Beta Testing New Thread Layout

[John Robinson]

I'm testing a new thread layout. On latest posts, you will see a "beta" link for each article. Click it to read the article in the new thread style.

"Why fix it if it ain't broke?"

Well, it is broken, and it needs to be fixed. The old style Free Republic threads on average consumed 65 kilobytes per view. Multiply that by 600,000 articles served per day and that adds up to a big chunk of bandwidth.

I believe this new format will consume less resources. An eyeball estimate would put that average at about 15-20 kilobytes per view. You may have noticed how bandwidth starved Free Republic has been lately. It's been real slow during the morning. This new software, when fully implemented, should alleviate that problem.

[packrat01]

Actually, I like it better than the old format.

Roll On!

[Poohbah]

Beta test? But I only have VHS and DVD!

[eureka!]

This is what you are looking for...

[lds23]

Can you color code BARF alerts in brownish swirls?

[It'salmosttolate]

Good work John. I'm giving you a raise.

[Random Access]

Don't pick on JH2...he prepares the morning press brief for many of us....

When it comes to the posts by JH2, there is good and bad. In his rush to post everything about everything, he posts so many articles that the discussion gets fragmented. When he posts 5 different views of the same basic story, it really breaks up the discussion into 5 different threads on the same subject. Most of us know facts of the basic story under consideration, it is the discussion that is interesting.

When he posts in the middle of the night and there are few people on line, many of the threads just fade away. Later when someone does a search, they see the article was posted already so they do not post it again and a discussion never gets started. I am not saying he should stop posting, just that he should realize that there are some negative ramifications.

[Mr. Bungle]

Has a "reply with quotation" button been ruled out as a potential bandwidth hog?

[hispanarepublicana]

This is faster, and I LIKE the grouped threads. Maybe different font on the headings (latest posts, latest articles, abuse, etc.)

[Brookhaven]

Let people keep the default font on their system. Different people see differently. FYI - serif fonts are supposed to be easier to read in small text, and sans-serif fonts in larger text. Look at any newspaper, the headlines are in sans-serif, and the small text is in serif.

Splitting the threads up is a gread idea. Longer ones were impossible to load, and it will eliminate the thread-II, thread-III stuff.

[John Farson]

To me, this new format makes more sense. The most important information, poster and recipient, is listed where your eyes are most likely to be. For most reading, date and reply # are noise, so I toss them in the corner. YMMV.

The Reply # is not noise. I often trek up and down a thread by hitting the "To:##". Perhaps you could leave it where it was -- just color it dark grey and set the font smaller.

This "View Replies" option is nice... but it would be nice also to have the "To:##" link on the left where your eyes start to read.

Also, this navigation bar is cleaner
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than this one:

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[zeugma]

I like the way threading is done on sites such as slashdot. (just my 2 cents)

[John O]

I agree. The current look has all the required info at the left edge where most reading is done. (that is, you can scan the left edge of a thread to find just the replies you are looking for)

Breaking the thread into manageable pieces isn't bad, should be quite good in fact, but messing with the format itself doesn't seem to help. (does the format actually affect the bandwidth that much?)

God Save America (Please)

[Some hope remaining.]

Ok, I admit my first impression was that I hated it. I suppose I can get used to it. Part of that is just getting used to where to look for information (to, by, date).

I tend to prefer just bold rather than color for highlighting these things. The old format seems to be easier on the eyes.

Some things I'll have to try out more in order to appreciate them, like view replies and also getting only the last 20 posts when refreshing a long thread.

[_Jim]

Testing ... Testing 123 ... by _Jim ....

Over ...

[UScbass]

Very good. A lot of the bandwidth had been consumed by "reloading" to see the latest posts to a thread, which meant having to load the "entire" thread. This is MUCH faster and uses much less bandwidth. Good call.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Thumbs Up Here!

[_Jim]

Will any provision be made for downloading/viewing an entire thread for, oh, say, archiving or printing?

[classygreeneyedblonde]

hmmmmmmmmmmm ok what is the difference between a comment and a reply? and do we have to go thru each group of numbers to read replys? won't this take longer?

[StoneColdGOP]

I don't like it.

But hey, it's just my opinion. If it becomes standard and we have to live with it, so be it I suppose.

But I don't like it.

[backhoe]

how DO you manage?

I regularly go bonkers..... and that's just the hardware!
The Win 95 OS ( a freeby from my brother-in-law ) seems to self-destruct about every 6 months despite attentions from software that claims to fix window's problems....