Where is "Mark this forum read" button?

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi, When ever I have finished reading one of the forums I would always click the " Mark this forum read button". At least that is what I think it was called. Then when I visited the creek later, I would know all of the posts that I haven't viewed yet. Is it still on each forum? If so, where is it located? Thanks. And I really like the new look of the creek. Great job, guys. Pete

[Dick Parr]

It looks like it is under Quick Links and back on the Home Page????

[Joe Suelter]

I made the same mistake...but it's there if you LOG IN, I didn't do that the first time here. The layout is pretty much the same as before.

[Aaron Koehl]

All,

Indeed there are lots of new changes here--most of them making the layout more compact. Here are a few tips- Please take a moment explore the following-

*SAWMILLCREEK-WIDE TOOLS*
At the top each screen, you will see a blue bar with [User CP, FAQ, Member's List, Calendar, New Posts, Search, Quick Links, Chat, and Log Out].

*FORUM-SPECIFIC TOOLS*
At the top of the forum, you will see a blue bar with [Forum Tools, Search this Forum]


To View New (unread) Posts:
Under the SawmillCreek Toolbar (top blue bar), click New Posts.

To Mark All Forums Read:
Under the SawmillCreek Toolbar (top blue bar), click Quick Links. There you can Mark all of your forums read.

To Mark just the Current Forum Read:
Under the Forum Toolbar (second blue bar from the top), click Forum Tools. There you can Mark This Forum Read.

Slainté!

[Ken Garlock]

Aaron, I think that the new release is good over all, but I must agree with Pete. I used the "mark all forums read" label at the bottom of the new posts page exclusively. Moving that feature to a pull-down is a case of the vendor, Jelsoft, telling the customer what he wants, and the the correct way of the customer specifiying the requirements. I suspect I am not alone in objecting to this non-enhancing change. When do you expect to have this resolved?

Once again I point out that there is too much white space on the new posts listing due to the GW&PT forum name requiring 3 lines and the other forums only requiring two. Yes, I am being picky, but I don't have access to high speed DSL, data is data when it comes to downloading.

Third, everytime I move between a specific post and the list that it came from, my system goes back to your server to reread the list. This is a waste of my time, and bandwidth and CPU cycles on your server. Can this be changed to just accept the forum list as it existed prior to viewing a specific post?

Monday morning grouchy

[Bart Leetch]

[QUOTE=Ken Garlock]Aaron,
Third, every-time I move between a specific post and the list that it came from, my system goes back to your server to reread the list. This is a waste of my time, and bandwidth and CPU cycles on your server. Can this be changed to just accept the forum list as it existed prior to viewing a specific post?

Ken While I like a forum list where I can click on the list & the message opens up in a separate window. What I do is right click & select from the drop down menu open the message in a separate window

[Aaron Koehl]

Bart,

Or better yet.. try holding down 'Shift' and clicking-- it'll save you a right mouse click.

[Aaron Koehl]

Aaron, I think that the new release is good over all, but I must agree with Pete. I used the "mark all forums read" label at the bottom of the new posts page exclusively. Moving that feature to a pull-down is a case of the vendor, Jelsoft, telling the customer what he wants, and the the correct way of the customer specifiying the requirements. I suspect I am not alone in objecting to this non-enhancing change. When do you expect to have this resolved?

The Mark All Forums Read has been added back to the bottom of the New Posts list- I had to change this after the last upgrade, too. In addition, I've modified the code so that the pop-ups (previews) only appear when you hover the mouse over the link, rather than the full table. I'm not sure who at Jelsoft decided to change a good thing into bad.

Once again I point out that there is too much white space on the new posts listing due to the GW&PT forum name requiring 3 lines and the other forums only requiring two. Yes, I am being picky, but I don't have access to high speed DSL, data is data when it comes to downloading.

Once again, I'll point out that we don't have any control over your screen resolution, or Windows Large Fonts setting on your computer. Moreover, it's not a setting we can detect (so we couldn't have adjusted our font size to compensate). With the current set up (for most people), most of the forum names appear on a single line, with the GWW&PT forum on two lines. The two lines didn't make a difference either, as each search result is two lines long anyway. However, I did make the forum name a smaller font, but only because it didn't need to be as large as it was.

Remember that no matter what your font size, and no matter how much white space appears, it all takes the same amount of time to download. Your browser is the one that renders the text large, depending on your settings and screen resolution, and doesn't affect our CPU cycles or bandwidth, sorry. The only time bandwidth is a consideration in this case is when downloading images.

Third, everytime I move between a specific post and the list that it came from, my system goes back to your server to reread the list. This is a waste of my time, and bandwidth and CPU cycles on your server. Can this be changed to just accept the forum list as it existed prior to viewing a specific post?

Monday morning grouchy

Here's a little tip that I use when I'm on dialup: I leave the New Posts search results in their own window--if you Shift+Click (or right click, open in new window) you can open the threads you would like to read in new windows. This way, while you're looking through your search results for posts of interest, you can be downloading those threads in the background. This will also prevent you from reloading your search results.

