New board- for better or worse
 

So after a few weeks on the new board I would like some honest feedback. I won't be seeing your answers so please vote the way you feel. It's not like we will go back to the old board but I would like to get an approval (or unapproval) rating.

functionality and design are better, content seems to be sliding over the years (webpage indifferent)

I think the board and the chat room are major upgrades from the old one, but that's just my opinion. :)

Brian
 

You realize there is an easy fix to make the content be better? :)

Better!
 

I love the new forum! Speed is excellent. Navigation is great. New features are perfect!

Overall quite pleased with the new board...
 

I like the new board better than the old one so far. The page load speed issue has definitely been resolved for me.

I do have some concern about the amount of traffic on the B/S/T boards though. It seems the for sale and for trade posts have really dropped off. Maybe it's just that I am wanting (hoping) to get started on whatever low grade set I decide on so my perception is skewed or something.

Other than that, which is not the new board's fault at all, I like this new site.

---Donny

Better, board speed was really my only initial reservation and that has been resolved

No complaints here, I voted "better" then the prior board.
Many new features, and some I haven't even played w/ yet.
At least I added an avatar this time around. ;)
and ya gotta love the easy use of the smileys!

Funny thing about change in the internet world, be it eBay,
a message board, an auction site or a website.
Once you go on it long enough, you will forget how the prior one
was set up as you will be used to the new one.

Agreed. I will work up a post or two...

Overall I like it better. The one thing I miss is being able to see the whole thread on one page.

An upgrade on all counts.

Better, especially once I figured out how to make 40 posts per page rather
than the default setting of 10, so there weren't so many different pages.

No contest. This board is light years better, in every way.

In my opinion, of course.

Great job, guys.

-Al

I was one of the few who voted "the same", but for those who are computer challenged it's like saying it's better.

alanu
 

Have you set your default to 40 for the number of posts being seen in each thread? Only a small amount of threads really go over 40 posts but I do agree that one page would be better on those threads. I think we got what we got though, as far as that goes.

Mark VL
 

I like the new board. The albums have lots of potential. And the change has brought some new energy to the board and has even distracted us from quarreling, cheap shots, ad hominem back and forth, etc. At the same time, I'm still having a few problems with posting pictures. But I think that this is more of a reflection on my computer abilities than on the board.

poll
 

Thanks,Leon, i'm swimming quite well despite being an ichthyosaur.
You and your associates very hard work is much appreciated.

best,
barry

Better

Leon/David,

Thanks for the tip on switching to 40 posts per page, much better now!

-Alan

I find it easier to get on. :D

While we're on the subject of 40 posts .....
Will some one please help this computer illiterate with the steps to happiness, via the 10 to 40 posts page.
Thank you.
The illiterate one. :)

I am digging it!

There are a few things here that have taken a few seconds getting use to.

Sort of like getting a new car and reaching for the old spot where the headlights used to be in your old car. :)

Joe P and others
 

To make each thread display 40 posts instead of 10 you need to go to the

User CP > settings and options > edit options > thread display options

then look for the number 10 where it says show number of posts and change it to 40....

Please let me know if anyone doesn't see how to do this. It is a big help..:)

Come on, Joe P., you should have dug a little for the answer. You'd enjoy the board a lot more that way.

New board- for better or worse Reply to Thread
 

I would say about the same, but once I get some time to look at more that could change

Jimmy

Yippee! ... Thank you Leon ... What a country!

Always go to the source.

I said to myself ... If Leon can do it ..... :)

Hi Leon - I actually like this board; was wondering - is there a way to let the users run polls too?

Marvin
 

Any registered user can run a poll. When you are posting a new thread it gives you the option at the bottom of the post, where it says additional options. There is an option for a poll; click it. You do your normal thread post and then, if you have that option clicked on, once you hit the submit reply button it will take you to the poll to set it up, in that thread (before it actually posts). Go over to the test forum and give it a try. It's super easy once you do it one time :eek: ....If you have any issues you can let me know and we can hop in the chat room and I will guide you through it. take care

ps...the test forum is 2 forums below the main one...

Marvin, just look under the text box for additional options and you'll see a box where you can do a poll. You can only do this if you start the thread.

edited to add Leon beat me to it and with a much better answer.

