Forum software upgrade, more info

[Spark]

Hey guys, we just upgraded the software again, and there are some new features.

Check out the new UBB code that allows you to do bulletted lists.

Also, threads with lots of replies are now seperated into several pages, to save on bandwidth. Another bandwidth saver is the new reply format, the message is no longer quoted in the reply screen.

There's more, but I'll go into more detail later.

------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here

 

[Gollnick]

Another
bandwidth saver is the new reply format, the message is no longer quoted in the reply screen.

--------------------------

That is, IMHO, an unfortunate change. I often like to snip quotes from previous posters out.

Chuck


[This message has been edited by Gollnick (edited 22 June 1999).]

 

[Spark]

You can still do that by clicking on the link at the bottom that will open up the thread.

The reason this was implemented was because fully a third of the bandwidth used was when the entire thread was displayed when making a reply. For long threads, this got out of hand.

This will cut down the number of times the entire thread is displayed, saving on our costs.

Spark

------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here

 

[Harri]

Hi!

...but one still has to download the first part of the long thread before one can download the latter parts. It was much easier before.

One thing I've been wondering is that in a case of a long thread it's usually very hard to find the last message you read the day before. Could you put somekind of icon to the messages in side the threads to show if the messages have not been read? The same way as which threads have new posts since the last time loggen on.

BTW, how about opening a separate reply window with the new 'light' reply page. That way the whole thread would already be downloaded and visible.

Harri

[This message has been edited by Harri (edited 22 June 1999).]

 

[Titan]

Splitting the thread into pages gives me a problem as I often save/download the threads I find interesting.

Does this mean I have to open and save each page, Spark?

If it is, well, I just have to adjust to this progress.

Nevertheless, thanks for keeping the Forum updated!

 

[Cliff Stamp]

I don't much like the reply feature at all in its current form as you can't view the thread and your reply in the same window. What I do is simply open the reply box in a new window so I can view the thread I am responding to.

What about the idea of ordering the pages in reverse? For long threads the majority of the readers will be familiar with the first bits and usually are responding to the latter posts. This means that the first bits are often just wasted bandwidth as you immediately punch up the last page.

For the multiple page threads there should be an [all] button that brings up the whole thread like on deja-news. This would make it very easy to download the whole thing.

-Cliff

 

[Gollnick]

I don't much like the reply feature at all in its current form as you can't view the thread and your reply in
the same window. What I do is simply open the reply box in a new window so I can view the thread I am
responding to.

What about the idea of ordering the pages in reverse? For long threads the majority of the readers will be
familiar with the first bits and usually are responding to the latter posts. This means that the first bits are
often just wasted bandwidth as you immediately punch up the last page.

--------------------------

Two excellent ideas. I'm gonna start using the two-window approach right away.

Another bandwidth reducer would be to send you back to the forum menu rather than to the thread after you post a reply. I typically don't need to read the thread again after I've posted my reply. Right now, when I read the thread, that's one. When I reply the old way, downloading the whole thread again, that's two, and when I finish my reply and thing sends me back to the thread, that's three. Of all of these, the later is the most useless. With Mr. Stamp's suggestion, we can elliminate the second. And, if people would put on better subjects, we could often elliminate the first.

Chuck

 

[Bob Irons]

Spark,

I like it. Using 2 windows when doing a reply works for me. It does take up some more screen space, but I'm ok with that.

Hope everyone else can adjust to it ok.

Thanks Spark.

 

[Spark]

Good ideas all around.

We're not going to reverse-thread the posts because it creates an extra hassle for people who don't know where they left off.

They wind up having to scroll down and trying to find the last post they read, then scrolling back up again to read the most current ones. Twice the work for little benefit.

We may increase the number of posts it takes before the threads are split into new pages. Currently we have it at 40 (I believe) and then the page splits, but I'm not sure.

Spark

------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here

 

[Joel Stave]

For what ever its worth (since you're trying to make the server more efficient) I've noticed that if I have a thread displayed, then do a "back" and a "forward", the server resends the entire thread. It *should* be in cache, but the whole thing (sometimes 150k worth) is sent down again. It also does this if somebody posts some images and I select one to be shown -- first the entire page is downloaded, then the image (by default, I don't load images -- pages load much quicker that way).

I'm reasonably sure this isn't a problem with the way my browser is set up, because I get the cached version of other long pages if I do the same back/forward type thing.

This may somehow just be the software you're using and therefore out of your control, but if you *can* change it, it may lower the overall load on the server.

 

[Spark]

I believe that the software is coded to try to prevent the browsers from caching pages so that you don't see the same thread when new replies have been added.

Spark

------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com

Insert witty quip here

 

[Christian]

As a Webtv user, having the threads broken into pages means I can now read all of them. Before, if a thread was to long, I basically had to ignore it as it was to big to be shown completely. Maybe some day I'll get a computer...

------------------
*************************
"If historic fact exists, it is this- that all of the history of man's civilization, from the caves to civilized or so-called civilized man, is a progressive limitation of liberty."
-Benito Mussolini
*************************