SNOWEST FORUMS: The official "What's gone wrong with this site" thread

[Alaskan_awd]

It's been like this ever since I have been here but could you please enable the Quick Reply box at the bottom of the screen so I can just type in it and hit reply. It's not exactly a Quick Reply box the way it is now.

 

[Scott]

When you quote a post that has a quote in it...it won't include the first quote. Such as, if you quote my post here...it won't quote Alaskan's post inside of it. At least I don't know how to do that.

Multiquote...what's that button for? How does that one work?

It's been like this ever since I have been here but could you please enable the Quick Reply box at the bottom of the screen so I can just type in it and hit reply. It's not exactly a Quick Reply box the way it is now.

Does it work this way for you--->the quick reply button works only when you click the button next to the "thanks" button.....the page doesn't reload or anything. It just enables the quick reply.

 

[Alaskan_awd]

Multiquote...what's that button for? How does that one work?

If you go through and start clicking on the multiquote + buttons, then when you get to the last post you want to quote, click the regular quote button or hit Reply, it will add all those posts as quotes into your reply.

Does it work this way for you--->the quick reply button works only when you click the button next to the "thanks" button.....the page doesn't reload or anything. It just enables the quick reply.

Thanks, never hit that button before, I always wondered what button it was referring too to enable it. It would still be quicker if it was just enabled by default though.

 

[jsledder]

The speed thing........ yeah it's been addressed, but you say useage is up... maybe compared to 6 weeks ago but not 40 weeks ago. I've been using IE since the beginning of time and it's never been this slow regardless of the time of year or speed of the internet (dialup..). The top of the page loads almost instantly, then the rest of it slowly comes up. I attribute that to the "change".

What is the meaning of the bars??? Does anyone actually reference those for anything? I can remember looking at the colored boxes and thinking wow, that person spent a lot of time in the "max" thread or wow, that person must not like Obama... but these new things??? Just don't get it.

Too many subforums...

Swap meet.... we need a feedback section and required information on all for sale items. I saw a sled I was interested tonight, no joke, and when there was no location, phone number or pics, I moved on.

Quoting with pics, can you make it so that when someone quotes a person that has a 1/2 page of pics, the pics aren't included?

Last but not least.... PLEASE......... BRING LOTS OF SNOW THIS YEAR!!! The rest can be ignored if you can just work on this one that fine with me.

Thanks so much for allowing us to use this forum for all these years at such a good price and thanks for stepping up and asking US what we would like to see done or what WE think the problems are. Many places could care less what "the people" think.


One more thing... how 'bout some more emoticons???

 

[smokindave]

Dear Brian And Christopher,
I am one of the happy people that are on this site and find few problems at all other than speed and when my daughter gets home I will ask her about this firefox and wheather she will install it for me.

I like how the forums are structured with the sub forums so a rider on an older or newer machine doesn't have to read about something that he does not own.If you want you also have the choice to use the browse feature and see all on their favorite brand.

Also I am real happy to see the old rep system go.There is a group of around fifty or so that are basicly the (rep posse.)If a person makes a post or thread that the posse do not agree with they get red repped to some as high or shall I saw low as -22,000,000 points in red rep which was ridiculous in my opinion.I know a guy while after haveing maybe one or two many beers put up a post about the two stroke turbo guys to stop the banter on the internet and take it to the hill then post their findings.All the argueing in the world will never win a race but taking it to the hill and then posting the results, now there is something to post.He went from green to red at the snap of a finger.
All for a bunch of egos calling each other down on a public forum and when told to take it to the hills were it counts they all from both sides( posse ) turned it in to a red rep fest.

At least new members and old members along with sponsors can now post with no fear from the red rep posse.Just need to clean up profanity and words that are to resembal profanity.

This new system is far superior over the last system ond all systems before it.
A little bit more cleaning up as we are still a little rough around the edges will make this the most informitive family based type snowmobile forum out there.

I also like the rainbow experiance bar because without them you never really know wheather or not the advice and or product you are purchasing are coming from someone reputable.

And the call box I am not interest in and don't care where it is top or the bottom but the few times I have had it activated I could not believe what I was reading.**** doesn't belong on a family oriented snow mobile forum,and me being a truck drive have heard many thing but after a couple of glances on a couple of different occasions was disgusted.

So to sum this up I think that who ever is in charge of these changes is doing a fabulous job in my book and can hardly wait to be able to sit at the computer with my grand children and show them what grandpa loves to do and can hardly wait for my new riding partners to age a little more so they can enjoy the greatest winter past time there is and the greatest forum.

Well thats it for my little rant and I am sure there are many that feel the same way.And as for the posse I hear there are still sites that run like that I just don't know or want to know who they are.

A big Thanks to those that work hard to make Snowest the best.




Cheers,
Dave

 

[AK-Rider]

I've mentioned most of these things before... some of them are technical in nature, and some are content related.

When I log in and go to a particular forum, every thread with a new post since my previous login is shown (correctly), but every thread made BEFORE my previous login shows "no new posts". Shouldn't the older threads show as unread (with new posts) if I haven't ever read it? That's how it works on other forums.

