Welcome to the new and improved Wordsmith Talk.
It's running on a new server (faster), and new software (more features). Any bugs, problems, etc? Post them here.

Quite a surprise! And thanks I had my password well stored. Hope everyone had . On checking 'Your preferences', I noticed both email choices , for posts and personal messages had been changed from yes to no. Hope everyone checks. The coloring is nice and for the rest just a matter of getting used to.

Oh and it's not possilble to get to the board through last weeks'emails?

Changes
Received and sent messages on one page.

Kind regards, Branshea

And finally: congratulations ! Everything is still there.

Well I am gonna grumble. I haven't figured out a way at the top menu to get the program to show me where unread messages are; if this can't be done we have taken a stepbackward IMNSHO.

there does seem to be something wrong with the Unread Messages feature. although I see yellow shading on the "tablet"s on the top forum menu, at the second level the shading is gone after I've read a previous new message.

boy, that makes little sense to me after reading it..

has anyone received a PM since restart? how were you alerted?

Yes, I got one and was alerted by email. But in my preferences early this morning I noticed that the email options had been changed from yes to no . So if this has happened to all of us no one gets an email untill he / she has restored this.
I had trouble too. The message you send/back comes in the same list as the received ones and reads at the bottom whether unread by : X (the one you sent it to) or when the receiver has read it says : unread by none.
Have to get used to it. Plus the reminder of the password does not yet work.

TedReminton , there is my stuff , where you click on and get a little menu. I posted and recieved from there but it is confusing still a bit. But I woke up earlier and took the morning to get somewhere.

Joe , if you check you email dots on My Preferences through My Stuff, I will send you a test message right now.

oy. this is going to take some getting used to. I miss the little "index" link at the bottom of the thread, though I think the little "hop to" will serve a similar function. and "Active Topics" at the top should get us the unread posts.

all-in-all though, pretty different.

ah! I found "Index" at the bottom, on the left...

still need to have better icons for read-unread.

OK. New discovery . Your mails and remails become a seperate thread with the adressed to person. I sent to Jackie --- she sent me back and this does not show in my messages list , but when you click on your sent letter, the thread with this person you sent your message to turns up and you can check wheter it has been read or no.. Wooow.

Second: Every new post you make outside that mail and remail thread , even to the same person becomes a new threadpage. Pfff,
it is complicated.

I call this severe upgrading .

and hey! brighter yellow icons for new posts. yay!

Egad--all new to me! Where's the Who's Online--anybody know? It'd be cool be able to use that again.

And--is there a way we can change the overall theme? I miss my blue!

Still lots to explore, but I did just check yesterday's notice of a PM, and my result was the same as Branny's--it didn't work.

I haven't found a "Who's On-line", and it seems that there's no way to change the theme. perhpas they'll put in some different style-sheets for us to select from, eventually.

"Who's On-line"

I saw a choice to show who's online in the user's preferences editing space.

Edit:

No, that was a Hide from Who's Online radio button which I saw. Sorry. Still looking.

The Who's online- choice you find through My stuff The little menu gives : My preferences and the Profile thing and there I saw it.

yeahbut® there used to be a little line down at the bottom (that never worked in the previous forumware version) that showed who was online. I don't see that anymore.

The new posts do not show up in all of the forums. In Wordplay, there is a note in the main forum section that there is a new post, but the thread in which the new post is not highlighted in any way.

The font size on the board is MUCH too large. Though this may be a good thing for the seeing impaired, it does reduce the quantity of posts visible on a screen.

Also, contrary to what might be expected, large type is not easier to read for people without seeinhg problems. The way it was explained to me in marketing class is that we learn to recognize words as a whole (which is why even if a letter is missing in a word, we can still recognize what is says), however, when the font is too large, the eye has to scan it back and forth to understand it.

I can reduce the font size in my internet setting or on my computer, but then I'd have to keep modifying it back and forth when I come back here.

Can you add an font-size option so the the seeing impaired can choose the larger font and the rest of the folks can stick to a regularly-sized font?

