Look And Feel

[Greg]

I'm asking people to list their ideas and comments regarding the look and feel of the forum, so that this information can be passed on to the technical experts for their eventual consideeration.  

Also, I'm simply testing the "create new topic" capacity.  

[lagarvelho]

Greg:

Hmmmmm......  One thing I *do* like is that the color layout of the board is easy to read(dark background, l ight print).  These are not my favorite colors, but they *are* easy to read, which can be important.  OTOH, figuring out how to log in is still a bit of a pain.  
Anne G

[rich]

Looks cool so far & v easy to the eye  PLUS so quick to get in to. AND no ads to steer around.  
Rich

[rathbone]

Feedback...

The "edit profile" section seems not to be working.


Also, how does one save a message, e.g. to a text file?

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Most of the "bells and whistles" that were part of the original, open source program we are using for PALANTH - Forum have been discarded or deactivated, including a bunch of little yellow "smillies. I personally find them offensive and, since I am in charge of this project, I can assure you that  they'll not be reactivated.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[Dale Hoogeveen]

Hi Greg,

This is nice.

BTW Opera handles this site very well and is very fast, although I did have a little trouble getting logon to work with it this morning.  I couldn't get permission to edit my profile or compose a reply.

Currently I am using IE with no problems whatsoever.
All features seem to work in the forum.

Good luck.

Peace

Dutch

[lagarvelho]

Jacques:

Most of the "bells and whistles" that were part of the original, open source program we are using for PALANTH - Forum have been discarded or deactivated, including a bunch of little yellow "smillies. I personally find them offensive and, since I am in charge of this project, I can assure you that  they'll not be reactivated.

You *might* wish to reconsider.  Why?  Because we are not communicating face to face, and sometimes people say things in jest, so to speak(no, I'm not talking about "offensive" stuff.  The "smilies", while perhaps annoying, serve a useful purpose in that they visually make the poster's intentions clear.  OTOH, I guess there's no reason why you can't just make "print" smiles(e.g. :-)  )
Anne G

[k_e_dennis]

I'm asking people to list their ideas and comments regarding the look and feel of the forum, so that this information can be passed on to the technical experts for their eventual consideeration.  

Thanks to the mods/founders for making this effort to rescue palanth-l.  Just a few technical comments/questions...

The overall look of the forum pages is attractive, but I'm afraid the main menu bar, just below the Palanth Forum logo, is nearly impossible for me to read on my screen, as the dark script is almost indistinguishable from the grey background. If one or the other were signifcantly lighter in colour, legibility would be improved.

If I've correctly understood the posts by Jacques & Greg, this software does not [@ present] support e-mail delivery of posts.  Is there any hope of that function being added?  I know many people prefer web-based formats for discussion, & this one offers a ready view of the thread of conversation, which is useful.  But in general, I find web interfaces of this kind very unwieldy. For one thing, the lack of line wrapping w/in the 'compose' window is mildly irritating.

I note that there's an option to "to be notified of replies to this topic" - is there any way to set the forum in general so that it notifies members that new messages have been posted?  For folks like me who otherwise will have to make a conscious effort to acquire the habit of checking the URL on a regular basis, such a notification  would be very helpful.


Do you have any strong feelings [or even gentle guidelines] about assigning submissions to specific subject headers [e.g., Palaeoethnology, Physical Anthropology]?  Is there "cross-posting" capability among these Subject categories?  

One last question:  Is there a spellcheck associated w/ this software?  [If not, I'm in serious trouble.]

respectfully submitted,

|Karen E. Dennis     dennisk@mail.montclair.edu
|My employer is not responsible for my opinions,
|regardless of how sensible they are.

[Forum Administrator]

The overall look of the forum pages is attractive, but I'm afraid the main menu bar, just below the Palanth Forum logo, is nearly impossible for me to read on my screen, as the dark script is almost indistinguishable from the grey background.

The color configurations of Palanth where tested on different screens to insure
it's appearance.

I suggest you change the brightness and contrast of your screen.

If I've correctly understood the posts by Jacques & Greg, this software does not [@ present] support e-mail delivery of posts.  Is there any hope of that function being added?

Research is being done to see if this forum can manage this type of function...
Even if it does...i doubt it will be implemented in the short run, due to bandwidth costs.

...please keep in mind that we are not Yahoo!

I note that there's an option to "to be notified of replies to this topic" - is there any way to set the forum in general so that it notifies members that new messages have been posted?  For folks like me who otherwise will have to make a conscious effort to acquire the habit of checking the URL on a regular basis, such a notification  would be very helpful.

Once again, due to bandwidth management this option is not in Palanth's best interest for the moment.
Like you said, i think you will have to make a conscious effort to acquire the habit of checking the URL.

One last question:  Is there a spellcheck associated w/ this software?

Unfotunately not...sorry!

[Greg]

A few comments and workarounds:


Regarding e-mail delivery of posts:

From my end, I’d like to try to look into some free bandwith or a source of funding to transfer to the project to make this possible.

Regarding Notification:

One  way around this is to just have the forum notify you of one or two currently active threads.  You would then miss some things but be occasionally reminded of new messages.  At that time you could look for other new messages from the home page.  

