Forum changes

[DinoToyForum]

I'm fine with the general layout, but 20 recent posts feels really excessive to me. But that's easy for me to say since most days I log in multiple times.

15 then? It has to be enough to be useful to everyone.

[Concavenator]

Yeah, 20 is too much I'd say. 15 would be a sweet middle spot between a reasonably updated list of topics and one that's just too much.

[SidB]

Yeah, 20 is too much I'd say. 15 would be a sweet middle spot between a reasonably updated list of topics and one that's just too much.

I'd agree with 15 also.

[DinoToyForum]

Yeah, 20 is too much I'd say. 15 would be a sweet middle spot between a reasonably updated list of topics and one that's just too much.

How about the following arrangement, which might please everyone? I can set it to 15 on Mondays, Thursdays & Sundays, 10 on Tuesdays & Fridays, 20 on Wednesdays & Saturdays, and I can put the Recent topics list in the side bar on weekdays and at the top of the page on weekends and bank holidays?

Spoiler

  kidding!

[close]

[Sim]

Tim, yes I do have access to the "all unread topics" button, I had forgotten about it.  It isn't perfect as then I have to check last post dates to know where the new unread threads start from, but it is still very useful when there isn't another option.

I stand by 20 unread posts being the right choice.  Adam said he wanted visitors to see all active posts from the last day and that's simply not possible with only 15 posts.  I experienced that myself.  I haven't seen any problem with 20 instead of 15 that makes it worthwhile to change to 15.

[Halichoeres]

I use "all unread topics" often. I can see why it might not do quite what you want though.

As for the number of posts in 'recent' topics, I feel a little silly having an opinion on it, yet I do have one. I think it's worth noting that the forum has been more than usually active the last few days, for what reason I don't know, and in the past I've noticed that most of the time the most recent 15 posts easily span 24 hours and occasionally over 36.

[DinoToyForum]

It has been a week since I moved the Recent Topics to the top. It felt a bit weird at first but I've gotten used to it and think it is an improvement overall, so I'm inclined to leave it there. Does anyone still strongly oppose it?

[Newt]

I like it, now that the fear of the new has worn off.

[Halichoeres]

I'm fine with it!

Edited to add: still opposed to the 'like' button.

[DinoToyForum]

I'm putting this to the moderator team but interested in general opinion as well. I'm thinking of removing forum rule 5 "Use basic grammar and punctuation." In reality it's a rule we almost never have to enforce, and out of context the rule sounds patronising. I think we introduced it a long time ago as ammunition against a member who wrote disruptive long posts in all-caps without punctuation. If something like that happened again we could resolve it without this rule. Any objections to removing this rule?

[ceratopsian]

None whatsoever. As you say, if a specific problem needs dealing with in the future, there are ways of resolving it without this rule.

[Halichoeres]

Maybe we've only seen decent writing because of the rule, and when it's gone it will be pure anarchy! (Kidding of course, it does seem superfluous without specific offenders.)

[Libraraptor]

It is okay by me

[Concavenator]

I should now be among the top posters, but I still don't appear there. I've taken a look if there's something I need to confirm or give permission to, but from what I've seen, I don't find anything like that.

[DinoToyForum]

I should now be among the top posters, but I still don't appear there. I've taken a look if there's something I need to confirm or give permission to, but from what I've seen, I don't find anything like that.

I think that's because you have the option "Show others my online status" unchecked in your profile. Check that and you should appear in the top posters link.

[Concavenator]

@dinotoyforum thank you, got it!

[Sim]

Recently the forum and blog have been taking a long time to load for me.  Looking at the corner of my computer's screen, it says something about Amazon adsystem, I wonder if that has to do with it?  It's only started happening recently and I know there was times in the past where Amazon ads were displayed but the blog and forum weren't slow to load.

Is there something that can resolve the slow loading time?

[DinoToyForum]

I'll look into that, maybe there's some old code causing the delay. Which corner of your screen does it say that, what is the context (e.g. in the url bar?, an error dialogue box?) and what is the exact message?

[Sim]

Thanks!  The message is in a little white rectangle in the bottom left of my computer's screen.  What it says changes as the page loads, most of the time I think it says, "Connecting to ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com..."

[DinoToyForum]

Thanks!  The message is in a little white rectangle in the bottom left of my computer's screen.  What it says changes as the page loads, most of the time I think it says, "Connecting to ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com..."

Thanks. There is one active Amazon ad on the Dinosaur Toy Blog side bar, for my The Plesiosaur's Neck book. I'll remove that now, let me know if it makes a difference to the page speed... (I'm just talking about the blog for now, not the forum).