STILL not comfortable with new FR format

April 13,2002 | EggsAckley

[EggsAckley]

I like A LOT of things about the new format, I want to establish that fact right away. BUT......With the old format, all I had to do was open FR from my faves, and instantly there were the Latest Posts, plus a concise list of Breaking News, Front Page News, etc., right in plain sight, no searching.....

Now when I open FR, I can't tell where I am, have to scroll down to find breaking news, and it just feels disjointed and sprawling. I'd like to find a way to set up the format so I don't have to seek out the latest news.

[EggsAckley]

I'm not posting this as an invitation to be flamed for my denseness, and I think there are probably others here who feel the same. I just need some advice on how to make this forum easier to navigate.

BTW, I've already done the subscribing thing for the "topics," but I still have to scroll all over to find them. Anybody have any advice?

[EggsAckley]

?

[deport]

I'm not sure what you really want except the old forum back. But I don't suspect that will be.

Go to this link which is the lastest page for the News/Activism Forum. Then set your preferences, etc for which things you want displayed in the right hand column,( example; breaking news; front page; extended news; or whatever). You should then be able to have the latest post plus the items you selected on one page. Of course if you want to view one of the other forums (General, Campaign 2002, etc) then you'll have to click on them and set them up.... Good luck

[mamaduck]

what I can't figure out is this, and excuse my abysmal ignorance, but there used to be "Articles" and "Posts" now there is just "Threads", whatever that means.

I used to check out the articles for latest news, and then posts for what everyone was gossiping about, usually finding the "crazy" thread of the moment which was always good for some fun.

Now I am just confused . . .

[EggsAckley]

Thank you. I went to preferences, and have already got the topics set up on the right of the page, but I still have to scroll a lot to find breaking news. Near the top right corner there is a list of "my topics," but it does not display breaking news either. It looks like this:

My Forums Campaign 2002
General Interest
News/Activism
Religion
VetsCoR

If I could get Breaking News to show in THAT list, it would make things a lot better. Again, thanks.

[EggsAckley]

Yeah, what YOU said....!

(anyone who uses the word "abysmal" can't be THAT ignorant) LOL!

[supercat]

I would like the ability to have all selected classes of articles in a single chronologically-sorted list, possibly with the ability to have several customizable lists each containing certain classes of articles.

Then I could just turn on all the forums I was interested in and have something that worked basically like the old system.

[deport]

Nope there are the following in the upper right corner.....

Threads | Messages

threads = articles
Messages = post/replies.

Click on them and give it a try

[EggsAckley]

Can't help finding it amusing that the three of us who are confused are a "cat," a "duck" and an "egg." Bizarre.

[mcsparkie]

It's all fixed, I tell ya.

At least they put the article text back to the old Times font. It is funny, even though Times is not a "screen" font, it is somehow more readable in this teeny-tiny print they use.

[deport]

If you have "subscribed' to breaking news then breaking news items should appear on the right hand side (column) listing several threads that are currently in the breaking news category. The same thing for Front Page or the others.

But breaking news wont appear as a line item in the group of Forums you just listed. Those are forums only... example this is a partial listing of the right hand side of my Latest post page......

My Forums Campaign 2002 General Interest News/Activism Religion VetsCoR News / Activism Breaking News Fighting has broken out near Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity MUFTI (Shiek Ahmad Kaftaro) OF SYRIA COMMENTS ON THE 'ZIONIST ENEMY' ***SUICIDE BOMBER ALERT IN THE UK*** DISCUSSION THREAD - C-SPAN, LIVE COVERAGE OF DEM CONVENTION IN FL

[Joaquin]

Latest Posts & Latest Articles are still available on the opening page:

Forum/Topics

Latest Posts
Latest Articles

What I would like to see is the ability to choose the order of the sidebar topics.
This would allow me to put Breaking News at the top, for example.

Also, being able to choose how many articles are displayed in those sidebar topics would be nice.
When the new format first rolled out, lots of folks thought the number of articles listed in each sidebar was too small.

Now, it's 24 per sidebar, more than I would like.

There's just no pleasing some people ;-)

[jern]

Where do you find "preferenes" I don't see it anywhere.

[spald]

My FR time is down 90% since the change. I don't get the same mastheads and columns you speak of. I cant even call up post by or to me. Luckily I just came upon this post from "Latest Posts" and then responded.

I'm not completely computer illerate but I'm seeing something different than the rest of you good people. Like the Twilight Zone I guess.

[Spunky]

Hey Eggs, let me see if I can explain it to you. These topics alway show up in the top right hand corner without you doing anything.
My Forums Campaign 2002
General Interest
News/Activism
Religion
VetsCoR
Now if you want to add Breaking News or any other topic to your list go to the top rt. of the screen and click on topics. A window will open with all the different topics listed. If you want Breaking new to be the first in line after the list above scroll down to it first, then click on it. When that window comes up there will be a sentence at the top in a different color. It will say you are not subscribed to this topic. If you want to subscribe click here. Then scroll to the next topic you want in your right hand column and do the same thing for the next topic. Just remember the order you click on them is the order they will come up in your right hand column. Once you do this you will see all the threads in the Breaking news like before. If I remember once you do this you need to refresh your screen

I hope this makes sense to you. It took me a long while to figure it out.

[deport]

Top right corner and click on your screen name... then scroll down to preferences... or select "settings' from any thread page...... Example:

[ Latest Posts | Search | Topics | Post | Members | Self-Search | Settings | Help! ]

But if you want to set the side bar items you need to select "topics" in the upper right corner and do it from there...

[NovemberCharlie]

What I would like to see is the ability to choose the order of the sidebar topics. This would allow me to put Breaking News at the top, for example.

Also, being able to choose how many articles are displayed in those sidebar topics would be nice. When the new format first rolled out, lots of folks thought the number of articles listed in each sidebar was too small.

If you go to the beta version, there is the ability to set both the order of the topics and the maximum number of posts shown in each. It doesn't seem to carry over to the real one, though, so I guess we'll have to wait until it's implemented.

[deport]

I cant even call up post by or to me.

Click on My Comments upper right corner of the latest post page. It will give you your post to or from you.....

[EggsAckley]

If I'm reading you right, it would mean that I'd have to UNSUBSCRIBE all
of the topics FIRST, and then go back in and select them in the order I want.
Thanks. I'll try it now.

[Howlin]

Use this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/browse

as you FR home page.

I have mine set on that and I have Breaking News in the right column. Works fine for me.