Adjustments to board?

[Deuce]

This new board format is now approximately three months old, and I find myself wondering whatever became of the "We're working to incorporate (place feature here)."

The first few weeks of the new format saw a few adjustments and additions made by TW - color schemes and 'sort by date of creation' are the two which come to my mind. Despite claiming to be "working on" other adjustments and improvements in the first weeks of the board, I am not aware of any changes having actually been implemented in over two months. At one point, you claimed to be "too busy at Indian Wells" to be able to dedicate time to adjustments of the new boards. Though IW crowned its champions long ago, it seems that no follow-up has been done to claims of "we are working to incorporate (place feature here)."

Personally speaking, the improvements I would like to see are as follows:

An option to view more than 15 meager posts per page. This should be a user-selectable option. If one, for some reason, wishes to shuffle through five separate pages in order to read a full 50 post thread, that's fine. But if another wishes all 50 posts to be viewable on ONE single page, this should definitely be an option, as it was on the old boards. As there is an option on the 'Search' page to view Search results with varying numbers of characters displayed, surely the option to view entire threads on one single page can be implemented rather easily.

In the same vein, numbering each post in a thread is a very useful and practical 'feature' which is missing in this new format. I don't imagine this would be very difficult to implement, either. Nor do I believe there would be any objections to this among members.

Finally, user-selectable font (or text) sizes (for reading purposes) would be a very welcome addition. Most internet browsers come with text size adjustments. This function is rendered useless by this new board format. This is to say that, though the browser inherently allows for text size to be adjusted to each individual user's preference, this board format overrides this, and renders the feature inoperable. It would be good for the user to somehow be given back control of text size, as was originally intended.

Thanks.

 

[Dedans Penthouse]

Amen. Amen. Amen. This has become GENERIC -- CITY !!!!! Notwithstanding those "precious and delightful" emoticons.

This new format is not fun. It is Harmony Central / Epinions.com antiseptic. Bland. I'm surprised that each post in either the Racquets or Tips section doesn't have "DID YOU FIND THIS POST HELPFUL?" at the bottom of each post.

I used to be able to hit the Search button and type in (e.g.) Deuce and/or Phil and lo and behold, there would be a neat, tidy little stack of (READABLE/ACCESSABLE IN A FLASH!) posts (with the post number attached, e.g. #15 of 25). Today I go type in Deuce or Phil in the "Author" field and I'm referred to a thread where I have to squirrel around to find their particular posts. I'm so clueless with this "improved" format that I've had to adopt some bizzare, obtuse approaches in trying to better access their exchanges; in this case I have to type in "World War III" in the keyword box. Specifically, the "Author" route ain't cutting it small-time, and generally, this new format altogether ain't cuttin' it big-time.

A major step backwards. The old site was SO-O-0-0-o-o much user-friendly, especially for a neophyte like me. Ah, I remember when you could easily play around with the script as to italics, bold, etc., and thus be better able to reflect the intended inflection when need be, i.e. to show humor when intended, or to emphasize a point. Once upon a time, I was able (on a "Davis Cup Coin Flip" thread) to easily juggle two transcontinental "crosswired" party lines. One party line involved Rabbit dialing some babe named "Trixie" via a 1-900-HOT-BABE number. The other call involved a "coin flip" performed live from a stadium in Barcelona (Spain vs. Australia) via telephone between the official on site at the Spanish tennis stadium, with the Australian Davis Cup captain calling "heads or tails" over the phone---except that Rabbit's 1-900 call got cross wired with the Davis Cup call. Official to Aussie captain: "As captain of the visiting team, it is your call: heads or.............oHHH, hi-ya Rabbit....this is Trixie......I'm so hot right now......" (Barcelona crowd chanting "Rabbit! Rabbit! in Espanol). That last paragraph will make no sense to anyone who didn't participate in that thread, but for anyone who did see that thread (Davis Cup Coin Flip), to "play" with it like that was a piece of cake.