This is quite funny...Eta. If it never worked in the previous version, why would you miss it now? I think many people choose for hide anyway. The peeper crowd.

I have added a few styles if you prefer a different color scheme. To change,
1. click on "My Stuff"
2. select "My Preferences"
3. scroll down to "Your preferred style sheet"

I have added some boxes on the right to show fun stats (and you can turn them off if you prefer bigger forum areas -- go to My Preferences to turn them off).

one day *everything will end up "below the fold."

(on my usual "restored down" window barely three(3) topics are visible.)

edit: the font is quite a lot smaller with the "infopop" style sheet.

thank you! awesome!

and Bran, yeah, I admit, that sounds funny, but on the pre-previous version, it was there, and I used it often. even though, as you said, people were hiding. I never did. I am here.

I'm trying out the GooG stylesheet. what else are people using?

1. Oh , answer: the Who's Online is on the upper right side of the thread.

2. Every time I get on the board I must type my password, because the radio button does not do its job. Will that be working sometime maybe?
The email for Watched Topics is not yet working too?

3. You said 'egad'. does that mean somthing like yack? we say
'hè, gat' for the same reason. An expression of irritation ? Or does it mean something totally different?

Oh, answer 2. Oh , Eta, I don't dare change anything I found this morning. Please describe that sheet. Pink? yellow? Sky blue?
Rainbow stripes? OK, I took me off the invisible button.

>I don't dare change anything I found this morning.

There is a "Preview Stylesheet" button next to the stylesheet selection box in Preferences. It opens up a new window (or tab) with the forum view in the selected style -- it's just a snapshot, and doesn't change anything, but it gives you a good idea. You can quickly view all of them this way.

When you find something you like, use the Submit button on the bottom of the Preferences page to actualize the change.

I don't believe it--you all have one guess as to the style sheet that turned out to be my favorite: snow! Though I liked the Googee one, too.

And oh, it's really nice to be able to see who's here with me, again! Thanks, Anu! Hey, whoa, new smileys, too! Hmm, a bit odd-looking, but no biggie.

I still haven't had time to look around--I've been gone pretty much since my post above, and it was to something I never thought I'd get a chance to go to: a maple syrup festival ! It was forty miles up into Indiana--WAY back in the country, but man, it was SO COOL! Real maple syrup, made right there! And, and, it was snowing, and everything! WHEEEEEEE!!!

Back some time later--am getting ready to go to a multi-birthday party. Anu, you picked a really awkward day for me to investigate all these changes, you bad boy, you!

Thanks Anu, whomso wherever you may be, for the calendar. Neato! I'll fill it each month with private events and with some I'll go public. Salute!

In addition, I like the listing of the ranking of Awad's most prolific posters...

Top Posters

13858 - wwh
10601 - Faldage
8906 - Jackie
7632 - tsuwm
6296 - Wordwind
6010 - AnnaStrophic
5396 - etaoin
5152 - of troy
4683 - maverick
4176 - WhitmanO'
______________________

Observation:

Anna S might catch the Wordwind but anna Faldage will never ever catch the Doc Bill.
And where's maverick? Why did he and WhitmanO' clean the scene?
But congratulations to you still extant posters. God knows that you have paid your dues.

I can't seem to change my avatar, for whatever reason.

Dear Wordsmith Chief!

Does anyone get email notifications about the Watched Topics?
I get none. So I have to go all over the place.
Is it working and just my computer that does not get them , or is this yet to come?

Yes, Sheets! Google is fine and more snowy than snow.
TheBlues is nice , but hard on the eyes. Cute!

Wait, wait, don't tell me, let me guess... Mint julep, right?

I won't mince words: I think the new theme is cluttered and awful.

The info inset on the right of the screen—forum states, newest members, top posters, etc.—doesn't deserve to take up permanent screen real estate in every thread!

It should be in a seperate "stats" pane which interested posters can seek out if they care to.

And given that opinion, I wouldn't. Who cares?

