Welcome to the new look Windows Forum

[Craig]

Good afternoon, and welcome to the new look Windows Forum!

I’ve been given a couple of days off work for some much needed R&R following completion of the first phase of a large project I’m working on. Today being the second of the two days off, I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade the forum software and apply a fresh theme.

The upgrade had been tested a number of times over the past month, and a beta site had been setup, however it was only yesterday evening that I decided to go ahead and upgrade the forum.

It’s unfortunate that my work / life balance is currently set to 70%/30% respectively at the moment, so it’s difficult to make an appearance on the forum. I am however starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel, so the work / life balance should start to “balance” out soon.

Once the above is sorted, my aim is to revitalise the forum.

So for now, I’m hoping that today’s refresh will see a little bit of life brought back to the forum, and put it on track to becoming what it once was, an active community based forum with a little bit of tech support on the side!

Craig

[Boris]

Will take a bit of getting used to - but personally I like the new format.

[Irene]

It keeps us on our toes getting used to a new look. :lol:

When I came on earlier, I thought I had accessed the wrong forum!

Edit:

First request - can we have an 'up' and 'down' the page link please?

Cancel that, I've just found it....

[Craig]

I've found the 'up', but can't find the 'down'. Do we have a 'down'?!

[Alan2273]

A definite improvement.

[Irene]

I've found the 'up', but can't find the 'down'. Do we have a 'down'?!

No, just a 'Back to top'. ;)

[hare50]

This a long story that I am going truncate some. I feel that it a very simple problem but over my head. Originally I had two smallish drives one in Winxp and the other in linux. I was running desperately out of space so I used gparted and divided the linux drive in two one F:\ and the other with linux. The WinXP partition came first on that drive. Now whatever configuration file keeps jamming an apple where a pea couldn't go. I made the F:\ an extended drive.

at wits end in weaverville

[Gandalph]

Well, for me I don't know what to say. It looks terrible to me.

The Avatars and member information is about 45% from the left edge of the board. There is a white margin on the left side which I think would make it look better balanced if it contained all of that.

I don't know. I get ill for seven days and come back to a shock like this.

The top of you Avatar ends just above you sun glasses Craig. Mine has a white line running through it.

Is there still some work to be done on the Board?

[Boris]

Gandalph

Here is what I see when I look at the Forum.

You look fine to me :) - no line.

No white margin on the left either.

Is it a monitor setting causing you this problem ?

[Gandalph]

Hello Boris, Thank you for your reply.

I don't think it is a setting on my machine as the last board was OK and so where all the other Forum's I visited.

If it is a setting it must be within the Board itself, which I am finding particularly very strange.

I will get a screen shot and post it back later on as I am expecting my Doctor here in a couple of minutes.

Bye for now, catch you all later.

[AlanHo]

I don't understand why it was felt necessary to tinker with the forum layout yet again. What we had before was the best layout I have seen on any forum - and believe me - I have tried quite a few. We have now taken one giant step back in the hope that it will bring some life back to the forum. It won't.

This change is a perfect demonstration of the relevance of that old adage "If it aint broke - don't fix it" and for me is simply a change for the sake of change - an exercise in style over substance.

What you need to do is somehow attract back to the forum some of the top 10 posters who no longer either visit or contribute. Also find a way of attracting new members who will be regulars - and not just fly by night visitors who make 1 or a few posts then vanish into oblivion.

Some of the reasons why the forum has lost regulars has been over-exuberant moderation, their threads receiving little or no response, negative nit-picking and a degree of personal sniping that eventually made posting a frustrating exercise in futility.

Admin have been conspicuous by their absence,

The list of moderators includes people who haven't been seen here for years,

We now lack enough technical experts - hence the support load falls on a valiant few.

The outage a few months ago and the communication vacuum with subscribers has still never been acknowledged by admin

And the answer to our problems is seen as the need to make a cosmetic change (for the worse)

I have enjoyed a few years as an active member of the forum - and I miss the old healthy banter and informative posts. But the negativity that crept in and the lack of proper leadership caused me to lose interest. I consider the present change to be irrelevant - and cannot see how it will give me the motivation to return here as a regular.

[Gandalph]

OK Boris , here is a screen shot I've taken. As I said in a previous post everyone is appearing the same.

If there any adjustments to be made then it must be on this boar alone as all other sites are opening alright.

Have to nip out the Noo Mon. I'll look forward to what you say in you next post.

Cheers.

[Boris]

Can't understand why yours and mine differ. I'm using a 22" wide-screen 1440 x 900 pixels.

I've viewed it using IE8, SlimBrowser, Comodo Dragon, Firefox and Opera - all give me the same result.

What browser are you using ? Safari ?

[Boris]

Some of the reasons why the forum has lost regulars has been over-exuberant moderation, their threads receiving little or no response, negative nit-picking and a degree of personal sniping that eventually made posting a frustrating exercise in futility.

Alan, could you please clarify what you mean by "over-exuberant moderation" ?

[Irene]

OK Boris , here is a screen shot I've taken. As I said in a previous post everyone is appearing the same.

If there any adjustments to be made then it must be on this boar alone as all other sites are opening alright.

Have to nip out the Noo Mon. I'll look forward to what you say in you next post.

Gandalph, I too have no problem with the window in my screen / VDU.

[Irene]

Some of the reasons why the forum has lost regulars has been over-exuberant moderation, their threads receiving little or no response, negative nit-picking and a degree of personal sniping that eventually made posting a frustrating exercise in futility.

