Beta Release - Thu Apr 4, 2002

[John Robinson]

ARGGH! Such a lengthy post... completely lost. (I lost my post! Grrrr Microsoft!) Let's try this again. Excuse the brevity, I'm tired of typing this message.

Installed a new beta.

Today's installment of Freeping Creaturism:

• MANAGE SUBSCRIPTIONS (Topics, your sidebar) -- order them any way you please. You must be logged in, find the "My Subscriptions" link in your nearest Personal menu (click on your name in the upper right corner.)

• REVIEW SUBSCRIPTIONS -- View all your subscribed topics in a multi-column page. Great for catching up with the day.

• STYLE SHEETS -- Now using style sheets. Those in the know can define their own style sheet to use with Free Republic. Later there will be predefined (and perhaps customizable.) See "My Preferences / Layout"

• Cut out a lot of fat. Pages are 50% lighter!

• DEFAULT BROWSER FONT / DEFAULT BROWSER COLORS. Just the default style sheet not getting in the way.

• Stylish UNDER CONSTRUCTION banner (just 6k!) and friendly message for those who wander by mistake.

• Added more links in more menus.

• Etc

BUGS and KNOWN ISSUES

• I destroyed most of the Window Target code. If you're using blank windows or a slave window, it may no longer work in the beta. THIS IS TEMPORARY and will be fixed.

• NAVIGATION is just terrible. I'm kinda lost on what to do right now. I'll hear suggestions. (I had big plans for that extra sidebar y'hear!)

• There are probably a lot more that I simply failed to list. I have a list somewhere!

COMING ATTRACTIONS

• More searching! Search by To, Source, Author, etc. Maybe even article searches. (Comment searches are a long way off... too much data!)

• Real time chat room... of some sort.

• Spell Checker... I have leads! It just may be possible. But I want a raise! LOL!

• NAVIGATION -- it's both a bug and an upcoming attraction. It really does suck, and we'll figure something out.

• Subscribe to the world. Will have the ability to subscribe to topics, keywords, forums, etc. ALSO, I have plans to implement portal boxes. Ie, have content from your favorite website delivered to your sidebar.

• ENHANCED MAIL including multiple recipients, folders, mass delete and move operations, attachments, HTML, preview, you got it. (And spell checking.)

• PHOTO ALBUM / Image Hosting -- posting program will automatically recognize when you're posting an image and allow you to upload it to FR.

• Freeper address book / contact list.

• etc... (THIS list is ENDLESS.)

[quimby]

BBBBBeta, ay. LOL, Ron, sorry much of your work on new search features was lost. I hope they restore all the old features and include some new ones. ChChChChChanges...

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I think it is great. Why do I surmise that there will be a complaint or two? LOL!

[RonDog]

I wish that the interface to set up "my preferences" were a little more "user-friendly," but I see these features as an area for hard-core FReepers only - which is as it should be.

Let the PRIMARY (default) settings on the main forum pages be idiot-proof (er, "fault-tolerant) - for lurkers and newbies - but allow tech-heads and veteran FReepers the option to CUSTOMIZE their experience here to the level of their comfort.

It's "win-win!"

[RonDog]

BBBBBeta, ay. LOL, Ron, sorry much of your work on new search features was lost.

Not LOST, only slightly outdated. As soon as the new software changes stabilize, I will UPDATE that thread.

We need to re-invite the Google-bots to their new home, too! (They have lost their way recently, severely limiting the utility of a site-specific Google search of the old threads. That unfortunate reality ALSO should only be temporary, I hope!)

[quimby]

We need to re-invite the Google-bots to their new home, too!

You can't really put google to use until you have a stable situation. And I still would like the old search features restored.

[fnord]

"Freeping Creaturism" ... lol, that's funny :-)

Style sheets: woohoo! glad to have them back. Like I posted on one of those threads, you could implement quite a bit of your original beta in CSS, and allow users to change that to their preference (colors, fonts, etc.)

Sidebars: love 'em. The best change from the old style.

PHOTO ALBUM / Image Hosting: Sounds good for the hostless folks, but do you have unlimited bandwidth? or some way to throttle popular images? Anytime I hosted an image it got hundreds/thousands of hits, and really sucked down my bandwidth.

I can't seem to find the 'My Subscriptions' link to tweak the number of threads listed in each sidebar topic?

Also, do you have a list of the various CSS classes you use. A little shorthand crib-sheet would be handy when rolling our own.

Great job, I really like the layouts and colors in your original beat. I will play with this this weekend (and maybe build my new computer to play with it on).

[fnord]

never mind about the sidebar question; I didn't realize you were running it as a separate beta again. Now, other than this thread, how can I navigate to the beta when I log on?

[Nita Nupress]

Bless you, RonDog. I'm going to try to figure this new software out this weekend. And please ping me to your "search thread" when it's updated. I've never seen that one. Thanks!

[smith288]

Have you got a list of all the Classes on your pages? Just need to set up a template.

[smith288]

never mind, i got these:

LATESTPOSTS
browse
header
nav
content
msg
title
meta

THREAD
read
header
nav
content
thread
title
text
meta

[Valin]

John, if you have a little time could you get me a cup of coffee?
Ah...black, one sugar.

Oh and my car really needs to be washed....thanks buddy.

[TLBSHOW]

You are awesome. Keep rockin, John!

[MeekOneGOP]

Thanks John for all your work and improvements coming!

Thanks, RD for the ping!

Bookmarked and bumped!
This is so Kewl!
:O)

[BornOnTheFourth]

STYLE SHEETS -- Now using style sheets. Those in the know can define their own style sheet to use with Free Republic. Later there will be predefined (and perhaps customizable.) See "My Preferences / Layout"

SWEEEEEEEEEET!

I also really like the "New Posts to You" feature--very nice.

Thanks for all your hard work. Good job!

[smith288]

Will you be implimenting classes for the sidebars?

[eureka!]

Bump with thanks for all your efforts.

[MeekOneGOP]

Beta Bing, Beta BUMP!





You can't see this! :O)

[smith288]

Cant too!

[smith288]

ugh, i mean I CAN too!

[MeekOneGOP]

You peeked! :O)