Community archive

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Community redesign coming...

0 helpful
133 replies

by smorty71

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

OK, I figure now is a great time to post some of the comps from our upcoming community revamp/redesign.

Not going to go into a ton of explanation about these comps. I want to get everyone's reaction without any prompting about how things might work.

So here goes:
Start a thread / Ask a question
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/ask_start.gif

View a discussion post
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/view_post.gif

Unified Discussions/Tech Q&A door
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/community_door.gif

View a TQ&A question
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tr/community_demo/redesign/view_question.gif

Please let us know your thoughts. BTW, I didn't make these comps, so you can't hurt my feelings (don't you love a challenge?).

sm

133 replies

by apotheon

There's always a caveat.

I especially like the arrangement of options for the page for creating new discussion threads: it helps to kinda throw the options in the face of the person getting ready to post so that he or she will perhaps pause long enough to make something approaching intelligent decisions.

The overall appearance is pretty good, too, though I'm not the world's biggest fan of the color orange for a website -- maybe that could be altered. Just to satisfy the Great Apotheon, of course.

One thing that occurs to me as a potential issue: it looks a bit image-heavy, particularly in basic site functionality (menus, et cetera). Not only do images slow down page loading -- they also make it difficult for people with "special needs" (read: nonstandard browser setups) to make use of the site. I'd like the chance to look at the page designs both in a text-only browser and in Firefox with styles turned off, but that's not going to happen when your mock-ups are available only as GIFs, of course.

Oh, yeah, and GIFs suck for a number of reasons, both technical and "philosophical". Have you tried PNGs?

. . . and why aren't you guys making the content area scale to window size so that the site looks better and makes better use of space at higher resolutions?

[b]edit: First post! Woohoo![/b]

by jdclyde

that I should have just put in a one liner, and then gone in and edited it to get in first! DRAT! :D

by deepsand

Visually way too busy. (Although, it pales in that regard to [i]Wired[/i] magazine.)

Blue & Orange, or Blue & Red are [b]not[/b] good combos. for easy reading; they result in eye strain.

Also, the vertical delimiters need to be more saturated. The eye uses these as "stops" when scanning a line; they are what tells the brain to have the eye do a "line-feed w/ carriage return."

And, for the same reason, the "white space" bordering said delimiters needs to be increased in width.

If you want to know what makes for easy reading, i.e. copy that comports well with the eye-brain physiology involved, take a look at newpapers that were set by the oldtimers.

by jdclyde

I like it.

One thing that "erks" me is the spacing used on the screen. I don't mind that the ad section with all the other links is bigger, but the far right pannel should be merged into that instead of taking up half the screen with ads and links.

[b]Discussions.[/b] I like the way it highlights the current post. Or at least I THINK that is what is intended? It shows your reading 2 of 135, but the highlight points at the fourth post. I ASSUME this is just because of screen shots getting put together from different times?

[b]TQ&A / Discussion[/b] Bravo! This will make it much easier for people to direct the post to the right section by choosing if it is a discussion or a technical question.

Multiple catagories. Again, I like it. For the people that category lurk, it will make more discussions/questions easier to find as they come along.

TAGS, consider a dialog where you could maybe choose from the top 20 tags? If they are not typed in everytime, that would help standardize tags. How much distortion is there from one person typing windows and the next person typing win9X or windows98 or windows 98 or some other variation? The idea of actually being able to look up discussions by tags could become more useful, and to be honest I have NEVER even tried to do anything with following tags. I would not make them optional though if you want this feature to grow.

[b]Community door[/b]. please tell me you didn't forget the "posts by my contacts" AGAIN! X-(

Also, please explain the "save" button?

[b]View Questions[/b]. This looks pretty, but looks like it lacks the FUNCTION that a Q&A should have. The asker should be able to reply directly to proposed answers without having to rate them, to allow for followup questions and answers. This has been something that has bothered me for a while that if someone is almost correct with their answer, you still have to slam them with a harsh "REJECTED" to reply to them. This lowers their percent accepted rating because they sometimes would put in two or three posts if the question asker replies to them directly instead of putting their reply in the origial question.

Over all, I think it is pretty, but am not thrilled that only half of the screen is dedicated to the questions and discussions that bring us to the pages in the first place.

by smorty71

That is the current post highlight. Mock-ups are just a little off.

There will be a Posts from my Contacts view. Right new to the Suggestions tag (next to Hot and New tabs in the left column).

