Hey, sorry to be a wet blanket, but I think the new forum looks awful. The template looks like last years default CMS template and the screen is filled with so much claptrap that the actual threads consume less than 50% of the page.

You can only see a few posts per page, and because people don't want to keep going from page to page, once a post falls back a page or two, it's essentially gone.

Go out and get a decent "Theme" or "Style" or whatever, the current theme is really primative.

While you're at it, how about some modern features like "karma" (voting for posts / posters) and AVATARS! Heavens to mergatroid! All forums these days have avatars!

Hey, I'm not knocking ya, this is an improvement over the last forum software, but this is nowhere even near what is currently being done on the average forum.

I'm from California so I know what I'm talking about, you can do a lot better.

Whoop! Whoop!

Well, you beat me to it, I was going to post something similar to Romex's post. The sreeen is so crowded with stuff, that it takes a lot away from the actual content (the posts). Also, you can only see about 12 posts on the home page, so they disapear into oblivion after a day. There should be a way to convert this into a single line for each post, instead of the 2 plus cell border that's there now. I know the old software had its bugs, but it looked the best out of all the software I have seen used in forums. I sthere a way to clean up and simplify the new forum software.

Ending my rant, I don't want to complain too much about something that's free and useful! I still love the forum!

Mike

Rubbish, that is what navigating a site is all about.


Primitive in what way, it's only my opinion but I kinda like the new look.


That whole karma thing on BBoards is for children and is often open to abuse.

Abuse Karma? LOL, ya gotta be kidding. Look, you're from New Zealand, you guys still have a Queen for pete's sake, before you declare this forum to be state-of-the-art, take a look around at other forums, the ECN forum display is sub par.

I'm just 63 IQ points away from being a genius, trust me Trumpy, I'm only trying to help.

Hey, since I'm whining and complaining, this forum is in serious need of an "off topic" section. For fun banter and hijinks.

Don't know if its just me so has anybody else noticed that the activity here has dropped off considerably since this new format was introduced?

-Hal

There's plenty of other sites for all that other nonsense the OP mentioned. AVATARS are not going to answer my questions about transformer overprotection devices or temperature ratings of XHHW conductors. ECN is the best electrical contractor information page and thats whats most important, IMO, of course.

I agree with Romex Racer. What was the reason for the change? I liked the forum the way it was. I hate change just for change sake.

Those questions are answered in the NEC, but a forum is not a simple question and answer submission tool. A forum is as much a social environment as it is a technical environment. Camaraderie should not be discouraged. This forum is an eyesore and lacks features that users like.

What's the purpose of this forum? It's purpose is to sell advertising. It does that by attracting and retaining a member base.

Obviously the owner of this site was interested in upgrading things around here, I'm sure he's interested in receiving feedback.

Well Thanks guys your input is great lets give Bill a chance with your Ideas and you can turn off the left column for less stuff on the screen its under preferences. We have discussed A off topic forum in the past and for now The webmaster would prefer just electrical related subjects I am sure thats not written in stone yet though

Again thanks for the input and yeah i am on many forums and lots have seem to updated and i have noticed overall all the forums have slowed a bit.

Don't you just hate it when you do a lot of work and along comes somebody who hasn't done any work and they whine and cry like a little girl about how they don't like the job you did?

Dave

The reason for the change was because the old software was no longer supported by it's vendors.
Imagine the hueing and crying if this site had have died because of a fault in the software that could not be fixed, because of lack of support?.

Insults removed by Webmaster

Mike,

Please check out the preferences you can set under 'My Stuff'

Bill

Mike,
Did you also know that if you use Firefox as a web browser, you can hold down the Ctrl key plus + on your keyboard and really stretch things out.(I'd personally only hit it twice mate)
Ctrl plus - (minus) will reduce the size of the text.
Just a thought.
And if you haven't ever got Fire-fox, go here for it.
Mozilla Stuff

I'm pretty conservative when it comes to this sort of software, and I have to admit that it's taken a while to get used to it, but please do check out the options under "My preferences," because many of the issues mentioned above can be addressed.

I prefer a less-cluttered look, so I have the left-hand column turned off (also beneficial as I'm still using an 800-wide display).

The number of posts per page and the number of topics per page for each forum area can also be customized.

OK, I apologize, after setting my preferences, things are quite a bit better. I still have my complaints, which I'll keep quiet about, but overall, this is a great forum.
Mike

So what is it that I need to change to see more than one line of a poster's response and not have to scroll through it? I feel like I'm using one of those old speed reading machines.
Joe

Mike,

Truth be known there are things I don't like about it too, but I have hopes I can change some of them as time goes by.

Regarding the need to upgrade - the old software was no longer supported and lacked some features that would help make the Forum better. One was the ability to make important threads or announcements 'sticky' (remain at the top) so that all the Members would get to see it.

Another was the ability for the Members to PM (private message) each other which means their email addresses would no longer be accessible by spambots - and as a bonus - with this BB PMs can be sent and shared among multiple users.

This particular software was decided upon because it came from the same company as the old version and looked the most promising for a seamless upgrade. Most may not realize it, but the addresses of all the old threads have changed. This software had some redirect scripts built in, and with a little tweaking we managed to keep all past thread available and active without having to archive anything or have any dead links.

I'm resistant to change too and put off the upgrade for a long time, but overall I feel it was the best move we could have made.

Bill

Joe,

Can you elaborate a bit more on this?

What Browser are you using? Does it look the same using a different Browser?

Bill

One thing I have done is to bump up the number of posts per page and the number of topics per page. With a broadband connection and a scroll mouse it makes reading easier.

Bill,
I use Netscape 7.02 normally. Your quote of my post opened up with 2 lines and a scroll bar that I had to use to see "Joe" on the 3rd line. Greg's post afterwards had a scroll bar also but was entirely contained with one line to spare. Other posts show up as just one line with no scoll bar. I have to highlight and scroll through them, often skipping past the line I'm trying to stop on.

So I opened up the IE 6.0.xx concurrently. The same posts are completely viewable without scrolling. So mayhaps i should always open up ECN with IE instead of Netscape.
Thanks for the help!
Joe

Joe,
If you don't like IE, you could try Firefox. The forum works fine with that browser.
Don