This is awful!

30 March 2002 | Me

[Nogbad]

No, this is awful!
I don't know where anything is anymore!
Where are the sidebars?
I used to go straight to them
to find out
what was going on.

[bradactor]

I don't come on here as much as I use to but I knew something had happened. Oh well it will just take getting use to. Brad

[pepperhead]

So I subscribed to the "Breaking News" sidebar, only to find that the sidebar displays only 5 articles at a time.

The bottom line is that this change has significantly reduced the usefulness of this website.

Thats what I get. 15 or so would be alot better than 5. If they could change it to a higher number or give us the option to change it ourself, it would be a major improvement.

[g'nad]

I want my old FR back!

Concur...

[InvisibleChurch]

i can get used to this after a while but i do miss the searchy little thingy at the top of the page

[ArneFufkin]

Helen, it's amazing that a 19 year old women like yourself has been ot this forum since 1997 ;^) Some people save those old threads, and I note them, but I don't even recall the old interfaces. There's been several changes here trying to economize the utility/bandwidth tradeoff.

Sure, I went through a hellish time of binging, purging and binging then binging again after each and every change. But I would be doing that even if I'd never discovered Free Republic.

[Andy from Chapel Hill]

Please return to the old format.

[denydenydeny]

Agreed. This is garbage.

[foreverfree]

This stinks. I bump.

foreverfree

[AppyPappy]

It was on the beta site for a month. All the complaints were handled as they came up. All those who ignored the beta site will have to wait their turn. You had your chance to give input.

Tell John what is wrong. I'm a programmer. Telling me "I hate it" doesn't get you noticed. People who don't have specific complaints generally are just complainers who eventually just go along with whatever happens. In two years, they will complain about the next format too. But they will go along with that one too.

Be specific. It shows you really care.

[spitz]

I didn’t say change was painless!

[AAABEST]

Yuck. Too many choices, put us all back together in the same play pen! I like freedom and choices but you guys were channeling the posters and the information perfectly.

This thing shows John's talents, he could make a fortune as a web engineer but I'm not sure if this particular design for this particular forum works. The simplicity of the old setup I think had a lot to do with FRs popularity.

All of this customization and compartmentalization will water us down. Everyone is going to have their own little freep world and it's even possible for two posters to never meet each other.

It was more user friendly and effective when everyone was "on the same page".

[wita]

Is FR on the forefront of societal evolution or what? I didn't know we could adjust for time zone. Thanks for the tip. Now I won't have to do clock math to figure out when something was posted relative to me. I am sure there were numerous reasons for a software change, not the least of which was the necessity to stretch the computer skill and ability of those who need to stay abreast of the ever changing world we live in.

Now if I could just figure out why that silly gang bang process wherein the pings to me outweigh by a factor of stupid, my own comments on various threads, I would be satisfied. It used to be that when you were pinged, it was an individual ping, and you knew someone was thinking about you and knew what you were interested in, now its a ping a minute and many are just for the sake of ping, and I shouldn't have to personally turn them off. IMHO.

[AppyPappy]

We are on the same page. Tell John specifically what you don't like.

One new feature: When you post an article, you don't have to use HTML. Just copy and paste.

[July 4th]

This will take some getting used to. Let me make a few suggestions:

Kill the poll on the sidebar. (Is there a way to turn it off?) Then allow the breaking news forum to take up 15 or so slots on the right-hand side.

Also, the flag motif is nice, but what does it do for bandwidth? If you have to serve that image all the time, doesn't it add to the load?

[BlueAngel]

I have WEBTV, too. The article and comments page jerks as I scroll down and it drives me crazy!

I wonder if it does this for all WebTv. users and if its permanent?

[snippy_about_it]

I feel much better knowing I am not alone. I did practice on the Beta last week but now that I have no choice I feel lost and I'm getty dizzy in here.

I'm just sure I am missing something newsworthy. Oh well, practice, practice, practice!

[SunnyUsa]

I don't like it either, and was there a warning?

I clicked on my well worn, old familiar FR url and thought I was on some other site by mistake.

I hate to say but it almost has an amateurish look to it, trying to do too much - it doesn't have that serious feel to it that has made this site everyone's favorite sanctuary in this nutty world.

There are alot of sites I wish would change and improve but FR was never one of them.

I feel like it's unfair to all those who support the site to constantly toy & change the site without any input from all the very loyal users.

I really don't like the main page...and the lack of a sidebar with a "no control" now on what's breaking news etc??? I don't understand that....Breaking NEWS was the place I'd go to right away during any major event, etc.

[ArneFufkin]

I'm afraid. Hold me!

[joathome]

Feel like I got a new FR to go with my new computer and new Windows. Whoa. I think this ranks as a major life change.

Actually, it looks pretty cool. I think I'll take a look around.

[Donna Lee Nardo]

With its ease of use and effectiveness, the original FR format far surpassed this new-fangled one. The new format does not seem to add anything to the FR experience; rather, it takes much away. This judgement is not based on the normal human compulsion to be uncomfortable with "change." But "change" for the sake of "change" is simply unnecessaary. Why fix something that is not broken? It was a cinch -- before the changes -- to scan the posts and see what was what. Now, the new format will create longer scanning times and even then, it seems we will miss many meritorious posts; and most of us do not have the extra time. As it was, we enjoyed FR and spent a significant amount of time on it because the posts were interesting -- but they were also better organized before you made the changes! No breaking news side bar? That is nuts. That alone simplified the scanning process. I don't mind spending 2 hours on FR to read the posts that I want to -- but to spend 2 hours scanning to see what I "may want to read" is fruitless. What was the purpose and intent of the change? If it was to keep FR popular and improve it, I do not believe the goal was met.