New 'Beta' Free Republic Software

3/20/02 | Me

[Sandy]

A few comments...

First, the font. You have the link color fixed to be a glaring blue. I think you should get rid of that so that we can have our links be whichever colors we're each accustomed to.

Also, in the "Threads Only" view, the font is too small.

Regarding the overall format, the main reading area is much too narrow. You have 40% of the screen taken up by the left and right columns. I think the left hand column needs to go. I think a drop down menu for the various forums would be better, and the rest of that stuff on the left could go somewhere at the top of the page.

I assume you're going to fix the wide screen thingy so that we won't have to scroll left-to-right in order to see everything. Correct?

Finally, about that black border... Any chance of getting rid of it?

/whine

[John Robinson]

What browser + version are you using?

[Brownie74]

Just one look,
Thats all it took, yeah;
Just one look,
Thats all it took.

No self search, destinations, etc.

Just one look,
Thats all it took.

[Sandy]

I use Netscape 4.76, IE 6.0, and Opera 6.01. The wide-screen problem only occurs in Netscape. Also, regarding Opera, how come there's no paragraph break or some sort of extra space between comments on the Latest Posts page like there is when I use Netscape or IE (note, that's not anything new, it's always been that way)?

[Sandy]

Oops, correction... the wide screen problem happens in all 3 of the browsers, but only on the self-search page.

[Sandy]

On second thought, the blue font's not so bad. And I really like that brownish font that you're using for the visited links. That's cool.

[smith288]

People have complained about the viewability of the "view comments, View comments/posts". What if you put them in a drop down? Or would that make the column too wide?

[NittanyLion]

Only 49 votes in the "Is Beta Ready" poll? Isn't anyone using the new version? They don't know what they're missing.

[blackbart1]

This is a great format and I like the patriotic theme as well. Thanks John.

[glorygirl]

Hope it is not too late to post reviews of the new software. Thanks for the changes you have already instituted.But as long as you are making changes, why not include a search function to search text of all postings/articles? This way we can learn more about a particular person or topic if we want to, without looking all over the place. Also, the current "search for member" option only allows users to search for actual postings by the member, rather than for postings addressed to the member. Many of us don't receive bumps for all the articles we'd like to see, but we know certain other members who do. Is there a way to address this?

[Silly]

I haven't had a lot of time to review the new software (haven't been on FR much lately), but here is ONE thing that is a huge pet peeve:

Every time I post a message, the "New Posts To You" alert is highlighted. There's no way to know whether it is because someone is responding to me, unless I go back and re-read the message I posted to clear the "alert".

This is DRIVING ME UP THE WALL! Can't you program the "New Posts to You" alert to be highlighted ONLY when someone responds to a post, and to ignore my own messages? PLEASE?

[John Robinson]

Yes, I know, it is annoying. At first the new software did not do that, but I found the method I used to prevent that from showing caused a horrible slow-down, so I had to change it in a hurry. Fixing this problem is a priority item on my list of things to do.

[nutmeg]

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