Re : New board- for better or worse Reply to Thread
 

This board is better than the old in my humble opinion. A lot more features, ease of use, and the option for Smilies is what sold me. :);):D:rolleyes:

Ok, gotcha! Thanks Leon and Kelly :)

http://photos.imageevent.com/kawika_...rver_Error.jpg

New board way mo' bettah!

I wish there was a "lightyears better than" option.

Edit: ha - I see All already made that comment!

Seeing that white Internal Server Error screen answers the question by itself! :)

Much better with up to date features and easier to navigate.Great job Leon,I Applaud you :cool:

The format of this board is better.

The old board allowed larger images to be posted. In that regard the old board was better. And pasting a PhotoBucket link was easier than going back to CP, then to an album, then uploading an image, then back to the album, then finding the image to find the link. Before, the link was right there once you uploaded the image. The new process is acceptable, wish it allowed for larger images.

The old board also allowed for a link to email someone who'd posted. What this board does is allow for a message within the board site, and then sends an email that the message was sent. I liked the way the old board functioned in that regard.

The new board allows for typing, format, color, and alignment options that are vastly better than the old board. The new board loads quicker. The 40 post limit is acceptable. I've not even looked at the B/S/T, but I believe what's posted above.

All in all, a good, sensible move. Thank you.

The new board is just peachy. It's even cooler because now there are 3 T210 avatars in a row!

The new board offers you the ability to do so many things the old board was not capable of.

The beauty of the new board is for those that want to keep it simple you can do just the things you did on the old board and still participate.

Win/Win

Amen, SkyBar... gotta love those Old Mills!!!

And Tim is right, it is win/win. Dinosaurs (I include myself in that) can figure out the basics here without much difficulty at all.

FW

Sorry for the late bump, but just want to say I really like the new board. The search issues I had with the previous attempt are gone. I can now locate just about any thread of interest (complete and searchable archives).

Thanks !

I definitely....
 

...like it better. I do second comments about BST being pretty sparse at the moment though.

I voted "better" but I won't be convinced until I see Jim Crandell over here. I miss hearing about his fabulous collection.

DH

with all the new people (and old members suspiciously changing login ids) can we add a feedback score for each user? that would involve more work for the mods. i just don't want to be rip off...again.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding what you mean wrt the emailing and posting pictures.

But when you click on a user's name who posted and choose to send them an email, you DO have to send the email to the user through a form on the boards (as you mentioned). But the email is sent to that person with your full message and your (the sender's) email address just like a regular email. There is a small blurb at the top of the email saying that it's from a user on the boards. It then allows you to email them back as you would normally (in whatever program you get your emails), or to go through the boards to respond. This is done to protect your email address from people that you may not want having it, while still allowing you to receive emails.

As far as posting images, on the old board you could just post the address of a Photobucket image and it would appear in your post. The process here is almost exactly the same. You just need to include the code [IMG][/IMG] before and after the image address. You don't have to go through the cp. In fact all you need to do when making a post to insert an image is click on the little mountain icon and paste the image address into the pop-up window. It will insert the code automatically. And when you do it this way, you can have full size pictures, as the old boards (as seen below).

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...g?t=1242481666


Sorry if this was long, rambling or confusing, or if I misunderstood your dislikes, but the new boards have a lot to offer.

Well I don't know if I can explain it so you can WRT understand....


Before, I clicked on someone's name and I could email them with a real email from me... from my email program. Now, the email is through this board, this site sends them an email (not me), and when the recipient gets that it takes a moment to scroll to where the real message is. Plus, whenever the recipient comes back to this board, they then have to fool with going to CP, to delete the message from there, too. Suffice to say, the old board dealt with emails in a much more streamlined, efficient, better way.

As for the images, the image size is more limited here. I find the thumbnails an annoyance, and once I do open them the image still isn't large enough to suit me. Again, I think the old board dealt with that better.

Golly, I ended my other post with "All in all, a good, sensible move. Thank you.", if that isn't a positive endorsement I don't know what is. I just mentioned contrasting shortcomings honestly.