The save button is to save things to your Links and/or Workspace.

We are changing how you rate TQ&A. More on that functionality soon.

by jaqui

if you haven't fixed the non closing of questions issue having the unified doorway will be a complaint. why answer questions when they never tell you if they solved the problem and how?

The bright white backgroud, with the luminosity of a monitor is a good source of light to read a book by.
mybe switch it to 10% black, so it is not as luminous. the brightness is actually hard on the eyes.

by smorty71

We've struggled with the issue of people asking questions without providing feedback. We are planning on limiting the number of open questions that are allowed (i.e. if you want to ask another, you need to give feedback on your open one(s).

Ultimately, it comes down to manners. Unfortunately, we'll never be able to solve that problem with software.

by charliespencer

Maybe you could put a list of the poster's open questions at the top of the "Start a thread / Ask a question" page. The list would serve as a reminder to close questions, and the more the poster has open, the further down he'll have to scroll before asking a new one.

by jardinier

after 30 days.

I have found that if I don't get a satisfactory answer within three days, then I am not going to get one by leaving the question open.

The original poster could perhaps be sent an email warning that the question will be closed within, say, three days if they don't close it themself.

As various people have posted here and elsewhere, the percentage of questions left open indefinitely amounts to more than 60 per cent of questions answered.

by wayne m.

I would just make two recommendations, one for the ask_start page and one for the view_post page.

I find it a little redundant to have three button selects (question, discussion, blog) immediately followed by two radio buttons (question, discussion). You could probably drop one or the other. One thing to ponder is, are the differences in the three types really worth the effort for maintaining all three? Could questions, discussions, and blogs be merged into a single type? I will also concur on a previous poster's recommendation to have a select list of tags. Restricting the range of possible tags would increase the hope of actually finding something.

On the view_post, I find the bars behind the responses to be distracting. Visually, the pattern seems to hide the different groupings and indentation levels. I would recommend losing the bars.

Good luck tomorrow!

by charliespencer

Please keep the bars. Compared to the current use of "gray vs. blue" lettering, they make it much easier to tell which post you are reading.

by Jay Garmon

I get a "This page is accessible only to the Dev Team" error for the link. Also, your avatar image isn't visible to me or anyone else in my building when we view your posts/profile. It may be that only you can see it.

by jdclyde

that grey is just a little too "blah". (kind of like it is NOW)

powder blue. just enough to take away the blind.

by tony hopkinson

Only joking.

Way too much space for ads versus content. I knows you boys got's to earn your money, but in terms of usable area of the screen looked about fifty/fifty at a glance. I spent all this money on a 19 inch monitor and I could saw it in half and have a dual display system.
Other than that, looks like progress to me on some issues.

by jaqui

no ads on my site.

I haven't decided if I'm going to put ads on or not yet.
[ probably not, since I prefer a site that isn't cluttered with extra cruft. ]

by bfilmfan

Not bad, I will adjust to it.

I do agree with J-mon that white color is really hard on the eyes and his lighter grey suggestion is better for those of us sensitive to monitor colors.

by the admiral

Not bad, really, but the new site looks unattractive compared to the old site.

On another related thing. Don't forget to spell check, since it is MyWorkspace, not the other.

by thechas

I generally agree with the other comments that have been posted regarding the image content and the chosen colors.

I prefer plain over gaudy.

You do need to have someone do a good spell check though.

On the 4th link, view TQ&A Question, it boldly states that "This question INS solved".

I had to follow the bizarre work-around to get here.

Buy the way, how do I change my TR Insiders email address?
I updated my profile a few weeks back for a new address. But this invite came to my old email address.

As to the recurring theme of closing questions, I don't think it is manners as much as it is the difference between how TR handles the Q&A section versus how most other sites handle threads.

The best suggestion I have for the open question issue is to limit the number of open questions that any peer can have at one time.

It won't take care of all the situations, but will handle the repetitive abusers.

Chas

by Jay Garmon

The current thinking is that each user gets one question open at a time. To open a second you must close the first. Leave a question open indefinitely, and you've locked yourself out of the system. (If you have several open questions when we make the switch, you'd have to close ALL of them before you can ask another. Take THAT serial question-danglers!)

Also, to close a question, you MUST rate all the answers provided. We're toying with adding a third rating state to helpful/unhelpful--solved. That way you get the gradient of assistance; you're able to say "this helped" even if it didn't precisely solve the problem.

