com ad, and even better yet, set it so that it would work on the photo pages too!

        And now, suddenly, no next page function at all. Hopefully, this will just be one of the lower-priority things that will be coming, I just need to be patient.

        The other thing I notice is missing is the “path” thingie at the top of the discussion pages that show where you are in the TR structure. Being able to back out to a particular level is much easier than having to go back to the main tab and work your way in again. Hopefully this will also be coming soon.

        Otherwise, so far so good. I mostly come in via links in the newsletters, so I don’t use the front door or other structures so much, but I do see that articles now display much better in Opera 9 than before, which the Opera community had dismissed as being non-compliant coding on TR’s part. Whatever the reason, it looks better now. The highlighting of the current post is WAY better than before.

        As far as the “NEW!” stickers, red definitely stood out much better. If that’s not going to change, another approach might be to put a flag in a single column either at the left or right side of the thread view so it would be easier to find. Having them just tacked on the end of the posting title makes them harder to find than always having them in a specific place.

        Oh, yeah, the time zone thing really ought to be fixed so that everyone sees times relative to their time zone. Listing everything as Pacific is just kinda weird.

        -Alan

        • #3280033

          Ok, that was very funny

          by alangeek ·

          In reply to Next page? Thread path? New flags?

          Quite cute guys, nice joke. “Next page” from any post in this discussion goes to my post about “Next page”. But really, will this be changed? If not, I’ll live with it, but it would be nice to have. It still works properly on the photo pages, which is very nice.

          Thanks,
          -Alan

      • #3280644

        Gottta agree there

        by mickster269 ·

        In reply to I want the old My Discussions page back!

        The “My Discussions” page was rather handy- I could pop in, see if there was anything new to the threads I had commented on, and pop out.

        Now, I gotta dig around and try and see if there is anything new added.

      • #3281331

        Me too

        by oz_media ·

        In reply to I want the old My Discussions page back!

        You have to visit forums before MyDyscussions link is available.

        Then it lists all posts to your discussions, not just which discussions have new posts, which I much prefer.

    • #3280670

      I need to really try their new search, and see what I can find

      by danlm ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      I am doing a heck of a lot of research right now for work, and I have been using this place pretty heavily for some of it. I think I’m going to be pounding on their new search to see if I can find hits(white papers, discussions, and q/a) on any given topic.

      I like the personal discussions, but the reason I first started coming here was the technical information this site contains. Lol, and right now I need all the reference material I can get my hands on.

      Dan

    • #3280665

      B-) Technical Questions and Answers B-)

      by senior program analyst ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      It appears some things have changed in this area of your website.
      I placed a question out there and have recieved an answer. I did mark one of the answers as being of help (thumbs up). However are you not doing any point awards now?
      Also; How do I close the question now that I have an answer – no need to bother others who are looking to help when I have an answer already. I dont mind leaving he question / answers so that others can learn, but it would be good to mark the question as to no further replys needed or simular – especially if I want to take it off my notifications.

      • #3221738
        Avatar photo

        Tech Points are now a thing of the past

        by hal 9000 ·

        In reply to B-) Technical Questions and Answers B-)

        The Thumbs Up sign is supposed to show that the question has been answered and should show that it has been answered to a successful conclusion the End Question Option has been removed because far too many people where not closing questions so it was thought that there was a better way of doing things and this is it. Though like previous questions they remain on the site for others to learn from.

        Col

    • #3280640

      Still can’t change avatar

      by dr dij ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Is this because I am a prehistorical relic of the last century? (joined in 1999)

      even tried one of the built in pix, no change.

      • #3280635

        Dr Dij

        by tig2 ·

        In reply to Still can’t change avatar

        This may help:
        Go to your profile. Edit it to add content to each subsection- even if that edit is to add the word “test”. Clear your cache. Now try adding an avatar.

        Let me know if this works. There are others that have struggled with this.

        Good Luck!

        • #3280584

          Yahoo!!!

          by dr dij ·

          In reply to Dr Dij

          it worked! Thank you!
          (I never would have imagined software that would have a bug like that!)

          Just wait till I find that unguessable photo to use as an avatar 🙂

          From the Leopards of Africa, a hearty Thank You! (ok , I get a little too involved when watching those shows)

        • #3280557

          Glad to know it worked

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Yahoo!!!

          Doug mentioned that they have a bug logged for it. When we did the “Pink Ribbon Brigade” it came up often and we discovered the fix through the good work of NickNielsen and lowlands.

          Glad to see you in living colour!

        • #2590727

          need to break yahoo password

          by rajkumarcm ·

          In reply to Yahoo!!!

          There is some problem in personal life related in this email acct xxx_punter@yahoo.co.in. I just need to break password of that yahoo and i need that. So pls give me tips to break the pswd of this acct and very important i don’t the answers for the security question asked in the yahoo site. So give me tjhe tips to break the password of this e-mail acct and reply as soon as possible.

      • #3280631

        I’ve logged that bug

        by debuggist ·

        In reply to Still can’t change avatar

        The workaround is to add text to your biography. It could take as little as one character.

      • #3280605

        Agree and…

        by dawgit ·

        In reply to Still can’t change avatar

        Is there some way to put a location in, when we’re not in the US, Somehow? (as in Germany, folks) ?:|

    • #3280634

      Plus the thread format is still the same old

      by tink! ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      blech! Still don’t like how we have to read each message one by one (unless you hit print but then you can’t tell which one’s you’ve read although it sounds like the new site is not showing that anyway…whew..take deep breath)

      Would still love to see expandable threads where you just click expand or collapse (+ or -) to see or not see all the replies to a post. Rather than Next, Next, Next, Next….

      Tink

      • #3280099

        I would rather……

        by emar1000 ·

        In reply to Plus the thread format is still the same old

        see a different format of the threads myself as well. This isnt really bad but it isnt the most user friendly either. I personally like the format of the php message boards. Lets go by the 3 click rule. It is much easier and faster to scroll through the thread than clicking a dozen times for replies and waiting for it to load. Just my 2 cents worth.

    • #3280610

      Nope, Nada, Nil

      by curlergirl ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Maybe I’m just having a negative day, but I just DON’T LIKE IT AT ALL! I feel like I’m lost in a maze of tags. I feel like I’m being boxed in and constrained by the tags that happen to be put on people’s posts – how do they get there anyway? Does the poster specify them? Anway, I just DON’T like it. My mind is too linear. I want to find a topic and follow it to the end. When I go to “Off Topic” I want to see only Off Topic things, not something someone posted about SQL that somehow got a tag of “off topic.” Off whose topic?

      I’m verra dis-appointed.

      • #3280595

        You do know why Tags are required, right?

        by mickster269 ·

        In reply to Nope, Nada, Nil

        It’s all part of the “Patriot Act”.

        TR needs to know exactly which thread knows what other thread, and how they interact.

        “New World Order” and all that. I blame it on Dick Cheney, Haliburton, and jdclyde.

        • #3280592

          NOW you’ve done it!!! :0

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to You do know why Tags are required, right?

          NOW you’ve done it!!!

          You would have gotten away with it if you had only mentioned “Patriot Act”, “New World Order”, “Cheney”, and “Halliburton” in a single post. Adding “jdclyde” puts you over the limit and the NSA human analysts will be on you now! :0

          :^0

        • #3221217

          MIB are coming! Or is it

          by zlitocook ·

          In reply to NOW you’ve done it!!! :0

          Men in cyber suits? Never say any thing about people in politics? I just know that change happens and you are not asked about it. Just accept it or else.

        • #3279995

          I’m tagless

          by curlergirl ·

          In reply to You do know why Tags are required, right?

          I refuse to use tags, read tags, write tags, or have any functional relationship with tags. To me, tags should be neither seen nor heard. They will not be served at my table nor welcome in my home. Tags are to be banished from my kingdom, as they are godless and blasphemous. :-}

        • #3279981

          Tag! Your It!

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to I’m tagless


          You now officially are no longer “tagless”

          B-)

        • #3279970

          SHREEEEEIK!!

          by curlergirl ·

          In reply to Tag! Your It!

          I’m melllltttiiiinnnggggggggg……………

      • #3280038

        me neither

        by sgt_shultz ·

        In reply to Nope, Nada, Nil

        i miss the old q & a and the points. sure the points were good for nothing but it was fun to rack ’em up. i find the new layout confusing and hard to use. none of the old bugs have been fixed and now we have lots of new ones. sheesh. the only think i like that is new layout is that i can edit my posts when i fat finger. too bad. good bye tech republic it was fun for a while there…this new layout just encourages off topic rants imho. i can get those anyday anywhere…

        • #3221213

          Hey dont leave

          by zlitocook ·

          In reply to me neither

          Yes I now go to other sites for the TQ&A but there is still alot of good stuff here. Even if cnet seems to uh do allot, it is still a good sourch of information.

    • #3280585

      at least I found the filters

      by lowlands ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      It turns out you can filter by discussion and questions after all. Granted, it is not all to handy or obvious but it works.

      In both Hot Threads and New threads, select view all, and all of a sudden a little filter selection pops up. You can only filter either Hot or New threads that way (not all threads), but it’s better than nothing.

      • #3280554

        lowlands, try this

        by tig2 ·

        In reply to at least I found the filters

        You can also filter when you are in a “tag” or topic. From the door, go to the fourth tab- called “Browse”. Select a “Tag”. Once the page for that tag opens, over the box with your avatar, you will see the same filter buttons.

        It really isn’t so bad once you are accustomed to it.

        I’ve also seen posts about questions being more difficult to navigate through because you have to open each post. Use the handy “print” button to lay out all responses. That way you can know if your fix has been suggested or if you have something to add to someone elses post. I keep a tab for discussions in print layout with the live discussion in a seperate tab so that I can post without hitting “next” a hundred times.

        • #3280551

          Well aren’t you the clever one? :)

          by stress junkie ·

          In reply to lowlands, try this

          I agree with you. I think the changes are okay. I finally got something that I had lobbied for, a way to distinguish the post that you are reading from the others in the list. I know that the old site had grey titles in the current post but it didn’t help me. Now the post that you are reading is bold black and has a pink background. I’m very happy with that. It would be better if it had a crimson background and maybe white letters in the
          title, or maybe a purple background with yellow letters, or even … Oh, forget it. Anyway, the black on pink is much better than the old way.

          I like having the steps to enter a post laid out in step by step format. I didn’t know that you entered a title before you write the body of the post. I had been doing it wrong at least half of the time. 😀

          One problem that I’m having is that when I’m typing a post the right side of the window to type into is overlaid by the box that has my name and other information. I’d say that at least 4 characters are covered by this box so I can’t see exactly what I’m typing on the right side until I post it and read it.

          Now I’ve noticed that posts have the date and TIME that they were initially posted and the date and time of the last edit. Very nice.

          I think that most of the gripes are just because people don’t like change. Ever.

        • #3280525

          thanks! but….. :)

          by lowlands ·

          In reply to lowlands, try this

          That will get you the discussions or question that have the specific tag.

          O well, I’ll get used to it all.

    • #3280565

      BLEAH! Many complaints…

      by gralfus ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Once I found what used to be Discussions, I tried to reply to this posting and it made me re-register with TR and demanded a host of information from me, even though my icon and name were already showing.

      The layout is non-intuitive, the read discussions are not marked as such, changing the names of the places we are used to going was stupid.

      I’m going to wait a month and check back it to see if any of this has been fixed. If not, I’ll find another hangout. I guess they figure change for the sake of change was good. They were wrong.

    • #3280540

      I think it has a more polished look

      by av . ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      But it has a ways to go with usability. When I get to the homepage, I click on forums, but that doesn’t show you anything but the new and hot threads. The only way to get to a forum that I can see is to search for it. A list of the actual forums available would be helpful on the page.

      If I’m looking for the miscellaneous forum, and search under off-topic, I’m not sure that I’m really seeing all of the miscellaneous/off-topic or only those threads that were tagged off-topic. Personally, I’ve never tagged, so will it pick up my old posts or not? I don’t know.

      I think tags are useful as a way to focus in on a certain subject, but the page only shows the most popular tags and doesn’t show a way to look at the rest of the tags. Curiously JD, you have a popular tag under off-topic. Hmm. You must have been an obsessive tagger. 😀

      If I compare the old site to the new, I’d have to say the one thing I miss is the ability to access everything you wanted with one click from the home page. One click and you were there. Yes, the old TR looked somewhat rudimentary from a visual standpoint, but it was intuitive and useful.

      I think this interface can be even better if TR will incorporate that easy functionality into it.

      • #3280091

        Hi AV!

        by tig2 ·

        In reply to I think it has a more polished look

        From the forums “door” you should see a four tabbed box that will show you “new”, “hot”, “posts from contacts”, and “browse”. I use “posts from contacts” mostly.

