Improvements to website?

[Karafan]

Nothing to add, really - apart from I love this site and the ability it affords us all to communicate in the demise of auntie's board. Well done FF and all concerned from me - and many thanks.

PS One thought did strike me though - can we upload images to our posts.....?

Best wishes

Karafan

[french frank]

One thought did strike me though - can we upload images to our posts.....?

A recent thread on this subject is here.

Brief answer - you can't include them as attachments, but if they are on the web you can use the Insert Image button (third from the right in the line of icons just above your message window. If they are very big, it's better to copy them on to your desktop, resize them, and upload them to an image-sharing site like photobucket. All you need to do then is to copy the IMG code. By this method you can also upload your own pictures and include them.

The IMG code will insert them like this:



This has the same effect as attaching them but doesn't take up the same amount of space on the website.

[Frances_iom]

F_iom
Something else in your personal settings?

it's slow wrt other sites I visit - possibly my settings but pages tend to load first few entries quickly then pause for quite a bit then a few more etc.
maybe my settings - need to experiment

re images I'd be very wary of allowing yet alone encouraging these

[Anna]

I have to agree with Frances regarding images, just my personal opinion of course, I don't like them and having to scroll through acres of photos (if they are not resized properly they can also throw the whole page out for viewing) is tedious. If they are via a link which you can choose to click on, or not, then that's OK.

[Mark Sealey]

Unfortunately, Frances_iom, turning off JavaScript these days is indeed likely to slow things down considerably. Why do you do that?

:-)

I'll discuss this with Mark. I can't think why page loading should be slow (does anyone else have a problem?). Which sort of links are 'messy'?

[french frank]

I'm still not able to replicate what Frances is describing. I've now switched to Opera and have turned off Javascript. I'm missing the same features as with Camino, but the forum is behaving just the same, no slowing down. (What am I doing wrong???)

[Paul Sherratt]

This fine site is as quick as a brown fox on this machine.
There again there might not be too much forum traffic in North Staffordshire.

[MrGongGong]

seems to work fine for me as well
and i'm on the train using free wifi which is often very clunky at this time of day

[Frances_iom]

I'm still not able to replicate what Frances is describing. ...no slowing down.

it might just be my settings if no one else is seeing same - I always get higher + better speeds here on IoM from Manx Telecom than back in UK from BT (even tho I'm within a stones throw of exchange there) so I suspect it's just the usual poor quality of BT service as the usual hiccup like nature of the connection manifests itself there even though I have very similar machines + identical software in both places.

[Schrödinger's Cat]

FF - if you do make any changes could you test then for the 0.1% users like myself who browse without Javascript and without displaying any images - also I wasn't aware there was any colour on the MB as I always browse with my settings rather than the websites.
Text loads quicker, tho for some reason this MB is one of the slowest and has some of the messiest onmouse hover that I've seen.
Javascript is heavily implicated in many attacks (eg National Geographic (a family safe site) was recently serving malware from its banner adverts

Frances, you're right about the dangers of having Javascript enabled. A better solution than having it turned off all the time is to use Firefox with the NoScript extension installed - that way you get Javascript blocked by default for all sites. You can then explicitly allow it for sites that you trust.

Re red colour scheme:- as I'm currently typing in low light conditions, the bright red stripes mean that I can see cyan stripes when I look back to the keyboard

[french frank]

Frances, you're right about the dangers of having Javascript enabled. A better solution than having it turned off all the time is to use Firefox with the NoScript extension installed - that way you get Javascript blocked by default for all sites. You can then explicitly allow it for sites that you trust.

Re red colour scheme:- as I'm currently typing in low light conditions, the bright red stripes mean that I can see cyan stripes when I look back to the keyboard

Oh, dear . It's a bit like trying to accommodate all tastes from carnivores who like their steak saignant to raw food vegans and fruitarians ...

Schrödinger's Cat - why (just as a point of interest) do you type in low light conditions at 12.49pm?

[Frances_iom]

Frances, you're right about the dangers of having Javascript enabled. A better solution than having it turned off all the time is to use Firefox with the NoScript extension installed - that way you get Javascript blocked by default for all sites. You can then explicitly allow it for sites that you trust.

that is my usual approach but to turn it own only as and when needed - usually those sites that need it, generally to serve adverts, I can afford to ignore - for awkward ones looking at html source often gives me all the info eg to find an explicit image or reference of interest
Also on windows to use a large hosts file to block known pestilent tracking sources + other bottom feeders, tho from 26 May it is a legal requirement to request explicit permission to install tracking cookies.

[Frances_iom]

Schrödinger's Cat - why (just as a point of interest) do you type in low light conditions at 12.49pm?

he's still in the box !

[hackneyvi]

I'm surprised that there isn't a separate Opera section. Or have I missed it? (By the way, I'm not sure why I capitalised 'Opera', just then).

There's one for Choral, Early, New music etc but not Opera. By convention, where would I post my scant thoughts on an opera production?

[french frank]

I'm surprised that there isn't a separate Opera section. Or have I missed it? (By the way, I'm not sure why I capitalised 'Opera', just then).

There's one for Choral, Early, New music etc but not Opera. By convention, where would I post my scant thoughts on an opera production?

Well, we started out by mirroring the categories of the old BBC messageboards, but have expanded them somewhat since then. Failing a dedicated opera forum, Opera on 3 (for example) would go under Performance. I could introduce an Opera sub-forum there.

My own view is that having many different boards could mean that some topics will get very few posts and they will therefore tend to be ignored. But I added extra boards, like Building a Library (because the topic is very popular) and Hear & Now (to encourage people to start and join in discussions). If you think a separate board for opera is needed, I'll add it as a sub-forum of Performance ...

Btw, although this thread was started specifically to discuss improvements in terms of content, my original Announcement was, six months after our launch, intended to timidly gauge satisfaction in the administration, running and moderation i.e. one Moderator (moi) and administrative Hosts who keep a range of discussion going on R3 programmes, keep individual boards 'tidy' &c. ...