In all honesty, the success of the new version of Q&A will hinge on you all, the hardcore answer crew. If posting to Q&A doesn't provide some serious advantage over discussions, the casual user will keep posting technical questions to discussions. I suspect that advantage will be speed--Q&A provides answers faster. We'll do what we can to blast out recently asked questions everywhere possible, but the onus will be on the community to make Q&A work. You provide the value, not us.

To that end, I'll admit that we've toyed with chucking Q&A altogether and conceding that most people will use discussions to ask for help no matter what we do. I know some of you make it a point to police this behavior, and we appreciate that fact, but Q&A has to really sing if we're going to continue to support the feature. It has a LOT of application administration overhead, and that's before we even talk about the recognition features it requires. Sooner or later, somebody higher up is going to decide its not worth the effort--unless we can demonstrate why and how Q&A kicks ass.

You love Q&A, we love Q&A, but its going to take ALL of us to make it work.

---

As to the e-mail address, Chas, I'm working off an old Excel file I keep myself, separate from our systems. I'll update my records later today, so the future alerts go to the right place.

by stargazerr

That should help matters. As for Q&A success, we just need to keep nagging the people who post questions in discussions (I too have done that on occassion :p ).

]:)

by thechas

The changes to Q&A sound good.

While a 1 question limit will seem restrictive to some, it should keep the forum moving.

As long as I continue to see questions that I believe my input will be of value, I will continue to contribute.

I just don't have time these days to look at every question, or drill down through the discussions looking for people who are seeking help.

If you do ever remove the Q&A section, PLEASE split up the discussions into distinct technical and water cooler sections.

Speaking of discussions, has the site bug been fixed so that all article discussions show up in new discussions?

For that matter, how about a sort for a list of discussion threads on this weeks new articles?

I'm WAY behind in reading my Tech-Mails, but might enjoy looking over threads while the articles are fresh.

Chas

by jardinier

I don't like rating an answer as "didn't help me" when the poster has obviously made a suggestion that he/she thinks addresses my question helpfully.

What I have been finding recently (well a few months ago) is that persons have been offering a solution which shows that they haven't a clue what the correct answer is.

Sure I can rate their post as "didn't help me," but I will probably also insert some stern words about wasting my time.

While we are on the subject of Tech Points, when is my little yellow box going to display "20 K" as I have passed this level some time ago.

It is not an ego thing but I feel that it would indicate that I have made a measurable contribution in that area -- be it by asking questions or answering questions.

by jaqui

I haven't created any access restrictions to the dev server.

I moved it to the main domain server and changed the links in the posts. :)

so it should work for all now.

by sleepin'dawg

The size, type face, colour choice on the banner.
I'd suggest another colour combo and somthing other than a script styl of type face. Actually leave the six alone but the script look contrived, the colours are a matter of personal taste I suppose.

[i]edited in after reading your response re ads:[/i] Go ahead put in ads if it can make you some bucks. They might help pay for the up keep. As long as they're not too distracting or over powering, why not???

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

by jaqui

I changed the font face in the banner.
since it was something I was going to do anyway. :D

the only way I would put ads in would be the google ads, text only. if an ad company wouldn't offer that then they won't get the space.

at $191.40 a year for the hosting plan, it's not a huge expense where the bucks are required to cover it. :)

by sleepin'dawg

The new font is much cleaner and clearer. The red drop outline punches it up and adds to the clarity but I'm still not 100% sure of the background colour. Don't get me wrong; I like the colour, i'm just questioning its use here. Iguess this is a matter of personal taste; it's your web site and if that's what you like, go with it. Also why is it in a block and not FSW banner style. I would say extend it FSW and maybe narrow it slightly but maintain the font and point size. I liked everything else; good layout, clean, simple and clear.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

by sleepin'dawg

I assume the basic idea is to streamline and add speed and I have a feeling this will achieve neither.

Try to retain as much of the old as possible; people are more comfortable with what is familiar. There will always be an element of resistance to change; any change.

There is a certain element of, "Wow"; "Gee Whiz" or "Will you look at that now" to the changes but they're purely cosmetic and give no indication of increased speed and functionality and in fact I somehow suspect some of them might slow some things down.

Threads such as the EL one should be compressed after sometime, how much time would be for you to determine.

They look overly bright and are hard on the eyes and I like Jaqui's suggestion for toning them down.

