Upcoming changes to the forum

[John Robinson]

I'm working on the following changes to the forum software:

Thread URLs will change.

Old links will be redirected to maintain bookmark compatibility. The new links will be more descriptive, offering the date of the article and perhaps a meaningful filename.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1510575/posts doesn't say much.
http://www.freerepublic.com/2005/10/27/freeptoon/p1 says so much more.

Time zone handled by browser.

The timestamps on threads will change to your computer's local time zone, but only if you have JavaScript enabled. Otherwise they will be in US/Eastern. Your FR preference will be ignored (and will be phased out in favor of browser-side time zone handling.) The beauty of this arrangement is that as long as your computer displays the time in your time zone, FR will "Do The Right Thing"(tm).

Fixed number of comments.

No more than 50 comments per page will be shown. Your preference of 20, 100 or 250 is going to be ignored. I know this is a bit of a heartbreak for some, I understand it is a sacrifice. There are very good and very strong reasons this is changing.

Article text.

Only the first page of the thread will show the article text, and will always show the article text. Subsequent pages will only ever show a summary. In the future, a little browser-side magic could make the article text appear when you click a link.

All for one and one for all.

Everybody logged in or not will see the same content and links. For example, in the existing software, if you're not logged in you won't see the "Report Abuse" links. This check is going away, everybody will now see the same row of buttons.

In exchange, we'll have cache-friendly forum pages. This means:

• Faster downloads. If nothing changed on the thread you won't have to download it again. Also, local caches can store the page and deliver it much quicker.

• Better response time. Our servers will have to do less processing. Better yet, the front-end server will probably already have a generated copy of a thread in cache memory. Your request will be served instantly.

Update 10/30/05

I've expanded the scope of changes. I'm cleaning up the information we present to search engines like Google and Yahoo. Our site will be more useful to third-party search engines and thus more useful to you. For the most part this will not directly impact our human visitors. There will be changes that could break bookmarks of certain types of pages, but the chances such bookmarks have ever been made are slim.

[BreitbartSentMe]

Just tagging off your request to "Just don't call me a Democrat" Anytime I hear "Don't call me xxxxx" I immediately flash back to the movie "Airplane" and think of Leslie Nielsen's line...... Just being weird, which is pretty normal for me.

[IIntense]

"Just being wierd, which is pretty normal for me."

I'm beginning to agree with you. Listen closely. I was imitating the cat writing it's diary. In it, the cat says, "Don't call me a Democrat".

If anyone suggested I was a Dem, I'd find it amusing.

Back to the topic, have you come upon this list yet? Police cats Cadaver cats guidecats support cats seizure service cats drug sniffing cats therapy cats hearing cats (for the deaf) search and rescue cats

And then we have those lazy dogs!

[Liberty Valance]

Thanks.

[concretebob]

It's from Airplane...the movie

[concretebob]

"Surely, you can't be serious?"
"Yes, I'm very serious, and don't call me Shirley"

and my favorite

"We'll have to get these people to hospital"

"A hospital? What is it, Doctor?"

"A large building with windows, where they keep sick peolple. But never mind that now."

[concretebob]

Lloyd Bridges
"Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up cigarettes
"Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up drinking
"Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up sniffing glue
"OH MY GOD he's coming right at us"

[Gondring]

bttt

[Anselma]

Dick and Jane are my heroes.

[calrighty]

They were a lot of phun!

[Anselma]

I bow to your superior phunkiness. Say, "Good night," George.

[calrighty]

Good night, George!

[JLO]

"In five or ten years it will be common to only have Internet access on your phone or perhaps some Internet-purposed hand-held terminal."

Speaking for myself, I really resist that. I need a larger screen and larger type. I really don't like itty-bitty screens and keypads.

LOL - I couldn't agree more! Eyesight dwindles as years pass. I'm already at the larger font phase.

[JLO]

"Handheld devices are to become ubiquitous in the not too distant future. I am certain of that. In five or ten years it will be common to only have Internet access on your phone or perhaps some Internet-purposed hand-held terminal. I want to ensure FR is future compatible for this coming age. These devices don't have a lot of screen, memory, CPU or bandwidth, but they're catching on. WebTV is a great place to test such a future compatible site, it's all those things."

My laughter about WEB TV earlier, was due to having a friend with Web TV and had absolulutely no computer skills. But she could see her hilarious emails on her big-screen TV.

TV and computer - no connection in my mind. Recently, I heard a news blip how future TV will be so interactive. See what you want, when you want. Kind of like surfing on the net. Pick and choose, save, watch, etc.

I don't beans about tech stuff!

Here's a little bit I found, though. It's all way over my head!

Good on you though, John Robinson, keeping on top of things!

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20051020005313&newsLang=en
http://www.abcmoney.co.uk/news/2820051221.htm
http://www.avinfo.co.uk/index.php?main=story&id=15076698

[Titan Magroyne]

I abhor puke-inducing cutesy smilies, avatars, and other images that add nothing to the discussion. That's just my personal opinion, however.Amen to that! Thank you for not overtaxing dialup FReepers and lurkers, Mr. Robinson!

[Titan Magroyne]

Any use of JavaScript on this site will have a non-JavaScript fallback for those with it disabled, such as defaulting to the US/Eastern time zone. The sole point of JavaScript being to enhance functionality, not replace it. The benefit of shifting this enhanced functionality to client-side JavaScript far outweighs any negative implications.Thank you for explaining about JavaScript. I keep mine disabled on the home puter.

[jokar]

BTTT

[IIntense]

"Its from Airplane...the movie"

Thanks for cluing me in. Thought I'd seen it but, reading a review, it sounds like I missed a good one. Will rent it and enjoy it.

[JLO]

I'm really going to miss 250 comments/page.

Me too! JLO

[MaryFromMichigan]

Hi! I'm a little late to this thread, but I think I know what you asking.
Try Google Advanced Search.
You can set it to search your posts in FR.
It's pretty cool.

[MaryFromMichigan]

Eyesight dwindles as years pass. I'm already at the larger font phase.

I tell myself that they're just making print smaller than they used to.

:)