        The only time that you ever were asked to tag in the old world was when you started a post. Makes you think that JD needs a life???

        The ability to navigate is still there… we still need to find the best way. They promise that tweaks are coming… but they may not do everything that we want.

        Still trying to assemble that FAQ- but have a start in Nick’s thread about double posts.

        • #3279846

          Aha! The browse tab

          by av . ·

          In reply to Hi AV!

          Thanks Tigger! Now I know for sure I’ve definitely been on the computer too long, but I know for sure JD holds the record. 😀

          I’m sure they’ll do a good job tweaking the site. I know we’ll never get rid of the MAX level has been reached though. Oh well.

          Looking forward to FAQs. I’ll check out Nick’s thread.

          AV

    • #3280524

      Harder to find discussions

      by delbertpgh ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      If I look at “my discussions”, I see a list of everything I have posted… and if I posted ten times to one discussion, there are ten items in the list. What’s that good for? Nothing. If I’ve been in ten discussions, and have a hundred items posted, there are a hundred entries in the list… which I have to sift through to find my ten discussions. I notice that all the items within a discussion have got the same title. Looks like your programmer didn’t think they were useful, either.

    • #3280105

      Typical user :)

      by problemsolversolutionseeker ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      This is not what I asked for.

      I paid how much for this.

      Oh my, I’ll never get anything done using this.

      I sho like the old way better.

      Nobody told me this was coming.

      Oh, it that what all of the meetings were about.

      • #3280090

        Hang in there!

        by tig2 ·

        In reply to Typical user :)

        It’s just change.

        All end users hate change.

        Next week they will hate something else.

        Oh D@mn! Does this mean my career is over???

        Wait… Breathe.

        It’s just change.

        All end users HATE change…

        • #3280079

          [b]Good change[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to Hang in there!

          is good.

          Bad change is bad.

          I do see more people looking FOR bad than good as a rule though.

          Two things is all I ask for.

          1) fix font on “posts by my contacts”
          2) fix showing read vs unread posts.

          Anything beyond that is just bonus.

          Life? Why would I need a life? I have TR! 😀

        • #3221211

          Change is good!

          by zlitocook ·

          In reply to Hang in there!

          Change says you are adapting to the new enviroment, change helps you to stay competative with others. I have always worked with companies to help them migrate, adapt and show/teach users that the change is good and productive.
          That is missing here, there is no help to change, no Faq or help to direct users. Cnet seems to let users just find their way around and accept the changes.
          If you look at migrations and updates, most will fail because of user fear of change and the user not being ready for the change. All we got was a page saying what was going to happen.

    • #3280102

      Comment to Editor Link

      by regulus ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      On several occasions I have wanted to directly contact the editor and there was no availalbe link. These were issues concerning lack of printable version, printable version was not available or other issues that did not relate directly to the content of the article.

      How about a link to Editor / Administration where we could directly voice such issues?

      And, Yes, you’re doing a 99% good job. And thank you for that.

      Dave

      • #3280089

        Comments

        by tig2 ·

        In reply to Comment to Editor Link

        If there is something that you need to feedback on, please post a question in the feedback tag and define the problem. The TR PTB seem to watch for feedback there and you WILL get a response.

        Other option- go to the bottom of each page and you will find a handy “Send us your feedback” button.

        This isn’t a new functionality but brings an existing functionality to the surface.

        Hope you keep finding good things about the site! If you find a good tip that will help someone else, please post to Nick’s thread on Double Posts.

    • #3280083

      [b]Something I really like[/b]

      by jdclyde ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Notice that all the wasted grey space around the page is gone! Woo Woo! 😀

      With that gone, it really has reclaimed a lot of real estate.

    • #3280078

      [b]”My Updates” almost works! :D [/b]

      by jdclyde ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      The layout is nice, and it is GREAT that they have the number of posts to a discussion combined.

      It still only goes back one day, instead of the 90 daze.

      Sure, claim this is due to the reset, but how do you account for Sunday not being listed? B-)

      Copy that format to use for the “Posts by my contacts” as it is much more readable than the current layout.

      • #3280076

        hey, jd! over here!

        by gadgetgirl ·

        In reply to [b]”My Updates” almost works! :D [/b]

        are you putting your titles in bold all by yourself, or are you getting preferential treatment on todays posts??? !!! :p

        If it’s you, that was a damn good idea, babz! I can follow you wherever you go, now….

        😀

        GG

        • #3280067

          [b]I have the power[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to hey, jd! over here!

          You know I will do anything go get your attention, my love! 😡

          Besides, as I was intentionally trying to find GOOD things, I figured it should stand apart from the complaining about what I DON’T like.

          I am not that hard to satisfy. Just give me everything I want and there won’t be any trouble! B-) ]:)

          😡

        • #3280060

          He’s using bold tag in title

          by smorty71 ·

          In reply to hey, jd! over here!

          We will be making all of the thread titles bold in the next day or so. Stay tuned.

        • #3280050

          [b]Oh sure[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to He’s using bold tag in title

          rat me out why don’t you? 😀

        • #3280043

          Too bad we can’t add mp3’s …

          by mickster269 ·

          In reply to [b]Oh sure[/b]

          I think it would be perfect if everytime I opened a post by jd, a Judy Garland song started…

        • #3280040

          [b]the truth was slow in coming[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to Too bad we can’t add mp3’s …

          but it has arived. You know how it is always the person on the elevator that SAYS something about a fart is always the one who let it fly?

          http://tinyurl.com/pyksl

          Vindicated at last! Sweet vengance is MINE! ]:)

          B-)

        • #3280028

          Why do I have a feeling you’ve bookmarked that ?

          by mickster269 ·

          In reply to [b]the truth was slow in coming[/b]

          I guess I must be very careful with what and HOW I say things here now…

          (chuckles)

        • #3280039

          well…

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to [b]Oh sure[/b]

          aren’t you just a clever boy then?

          Come here and i’ll scratch behind your ears..

        • #3280035

          shell – show off!

          by gadgetgirl ·

          In reply to well…

          how’d you do that, then?

          sheesh…..

          everyone gets noticed on here but me…..

          GG

        • #3280029

          ahh…poor GG

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to shell – show off!

          well, couldn’t let JD steal the show now could i?

          I peered you..

          have fun

        • #3280010

          purrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to well…

          😡

        • #3279998

          UnCool…This was not a new feature…

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to purrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

          This was not a new feature, not a bug, and undesirable.

          edit: Removed to avoid encouraging seagulls and trolls.

        • #3280024

          JD and TR

          by onbliss ·

          In reply to hey, jd! over here!

          I am willing to bet a dollar that someday, within 1 year, Jd will join TR in the capacity of employee or consultant or Public Relations personnel. 🙂

        • #3280011

          [b]The problem with that[/b]

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to JD and TR

          never make something you enjoy “work”, or it takes away a lot of the enjoyment.

          Besides, it is one thing for a nutcase member to say and do what I do, quite another for an employee! :0

          😀 B-)

        • #3280002

          So…

          by onbliss ·

          In reply to [b]The problem with that[/b]

          …what you are saying is….if they offer you will not say an emphatic “No” 🙂

    • #3280071

      Minor: Start on Home Page, Static New Items, Don’t Remember Me

      by wayne m. ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      In general, the new lay out works for me. I have a couple of minor annoyances that might be worth consideration.

      After logging in, take me to the Home page not my Profile. This just adds an unnecessary hop. Might also consider adding a user name and password entry on the home page in lieu of a link to a log in screen. This further reduces the number of clicks to get to the active part of the site.

      The new items on the top of pages dynamically rotate though you can click on the numbered bubbles to browse through the summaries. It might be better to include them either as a static list in their current location, or add them as the default tab is the section below with Community Recommends and Hot Topics.

      Change the log in default for the remember my user name check box. Someone who uses this option never has to see it again, but for those of us who do not, we are forced to uncheck it every time we log in.

      I do like the return of the Articles tab and I think the over all navigation of the site has improved.

    • #3280063

      RSS feed no longer work

      by faradhi ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      I do not see a problem with the new layout. I might even like it once I get a chance to use it. I can however understand others frustraton or apprenhension. I have not been using these message boards for as long as some of the others. I imagine that I will have a little easier transition because I could never navigate around the old site very well.

      I am sure that this is considered minor. However, as my workload has increased considerably lately, I can no longer actively monitor New Discussions and Posts. My solution in the old site was to use RSS feed on my Google home page. None of the RSS feeds are updating. Has this been eliminated? Is there a new link to the RSS feed?

      Oh well.

      So far I like the look and feel. I will try to keep up the best I can as time permits.

      Oh Yeah, JD, I am pulling for your Tigers. They finished the season rough but look like they are turning it back around again. I hope they kick the snot out of the A’s.

      -Bryan

      • #3281377

        a second to that…

        by dawgit ·

        In reply to RSS feed no longer work

        Anyone know if / what on the tr BLOG status? do we need to re-enter all the strings? where are they now? anybody? -dawgit

      • #3281320

        RSS Should be back soon

        by jfpsf ·

        In reply to RSS feed no longer work

        Sorry. We are working on it.

        • #3221436

          oki-doki

          by dawgit ·

          In reply to RSS Should be back soon

          That’s all I wanted to know. Thanks. (all-in-all, good job you guys, & gals.) -d

    • #3280057

      Web Site

      by wesley.johnson ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Too much trash.

    • #3280041

      Text Crunched

      by gsquared ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      On the blogs tab (and possibly elsewhere, but I’ve mainly noticed it on the blogs tab), words from the actual blog articles are being crunched together when they span a line-break. I’m seeing a lot of “forthe” and “thenew” and stuff like that.

      It’s a mild distraction.

      My main complaint about TR discussions is, and always has been, that on a long discussion with a lot of replies and threads, it’s hard to tell where you are in the discussion without a lot of scrolling up and down.

      If all you do is hit “Next”, you run into problems with, “is this a reply to the one I just read, or a reply to something earlier in the thread, or a reply to the original post?”

      Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see a way in the post I’m reading to tell what it’s a reply to, if where it is in the tree-view is off the bottom of the screen.

      I can think of several layouts, common to many discussion forums, that work better and are easier to follow.

      If I’m missing something in how TR displays the data, please, someone let me know.

      • #3279858

        Use the Print This Thread feature

        by nicknielsen ·

        In reply to Text Crunched

        It’s a little extra work, but the posts are numbered and indented so you can see who is replying to what.

        It adds a step or two when you want to reply (return to standard display tab, scroll/search to the desired post), but eliminates all that farging waiting around for pages to load when you click Next.

        Edit: After you submit, return to the Print display and refresh the page to view your post in context.

        • #3221422

          Printing the Thread

          by gsquared ·

          In reply to Use the Print This Thread feature

          That works, till it’s an active thread and you want to come back to it a few times over a period of days. Then, each time you print, you get the whole thing all over again.

          Anyway, yes, printing it does work, but it’s still a PITA compared to a number of other forum formats I’ve participated in.

        • #3221373

          You’re right

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to Printing the Thread

          It is a PITA, but I got into the habit when I was on dial-up and never broke it; it was a lot faster than “Next’ing” through the threads. Now, even though I’ve got DSL Max, I’m so used to doing that way that I don’t even think about it.

          Some tricks I use in large/long threads (more than about 25-30 posts):
          * Search for the current date when browsing the Print page for new posts.
          * When returning to the active page to post, I search for the title of the post I wish to respond to
          * You can usually refresh the Print display as soon as the confirmation page starts to load. Since it’s only text, it usually loads just as fast, if not faster, than the confirmation page–even on dial-up.

    • #3279831

      srolling.. right and left on every page

      by jaqui ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      seems the new layout isn’t “friendly” to any screen resolution below 1280×1024

      currently viewing at 1024×768 and getting left and right scrolling on every single page.

      • #3279771

        Not having THAT problem

        by nicknielsen ·

        In reply to srolling.. right and left on every page

        My laptop maxes out at 1024 x 768 and displays full page width with no scrolling

        • #3281557

          Me neither . . .

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Not having THAT problem

          . . . and I’m at 800×600 on this machine.

        • #3220369

          well if you

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to Me neither . . .

          put your “taskbar” on the left or right, you get it. :p

          with EVERY os giving odd position options for the taskbar, the site needs to be flexible in layout 😉

    • #3279824

      Discussions and Tech Q&A

      by cg it ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Something needed to be done with Q&A. It was a farce. Discussions on the other hand became literally discussion on everything from World Politics and Religion to why you can’t stop eating potato chips. I didn’t see many discussions relating to IT Tech except by George or other TechRepublic employees. I don’t have time to to get into discussions about lays potato chips or the democrate or republican political parties.

