Cool New Set-Up!

Good job, guys!

This is going to take some getting used to...

Is this slow response time MY computer or is this still a work in progress?

So what happened anyway?

I am also experiencing slow response time.

oots

Very slow. Our ISP said a few days ago we had a "hardware failure" and they replaced the hardware. They say it is the same, but that's when the trouble started and it's back and forth now. Very frustrating because it's totally obvious the service has degraded.

I thought it was my dial up. :bigsmile:

Still, spell check is much faster than under the old version which had spell check and I really like the flexibility of the new navigation.

I'm an old dog when it comes to this stuff, but I'll learn.

I am cautiously optimistic about the new format. Hopefully, the response time issues will get resolved.

But, I do have one question: what about the blogs? More specifically, Greenetree's Mom? I saw the post about not being sure you can import the old format, but, anything you can do......

BTW - love the new icons. And spell check. And please explain the HTML format thing. And big input.

What the heck is a "whisper" comment?

Jamie/Dave:

Any chance you can bring back the consolidation commission discussion in mostly Maplewood? We were really starting to get a productive dialog going and I would hate to see it lost in cyberspace.

How do whispers work? If I want to send a message privately to someone whose name does not appear in the on-line list in the left hand margin can I do it? If so, what is the method to be employed?

Also: Can the spell check be taught to recognize "Maplewood"? It just appeared as a spelling error when I checked the above text.

Dave/Jaime, was the switch to the new software necessary after the crash you mentioned? I had the feeling that the old system was dying for a long time now - maybe a year? or even more. Right around the time search stopped working, I figured a migration was inevitable eventually.

But it seems that this one was forced on you pretty suddenly. I am envisioning sleepless nights and hair-pulling and panicked calls to ISPs and software vendors at MOL headquarters.

Anyway hang in there - I've been involved a few system migrations before and it is incredibly stressful. People don't like change, for starters. Already it seems that some people are grouchy. (others not grouchy so much as just worried about their stuff.)

Did you consider vbulletin at all? I am in a few communities that use that and I like it a lot. I believe there are some tricky aspects to running it, but it is great from the user's perspective. Just curious - I'm sure that you're pretty settled on this for now.

I thought a couple of days away from MOL would allow me to break my addiction.

Didn't work.

There was a hardware failure and after the replacement everything slowed down. We took the opportunity to shift boards to try to find something that would speed things up and because it would solve other issues related to the search. Our ISP is doing another hardware replacement tonight to see if that's where the problem lies. I especially like the feature where you jump to the post you last read in a thread. :surfing:

me too

Hey! I saw that there is an RSS feed. Cool. I've subscribed in bloglines.

Is this going to give me EVERY post on MOL? That's a lot of posts every day! Or are you planning on setting up feeds for the various areas? Anyway I love it. Thank you!!

Oooops - as Mrs Emily Latella says, "Never mind." :shamed:

I get it now. There is an RSS feed for every topic. OK that's even better!!

Was there spell check on the old version? I thought there wasn't; but saw a note in this thread mention there had been.

Does anyone know how to prevent your name from appearing in the list on the left?

I think when we get use to this the old way will be a forgotten, or at least distant, memory.

Thanks Dave and Jamie for going through the trouble to get us all back online!

What's RSS?

JTA:

The version before the one which just died had spell check. Dave and Jamie stopped using it about five+ years ago. The discuss format never had spell check though users kept asking for it.

in your account settings you can set it so that it won't show your username as being online

cool, my avatar just got busted

ooh, I like this

RSS = Real Simple Syndication.

I've been looking for a non-technical explanation but it's pretty hard to find! I'll give it a try.

If you read a blog or an online newspaper, you can set up something called an "aggregator" that will notify you every time something new appears at that blog or newspaper. (I use bloglines.com as my aggregator.) Basically it just gives you a list of the titles of new content, and sometimes a paragraph or two, with a link to the post or article. So you know that something new is there, and you can go look at it.

In order for this to work, the service (blog, newspaper, message board) needs to provide an RSS "feed." RSS stands for "real simple syndication." If your service has an RSS feed, you can "subscribe" to that service and you'll be alerted when new content appears.

So for MOL, you can apaprently now subscribe to a variety of RSS feeds: One that notifies you EVERY TIME somebody posts on ANY TOPIC (that's nuts). Or you can choose a topic area (soapbox, virtual cafe ...) or you can choose a particular thread. And your aggregator should tell you any time a new post appears. It's like with the old system, you could choose to be e-mailed all posts within a given topic area or thread.

BTW Dave & Jamie: the RSS feed doesn't seem to really be working for MOL right now. I got the first gaggle of posts from this thread, but it's not telling me about new ones. No biggie, I don't care, but I thought you might want to know.

The new format looks really crisp and professional.
It does, however, seem a bit slower, as referenced above.
I love the new emoticons!!!! :heart:

It's really faster. :bigsmile:

It's faster for me, WooHoo!

I am using Internet Explorer. Does that make a difference???

I love that you are brought to the last post you viewed - cool function!
I hate that Monster's avatar is all over the place :wink: