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.

[B Knotts]

I like it. It makes me less hesitant to click on a thread when I'm at home on the modem.

BTW, have you ever looked at the slashcode?

[Lazamataz]

Cows consume bandwidth.

I am an identity cookie.

[Darth Reagan]

Honestly, I don't like it, but being a fiscal conservative, I understand and appreciate the kb savings this will provide. I'll get used to it.

[B Knotts]

Oops. Meant to reply to you...I sometimes get mixed up and type a subject into the To: field.

[Think free or die]

looks nice and clean

[Diva Betsy Ross]

I think it is fine. It will take time to get used to. My only thought being, is there anyway to change that dark bold blue color used to highlight. I find it distacting. It could just be me, due to ete problems. Good job!

[George W. Bush]

Stylesheets website now updated, including JohnRob's beta look.

[smith288]

There is a way to create what us nerds call Cascading Style Sheet. John will install a cool way to choose a style to use. For now, he gives us a way to install them ourselves. Put the following in a text file, save it as style.css and then go to http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/edit-style click the browse button and find where you put the style.css and press upload. You will have a marginally better looking thread. Begins CSS:

.fr_title
{
font: bold 10pt verdana;
}
.fr_header, .fr_choices, .fr_page
{
font: bold 8pt verdana;
}
.fr_header
{
padding: 3px 6px;
}
.fr_normal .fr_header
{
background-color: #ddddee;
border : thin;
border-style : outset;
}
.fr_removed .fr_header
{
background-color: #eedddd;
border : thin;
border-style : outset;
}
.fr_body
{
margin: 0em 1em;
}
.fr_default
{
display: none;
}
.fr_menu
{
margin-bottom: 1em;
text-align : center;
border : thin;
border-style : outset;
background-color : #eedddd;
}
.fr_comment
{
text-decoration : none;
}
.fr_menu A:LINK
{
text-decoration : none;
font-style : italic;
color : black;
}
.fr_menu A:HOVER
{
text-decoration : none;
font-style : normal;
color : black;
}
.fr_menu A:VISITED
{
text-decoration : none;
font-style : italic;
color : black
}
.fr_page_goto
{
color: black;
}
.fr_page_here
{
text-decoration: none;
color: red;
}

[Woodman]

You know Damn it, this is the third time in as many years that I have to learn something new at FR. I want a return to the old format with no login and a clean list of topics create on the fly.

As for those people complaining about slow loads. Well they all are telling us how well they’re doing all of the time; let them buy Broadband they’ve got the money. I say bring on the 400-500 reply threads I’ve never had a problem with them so everyone else should be OK. What is the matter with you people don’t you understand that I’m right and you aren’t

< /A+Bert|MODE >

But seriously John it looks good. If you haven’t had enough time to put some of the formatting finishes on the page I understand, but in IE 6.0 there are no labels for Author, the Topic seems to be missing and maybe the font should be different for the user names in the To’s and From’s. And even though it may take away many peoples favorite pet peeve (complaining about others bad spelling) could we please have a spell checker in the reply window?

Keep up the good work. You and Jim have done a great service to this country. I feel blessed that I found this place when there were only about 100 people on it and every new version has made it a better experience.

God bless you, Jim and your families.

[francisandbeans]

Dear John:

I'm leaving.

Francisandbeans

(sorry, always wanted to write a Dear John letter...to everyones disappointment, I'm staying)

Seriously, what does bandwidth run ($) when you have your own servers per gigabyte? Is it so much that you need to change the perfection that is (was) FreeRepublic?

[Just another Joe]

John, the beta format looks OK to me but I would still like to be able to load the whole thread. It just reads better sometimes if you can get the whole thread and go through it.

[francisandbeans]

Seriously, if you want to save bandwidth, perhaps you could just add an "article only" link. That way lurkers and those who just want to read the article aren't loading the whole thread. You can then link from there to the "whole thread" link where they can see the replies.

[Petronski]

No one should expect you to continue to send the entire thread with every refresh, but why change the look and feel? Why not keep the same layout (with all thread data left justified and the author's name AFTER their comments) and break the threads as currently formatted into groups of twenty.

Your current thread layout is a model of visual clarity and I don't understand why it would be changed to a layout which spreads thread info all over the page (author at the top, comment number and reply to number on the far right, etc.). It's just not as good.

[eureka!]

The site is definitely cruising compared to of recent. By George, er John, I think you've got it...

[francisandbeans]

what'd ya do? I think you scared everyone away.

[francisandbeans]

as far as clarity of use, JRs Free Republic blows slash code out of the water. Slash Code may be pretty, but this format lends itself to this site flawlessly. (I'm talking FR 2.0....:P )

[Budge]

Clean. Will the synopsis be displayed as in the old one?

[newgeezer]

1. It's great that you have a link to the original posting being replied to. It helps keep track of ongoing conversations, jokes, etc.

(chuckle) You're right, it's quite handy. But, it's not new. See the "To 32" link that follows.

But - isn't it true that the moderator can yank specific postings? What happens when an intruder posts obnoxious post #3, someoen replies to #3, and the later #3 is yanked? (Just playing devil's advocate).

The link to it simply does nothing. (It doesn't return an error.)

[MamaTexan]

WOWZER!
On this beastie, the beta version cuts thread download time in half.