Ok folks, we ARE listening to you. Let me explain some things about this "upgrade."

In the old version of the software that was being used, there were some security exploits that if used, could do some nasty things. It was vital to upgrade the software.

At the same time, the developers of the software had decided to implement features that other similar software had available, and often called "features." I'm not so sure that all "features" are really features, but regardless, we work with what we have.

Much of the bugs, aesthetic issues, and gremlins CAN be dealt with in one way or another. The problem is, what is an aesthetic issue to one person, is aesthetically beautiful to another.

What is a feature to one person, is a pain in the arse to another. So it's all a trade off, and sometimes, even just helping folks figure some things out.

I'm here to do both. To help work out the gremlins and aesthetic issues, and hopefully, provide information to those that are having problems with anything new.

What I would like is that you all use this thread to post your issues, suggestions, and gremlins you are experiencing. And believe me.. we appreciate you posting them, as if we don't know what a problem is, we don't know!

So feel free to flame away at us here, in this thread only though! Let's keep all the issues in one place, and we'll go through your complaints (and yeah.. even compliments if you have any :) ) and try to help get them fixed, or if need be, explain to you why something is there, and how you can make it advantageous to you.

In the end, this is mostly the same format as always. Some things have changed, but there are ways to get back what you are not seeing now. As well, there are terrific improvements too. For example, moderators have a much easier job now of getting rid of stupid posts. Their job now has become much easier.

For aesthetics issues, let me know what you are seeing, and we can work on those things. Somethings might be impossible to change completely, on the other hand, I hope you will recognize some of the other benefits, and that those benefits will be more important to you.

This is a great message board, and I am dedicated to the Rod Building industry (I used to be a rod builder myself, and even have met some of you), and I want this all to work out for the most concerned.

I especially want Tom Kirkman to have less work to do, and his moderators, but we all want you to have an enjoyable experience while here.

So please feel free to use this thread where you post suggestions, gremlins, bugs, or questions you haven't figured out. We WILL respond (either myself, Wendy, or Tom) as soon as we can.

Hopefully everything will be fixed up by spring so I can go do some fly fishing!!! Anyone who wants to offer a new custom rod is more than welcome to offer. In fact, the more offers I get, the more quickly I might respond to your particular complaint.

Ok.. that was a joke :) I hope you smiled :)

But yes, we are listening, and we're working with what we've got here, and we really appreciate being able to help out Tom and all of you as well.

Sometimes, I can hardly believe that just 8 years ago, I was a custom rod builder, and here I am now in a totally different field all together, but at the same time, involved in the rod building industry!

Anyhow, feel free to use this post to flame us, critique some things, tell us what you are experiencing, or ask questions. That way, we'll have one thread where all issues are listed, and we won't have to go searching for threads that might have issues.

Best,

Ian Scott
And feel free to email me personally at ian@pairowoodies.com as well, if you don't want to post here.




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2004 11:33AM by Ian Scott.

WOW!
It has been several days since I visited this board. I thought perhaps I had bookmarked something wrong. I don't build many rods, mainly for family -this site has sure helped me out of a few "jams".
Thanks to all who are involved.
Dick

Hello Ian,
The upgrade seems an improvement although as I type this post to you I don't care for the font that appears in the pane, but as you mentioned aesthetics is quite personal. One thing I would like back is that when I have visited a post, the tilte of the post should change color. All html editors I have used for web site development have such a feature. I hope you can give that back to us.
I suspect that the age of many us may cause us to question change that occurs suddenly. We will get used to it--just give us a few days. Thanks for your input to us.

Mike Blomme

Hi,

I like the background color on the photos post board better than the one on the main board. The white background is harder on the eyes. Just a thought.

Thanks

Can you configure the software so that changing the browser's text size would work? In Internet Explorer View->Text Size->

Btw, great job!

regards,
Jari

Actually the text size can be changed in Mozilla Firefox but not in IE. Yet another reason to get get rid of IE:)

Jari

Well,I am definitely the kind of guy who hates seeing something I really like,and was use to,change(When @#$%& changed it's format for "MY @#$%&",I absolutely hated it,LOL.I got use to it after a while,but I can't say I prefer it to the old look,even with the new features.),but while there are certainly a few things that hopefully will be tweaked to make it a bit easier on the eyes,the new format does have a few nice new features(many of which I'm sure I haven't even discovered yet).

The site seems much faster to navigate and going from thread to thread takes no time at all.I also like being able to enter a quote from someone else's post into mine.

I would definitely like to see the "New" feature added again so I could see which posts I had or hadn't viewed recently,and having an "Edit" feature would be nice(although the old format didn't have one either).

The one thing that I can't honestly say I like is the "look" of it,but I'm sure much of that is simply due to not liking change(I really liked the old look and found it very easy to read),and the brightness of the screen.