      I like the idea of no points with Q&A. There were to many who had to much time on their hands thinking up wild senarios that really had no answer to. Legitimate questions were few and far between.

      I like suggesting stuff to people who have legitimate question but don’t have time to waste on the what if or lets say questions.

      Now if this was an Elder Scrolls forum….

      I used TechRepublic like I use all the other boards. To keep abreast of whats going on in the IT world without having to buy a damn subscription to some magazine.

      Glad Q&A is gone.

      • #3281555

        Er?

        by apotheon ·

        In reply to Discussions and Tech Q&A

        I haven’t really participated in any of the political discussions in the last year, give or take, and I’ve had more technical discussions to fill my time than I knew what to do with sometimes. I don’t know where you’re getting the notion that there weren’t any technical discussions. Perhaps the problem was that you were only reading the Miscellaneous section.

        • #3281340

          Every time I looked at discussions on the old format

          by cg it ·

          In reply to Er?

          when I would visit discussions on the old format, I didn’t see any “discussions” that were of a computer related tehnical nature. Least under not topic discussions. There was discussions of Global Warming, Politics, Lays potato chips, and Maxwell Edisons lively commentaries on everything one can think of [which I liked but heck can’t compete with Max so why bother posting].

          It’s no loss if I don’t participate.

        • #3281327

          Discussions

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to Every time I looked at discussions on the old format

          When you were clicking on the main discussions link, you get the most popular and most active first, those were generally political and other off topic subjects, I guess that’s what fuels TR, like it or not it’s just reality.

          But, when going to the Discussions page, you could filter which type of discussions you wanted by selecting from a list of checkboxes.

          That way, ONLY your chosen IT topics would appear.

        • #3281295

          Thanks Oz

          by cg it ·

          In reply to Discussions

          yeah Oz, I see most popular etc and I just don’t have any interest in debating world global warming or democratic/republic politics or how many chips are in a Lays Potato Chip bag.

          Like everything new, there’s a learning curve so I’ll learn.

          I wasn’t much of a poster in the discussions forum so no loss there.

        • #3281254

          Actually

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to Thanks Oz

          It’s changed a wee bit for this new site.

          Go to the main discussions page, where you saw Hot, New Etc. and click the ‘Browse’ tab.

          THis will openup a list of subjects, Networking, Win2000, security etc. so you can just browse th etech posts that interest you. Bookmark the Browse link and you’re good to go. It seems to hang in IE but is good with FF right now.

    • #3279776

      sob..

      by shellbot ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      i want the old TR back.

      I used to pop in, check a few of the threads i participated in, have a quick peek at the new ones and then get to work for the day.

      Now by the time i find where to go and what i might have posted in, i don’t have time to actually read anything.

      Yes, i know users do not like change..but i generally do..but still i do stick to the school of “if its not broke, don’t fix it”.

      Where as i do like the cleaner look, the navigation is almost unbearable, the tags are annoying. And whats the deal with the huge font on the New/Hot threads list?

      It only been 2 days and already i have literlaly halved my time spent on here. Which for my employer is a good thing of course, but i am starting to think JD is right, my addiction is quickly being broken.

      🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁

      • #3281554

        Were you using the same TR as me?

        by apotheon ·

        In reply to sob..

        “if its not broke, don’t fix it”

        I wonder how anyone could have thought TR wasn’t broken. It has been faster and more reliable since the change, at least, which is a huge step in the right direction.

        I don’t know how difficult it may be to find discussions with new posts in which you’ve participated, since I just subscribe to discussions I care about and get email notifications when something happens, so I’m happy on that score.

        • #3281523

          ok well

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to Were you using the same TR as me?

          it wasn’t perfect..but it was pretty decent.

          not saying i won’t get used to the new order of things, eventually i will..but i don’t think i would spend near the same amount of time on it

        • #3281355

          I didn’t think it was decent.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to ok well

          The thing was broken regularly. I’d tend to get error pages when trying to load various TR pages for minutes or hours at a time almost every day. At first, it seemed like this problem had gone away.

          Of course, now I’m seeing that problem start to arise again, so maybe it wasn’t fixed after all.

          If the pages would load, though, I think that overall I’d find the changes to be positive, with the exception of the way discussion posts are shown in the thread tree (links don’t change when you’ve already read something, the NEW flag doesn’t have any unique characters attached to it, and now there doesn’t seem to be a linebreak between the comment title and the comment credit for some lame reason).

      • #3281408

        Well…

        by dawgit ·

        In reply to sob..

        don’t spend so much time working… ]:) now there’s an easy fix. (ok it is short term) 😀

    • #3281531

      Ratings

      by sql_joe ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      I miss the article rating. I found it very helpful to see an articles rating, and I found in general the ratings tended to agree with my own assesments. I also enjoyed rating articles.

      George

    • #3281503

      just noticed this problem…

      by jaqui ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      it’s really obvious when you look at it.

      look at my avatar, it’s got the default Tr blank behind my wing flapping penguin :((

      • #3281499

        hehe

        by shellbot ·

        In reply to just noticed this problem…

        ah, poor penguin.
        So the question is, was it like that for the past 2 days and no one noticed, or did it just happen…

        welcome to the twilight zone

        • #3281474

          I believe it was NB saw that at the beginning of the week

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to hehe

          Does your avitar have a transpartent background Jaqui? there was mention of it being an “overlay”.

        • #3281464

          transparent background?

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to I believe it was NB saw that at the beginning of the week

          quite likely, it is an animated gif file.
          from one of the phpbb icon sets.

      • #3281356

        Edited out

        by ontheropes ·

        In reply to just noticed this problem…

        Edited out

      • #3281354

        Edited out

        by ontheropes ·

        In reply to just noticed this problem…

        Edited out

        • #3281349

          the GIMP and animated GIFs

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Edited out

          I don’t think the GIMP can properly edit animated GIFs, unfortunately. It’s like Photoshop that way (with Photoshop, last I checked, you actually need to use the bundled ImageReady application instead when working with animated images).

        • #3281324

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to the GIMP and animated GIFs

          Edited out

        • #3281307

          interesting

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Edited out

          I think the reference to the “eye” tool probably just means clicking on the little box in each layer thingie when looking at the layers dialog. There’s an eye icon that appears when it’s invisible, if I recall correctly — that, or the eye is visible when the layer is visible. I don’t want to open the GIMP right now to find out. It’s just like how I remember making layers (in)visible in Photoshop worked, with the layers dialog.

          Judging by your experience, it seems like in the GIMP you can just treat it like a layered image to edit each layer — where the layers are the frames of an animated GIF. I’m kinda surprised, but it’s pretty cool that you can do that. I guess I learn something new every day.

        • #3281292

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to interesting

          Edited out

        • #3281290

          Hey NB!!!

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to Edited out

          I notice that you are running with the “Media Center” skin for Windows XP. It’s a nice change from the now old boring XP “skin”, isn’t it? 🙂

          —–

          You’re so progressive, you probably have already tried this. But, just in case…

          Have you ever tried running your Linux in a Virtual PC VM on your XP system? Doing so should give you more “Linux time” each day until you switch over permanently (no reboots). And, you can have the VM and the host XP system share disk volumes via SAMBA (Windows file sharing) and the virtual LAN included in Virtual PC.

          —–

          Microsoft Virtual PC 2004
          http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/default.mspx

          Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 — FREE Download
          http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/downloads/sp1.mspx

          Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 System Requirements
          http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtualpc/evaluation/sysreqs.mspx

          Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 SP1
          http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6D58729D-DFA8-40BF-AFAF-20BCB7F01CD1&displaylang=en

        • #3281285

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Edited out

          Edited out

        • #3221433

          not sure…

          by dawgit ·

          In reply to Edited out

          but NB, try (open, display) the back-ground layer, in the tools ther was a fill (in back-ground) to choose a back-ground color, (white was one also) defalt is ‘in’visable. (It’s been a little while, I can check it this week-end) I hope, maybe, that helps, a little. -d

        • #3281220

          an easier method

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to Edited out

          to remove transparency with any gif file.

          File>>Save As

          then in the options dialogue you can remove the transparency settings.

          it even works with animated gif images 🙂

          I wasn’t really worried about it, since I know TR will fix the problem sometime. ]:) specially if our avatars are displaying it to remind them ]:)

        • #3221586

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to an easier method

          Edited out

        • #3221573

          An odd thing, NeverBusted

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Edited out

          When I see your avatar in “Contacts Online” it looks fine- I don’t see the TR default behind it. It is only when I see it at the bottom of a post that I can see the outline of the default.

          Personally, I think that it looks really good super-imposed over the default. It is as if you poked your eye through.

          I like your eye avatar, regardless. It’s skeery.

      • #3281344

        Transperent background

        by pixelm ·

        In reply to just noticed this problem…

        My guess is that is because of the transperency associated with your gif~… But there are other penguin avatars out there~ – Actually I was curious about the background… so I animated my own… and im pretty certain that your issue is with the background being transperent.

    • #3281463

      the new “My Discussions” SUCKS

      by jaqui ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      click the link, get the complete site history instead of discussions.
      click the discussions link, get blank content where they should be listed.
      click the posted to link and finally get the history for discussions posted.

      getting questions is exactly the same thing.

      it sucks bobo big time!!!

      • #3281452

        We’re working on it

        by smorty71 ·

        In reply to the new “My Discussions” SUCKS

        This is on my list of features to address. I will post some ideas (and maybe some comps) as we get closer. Sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime.

        • #3221566

          Don’t forget the number of posts

          by tink! ·

          In reply to We’re working on it

          when you fix My Discussions.

          Definitely need to have the number of posts visible. Let’s us know at a glance which ones to check in on .

          🙂 Tink

    • #3281346

      a few problems, and a few improvements, I’ve noticed

      by apotheon ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      [b]PROBEMS[/b]

      1. The user profiles seem to be utterly broken. I recommend viewing them in multiple browsers on multiple OS platforms if you’re only testing this in IE on Windows, or something like that.

      2. The lack of linebreaks between the title of a comment post and the attribution for a comment post is problematic.

      3. The site keeps returning error pages when trying to open a given page or post a comment in a thread. This is not a new issue, but it’s one I was hoping would be fixed with the redesign, especially since I think it’s a bigger problem than any of the superficial design issues that were actually addressed.

      4. After all this, it’s disappointing to see that the max discussion depth hasn’t been increased, even though there’s now more room to show thread branches on the screen.

      5. There really needs to be a way to get the rotating “Today on TechRepublic” thing at the top of the main page to stop rotating. I’m a pretty fast reader, but I don’t want to have to read quickly to get through the summary text for an article before it switches to the next article, or to have to read part of it then click back to it after it rotates to a different item to finish reading it.

      [b]IMPROVEMENTS[/b]

      1. I really like the Recommended / Contacts Online / My Updates box. I was pleasantly surprised today to discover that the My Updates part shows when someone has added me as a contact. That’s [i]excellent[/i].

      2. The “Browse by tag” thing in the right-hand column is a little annoying in that it still seems to be railroading us into using tags, which I’ve never much liked anyway, but it’s a definite improvement over the schizophrenic clumps of stuff that were there in the old design. I might actually use this thing from time to time.

      3. The general appearance of the site is cleaner, and a bunch of the clutter at the top of the screen has been cleared up. Thank you. Similarly, the clutter at the bottom of the screen has also been cleared up a bit. Unfortunately, this seems to have been accomplished by wiping out stuff that might be useful (like a Help link).

      4. The entire width of the screen is being used. Hallelujah!

      5. The way the front page content is organized is much better than what was there before.

      • #3281332

        IE not working

        by oz_media ·

        In reply to a few problems, and a few improvements, I’ve noticed

        While Firefox displays fine, IE just seems to spew the page out with no formatting or cells in tact. ODD?

        • #3281317

          IE Not Working?

          by jinteik ·

          In reply to IE not working

          I ran IE and Firefox and it workds fine

        • #3281298

          Fine now

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to IE Not Working?

          It was completely unstructured, links at the top, a header bar below that, an ad below that etc.

        • #3281236

          hmm . . .

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Fine now

          That sounds like, for some reason, you weren’t getting stylesheet information for the page.

        • #3222021

          Exactly

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to hmm . . .

          The page content was there but the css was not being aplied.

          It’s cool now though, they were doing lots of updating at the time it seems, I ended up with a triple post during the long hangs.

        • #3281315

          IE Issues

          by jfpsf ·

          In reply to IE not working

          Oz,

          Can you post which pages, and what browser version you are using?

        • #3281297

          Fine now

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to IE Issues

          It was completely screwed up before, but is now ‘OKAY’ anyway.

