Big thank you and big rant about new bulletin board software.

[Richard Hobbes]

Everyone,

I've run out of time for posting today so here is a big thank you to everyone that replied to my "back with a vengence" thread. Thanks for welcoming me to the new board. The more I use it, the more I dislike the new board software, however, it's great being back in the gaming community with such a fine group of people.

System Wars Lives! :-)

RH.

P.S. Does anyone hate the new bulletin board because of its lack of a decent threaded view? I just can't stand it. Here are the problems I see:

1.) The thread window is so tiny that you can't see the thread list very well.

2.) Clicking on a link in the list reloads and repositions your browser window so you lose track of where you were.

3.) The thread window hides levels of detail even when all plus signs are open. What's up with the "more levels of detail below" links? These stink because they hide replies. You can never be sure if you are actually seeing the entire list.

I want to see the entire thread list, full screen, in my browser window. When you click on a link, the content pops up in a new browser window. This way you can view the entire thread list full screen, you never lose your place in the thread list, and you can view replies full screen too. Gee... just like the "old" bulletin board!

Because of the poor threading capabilities in the new board, I have been using flat views. The problem with the flat views is that they completely eliminate any sense of who is talking to whom.

Oh... and one more pet peeve. I hate bulletin board software that repositions threads based on the last time they are added to. How the heck can you find anything when it keeps moving around? Thus, the new VGR bulletin board software fails me once again.

(Sorry... I just had to get that off my chest.)

[stevedperkins]

I hear ya! My initial reaction of outright hatred has soften a bit, as I explored the features available under profile settings (<i>actually by "explored the features", I really mean "learned how to disable every godd**n last one of them that I could"!</i>). Call me a dinosaur, but I just preferred the old board (<i>actually I prefer posting on Usenet with a decent newsreader when I can, but I haven't found anything quite like System Wars out there</i>). However, too many kids love "expressing themselves" through retarded avatars (<i>as opposed to actually writing good and unique posts</i>)... and the admins act as if they were <b><i>embarrassed</i></b> that the old boards even existed, since all the other "cool" admins on the Internet had more bells-n-whistles to administer.

I want to see the entire thread list, full screen, in my browser window. When you click on a link, the content pops up in a new browser window. This way you can view the entire thread list full screen, you never lose your place in the thread list, and you can view replies full screen too. Gee... just like the "old" bulletin board!You could just right-click and choose "Open in New Window" rather than use a normal left-click.

Oh... and one more pet peeve. I hate bulletin board software that repositions threads based on the last time they are added to. How the heck can you find anything when it keeps moving around?Hell yes, that drives me nuts too! The thing already puts a special icon beside threads to let you know when there are new unread posts, what's the point of <b><i>also</i></b> moving the thread to the top of the list?!? All that Soul Calibur stuff the other day was about to drive me to violence.

[Richard Hobbes]

All,

Here is an example of what happens when you reorder posts based on replies.

Another bulletin board I use has the same problem as the new VGR boards - it moves posts to the top of the thread list when they are replied to. Thus, in order for authors to keep their posts in a place where people can find them, you get lot's of posts with a single word in them as follows:

Bump.

(This means "bump" my post back to the top of the thread list. Silly to have to combat the bulletin board software this way isn't it? I'd really like it if VGR could configure the bulletin board so that it leaves posts in the order they were originally posted.)

RH.

[Richard Hobbes]

stevedperkins,

--- You could just right-click and choose
--- "Open in New Window" rather than use
--- a normal left-click.

Geesh. I'm an idiot. Thanks for solving one of my problems with the threaded view. Now if I could get the thread list to fill my screen I'd be really happy. It is a major pain navigating such a small window when the rest of my 21" monitor is not being used.

RH.

[Darwin]

Well, along with all the other problems that the gamefaqs message boards have (troll armies, as I like to call them), they also use this same basic idea for bumping threads. Thus, the board gets a slew of people going "bump" or some other clever variation in order to bump that thread. Then, in addition to this, you've got the guys who post simply to ask, "please bump my post". It really dilutes out the more legitimate posts in the long run, making it more difficult for everyone.

[Richard Hobbes]

Here is another problem I just discovered in the new bulletin board.

Becaue the threaded views stink, eveyone uses the flat view. In the flat view, it is not feasible to show all replies on a single page (I'm presuming because of the amount of data that would need to be transfered from the server to the cleint). Thus, threads are now broken up into pages. Yuck! I was using my browser's Find feature to locate a reply that I knew had been made, but it kept not being found. That's when I discoverd that the reply had been pusehd onto a second page for the thread. Like I said... yuck. With the old board I opened the thread list in a full screen window and violla, I could see all replies on a single page.

While the old board didn't have some of the bells and whistles of this new one, it sure got the basic features right.

RH.

[Chris]

I've addressed this stuff in the Site Feedback forum already, but I'll post a couple suggestions here too - as Steve said, use the right click feature on your mouse and choose the "open in new window" option when opening threads if you want them to open in a new window. And if we see people "bumping" threads, or filling up threads with flaming and other nonsense which keeps them up at the top of the list of threads, we'll close it. In fact, you can all help us by "reporting" the thread. The fact that active threads stay up at the top can be a good thing, even though some of use aren't used to it yet. We just have to make sure and prevent the potential issues from becoming big issues.