I can't totally put my finger on it but it's very hard on the eyes and I find it difficult to read.I think it's a combination of the brightness of the screen(too white) and the sizing of the words(they are thin,yet a tiny bit large in size,making them not stand out as much as I would like."Slightly" smaller,but "slightly" thicker/darker letters would be easier to read from the distance my eyes are from the screen I think.).Of course others may totally disagree.

I'm with Tony here,
seems to work very fast and easy, but a pale yellow - like old paper - background and a litte thicker letters would make reading a lot easier.
Apart from that - changes are welcome if they are for the better ;-)

Thanks
Peter

Like Pete said. That is the only thing I see It's a little bright

Am I going to have to log in every time I go to the board if I want to reply, so that my name appears and I don't have to re-type it?

I did it only once

An interesting thing - I went back to page 444 and read some of the first posts made here - whats interesting is the consistancy in the manner people post here - always very friendly and often with a good sense of humor - I dont remember reading any strongly negative posts - its rather unusual compared to other forums on the web.
So I guess I would like to ad a "Thank You" to Tom for this great place.

Peter

Hello Folks at Rodbuilding. I have (had) quite an extensive library of building tips saved on my favorites page in IE. All links seem to bring me back to your new home page. Have I lost all that data? Thanks for a reply, Erik

As of now (Friday morning, east coast, USA) the new board is looking really good (viewing it via IE). After I registered, I see that the "New" flag is back, what a relief. And the extra features for registered users look good. I have only three negative-type comments: (1) Agree with the posts above that the text font is not the best - a bit too large (for the space taken) and a bit too thin. But not that bad actually, I could live with it. (2) But the font used for composing posts is really bad, sort of an "Old Manual Typewriter Courier" font. Please change if possible. (3) Last (Ian, I emailed this to you, thanks for the reply), the default for the "Posts" column is 1, would make more sense if the default were 0 and the column was headed "Replies."

Most computer browsers can only render certain fonts/typefaces. This is why most websites and pages rely heavily on Geneva, Helvetica, and Times New Roman. These three are installed on nearly every computer in existence. Of those three, only Times is a multi-weight serif typeface. In laymans' terms, the change in size of each letter stroke and the addition of small serifs or "tags" on the end of each letter create an image that the eye can easily read. In fact, with most serif typefaces, you can remove either the top or bottom half of each letter and you can still read the type and make it out perfectly.

I'll look at having Ian change the current sans serif type to a serif style. That will help make the posts easier to read. Also, we plan to add some darker shading or coloring to the topic lists and in the message box backgrounds. We'd already discussed these changes and they're in the works now.

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I appreciate all the hard work going into this project. The feature I noticed right away was that I could go all the way back to page 444 and relive the feeling I had when I found this place. The only problem I had was the blue and black font of the pages numbers of that feature. Often with my aging eyes I really had to stare to see if a page number was blue or black. Perhaps turning red after a page was red would work better. Keep up the good work. What a treasure this site is.

I should mention that nearly all computer browsers will allow you to change the size of the type you see here, and some will allow you to change the typeface as well. If you'll look in your browser's "preferences" settings, you should see something like "display" and inside you'll have some options as to how you want type rendered.

We'll still make things better on this end, but in the meantime most of you do have some control over what you see on most webpages.

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I for one really appreciate and admire that you are constantly working to improve this site just as you are with RodMaker magazine.
I agree with those above about the font and also the background but the one feature that the previous software had that I do miss now is showing which posts are new.
This new software is a bit different but frankly there isn't anything about it that I can not live with.

I too agree that the font and color are not as easy on the eyes or a astheticly pleasing, my opinion. I liked the old background better and having asked a few people who've never used the site what they thought after visiting now, they didn't feel welcome (by the new look). When asked, they said it "felt" as if they had stumbeld upon a private group's site and not one that encouraged visitors and those that are new to the craft and looking for assistance. That being said, I don't know how you turn that into "a look". As for the the rest of us, we will most certainly get used to whatever changes are made permanent. I greatly appreciate what is being done to not only make the site better from a ease of operation stand point, but the customizing to OUR likes and needs! Where else would the visitors/users get to help make the decisions?! Another tribute to this site, it's owner, creators, IT people, and even the ones who use it to share info and help others. If it wasn't such a friendly and helpful site, I doubt it would be as popular as it has become. I'm willing to bet it's still in it's infancy too. Thanks to al of you, Tom, Ian, and all the rest, (sorry I don't know or remember all the names!). And thank you to all of the builers and visitors who have made this feel like my home over the past couple of years!
Ray

If you'll take a moment and register, you can then select to have new posts show up with a "new" flag next to them. I wish you didn't have to register to get that feature, or the one for threaded view, but that's the way this particular software package is written.


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