Great stuff here guys! Lets see what we can do to fix this.
First off, I will ask Jay to change the forums link on the main site to open the forum with out the frame, and improve the link back to the home page so it is easier to get between the two areas.
I like the idea of the HOW TO’s being in their own section. Great idea!
Bill, I think that the problem you are having with the pop ups may have resulted from a change we made to allow links to open in a new tab or web page. Can you tell us what operating system and browser you are using so we can try to simulate the problem? Also, are you running special anti virus / firewall / security software?
I’m truly embarrassed that I haven’t gotten on board (pardon the pun) till this last week or two…this is a fantasic site and there are so many resources here!
Having said that…the only-ONLY concern I have with respect to the boards is that there are just so MANY topics and so many discussion boards that it is a bit time consuming to get on, find the right heading, and find the topic or place where I either left off or need to go “find” again. With the diversity and great attention to detail comes a lot of “wading”, that’s all. I don’t mean to be critical, not sure if it is anything anyone else has noticed, nor do I have any ideas to help, it is merely a thought.
You might want to look into subscribing to specific threads, if you’d like to be notified when new posts are made.
As far as picking up where you left off on a given thread… On web forums in general, there is a little graphic immediately to the left of the thread title that’s usually an arrow or a circle or a circle with an arrow, if you click it it will take you to the first unread post on the thread, the first one that’s newer than the last time you viewed the thread.
And all the way to the left of the thread name and author, there is a graphic that by its color and animation tells you if there are any new posts you haven’t seen, whether the thread has lots of replies and is “on fire” so to speak…
I’m pretty sure this forum has all these features. But I’m not positive. I haven’t looked at it in a normal browser in a while now, ever since I saw it’s got Tapatalk support and I went ahead and downloaded that for my iPhone. It does an excellent job of arranging threads and making it really easy to browse, I highly recommend it to anyone that does any significant amount of viewing using an iPhone/iPod/iPad.
Brian, when you are on the board index page, there is a tool bar, in little tiny text that reads:
View unanswered posts • View unread posts • View new posts • View active topics
I click on the View new posts link every time I come on the board. It will list every post that is made since your last visit. I also try to check out View unread posts to see if there are any unanswered questions out there that I might be able to contribute to.
Jay is checking to see if we can add this tool bar to appear on all pages. Does this help?
Also, I have moved the How To threads into the Site Related section under a new header called How to do: pics video etc.
Thanks for the tips, guys. I really didn’t mean to try to come up with any negatives…it is a great and useful forum setup, just takes practice and some reading to get to be efficient at reading and using all the tools available. Mostly what I notice is that it is already a LOT more sophisticated than a lot of forums out there, and this is a lot of information and posts and topics for a (thus far)small group of people. I will not be suprised to see a Mass Exodus of people comin’ over here, though. I’m really enjoying it.
I’m still learning all the tools, and they make it all a lot of fun.
Bill - I use the forum the same way you do (View new posts). The only time I pay much attention to the various categories is if I’m starting a thread or browsing thru the for sale sections.
Can you add the “Mark forums read” button to the page that comes up after clicking “View new posts?”