I'm still calling for a spell check feature that would improve the levels of comprehensability for posters who are not exactly great on a keyboard, such as myself and several other's I could name. A grammar checker might not be bad either. Access to alternate characters would be nice too as well as more emoticons, the raised middle finger immediately coming to mind. :^0

Try increasing the size of the window we type in, if not in width, then length. It would cut down on the amount of scrolling required for proof reading.

I'm not sure about your selection of colours; they don't exactly offend me but do kind of make me wish you had chosen others. The brightness bit might have something to do with that. I'm no web designer but I am a graphics guy. I guess you have to allow for some peoples hardware limitations but can't you raise the resolution enough to fill at least a 17" monitor. I think most people have at least that by now, at a minimum, except those running on laptops.

I'm saying nothing about the ads as I realize you guys have to turn a buck and the fact that TR is a freebie is and should be appreciated. The only thing that puts me off are the roll overs that insist upon sounding off with a lot of inane chatter.

Well that's it for me; hope I wasnt too rough.
If I think of anything else I'll let you know.

[b]Dawg[/b]

by sleepin'dawg

Give Tech Republic Peer Product Review its own forum. The way it is now, it's overly annoying and probably garners more gripes about its presence than getting any useful information. Who is it floods us with those things anyway. He needs to be way less anal retentive.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

by hal 9000

But as I do agree with several people here the colours are a bit hard on the eye.

My only real concern is that limiting the number of open questions might drive some away as a lot don't seen to think that they need to close off a question when they post a solution.

I've just had a quick look at my TQ&A activity and I see that I've answered 1430 questions had 18% accepted 15% rejected and a whooping 66% unrated. I'm sure that others who participate in the Q&A section will have similar stats, and while I would like to see the answers rated with the current number of other technical forums where you ask a question as a general discussion sort of topic there might be some resistance to forcing people to close off questions before they can ask another one. But I like the idea although there may be some problems involved for TR.

Col

by jaqui

percentages on my TQ&A activity.

only around 1/3 the questions answered as you but the ratios of accepted, rejected and unrated is about the same.
Number of answers given: 553
Number of answers accepted: 113 (20%)
Number of answers rejected: 99 (17%)
Number of answers not rated: 341 (61%)

by hal 9000

That Mongeral [b]CHAS[/b] got me back into the Q&A section somehow. I'm still trying to work out how he did it but for better or worse I seem to spend a lot of time there now. :(

Col ]:)

by blackcurrant

Overall, I think it looks very good. The foreground colours are easy on the eyes - though I do think the imagery is a little heavy, and the background should be turned down a little.

by stargazerr

On TR as it is right now the post title is bold ... but on the new TR snapshots the title becomes bold only if it is the current selected post.

In the snapshot, the post title and the members userid dont look very easy to read at first glance.

]:)

by jardinier

I am not an ant nor do I possess microscopic vision.

At full-screen display on Firefox 1.5 on a sharp 17 in CRT monitor, all I can see is different coloured dots (more or less).

Can anyone suggest a way by which I could actually see the samples clearly?

by stargazerr

I am on Firefox 1.5 too and I can see it. Clicking on the image should magnify it. Does your mouse pointer not turn into a magniying glass when you hover over the image ??

]:)

by jardinier

and you're likely to get a sensible answer.

Yes, it works just fine. Thanks for the tip.

Now I will study the layouts in detail and see if I have anything to add to the comments.

Julian

by jardinier

It looks like a professionally designed website !!!

That will take some getting used to. :0

Detailed comments to follow ..... B-)

by charliespencer

I notice the redesigned Q&A pages don't make any reference to points. Is the concept being discarded? If they're going away, I want to trade mine in for that TR Secret Decoder Ring.

EDITED: How about changing the default avatar? Instead of that black-on-grey silhouette, use the black and blue TR flag logo.

by smorty71

Points, as they are used now, are going to be transitioned into a new recognition system. We're still working on the details, but we WILL make sure that all of your past activity is factored into the new system from the start (no resets).

The biggest change to most users is that there are no points required to ask a Tech Q&A question. There are also no variable points given for answering them. We will, though, give recognition to answering.

by apotheon

If you get rid of the silhouette avatar, the joke of my avatar's design won't be relevant any longer! I'll have to come up with a new one, darnit.

Are you just trying to make my life difficult?

by charliespencer

it's just an added benefit.

So take the TR flag and reverse the colors and background; different joke, same punch line.

by gadgetgirl

Smorty, you asked, you're getting it!!

