Questions about the new format ???

1. Is the change (if it happens) to only the discussion forums or will it affect every item on the menu?
2. What is the reason for changing the format? I can see going to new equipment or software, etc. but why does the whole sheebang layout and method of operation have to be changed?
3. Right now, I can scan through a ton of posts super quick. Am I right in thinking that items posted will only available one at a time if this new thing goes ahead?
4. Why does the new format slow down my computer when I'm in there?
5. Do you really think that user input will decide what will happen?
6. I tried to post a response in there and I couldn't get in. Do I have to register my password, etc. in that new format?

I'm just curious about this:

"But perhaps the best function in my opinion is that the replies all appear in sequential order. Depending on which post people reply to here everythign can get all screwed up. I think vb formats are easier to read than this one."

It is so easy for me to look at a page here & see who is replying to whom, and the flow of the messages. It is like a flow chart, or an index - seems so easy to comprehend. It is my most favored feature of this forum. If I don't care to read stuff from one person, it's easy to just ignore a whole branch of messages.

Now, on the vB systems, there is one long list of replies. I never have any idea who is replying to whom in that list. It's just all mashed into a long list of 20 or so replies per page.

How does one make sense of that? I mean that as an honest question - I don't get it. How do I make sense of it? What am I missing?

Change is sometimes scary, and i'm not opposed to it. Just haven't figured out how to work with vB systems, even tho i've been on several for a year or more - the days they let me on anyhow. Try it with a Mac sometime....

--->Paul

Advertising gets money, & internet advertising is going the vBulletin Forum route, so eveyone is turning to it.

Adds a lot of cookies & trackers to your computer which you need to clean out again evey day - as someone else mentioned.

I've found vB forum software to be very tempermental & only works with certain combinations of browsers, OS, and computers. No rhyme or reason to it. Every time the site software is upgraded, there are problems with people just disappearing, as they can't access it again...

All the flashy extra graphics & resizing of boxes on the fly and grinning yellow or blue faces [instead of :) ] takes a lot more download time & CPU time from your computer, and it needs to go visit other sites to suck those images & graphics & ads & tracking data into your computer - some of which may be down or overloaded & so it waits & waits... This slows down how much those of us on dial-up computers can actually get around to reading.

But, Kim will probably have a difficult time finding non-vB ads in the future to pay for this site & I siure don't expect her to foot the bill & none of us donate enough to keep it running (been an option for all of us for a year or more so don't ask 'how can I give' this late in the game....), so it's either conform or die - much like the Borg in Star Trek.

Unfortunately - or fortunately - we farmer types rarely conform & this will be a tough sell for Kim. ;)

She did try changing the software here several years ago, & was met with a lot of opposition (I probably had a big part on that!) and reverted back to this 'old' style so she does listen to us, but this site has been unchanged in a long time, and it is probably getting hard for Kim to compete any more.

Join or die, individualism is no longer rewarded in our society.

So, hats off to Kim for the fun ride on one of the best forum systems around, and I suspect some serious change will need to come one way or another.

My vote is to leave near-perfection the way it is if possible, but this time I won't be fighting it, as I understand the issue from her side as well...

--->Paul

As to messages you can't see. Hum. The only odd thing about this forum software is that new messages appear _on top_ of older messages.

For example, I am the very first person to reply to your message here. But if 2 more people reply to your same message later, their messages will be right below yours - while my message will be dropped down farthest away from yours.

So, if you start reading from the top down, they might refer to something I said, but you haven't seen it yet. Even tho my message is the oldest, it ends up the last one you might be reading.

Would that be the trouble?

--->Paul

You mean to tell me that I've been working under the newest latest greatest format all along? Man, after getting used to this, the original must've been fantastic!?!?! Perhaps I've been a Beta test all along. Hope didn't ruin it for everyone else by navigating through it. Sorry if I did.

I'm with Gerald. (tool talk) Anything that requires cookies, can lead to adware and spyware, (viruses too) whether it comes from a host site or someone they sell your information to. We had over 300 data miners in ours sending out our email address and it's content and slamming us with spam--about 120 mails a day some trying to steal our credit card info with fake websites or our name and address. I don't know what info they can get with a name and address, but there are subscription sites that have your whole financial history and your SS for sale, so i think thats why these scam artists are after your name. One of the latest was stealing e-bay id's to sell things that don't exist, collect the money and run, ruining the real members rep. Currently they keep trying to get my CC # from my ISP with a fake website claiming my service will be shut off if i don't respond. Computer was so full of these spy programs it was extremelly slow as well.

Finally we found programs to get rid of this stuff, learned how to set session cookies and delete them. For the most part we avoid sites that require cookies, but when we do allow them we go in and get rid of them as soon as we close the window. It's tiresome doing it this way as well. I think if this site goes to requiring cookies, i will stop reading it.

All these scam attempts have made me decide not to post pictures of anything i own or disclose my address. Plus i tried to sell some things in the want ads and got several attempts from foreigners with the fake money order scheme, offering to send one for more than the asking price and you refund the dif, then when it bounces 3 weeks later, your out the item and the refund, and your bank account is frozen until you repay the bank. I pay my ISP for service and no one else needs to have my personal info and sell it for profit. Yikes.....is my opinion on cookies, and I'm taking a bigger view of it, than just a new page format.

These three things have ended all our spyware problems.

• MailWasher