Alan, could you please clarify what you mean by "over-exuberant moderation" ?

Boris, I have on occasion (in my opinion) been subjected to what Alan has described as "over-exuberant moderation", but I would certainly not wish to resurrect it now.

I, personally, would like Alan to put the past behind and help to rebuild the 'relationships' of the forum. He has always been a valuable, entertaining input. I miss his presence and am unhappy with his occasional critical posts. Come on Alan, we need you.....

[Gandalph]

Can't understand why yours and mine differ. I'm using a 22" wide-screen 1440 x 900 pixels.

I've viewed it using IE8, SlimBrowser, Comodo Dragon, Firefox and Opera - all give me the same result.

What browser are you using ? Safari ?

Hello again Boris.

I use a iMac 27" as you probably have read in my signature. My web browser is Firefox 6.0.2. As already stated all other web sites and Forums in the World are ok. For some reason it's just Windows Forum that is acting like this. The old forum was fine. I'm just wondering why.

I've just noticed that Irene is having problems too, so I'm not alone on this one then, which I'm pleased about. No doubt it will sort itself out in time.

Cheers for now Boris.

[rong]

Can't understand why yours and mine differ. I'm using a 22" wide-screen 1440 x 900 pixels.

I've viewed it using IE8, SlimBrowser, Comodo Dragon, Firefox and Opera - all give me the same result.

What browser are you using ? Safari ?

Hello again Boris.

I use a iMac 27" as you probably have read in my signature. My web browser is Firefox 6.0.2. As already stated all other web sites and Forums in the World are ok. For some reason it's just Windows Forum that is acting like this. The old forum was fine. I'm just wondering why.

I've just noticed that Irene is having problems too, so I'm not alone on this one then, which I'm pleased about. No doubt it will sort itself out in time.

Cheers for now Boris.

Irene said she wasn't having any problems, and neither am I so you could be the only one

[Gandalph]

You are quite right rong, i misread her post.

Apologies to Irene.

[rong]

Have you tried deleting the cookie for WF

[andsome]

I don't understand why it was felt necessary to tinker with the forum layout yet again. What we had before was the best layout I have seen on any forum - and believe me - I have tried quite a few. We have now taken one giant step back in the hope that it will bring some life back to the forum. It won't.

This change is a perfect demonstration of the relevance of that old adage "If it aint broke - don't fix it" and for me is simply a change for the sake of change - an exercise in style over substance.

What you need to do is somehow attract back to the forum some of the top 10 posters who no longer either visit or contribute. Also find a way of attracting new members who will be regulars - and not just fly by night visitors who make 1 or a few posts then vanish into oblivion.

Some of the reasons why the forum has lost regulars has been over-exuberant moderation, their threads receiving little or no response, negative nit-picking and a degree of personal sniping that eventually made posting a frustrating exercise in futility.

Admin have been conspicuous by their absence,

The list of moderators includes people who haven't been seen here for years,

We now lack enough technical experts - hence the support load falls on a valiant few.

The outage a few months ago and the communication vacuum with subscribers has still never been acknowledged by admin

And the answer to our problems is seen as the need to make a cosmetic change (for the worse)

I have enjoyed a few years as an active member of the forum - and I miss the old healthy banter and informative posts. But the negativity that crept in and the lack of proper leadership caused me to lose interest. I consider the present change to be irrelevant - and cannot see how it will give me the motivation to return here as a regular.

I fully agree with Alan, especially with regard to 'over exuberant moderation. I appreciate the fact that this is primarily a computer help forum, but it has lost a lot of the original helpers as Alan has stated. Many threads are not of this nature, and some can at times become a little contentious, but it is extremely irritating in the middle of a good debate to see that the thread has been locked. I have spent a lot of time lately on IDF 50 forum, and some threads on there can get quite contentious, and if I don't like them I keep away from them. Over zealous censorship can be a death knell of a forum like this, and all the old members will remember a thread in question, where a regular American contributer was told to mind his language because he used the term 'dicks' to describe American cops. ABSOBLOODYLUTELYRIDICULOUS. Also as Alan has pointed out, some people are inclined at times to make snide comments about other forum members, for no good reason. (Personal sniping).

I pop in regularly just to have a look and may well continue to do so. Whether or not I bother to contribute remains to be seen. I hope that this thread will NOT be locked simply because critical remarks have been made.

[rong]

It wasn't the "American contributor was told to mind his language because he used the term 'dicks' to describe American cops" that was the problem with that post it was the comments after that got it closed

[AlanHo]

It wasn't the "American contributor was told to mind his language because he used the term 'dicks' to describe American cops" that was the problem with that post it was the comments after that got it closed

You are wrong rong - the contributor was warned about his language before the use of the word was commented on by others - it was the warning by a moderator that sparked the reaction.

See here... http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?showtopic=48068&pid=322298&st=0entry322298

[andsome]

It wasn't the "American contributor was told to mind his language because he used the term 'dicks' to describe American cops" that was the problem with that post it was the comments after that got it closed

You are wrong rong - the contributor was warned about his language before the use of the word was commented on by others - it was the warning by a moderator that sparked the reaction.

See here... http://forums.window...=0

This lock of a thread, stupid as it was, sparked of several comments which must have caused Artist much grief. I made several posts myself, simply because it was laughable that in this day and age Mary Whitehouse was dead but not forgotten.

I will say no more on this topic.

[Gandalph]

Hello rong.

Yes, that was the first thing I did when I first logged in. Still didn't make any difference.