OK, now be aware that I am trying to be very nice!! LOL
I had written earlier in the thread that I've seen hundreds of other forums and did not like their set up as well as here. So - I am confused that it is considered ‘bare bones’.
On other forums it is harder to post directly to someone or see replies to yourself. At least that's the way I ‘see’ them as I browse through. I just don't like all the little ‘quote’ boxes piled one inside each other on many forums. The ‘edit’ feature is the only thing I would consider an improvement.
Even Lucianne, I just don't like the way it's set up. Can you understand what I mean? This forum just seems so easy and convenient to me.
Lucianne has to be the buggiest forums I’ve ever seen. (at that, it isn’t even working right now).. Its too bad she bailed here over her little soap opera thing with drudge.
Ahh..... I'm tracking with you now. I know exactly what you're talking about. I hate the style of most other forums, as well.
Here's the deal.... I came here from the Delphi forum network, which uses a Rich Text Editor for posting. Their forum program is the best I've seen anywhere. It's easy to use, intuitive, flexible, and infinitely navigable. It was the first forum network that I was a part of, and I became very accustomed to the great layout of the threads, the interface, and the way the posting notifications worked.
At Delphi, you can choose to receive notifications of "posts to you" in your email inbox, or you can check in at the forums you frequent and click on the "new posts to me" tab, and every thread with a post to you will be listed.
You can have a customized signature there, with a photograph or graphic, with rich text, if you like. You can easily link in photographs from anywhere with just a couple of clicks, and of course, you can do anything you like with your posting text. It makes for a very lively experience.
There are other features there, such as "Ignore", where you can automatically have a designated member's posts not show on your screen.
When I first came to FR, the only thing that impressed me was the high quality of posting by the members. The site itself seemed dull and lifeless, compared to where I'd come from.
Fr looked more like a newspaper to me, where the Delphi forums looked more like a big screen TV. In time, I got used to the look and feel of this place, and it's now become something of a comfy old chair to me. But, I wouldn't mind a bit more ease with the posting window.