Also, when using the "Browse All" feature, there is no indication that I have posted in a thread. But, if I go the the actual sub-forum that contains the thread I posted in, it does show that I've posted. Since I prefer to use the Browse All feature, it's very frustrating when trying to keep up with threads I've posted in.

Also, if you insist on having so many sub-forums, could you please show what forum a thread is contained in when using the Browse All feature. Since people are now posting in "catagories", I've noticed that the title descriptions have become more vague, probably because the posters think that everybody looking at their thread knows what kind of sled they're talking about just based on which forum it's posted in. And, I've also noticed several multi-sub-forum posts with the same title, which can be frustrating. Those posts would be easier to follow if I could tell which sub-forum they are posted in.

Please tell me you're working on the compatibility problems with IE (not just the speed issue, but things like user profiles not having full functionality). I know you (and a lot of other people) think Firefox is better. But, there are those of us that don't have a choice regarding which browser we use in certain places... like work. I can get online for personal use at work during breaks, but I can't load "non-authorized" software (including a different browser) on my computer at work. Besides, even though I have FF and Chrome loaded on both my XP machine and my WIN7 machine at home, I am apparently one of the few that thinks IE8 is actually a pretty good browser.

I think you need a legit FAQ section. And the very first thing I recommend putting in it is a comprehensive tutorial on how to do more than just a basic search. After that, you could put things like... descriptions of all the features available on the forum and how to use them - interpret them - disable/enable them - etc... You could have topics like "posting pictures", "experience points", "user profile", "shout box", "multi-quoting", "customizing how you view the forum", "the garage", "calendar", etc., etc., etc.. And there should be a direct link to the FAQ on the top of every page. Don't bury it in a drop down menu.

You should also think about making a sled brand FAQ that's shown in the sled brand sub-forums. In this FAQ there could be a model description/manufacturer timeline, common abbreviations, tech articles or links to popular/helpful tech threads.

And, some may disagree, but I still think it would be a good thing to allow users to provide feedback regarding the worth of another user's posts. As it stands now, the "experience points" system may lead some casual readers to mistakenly think that a user knows what he is talking about based on some ranking system affected by how many pictures he posted, or how long he's been here. I know the rep system was in no way perfect, but at least the big red bar by a members' name was a good indication that you might take what they said with a grain of salt.

Well, that's all I have time to type up at the moment... I'm sure I'll think of more. Thanks for asking.

 

[Steve D]

The speed thing........ yeah it's been addressed, but you say useage is up... maybe compared to 6 weeks ago but not 40 weeks ago. I've been using IE since the beginning of time and it's never been this slow regardless of the time of year or speed of the internet (dialup..). The top of the page loads almost instantly, then the rest of it slowly comes up. I attribute that to the "change".

Let go of the IE! There better ways to browse the web. Don't care for firefox? Try Chrome or Opera. These other browsers are free and they perform better, are more secure, etc.

Here are links to the better browsers:
Opera
Chrome
Firefox
Safari

On a side note, you say you're on dialup? Try Opera. I started to use it when I was on dialup. Loads pages a lot faster. It has options so you can make a page load the text only too (so those hundred huge pictures one guy posted don't get in the way of reading the rest of the thread...)

 

[Brian]

Wow... all great feedback. I'll try to address each point tomorrow and I'll get to work!

Keep it coming.

 

[Nubulin]

I also am pretty supportive of the technical changes so far.

The "thanks" system is really useful, you can see pretty quick who is a contributer and who is not.

I would like to see the "quick reply" just work without having to select a post.

The search is terrible on here. We need an improvement. Specifically a seach that looks for all words, not any words.

User ignor features. This is about the only thing I miss from fusetalk.

I appreciate the ability to disable the stuff I don;t like. Like the experiance system and chat. Please keep doing this with other additions.

So if you are the code monkey, what is Christopher's job? So far it seems like "whipping boy" is the most accurate.

 

[KSH]

Please tell me you're working on the compatibility problems with IE (not just the speed issue, but things like user profiles not having full functionality). I know you (and a lot of other people) think Firefox is better. But, there are those of us that don't have a choice regarding which browser we use in certain places... like work. I can get online for personal use at work during breaks, but I can't load "non-authorized" software (including a different browser) on my computer at work. Besides, even though I have FF and Chrome loaded on both my XP machine and my WIN7 machine at home, I am apparently one of the few that thinks IE8 is actually a pretty good browser.

Brian, please remember that some of your members have a hard enough time turning on the computer and/or are on dial-up. So installing a different browser is not a option for them, so all the IMPROVEMENTS that have been made are of no use for them. The issue with with IE needs to be fixed.

I have changed to FireFox days ago and enjoy it, but I was on the night that we hit the 4400 and at times FireFox is slower than it was that night.

Also, last night it would kick me back to the main menu when I was trying to read a thread without touching a thing.



KSH

 

[Burndown1]

Trash the shout box, Or have a certain link for it. Anoying. The scroling thing, The damn shout box makes me mad then I tell someone off. The bars under our name, this is stupid. Get rid of them or go back to our old system. Anyone that likes change, Wait for our new health care system.

