Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know it loads slower. I wrote and asked why and "they" said it doesn't.......it must be *my* computer or *my* connection.

And........why do we have to sign in every time we post a reply???

I am stuck with dial-up here where I live and it takes forever to load pages, read comments and replies. This alone, will have an impact on how often I visit...........oh well.

What was the reasoning again? If so many people don't like it....Why are they moving forward with it?
John

This new forum takes much longer to load than the old one, I also have to sign in for every friggin' post I make. Whatever 'perks' there are, they certainly weren't designed for my convenience....or that of a lot of other users. As Linda said, it will affect how much I'm here and use these forums.

Raven

>>And........why do we have to sign in every time we post a reply???
>>
>>I am stuck with dial-up here where I live and it takes forever to load pages, read comments and replies. This alone, will have an impact on how often I visit...........oh well.

I think a lot of this really does depend on the ISP service individuals use as well as the computer and other variables.

At home, I log in once when I go to make my first post and can read and post after that without having to relog in for other posts I make during that session I am accessing the forums. If I close out from k.com and stay gone for an extended time surfing the net elsewhere or playing with email and then come back to the forums, I do have to relog in before able to post, but once logged in don't have to bother with it again. If I close out and then come back shortly then I do not have to log back in...can just pick up where I left off and post away. I kinda think the time frame between what is short or extended (which then determines if I wind up logging back in again) is somewhere between 30-60 minutes.

At work, if I happen to close out k.com to go surf elsewhere or accidently close out the forum by hitting the wrong thing, then when I come back I have to log in. There no grace period type thing that I see at home. However, at work when I am logged in and as long as I do not close out that browser window (deliberately or accidently), I never have had to log in for each single post I might make. I honestly do not know why some few people have to log in for each single post they make while others do not.

Now as for the speed of access...

At home, I happen to be on dial up as well (usually get a 40-45k connection sometimes even 36K rather than the higher 50-52K) and I am on AOHell. I have the exact same ease/speed of access on the new forums as with the old forums...I honestly see not one bit of difference at all in access speed between the new and old forums. It takes the same amount of time to load pages...about a second maybe two. A second or two is in no way horribly or painfully slow nor a drastic impact of any sort from my point of view. The only thing that drastically impacts my going through literally hundreds of posts between k.com, insecthobbyist, and exotichobbyist every night is losing my AOL connection itself from occasional static on the phone line I am dialing into for the access. I use an older # rather than newer...less people on it so doesn't trigger the "idle timer" crap that cuts you off 5 min. later if you do not acknowledge it (actually I think AOL is deliberately causing these 'lost connections' because they want to phase out the use of this # as being too old so need to discourage people from using that # lol). Also I occasionally have problems because AOL's software is sometimes conflicting with an add-on program I use to make using AOL better.

At work, my access to the forums (or the internet in general) can be a pain. ISDN connection (or something of that nature) I do believe it is...it's a bit boggy and actually slower than what I experience with dial up at home (rather than faster as one would expect) but I don't spend much time playing on the forums at work cause I'd get in trouble if caught so it doesn't bother me as much as it could. I do the bulk of my work on k.com at home. lol.

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Wyvern

Personally I don't see any? but,I'm open to enlightenment? I want to view change in a positive light,but,right now I just see it as an unneccessary irritation...."R"...(p.s. with a name like "wyvern",I gotta ask...do you play "UO"?)

>>Personally I don't see any? but,I'm open to enlightenment? I want to view change in a positive light,but,right now I just see it as an unneccessary irritation...."R"...(p.s. with a name like "wyvern",I gotta ask...do you play "UO"?)

Naw...I just picked Wyvern several years ago as a moderator name...wanted something dragon-like and it had a nice edge to it.

As for positive aspects.....

Ok...

The main function of the new forums that was not found on the old forums is options that members can make use of to customize the forums to their personal liking. Basically through toggleable links and setting up your user preferences. One size does not fit all. Different people think and use things in different manners. What works for one may not be good for another.

On the individual forum index pages...

Toggle-able views for 'expanded' or 'collapsed' view on the boa forum index page for example. You can use this to 'hide' all of the replies on each of the subjects so you can quickly and easily skim through the topics on the page to see what might be interesting to read. Then you can toggle back to the other view. Some people have complained about not being able to find certain topics because of the 'clutter' that can happen when some subjects become very complictated with lots of posts (like some discussions when you have 50+ replies in it). This is one method of solving those complaints but leave it up to the individual user which 'view' they prefer. This feature can be used whether you are logged in or not. If you are not logged in then you are presented with the system default -- expanded view. If you would like to have the collapsed view be your default then in the user preferences you can set it that way, however remember that you *have* to log in for the system to recognize you and know to turn on your preferences.

Sort old-to-new or Sort new-to-old. This changes the order of how the subjects on the forum page are listed...the oldest subject first or the newest subject first. It also affects the order of the main subthreads within a subject. Again, this is a toggable feature or can be set in the user preferences. The system default is to sort newest to oldest (which is how the old forums show posts).

Threaded or Non-threaded. The old kingsnake forums are 'threaded'. The default setting for the new forums is for threaded. When you switch to non-threaded, then all of the replies within a subject are shown in straight up chronological order...there are no subthread breakdowns. This is both a toggle-able link as well as something that can be set in your user preferences. This feature was added more for the folks on some of the other pet hobbyist sites since the old petsite we came from was a non-threaded format and they were most comfortable with that style. However, in deference to the kingsnake folks (who are very possessive of the threaded nature of their forums), non-threaded was not set to be the system default.

Also pertaining to the threaded nature of the forums. On the old forums if you were following a particular subthread to its particular conclusion you either had to constantly use the back button on your web-browser to get back to the main part of the conversation so that you could then go on to the next subthread and follow that one to it's conclusion. For some people it became second nature almost automatic instinct to use the back button they got so ingrained on it, but for a lot of people they really didn't like all of the work and annoyance of having to back out of 'dead-ends' so to speak. It essentially wasted a lot of time. Unlike the old forums, the new forums are able to show the 'entire' layout of the discussion in question (the main post, main subthreads, all the subsequent subreplies) no matter where in that discussion you are. On the old forums, the only way to ever see the entire layout of the conversation was either from the main post or the forum index page. You can now jump around anywhere in the conversation without having to constantly back out of those dead ends. There will be a tannish colored arrow always highlighting what post you are currently at within that conversation.

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Going into User preferences...

In addition to being able to set the above features in your user preferences there are other settings you can make.

--Quoting. If you want to have the message you are replying to automatically quoted in the response area then you set this to yes. If you set it to no, then you have to remember to copy/paste any parts of the person's post into the response area if you want to highlight certain aspects of that person's post when you make your response.

--Header Style. Classic or Gray tone. This applies to how the forum navigation links look near the tops of the messages/pages as well as the header info for individual messages you are reading (author name, date, etc.). Classic is basically the same as the old forums. Gray tone is a bit more sleek looking and does not take up as much space. Classic is the default setting. Some people are visually oriented and the gray-tone appeals to them more than the classic and vice versa.

--show all replies. When reading a message if you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see the main subthreads posted in response to that message listed, but not any of the other responses to those subthreads. If you set your preferences to yes, then you will see automatically all of the main subthreads and sub-replies when logged in. Besides being able to change this in the user preferences there is a toggle-able link available for those people that don't want to bother having to log in for preference settings to apply. This toggle link is found beneath the message area ...'show entire thread' or 'hide replies'

--signature file. You can now setup a signature file. No more cutting and pasting or hand typing your signature lines.

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The search feature....

The search feature is improved over the one on the old forums. You can now search by date/time references and/or keywords. You can have it search just one forum that you happen to be on or search all of the k.com forums. You can have it show just today's messages. You can also have it search for all new messages that were posted since your current login time, the last time you logged in, or since the time before that you logged in.

In order to keep down the clutter of pages and pages and pages of potential results coming back from the search parameters, the search results page will only show the subject (main post) of a conversation regardless of how many replies within that subject may actually match your search pattern. If a subject has 40 replies matching your search results, only the main post comes up on the result page thereby cutting the clutter of having to hunt through tons of RE: type posts. You then just click on that subject and go through the conversation like normal being able to see the subthreads and can just jump around the conversation to all the messages you want to check. Whenever you click on one of the subject headings that show up in the search results page, the message will open up in a brand new window...you can close that window down after you read what you want on that subject and go back to the other window containing the search results listing. This preserves the integrity of your original search results page and not have to constantly back up to get back to the page to go to the next possible choice on your list like the old forums do.

I'm trying to find out how often the search database will be setup to update the archives in regards to the 'content' type searches. On the old forums posts were archived which put them into the search function...anything considered current would not show up in your searches. Once a post rolled off the index page you would never know how long before it finally got archived.

Probably the best feature that is a time saver people will make use of is the "Today's Posts" search.

For folks who only check one or two forums on a regular basis, then chances are they will just go directly to those forums. Rather than waste time trying to pick out through potentially hundreds of topics where any new posts might be by looking at the dates tacked on to each post shown (compounded by multiple pages of posts), they can just click on the Today's posts link and it will pull up a search results page showing only those subjects that had new posts added today.

For people who have several forums they like to keep up with they have the same ability to pull up today's post, only they would do it from the main forum index page on k.com rather than from each individual forum index page. This will pull up all of todays posts for all forums on the k.com site (posts from forums on the other pethobby sites will not show up). Then you would just scroll down the list. The page lists the catagory orders (General Topics, Amphibians, Turtles, Lizards, Snakes, Herp Society, International Forums), under the catagories will be a list of forums within those catagories and then there is a list of new posts within each of those forums.

You can also manually reset the time frame from the results of the Todays Posts if you want to narrow down or expand the time frame of what posts in that parameter you want to look at.

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More things....

When reading a person's message next to the author's name you will see 3 features.