What are the stars for? What do they denote?

Are you keeping the "new" allocation for new posts? If not, or even if anyway, how about putting the dates of the post in bold for easier catch ups?

"Updates via email" on the Start Thread link - does this replace the discussion notifications?

What is the B D Q section on the Community Door? D - discussion, Q - questions, B - ??? (or am I being a dippy tart again?)[don't answer that one if you like living!!]

Final 2

1. Is the photo of "Marc" used an early version of Smorty???
2. Top RHS of all the shots - myWorspace? You trying to turn into a Geordie now???

:D

GG

by jdclyde

MUST be for [b]Bondage[/b]?

We are starting to rate our own section! ]:)

[i]Jaqui has been a good influence! ;\

by gadgetgirl

Was in there as B D Q - so,

Busted Down Quickly
Bondage Domination Quota
Boobs DoubleD Quotient
Bad "Dawg" Query
Breast Development Query
Buggered Dick Quality

*I sometimes worry myself as to how fast I can come up with stupid things like this!!*

]:)

GG

by smorty71

The stars are placeholder images for part of the upcoming recognition system (which will launch after this redesign). The new system will use badges to indicate your achievements within certain categories of activity. Still working on the details, but that is what those will be.

"New" will be there. One of many things that are missing from the comps that will be in the final product.

"Updates via email" is the same as the current notifications.

BDQ are not going to be there. It will be 1,2,3,4. That unit at the top will rotate between 4 panels. Each panel will have a different promo on it (maybe a hot discussion, maybe a new TQ&A, maybe a blog post). You will be able to cycle through them with the numbers or let it play through on its own.

No, that photo is of our new art director. My current photo is bad enough. No need to dig ones up from the past :)

I'm not sure what your last question means?

by rob mekel

on My Wor"K"space, mmm or has it some other meaning and isn't the K missing.

Even Jaqui, on his re-colouring has it. :D :0 ;)

Rob

by gadgetgirl

Had you drunk long and cool from the water of the cooler, you would have known from the repartis that I'm a Geordie.

The easiest way to explain this is to say - you know Cockneys are from London? Well, Geordies are from Newcastle. We have our own dialect of English and are a fiercely proud people. (Google "Toon Army" and you'll see what I mean!)

The reference I made was to a "Geordie-ism" - by leaving out the "K" in workspace, you made it into "Wor Space", which, in Geordie, translates to "My Space".....having to explain this is really kicking the hell out of the funny, which was you had inadvertently, to me as a Geordie, labelled the section MyMySpace....see? No?

Oh, ok, have a Geordie dictionary from me then:

http://tinyurl.com/hkhe8

It should all now become as clear as mud.

Right. Why, precisely, do you want to have badges to indicate achievements in certain categories of activity? Are you trying to pick on us non-techies and show us up?

(Where's OG when I need him......?)

Despite having broken my golden rule of not answering tech q & a's, I did just that, but have only ever answered (I think, without checking) three. Does this mean my badge won't shine as brightly as other peoples'?

And, conversely, if I sneak in the odd non-thread related post, will my badge be tarnished?

And considering the "type" of posts I seem to put on here, is my badge being specially tarnished to start off with?

:D

GG

by stargazerr

dont have a guilty conscience. They will just scroll down or press page down and keep going.

]:)

by stargazerr

In the browse by tag ... whats the [b]number[/b]??

And I am sure someone has mentioned this already but the actual space to read the posts and browse a discussion thread is less than what it is now. Can the width be increased please? Maybe make the RHS column less wider.

]:)

by smorty71

The number represents the number of threads that have that tag associated with them.

As for the right column, we are really at the mercy of the ad unit. It is 300px wide, so that column can't get any narrower unfortunately.

by sleepin'dawg

At least TR would look quite so lonely sitting in the middle of a 20" monitor. If there are people still using 15" monitors its about time they upgraded to 17" and at the very least 1024 but 1280 would be better.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

by stress junkie

I couldn't be happier with the new discussion format. I noticed that you can now easily find the post that you are reading in the list of all of the posts. Thanks guys and gals.

by stargazerr

I have tried subscribing to this discussion 2 or 3 times now without success. Is this part of the mysterious bug that has engulfed TRI??

