Advice For Members

[[old] PaulH]

The new layout is obviously a big change for many of the existing forum posters, so to help out this thread will contain advice on useful resources to help you make the switch, and for new members to join in.<ul><li>To see active topics (similar to the old forum's main feature) click <a href='http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?a ... =getactive' target='_blank'>here</a> or choose 'Today's Active Topics' from the main page.</li><li>To see new topics click 'View New Posts' from the menu above</li><li>To see a summary of all that's new go to the <a href='http://concept2.ipbhost.com/index.php?a ... =getactive' target='_blank'>portal</a> page.</li></ul>All of these links also appear in the custom toolbar above (quick view, active posts, new posts).<br><br>To view more posts on each page, go to My Controls (top right) then Options board settings (bottom left of next page) and change number of posts per page and number of topics per page to 40.<br><br><br><br>If you have other suggestions please post them below - if they're good I'll add them to this post. When I work out how, I'll gradually delete all posts added here to keep it simple for new visitors (one of the very rare instances where your posts will be deleted).

[[old] Dickie]

This is certainly better looking than the previous forum and it has some nice features but the thing I liked most about the last forum was that I did not have to look through all the reply's to get to the ones I had not yet read. After I read a reply, the subject line in the tree changed color to indicate it had been read and I could bypass it the next time I visited. Without that feature this forum is useless to me because I do not have the time to re-read replies looking for the unread ones.<br><br>How do I select only unread replies.

[[old] concept2]

fred - click on the 'new posts' link [new posts] - then you can click on the "last post by" link and you jump directly to the last post in the thread - where you can either read or reply to.<br><br>Let me know if this makes sense. I'm getting in touch with the forum software company to ask about the 'tree view' as well.<br><br>-bp

[[old] PaulH]

Fred,<br><br>The other alternative, which I find preferable, is to click the [active posts] link. The list of active discussions you see will have a small blue blob to the left of some of the discussions. If you click on this blob it will take you to the last post in that discussion that you read. You can then read on from that point.<br><br>Hope that helps - I'll include it in the advice above when I get a minute!<br><br>Cheers, Paul

[[old] Mike McGuirk]

Paul - thanks for pointing out the "blob" on the Active Posts" view. I had overlooked that. It is a <b>major</b> help in efficient navigation.<br>

[[old] PaulH]

Now all we need is a snappy name for it. How about 'Bob', I've always liked that name.

[[old] Bayko]

I kinda like "blob." It reminds me of the Steve McQueen horror movie from the '60's. (Or was it the '50's?) <br><br>Rick

[[old] ElCaballo]

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td class='genmed'><span class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></span> </td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The other alternative, which I find preferable, is to click the [active posts] link. The list of active discussions you see will have a small blue blob to the left of some of the discussions. If you click on this blob it will take you to the last post in that discussion that you read. You can then read on from that point.<!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><br><br>It seems to me that the blue blob takes me to the last post. I then have to scroll back until I find the last one I read and start from there.<br><br>I find this forum much more difficult when it comes to finding the posts I haven't read. I also miss the sub-threads. Here, the response to a given post may be buried many posts farther along. In the old forum, you knew immediately to which post the new post was a response. Here, you know this only when a portion of a previous post is quoted--then you end up rereading previous posts all the time.<br><br>Bill W.

[[old] PaulH]

Can you tell me what browser you're using? - Blob seems to work fine for most people on this and other forums.<br><br>As to the tree view, the ability to follow the threads was always something I liked as well. I think this format is just as good, but in different areas, so it's a question of adjusting (what seems clear is that we're not going back!)<br><br>Cheers, Paul

[[old] Pete Marston]

At the top of a string of messages you have shortcuts to "forum home" "training" etc. It would be useful to have these at the bottom of the message string too so you don't have to scroll back up after reading.<br><br>Cheers<br><br>Pete

[[old] PaulH]

Pete,<br><br>I'll take a look at that, though we don't have a lot of control over those things. Try pressing Ctrl-Home in the browser when you want to quickly return to the top of the page (may be browser-dependent) <br><br>Cheers, Paul