Basically just like on the old forums, if you click on the author's name you have the ability to email a message to that person.

If you click on 'email message' then you are brought to a screen where you can send a copy of either that particular message you are reading or a copy of all the posts in that discussion to whoever you want or to yourself...just pop in an email address. Some people who find a post that contains some really good care info or whatever, rather than having to possibly copy/paste it to a file, they can just email a copy if they dread having to come back to the forum to try and hunt it down to read again at a later date.

Report abuse links. On the old forums, you had to hunt for the report abuse link. One problem with that report form was that the abuse coordinator had to rely on the member submitting the report to fill in all of the info they really needed to deal with the situation. Too often people never did that (& then would later complain when nothing was being done to fix the abuse they were reporting!). The new abuse report system solves all of this. The link is found on ALL messages now...no hunting around anymore. When clicked it will automatically fill in the basic info on the form that the abuse coordinator needs. It also provides a place for the person submitting the report to add any comments they think is needed. The new forums, unlike the old forums, have the ability to hide messages. The old forums, when you removed a post it was deleted for good ain't no fixing that. On the new forums..we can hide a message. If later furing a review the post is deemed by someone higher up the chain of command to have been hidden in error, it can be unhidden - no harm done.

Also new, is the ability to check a box when you make a post to have the system automatically email you a notice anytime someone responds to your message. This may likely be used by those folks that only check the forums once in a blue moon or have a very specific need to keep up with a particular discussion. This is very much like the email notice option on the photo gallery comments areas when you upload your photo.

Both for taking the time for such an informative,and,detailed reply...and,for enlightening an old,and,sometimes "cranky" enthusiast! (hehe) I'd really like to see future developement include being able to load pictures directly from our computers to the forum...not being a computer genius,I'm not sure if this would be possible due to server,and,bandwidth issues? but,it would certainly simplify the pic posting process,and,save many of us from answering the endless stream of "How do I post pictures here?" posts when someone new wants to share an image. Thanks again for your time,and,all the info!!!

>>Both for taking the time for such an informative,and,detailed reply...and,for enlightening an old,and,sometimes "cranky" enthusiast! (hehe) I'd really like to see future developement include being able to load pictures directly from our computers to the forum...not being a computer genius,I'm not sure if this would be possible due to server,and,bandwidth issues? but,it would certainly simplify the pic posting process,and,save many of us from answering the endless stream of "How do I post pictures here?" posts when someone new wants to share an image. Thanks again for your time,and,all the info!!!

Cranky is to be expected sometimes when things change. Even I get cranky about things I have no control over.

The ability to upload photos from a person's own computer directly to the forums is actually on the 'wish list' for future upgrades down the road (one of the very first things asked for when the beta testing was still going on). Whether it will be possible or not on these forums remains to be seen. On the old pet site we came from the forum system there had the ability to upload photos from the hard drive, so a lot of folks on the other pethobbyist sites miss that feature.

Right now I think the main concern is ferreting out any remaining bugs and fixing those. K.com members are very good at pointing out problems as they experience them

Probably the hardest thing to keep up with is that different web browsers affect your experience when using the forums so what might be a real problem for some folks is something that probably a majority of others have a hard time understanding because they are not experiencing those problems (i'm thinking right now the apparent speed of accessing the new forums is one..only a few people are having problems with slow access. I have dial up and no problems at all, while a friend on cable modem has fairly slow page load times...quite weird). Anyways, it helps the techs a lot when people use the Feedback Form and fill out a report on problems found and in addition to a detailed breakdown of the problem and how it occured (what steps were they going through/doing when it happened), is to also provide basic information such as the type of computer you use, operating system, browser/version, ISP, etc. The feedback form is also available for people to offer up suggestions, requests, and other comments as well about the site.

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Wyvern

yay!!!!!!!! i got mail!!!!!!!

See? WTH???

>>See? WTH???

Font should now be set to TNR size 3 which at least to me on my computer seems to match the old forums for text font face/size.

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Wyvern

>>>>See? WTH???
>>
>>Font should now be set to TNR size 3 which at least to me on my computer seems to match the old forums for text font face/size.
>>
>>_____
>>
>>Wyvern

...you've fixed the font and text size. Plus moving the messages to the left really helped. Thanks for making the changes.

Thank you. Now I don't have to use my reading glasses.

Bill

^_^

for these posts. I, personally, have no problem with the new forum, although all the is getting old. I would rather read about boas here! Love to all!
-----
"I am a cop, and you will respect my authoritae!"-Cartman

and the same ISP as I have always used. Including the computer at my office which is on a T1. This board is slower.. and takes longer to load. I have had to wait on pictures lately too.. some never showing at all. I looked and they were in the Kingsnake picture forum so they should have loaded fine. I am not scared of change... but I really liked the old plain version better. I prefer to see the pics of the boas and read the text over having little smiley faces etc in the post. I liked the old one better.

But that is just me...
Shawn

>>

>>

:

np

n/p

It's an all-around pain in the butt.

B.