]:)

by beth blakely

What exactly is happening? Does it look as though you're subscribed, but you're not receiving updates? Or are you getting a PNF?

by stargazerr

Wat happens is ... I click on the subscribe link in the thread but the discussion doesnt show up as one of my [b]Discussions Subscribed To:[/b] in My discussions.

I might be completely off my rocker here, since I have never tried to subscribe to a TRI discussion before.

Edited to add: The subscribe link is grayed out, which means the script responsible acknowledges that I have subscribed to this thread. Only it doesnt show in the Discussions subscribed to section.

]:)

by beth blakely

You are subscribed to the thread and will receive email and workspace updates to the discussion.

However, because it is in the Insiders forum it has been supressed so it will not appear in various other places and tease non-insiders. (You know they're jealous!) Unfortunately, that means it can't show up in your My Discussions area. Sorry about that.

by jaqui

a simple way of having the different access levels that are used, and not get the showing / not showing bugs..

base the visiblility on a user level field in the db...

1) regular free member
2) regular free member with TRI access
3) regular TPG member
4) regular TPG member with TRI access

when user logs in thier level is used to set if TRI displays or not, those without don't see TRI stuff at all, those with accesshave it show mixed in with every feature.

very similar idea to the Moderator access of php-nuke et-al

by stargazerr

The reason I subscribe to a thread is because I want it to show in a different area. That way, I can be sure it wont slip off the My discussions page.

But thanks a lot for the help. :)

]:)

by jaqui

so you don't like the suggested colour, I was using the grey as an example of how to tone down the glare. :p

by jaqui

I've noticed..
posts from my contacts, view all, and 75% of the posts are you answering questions in the TQ&A :D
[ it's my one complaint about the posts from my contacts, the mixing of TQ&A and Discussions. ]

by sleepin'dawg

I started ducking Q&A a long time ago because I quickly lost interest after having so many of my answers not responded to. I didn't really have any interest in the points business but would have liked to have seen how my advice was being taken.

If I don't see answers in posts from my contacts, I might never go back there and worse never repond to any questions but several of you guys usually beat me to the punch anyway, so I'm no big loss.

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

by hal 9000

I know that feeling, being the wrong side of the IDL I'm one of the last to see questions posted while I've been asleep so I just settle for mopping up and adding a bit more info to some that has been glossed over by most of the people who get in first. :)

Col ]:)

by hal 9000

If you look in the Discussions Participated in you'll find an entry there for any TRI discussions that you are subscribed to so provided you keep adding comments to this discussion you'll see it to wards the top of that part of the page.

Incidentally as a warning [b]Don't upset Beth[/b] she is really nasty and makes the original Dominatrix look like a [b]Pussy Cat.[/b]

She insists that hew whip is endless and can reach anywhere in the world to wreak revenge on anyone who has upset her. Think of an [b]Evil GG[/b] but to a factor of 1,000,000 and you'll be getting close. :^0

Col ]:)

by gadgetgirl

Hey, I [i] think [/i] that was a backhanded compliment......

I think.......

Well at least [b] you [/b] don't think I'm evil...

:p

GG

by rob mekel

not in comparison to Beth, but ...

To all others ... :0

y're a nice kitten :)

Rob
[i]Kittens can withdraw their claws, can't they?[/i] :D

by beth blakely

Don't scare them! You know I'm very, very nice. Aren't I? Tell them. Tell them I'm nice. Right now! Right NOW! TELL THEM I'M NICE RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!
LOL

by sleepin'dawg

I read your stuff and have no wish to tangle with you. I like having no peck marks on my back and shoulders; now old Col, on the otherhand, seems to thrive on them. She who must be obeyed has made him so submissive, especially lately. ;) ROTFLMAO :^0

[b]Dawg[/b] ]:)

by hal 9000

Beth is one of the nicest people I've never run into [i]& I hope it stays that way.[/i] She's way to scary for my liking. :p

And Beth I'm currently safe from your endless whip as I'm in a Faraday Cadge enclosed in 4 foot thick Concrete so you'll need a Fission weapon to get me. :^0

[b]Bad Idea saying that :( [/b] now I'm going to have to start working on an underground place to play and remain safe from you aren't I? :p

When did you change your Avatar to the new one from the all leather outfit? B-)

Col ]:)

by rob mekel

As I can see you have to totaly re-scheme the colours. Some of the converted white -> grey parts conflict on the original grey ones and so on.

But re-colouring the bright white isn't a bad idea.

Rob

by jaqui

a quick colour replacement in the gimp.
to show the difference in luminosity and the way it makes it easier to look at the page longer.

