I have to say I'm not a fan of the new changes either. I have an old computer and it took a little time to load stuff...but now it takes an eternity to load anything in BF. It takes so long, that I have actually...gasp!...stopped hanging around as much as I did last Millenium! It is just too frustrating to have to wait so long.
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Forum changes
- Thread starter Jiantbrane2
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 9, 1999
- Messages
- 489
Woah there David. I'm not complaining. I'm asking what's up. I think there is quite a thick line between the two.
As far as what I would prefer, just do whatever will be faster. This is killing me. I never thought my death by knives would come from READING about them!
Thanks guys
Howie
As far as what I would prefer, just do whatever will be faster. This is killing me. I never thought my death by knives would come from READING about them!
Thanks guys
Howie
- Joined
- Oct 2, 1998
- Messages
- 15,236
In an ideal world, everyone would have a 2 way cable modem and the latest in technology to surf the web. Everything would show up perfectly on every browser, all of the time, and would be visible instantly. Unfortunately, we live in the real world.
We do what we can to make sure that the forums are easily accessable to the largest amount of people, but there are tradeoffs.
If we go "graphics lite", then we lose a good deal of visual appeal. If we go "graphics heavy", then people start complaining about download speeds.
The current graphics set in use on the forums, including the top navigation bar, but minus the banner, is 13K. Add the banner in, and you are looking at a maximum of 26K. That's 5 seconds of download time on a 56k modem, 10 seconds if you are on a 28.8 connection.
I've done everything I can to preserve the looks while making it easy to read and attractive, and fast downloading. Every graphic I can optimize, has been optimized. I've split tables so that threads don't get too out of hand.
But, when you have prolific posters and topics that just beg for replies, there's just so much that you can do. These days, a thread typically gets to 100-125k in size before it splits, larger if there are pictures in there. What can we do about this? Well, we can split the threads at 25 posts instead of the current 35, or we even take it down to 15 posts before the thread splits. But, then when we do that, we have users who complain about us splitting the pages at all. I've already taken the maximum number of topics displayed on a forum screen down to 50, and if need be, I can take it down even further.
It's a tightrope we walk, trying to maintain balance, while making sure that the optimal solution is presented to you guys.
Believe me, I understand the limits and liabilities you guys face, but we are trying to find the best way to make sure both *your* needs and *our* needs are met. I've stayed as far away as possible from forcing upgrades on browsers, and ensured maximum backwards compatibility, etc, but folks, you can't hold back technology forever. I can't cater to Lynx users and WebTv users at the expense of everyone else, just like I can't cater to Hotmail users at the expense everyone who suffers from the Hotmail Trolls.
Thus, we strive for balance.
I'll be switching over the left sidebar to the right this evening, hopefully that will eliminate most of the scrolling issues. We'll see what else needs to be done.
In the meantime, see what can be done on your end to make your viewing experience more enjoyable. Just because you have an old computer, that doesn't mean that you are locked into 640x480 forever. My computer 5 years ago had better resolution than that, and believe me, it was a 486x33 running Windows 3.11. So take control of your PC and make it work for you, instead of you working for it.
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
We do what we can to make sure that the forums are easily accessable to the largest amount of people, but there are tradeoffs.
If we go "graphics lite", then we lose a good deal of visual appeal. If we go "graphics heavy", then people start complaining about download speeds.
The current graphics set in use on the forums, including the top navigation bar, but minus the banner, is 13K. Add the banner in, and you are looking at a maximum of 26K. That's 5 seconds of download time on a 56k modem, 10 seconds if you are on a 28.8 connection.
I've done everything I can to preserve the looks while making it easy to read and attractive, and fast downloading. Every graphic I can optimize, has been optimized. I've split tables so that threads don't get too out of hand.
But, when you have prolific posters and topics that just beg for replies, there's just so much that you can do. These days, a thread typically gets to 100-125k in size before it splits, larger if there are pictures in there. What can we do about this? Well, we can split the threads at 25 posts instead of the current 35, or we even take it down to 15 posts before the thread splits. But, then when we do that, we have users who complain about us splitting the pages at all. I've already taken the maximum number of topics displayed on a forum screen down to 50, and if need be, I can take it down even further.
It's a tightrope we walk, trying to maintain balance, while making sure that the optimal solution is presented to you guys.
Believe me, I understand the limits and liabilities you guys face, but we are trying to find the best way to make sure both *your* needs and *our* needs are met. I've stayed as far away as possible from forcing upgrades on browsers, and ensured maximum backwards compatibility, etc, but folks, you can't hold back technology forever. I can't cater to Lynx users and WebTv users at the expense of everyone else, just like I can't cater to Hotmail users at the expense everyone who suffers from the Hotmail Trolls.
Thus, we strive for balance.
I'll be switching over the left sidebar to the right this evening, hopefully that will eliminate most of the scrolling issues. We'll see what else needs to be done.
In the meantime, see what can be done on your end to make your viewing experience more enjoyable. Just because you have an old computer, that doesn't mean that you are locked into 640x480 forever. My computer 5 years ago had better resolution than that, and believe me, it was a 486x33 running Windows 3.11. So take control of your PC and make it work for you, instead of you working for it.
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
- Joined
- Oct 2, 1998
- Messages
- 15,236
Ok, <a href="http://www.bladeforums.com/cgi/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum=Temporary+Community+Center&number=36&DaysPrune=5&LastLogin=">click here</a> if you have a small computer screen and are having scrolling problems. Then come back to this post and tell me if it looks better for you.
Going back to Howie's original comment.... whenever you hit the enter key, it inserts a line break into whatever you are typing.
So, if you get in the habit of hitting the enter key every time you type a sentence, you wind up with lines that don't wrap correctly.
Then there are the people who hit the enter
key every time that they get to the end of
the text box (where you type your reply),
instead of letting the words wrap around the
way that they are supposed to. This causes
the text to look like it does in this
paragraph, like it's been typed on a smaller
screen.
I haven't seen any double spacing anywhere, but I'm willing to bet it's happening when the user has been hitting the enter key at the end of every sentence, and the software is also trying to word wrap at the same time, resulting in the double space effect.
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
Going back to Howie's original comment.... whenever you hit the enter key, it inserts a line break into whatever you are typing.
So, if you get in the habit of hitting the enter key every time you type a sentence, you wind up with lines that don't wrap correctly.
Then there are the people who hit the enter
key every time that they get to the end of
the text box (where you type your reply),
instead of letting the words wrap around the
way that they are supposed to. This causes
the text to look like it does in this
paragraph, like it's been typed on a smaller
screen.
I haven't seen any double spacing anywhere, but I'm willing to bet it's happening when the user has been hitting the enter key at the end of every sentence, and the software is also trying to word wrap at the same time, resulting in the double space effect.
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
Hmm, I've noticed that since I came in this morning (about 1 AM), that I no longer get the little burning folders next to the threads. Also, the "lightbulbs" indicating that there are new messages since my last visit remain lit on each and every one of the forums, even the ones where there hasn't been any activity in a long time. At the same time though, the red folders are no longer there. All are yellow, regardless of weather or not there are new messages.
Anyone else with these symptoms or do I need a new computer?
Anyone else with these symptoms or do I need a new computer?
- Joined
- Oct 2, 1998
- Messages
- 15,236
Whoops, my bad, screwed up the navigation on the front page.... should be fixed now.
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
- Joined
- Mar 9, 1999
- Messages
- 489
HA! You just explaines it Spark! You have told an absolute computer imbecile what's wrong! I get it now!
Howie
Howie