[Regarding Spellcheck:

I place my curser in the box on Palanth, hit CTRL-A, CTRL-C, Alt tab over to a blank word processor screen, ALT-V the text into Word, then edit and compose there.  Then I do the same sequence back to a reply screen.  

I rely on the spell checker to get rid of numerous typos etc.  Not to mention the fact that I have a speling afasia.  

[Forum Administrator]

Regarding Notifications again

You can click on Notifications in the menu bar under the Palanth Logo
and uncheck the "Receive topics email notification ONLY in 1st unread reply"

This wil have the system send you a notification EVERY TIME a post is made in a specific topic / thread.

[lorenzo]

Look is fine - ish, trivially important.

HUGE is speed of presenting a web page.

I use Netscape 4.61, am 4.5km up a copper wire from fibre optic feed. My web browsing is fine, pages with vast numbers of frames and little graphics are slow as this site, but I simply leaves.

I had time to go upstairs and pour another cup of tea before the 'look and feel' thread loaded, for eaxample.

The forum is of great interest, and I would normally come here to check it, but since the demise of PAlanth-1 I have experienced these unacceptable delays in loading. Therefore this is the first time I have come back (actually via a link from an email based  forum, Paleo-one at yahoo).

Clearly, this is not a problem for North Americans. But then, I am not a North American.

I do hope 'something' can be done to make the forum accessible to the wder internet community.

Cheers,
Lorenzo

[John Goodrum]

Lorenzo wrote:

I use Netscape 4.61, am 4.5km up a copper wire from fibre optic feed. My web browsing is fine, pages with vast numbers of frames and little graphics are slow as this site, but I simply leaves.

I had time to go upstairs and pour another cup of tea before the 'look and feel' thread loaded, for eaxample.

--------------

I use Netscape 4.75 and was having similar problems with extremely slow page loading - don't know if it's something with older versions of Netscape or just my own computer - but I switched over to Internet Explorer (v.4.72) and the problem went away.

Also, the new background color is much better, felt like I was in a cave before.  Maybe that's how you archaeologists like it...


JG

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Lorenzo wrote:

I use Netscape 4.61, am 4.5km up a copper wire from fibre optic feed. My web browsing is fine, pages with vast numbers of frames and little graphics are slow as this site, but I simply leaves.

I had time to go upstairs and pour another cup of tea before the 'look and feel' thread loaded, for eaxample.

--------------

I use Netscape 4.75 and was having similar problems with extremely slow page loading - don't know if it's something with older versions of Netscape or just my own computer - but I switched over to Internet Explorer (v.4.72) and the problem went away.

Also, the new background color is much better, felt like I was in a cave before.  Maybe that's how you archaeologists like it...

JG

This, I believe, has been mentioned before. All early versions of Netscape (lower than 6.0, for example) present various problems of "compatibility" with the kind of presentation program we have selected for the PALANTh - Forum. Assuming that you want to use Netscape and that your system (your computer and your connection) can support it, you (and other other Netscape users) would be well advised to download the most recent version of Netscape (7.0) which is now available and much more in tune or in sync with our requirements: faster loading, better viewing, etc.

I might add that some of the slow loading problems you have encountered may have been compounded by a number of acts of sabotage committed by people who work for the cable company that serve as a link between our server and us all. This is obviously something over which we have no control and we can only hope that this labour conflict (an ongoing strike) will be resolved as soon as possible.

Jacques Cinq-Mars

[Jacques Cinq-Mars]

Look is fine - ish, trivially important.

I'll not get into this kind of discussion, except to say that it can be demonstrated that good "looks" a far from being trivial and this, as you are probaly well aware, has to do with more than just electronic presentations.

HUGE is speed of presenting a web page.

I use Netscape 4.61, am 4.5km up a copper wire from fibre optic feed. My web browsing is fine, pages with vast numbers of frames and little graphics are slow as this site, but I simply leaves.
 
I had time to go upstairs and pour another cup of tea before the 'look and feel' thread loaded, for eaxample.

The forum is of great interest, and I would normally come here to check it, but since the demise of PAlanth-1 I have experienced these unacceptable delays in loading. Therefore this is the first time I have come back (actually via a link from an email based  forum, Paleo-one at yahoo).

Clearly, this is not a problem for North Americans. But then, I am not a North American.

See my earlier note on problems caused by the use of antiquated Netscape versions.

I do hope 'something' can be done to make the forum accessible to the wder internet community.

Cheers,
Lorenzo

If , by "wider internet community", you are referring to "emailing" support, we have already explained that -- if it is actually feasible -- it will have to wait a while. And this, for reasons as simple as programming costs. If, however, you are just talking about WEB access, there is nothing to prevent people, assuming that they are willing to follow our "rules of engagement", at it were, to join the Forum, as lurkers or as part time or full participants. The only problem I see in this case results from the fact that we have yet to reach a high level of visibility. Our planned recruitment campaign, together with the "grapevine" effect, should help solve this problem.

At any rate, thanks for your "great interest" statement.

Jacques Cinq-Mars