Dave mentioned the absence of Jim Crandell up there a few posts ago. I doubt if anyone here has greater disdain for Jim's collecting approach than I do. But my abhorrence of high numbers on slabs should not be mask my praise of Jim's passion, or my appreciation of his collecting knowledge. He's a smart fellow, wish he was posting here. Although the posts I most enjoy are about nuances of card sets, card variations, the history of the game, the history of collecting. If Jim never shows up here, then that is another way the old board was better, 'cause Jim definitely was a presence there.

When I saw Barry posting with his name, that seemed sensible to me, so I changed to FrankWakefield, leaving the Greatwake that I'd chosen when I first started on eBay years ago, in a frantic moment, as I was attempting to sign up for eBay so I could bid on a ball card of The Great Mails; permutations of my name were taken, and as I thought of the Walter Mails card selling I typed in Greatwake, and it took.... I like the real name better here, for me.

So again, the move to this board is a positive, sensible move. Glad Leon and the guys did it. I thank them for it. But it isn't perfect. Yet.

Frank
 

Thanks again for your honest feedback. First of all I owe you a credit for letting me get a copy of the Egan handbook. I have used it often. It is one of, if not the, best book on candy cards in the hobby, imho. Thanks again for that. It is also noted that Egan actually said in the handbook that it could be copied and used in the hobby if credit is given when used.

As for the new board I am not sure how it could ever be perfect? What would be perfect for you would no doubt not be perfect for others, and vice versa. At this point we have about a 91% approval rating (same or better) so I classify it as a success. It is definitely better for security issues and support issues, which help us moderators/admins quite a bit. If we lost a few members in the process then that is a shame. There is absolutely no reason someone can't figure this board out, if not at least minimal things, in order to participate. I am still having troubles with some operations and there are a few things I did like about the old board better....but all in all I am far and away happier with this board than the old one. best regards

The new board is a quantum improvement.

This board format is much better, glad we're here.


And Leon, you're most welcome. Egan's List is an amazing work. Before it, there wasn't much of anything, just notes and lists made by individual collectors. What Lew Lipset created with his Encyclopedia on early candy and gum cards is built on the foundations laid by Egan. And what we see in The Standard Catalog, or in Beckett's, that stuff is merely a rehashing of what Mr. Lipset did. Any collector of the E cards owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Egan. Leon, when I learned you'd not seen Egan's work I knew you'd love to see it. You needed it!! Glad to send a copy where it would be appreciated.

Frank - thanks for the constructive feedback - I believe what you are describing in the first paragraph above is a "Private Message." When you send someone an email through the board it gets sent directly to their email account and there is no remnant of it on the user CP and nothing to manage as far as deleting in the user CP either. That management is only when you send a "Private Message" which basically is like a board messaging account and since the board stores those messages you have to reply to them and delete them from the board.

As far as the images go, we can discuss changing things so that uploaded images will display larger when the thumbnail is clicked. I'm not sure what limit the old board had on uploading images, but we can certainly look into it. On the plus side, your uploaded images aren't removed after 2 weeks like they were on the old board.

Not being one of the more computer-savy members of the board who would use many of the new features of the new board (though the quote feature is great, as is the ease of previewing and editing before posting), I was fine with the old board but also am perfectly comfortable with the new one. The one thing, though, I would like to see adjusted is to be able to see all the posts on a thread on one page (the limit now is 40). Yes, I understand most threads do not achieve 40 posts so it becomes a none-issue to those, but some do, which by their nature are often the more interesting ones.

I have mentioned this to Leon, who would love to accomodate but is constrained by the limitations imposed upon him. But I bring it up nonetheless because maybe with enough interest expressed it would make it more likely that someday it will get done.

Corey
 

As always thanks for your input too. Just as the slowness of the first trial run on the new board was my biggest pet peeve (and many others' peeve also) the amount of posts being able to be seen, on a single page, is a bit of one too. WE can look into it but as you stated, and as far as I know it's true, this 40 post viewable count is a s/w limitation. This s/w has far fewer limitations than the old s/w but it does have some. We are also looking into a point system for trading on the BST. Over time I think there will be some good, minor improvements. Just yesterday we implemented a larger banner at the very top, which doesn't do much for operational functionality but it does make the top of the front page (and all pages) look just a little bit better. Thanks to MEARS also for being a good advertiser. Troy K has been great to work with on their stuff and I wish their auctions all the best.... regards