Comments - feedback, please
Comments - feedback, please (post #15796)
Hi everyone,
I removed threading from comments and reversed the order so newest are seen first.
Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated. I want to see how this works and if it's an acceptable fix.
EDIT: Comment to a post are currently listed in chronological order from oldest to newest. We're working on a fix for this--stay tuned.
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Could someone please just (post #15796, reply #1 of 57)
Could someone please just explain why you felt the need to revamp a whole format that really worked well to begin with? It just seems like change for the sake of change, and it IS NOT better. What was the point?
We needed to make a (post #15796, reply #2 of 57)
We needed to make a technology upgrade. What you are seeing here is the very basic forum before it has been customized. The good news is that things are customizable, and improvements can and will be made. I'm very appreciative of any constructive feedback you can provide.
I decided to check back to (post #15796, reply #3 of 57)
I decided to check back to see is this has gotten better, but it is still worse to use than the old one. What the old program did was eliminate the posts on any subject that we had already read. So it was quick and easy to just read the new ones. It also sent us email messages when someone replied to one of our posts. Not only have you eliminated two of the really good features of the old forum it now appears impossible to reply specifically to a posting if someone else has posted since the question was asked. You have taken what was a friendly person to person forum and turned it into a time-consuming mess. I don't know a lot about programming but I don't see why needing a technology upgrade necessitated a new format that removed all the good features. Sorry to be such a grump but it appears to me that not one person has found this to be better, or even as good as, what we had before.
Y'all broke something that (post #15796, reply #4 of 57)
Y'all broke something that didn't need fixed. Don't take my posts wrong, I'm not out to pirate people away from this site. I AM out to keep the community we had before this disaster blew threw. I don't think you realize how many regulars have been lost every time changes are made. Even before the switch, the forum was a shell of what it was back in the day. We're not here to exchange recipes or to help someone build a deck. Mostly what we do is hang out and chat. If you didn't like the format before, sorry. We did. It wasn't for you or any other admin, it was for us and now it's wrecked. If it weren't for the ability to take our community elsewhere, I'd probably just write off FG - again. But we have other alternatives these days. Our choices are no longer, 1) adapt, 2) quit.
I sincerely hope you rebuild the forum the way we had it before so that we may return. In the meantime, we've got at least one other place to hang out.
i absolutely agree with 1946 (post #15796, reply #5 of 57)
i absolutely agree with 1946 and Jeanam altho i don't know where this reply will actually end up or if anyone will know to whom i am replying. this new format is beyond dreadful. upgrade? hah. NOT.
Jeana, if you are reading this, would you please let me know how to access Dagwood's welcome mat? i'm going thru serious withdrawal here, and miss the gang.
Ditto, Roxanna! (post #15796, reply #10 of 57)
Ditto, Roxanna!
Northern Virginia, Zone 7A.
where are you? (post #15796, reply #56 of 57)
Hi Jeana - haven't checked the site since last fall - what a rude surprise. Have you moved to some other site? If you have, I'll follow. Liz
Jeana moved (post #15796, reply #57 of 57)
Hi, Liz -
Jeana and a bunch of the others jumped ship to a new forum. http://forums.delphiforums.com/Sproutoff/messages.
Marty
"The plants have been good to us." Lester Hawkins
Kate, On my professional (post #15796, reply #8 of 57)
Kate,
On my professional discussion board we have a 'Rec Room' where we can post off topic and personal chit chat. In the rec room we discuss everything from politics, jokes, and personal items. It gives us the opportunity to post to each other without getting in the way of discussions on topics where we pass on our knowledge of a particular subject. Maybe this will help give the older and more valuable members a place to use the board more as an IM tool.
I also would point out that a member can simply click on 'New Posts' under a topic and only see the new posts but can still scan older posts. My only suggestion would be to make the new posts stand out more. On my other board they use gold stars beside the topics with new unread posts.
Maybe this will help give the (post #15796, reply #11 of 57)
Maybe this will help give the older and more valuable members a place to use the board more as an IM tool.
(I had wanted to put this in color or italics, but have no idea how to do that)
We are not more valuable, we are just people who felt a community and decided to wait out the changes in another venue. You are just as valuable as anyone else!!! ;)
Debio, Thanks, but my garden (post #15796, reply #14 of 57)
Debio,
Thanks, but my garden and horticultural knowledge is in its infancy. I should say my wife gardens and I landscape. One day when I retire, fat chance with adult children and this economy, I plan on taking the Master Gardeners course. Until then I look forward to learning from all of you plus my many mistakes.