TR doesn't use images as the pages you know. :p

by rob mekel

they don't ?:| , so that's why (some of) the links actually work. :D

And ... to my luck ... this link (TRI) too. :D

Rob

edited for emoticon ?:|

by gadgetgirl

.......kittens don't have [i] [b] control [/i] [/b] of their claws till they're older....

Smorty, I want a puss-cat emoticon as well now please, cos Rob says I'm a kitten....

oh, alright then.

~PPPPPPPPPPPRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR~

:D

GG

by jaqui

sure, I'll make the image 1280 for full screen width.
just remember though, you get to deal with the screeching from people like apotheon who use 800 by 600, only 100 px wider than the image.

that darker header area really makes the content jump out doesn't it :D

by apotheon

That completely ignores the "click here" aspect to the joke, catching the unwary off-guard!

by apotheon

This whole thing where I have to go post in another thread to get in here if I haven't posted in a few hours is getting kind of old. When do you think that'll get cleared up?

by stargazerr

Jay says :( .... It is getting to be a pain in the wrong place, now that we try to read this thread so often.

]:)

by Jay Garmon

Inside baseball here for a second. The problem is that the entire CNET network uses a unified user authentication system. That system was just fundamentally changed, breaking stuff on our site (remember the disappearing Edit Post button). Just one of the perks of a multi-tiered corporate engineering environment serving the needs of dozens of Web sites, most of which are far larger and more "important" than TR.

Our local dev team scrambled to fix the major stuff, but redesigning our private forum functionality is pretty far down on the list, considering only about 70 people use it and we've got our entire TR engineering staff tied up in the site redesign.

Also--and don't take this the wrong way--we may not transition the TRIs into the new site. If we get the beta environment we're hoping for, we just might get a full-blown test version of the site that our Insiders can bang around on, and we won't need a secret forum to discuss semi-accurate mockups within. As such, we're not rushing to fix a feature that might be deprecated soon. We'd rather concentrate on the very-much-better replacement.

by apotheon

I can certainly understand that. Thanks for the explanation.

Best o' luck with all that.

by jdclyde

First let me say, I had to use that "work around" everytime I came in here today to look at what others are saying......

Well, what did the bigs have to say?

Spread the love!

by jardinier

When you receive an email notifying you of new posts, copy-and-paste the URL from any posting into your address bar and -- Hey Presto -- you are in the discussion.

Or just save the URL of ANY post and use it to access the discussion as often as you like. :)

by jardinier

I slipped out for a while to get some food and found on return that I had been cut offline for being idle.

So I tried to get back into the discussion and noways could I get in -- either by the workaround or a post URL.

HOWEVER I accessed the discussion readily by clicking on a "post from my contacts"

by hal 9000

When I get [b]She Who Must Be Obeyed[/b] favourite car back she'll be sweet and I'll be off the hook till then I'm just keeping my head down and hoping for the best. :(

Currently SHMBO is refusing to drive any of the other cars here and is sulking for her Coupe which I bent just to get on her nerves with as she insists. God you should have been here when I bent it it wasn't quite so bad until the next day when a Quad Processor Xeon M'Board arrived along with the 4 CPU's and 12 GIG of RAM. Things got really nasty after than particularly when she found out that it wasn't going to be a new computer for me to use but nothing more than a Test Rig for different OS and the like.

Thankfully she has no idea of just how much it cost but I'm keeping my head down none the less and spending money on her [b]Current[/b] [i]Favourite[/i] Car so she SHUTS UP! :D

Col ]:)

by hal 9000

As I haven't asked a question recently and the site has changed a lot since the last time that I did can one of you lovely people help this person out?

http://tinyurl.com/h8m4p

OH and Beth [b]If you answer [i]Please be NICE![/i][/b] this person is a newcomer so we don't need to scare him away [b]yet![/b] :D

Col ]:)

by rob mekel

use your "contacts" for, slippin back in

Wonder what the lady peers will think about that :0 ;0

Rob

by smorty71

We are going to be limiting the number of questions that members can have open. Our current thinking is 1; however, that may need to be adjusted.

Because of this limit, we have decided to not auto-close anything. We will have reminder e-mails, but will not autoclose.

Autoclosing would just let the chronic non-closers off the hook and allow them to ask more questions (that they presumably won't close).

Of course, once the new system is in the wild, this plan may need to be adjusted.