OK FREEPERS! 7 Days ago FRee Republic had a make over, how do you like it so far?

4/6/2002 | TLBSHOW

[TLBSHOW]

7 Days ago FRee Republic had a make over, how do you like it so far?

Last Saturday free republic changed to beta format for it's web site design and the crowd went mad. Many loved the new site design and others hated the new site design.

Now that the dust has settled and a week has passed. How do you like it now?

This is a question and opinion thread. Thanks!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

You can control the fonts on your personal machine to a large extent with IE , I am sure and I assume also with netscape.

For IE5 and above, go to tools , click go down to internet options on that menu and click that. Then you will get the General MS screen and toward the bottom there are 4 options - color, font, language, and accessibility. Not sure what you do on netscape!

[RonDog]

Correction, some, but not all search features have been restored.
Try a search for GOP, JFK, FEC, etc.
Maybe you don't use FR for reasearch. Many like Alamo-girl do.

In the words of the Lone Ranger, to his noble steed, "Whoa there, Silver. Whoa, big fella! Easy!"
All may yet be well. :0

I assume that you are referring not to the newly released "Search by/to User/Bump List" function:

http://beta.freerepublic.com/focus/site/user-posts

but, instead, to the "Search for Words to be found in article titles" function, i.e.:

http://beta.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/search
or
http://beta.freerepublic.com/focus/news/search, etc.

This forum software is always a work in progress, and things change RAPIDLY around here, but the "three-letter" glitch that you have discovered has been around for a while, and there ARE some existing work-arounds.

From:
Free Republic Search Engine *Experimental*
Posted on 12/7/01 4:41 PM Pacific by John Robinson

To: John Robinson

I posted this article "INS Achieves 2-Year Naturalization Program Goals" and did a search for just 'INS' and had no results. I tried the entire title, '2-year', 'Naturalization' and 'Goals' and found the article easily. I then tried FBI, CIA and IRS and had no results.

65 posted on 12/7/01 8:54 PM Pacific by WIMom
To: WIMom

You reminded me of the one horrible limitation of this search engine: it indexes words of a minimum of four characters in length. Not one of those TLA will index. :-(

I will have to document that somewhere.

66 posted on 12/7/01 9:16 PM Pacific by John Robinson

and

To: John Robinson; WIMom

Well, this search engine is a hybrid.
The workhorse is the FULLTEXT index facility included with recent versions of MySQL, this workhorse ignores three-letter words. If you give the workhorse only three-letter words, it will return nothing.

However, if you give the workhorse something it can find, like "song" and "parody" and use "match all" or "match exact", my code will further restrict what the workhorse finds-- it takes the results from the workhorse and then filters them again. So if you are looking for "song", "parody", and "you", the workhorse ignores "you", finds many records with "song" and/or "parody", gives those results to my code, which then makes sure each has "song" AND "parody" AND "you".

And my code is not invoked if you do a "match any"; so "match any" will never find a three-letter word.

This might sound amazingly complicated, but it really isn't that much code. :-)

I see. So a "work-around" for the "ignore three-letter words" problem is to include in the search SOMETHING ELSE, which is longer than four characters, like:

fbi files - rather than just FBI
irs taxes - rather than just IRS
fox news - rather than just FOX
freep cnn - rather than just CNN

Also, FOUR-letter words - by themselves - seem to be O.K.:

waco
news
gore

108 posted on 12/8/01 3:36 PM Pacific by RonDog

[afraidfortherepublic]

I don't like the 2 forums. I enjoyed the miscellaneous stuff interspersed among the more serious threads. When I have a lot of time, I read the silly posts. When I'm pressed for time, I skip them.

The serious posts become overwhelming without a few lighthearted ones every once in a while. all of the lighthearted posts lumped together also becomes boring. I really liked it better when the forums were mixed.

[Bullish]

I love the new makeover.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the heads up! I like the new format in every respect except that my modem is too slow to exploit all the features. LOL!

[RonDog]

I agree. I like to get a BROAD SPECTRUM of posts, which is why I **LOVE** the new "review" function, at:

http://beta.freerepublic.com/focus/my/review

Now, I can "subscribe" to BUNCHES of topics, and quickly peruse the titles of threads in MANY areas.
It is not quite like it was, but it works, for now.

[quimby]

This forum software is always a work in progress, and things change RAPIDLY around here, but the "three-letter" glitch that you have discovered has been around for a while, and there ARE some existing work-arounds.

Thanks for your possible work arounds. But the "three-letter-glitch" as you put it has not been around for a while, to my experience. It worked fine for me till the makeover. The same is true for the now missing search for aticles by poster and search for freeper posters by partial name.

