Hi
I've been runing a trial this evening to see how long it takes to check for new messages on the new forum and to reply to the interesting ones.
At the end of the process it has taken 43 minutes and I have only done a couple of replies. There are certainly plenty of messages but the way the new forum is broken up into categories and a range of topics within each caregory makes it difficult and time consuming to access the postings.
I think that it would be helpful to:
1. reduce the number of categories
2. allow a continuous stesm of postings within each category.
3. flag up new and unread postings
4. display the posting to which we are replying so that we don't have to make written notes.
Does it take everyone so long?
Chris
Just looking for new postings takes ages
Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter, Chief Spud
I feel obliged to express complete agreement with Chris. My experience is identical. For me there's little pleasure in anything so needlessly complicated and time-consuming. It's like being in a maze. I've been thinking that because it seems that nobody's going to admit to having created a monster it'd be as well to stop complaining and make the best of it but there's little so irritating as this kind of computer-driven mindlessness. Chris's points 1-4 are, of course, the answer.It's so obvious I'm amazed that the outcry isn't coextensive with the membership.
At the end of the day I suppose I can settle for ACL... but that old forum was such a nice place to be.Seems a great pity.
At the end of the day I suppose I can settle for ACL... but that old forum was such a nice place to be.Seems a great pity.
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P.R.
I dont think theyre listening (unless it coincides with their game plan) Theyve destroyed the old forum and everything its about. cant help noticing that after the initial flurry ,postings are minimal and mostly not regulars from the old forum. They have denied us access to the 30,000 of our postings not theirs but ours. They also delete messages that dont show them in a good light. They just havnt got a clue what the old forum was about. they went to all this trouble to destroy such a simple unique forum. Like a bunch of bored kids all they seem bothered about are their new toys this could be a forum about anything as far as their interest or concern goes. Weve been sold up the river! R.I.P.
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Mr Potato Head
The old forum is still online.
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/oldforum/index0.php
You can read all of the 23,000 postings that were there.
1. I have reduced the number of categories, but have been aware that some people's ideas of what should and shouldn't be a valuable category are different. (I regularly get requests for more, specific categories)
2. There is nothing to stop you posting all your comments in one category - see 'general chat' Those that do like categories can use them.
3. All topic indexes have 'flags' that tell you if there are fresh postings, and you can 'watch' topics and have an email alert you if there are new posts.
4. When you reply, there is a box below the reply box, with the whole discussion in it. So you don't have to take written notes.
Hope this allays some of your fears. I am still listening, to everyone's comments.
http://www.kitchengarden.co.uk/oldforum/index0.php
You can read all of the 23,000 postings that were there.
1. I have reduced the number of categories, but have been aware that some people's ideas of what should and shouldn't be a valuable category are different. (I regularly get requests for more, specific categories)
2. There is nothing to stop you posting all your comments in one category - see 'general chat' Those that do like categories can use them.
3. All topic indexes have 'flags' that tell you if there are fresh postings, and you can 'watch' topics and have an email alert you if there are new posts.
4. When you reply, there is a box below the reply box, with the whole discussion in it. So you don't have to take written notes.
Hope this allays some of your fears. I am still listening, to everyone's comments.
I find this a lot quicker to navigate around. On the old forum I was always clicking on posts with a tick only to find that there was nothing new posted . It was ticked because that I hadn't looked at it on my last visit as it had a cross. Now I log in all the new posts are marked and I can just scroll down or click on the last post icon.
Pete
Pete
skype me on pmrout
"To be a successful farmer, one must first know the NATURE of the SOIL" Xenophon , Oeconomicus 400 B.C.
"To be a successful farmer, one must first know the NATURE of the SOIL" Xenophon , Oeconomicus 400 B.C.
Instead of inviting us to use "General Chat", why not create a new meeting-place (ANOTHER forum!) with a name that identifies it properly, like "The Old Forum Reborn" (or something). When you opened it there'd be a heading in bold print: "This is the forum for those who dislike what they see as the unnecessary complications of the categories on this site, and who prefer 'the Old Forum' format"? Then you might get a better idea of the extent of the disaffection.
Apropos of use being made of the new forums: what ARE the statistics, I wonder. How does number of posts compare with the same period last year? Figures might be more significant after more time has elapsed, I suppose.
Apropos of use being made of the new forums: what ARE the statistics, I wonder. How does number of posts compare with the same period last year? Figures might be more significant after more time has elapsed, I suppose.
Mr P head
Thanks for the advice about the (got to scroll down now to se it) box with the whole discussion in it. This IS helpful.
I re-checked the old forum - nice to see it preserved but no sure how to search this archive.
The suggestion from Iain to create a meeting place section seems an elegant soluion to the issues many of us have raised. I can't see the problem with keeping as many users/customers as possible happy and feeling positive about the magazine. It's a tough commercial world out there - we are grateful that the magzine has a forum - the more pleased we are the better the image of the magazine and, you would think, the better the chances of sales and subscriptions?
Chris
Thanks for the advice about the (got to scroll down now to se it) box with the whole discussion in it. This IS helpful.
I re-checked the old forum - nice to see it preserved but no sure how to search this archive.
The suggestion from Iain to create a meeting place section seems an elegant soluion to the issues many of us have raised. I can't see the problem with keeping as many users/customers as possible happy and feeling positive about the magazine. It's a tough commercial world out there - we are grateful that the magzine has a forum - the more pleased we are the better the image of the magazine and, you would think, the better the chances of sales and subscriptions?
Chris
Chris
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Aussie
You have a perfectly good forum here and all you lot can do is WHINGE!
For Christs sake get on with it.
Now you can see why we Aussies call you load of WHINGING POMS! Yer just like a load of bloody old women. No offence Ladies just a saying.
Aus.
For Christs sake get on with it.
Now you can see why we Aussies call you load of WHINGING POMS! Yer just like a load of bloody old women. No offence Ladies just a saying.
Aus.
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Untitled Female Person
I'm no lay-dee, but I do find it hard to follow the logic which uses "old women" as an insult and then says "no offence, ladies". 
Oh yeah! I finally got it! 
If you'd said "old ladies", you WOULD have expected ladies to see the offence in it, right, and then maybe you'd have said instead, "No offence, women". Yeah, I think I get it. Or maybe, like the weather and the geographical position, Australia's logic also works upside down... 
Oh yeah! I finally got it! If you'd said "old ladies", you WOULD have expected ladies to see the offence in it, right, and then maybe you'd have said instead, "No offence, women". Yeah, I think I get it. Or maybe, like the weather and the geographical position, Australia's logic also works upside down... -
Untitled Female Person
By the way, gender & nationality based insults aside, I agree with Aussie's basic argument. I find this site easy to navigate (want to know if there are new postings today? - look at the list of dates down the right-hand side!). I agree about the ticks (which would appear whether or not I'd read the postings they marked) and in any case, this site is much faster than the old one (pause for stuck-in-the-mud fans of The Allegedly Faultless Old Forum to genuflect towards Mecca - or wherever TAFOF was based - at the very mention of its name). For pete's sake, can't we stop belly-aching and just learn how to use this forum (or, alternatively, encourage the S-I-T-Ms to go away and create a replica of the tired, sad, SLOW old one for themselves)?