    • #3281284

      They are listening people, and acting

      by deadly ernest ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      First, let me say that it took me a while to find how to find the new threads under the new system. However, being in Australia, and off set time to you guys in the USA, I checked the site within a few hours of going live with the new site. I sent them a feed back email about the colour of the NEW beside the post, darned difficult to spot, wiht them both being blue. I went to bed, woke up, bathed, went out. Returned,checked the site, the NEW is now orange and a nice contrast.

      Now that’s listening and responding.

      Oh, I found a good spell checker that works well on the site, decided not to send her over, she only works with simple spells in Latin, grrr. Now looking for an easily controlled witch that uses spells in English.

      • #3281283

        If you find one

        by nicknielsen ·

        In reply to They are listening people, and acting

        will you share?

        I could use a gud English spelchequer. 😀

        • #3281272

          I used to have one, but she vanished.

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to If you find one

          She was reviewing my old spell book, and disappeared while checking the transfiguration spells, but I do have this real nice cushion to sit on now. :p

        • #3221368

          Do you sit on the cushion?

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to I used to have one, but she vanished.

          Or does the cushion sit on you? ;\

          ]:)

          :^0

        • #3221990

          You sit on the cushion, of course

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Do you sit on the cushion?

          and if it was someone you really disliked, it’s the cushion of choice when the gas builds up, heheheh :p

        • #3221734

          And

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to You sit on the cushion, of course

          It gives a whole new meaning to “whoopee cushion.” :^0

        • #3221708

          Of course, an ideal way of dealing with or punishing

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to And

          an ex spouse, a politician you don’t like, etc.

        • #3221621

          Spell Checker for Windows

          by kiltie ·

          In reply to If you find one

          I found one that works with Windows (sorry Linux fans)

          TinySpell

          http://tinyspell.m6.net/

          Free version, and a very cheap pay for one.

          Very small footprint
          Checks spelling on the fly (ie as you type)
          and from the clipboard
          Uses a US dictionary (oh well can’t have everything)
          But you can add words to your own dictionary, great for adding jargon and idiomatic words – with desireable side effect of being to able to correct US spellings (AT LAST!!!)

          ** tongue very firmly in cheek **

          I used to use it, not bad, it is annoying to start with, when it seems to be forever beeping at you, but you have to remember that you are “teaching it new words” and after a while the corrections get less and less.

          I haven’t tried the pay for version yet, so I cannot vouch for it.

          Still, it might help TR Windows users along, until TR gets something going.

        • #3221539

          Hey, how does it go auto correcting transfiguration spells

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Spell Checker for Windows

          so many of those are so similar, how does it know which one you really want to use, hate to end up as a teapot by mistake.

        • #3275712

          Firefox 2 has a spell checker

          by smorty71 ·

          In reply to Spell Checker for Windows

          It will underline misspelled words in forms automatically. A simple right-click menu lets you choose the correct word.

      • #3281277

        Edited out

        by ontheropes ·

        In reply to They are listening people, and acting

        Edited out

        • #3281266

          Witches are more fun than the ‘b’ variety, but you gotta

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Edited out

          watch ’em carefully. If they interfere with your cane, take to carrying a can of coke or similar drink. Lift a full can of soft drink in yur hand, now hold as if to throw it, with can in the horizontal position. Much easier to grasp and throw than a baseball, better range, higher impact (less surface area to spread it over), and it makes a lovely splash on contact, ammo can’t be returned (like they can with rocks), and makes them all sticky.

          You’ll be amazed how quickly you can learn to accurately throw a full can of soft drink, and it hurts when you hit them. A face shot can temporarily disable most people, hit the forehead and they can’t see for the sticky mess, hit the mouth and they’re spitting teeth. Noe becomes a bloody mess, if hit.

          edited to fix a stutter in the title.

        • #3281255

          But the Earth was built in 6

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to Edited out

          I think, right?

        • #3281251

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to But the Earth was built in 6

          Edited out

        • #3281249

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to But the Earth was built in 6

          Edited out

        • #3222015

          :)

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to Edited out

          Well done

        • #3281239

          Ahh, but a day as measured where?

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to But the Earth was built in 6

          remember Earth did not exist, and thus the day being used for the creation of Earth can’t be an earth day. Just as Venus, Mars, Neptune and Earth have days that are measured in different numbers of standard seconds, the length of a day where God is must being measured in a different number of standard seconds. Thus God’s day is likely to be equivalent to a hundred million of our years, or the like.

          Now watch the Darwinist bite on that one. :p

        • #3281233

          there’s an odd thought

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Ahh, but a day as measured where?

          So . . . are you saying that God evolved on a planet with a longer rotational period?

        • #3281226

          makes one wonder

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to there’s an odd thought

          doesn’t it?

          I like your train of thought Apoth..i could have some fun with this ]:)

        • #3221661

          Have all the fun you want, after all the Darwinists are

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to makes one wonder

          so dumb that they even ignore basic logic and know scientific evidence to push their form of religion.

          We know the Earth’s rotational period has changed since it was created, yet they claim creationists believe it was done if 7 24 hour Earth days.

          The Bible says God was, then God created Earth during the first working done on this new project, so God clearly had the concept of day and a work day prior to Earth even existing.

          Darwinists say that the environment creature development pressure and only the best mutations survive, yet they don’t even begin to explain how the mutations occur to begin with.

          Now there’s a lot more you can have fun with too.

          BTW: There’s an old science fiction story that goes along the philosophical discussion that the beings we call God are just long lived (compared to us) aliens from another planet, and they have Gods who are longer lived aliens, and they have Gods who are …. I’m sure you get the drift by now.

        • #3221633

          i dig

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to makes one wonder

          DE, i love this type of stuff 🙂

          I’m in the science camp and although i’m not some freak who thinks aliens are among us..i often wonder if there is some possible connection though..

        • #3221480

          Any sufficiently advanced technology

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to makes one wonder

          is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur C. Clarke

        • #3221662

          You take your own chances on that one,

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to there’s an odd thought

          All I’m saying is that God created Earth, and that was done during God’s first day of work on Earth, so clearly the Earth day can’t be measured the same way as God’s day. So when someone is silly enough to say that God’s day is the same as hours, their definitely god a very good hold of something they shouldn’t be playing with in public.

          There’s scientific evidence that the rotational period of Earth has changed since it was created as well, so that further confuses such fools.

        • #3221403

          sounds like you’re a Creationist

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          Are you sure you want to discuss scientific evidence that contradicts a theory, if you’re a Creationist? We could start with things like the fossil record and the age of the Earth. The rotational period hasn’t changed [i]that[/i] much, [i]that[/i] recently.

        • #3221364

          Remember Slartibartfast?

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          He put the fossils in… 😀

        • #3221361

          I’ve no troubles discussing the matter at all, but you do

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          as you clearly haven’t read and fully understood my original post on this subject.

          Earth’s rotational period has exactly NOTHING to do with the rotational period by which God works. And the fossil record is just a small part of what happened, during and after the creation process.

          Think of it this way, you’re back in the old days of pencil and paper, creating a new house design. You draw a basic plan, then make some changes. Think some more, and make some more changes. As each change is made, you erase what was there before and draw the new line. But those feint indentations are still there on the paper, and can be examined at a leter date. OK, it’s a very simplified description, but that’s how things get done when you’re creating, make a draft and fine tune it.

          What God uses for a day, we may well call 500 million years, we don’t know, but God had a working day before Earth existed, so our rotational period can’t possibly be the one God was using.

        • #3221348

          sophistry

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          This sort of patently absurd sophistry is a big part of the reason I stopped responding to the Evolution Lie discussion.

        • #3221987

          Sophistry may be your speciality and/or problem

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          I don’t bother with it, I find straight forward logic much easier to use and understand. When someone claims that God was limited to the rotational period of earth to create Earth, it’s kind of like saying the Wright Brothers got their parts delivered by cargo plane. You can’t use something before it was developed or made, simple logic.

        • #3221952

          That’s the problem, though . . .

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          You basically have three options with regard to biblical Creationism:

          1. You take everything literally, including the “six days” time frame with a human understanding of a “day”.

          2. You take stuff metaphorically, in which case anything and everything in the Bible is subject to metaphorical interpretation, which in turn could result in any interpretation you like (including an atheist interpretation where “God” is a metaphor for the fundamental laws of physics).

          3. You discard it all as nonsense.

          Any mixing and matching between them that includes some at least partial application of a literal interpretation where you base some of the supposed rigor of your argument on such literality is just pure sophistry.

        • #3221872

          There you go again, trying to put your view out as the only one

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          you see three options, yet none of them apply to the view that I have. Your options are based on assumptions that you have and then apply to the your world view. That’s perfectly alright for you, but not alright when you try to say they’re the only options available to everyone and we have to use your assumptions.

          Nothing in the Bible about creation says that a day is an Earth day, but you keep insisting that’s what it applies to. For you it’s either an earth day or a metaphorical day, you totally ignore all other options, and you do so without any evidence to do so. The only available evidence is in the Bible itself, and it makes it clear that it’s not an earth day.

          It may be a metaphisical day, it may be just they way thsoe who translated the records at one time wrote them for people to understand. It may even be someone’s fiction story, but it clearly isn’t an Earth day and your assumption that it is.

          I think we’re going to have to agree to disagree. And that’s where my understanding of God differs from your’s – I believe that your disagreeing is also acceptable to God.

        • #3221859

          poppycock

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          1. You seem to have missed the part where I said anything else was pure sophistry. I didn’t say you couldn’t have a view outside those three options — just that views outside them are sophistry. I can’t give you an education in predicate logic in a forum post, though, so you may have to go back to school to get the point.

          2. [b][i]You don’t even know what my view is[/i][/b], so you’d have a pretty tough time supporting your ludicrous claim that I’m suggesting my view is the only view possible.

        • #3221835

          I don’t need to know your exact belief as you made it clear

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          you see only three options, based on assumptions of your own, and then blythly claim anything else is sophistry by anyone else. Thus trying to force your assumptions onto others. Doesn’t wash with me, you can keep making all the false assumptions you like, and applying all your sophistry to them, they won’t change any of the information provided no matter how much you try to claim otherwise.

        • #3221821

          What’s the point of being purposely ambigious?

          by medullaoblongata ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          The only frame of reference for a “day” that humans have is what we experience on Earth. Why would God, who I’m guessing is a pretty smart being, use a term in his book given to humans that doesn’t mean the same thing to him as it does to us?

          That seems pretty counterproductive especially if you want people to understand what you’re trying to say. If it isn’t really our definition of “day”, why not use some other term to mean exactly what time frame it is?

        • #3221793

          to: DE, re: assumptions

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          Tell me what these “assumptions” are that you think I’ve made, as soon as you’re done answering medullaoblongata’s question, please.

        • #3221792

          DE

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          he lack of logic is the biggest issue for so many IT techs I’ve met.

          Unless it is ‘textbook’, which many deem/confuse as ‘logic’, it doesn’t fit.

          This is why, in many cases, people reach conclusions based on what they deem logic but really it’s just belief in one theory. As opposed to a critical balance of all theories presented.

        • #3221789

          Oz . . .

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          What?

          Please rephrase your last statement so I have some clue what you’re trying to say. I’m not sure what parts of which sentences were meant to refer to whom.

        • #3221710

          OK guys, I’m going to answer a couple of items here

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          Take what ever meaning you want.

          Re Day

          Taking the words in the Bible as they are, using their classic dictionary meanings, and applying straight logic. There was no Earth, during God’s first work day on this project, God created the heavens and the Earth. Clearly God had a concept of night and day that God used, before Earth had such an item. Thus the Earth time of a day is not the one mentioned.

          A day, as defined by most people, is a rotation of the planet, or whatever, you’re on. Clearly God wasn’t on Earth, God was creating Earth. Thus the day has to be a rotation where God is.

          Re: Assumptions

          You see day = rotation of planet etc, you assume rotation of Earth. That isn’t provided.

          Switching to a lower sub thread

          re the plan

          Who says that everything that happens on this Earth is the whole plan and it’s totally messed up here. I said that we, with our free will, can ignore it, and we can mess it up, by going out of our way to disturb those following the plan. However, the plan, is sure to include the afterlife. Now compare 80 to 100 years to eternity – logic says that there’s much more of the plan going to apply to the afterlife than here. SO this is like the learning part of the plan, and when us preschoolers misbehave in the playground it’s only a hiccup, not a major disaster.

          Preschools have plans and rules, no fighting, yet they have lots of fights and people get hurt, kids have free will. Same thing mate.

        • #3221696

          I’m going to try another approach.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to You take your own chances on that one,

          I’ll just summarize your position as you’re presenting it:

          “[i]Clearly God had a concept of night and day that God used, before Earth had such an item.[/i]”

          Translation: “God is a limited, temporal being that is constrained to think in terms of days and nights in a repeating cycle, but it’s a different cycle from the one He created on Earth. Simultaneously, though, He’s all-knowing, all-powerful, and eternal. I just like contradicting myself.”