Dear ChurchSt.Gardner, take (post #15796, reply #49 of 57)
Dear ChurchSt.Gardner, take heart!! Acquiring a "Master Gardener" cert is actually easier than it "sounds like" Whilst in TX, El Paso, I went to the county extention and took the course sponsered there via TX A&M! about 4-6 weeks, only a few hours each. Home Study, YES! Then, taka testa!! TEE HEE, Then work the phones for another 3-6 wks, again a few hours a week, voila!!! MASTER GARDENER, THERE YOU ARE!!! It's actually a lot of common sence, plus learning details you'd spend a lifetime coming accross, quicly from a book and good instructer. There should NOT be any kind of huge Fee associated therein. Tis basically a volunteer thing. Of course, was about 25++ yurs ago that I got mine, then got great job at Black's Nursery! One of the Best of the Best, grew their own rose root stock, same trees had huge lands, learned more there than classes! One day the phone rings, up I pick it "Black's Nursery, how may I help you", the young lady wants to know how much we charge per hour to watch her toddler! We went back & forth 4 a few seconds, till finally I said, Mamn, this is a plant nursery, not a child school! We both laughed so hard we cried. When I told the owners and all the staff, we did it all again; it was a running joke for months! See, w/gardening every day is a new suprise, you never know what will happen next. So NEVER PUT OFF TILL TOMORROW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO TODAY! The time will go by anyway and then where will you be; saying, I could of had my certificate by now? Make the phone call, find out what they ask for in your neck of the woods!! GOD BLESS AND HAPPY LANDINGS!!!Rebecca from Tucson, AZ
Dear Kate and Staff, You have (post #15796, reply #6 of 57)
Dear Kate and Staff, You have no doubt figured out by now that everyone universally hates this new site. I have checked back periodically to see if it has been fixed to any acceptable standard, but finally realized no-one would be working on it over the weekend. When first discovering the old site I was so pleased to figure out how easy this was to use because I really was a computer novice. I checked out the sites of other garden magazines and not one of them was nearly as good and easy to use as this one, so I only used this. Please understand why everyone is howling about this. You took the absolutely best site there was and turned it into a MUCH MUCH more confusing and difficult site to use. It makes zero sense to turn a really very good product into a bad one. Just because you can add all these extra options (none of which I understand) doesn't mean you should. Our old site sent us notices when we got a reply to our posting, a good option. When you turned on the site and clicked on a topic the ones you had previously read were not on the page, which saved a lot of searching time, but were easily available if we wanted to go back to look for them, another good option. The old site was visually much easier to read, I'm not sure exactly why, but it was. The little tiny comment box annoyed me a lot, but I finally figured out I could make it bigger by dragging the lower right hand corner with my mouse. So far as I could see the absolutely only thing that needed fixing on the old site was the problem of having to log in on random occasions. PLEASE return the old format and make all your users happy once again!!!!!!!!!!!
beautifully stated, 1946 -- i (post #15796, reply #7 of 57)
beautifully stated, 1946 -- i couldn't agree more. the best Christmas present i and you and so many others could get might just be a return to sanity on the part of Taunton with the restoration of our beloved previous format (with the log-in problem solved, as a bonus) on all the forums.
are you listening, Santa?
At this point there is a lot (post #15796, reply #9 of 57)
At this point there is a lot of wasted space - between posts, between posters, blanked out faces which are not necessary. Leave space for photos if someone wants to share flower garden shots.
The basic layout is too loose and uses up a lot of valuable
cyber-space.
The old tighter format is what most of us would like to be able to use again. It has been done at least once before, I remember.
Kate, this thread isn't (post #15796, reply #12 of 57)
Kate, this thread isn't revers ordered. The threads don't seem to be in any order any longer. If this id the example, I guess it's not working.
BJ
I changed it back because (post #15796, reply #13 of 57)
I changed it back because people seemed to find the reverse order too confusing--they couldn't tell who they were responding to. But we're currently discussing some other solutions that work more like the previous forums did. Stay tuned.
Your ability to "keep your (post #15796, reply #18 of 57)
Your ability to "keep your head about you while all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you" is amazing. I confess, I'm one who abandoned the sinking ship. But I'm going to keep checking in to see what happens. A few questions:
1. I've asked before and nobody responded; what do the different envelope icons mean. I know gold ones are new and silver ones have been read, but what about open and closed envelopes?
2. Can you get the messages to scroll without the left column scrolling too?
3. Why do the number of new messages in the left column list of topics and threads not match up with the number of new messages in the center column on the home page? I cleared all the "new" entries everywhere a few days ago; now I'll find new replies in the left column but not in the center.
4. Are you working on a better search feature? The new one is useless; you have to know the numbers that are no longer available. And we really need the other search features we had.
Let's start with that. I know I'll have more. Waiting and hoping.
