Posted on 03/30/2002 7:05:39 AM PST by Stop Legal Plunder
Love Free Republic but have doubts about the latest site design? Then use this thread to post specific and constructive suggestions about how to fix shortcomings in the new design.
2. Turn off the poll--it takes up room that should be devoted to breaking news, etc., etc.
3. Have user ability to order the sidebar with catagories preferred going first.
4. Page width is eaten up by a left and a right sidebar--not enough room for the post and the one paragraph header without constant scrolling (scrolling? see No. 1 above.)
Ye Gods, NO! Then we will end up with tons of animated graphics, loud/obnoxious entry music, and less text than we have even with the "new, improved look and feel". "Professional web designers" LOOOVVEEEE all that stuff. FORGET ABOUT "STYLE" and stick to SUBSTANCE.
The bad news is that it doesn't work for me. When I set the "thread pagination" at 250, the number of titles that show up is also 250 (even though I set the number of titles to be 50, or 20). When I change the thread pagination to 50, the number of titles dutifully follows.
It might be a browser thing -- I use lynx.
#1. The self search section takes too long versus what we had yesterday. What we had yesterday enabled you to quickly scan (I think 50 replies) to determine which to read now, later or not to read.
You get to know the people who can be answered quickly and with a simple reply, so you could go down the page and handle those. Then you know the people who do a lot of research and often have long replies with great data, if you don't have time to read them at that point, you just leave them alone for later. Then,there are the PIA/Clymer repsonders, just seeing their names is all that you need and enough time wasted.
The current system requires too much reading versus scanning for time management in self search. I prefer the other format/system.
#2. My other complaint is the slowness of loading a new thread and even some replies.
I have a new 1.8 Pentium 4 with 512 mbs of memory, and other gadgets to speed up screen response. I have a line connection at 50 bps with no dsl nor cable in the area.
This new computer was loading new thread pages about as fast as I clicked on to the new thread with the format/system up to today. Pictures were all most instantly there, including the threads with a lot of pictures. Now I feel like I have my old pentium 2 with 32 mbs of memory and my slow 4 gb hard disk.
Now I feel like I'm trying to run in molasses with super glue mixed in. My new computer is really taking a long time to load new threads or in self search to go to a page # of a thread to reply.
Otherwise, I will adapt and like the new system.
In summary, please give us the option on self search to use the page format that we had this morning. Then is there some to speed up the process or hints for we who only have land line access in and out of our homes/offices?
Thanks to John and Jim for trying to continually improve FR!
I just have all that wasted space under the left-hand sidebar, where I'd like to have my subscribed forums.
There's room there for two forums (all I need)- four if we could select five articles to be shown.
A couple of posters from Texas don't seem to have it.
But I see it in So Cal!
Then on the left side you will see My Comments -- My Mail etc. Click on My Preferences .
Then the resulting screen will three options under Windows (will need to scroll down a bit) .Try and see what works for you!
May vary based on the specifics of your browser!
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