On the bright side, when you do reload your search, the results are cached for a good period of time. This way, your search results don't have to be recalculated each time, saving lots of our CPU cycles.

[Ken Garlock]

...

Once again, I'll point out that we don't have any control over your screen resolution, or Windows Large Fonts setting on your computer. Moreover, it's not a setting we can detect (so we couldn't have adjusted our font size to compensate). With the current set up (for most people), most of the forum names appear on a single line, with the GWW&PT forum on two lines. The two lines didn't make a difference either, as each search result is two lines long anyway. However, I did make the forum name a smaller font, but only because it didn't need to be as large as it was.

Remember that no matter what your font size, and no matter how much white space appears, it all takes the same amount of time to download. Your browser is the one that renders the text large, depending on your settings and screen resolution, and doesn't affect our CPU cycles or bandwidth, sorry. The only time bandwidth is a consideration in this case is when downloading images.

Here's a little tip that I use when I'm on dialup: I leave the New Posts search results in their own window--if you Shift+Click (or right click, open in new window) you can open the threads you would like to read in new windows. This way, while you're looking through your search results for posts of interest, you can be downloading those threads in the background. This will also prevent you from reloading your search results.

On the bright side, when you do reload your search, the results are cached for a good period of time. This way, your search results don't have to be recalculated each time, saving lots of our CPU cycles.

Come on Aaron, the font size is set by the server, and can be, but not normally changed by Internet Explorer by user choice under Tools/General/Accessibility. Otherwise, the View/test/size has no effect. I played with adjusting the text size and all it did was to adjust the entire window size smaller or larger, it didn't cause any change to the four lines required by GW&PT label. As Robin Williams said in Dead Poets Society "Wrong, but thank you for playing."

I am quite aware that the font size is a parameter sent down by the server, and doesn't constitute a bit flow of the larger font. My complaint is that I am re querying the server on a back arrow. That is a waste of bandwidth/CPU cycles. Anytime I see the little M/S flag waving in the top corner of the window, I am communicating with the server, and that is what happens on a back arrow.... Go over to Wood Central and see the difference in back and forward arrow when moving between screens.

[Bart Leetch]

Bart,

Or better yet.. try holding down 'Shift' and clicking-- it'll save you a right mouse click.

Thats nice Aaron thank you.

But I don't think I'll need to do it that way, I've got the Logitech marble mouse under my right hand with my 1st 2 fingers on the ball & my thumb left clicking & my 3rd finger right clicking, its much quicker this way.

Thanks, Bart

[Aaron Koehl]

Come on Aaron, the font size is set by the server, and can be, but not normally changed by Internet Explorer by user choice under Tools/General/Accessibility. Otherwise, the View/test/size has no effect. I played with adjusting the text size and all it did was to adjust the entire window size smaller or larger, it didn't cause any change to the four lines required by GW&PT label. As Robin Williams said in Dead Poets Society "Wrong, but thank you for playing."

I am quite aware that the font size is a parameter sent down by the server, and doesn't constitute a bit flow of the larger font. My complaint is that I am re querying the server on a back arrow. That is a waste of bandwidth/CPU cycles. Anytime I see the little M/S flag waving in the top corner of the window, I am communicating with the server, and that is what happens on a back arrow.... Go over to Wood Central and see the difference in back and forward arrow when moving between screens.

Then either your screen resolution is to blame, or you have a non-standard video setup, or you have your Windows settings displaying large fonts. The font size in the HTML document is set to a small font--it's apparently displaying differently for you, due to a setting on your end. It also jumped from three lines to four--after I made the font size of the Forum name smaller.

Your second complaint, as you put it, is a separate issue. Yes, when you click the back arrow, your browser queries the server. What you describe is the basic functionality of a browser. For static pages, like Google.com, the page can be loaded from your local cache. SawmillCreek, however is dynamic. If we set it so that the page would load from your local cache, then the "View New Posts" would no longer work (because it wouldn't be asking the server for new posts), and all you'd ever see would be the same posts over and over. Thus, when you ask your browser to reload the View New Posts page (by clicking back), you're going to get a dynamic page, which obviously can't exist in your local cache.

Woodcentral is split into frames, which you can think of as a way of displaying two separate browser windows in one. In this case, you have a "Search Results" frame on top, and the actual post content appearing at the bottom. When you click the back button, your browser only loads a page in the bottom frame, leaving the Search Results (index) page untouched.

Similarly, if you click "View New Posts" here (SMC), you get a "Search Results" page. I suggest you Shift+Click the posts you'd like to view to open them in a new window (new content frames)--you're not going to get a dynamic page to load from your cache.

If you'd like to see the same behavior at Woodcentral that you describe, try right clicking on the upper frame, and click "Refresh" a couple of times--you'll see that it requeries and reloads the entire Forum index (Search Results). Again, the basic functionality of the web, and dynamic websites.

For the text size (which is already set to a small size), you need to configure settings on your end. As far as the search results, I'm not sure that there is a problem here, or if there is, it's just a matter of realizing what you're actually asking the browser to do.

"Just when you think you know something, you have to look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly or wrong, you must try!" -- Robin Williams, Dead Poet's Society