Forum Software Change

[Wayne]

Nobody's counting, but my vote also goes for this lovely old forum. In fact I have pointed this forum out to the owners of other, needlessly complex and "busy" (ie confusing) forums as a model of simplicity to strive for. heck I've been at APUG for almost a year and I still dont know how to use most of the features. But then I dont have paul to guide me through that digital wasteland, either.

Who are these people demanding these newfangled ...what do you call them.. "features"? Give em the boot! (oh that's right, you cant...)

[David G. Gagnon]

Well, I've got to go on record as not being happy with this news. This is the easiest forum to see the threads on. I hope I can adjust easily. I have tried to browse the APUG forum but got completely frustrated with it. :-(

DG

[Graeme Hird]

I'm not happy with the move either, but I do understand it and it won't stop me from coming here for information or from contributing when I have something to add.

A friend and I recently started our own forum and seriously considered approaching Tom to see if we could use this software - simple is best, and this is the simplest forum I've ever found. It's a shame it needs to go away from the format.

Cheers,
Graeme

[Hiro]

Like many others, I love this simple interface which is not only easy to use but also makes it very efficient to hang out. One feature I really like is "New Responses." Photo.net also has it now (maybe I just didn't look enough before). Clicking through each category/topic and see what's new is...well, I do understand the need.

Many thanks to the "staff."

[Ralph Barker]

FWIW, the new software provides a "Today's Posts" view, among others. That view shows the current day's posts, and earlier threads with current responses.

[Jerry Fusselman]

But what defines "today"? Is there a listing by time and date of last posting? Is there any way to tell what has been posted since I last looked? Is there an option for emailing of posts so I can use gmail to tell what is new?

I too find the current way extremely well designed. It is so much better than photo.net and apug.org! Hats off to the designer of our current interface. It is so clean and functional and glitz-free.

[Tom Westbrook]

"Today" means the past 24 hours.

If you are a registered user, the "Today's Posts" link at the top of the page becomes "New Posts" that will display threads with unread (by you) posts across all forums and works regardless of your physical location or browser used.

Also, the search function is flexible enough to allow you to show all threads updated over the past n days or hours, which will give you a look similar to what you get here. You can create your own links using those fixed times and use that as your forum entry page if you like. The software is pretty flexible, so I'd guess we can get most problems sorted out.

Thanks for the input.

[Scott Schroeder]

Any chance individual emails will still be sent out (not just a notification that new posts are available)?
I get them sent to my Gmail address so the web interface doesn't really matter.

Thanks

[Kirk Gittings]

There must be some expenses involved in running this site. Do you guys want or need any donations?

[Ralph Barker]

Thanks for the thought, Kirk. At this point, however, I think the forum is running OK on donated resources. Brian Reid kindly donates server space and bandwidth at present, and everything else is just time investment. We may need to revisit the issue in the future, though, as the new software will allow for image uploads, which will affect bandwidth usage.

BTW, have you sat for your portrait yet? I'm anxious to see what she did/does with you, as she does such interesting work.