What have they done to my site, ma?

[W2R]

Egads!

We don't have any canned avatars to use. I loved using that beautiful woman that WAS my avatar.

Now, I have to be an ordinary mortal like the rest of you, instead of being utterly gorgeous. I loved being a blonde. Blondes do have more fun (on the forum, anyway). Never been one before.

How annoying. I would look for and upload a photo of another stunning, enigmatic blonde, but it would seem more misleading if people didn't know it was just one of the selection of avatars provided by the board.

Aw, bummer, NOW you tell us!

I found a blonde, but she is HARDLY enigmatic. I'll use her temporarily, but this avatar does not float my boat, not one bit.

 

[REWahoo]

I found a blonde, but she is HARDLY enigmatic. I'll use her temporarily, but this avatar does not float my boat, not one bit.

Hey, I think her lips are hot!

 

[bssc]

I found a blonde, but she is HARDLY enigmatic. I'll use her temporarily, but this avatar does not float my boat, not one bit.

Are you saying that it is a mish-MASH?

 

[W2R]

AHA!!! I found the original Eva Habermann avatar, to substitute for Hotlips!!! Whew, I had to search all over the net and still couldn't find the avatar anywhere until I remembered her name. Then after combing through fan sites and such.... at last.

Yay!!!

And yes, hotlips may be hot, but Eva is sooooooooo enigmatic.

NOW I'm happy.

 

[greg]

Where the heck did my ability to cross out words and then substitute synonyms go? Nords is gonna need replacement therapy.

 

[W2R]

Like this, [-]silly[/-] greg? It's the right hand thingie on the row with the bold, italic, and such, buttons. It looks like a crossed out ABC.

 

[Rustic23]

Why the change? Did I miss it? The site was running on Forum SMF and is now runing on VBulitin. SMF is Free, and you have to pay for VBuletin. So why the change. It appears that there are lots of extras with SMF that the site no longer has.

 

[cantlogin]

The thing I miss the most is the song.

 

[Goonie]

The thing I miss the most is the song.

Me, too!!! What's life without music?! (I'm glad I saved it onto my 'puter!)

 

[DRiP Guy]

I don't recognize some posters...then I had to register again...couldn't use bbbamI, so here I am as bx3amI.

he he he

I came and viewed a couple of times as 'anon' with the new S/W, just 'cause I was too lazy to go through the whole: "you email me, I capta you, you email me, I try to log in, you make me change PW..." dance...

So, I finally decided to get up to speed, but it looked like it would not let me use old handle.

Hmmm, no sweat, time for a new one anyway! I decided to be bold and chose:

ER 2008

Well, as soon as I entered my email info, it said "Hey, we know you, that email is already in use! Back of the line, bud, use your old log in, we will mail you a new PW!"

So, here I am; still DRiP Guy, but I sure hope that doesn't mean I can't also ER in '08...




PS - the new S/W was the right move -- vBulletin is good.

 

[deserat]

Argghhh

I've spent the last few days trying to figure out how to post - was told in an email to change my preferences under User Cp on the upper toolbar - can any of you see that?? Finally clicked the remember me box and am allowed to post now - so far, first impression is bad.

Now just imagine this happening with the medical device software you are attached to...happens all the time - the salesperson says "ahh, anyone can do this, the interface is so uesr-friendly, intuitive, yada, yada, yada." In the meantime, the RT can't adjust your ventilator....

Sigh - back to fiddling with the new interface.

 

[W2R]

Yes, I see that toolbar. Look underneath the large "Early REtirement Forums" at the top, and the third line of text below that is a blue toolbar with Forums, Links, and then User CP (reading from the left).

Good luck!

 

[WanderALot]

One minor complaint about the new software. I don't like the banner in the upper left the screen; the one that says in big 20pt font "Early Retirement Forums". This is mostly because when I surf at work, it doesn't look good if someone happens to walk by and see that! Can I turn that off somehow?

On the old software, the only thing I had to worry about is CFB going to his old avatar or Outtahere's avatar!

