This is awful!

30 March 2002 | Me

[CedarDave]

It must be a nightmare on a dial up!.

It is...

A lot of us in "fly-over country" only have dial-up service, and many can't get higher than 37K. If FR is trying to get rid of us by going to a forum program that has lots of bells and whistles, but takes forever to load, this will do it. And "fly-over" country is where FR's conservative base resides.

JIM AND JOHN: DON'T DO THIS TO US!!!

[who knows what evil?]

I just want the old FR or at least the option to choose the old format.

I would concur with that statement. Over the past few days, I made a number of visits to the 'beta' site, and found myself returning to the original within a few minutes. Although I have set up my preferences and sidebar to my liking on the 'new' FR; we should have the option to access the 'old'.

[ArneFufkin]

If I had any initiative, I'd get off my butt and stalk her.

[old blue beemer]

yep, that's 'bout the size of it !

(... 'cept the sleepin' was in my nick ;-)

bwahahahaha !

[Revel]

"This thread is going to get deleted if it turns into a **** trip down memory lane. "

Could be. But this one may be to hot to just delete. Another method that seems to be used here on FR is that offending threads that are to hot to out and right pull are logged. After people stop posting to them.(It could be a week) Then they are pulled from the record. So 99% of the people never know. I can't tell you how many dead bookmarks I have to articles critical of GW.

[sweetliberty]

There are many issues about which you can accuse people of whining. I don't think it's fair in this case. There are some real legitimate concerns being addressed here. I don't think most people are coming down on Jim and John, just trying to make them aware of the problems. We would be doing them an injustice to keep our thoughts to ourselves, in my opinion. Personally, I don't like it. Some of it is ok and a lot of it I can learn to live with, but there are a couple of things that are really terrible and create REAL issues for many of us, whether it be in functionality, such as many web tv users have expressed or an adverse visual reaction...and yes, this too can be very real. It just doesn't flow. The visible layout is too busy and distracting and CAN produce headaches and visual discomfort that is not conducive to readability and is also unlikely to be attractive to those new to FR.

I have put a lot of time into helping new FReepers learn their way around here. It seems that it was kind of a waste now. I feel badly about that.

My impression is that a lot of the changes were being made because a handful of people complained a lot about having to be bothered to ignore topics they weren't interested in to get to ones that they were. Now it seems that the opposite has occurred. A few people like the restricted access and limitations on how much can be found or viewed at one time. The rest of us are missing most everything because we either A. Don't know where to look for it B. Get distracted while trying to navigate or C. Find it easier to find the news somewhere else.

I for one DO appreciate the effort that Jim and John make to be accommodating and I believe that they will weigh the things that we have been addressing as well, but please don't try to reduce it to "if you don't like it you're a whiner" because that just isn't the case.

[piasa]

I don't care for it either... I've played around with it but it looks too much like the MSN web site and too much like the web forums elsewhere, which I seldom visit because this one was so much more practical and straight-forward and didn't have the annoying prettified commercial look everyone else uses. Before, we could get a better feel for the news events of the day without all the graphics taking up room, even if a few of the threads were about cheese or one member's not-so-signi. This one isolates us from the whole body of the members since there is no general overview... we're stuck with just a few comments at a time and you can't get a grip on everyone's concerns like you could with the multitude of threads and replies running, nor as broad impression of worldwide news trends in a glance. This layout makes everything seem disjointed, as if each news piece is occuring independent from other events.

[tpaine]

That is exactly what is pathetic about you VA.

-- You assume, - or at least imply, that I'm paranoid about YOU. -- FR isn't about you. Never was.

You, and your buddies are just distractions, -- like those amusing little dancing nit-flys. -- Till you swarm.

[ArneFufkin]

only have dial-up service, and many can't get higher than 37K

So, you don't want that streaming feed from Amsterdam?

[Purdue Pete]

...forgot to say, regardless of the aggravation, I sincerely appreciate what the Bros. Robinson provide for us.

[tpaine]

Proof of nittiness.

[ofMagog]

It ain't been the same since CGEB met up
with A+Bert in Mena and ran off together...

[carenot]

You can *already* pick what you want in the sidebar. Click on "Topics" in the upper right, and click on something you want in your sidebar (like "Breaking News). Once you are in there, you will see a little link on the left (right under the "United We Stand" picture), where it says "Click here to subscribe."

But I want it all as I use to have.
Why did they do this?

[bvw]

Well someday someone will "beta" you over the head. Whammo!

You weren't looking for beta, but there it will be.

LenS is right. The beta test population is skewed to the schizophrenic.

[ArneFufkin]

The puzzle of that union is best left unsolved.

[CedarDave]

BUMP #524 to John's attention

[HairOfTheDog]

Whatever. JohnRob put it out there for people who were interested in providing input on the work-while it was in progress. Many of us checked it out, and helped with the process. Those that didn't are now suddenly shocked, shocked I tell you! To find out that changes were coming!

[Revel]

I already know what the main motivation for this new forum was. There were comments made by JR that you could figure it out from. The idea was to seperate us all into groups. The Bushies over here...the Kooks over there...Ect...

And strangely enough people now feel alinated. I warned him way back then. But then what do I know.

[ArneFufkin]

I don't believe that at all Revel. This is an engineering project.

[carenot]

Or is it all about instant gratification?

Use to be. Not now.
Have to work for it.

I hate this.