[afraidfortherepublic]

OK, Ron. Call me stupid, but what am I supposed to do with that massive page of lists on the Beta site? And when it asks to take me back to the main forum -- it just takes me to the login page. I have never found the *place* where I am supposed to sign up for topics of interest.

I am quite willing to go along with whatever John Robinson devises, but I really liked the old format better. This new version seems to have something missing -- mainly lively discussions of interesting topics from many points of view. I think that part of the problem is the strict segregation of topics.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I think there should be an instruction page for all the features.

A DETAILED instruction page. Every time I log on to FreeRepublic, I seem to have different features and a different look. This can vary, depending on which computer I use. I would like to get it to be the same -- no matter where I am.

[RonDog]

I have never found the *place* where I am supposed to sign up for topics of interest.

I share your concerns, and your frustrations about the new format. Not much that I can help you with there, except to suggest that we wait (and pray) for the improvements that we know are coming.

As for "subscribing" to new topics, the only way that I have found is to go to "Topics," and click on each one MANUALLY, and then click on "subscribe" at the top of the page that appears. Perhaps that process will improve, too.

Otherwise, scanning the new "review" page is the best way that I have found to get an overview of what's going on, but I, too, have seen much less uninhibited expression recently. :(

This is all only TEMPORARY. FR will survive, and THRIVE. It must.

[afraidfortherepublic]

OK. I followed your directions and found that I already subscribe to ALL of the topics! No wonder I couldn't find anyplace to subscribe, I'm already subscribed! Duh! Thanks for your input.

[Smile-n-Win]

I didn't really like the way the original "FR 2" looked--especially in comparison to the old FR--though I did find it more user-friendly in certain ways. The final version is fine with me as far as the look is concerned, as well as the feel; I stopped being displeased with the changeover when they switched to this newest look.

[reformjoy]

I can't seem to read my posts page very easily. And it's hard to see what is being posted (like the old Breaking news, etc that used to run on the right side of the screen)

And it's hard to find the comment that pinged me. Rondog pinged me, but I was just brought here to the top of the thread.

I don't post that often, so maybe I just need time to adjust.

[reformjoy]

"One other thing, Breaking News should be at the top of the page, not hidden down at the bottom.'

so that's where it is.....

[RonDog]

And it's hard to find the comment that pinged me.
Rondog pinged me, but I was just brought here to the top of the thread.

It depends WHERE you click.

If you click on the TITLE of the thread, you are taken to the beginning.
But if you click on the POST NUMBER (i.e.: #153 of 154), you will be taken directly to that point in the thread.

Try it here:

General Interest | OK FREEPERS! 7 Days ago FRee Republic had a make over, how do you like it so far?
			To TLBSHOW, RonDog From reformjoy Apr 8 10:59 PM #153 of 154

[RonDog]

"One other thing, Breaking News should be at the top of the page, not hidden down at the bottom.'

so that's where it is.....

At present, the only way to keep BREAKING NEWS at the top is to "unsubscribe" to everything else that appears in your sidebar. One at a time, you need to click on the titles for EDITORIAL, or FRONT PAGE, etc., and then click on "unsubscribe" at the top of the page that appears.

Soon, you will be able to anchor BREAKING NEWS to the top of the sidebar. For now, it bounces around - with the "topic" that got the post recent post appearing at the top.

[reformjoy]

Thanks! I'm at the BETA version of FR now, and it is much better. The type is larger and the layout is cleaner.

But I don't understand why there two versions of this same website? I also had to sign in at each one.

To FR: Can we have a secure login? Just wondering!

[nutmeg]

I don't like the 2 forums. I enjoyed the miscellaneous stuff interspersed among the more serious threads. When I have a lot of time, I read the silly posts. When I'm pressed for time, I skip them.

The serious posts become overwhelming without a few lighthearted ones every once in a while. all of the lighthearted posts lumped together also becomes boring. I really liked it better when the forums were mixed.

I totally agree. I don't like much of the new, needlessly complex features of FR. It seems that now the only way I can find interesting threads is if someone pings me to them, or if I do a search of FReepers' names to see what threads they've posted on. I'm constantly amazed at how many great threads are "out there", yet I haven't managed to find them as easily as with the old format.

We used to post an article and broadcast it to all 80,000+ FReepers and lurkers at once. Now, I have to spend much more time searching around for interesting articles. Sadly, I'm finding that I read less on FR and more on other sites. It's as if the very heart and soul of the FR that we knew has been ripped out.

[ladyinred]

Parts I like, parts still confuse me. I haven't been here a lot lately, so I have to get used to the changes.
Tonight is the first time I saw the self search feature, that is pretty groovy!
I am sure once I stumble around more, I will get used to it, and will forget what it used to be like!
Problem is, it changes daily right now! :)

[TLBSHOW]

You should check out the chat section that John is working on.