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm - Even if I did like it/got used to the new forum and all that - I would never admit it.

heh heh heh - what with a curmudgeon certificate and being a lefthanded, INTJ, ex en-ga-neer - which has no bearing at all on the subject of the thread. .

 

[Peter]

One minor complaint about the new software. I don't like the banner in the upper left the screen; the one that says in big 20pt font "Early Retirement Forums". This is mostly because when I surf at work, it doesn't look good if someone happens to walk by and see that! Can I turn that off somehow?

If you run Firefox with the Adblock plug-in, you can kill that graphic ... or any others that you'd prefer not to see.

Peter

 

[ladelfina]

Trying the quick reply.

I had no problems logging in after first requesting and receiving a new p/w. My login "sticks" for now (finger crossed). Avatar is gone (least of my worries).

There is a HUMONGOUS amount of wasted space. I have a 21" screen and with the header info I can only see two (2) posts (one line comment each) with the window maximized. A lot of scrolling for little gain. I read fast and can't seem to scroll fast enough. Even a two word reply takes up 2-3" of vertical screen real estate. What I liked about the old forum was that it was nice and tight. Here I feel like I'm trying to capture the last three Cheerios floating around in the milk. I have come here very little to read since the change, since it's not as pleasant to do so.

Aside from the giant names/profiles, signatures in particular are annoying. There should be a maximum size they occupy AND they should be kept in a smaller distinctive TINY font. It's very tiresome when they run in to message text using the same size and font as the message. Right now between the name and profile at the right (too large) and the excess of poorly-handled white space.. the actual "meat of the matter" - the posts - seem to occupy 2-50% of the screen. The window for replies is similarly stingy (and not just Quick Replies).

I wish one of the moderators could organize space for comments on the new site into category threads in the Forum Admin section, like: signatures; space; replies; searching; avatars; logins; ads and so forth. Seems like the new mgmt. is willing to work on some of these issues, but I wish there were a more structured way for us INTJs to communicate our assessments.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

One plausible bit of help for those with oversized text and undersized screens...most browsers have the ability to resize text for a particular site.

In firefox its 'view/text size'...i'm sure its something similar in internet exploder

 

[Goonie]

One plausible bit of help for those with oversized text and undersized screens...most browsers have the ability to resize text for a particular site.

In firefox its 'view/text size'...i'm sure its something similar in internet exploder

Or if you have a mouse with a 'scroll' wheel, hold down the 'Ctrl' key on the keyboard and turn the 'scroll' wheel. That will decrease/increase text size. Works on most websites.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

ctrl-minus and ctrl-plus also work!

 

[ladelfina]

I know how to do that.. it doesn't (much) change the ratio of post text vs. everything else.

I understand that more wasted space = more pages = more page views = in theory more ad $. I'll be curious to see if it actually plays out that way because personally my equation is: more annoying to read = less visits = less page views.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Maybe its that Mac you have thats causing all these problems

 

[bssc]

I know how to do that.. it doesn't (much) change the ratio of post text vs. everything else.

I understand that more wasted space = more pages = more page views = in theory more ad $. I'll be curious to see if it actually plays out that way because personally my equation is: more annoying to read = less visits = less page views.

I increased the number of posts per page

UserCP -> Edit Options -> Thread Display Options (third box) - Number of Posts per Page (you can also shut off sigs and avatars.)

 

[Moemg]

Not sure of this feature was on the old software but the links to old discussions on the subjects is great .Cudos to you Andy !

 

[Meadbh]

What's going on? I go on vacation and now I don't recognize the forum. This will take some getting used to. Seems like a lot of my favourite features are missing.

I will embrace change, I will embrace change, I will embrace change........

This is sounding far too much like W*ork!

 

[TromboneAl]

You missed the major bitch-a-thon last week. My main complaint was the wasted space taken up by intrusive ads, but I switched to Firefox and solved that problem (and I really like FireFox now).

There are a number of things that take two clicks now instead of one. I'd complain about those, but most people don't realize how much better one click is than two ("Oh, poor baby, did you have to click the mouse twice. Did dat hurt your wittle finger?")

But there are a few improvements (nicer interface for putting in links and images), so I've settled down now. I go through this process with most upgrades.