          “[i]A day, as defined by most people, is a rotation of the planet, or whatever, you’re on. Clearly God wasn’t on Earth, God was creating Earth. Thus the day has to be a rotation where God is.[/i]”

          Translation: “God lives on a God-planet, where the days are longer. There may or may not be other God-people there, like his neighbor, Mr. Godberg, and the mailman, Mr. Goddington, and his wife, Mrs. God. I’m guessing there isn’t actually a God-people population, because there’s only one God, and believing in his neighbor and mailman and wife would be Paganism. The Bible tells me Paganism is bad.”

          “[i]You see day = rotation of planet etc, you assume rotation of Earth. That isn’t provided.[/i]”

          Translation: “Either I’m playing dumb, or I haven’t actually read a damned thing you said, [b]apotheon[/b] and [b]medullaoblongata[/b]. This is obvious, because you never actually said anything of the sort.”

          “[i]Who says that everything that happens on this Earth is the whole plan and it’s totally messed up here.[/i]”

          Translation: “I’m putting words in your mouth, obviously, since [i]nobody[/i] said that at all, or implied that anyone [i]did[/i] say that. Open wide!”

          “[i]I said that we, with our free will, can ignore it, and we can mess it up, by going out of our way to disturb those following the plan.[/i]”

          Translation: “But here, again, I note that we mere mortal humans are messing up the infallible plan of the infallible God, thus showing it’s not infallible. Whoops.”

          Clear yet? Either God is above our little diurnal cycle and concept of time, and is for some reason intentionally confusing us with the nonsense in the Bible, or he lives on God-world where days are a different length, or God didn’t actually write the Bible and the humans got it all wrong. Either God and his Plan are infallible, or we’re messing up his Plan and thus it and he are not infallible, or there’s not actually a supposedly infallible plan at all.

          Infallibility, plan, messing up. Pick two.

        • #3221628

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Ahh, but a day as measured where?

          Edited out

        • #3221507

          I like it

          by tonythetiger ·

          In reply to Edited out

          If we knew everything, we’d know that we knew everything, but since we don’t, we don’t 🙂

          I think the “organized” part of organized religion is little different than the organizations we call government.

          I also love everyone (though my idiot son-in-law tempts me into making an exception with regularity).

          I think God want’s us to look forward. That’s why he made the driver’s seat in cars face that way 🙂

        • #3221476

          Asking for directions

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to Edited out

          [i]The feeling that there is no discernible master plan doesn?t stop me from asking for directions when I get lost. Do I get any answers? It?s hard to say for sure and even harder to prove. [/i]

          Does the fact that after asking for directions, most of us feel better about our chosen road count as an answer?

          Regardless of how we came to be, I like that whomever/whatever did the job included a sense of humor.

        • #3221407

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Asking for directions

          Edited out

        • #3221235

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Asking for directions

          Edited out

        • #3221122

          Mel Brooks would be proud

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to Asking for directions

          And it makes as much sense as some of the other proposals! :^0

          I fart in your general direction. ;\

        • #3221097

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Asking for directions

          Edited out

        • #3220503

          ‘ow you English say…

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to Asking for directions

          [i]’I one more time, mac, unclog my nose in your direction’, sons of a window-dresser!

          So, you think you could out-clever us French folk with your silly knees-bent running about advancing behavior?! I wave my private parts at your aunties, you cheesy lot of second hand electric donkey-bottom biters. [/i]

          [b]In the name of the Lord, we demand entrance to this sacred castle! [/b]

          [i]No chance, English bed-wetting types. I burst my pimples at you and call your door-opening request a silly thing, you tiny-brained wipers of other people’s bottoms![/i]

          People around here have learned, not to get me started. 😀

        • #3221397

          a relevant quote

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Edited out

          Here’s what Yasir Arafat has to say about religious wars:

          “You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend.”

        • #3221363

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to a relevant quote

          Edited out

        • #3221951

          Ooh, Voltaire.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to a relevant quote

          He’s one of my all-time favorites. Have you read [i]Candide[/i]?

        • #3221907

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to a relevant quote

          Edited out

        • #3221855

          You’re in luck.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to a relevant quote

          You’ve stumbled across one of the greats. I recommend picking up a copy of Voltaire’s [i]Candide[/i] at your earliest convenience. It’s a short, and entertaining, read. Unfortunately, the versions of it available online through Project Gutenberg are only in Spanish and French, so you may have to shell out a few bucks if you only read English.

          Another good one is John Locke, if you’re into reading the works of influential civil libertarians who came before the United States. Locke had more direct influence on the men who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence, but Voltaire was more generally entertaining.

        • #3221372

          There is a plan, but a bucnh of crazy people with free will

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Edited out

          keep a messing it up on God. I think of God as Heavenly Father, he has a nice plan for us (the same as you have a plan for your children’s future) but we have our own thoughts and keep messing things up.

          God took 6 days because of that old saying (which I’m sure you know) “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail” and also wanted to get everything just so, including the “I’ll add some fudge factor and let them mess things up a bit”

          God did that has God as a sense of humour, you need a sense of humour to create something like people.

        • #3221950

          I see.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to There is a plan, but a bucnh of crazy people with free will

          So you’re saying God isn’t all-knowing and/or all-seeing. Duly noted.

        • #3221871

          Again you’re making incorrect assumptions and changing

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to There is a plan, but a bucnh of crazy people with free will

          words to suit yourself. I never said that God wasn’t all knowing or all seeing. I only said that God allows us to make some decisions for ourselves and that we can move away from his plan and do as we like. Essentially, I said God allows us our freedom. Interesting leap to get your not all knowing and all seeing out of that.

        • #3221852

          conflicting necessities

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to There is a plan, but a bucnh of crazy people with free will

          1. You say God had a plan.

          2. You say we screw it up with free will.

          If He’s all-knowing and all-powerful, and He had a plan, and we screw it up with our free will, then I have a small problem with your ability to reason. Do you have some definition of “plan” different from mine that allows God to create one with the express intent of it failing to work? That’s a pretty piss-poor plan.

        • #3221826

          Yep God has a plan, and we choose not to follow it

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to There is a plan, but a bucnh of crazy people with free will

          God’s plan does not set out what everyone does for every minute of every day. God’s plan is provided for us to know about, we choose to follow it, or to ignore it. When someone ignore’s it, it creates issues for others.

          Try expanding your mind around the concept that someone makes a high level plan, and then leaves it up to the others to fine tune exactly how to integrate what they do into that plan. Some do, and some don’t. On a smaller scale, a community leader plans to improve the town by having everyone look after their lawn and frotn yard properly. Most do, and things go nicely, but some just let their’s grow like a weed farm, it ruins the look of that place and those around it. There’s no law to enforce people to mow their lawn, so the plan’s effectiveness is blunted by those who chose not to get involved. Now the civic leader could make a law to go around and force people to obey, but that’s not a nice way to go about it. So the civic leader just asks them nicely, and sadly shakes their head when they don’t.

          God’s plan works in a similar way, things go better when everybody joins in, but no one is forced to.

          On a more down home example. The Amish work together for the good of the community, with communal barn raising, and similar communal activities. They have a general plan and all in the community work in with it as they agree. Someone comes along and disagrees and does differently, this causes a disruption to the general harmony and the effectiveness of the plan. But the plan supporters don’t force the disrupter to do as they do.

          God’s plan is for the overall good of people and the community, but God allows us to choose to be part of it or not. Not being part causes disruption, because we’re given freedom of choice. Think of Heavenly Father’s plan being like your parent’s plans for your life, they set out a path, and when you are old enough, you can choose to follow it, or walk another of your own choosing.

          God knows us, loves us, and allows us to mess things up. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to fix things up later. However, that’s moving well beyond the fields of your assumptions. You appear to assume everything must happen here on Earth, that this is the main event. If your assumption is wrong, and this is just the school yard, then the main event is still to come, and the bulk of God’s plan will apply there, after we got through the basic classes here.

        • #3221791

          You seem to have completely missed my point.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to There is a plan, but a bucnh of crazy people with free will

          God has a plan.

          God sets His plan in motion.

          We humans are part of His plan.

          We humans, with all our Free Will, manage to screw up His plan.

          If God is all-knowing and all-powerful, you’d think He would have come up with a plan that would account for Free Will so that we couldn’t screw it up.

          So, if God is all-knowing and all-powerful (and thus infallible), whatever happens is, [i]by definition[/i], according to His plan. That’s what infallibility means. That means that what we do with our Free Will [b]does not constitute screwing up His plan[/b]. In point of fact, our so-called screwing up would necessarily have to be [b]a part of His plan[/b]. Thus, your statement that humans screw up His plan with their Free Will is self-contradictory.

        • #3221949

          wow

          by shellbot ·

          In reply to Edited out

          thats a lot of typing before your Maxwell House!!

          Nice piece NB. Thought provoking.

          Belief is a very personal thing, and i think that everyone has the right to believe as they wish.

          I myself believe in a “greater power”, but i refrain from associateing with any organised religion, as i do not agree with certain aspects of it.

          I follow my heart on what it is to be a “good” person. By doing that i feel i acknowledge the higher power and honour it by being the best i can be. If that sends me to the darkness..well so be it, because i don’t think that sitting in a church repeating words for the sake of it will get me into heaven.
          Belief is something you live, not attend or speak.

        • #3221851

          To put it another way . . .

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to wow

          Going to church and quoting the Bible makes one a Christian no more than going to a garage and quoting [i]Car & Driver[/i] makes one a minivan.

        • #3221824

          you got that one right mate, being a Christian

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to wow

          is about living life according to the teachings of jesus Christ, folowing and living the two commandments given in Matthew 22:36 to 40. People who follow the teachings of the Old Testament are really Jews, those who follow the teachings of the epistles are really Paulians, as they’re following his teachings not Christ’s.

        • #3221612

          Way to go OZ!!!

          by faradhi ·

          In reply to But the Earth was built in 6

          It takes talent to turn a “I hate this new site” thread to a thread about God. 😀

          Oh and NB, I am certian that God will be wearing a Stones T-shirt at that particular time.

          -Bryan

        • #3221598

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Way to go OZ!!!

          Edited out

        • #3221568

          Here’s what I am thinking

          by faradhi ·

          In reply to Edited out

          http://www.leatherworks.com/Rolling_Stones/11806f.jpg

          No autograph.

          No ebay. God can create it himself. It will just take a minute to create. But whow, How long is a god minute. 😀

          Seriously, liked your post.

          -Bryan

        • #3221550

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Here’s what I am thinking

          Edited out

        • #3222011

          Thanks

          by oz_media ·

          In reply to Way to go OZ!!!

          Completely hijacked that one, didn’t I? 😀

          Not intentionally it just struck me when reading the other post, just about everyone who follows Christian religious beliefs will say that God created the Earth in 7 days, well 6 and he rested on the 7th.

          Yet these same people feel that God’s creations must be lethargic for some reason.

          Is it maybe because it actually took God 250 billion years to create Earth and they just want him to look better, so they go with the 6 days and a day of rest stuff? 🙂

          I do not really practice or follow a specific faith although technically was I was born into the Church of England, I have been raised with manly Christian ‘faith’ and beliefs as far as goodwilll to all men and all that is concerned.

          In comparisson, anyone who takes more than 6 days to do any of the most menial and simplistic tasks that us humans face each day, just doesn’t stack up.

      • #3222018

        Me too

        by oz_media ·

        In reply to They are listening people, and acting

        That ws my first post about the site, the titles were so dim and the NEW was undefined.

        Even now, the light blue without being bold is really faint on my notebook LCD. My brightness is cranked for other reasons though, yet that should not be an issue for a website.

    • #3221533

      HATE

      by borginva ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      This site is a mess! I want to view the original version.
      I refuse to click on EVERY SINGLE response in a posting. I wan tto view them all at once like before.
      Hell, I am still looking for ALL of my postings. When I do find a posting, it is on the left of the screen SQEEZED in due to some ads and crap on the right side.
      Where are my points?
      Where are QAs?
      What does SAVE mean?
      Why is my “workspace” so crowded and blotted?
      I have written 2 emails in 2 days to the TR service people, but of course, no response. I am sure they are busying trying to fix all of this. I guess when I filled out the form on the preview last month of their new design, my comments were ignored.
      If it is not broke, do not fix it!

      • #3221431

        To answer your questions…

        by Jay Garmon ·

        In reply to HATE

        This site is a mess! I want to view the original version.