 

[NorthMNSledder]

Brian and Christopher,

For the most part I’m happy with the changes and subsections but I do have a couple of things I would like to ask about;

1. Can the thanks listings in each post be turned off or hidden? Or at least have the individual user have the control to do so? It just adds to the amount of things that have to be scrolled through and it’s not something that all of us use.

2. How much are these new servers that you are talking about? Are they a few thousand or a million (I’m not in IT so I really have no idea)? But if they are a few thousand how about a Snowest Fundraiser because if we have 10,000+ active members and you need to raise a few grand to make this place run a lot quicker I’m sure a lot of people would step up and donate a few bucks to spend up the process (pardon my pun).

I’m sure I will think of a few other things but at this point these are the major things. But like almost every other post here speed is the most important thing. I know if I come on Snowest and it’s slow I don’t wait for things to load I just move on to Dootalk, High Lifter or the Golfwrx forums. But with my limited IT knowledge I do know that the more “processes” that you have running the slower things are going to work.

But Brian I have a direct question for you………...If you were to turn off the experience system, the shout Box and the thanks system until new servers are installed would the system not run faster just because there is less things running in the background? This may be a viable option in the short term. I’m sure that having all these options running are wanted by Snowest but if the server is running slower because of them (which it has to be) then maybe turn them off for the short term. Because after all they are options and not required for the Snowest forums to operate.

Thanks for listening and good luck guys!

 

[Super B]

There are only a few issues that I feel that need to be addressed:

Shout Box - Move to the bottom of the page.

Speed - Seems like everytime there is a forum change ( Nov 2007 etc) the speed slows way down for a long period of time.

Sub Forums - They are great to keep everything organized, but we have reached a point where it is an overkill.

 

[girlpowder]

The speed thing


One more thing... how 'bout some more emoticons???

x2

 

[Wish]

Overall I am happy with the changes...I completely understand the little bugs here and there, it happens when you are programing....and doesn't take much to create an "issue". So thanks guys for your hard work, I know how time consuming and challenging it can be!

To offer my 02 cents:

I don't have a speed issue...but I do use Firefox, it's just all around more reliable, faster and user friendly. Those that can, should give it a shot!

Shout box was bothersome to me, I don't care to use it...but easy fix, I just went in and disabled it..haven't seen it for a couple weeks now!

Subforums, I feel like some sections are broke down too much....I don't mind reading on all the Doo topics in one section...rather than having each sled broke down. Because a good topic might come up in one section that could pertain to more than one sled...and I feel like I'm going to miss out..so if I could change one thing it would probably be less sub sections??

And x3 on more smileys!


Other than that, keep up the good work guys! And thank you for all the work you put into it

 

[HUNDO]

I am not totally a fan of all the new sub forums....but some sub forums ARE great. I think, for example the brand forums can grouped a little differenlty. Take Polaris for example. 8 subforums is a little much. The current chassis is the IQ. Keep the other stuff separate somehow though. The other subforums could be the out of date chassis such as Indy, GenII and Edge. Same could be said for any other brand as well. You could go current mtn chassis (IQ), Race (IQR), and the nursing home stuff (Edge, GenII and Indy). The 900 doesn't need it's own sub. The turbos? Well maybe they do need a sub. The nursing home stuff definately can have a couple of chassis lumped in there.

I disagree completely with this one...if there is a Poo sled that needs it's own subforum, the 900 is it.


I have no issue with the new system...good job guys

 

[BIGGDAWG]

I disagree completely with this one...if there is a Poo sled that needs it's own subforum, the 900 is it.


I have no issue with the new system...good job guys

yes the 900 needs it's own forum don't change that. it took us too long to get it the way it is.

thanks for the good work i too like the changes

 

[SnowBigDeal]

The speed thing
What is the meaning of the bars???
Too many subforums...

I would have to agree with those 3 things.

BTW, can't you put my lifetime post count back in there?

I agree. It was very frustrating to see my post count drop. Especially since I don't post all that much, it took me too long to get to where I was at and to have it all disappear sucked.

 

[Scott]

I like the big blue line between each person's post.


BTW, no worries 900 RMK 166. If someone doesn't wanna go to it, they don't have to click on it, right?

 

[tudizzle]

Dear Brian And Christopher,


Also I am real happy to see the old rep system go.There is a group of around fifty or so that are basicly the (rep posse.)If a person makes a post or thread that the posse do not agree with they get red repped to some as high or shall I saw low as -22,000,000 points in red rep which was ridiculous in my opinion.I know a guy while after haveing maybe one or two many beers put up a post about the two stroke turbo guys to stop the banter on the internet and take it to the hill then post their findings.All the argueing in the world will never win a race but taking it to the hill and then posting the results, now there is something to post.He went from green to red at the snap of a finger.
All for a bunch of egos calling each other down on a public forum and when told to take it to the hills were it counts they all from both sides( posse ) turned it in to a red rep fest.



Cheers,
Dave

Do you not see the irony that now you are one of the few people that can give negative rep? You are officially a member of the rep posse with a red name and everything.



I couldn't care less about the changes but it seems that they have slowed down the site drastically. Turning off a few of the new bells and whistles for a day or two might be interesting to see what would happen to the site speed.