Plus the spacing all round is claustrophobic. Especially the alignment of post text—hard left against the vertical line dividing the post itself and the poster's info, and with a miserly 2mm spacing between the start of the post text and the "re" info (see above under "I won't mince words).

Take a lesson from the average book. The text is never crammed right up against the page number.

It desperately lacks design economy.

With all due respect—Yuk!

There was nothing wrong with the old theme.

Edit: Changing the default sheet style to one with more contrast is a big improvement, but there are still spacing issues... and did I mention the horrible unwanted screen-cluttering boxes of stats on the right of the screen?

You know Hydra, you can turn off the right column ? ;-)

Ha ha! How?

Edit: No, don't bother. I figured it out.

That makes a second big difference.

What can I say? I'm an idiot.

The new theme is fine.

Hydra...if you choose the infopop style, the font is smaller so everything looks a little less cluttered on the screen. The colours are also less incongruent, so easier on the eyes.

Well done admin.
It'll take a bit of getting used to but a change is always welcome. Just one question, who are these invisible people? Yesterday there was myself and an invisible person online I figured it was etaoin as a post appeared from him. But overall a good move forward.

nah, I'm not invisible, I just don't always show up.

:¬ )

some people have their preferences set to be invisible. so we know they're here, just not who they are.

Ruh roh--when I came on here the first time today, there were icons for new posts in several forums; but although the only one I've come to is I & A, when I went back to the Main Index, ALL of the others had greyed out. I think I had some in Miscellany and W & F, but...

I've seen this happen too, but not always. I suspect that if you take things in order you'll be okay -- just a suspect, though. in any event, you can use Active Topics to get a sniff of what's new.

Curuinor: You should be able to change your avatar now.

BranShea: Email notification of watched topic is working now.

Thanks for reporting these problems.

Thank you, Chief Wordsmith. This will be the test post to see if it really works.

Sorry to bother again. Seems I thanked for nothing Still no email notifications for watched lists/ topics. Could there be something I overlooked in "My preferences" ? Which radio button should I give a yes for this? It all looks allright....

testing. this is a test. only a test.

hmm, it says that I am invisible on the Who's Online, but I have my HIDE set to NO? Oh well, you can always hit details it seems.

My name appears now. I think the Who's Online is a little shaky, but it doesn't really matter.

this has been my experience, as well.

Still no watched topic emails. Got one for a new topic I started.
That's it. Well , one gets used to it.

IT WORKS!!

The time period for "Who's Online" is configurable.
It's currently set to eight minutes. In other words,
every eight minutes the board software takes a snapshot
of who is logged in, in order to report it in the box
on the right.

But, by the looks of it, BranShea will catch us all!

The Unread Messages are still a mystery to me. Didn't we used to go to the first unread message? No matter what, I get shunted back to the top of the thread and have to scroll through everything to get to any new posts. Am I missing a setting or feature?

Sort of a funny irony that Jackie is one of the top posters.
Liked the old face pictures better.

Oh no...Anna S, my title right now says 'addict '. I carefully hold on to the written word.

speaking of titles, that seems to be the one constant around here, no matter how often upgrades are instantiated.

'addict '

An addict from the Netherlands. How tolerant.

That's true, because I still get emails only on some subscribed topics, no matter how often I do the necessary things. This makes me run all over the place and it substancially increases my post numbers.

zmjezhd
'addict '

An addict from the Netherlands. How tolerant.


Who? You or me?

Who? You or me?

Yes.

Well,I guess this is still the place for remarks on things not running smooth. I still get email notifications for only some of the subscribed threads. I click the v down the post I make, it appears in my Watched Topics list, but no emails get through.
f.i. not from this one.

Just to let you know and thanks if this can be helped.

I've never used this feature -- do you generally get notified of your own posts?

Yes, it is in the 'My Preferences'dep. in the lower half of the page.

' By default should anything added to your Watch Lists be emailed to you? ' + radio button.


Any post from a topic you added to you Watched Topics used to give an email notification, also directly about your own last post.


(I just got one in for your post on "improve its weaknesses")
It used to work perfect on the old board , but ever since the change it only works partly.