New 'Beta' Free Republic Software

3/20/02 | Me

[NovemberCharlie]

A thread to comment on the new Free Republic software, since I seem to be the first to do so.

[AppyPappy]

To add a topic to the sidebar, select a topic from the Topics page. The lefthand column will provide a link "Click here to subscribe."

On the page where I see this message, I do not see a link to the Topics page. It makes the message confusing.

I'm writing Special Ed documentation for users now. Someone told me it looked like Dr Seuss wrote it.,

[NittanyLion]

Is anyone else's self search a garbled mess? It looks like the function is missing a line break after each entry.

[Equalizer]

We are a spoiled bunch.

How many of us would like to have a messy, unorganized, hard to wade through site,

such as the DU's site has?

Thanks Jim.

[philman_36]

A thread to comment on the new Free Republic software, since I seem to be the first to do so.
You may be the first, but you won't be the last.

A preliminary inspection on my part gentlemen shows me some very nice additions in the beta. I like being able to choose my own categories in the right column.
As usual, ya'll have excelled and exceed expectations again and have vastly improved the forum again, IMO. Thank you again for an excellent website and all of the love and labor ya'll put into it.
I'm looking forward to looking at more of the new features and will do so as time permits me.
May G_d grant me the privelege of meeting you gentlemen some day, and my heartfelt thanks to you and your family.

[John Robinson]

Jim's first complaint was the purple,lavendar color. It's actually not purple though, more of a gray-blue. Technically speaking, its RGB model has an equal amount of red and green component and a bit more blue component. I *BELIEVE* it would technically be purple only if it had more red than green. But I am certainly no color-theory expert.

Anyway. We couldn't find a more suitable color that did not blast our eyes. The old blue is too bright. We'll gladly review alternatives -- just save the web page as HTML and replace the "lavendar" (HTML color #777799) with something better, then mail your new page to john@robinson-defehr.com

[John Robinson]

Per thread hit counters will come back-- it was a limitation of the technology we required to run the old forum after it grew to a certain size.

E-mail addys are coming back, with a vengeance.

[John Robinson]

No multi-mail yet, but it will come with the next overhaul of Freepmail. I'd also like to thread freepmail discussions, if not on one page then at least a "In Reply To" link.

[John Robinson]

Okay, thanks, I'll clear up the confusion best I can.

[MozartLover]

I like the colors. Easy on the eyes.

However I agree with the concerns about the "My Comments" page..........a space in between each comment would be wonderful..........it's a little hard to read...especially for those of us in the "bifocal years.":)

[general_re]

Agree with the concerns about the "My Comments" page in the beta forum. It seems cluttered to me too, and I haven't even reached the bifocal stage yet ;)

Anyway, hats off for the great work so far.

[Wrigley]

I don't like the layout for the "self-search" or as its called, "my comments." It's difficult to tell who is posting and replying.

Other than that, its not bad.

[Willie Green]

'Beta' gets a "thumbs-up" from Willie Green.
(making allowances for refinements.)

May I suggest adding Netscape 4.7 to the "best viewed withs"?
There are some of us die-hards who refuse to use either MicroSquish's browser or AOL / Time Warner's cruddy "upgrade" of Netscape.

[John Robinson]

I had to specifically rule out (at least) Netscape 4.78 because it trashes the page (if ever so slightly.) I really hate Netscape! It's bugware and a thorn in my side, but a lot of people still use it.

Not to say I am any great proponent of Microsoft bugware, but it's actually better than many of its competitors(*). But it (Windows) still sucks as a server OS, and it certainly pales in comparison to the swiss army knife that is Unix.

Opera is good, it's the only browser I ever bought. I wish more people would use it.

* It's probably only better than its competitors because Microsoft absolutely squashes with its kingly warchest anything in its way. The big bullies!

[Harp]

That's a very nice blue on blue color scheme, but the page generally is awkwardly put together.

You've got two clumps of navigation points going and only the one on the upper right looks very good. I'm a fan of simple links, so more power to you for resisting some of the slow/nasty java menu solutions that can be found in lots of places these days.

The entire left hand column is a disaster and the section just above where posts are listed is a mess with the banner there shoved to the left.

The flag background image does not look very good, IMO, and the left-hand column should be lost if at all possible.

Try not to steal more than an inch or so of the top. Folks want to see, generally, more posts on their screen at one time, not less.

< / crabby>

You've put together a very fast, killer of an engine for this forum (slow forums suck!) and, despite what I just crabbed about, you're on the right track with design too.

You might want to ask a few volunteers to see if they can pull together some mockup pages in the spirit of the FreeRepublic design style, which is: lean, restrained rather than flashy, uses the whole page, keeps the number of tables and graphics low so it stays speedy, and places a very high emphasis on getting information to its users.

[antaresequity]

and that we can no longer alter our posts from the preview page

I strongly second this. There are times when one may want to cut and paste off the preview as well as it just adds mouse travel time...at the very least put a second OK button at the top of the preview window

[Willie Green]

Opera is good, it's the only browser I ever bought. I wish more people would use it.

Well, I have Opera 5 downloaded and on my machine.
But I gotta admit, I did that so long ago that I forgot why I didn't like it and don't use it.
Maybe I'll fire it up and see what happens.

Thanks.

[Bush2000]

I'm a fan of simple links, so more power to you for resisting some of the slow/nasty java menu solutions that can be found in lots of places these days...

Harr, meet Harp. Harp, meet Harr. Harr doesn't think that Java is slow or bloated. Please take him to the woodshed.

[Spunky]

We couldn't find a more suitable color that did not blast our eyes.

But something that blasts our eyes
IS AN EYE CATCHER
;-)

test

[4CJ]

I'll add Opera - the fastest browser around. I can't stand Netscrape, although I love it far more that MS I eek. Other than that the forum beta is fine.