Hi dialyn, The programmers are working on some changes to the way the forums operate. If you see any strange anomalies its more than likely due to the programmers making the changes. I dont have an extimated time of completion but will post back when they have finished. Clint

Thanks!

Is this look permanent? Please tell me it isn't. Thanks! Cres

If you're still experimenting, please try the "NEW" column on the far left so as to be next to the forum name/link.

Ummm...I cant say I like the change either..liked being able to see exactly how many new posts were made since the last time I checked them....:|

Looks exactly like all the other forums that show number of posts / threads. One of the nice things about Rend is that I can SEE how many new posts there are. Old forums that get rare posts or none now I'd have to go in and see. Hopefully it's just programmers doing their thing and it goes back or they add a new posts since last visit column, one of the nice features that I do appriciate.

Just one little request, would it be possible to get the "Yes" or "No" displayed in red? I really liked that about the old set-up. The number of new posts would be even better, for those of us that use the Mark all Read" option. I liked that too :))

I also prefer to know how many new posts. The columns don't look quite as "defined" as you move down the page and quite frankly, I don't care how many post and how many threads a forum has or who posted last. That's a bit of a waste.

Hey, mine's not in color! Why is that? (I'm just using plain old IE6). :-/ -Heidi

Mine is the color it is because those are my defaults. Change the defaults in your profile, change the look.

Ahh -- the light is dawning! Well that makes sense then. Thanks! -H

It would really be nice to allow the threads that have been read to drop off, rather than have to mark ALL read, sometimes I would like to have a thread stay open while others around it drop off.

Don't care for the new look, all I want to know is how many new posts are there in the groups, the rest is just noise and makes the page look cluttered.

Agree with diana; I think the page is too cluttered now. I'm not particularly interested in the total number of posts in a forum, or how many threads there are. Liked being able to see # of new posts.

Ditto what Diana and Djeser said. Why is it necessary to look like everyone else? This place was unique and should stay that way. All I care about is the number of new posts. Don't give a flying flip for number of threads, total number of posts and who made the last post. That information is totally useless.

Sigh Looks like its going to stay that way for awhile.. :(

Displaying the number of new posts for each forum causes extreme system loads to calculate this for the number of members we have surfing and the number of forums we have. Displaying if there are new posts, rather than the actual number of new posts, is much less of a system strain and should help speed up the forums when we have heavy user loads. Clint

In my opinion, the number of threads, posts and the last poster are not really needed, so if we can't have the actually useful information about how many new posts, at least can we get rid of that clutter? Also, I too would prefer you move the NEW column to the left of the group name where it is easier to pick out groups with new messages since it will align like a column better. A color variation for yes would be helpful. Also your pages have almost no white space on the left edge; it has always looked funky trying to read up against the edge of the browser window, like a page without margins.

sigh is it actually that important? really? truely? is it life of death how this page looks? will it damage your eyes? will the new look make you sterile? is it an offence unto god and nature? should't you all be worrying about things that are far more important than minor piffling details?

I didn't see anyone claim these changes were life threatening or a health threat, Khai. I certainly don't presume to have the right to decide what another member here has a right to worry about, or not.

This is a community and we, the members, are likely to discuss changes made to and in this community. Sometimes these discussions lead to refinements in the look and feel of this community. The previous group list worked better for some, like myself, that have small screens and prefer the group list be much narrower without the new columns. I already have to scroll left and right to view the pages, not just up and down.

The loss of valuable data (the number of new messages) to increase the speed is a tradeoff, but until I entered this discussion, I did not know the reason for the change. Those that never speak up, never get their questions answered. This is no more or less one of those community discussions, or at least it was.

this is the thing. we get loads of ppl complaining the site is slow. a change like this is made to speed the site up, involving a small cosmetic change, and ppl complain. thats what I am annoyed about. the change to the forums list is nothing. stops no one getting to the forums and reduces server overhead therefore speeding the site up. worth the trade off no? as to ' I didn't see anyone claim these changes were life threatening or a health threat, Khai. I certainly don't presume to have the right to decide what another member here has a right to worry about, or not.' are the complaints about the change presuming that those complainees have the right to complain on mine and others behalfs? I just get so fed up with the whining round here everytime a change is made for the better. decide what you will about that comment and me, cos I don't care, so long as the site works, is fast and is here.

Its important to some of us Khai..and this forum is here for us to discuss changes made in this community that affect us all. Many changes to this site have come from discussions and questions such as these. Its not 'piffling details' to some of us.

Would it be possible to track the number of posts per hour over the last 24, and then per day over the last month? Then all you'd need would be the time of last log-on (which you must be using for the new posts flag anyway) and a quick tot-up of whole hours and whole days, to give an "at least x new posts" for each forum. Would that be enough to be useful without clogging the server?

"...I just get so fed up with the whining round here everytime a change is made for the better. decide what you will about that comment and me, cos I don't care, so long as the site works, is fast and is here." Wow...that's what I call customer service :) Why the arrogance and irritation over such a trivial issue, admittedly? People like to know how many new posts there may be in a given forum..so what? Calculating that number puts too much load on the server? And calculating the total posts, and total threads doesn't? Less caffeine...relax, there are bigger issues to deal with ya know :-)

I think calculating the new posts for each member of Renderosity as they look on the forums does take more effort from the server than have a total number of messages and threads which is the same for everyone who looks at the site. Having a daily number of new posts would be more useful to me then the number of threads and messages. But that's just me. I don't need any count. I do find myself checking the forums less often now that I don't have a sense of new messages being posted. I guess that helps reduce the load on the server right there.

If the number of new posts per forum is what's been bogging down the servers, fine, then get rid of that if necessary. My biggest problem with the new columns is that it makes the main screen even more difficult to read. The forum titles are smaller, the forum descriptions are smaller and for those of us with vision problems it's not a very good thing. I have always operated on the K.I.S.S. principle. My suggestion would be to lose the additional info (number of threads, total number of posts, last person posting) and just have the formum title/description and the yes/no new posts. Much less clutter and way easier to read that way. Kate (who just had to get new glasses again sigh)

Just wanted to let everyone know how much we value your input, suggestions and requests. I will be happy to pass along the suggestions to adjust the presentation layout. (i.e.. remove who posted last, put "New posts: Yes or No" on the left.) As for displaying the number of new posts, this is being traded off in order to gain increased performance. Most folks prefer improved site performance and speed, over viewing the individual number of posts made. We thought this to be a logical enhancement. Best wishes, LillianH Renderosity Marketing & Promotions

Thanks Lillian

The forum page is much smaller on Netscape than IE. It's a bit difficult for me to read and I don't use reading glasses. It's the only site that has such small text Netscape-wise. Putting the Yes/No column to the left would be very helpful. If it seems a little distracting with the column headings, then you could simply use an asterick to indicate which forums have new posts. (It might make it easier for people to quickly see which forums to visit.) I can understand why you might want to keep the posts/threads columns but personally I have no use for it. The last poster column isn't very useful, either, due to the way it is scrunched up. Maybe ditching the year would help cut down on the clutter for that column. That's my 2 yen, Cres

Hey Cres, I dont know if this works in Netscape but in IE you can adjust your font size on the fly by holding CTRL and rolling your mouse wheel. FYI only, Clint

Whoa! Thanks for that info, Clint. I'm wheel mousing my text all over the place! :-) That just fixed a whole lot of problems for me! -Heidi

Yea - Its not very well known that this can be done. I use it daily. It all depends on what I'm doing .. Glad it helped! Clint