Dear Luscious and Talented Mark:
I've noticed that some of our Dear Readers (including my sweet, adorable and sexy husband) are having trouble adjusting to the new format for various reasons. Please allow me to offer some suggestions to address these issues.
RE:
Multiple PagesI used to frequent a board related to NYC Transit, run by the Straphangers Campaign, which is in a very similar format to this new one. The URL is:
http://www.straphangers.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=000033 (this sends you to a page that contains a random topic, so you can see the layout). You will see that within one topic, every response is contained within one page, so you don't have to wait for a new page to load to continue reading.
So my suggestion is that you add a "Preferences" option, which will allow each user to choose whether he or she prefers to view the entire topic at once, or 20 posts to a page, or whatever. The downside is that loading an entire page takes a little longer, although when I visit the Straphangers at home on my dialup it doesn't take very long at all, unless there are huge image files on the page.
RE:
Overwhelming Bells and WhistlesSome seem to be overwhelmed by all the bells, whistles, and graphics. I personally enjoy them, but I do agree that it looks a little crowded. So I'm going to make a radical suggestion:
Remove everything from the left side of the posting box (Gender, Zodiac, Flag, etc.) except for the key information, like name, status, Karma, and picture w/ quote. All other info can be contained in the profile, so if you really want to know what someone's sign is, you can click on their profile and find out in one click. That will get rid of some of the graphics and will make it look less crowded, and the info will still be available for those who like to play.
Finally,
Yes, I have been having fun with the Smilies, but I suspect that if we all agree to use restraint when posting large image files (maybe shrink them down to a size determined by you), that will make the board load faster and easier for those who are still on Windows 1.0
Okay, there's my 37 cents...what do you think?
Luv,
Joy
