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.

[ABC123]

I'm surprised you beat JohnHuang2 to this post this morning. The guy needs his own site if he's going to post everything that comes over the net.

[snippy_about_it]

The beta looks good. We can get used to it.

[vannrox]

This is my reply. I assume that you can still use HTML code here as well, or not?

[Aquinasfan]

I like the look. I like that the replies are broken into groups. And best of all, it's moving at least twice as fast.

[Balding_Eagle]

I like the dedicated window option for threads, will that be available in future versions?

[LibKill]

It looks OK. If it saves bandwidth that's a good thing.

[Ymani Cricket]

Looks like HTML works :)

[John Robinson]

An oversight. I added that to the beta link.

[KillerWabbit]

Watching usage stats after the change might be interesting from a marketing standpoint -- kind of a neat real time test to see how important packaging and appearance really is to consumers.

[George W. Bush]

Looking good!

[smith288]

it surely is. Trying my newer style sheets to of course make it look all purty

[JudyB1938]

For "old eyes", could you put a space between the title at the top and the next line? No biggie, but it'd make it easier for me to see. I often copy the title and URL to send to people in my address book. Other than that, I really like some of the changes you have made! Thanks.

[backhoe]

OK, that explains my "weird screen" this AM....

Just commenting generally, I certainly like anything that speeds, even marginally, the loading of files on my ancient 486/130mHtz machine.... posts with replies over 80-100 are anything from aggrivating to impossible for me.

[George W. Bush]

I'm testing a new thread layout.

I'm updating stylesheets now. I'll have the dual-use stylesheets for IE 5/6 and NS 6 up soon.

[prognostigaator]

This new software, when fully implemented, should alleviate that problem.

Add: Besides, been up to San Jose so often, I could do it blindfolded.....

[Texas_Jarhead]

Did I miss the alpha version already? j/k

[BADJOE]

The word "beta" becomes part of the title for me and aggravatingly redundant. Maybe an aterisk would be less confusing and less annoying.

[PogySailor]

FWIW, using IE 5.5 I noticed that the window title is not being set. All my open windows show up "Untitled".

But I like the new look and pages should load faster.

[the crow]

This should be very helpful to those of us cursed with dial up modems.

I do find this a bit hard to read, however. Any chance of trying a cleaner font? I use Lucida Sans a lot; a bit bolder without the frills. Thx.