We’ve heard the negative side of why people don’t like the new forum, so what Do you like about it?
I really like having a hot list. In fact, I love this feature.
This probably isn’t the forum to be asking that question on.
LOL
I really like the new forum. I’m not one of those new adapter types, either. Old is good, change is bad. So for me to prefer it is really something. I like that all the new messages are marked. I like that the threads have the number of new messages marked — I can see what’s really being discussed. I like the “Recommended” list, and having my own hot list. I like being able to do tags… I can’t count the time I ran across a great resource here then could never find it again because it was off in some odd thread. I really like the “recent comments” column there, because if something interesting pops up in a thread I’d never read, like a different state’s thread, I can clue into it.
Give it a chance folks, it’s great.
Like Northstar, I like the fact that I can see where discussion is really taking place by the number of comments made and the number of new comments there. I don’t open a thread just to find someone has said “ditto” !
I haven’t heard of anyone yet losing a post because they happened to post at the same time as someone else.
I can see if my comments have been responded to and see all the recent comments that have occurred - which often takes you to the thread to see what is going on …
When I first went there, as a beta tester, I took one look and thought “where do I start with this one!” I was determined to ‘learn it’ and now I just love it. In fact, I took to the new site far faster than I did to this one ..
And the best part - there are no “anonymous” posts! That was something that so turned me off here.
bump
My MOST favorite hands down is the red “new” labels for unread postings. And then once I have read them they immediately miraculously turn back to black. I don’t have to wait to log off for that to happen, so if something new gets written just after I finished reading the thread, I know to return. It is absolutely deeeevine!
As an aside, I started out having a problem with the nesting, and so went to the flat line thing. But now I love it because the reply is directly connected to the comment it pertains to - can’t imagine going back to the unnested format.
There are several things that are really better.
Primarily, it will be more reliable than this one, and of course faster, which absolutely needed addressing.
I like the [new] in red so I know what is, well, new. :-)
I like being able to make a comment about anything and have my comment be adjacent to the original so there is continuity of thought.
Being able to instantly find my own comments and any comments on those.
Those are the primary things I prefer that I can think of. I still need to get more used to it, and think its visually more difficult to read there, but we all know eventually, some distant day, far down the line, this one probably will go belly-up.
mosaic
it may outlive its usefulness, or it may be scaled back. there are 9as you know, because you participate) amny more flu communities online this year than last.
I think of it as extended family ;-)
All I need are the swans.
I can look up the subject and only check threads that I am interested in. Especially for news, I can go to Subject News and it shows news by date. It’s easier to find old information. Same should apply to look for a specific prep subject e.g. heat. On this (old) forum, we keep repeating the same questions for prep items e.g. solar, heat, water. I don’t remember where I saw a good idea and I have to ask the question again. With the new forum, I just search the subject and all posts for that come up. I think this feature will become more and more useful as time goes by.
I like the ‘recommended diary’ feature. It allows you to bump threads that have gone into low usage and keeps it easily findable in the recommended usage list in the lower right hand portion of the page. True, if you are the only one who feels the need to ‘bump’ it will end up lower on the list, but so far, even just one recommendation is enough to keep it on the radar.
Also, once you have set up your username and password, you can keep a list of diaries that you consider to be favorites. Then there’s a real easy selection to look at your favorites. So even if a thread drops off the list, you can just click your favs and presto…it’s there.
The ‘new’ flagging on new posts in each thread is great too. Can do a search on the page for ‘[new’ and brings you to what’s new. Once you open the thread, it’s like in the old forum here seeing the most recently active thread near the top. You can also save personal settings so that you can see the forum list in a nice ‘quick-look’ format and see the changed ones first without going in to the actual thread (which downloads much faster as well).
Then, the polls. It remembers you since you have a log on and posts updated results immediately when you click on it. IOW, it’s ‘smart.’
Finally, the tags are a great feature. I’m a news fiend, and on the left side is a list of most popular tags. When you click ‘news’ tag, it parses the list of all diaries so that you see all the strictly news-related diaries in one page.
Rock on Dem, Pogge, et. al.
I only check here on the old one because many of you resistant-to-change folds still post good stuff on this old page.
johnO (Tempest on new site)
Texas: the swans are still there.
Also, as AnnieB mentioned, it’s nice to be able to look at a summary histoy of your psots, and then next to it, you can see how many responses to your post so know quickly when someone has responded without opening the thread and looking forit.
I too am not crazy about change, but this new one is totally worth it. We are doing our best to promote threads from the mustard and mayo (yellow and white) old site so you won’t miss a thing.
one of the things I like best is that there are people like Tempest and bgw in MT working to make sure no one here is forgotten ;-)
see list, part 2.
I’m impressed by the fact that, even though some of the “threads” (Diaries) may get long, it’s easy to follow the conversation and not get lost among dozens of other posts on the same subject. Much easier to follow, and if I post a comment or reply, I can go to my personal page and see if anyone has commented directly back to me.
JohnO: Fortunately for all of us, I think.
I don’t see why people need to have one forum or the other; I keep both up on different browsers and can just flick back and forth between the two. I really do prefer the new one; it’s got a lot of advantages.
So perhaps that’s how people can get used to it… just use it once in a while, to get your feet wet. That’s why I’m not duplicating content — different sites, different content. I do miss a lot of you regular posters on “New Wiki” though!
I suppose I don’t have to point out that in the book, they had to shoot Old Yeller in the end. ;-)
Well, I wasn’t going to respond here because I’m tired of talking about the ‘new’ forum over here, but JohnO brought up the ‘bumping’ by recommending a thread over there. I went through & recommended threads, but the most names on any one thread was 3 or 4 at the time I went through, so nothing is really getting bumped up because no one is recommending. That’s an unreliable (at present) method of seeing where everyone is talking — you CAN’T see where everyone is talking without that feature, unless a mod sticks it on the front page so you’re currently limited in knowing what threads are ‘hot’ unless you look through those little lists on either side of the front page….like reading little tape measures! :-)
You can, by scrolling through the Diaries and seeing the number of comments (and new comments if you are logged in), by looking at the ‘recent diaries tape measure’ with the same info at a glance, or by looking at the ‘recent comments tape measure’ and seeing which diary the recent comments are from.
I’m workin’ on it - 1124
I agree, the ‘bump’ via recommended diary feature at this point is not as effective as it could be. Not enough people are doing that right now. But I think once more people start recommending, it’ll be more effective in that capacity.
At the same time, just 4 recommendations pushes the diary near the top of the list. So even just one person recommending the diary can bump it significantly now that so few people are actually doing that.
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