        We apologize that the new design is not to your liking. The overall response has been generally positive, and we continue to tweak on a daily basis to work out the kinks in the new design. The old version no longer exists (not does the first iteration of the new, having been swept away by our ongoing fixes and improvements).

        I refuse to click on EVERY SINGLE response in a posting. I wan tto view them all at once like before.

        This is not a new feature. Discussions always worked this way, and it has always proven more popular and effective than Q&A by at least a factor of four. We have merely extended the Discussions model to the former Tech Q&A content. To view all the posts in a thread at once, simply click the ‘Print this thread’ link.

        Hell, I am still looking for ALL of my postings.

        Your postings can be found in your Workspace under the History tab. There are several sort options, and we are working to refine and improve these even as we speak.

        When I do find a posting, it is on the left of the screen SQEEZED in due to some ads and crap on the right side.

        I’m not sure what you’re referring to. Our page format is actually wider than it was before by about 100 pixels, most of which went to the left ‘post’ column. There have never been any significant pages without ads on TechRepublic.

        Where are my points?

        Do to overwhelmingly negative user feedback over several years, the TechPoint program was discontinued.

        Where are QAs?

        Technical Q&As are now called Questions, and you can find them on Forums door listings.

        What does SAVE mean?

        Save allows you to save an URL to your Workspace Links directory. This feature has been available on various parts of TechRepublic for about a year, and we extended it to the former Tech Q&A in this redesign.

        Why is my “workspace” so crowded and blotted?

        I’m not specifically sure what you’re referring to. We are very interested in improving our Workspace UI (and TR UI in general). If you would care to elaborate, we’d gladly take your feedback into consideration.

        I have written 2 emails in 2 days to the TR service people, but of course, no response. I am sure they are busying trying to fix all of this.

        Our Customer Service staff is monitoring a very large amount of TR feedback in response to the site relaunch, most of which has been positive. I apologize if their reply was not prompt enough for your satisfaction. In the future, please feel free to send me a private message via my profile or forum postings, and I will respond as quickly as I can.

        I guess when I filled out the form on the preview last month of their new design, my comments were ignored.

        We received hundreds of comments in response to the relaunch preview, most of which were complimentary. I apologize if you feel your personal preferences were not reflected in the new site design. If you care to reiterate these desires in a private message to me, I will address them explicitly.

        If it is not broke, do not fix it!

        By most accounts, the old Techrepublic was broken in several key areas. Technical Q&A usage was accelerating down a two-year decline. Search was not functioning properly. The front door of the site was a fragmented mess. Site outages due to legacy code and stop-gap fixes were common. The UI was grossly out of date. Our hardware infrastructure was also recently overhauled, which led to some unforeseen software quirks and complications.

        We addressed these and several other “bulk” issues in this redesign, and we have a new Platform Team (of which I am part) charged with iteratively improving the site from this point forward. It is unlikely we will undertake another radical, site-wide overhaul in the foreseeable future, but instead will begin a series of tactical improvement projects, tackling one feature or bug at a time. We would be glad to address your site design concerns in these future projects. I look forward to hearing any specific and constructive feedback you or anyone wish to share.

        • #3221395

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to To answer your questions…

          Edited out

        • #3221329

          NeverBusted does that mean

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Edited out

          I don’t get the pony???

          WAHHHHHHHHH!

        • #3222010

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to NeverBusted does that mean

          Edited out

        • #3221393

          Just Voicing

          by borginva ·

          In reply to To answer your questions…

          I do not mean to be mean, but I hate it when things get changed around so much. I flip out when I see things not as easy as they were once before. I go by a different method of simplicity than others.
          For example, auto attendants. I hate them with a passion. If I can not get to a live human on 0, I will find a way to speak to a human by any means necessary. The BBB is my best friend in those cases.

          “This is not a new feature. Discussions always worked this way, and it has always proven more popular and effective than Q&A by at least a factor of four. We have merely extended the Discussions model to the former Tech Q&A content. To view all the posts in a thread at once, simply click the ‘Print this thread’ link.”

          This seems like a hassle to now click on that link, which opens a new window, and I have to go back to the other to rate them, still, by opening them one by one. Either way, I still have to open these answers up one by one. This is what other users liked? I do not see anything simple in this, I am sorry. As a matter of fact… where do I rate them? It seems all I can do is say if it helps or not, but the issue stays open.

          “Your postings can be found in your Workspace under the History tab. There are several sort options, and we are working to refine and improve these even as we speak.”

          I still can not find any of my postings that were closed and I still can not find any of my postings going back to the past few years (which never worked anyway and I have written to the service people about this several times in the past with no answer). I click on HISTORY and it only shows me 1 post in last 90 days, which is today’s. WORKSPACE only shows me 7 issues (1 seems to be a duplicate) and I can not find issues I know are still open. I hope all this tweaking fixes it all.

          “I’m not specifically sure what you’re referring to. We are very interested in improving our Workspace UI (and TR UI in general). If you would care to elaborate, we’d gladly take your feedback into consideration.”

          These “SUGGESSTIONS” are in the way. I do not need to know what is suggested, especially for nothing I find any interest in. These are taking up space. I just want to see my QAs.

          ” Do to overwhelmingly negative user feedback over several years, the TechPoint program was discontinued.”

          A shame because now how do we get people to answer hard questions. What incentive is there for people to help one another now? I got a question no one answered yet and increased the points on it last week. Now, I can not find it in my “WORKSPACE” to see what the status is. It is gone.

          I know everyone has a different view on what they like and dislike. I go by what I think is simple and clean and what has worked. I am sorry if I seem rude but I wanted to do some things today and them BOOM, I can not find stuff anymore, even now.

        • #3221357

          Incentive?

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to Just Voicing

          [i]…now how do we get people to answer hard questions. What incentive is there for people to help one another now? [/i]

          I only need the incentive of helping someone who may in the future help me back. It’s a form of enlightened self-interest and many here on TR practice it.

          I don’t even remember how many points I had…

        • #3221834

          Here-Here.

          by dawgit ·

          In reply to Incentive?

          I’ll second that

        • #3221334

          nice rant

          by cg it ·

          In reply to Just Voicing

          personally Q&A was a farce. The point system even a bigger one. Especially when someone would post a question and reject all answers and then never close the question or provide other info requested. I could see em gleefully using reject reject reject and not bothering to find out if any of the suggestions would have helped. Bah! Glad they got rid of it! and Q&A as well.

          Now, about Oz and how god made the world in 6 days………….

        • #3221320

          One thing that may help

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Just Voicing

          You can go to the subject that interests you and filter by discussions or questions. Say you have an open question in Networking or want to see only networking questions. Go to your fourth tab “Browse” and select networking. You will see a list of BOTH discussions and questions with networking in the tag. Look at the space where your avatar is shown- there are two buttons. Select “Filter by Questions”. Now all you are seeing are Questions about Networking.

          To rate an answer, give it a “thumbs up” or a “thumbs down”.

          The incentive hasn’t changed. I am still willing to give any question my best shot. But I don’t even try to answer things that I know nothing about.

          BorgInva, we get a whole lot of seagulls in here. Hopefully this new flow will help to stem that tide.

          P.S. Change is always tough. I wish there was a way to make it easier.

        • #3221985

          For the same reasons many people posted answers before

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Just Voicing

          to be helpful or to show how smart they are, points was just a way of showing who answered the most questions.

        • #3220805

          Be Nice…

          by borginva ·

          In reply to Just Voicing

          It would just be nice again to see all of my postings, open and closed, on one page again. I am having a hard time trying to find all my open postings. This “90 days” list shows me nothing now. I can not see why I need to keep track of where my questions go, or which ones I answered to see the status. I just can not easily find them and wish they all showed on one page again, regardless of how old it is (where are my postings from last year?).

        • #3220751

          We’re bringing My Discussions back

          by Jay Garmon ·

          In reply to Be Nice…

          Pretty much the old system we had before, we just have to port it to the new site. We dropped the ball on this one. We admit it. We’ll get MD back as fast as we can.

        • #3220748

          Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to We’re bringing My Discussions back

          And [i][u][b]thank you[/u]![/b][/i]

        • #3220725

          And in case you missed that

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

          [b]Thank you! Thank you! Thank you![/b]

          And[b][i] thank you! [/i][/b]

          B-)

        • #3220720
          Avatar photo

          I’ve got to get this in now

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to We’re bringing My Discussions back

          I didn’t break it and I can not be blamed for breaking it Honest. :p

          On that other matter Jay I didn’t do anything wrong and I’ll deny it no matter how much proof to the contrary you have. :0

          But it’s nice to know that I could help at least 1 person when I’ve been fighting with MS Technical Support for days to do what I could have done in an hour or so. I think that they seem to think that we have nothing better to do than sit listening to musac till they grace us with their presence.

          I was saying reinstall from scratch and I was told [b]No It Can Be Repaired.[/b] Well Big Bloody Deal 2 days to get a job that at best should only have taken a hour or two at the most. I spent longer waiting on hold that the job should have taken and MS still isn’t paying for the mess that they made with WGA. 🙁

          Standard MS stuff fix 1 thing and break 3 others, and then because the other things broke while addressing a WGA Fault a New Case Number has to be issued and you start all over from scratch again. MS makes the Government Departments look good with the speed of answering phones.

          Col ]:)

        • #3221360

          [i]The UI was grossly out of date. [/i]

          by nicknielsen ·

          In reply to To answer your questions…

          Grossly out of date is an understatement. Wasn’t it pretty much the original UI? I don’t remember any significant changes since I joined.

    • #3221527

      Site issues with Downloads

      by maryrrr ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      My issue is that when I come to the <"NEW"> site from the TR email, I am interested in a particular article or download. I can see/print the articles, but not all links have an article associated. I have tried for weeks now to download to no avail. I have done all the troubleshooting…I’m logged in, I don’t have my pop-up blocker on, I changed the Security tab Custom settings per a FAQ, yada, yada, yada. The Page Not Found is driving me nuts! I used to be able to download. Can anyone tell me what I’m missing here? TIA.

    • #3221404

      I don’t like it

      by maecuff ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      I’m in no mood for change.

      • #3221398

        But Mae

        by jdclyde ·

        In reply to I don’t like it

        What exactly would a whiny a$$ t1tty baby emoticon look like? 😀

        • #3221392

          Right now?

          by maecuff ·

          In reply to But Mae

          A picture of me would suffice.

          It seems that we aren’t working on Sunday, so I’ll have a day off to recover and get back to my normal self.

        • #3221923

          Hang in there, Mae

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Right now?

          I wish it would get better faster, I know that it will someday.

          If it makes you feel better, I will turn another agonising year older on Sunday. But my three year anniversary is Tuesday.

          Where there is life, there is hope…

        • #3221892

          I know

          by maecuff ·

          In reply to Hang in there, Mae

          it can’t last forever. In the meantime, I’m rapidly getting into better physical condition. I’m looking for that bright side.

          Don’t sweat the birthday! You’ll be the same as you were the day before. And remember, it’s better to LOOK good than to FEEL good. 🙂

          You know I’m kidding, right?

          I did my own hair last night. It’s actually not bad. I didn’t attempt highlights, though. I’d end up with plaid hair, I’m sure..

        • #3221884

          Vacation time

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to I know

          Come here for a visit- I can teach you how to do your own hair. I have been doing it since I was 16. Started to go grey when I was 8.

          Foiling your own hair is a PITA. Don’t do it. Simple highlights are easy. And if you mess anything up, I can tell you how to fix it.

          I’m lucky- I LOOK good and I FEEL good. Or I look marginal and feel wonderful. Okay- I’m aging like a bad beach party movie… and don’t care.

          Oh well.

          Better physical condition can be a good thing. Don’t forget the B Complex!

        • #3221232

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Vacation time

          Edited out

        • #3221212

          Thuffering Thuccotash!!! :p

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to Vacation time

          Holy Thit!…and…Jeeethus Criiitht! :p

        • #3221199

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to Vacation time

          Edited out

        • #3221195

          Eggthactly!!! :p

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to Vacation time

          Justth in cathe anybody ithh wondering where all of thith ithh coming from…

          Druggth! Lotth and lotth of druggth! :^0

        • #3221882

          Birthdays are GREAT!

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to I know

          Just forget the number and remember that it is to be a celebration that you were born and contine to be here to celebrate it! 😡

          Let a good single-malt flow! 😀

          Happy birthday to youuuuuuuu
          Happy birthday to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
          Happy BIIIIIRTHDAY dear Tiggggerrrrrr
          Happy birthday to youuuuuuuu

        • #3221869

          Thanks JD

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Birthdays are GREAT!

          I DO see them differently in the last few years. This one should be great.

          Partner and I are heading up north for the weekend. He is from the Duluth area so is looking forward to showing off his “home town”. This will be our first trip north that didn’t involve a sleeping bag… but we’re bringing the shotgun, just in case a partridge invades our hotel.

          Weather says snow in Duluth. *sigh* Way too early for that kind of silliness!

        • #3221845

          Don’t tell your birthday is also…

          by onbliss ·

          In reply to Hang in there, Mae

          …on October 15th 🙂

          edited: To say “Happy Birthday Tigger”. Now I will think of you every time on my birthday 🙂

        • #3221839

          Yep

          by tig2 ·

          In reply to Don’t tell your birthday is also…

          And a very happy birthday to you also, Onbliss!

          An odd funny about my birthday… according to my birth certificate, I was born just before midnight. My mother swears to this day that the clock was wrong… it was REALLY after midnight. So I celebrate BOTH days!

        • #3221727
          Avatar photo

          Tig you are sounding more & more

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to Yep

          Like an Aussie [b]Any Excuse for a PARTY![/b] Will do. 🙂

          But in fairness I’ll bet that you’ve never seen a birth certificate that shows the child born is 30 years older than it’s mother. That’s exactly what my son’s second birth certificate showed after he temporally lost the first one. Of course the Register of Births Deaths & Marriages [i] That should just be Births & Deaths as Marriage is a form of DEATH![/i] insisted that the form was originally filled in wrong and they it was our mistake. :^0

          They even kept insisting on that when the original Birth Certificate was found and presented which had different birth dates to the replacement one supplied. I find it fun to know that my son is now 30 years older than both his mother & me so does that make him his own Grandfather? 😀

          We had a party when the original was found and another when the eventual changes where made. As I said any excuse for a [b]Party![/b] :p

          Col ]:)

        • #3221731
          Avatar photo

          What you have to remember is that Tig is

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to Don’t tell your birthday is also…

          Turning 18 this year and she insists that is he actual age. :^0

          You never pick a fight with a angry Tigger as they will always win nd leave you feeling as if you’ve been run over by several 18 wheelers. 🙁

          But it was my understanding that in the US people couldn’t drink till they where at least 21 but Tig is turning it on for the rellies this year and is insisting that she going to end up [b]Blind Drunk.[/b] Sure sounds like a teenager to me. :p

          Col ]:)

        • #3221838

          There’s always Hope, get some old Bob Hope comedy’s

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Hang in there, Mae

          and watch them, the laughs will make you feel a lot better.

          Now, just to make you feel bad, I often get an easy day at work (when I’m working) on my birthday, it often falls on Melbourne Cup Day, our major horse race event, and most places take an easy afternoon and watch the cup – I don’t follow horse, never have (too darn stinky and slippery), but I enjoy the BBQ chooks lunch that usually goes with it, not working this year, so I’ll be at home on Cup Day and celebrate my birthday with me, myself and I – waste of time to go to a restaurant, they’ll be full of cup parties too.

        • #3221908

          X-( HEY! You broke the emoticons!

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to But Mae

          I noticed this in a few posts this morning, but assumed it was from people not putting a space between the text and emoticon.

          B-) 🙁 🙂 ;\ :_| :^0 😐

        • #3221893

          I broke them?

          by maecuff ·

          In reply to X-( HEY! You broke the emoticons!

          Me? I think not. .

        • #3221850

          Yay!

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to X-( HEY! You broke the emoticons!

          Those darned things really stick in my craw. The less I have to see those graphical smilies, the better.

        • #3221726
          Avatar photo

          [b]A Present for you in that case.[/b] :D

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to Yay!

          We all know those cute little computer symbols called “emoticons,” where:

          🙂 means a smile and

          🙁 is a frown.

          Sometimes these are represented by

          🙂

          🙁

          Well, how about some “ASSICONS?”
          Here goes:

          (_!_) a regular ass

          (__!__) a fat ass

          (!) a tight ass

          (_*_) a sore ass

          {_!_} a swishy ass

          (_o_) an ass tha t’s been arou nd
          1. (_x_) kiss my ass

          (_X_) leave my ass alone

          (_zzz_) a tired ass

          (_E=mc2_) a smart ass

          (_$_) Money coming out of his ass

          (_?_) Dumb Ass

          You have just been e-mooned! e-Moon a friend?)

        • #3221286

          Gee, thanks.

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to [b]A Present for you in that case.[/b] :D

          I rather liked the “smart ass” assicon.

    • #3221330

      :)

      by ontheropes ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      .

      • #3221313

        I saw this one also

        by techexec2 ·

        In reply to :)

        It also occurred with a question. It was the first one (at the top of the list). After a few minutes, and after refreshing the page, the link was correct.

        TR is possessed!

        1-800-GHOSTBUSTERS

        • #3222019

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to I saw this one also

          Edited out

        • #3222008

          We don’t need no GhostBusters…

          by techexec2 ·

          In reply to Edited out

          We don’t need no GhostBusters when we have you! Of course! You’re in Hell. I should have known!

          ]:)

          P.S. Hell must be a really fun place to be at this time of year (Halloween).

        • #3222003

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to We don’t need no GhostBusters…

          Edited out

        • #3222016

          Edited out

          by ontheropes ·

          In reply to I saw this one also

          Edited out

        • #3221725
          Avatar photo

          [b]Sure I’m completely lost with the new site[/b] :D

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to Edited out

          Actually I’ve been doing one of those disgusting dirty 4 letter word things and don’t kick me off TR for using this word [b]Please Jay, Peter or whoever[/b] [i]WORK.[/i] 🙁

          I haven’t had much of a chance to play on real Official [i]Work[/i] as they didn’t have an Internet connection where I was or any WiFi Hot Spots I actually when looking. 😀

          My staff get to return home at night after working well they at least get to return home even though it may be mostly in the [b]Mourning[/b] and I get all the fun work a long way away with no chance of having any [b]Play Time[/b] I’ll have to make another [b]Official Complaint[/b] to the Boss who will Totally Ignore my protests. 🙁

          But as I’m back now for a little while I’m trying to make up for some of my time away. 😀

          Col ]:)

      • #3221842

        Working on this

        by smorty71 ·

        In reply to :)

        We are trying to figure this one out as I type. Stay tuned.

    • #3221326

      Chuckle, Ok. I guess I better kick in my 2 cents worth

      by danlm ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      I like it. Taking me awhile to get use to it, but I do like it.

      To be truthful, there really is only one thing I would like changed. I don’t always remember to log in when I click on my email notifications. And when I go to respond, it takes me to a sign up page which is cool But no where can I see to just sign in if I am already a member. That is really the only thing I would like to see added back. Shoot, I may just be missing it, and if so. I apologize.

      But, easier on the eyes. Once you get use to the new navigation, I like it. I was hoping the search would be a bit better, but eh. It might be a matter of just getting use to it.

      Over all though, very nice.

      dan

      • #3221953

        I don’t get that

        by jaqui ·

        In reply to Chuckle, Ok. I guess I better kick in my 2 cents worth

        I chose the lazy way and selected to have my login remembered so I click an uri in an email and bang, right to the page, logged in and everything :p

        • #3221939

          oh chit, I was looking right at it

          by danlm ·

          In reply to I don’t get that

          The login is big, bad, and easy to see on the top right of that page. Damn, am I blind. Christ.

          Hell, it’s even bigger and easier to find then what was on the old page. God, I feel stupid.

          Sorry TR, I’ll shut up now.

          Dan

    • #3221890

      A bloody great waste of time

      by jardinier ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Well it LOOKS nice — if blue is your favourite colour (so what else is new?).

      And that’s about it.

      I am in agreement with most of the negative remarks, which well and truly outbalance the few positive remarks.

      • #3221841

        I’m shocked…

        by smorty71 ·

        In reply to A bloody great waste of time

        by this line: “I am in agreement with most of the negative remarks”

        You are normally so positive and constructive in your feedback 🙂

        • #3221683

          Negative feedback

          by jardinier ·

          In reply to I’m shocked…

          used to be used in audio amplifiers to reduce distortion. So perhaps it is not such a bad thing after all.

          If I like something I will say so.

          If I don’t like something, I will also say so.

          So far I have been not discovered a SINGLE new feature that is of any use to me, while many of the fundamental USEFUL features have been down-graded or deleted.

          I have always thought what a sick joke it is that the website designed by IT pros for IT pros can never get it right.

          And you had come so close to getting it right when you decided to muck the whole thing up again.

          It remains one of the blandest “professional” websites in the world. At least my personal websites are visually appealing.

          Why can’t you come up with something like this?

          http://ilovephilosophy.com

        • #3221292

          Ok, from a visual impaired person

          by danlm ·

          In reply to Negative feedback

          Look, I have a hell of a time seeing or finding things sometimes. Sucks eggs when I code, specially if I’m looking for a syntax error or a fat finger misspelling of a variable.

          Point being, you might consider TR website bland. I consider it a lot easier for me to read. I don’t know if this was their intention when they did the redesign, but it has made it easier for me.

          Have you ever read some of the criticisms about web design trends by the various organizations that represent the visually impaired. They suck, there is no consideration for people with bad eye sight. Fonts too small, no consideration for color blind, freaken font colors that are so close to the background that even if you arnt color blind you cant read it.

          Example, and I am going to use your web site. Your upper left and right blocks (forums/trends). If I was dead tired from coding all day, your small fonts and lines running through those blocks would drive me up a wall. I’d have a hard time seeing them.

          So, don’t consider your visually appealing concept that of every ones. Remember, there are others out there that may have just as many issues with your web site that you seem to have with TR’s.

          A good professional web design person should consider every ones opinion when they put together a site. That includes visually appealing, different browsers used for viewing, security considerations, and any difficulties people may have because of physical problems. Then compromise to try and find the best solution. Lol, and yes. Their own opinion of what looks good sneaks in there also.

          So far, I thought TR did a good job. And they still are tweaking. They are refining where and how to find things to make things easier. Which, thank you TR. I very much appreciate.

          God, I hate being freaken blind. Sucks flippen eggs. Its embarrassing as chit when someone points crap out to you. It’s frustrating as hell when your trying to find chit.

          Dan

        • #3221241

          It can go

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to Ok, from a visual impaired person

          the other way as well Dan,

          I have a really hard time reading anything on a white background onscreen, since I’m effectively blind in bright light.
          I cannot see more than basic shapes on a sunny day.
          at night, I have better vision than most have in the daytime. 🙂

          This is why my own site has a greyish background, to reduce the glare of white and make it easier on the eyes, yet not the black I prefer, since that is concidered hard to read by the majority of people, as well as being print unfriendly.

          for me, the majority of websites are very poorly designed for uability, with no concideration for anyone with any level of visual impairment.

          While I agree that the new TR layout is easier to read, font size wise and layout wise, I find the white part of the colour blend in the content is hard to view for long. if they went to the HTML color of #eeeeee for the white end instead of #ffffff as they have, it would reduce that white glare from the monitor enough to make it easier to read for me.
          [ Hint there Jay 😉 ]
          That is the background colour I used for my own site, to make it easier to read the content. [ “#eeeeee” instead of “#ffffff” ]

          I also avoided using a lot of “effects” on purpose, since they usually do nothing to enhance a site for accessability or functionality. the simplest layout is usually the best layout, it gives everyone the ability to access everything.

          hmm, I just noticed, TR has the #eeeeee colour as the background around the content
          [ pointing to the colour underneath the ad block on the right hand site of the screen ]

        • #3221210

          colors and contrast

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to It can go

          Actually studies were done in the late ’70s and early ’80s that indicate that black text on a white background is hard on [b]anyone’s[/b] eyes for extended reading. Darker color backgrounds with lighter text are better for long-term reading on a screen. The dark text on light backgrounds thing is a holdover from print, where the reverse is true for reducing eye strain and making it easier to read.

          In other words, most Web developers and surfers are still stuck in the pre-Internet age, Luddite throwbacks who can’t divorce themselves from a way of doing things that is increasingly obsolete. Unfortunately, that means that to create an impression of “professionalism”, those of us who do web development/design and actually know better still usually have to produce stuff with dark text on white backgrounds to satisfy the market and the people paying our wages. I suspect things will gradually change over time, though.

          In the meantime, the best compromise (when we can arrange it) seems to be to use a gentler off-white color background and some kind of near-black with a hint of color in it, for maximum readability while still providing a so-called “professional” appearance that satisfies people that expect websites to look like Time Magazine.

          It sounds to me, Jaqui, like your tolerance for black-on-white is just slightly lower than the rest of us.

        • #3221209

          I’m having some issues with the glare, so I understand

          by danlm ·

          In reply to It can go

          I tend to like dark backgrounds with white fonts. Lol, large white fonts.

          I just think that they have done some things to make it easier. I know that I’ll always have issues with some things, so I try not to complain. And appreciate what is the improvements.

