Site status and a quick poll, 4/28/20

Wayne

Wayne

WebHamster
Joined
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Location
Largo, FL
Question to all:

Ok ladies and gents, first of all, thank you all very much for your support and hanging in there with us while we got the new software at least moderately sorted. Little hiccups aside, it looks like we're pretty close to good on the software upgrade.

I've tried to make this new site look as close to the former version 1.x site as I could get it, without installing third-party addons and modules which caused the hesitance to upgrade for all this time.

Hopefully this will close the loop on the what may have been happening with the spammer getting in behind the scenes.

So, my question to you is this....

Are you happy with this? Will this do, or are there changes you want to see?
 
First of all, thank you for all the work you do for us. Since you asked, some of the forums are not loading in chronological order so you really have to hunt to find the latest one, although you can click on the title on the right, but they are not in order.

Also, I know you guys need ads, but they way they are loading now, they are in between comments and are very distracting. Is there a way to get them back on the top and sides, so they can be ignored?

Neither of those are deal breakers and I do like the new colors. Thank you again.
 
LisaK in AZ said:
First of all, thank you for all the work you do for us. Since you asked, some of the forums are not loading in chronological order so you really have to hunt to find the latest one, although you can click on the title on the right, but they are not in order.
Click to expand...
Hi Lisa,

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "loading in chronological order". Of course, I know what the words mean :). I'm simply not sure of the context. Can you share an example?

The way they're currently sorted is "last message, descending" meaning that even if someone started a thread this morning, if someone replied to another older thread, it would show up above the newer thread, if that makes sense. I'm still looking to see if maybe there's a user defined preference that can be set, but that's a long-shot.

1588120618106.png

Also, I know you guys need ads, but they way they are loading now, they are in between comments and are very distracting. Is there a way to get them back on the top and sides, so they can be ignored?
Click to expand...
I've talked about this in the other thread, but that's ok if you've missed it. The way they do the advertisements in 2.x is new and kinda weird. I'm still trying to sort it all out, but ultimately I'd like for the advertisements to ONLY be displayed at the top like it used to be, not in the middle of everything.

Unfortunately from what I've been told, between the time that I make a change and it's reflected on the site can take between 6 to 24 hours (the time Google takes to re-index the site), meaning I don't know what's working without first waiting a horrible length of time first.

I do apologize for the annoyance, because it's *not* what I want but appreciate your patience and understanding while we sort it all out.

Wayne
 
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I had a question about tweets (you can look at the Twitter topic). It shows the link of the
tweet then what the tweet is. Before it just showed the tweet. I thought about embedding
the tweets, but I don't see that function now. Maybe it's the way the new program works
 
I haven't tried to submit a tweet. I don't even "do" twitter, but I'm guessing you're right. The way it was before, tweets were managed by a third-party add-on module which also controlled the smilies and other things. Those portions *seem* to have been folded into the program itself, but I haven't had a chance to confirm.

Maybe it's like Facebook where once you cut and paste the URL in and it parses it, you can delete the physical text of the URL?

Wayne
 
Thanks so much for your response, Wayne. So, I think what I was seeing that looked out of order to me was, for example, the Spoilers page. The dates on the topic are not in order, but the responses are, so I just need to read things that way, and I can do that! I did not see the other thread, so thanks for explaining why the ads are appearing where they are. And, if that is something you can EASILY fix, that would be great. Seeing things that talk about gun laws and moldy washers just as you are reading a comment does get distracting and annoying.

Actually, yes, check out the spoilers page. The first comment is dated earlier than the one below it. Does the fact that it has a spoiler tag affect that? Those dates and times of the last response, which you see on the right are not in chronological order. I can find what I am looking for by not looking at the topic, and just the date, but that doesn't make sense.
 
Thanks, Wayne. The next time I post a tweet I'll delete the link and see if that works.
I have done that on Facebook
 
Nice work on the new site. The ads are distracting, but not as annoying or invasive as other sites I have visited. Is there a way to add the What's New link at the end of a topic along with the forums link? It reminds me of the Home page from the old forum. I prefer to look at all of the recent posts at once to choose what to read rather than go to the forums page to choose which one to look at.
 
Thank you so much for all the hours you have put in to this site.
The ads are annoying, but I can live with them.... however should you be able to figure out how to get rid of them my heart would not be broken....

I'm learning some of the new features.... it will take some time but they look very nifty..... thanks.....
 
LisaK in AZ said:
Actually, yes, check out the spoilers page. The first comment is dated earlier than the one below it.
Click to expand...
Ok, maybe I see what you're talking about. The issue here seems to be the "sticky" threads, which will appear at the top of things, even if there are new threads beneath them. The old theme made sticky threads look different. The current/new theme just puts a little thumb-tack on the thread like you're supposed to easily see that or whatever... After the sticky topics, they're in the correct order. I'll see if I can change the way sticky topics are displayed.
 
Thank you for all your hard work but I do not like the change.
It doesn't work for me.
The ads are very annoying.
I liked the colored back ground versus the white back ground.
I liked the home page with the dots in front of the articles that have a new feed that I haven't read.
I liked that the same old home page had the people on the website currently and the comments people say on their page.
I guess I just don't like the new way and find it annoying to try and search things out.
Maybe I'm just getting older and change is more annoying to me!
Sorry for my complaining but you asked and I thought I'd give my honest opinion.
 
Well, evidently the "what's new" at the top lists the posts since one last visited.
And when you are here - http://www.salemspectator.com/ - (using that log in)....forums with new posts in them are darker than others
Also, on the right is who is on line now, status updates, etc. all the things that used to be there
(not many are posting, as they find their way around) And yes, it can get confusing and a bit frustrating.
Wayne probably is lucky he got the brown/beige colors.....lolol.
 
I would prefer the icon choices be in black, actually, I don't like the brown/beige letters or writing anywhere..........
 
soapkitty said:
Thank you for all your hard work but I do not like the change.
It doesn't work for me.
The ads are very annoying.
I liked the colored back ground versus the white back ground.
I liked the home page with the dots in front of the articles that have a new feed that I haven't read.
I liked that the same old home page had the people on the website currently and the comments people say on their page.
I guess I just don't like the new way and find it annoying to try and search things out.
Maybe I'm just getting older and change is more annoying to me!
Sorry for my complaining but you asked and I thought I'd give my honest opinion.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your honesty... that’s why I asked.

The advertisements are temporarily gone until I can get them sorted out. Not sure why me putting ONE banner at the top seems to toss them into every single thread, but I’m researching.

I know change is hard, and I understand that it sucks sometimes, but we really were left with little to no choice here. We’ve been running this site for what, 15 or more years and hadn't kept the software upgrading for at least the last 5. Someone was abusing that fact, so we had to make the choice to “upgrade or die” to speak.

What I didn’t want to do was fall into the same trap of having all this aftermarket stuff loaded which made it impossible to keep the software current.

Things will get better. We just have to adapt.
 
The ones above the blank post.......Italics, Underline, Bold, etc.
 
All the colors on the system are pretty much linked and coordinated, meaning you can't define the colors for the buttons without changing the color of the links everywhere (like in messages). There's like 8 colors I can choose from, and I can change any one of them, but if I do, it changes colors for other things. They do this ostensibly to allow for a "standardized color palette". That being said, I *think* the colors of the buttons (and unfortunately all the links in messages and elsewhere) is now black. I don't know, kinda hard for me to tell the difference with these old eyes.

Wayne
 
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