Btw, all 16 of my therapists agree with me on this one Don Ivorytower (smirk). Donny-baby, let's go back to "the blues." (blues = old message board). I mean you can't find the Moose, Dugan, et al. The posts have a pastel vibe to them.....hell even Ivy (froggo bragins) is not as warped as I remembered her. Cypo won't return my e-mails..............I could go on and on......this ain't happ-nin'

 

[Rabbit]

Seanie - you can still do all of what you want. If you want to find every post with the word Deuce mentioned in it, simply type Deuce into the search field that says Search for keywords.

This will return a list of all postings where someone has referenced the word Deuce.

On the other hand, if you want to see the posts authored by Deuce, then enter Deuce in the search field that says Search by author.

For formatting, you only have to enter a bracket '[' then the letter for formatting, b, i, or u, and then a close bracket ']'. To end the formatting, simply do same and use a slash before the letter.

For what it's worth, the new boards have grown on me. I do have mine formatted to look like the old boards, and configured to present the topics like the old boards. I do like the new search features better though than the old ones.

 

[Frodo Baggins]

Sean-Aka Howdy Hamster. I didn't know you cared How sweet.An it's FRODO BAGGINS-Not Frogo or somthing like that :lol: But thanks for caring.. If you kiss me I might turn back into a woman. :lol: :wink:

 

[topspin]

Let's not forget the extremely important option to "Subscribe" to threads and then just use a "check messages" button like on the old board to search for new posts. This is the most missed feature since it made it so easy to keep track of discussions without having to check my email (like with the new "watch topic for replies" button). TW, any news on that feature being implemented here?

 

[Deuce]

Well, it would be nice to get TW's input on this. That is why I posted in this section.

Are any of the improvements mentioned above attainable in the foreseeable future? If so, which ones? If not, why not? Are there any other modifications or additions that you're planning to bring on?

Thanks.

 

[TW Staff]

Deuce,
We are currently working on a feature that will enable members to
subscribe to Forums or "watch forums". This will function exactly like the
"watch this topic" feature currently installed. It will allow registered
members to track a specific forum (Racquets, Strings and Stringing, Etc..),
any new post will be post will generate and email to be sent to your
registered email account. We have this feature running on a test board,
after sufficient testing we will apply it to the main TW board. This is the
only addition we have slated at this time. You have mentioned some other
features that could possibly be added in the future, however, I cannot
guarantee when or if they will be implemented.

Thanks for your suggestions!

Jon/Tennis Warehouse

 

[TW Staff]

I'll just add that we can't provide an option of 15 or 50 posts per page. It's an either/or situation. As a courtesy to board users still using dial-up modems, we're keeping it to 15 posts per page. The majority of topics have less than 15 posts, so this shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience.

Finally, please keep in mind that all programming associated with this board, takes a staff member away from his/her normal duties. Although the Pacific Life Open is over, we are still very busy maintaining the TW and other Warehouse sites. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Don/Tennis Warehouse

 

[Deuce]

Thanks for replying, guys.

It's unfortunate that each member cannot individually select from a list of "number of posts to display per page" - it seems like such a simple option to include - no different than "number of characters to include" in the search results. On the old, "obsolete" board, with one simple click of the mouse, we were able to view all posts in a thread on one single page, if we so chose. Could such a "view all posts" button be a possibility in this new format? I'm sure I would not be the only one who would be appreciative if someone looked into that possibility. While it's true that most threads do not run over 15 posts, some do, and it's a real pain to go through page after page after page to view all the posts - and then cycle back to refer to an earlier post.

I have dial up (a 'lowly' 28.8 k modem) and I would much prefer to wait a little longer for, say, 50 posts to load than to cycle through 5 pages, which would certainly take significantly longer than would waiting for 50 posts to load on one page.

How about adding the numbers of the posts? Someone mentioned in the first week of this new format that other boards of this type (phpBB) do have the posts numbered individually within a thread.

Is it possible to have user selectable font sizes for viewing?

And what of the two long term problems - the very often inoperable link to the old boards ('Licence Limits Reached'?) and not being able to post a reply in the 'For Sale' section?

 

[topspin]

Hey super, sounds like you guys are working on the "Subscribe" feature i've been pushing for :lol: can't wait to see it up and running, it will make a HUGE difference in making threads easier to find and follow for replies.

 

[Dedans Penthouse]

it wasn't broke..........