          I agree with you on special affects. Basically, unless it’s a business site like GM that is showing off a car. It’s not worth the trouble.

          Lol, and there is no way that I will post a web site that I did. roflmao, for one thing you would have to scroll to the right(seen your earlier post). All though, it is almost all CSS and is very quick considering the fact that it is mostly text(120 pages). Tutorial on IRC. I just don’t want to get flamed by everyone, and the people that asked me to do it like it.

          Dan

        • #3221165

          re: getting flamed

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to I’m having some issues with the glare, so I understand

          As long as you don’t post a badly designed site and try to hold it up as a paragon of good design standards when, in fact, it’s worse than what you’re disparaging by comparison, I don’t see why you’d get flamed. It’s not really doing a bad job at some hobby site that ticks people off. It’s doing so and going around bragging about how great it is while calling other, better stuff crap.

        • #3221175

          In 1984 I saw a major study, commissioned by IBM

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to It can go

          on the issue of colours for use on computer screens. They found that you needed contrast without glare, black on white, and white on black, both have a high level of glare. The recommendation was for things like bright yellow on mid brown, and similar combinations. It also strongly recommended the use of pastels over other colours.

          My personal preferences are for text / background combos like:

          Dark blue on sky blue
          Dark blue on off white
          Mid brown on sky blue
          Dark blue on light grey
          Black on light grey

          The choice of light grey or light blue cuts back on the screen glare while still providing good contrast and keeping the screen light. Even black on light blue is good. My own web site currently uses the html colour ‘lightsteelblue’ with ‘brown’ text.

          I prefer to use the 256 named colours becasue they’re easier to remember and nearly all the browsers display them the same, while many hexdec colour codes can appear difefrent in different browsers.

        • #3221171

          good point about

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to In 1984 I saw a major study, commissioned by IBM

          the named colours.

          I tend to use the hex codes for my colours simply because I will adjust them so that they are more pastel than gloss, which most of the named colours are a glossy colour.

          My favorite colour combination to work with is cyan on black or dark grey, very easy on my eyes.
          light backgrounds are hard on them, white is the worst.

        • #3221164

          “web-safe” colors

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to In 1984 I saw a major study, commissioned by IBM

          The 256-color palette contained a subset of (I think it was about 217) colors known as the “web-safe colors” that were “best practice” to use for a long time because of color-shift differences that occurred with certain other colors in the 256-color palette between markup rendering and image color. Thus, a background and an image background that were supposedly exactly the same color might end up two shades apart because they’d shift in different “directions”.

          That’s pretty much a thing of the past, now. These days, the real problem is that fine-tuning your colors past a certain point of precision is essentially useless since maybe one in a thousand visitors to the average website will actually have the colors, contrast, and gamma on their monitors adjusted properly — and even if it’s adjusted properly, the monitor might be old or cheap and thus render colors just slightly wrong.

          C’est la vie.

          The extensive studies done in the late seventies and early eighties actually found that the best colors for extended two-color viewing when reading text were amber-on-black or green-on-black — which is why there were a bunch of monitors “back in the day” that used those colors. Red-on-black was less common, but were a reasonably good third place for conditions where low visibility from more than conversational distance was desirable, such as with field military systems (you don’t want the enemy reading the text on your screen or, for that matter, just using the visible light to coordinate an artillery strike).

          Unfortunately, since the development of color monitors, people have decided that all those color combinations are “evil” somehow, and refuse to think of them as in any way good just because of a knee-jerk reaction of some sort. As such, it’s essentially completely unacceptable to use those color schemes for pretty much anything.

        • #3221017

          re: green on black

          by jaqui ·

          In reply to In 1984 I saw a major study, commissioned by IBM

          I actually do like that combination, and when I’m using a virtual terminal from a gui, that is the colour scheme I use.

          Not everyone thinks it’s evil. :p

        • #3220580
          Avatar photo

          They are making a come back lately

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to In 1984 I saw a major study, commissioned by IBM

          I’ve seen a lot of Green on Black or Amber on Black Monitors on Point of Sale Terminals recently. Either there must be a lot of leftover 4 inch LCD Screens or they are now being used again.

          All the new NEC sales stuff seems to be going back to this display as well as a few others that I’ve seen recently.

          I just hope that the NEC Cash Register Techs are no longer having Nervous Breakdowns a couple of times per year as that used to be a bit of a worry I always thought that I might go the same way. 🙂

          Col

        • #3221288

          Great site!~

          by whocares ·

          In reply to Negative feedback

          ilovephilosophy –

          Im not sure where to begin commenting on this. other then to say that this is a great example of why there are so many aisles at the market…. EVERYONE likes something different. As well, everyone will also have a varied idea of what is visually appealing and or functional.

          If you suggesting that it is “Functional” to have all of your primary navigation be a Pop up to a new window with no presesnce of the original navigation… Or that having small line condensed light text on a non print friendly dark background is helpful… well then hey… You like jam… and I prefer jelly! 😀

          As for visually appealling, ilovephilosophy is not my taste, but will certainly give you credit for your consistant use of push button photoshop filters. You certainly have a command for the bevel button and the blur buttons.

        • #3221284

          Actually . . .

          by apotheon ·

          In reply to Negative feedback

          Sorry, man, but your website is hideous. It’s also difficult to navigate effectively, not very clear in explaining itself, and terrible for accessibility standards.

        • #3221244

          Uggh, what a visually terrible site

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to Negative feedback

          too high a contract between the background and text, and the background way to dark. I’ve seen worse, but not much. Visually so out, that I didn’t bother trying to read the content. Also, all the stuff in the right hand column, could have fit in the left column, and used wide columns. Some of the lower pages were better looking, but that home page – yuck.

          Sorry mate, you chose a bad example.

        • #3221172

          Ok, it’s not at all bad….

          by dawgit ·

          In reply to Negative feedback

          way too much fillers from the Google folks, but that’s just me.
          From the stand point of ‘Standards’ Jardiner, W? Mark-up service said
          you had only 49 errors, not bad actually, TR’s ‘new’ site has 486.

    • #3221813
      Avatar photo

      Good to see that you are having a Bad Hair Day JD :D

      by hal 9000 ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      My main gripe is that I can no longer find New Discussions and the Questions are not easy to find either.

      Sure I can find a list of Discussions or Questions with several replies to them but no new ones. Seems that they have to have already been posted to before they pop up and become shown as listed.

      And whats Far Worse is [b]No Friday Yuk![/b]

      Col

      • #3221802

        In case you missed my halloween avitar last year

        by jdclyde ·

        In reply to Good to see that you are having a Bad Hair Day JD :D

        I dont’ have “bad hair days”. I have NO hair daze. :p

        And shell started a yuk a few hours ago.

        http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-6230-0.html?forumID=102&threadID=202535&start=0

        • #3221722
          Avatar photo

          OH I see JD that orange stuff exploding out of your head

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to In case you missed my halloween avitar last year

          Is your brains right. 😀

          I did eventually find Shell’s Friday Yuk but to be fair I didn’t arrive home till way after 2.00 am so I was slightly less than bright at the time. :p

          Incidentally [b]What’s Halloween?[/b] Must be one of that Yanky things that you just have to live there to understand I suppose. 😀

          I hate my boss he drives me way to hard and whats worse is I missed watching Bathurst this year just about every F1 and Moto GP Race and I can’t quit [b]I hate it when you work for yourself![/b] 🙁

          Col

        • #3221704

          Halloween, taken from the old English “All Holies Evening”

          by deadly ernest ·

          In reply to OH I see JD that orange stuff exploding out of your head

          or “All Hallows Eve” The night before All Saints Day, ancient Catholic day of celebration. It’s partly derived from an older pagan ceremony to drive away evil spirits and devils. Some village people dressed up as common demons and evil spirits, the rest drove them through the village, from house to house, and forced them out of the village, thus cleansing the village. With the coming of Christianity it became a way of cleansing the village prior to All Saints Day

          For some reason, the citizens of the USA decided that they should dress their children up as goblins and ghosts and witches and the like. The kids then go around the neighbourhood extorting lollies, if not given any they played tricks on the home owners, a common one being to throw eggs etc. Trust the Aericanos to distort something like this.

          After teaching the kids the wonders of extortion, they wonder why they have a large crime rate, and corruption is so rife? sheeesh.

        • #3221301

          kids have to learn sometime, don’t they?

          by jdclyde ·

          In reply to Halloween, taken from the old English “All Holies Evening”

          Although that isn’t quite the way things go here. It is not taught that you give me a treat or I will give you a trick, even if that is how it started.

          The night before is known here as “Devils night”, and that is when the devious acts are done. From eggings, to “TP’ing” someones yard/trees/house, to in some extreme cases setting fires. (generally “frouned” upon).

          If a house does not have their porch light on, people don’t go to it and they leave it along.

          For me and my boys, we have run getting dressed up, though only go to friends and families. I just go to the store and let them BUY any candy they would want rather than do the door-to-door that has really gone down from when I was little.

      • #3221780

        We’re tweaking this ASAP

        by Jay Garmon ·

        In reply to Good to see that you are having a Bad Hair Day JD :D

        The forums door is getting a mild redesign right now. It may be sometime next week when you see a vastly different design, which makes getting to Discussions adn Questions much easier.

        • #3221721
          Avatar photo

          Thanks Jay

          by hal 9000 ·

          In reply to We’re tweaking this ASAP

          It’s appreciated particularly by [b]Dumb People[/b] like me who just have to get their TR Fix after being away from a stable Internet connection for a few days. 🙁

          My lousy Boss insists that as I started this Job I have to finish it off. Currently they have most of the building up with some of the cables pulled currently I’m only working with the owner and Architect to get things right and occasionally supervising the builders to make sure that they don’t muck up any of my stuff. Like a couple of electricians who attempted to stretch some Optical Fibre Cable a few inches to make it fit. After all they do it all the time with copper wire so what I had supplied shouldn’t make any difference. 😀

          Col

    • #3222219

      Ok, I’ve got my asbestos underwear on, so I can safely say

      by deadly ernest ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      One thing I do like about the new TR site, is the search by tag. In the old one I had to check several discussion categories to be sure I was seeing all the posts about matters that I had an interest in. Now I just check a couple of tags.

      An example being – a post about how Linux performs on different hardware set ups, could have been in the categories – Harwdare, Linux, Software. If the post is properly tagged, it will be under all three of those tags and any one of them will find it.

      Yeah they had this before the change, but it wasn’t so easy to use, now I just click on the tag in the column.

      Another thing I like, is the way, the current post is highlighted, much more so than the way it was done in the old system.

      As I said, I have my asbestos underwear on, so go ahead and flame me, for saying something nice.

    • #3220692

      Just a test…

      by vanessaj ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      Wondering how to get color…figuring that if I can’t find out for myself, without asking JD, I’m not really “worth my salt” (archaic West Virginia saying – unless someone else out there has heard it used)

      • #3220680

        My understanding of the color entry was that

        by deadly ernest ·

        In reply to Just a test…

        you type in some standard html tags around where you wanted the changed colour

        edited to add – This pre supposes that you know what standard html tags are, and how to use them. With the use of Java scripts of some type and programs like Dream Weaver, where they do all that for you, actual knowledge and sue of html tags is already becoming a dying art.

      • #3220644

        Worth your salt – is more archaic than you realise

        by deadly ernest ·

        In reply to Just a test…

        it goes way back, a few thousand years, to when they paid people with salt – salary is actually derived from the ancient word for salt.

        It’s a common English expression.

      • #3220642

        Your worth

        by jdclyde ·

        In reply to Just a test…

        is not determined by what you know, but by what you will do with what you DO know and WILL know.

        A good tech should not be afraid to say “let me get back to you on that”, because there is no way you can know everything. There is just too much.

        If you don’t have it by tomorrow, let me know and I will peer you. 😀

    • #3219729

      well, for one thing, there’s no comments link!

      by longwayoff ·

      In reply to [b]What I like and dislike about the new TR site[/b]

      I hope someone is still reading this thread. I tried to post comments about the site, but couldn’t find a link to do so directly, so I tried customer help, which timed out without (as far as I know) submitting my comments, and which also _required_ filling in a subfield with categories none of which fit what I wanted to say. My comments are:

      If you use Firefox, and Ctrl+ to enlarge the font, the layout is destroyed (I had to shrink it back to too small to read in order to write this, because the right side of the message window disappears under the “browse by tag” useless thing when I enlarge the type to readable size).
      It also overwrites when the font is made larger, instead of wrapping. So when the print is big enough to read, you can’t click on the links because they’ve disappeared under the previous or next line.
      If you actually want feedback, put in a form with fewer required fields, or add more choices (like “other” or “misc”) to your very limited choices.

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