Marty
"The plants have been good to us." Lester Hawkins
Thanks. :) 1. I need to find (post #15796, reply #19 of 57)
Thanks. :)
1. I need to find out what the envelopes mean--I don't know. I suspect that's a way for you to know what you've read. I'll post an article when I find out.
2. We won't be going back to a frames layout but we're aware that this is an issue. I'll definitely bring this up as something our users see as a "must-fix."
3. I'll look at this one more closely and figure it out.
4. I'm pretty sure the plan is to put Mzinga ID numbers back into the posts. The feature is there in case you have your discussions bookmarked--if you can see the number in your bookmark, then you can search for it.
More to come!
I also have been checking (post #15796, reply #20 of 57)
I also have been checking back and it seems that the posts are jumping around again. For instance on this thread the last post is from me on the bottom of the page. But on the 'Recent Topics' in the box to the left shows that two more post were made.Back to this thread and they appear up from the last post on the page! Confused at this point?
Yes! :) I need to meet a (post #15796, reply #21 of 57)
Yes! :) I need to meet a magazine deadline today and then I plan to really sink my head into this forum so I can answer your questions better.
The good news is that we think we know what you're asking for, in terms of the order of comments and threading, and how we can make it work with this software. We're meeting to discuss it in the next few days...
Kate, It's not difficult to (post #15796, reply #29 of 57)
Kate,
It's not difficult to understand what we are asking.
Use the previous format and functionality and duplicate it. There is no need to reinvent a wheel, particularly one that worked.
I posted the following on BT and I think the members here would appreciat the same answers.
To Ed Pirnik,
You seem to be the senior person we have access to so I'll address this to you.
Please tell us in clear english why we have to put up with this new format and non functionallity. Please don't use the word better, etc.
It is slow, disorganized, non searchable to name a few, and the previous one worked.
If the answer is because my boss said so; then pleas have them post the response.
If he answer is we could not afford the old one; please say that. We are business people and can understand that and can make our decisions accordingly.
ps. I think you should post the answer on each of the forums.
Respectfully,
Jim Andersen
Jimco, I'm not having any (post #15796, reply #31 of 57)
Jimco,
I'm not having any trouble understanding what you are asking. You want us to put the old software back, but that is not an option.
The only option we have is to make this setup, that we are currently using, work for our users. That's why I'm asking for constructive and specific feedback, so I can pass that information along to our developers so they can make improvements. We are not rebuilding the old site, but if there are features from the old software that our users can't live without, we want to know about them so we can do our best to replicate them.
I'm told the VP of Taunton Interactive is going to post an open letter to our users sometime in the next day or so. It's possible that he may touch on some of Taunton's business decisions--I'd rather leave that to him.
Respectfully,
Kate Frank
Thank you Kate. You are being (post #15796, reply #36 of 57)
Thank you Kate. You are being a real champ through this whole process. I see improvement on some issues and I see other things going backwards. I also wish good will to all on both sides of the fence. Tiss the season.
An envelope means someone has (post #15796, reply #24 of 57)
An envelope means someone has sent you an email at your personal email provider, look it up as usual by opening your email account. Make sure old email is cleaned out and if necessary find a more secure email provider.
Why is it necessary to log in (post #15796, reply #15 of 57)
Why is it necessary to log in to each forum? I had already logged in to Gatherings but had to do it again here. I do not like the new, harsh, glowing colors.
Kate- I do hope you can put (post #15796, reply #16 of 57)
Kate- I do hope you can put the old format back on here or at least make this one as close to the old as ya can. I see that you are trying to make us all happy and I am learning this as it is evolving.
It feels as though the ship wrecked on a deserted Island. The professor and Maryann are here but where are the skipper and Gilligan?
I know, I hear you. I am (post #15796, reply #17 of 57)
I know, I hear you. I am logging feature requests for our developers every day, most of which I'm taking directly from comments made here and on our other forums.
Fine Homebuilding and Fine Woodworking are launching very soon and then the developers will start looking at what we are asking them to change.
Our goal is to make the forums what our users want.
Hopefully everyone will come back!! We had the best forums around, in terms of community and members' knowledge, and we know that.
I am heartened to see new (post #15796, reply #22 of 57)
I am heartened to see new posts again and really happy to see your reponses, Kate! Further up this thread I got a nice reponses from the churchstreetgardener and I have no idea to what post! I use a web enabled phone at home so it can be a little limited inviewing. I appreciate your efforts and look forward to what you come up with.
If someone is replying to (post #15796, reply #23 of 57)
If someone is replying to your comment, their reply should appear directly beneath it, but indented slightly. Improving the comments is one of our priorities--we're going to try to really address it after the weekend.
I'm glad you're feeling heartened and hope others will start to feel that way, too. The more you communicate with us, the better we can communicate with the developers, and the more quickly we can customize what we have here to make it something you enjoy using.
Kate