Forum changes

[Gwangi]

Not sure this is the right space, but I just got a intrusive screen covering Ad here on the Forum.

Same. And on the blog too.

[bmathison1972]

yeah STS forum has had that for a while. I think today is the first time I've noticed it on the DTF/ATF (but not on ATF yet). Luckily it closes easily and doesn't pop up every time (at least not for me)

What I noticed today is I get little 'shop' notifications in the lower right-hand corner. For example, if I go to a CollectA review, I get a 'shop CollectA' tag in the lower right. It's easy enough to click the 'x' and make it go away but it's new.

[DinoToyForum]

Not sure this is the right space, but I just got a intrusive screen covering Ad here on the Forum.

This is not my doing. It's probably Google Adsense running one of its automated experiments. I hate intrusive ads like that, I'll go and check my Adsense account and turn it off. Sorry about that.

[DinoToyForum]

Not sure this is the right space, but I just got a intrusive screen covering Ad here on the Forum.

This is not my doing. It's probably Google Adsense running one of its automated experiments. I hate intrusive ads like that, I'll go and check my Adsense account and turn it off. Sorry about that.

Yep, that's what it was. Turned it off. In-your-face random ads like that are enough to put me off of using a site.

[Halichoeres]

Ah, thanks for cleaning that up! Much better now.

[DinoToyForum]

A very minor change: I've removed the topic titles that used to appear above every post in a thread. Now there is just a single title at the top of each page in a thread.

[Flaffy]

Could a "New For 2024" sub-board be set up? Quite a few members have been asking already

[DinoToyForum]

Could a "New For 2024" sub-board be set up? Quite a few members have been asking already

Yes, sorry to everyone who has been waiting, here it is: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?board=42.0

[DinoToyForum]

I'm thinking of merging the board "In the news" with "Dinosaurs and palaeontology". I always muddle them up anyway so it would simplify things. Any objections?

[Fembrogon]

It looks like there's definitely crossover in topics material between the two, so short of manually going through and rearranging all the threads, that seems reasonable.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

If most of the articles are about Dinosaurs and palaeontology then it makes sense.

[Crackington]

"Palaeontology News"?

[DinoToyForum]

"Palaeontology News"?

It's always palaeontology/dinosaurs, but it's not always news.

[Sim]

I'd prefer to keep them separate.  It makes finding threads easier.

[DinoToyForum]

If most of the articles are about Dinosaurs and palaeontology then it makes sense.

Exactly that. All of them are, I think. And anything that isn't should go in the general board anyway.

[DinoToyForum]

I'd prefer to keep them separate.  It makes finding threads easier.

Well that was the original idea but it hasn't really worked. For example, whenever there's a new topic posted on "A new blank species discovered in blank place", sometimes it ends up on one board or the other. I think there's some ambiguity whether something is "news" or not. If it's a recently published paper, then it's new, but it may not be picked up by the mainstream media, so is it "news news"?. Or maybe it has been but the poster didn't know. Or maybe it will be in the future. I think one catch-all category for palaeontology and dinosaurs would make it easier to choose where to post and where to find threads about dinosaurs and palaeontology.

[Halichoeres]

I don't have a strong preference. I have always regarded technical journals as news, just really specialized news, so when I've highlighted new research I've usually put it in "in the news," but obviously a journal article s not the same as something being in the New York Times. I thought of "dinosaurs & paleontology" for more general discussion about paleontology that didn't necessarily rest on a new finding. So to the extent that I've muddied the difference, my apologies!

[DinoToyForum]

I don't have a strong preference. I have always regarded technical journals as news, just really specialized news, so when I've highlighted new research I've usually put it in "in the news," but obviously a journal article s not the same as something being in the New York Times. I thought of "dinosaurs & paleontology" for more general discussion about paleontology that didn't necessarily rest on a new finding. So to the extent that I've muddied the difference, my apologies!

I'd tend to agree, but there's no objective truth here, hence my inclination to lump all palaeontology talk under one category.

[DinoToyForum]

I'm thinking of merging the board "In the news" with "Dinosaurs and palaeontology". I always muddle them up anyway so it would simplify things. Any objections?

Since there was only one objection I decided to merge. I've changed the board description for "Dinosaurs and palaeontology" so it is clear it is for paleo-news as well.

[DinoToyForum]

Since we no longer have much of a social media team to speak of I'm deleting a Social Media Team membergroup that provided access to a hidden Social Media board (which I've also deleted).  @Halichoeres was the only member assigned to that group so he's the only member who will be affected: he'll lose his purple text and icons and revert to the "reviewers" membergroup (green) instead. @suspsy is posting to the FB page now but I never added him to the Social Media Team member group in the first place as we always discussed social media on a different board anyway.