THE FORUM UPGRADE

Just a suggestion - any chance you could make that button that allows wholesale repetition of photos and posts a little harder to get to?

I'd love to, but that's not something I can change.

Too bad.  I gave up on weekend photo fun, but have enjoyed Switcher Saturday.  It has now succumbed - a guy named Murnane has decided to copy every single photo previously posted.  

Rich, any idea when----if----the problem with Samsung tablets being unable to use the forum will be resolved?

Did we update again, everything is different?

Nothing different here.

Yeah me to its been fine and now I'm getting borders along both sides as I scroll down on my Android phone text is in middle making everything longer.

Same thing on my home computer tonight???? Rich, was thee some kind of upgrade or something? its just on the list page this page and the other posts are fine.

It appears a change was made from the solid white background with lines separating each post or main board to having each post, board, and such inclosed in a white box(black border.)  and each box on a gray background.  I would suspect this was done to further distinguish one topic from another, however to me it just makes things look cluttered.  I'll cast a vote for returning to the simple line... unless there is a reason for the change that fixes other problems, then it is not a big deal.  If it is purely ascetic, I don't much like it.  

Also just noticed there is a blue border around the 'Add Reply' box now.  I think that looks good and does a good job to distinguish it from the posts in a thread.  

JGL

Rich, I still can't use my Samsung tablet to access the forum.  I wonder if the continual changing of the ads at the top is doing something to cause the tablet to hang up, and then jump back to the home screen.  I think your contractor needs a good kick in the wantaffle to get this fixed.  I'm sure they're charging you enough.

Here's an odd one (to me at least, I don't think I've seen this before)

In this post by RRMAN, was the odd embedded slider window caused by the device the post was created on?  (I didn't want to bump the FS thread to ask device details, so I'm just pointing out the odd look here)

-Dave

I didn't read all 21 pages, but I want to say that a) the upgrade is terrific and b) I love that I can insert pictures at the cursor instead of all new pics going to the bottom of the post. This cuts down a lot of time trying to drag the pics to where they belong in the text. Good Job!

Rich,

    Is it my imagination or did your smiling face get bigger on the topics page?

everything is bigger this morning 2/19/2016

I noticed the same thing earlier this morning.  Much nicer.

Except I still can't see it on my Samsung tablet.  Wipes out after a few seconds, as it has been doing.

My Toshiba tablet stopped working properly when you switched it to help the smart phone folks. I get kicked off every ten seconds now.

I just noticed that now the original poster of a thread is listed. Thus, one can now tell who posts a new subject without having to open that thread.

EXCELLENT!!!!!!!

Much much better, Thank you.

The forum index suddenly got very small this morning again.

Yes, I noticed that too, John. I'm posting this from my iPhone. When I get to a computer I'll fix that.

This was an unintended consequence of an incremental update which Hoopla did last night. I have some CSS to change.

Thanks Rich, I'm glad that wasn't a permanent step back.

OK...css tweaked and it's fixed.

regarding the "Take Action" option.  it seems like the order of the actions is backwards.  i have hit the "Report Reply" by mistake a number of times when i really want to "Reply With Quote" which could be better placed as the top choice (thankfully there is a pop-up to verify where you can cancel the action).  if nothing else, could you maybe change the "Report Reply" option to red?

also, if the "Take Action" is close to the bottom of the screen, the box gets hidden off-screen which seems like it should be a easy fix as i've seen this a number of times in other apps where the box flips to a position above the option text.

thanks...gary

Gary, I have no way to change the things you have mentioned in your post. All that is in the basic Hoopla Code, which I cannot change.

Rich, an issue about which I have been grousing ever since the reformat:  Can you say when, or if, the forum will be corrected so that it can be accessed on a Samsung android tablet?  It still locks up, and then causes the tablet to jump to its home page.

RJR, I have no additional information from Hoopla Tech Support on the Samsung tablet issue.

Thanks, Rich.  I, and apparently a few others, would appreciate you're keeping after them on this.  Surprisingly, I have no problems (other than having to squint) accessing the forum on my Samsung S6 smart phone. 

RJR posted:

Rich, an issue about which I have been grousing ever since the reformat:  Can you say when, or if, the forum will be corrected so that it can be accessed on a Samsung android tablet?  It still locks up, and then causes the tablet to jump to its home page.

As I noted in an earlier post,   I had the same problem with my Samsung tablet.   I downloaded the free Dolphin browser app from the Google store an have not had one problem since.    Its  far more stable.  I use it for this site only.

Joe

Thanks for the lead, Joe.  However, my "policy" is not to clutter a computer or tablet with special programs to overcome deficiencies of web sites.

Did you ever think it might be a deficiency in the browser and not this web site? If the Dolphin browser works OK here and the other browser doesn't, that would seem to indicate it is an Android browser problem.

Rich, that is a good and a valid question.  However, the tablet did work with the forum, before the forum change, with no problems.  So what would have changed on the forum that would cause the browser to have problems?  And why does it not affect the browser running on all Samsung/Android devices?

As reported previously I am in the same situation as RJR.  I had no problems using the Forum with my Samsung Tab 2 10.1 Android tablet before the recent upgrade but since then have had problems.  And I even did a Factory Data Reset last week. 

Like RJR, my Samsung S6 Smartphone does not have a problem using the Forum.  I have not tried any other browser on my tablet as I don’t want to have to switch back-and-forth between browsers.

Bill

Guys, I fully admit that I am no longer close to the "bits and bytes" land of browser and application coding.  But speaking on a high level, when programs "evolve", they often use newer versions of API's (application program interfaces) to perform certain functions.  I have a sneaky suspicion -- and I admit that it's just that, a gut feel -- that the newer forum software is using different API's for the same or similar functions that it had in the past, and those API's (or the new forum mainline code that manages the screen input) are taxing certain platforms more than others.

Case in point:  this new forum software was a DISASTER on my iPhone4.  When I upgraded to an iPhone6+ just before Christmas, it was a night-and-day difference.  The last of the problems I now run into occur most frequently with the iPad2.  I have no intentions of upgrading that platform right now, 'cause it serves its purpose for me and then some with every other application I use on it.  However, I need to limit the time I create content on this forum when using the iPad2, because the forum software "misbehaves" so frequently on that platform. 

I realize what I'm about to describe is more of a "qualitative description" that's not optimal to Rich and the team at Hoopla for debugging purposes... But what I experience when accessing the new forum on the iPad2 is synonymous to the software being non-responsive at times to things I'm trying to accomplish.  Just doesn't work "with me" is another way to describe it.

For example...  I try to position the cursor at a specific location to correct a typo, and the cursor jumps to several lines above where I had intended.  The other day, I needed to tap topics in the "RECENT POSTS" column almost half-a-dozen times before the forum software would display the desired thread(s).  I've had that happen a few times now -- but it's nothing consistent enough that I can duplicate the problem at will.  Stuff like that.

Best platforms for me to use the forum now:  my desktop Mac Pro, followed by the iPhone6+ when I'm on the move -- mostly for browsing, seldom for creating content.  And a far, distant third is my iPad2 -- again, mostly for browsing, since creating content with the iPad2 here is a royal PITA.

David

I don't pretend to be an expert in apps and programming, and I don't want to be.  Rich is running a forum with advertisers, whom he can attract more effectively when he can point to more hits onto the forum.  I feel I owe it to him to apprise him of anything that is impeding persons from hitting.  He pays good money, I expect, to Hoopla to produce a product that is attractive, and if they fail in some way he should be aware of it.  I don't post this issue periodically to aggravate him, but just to be sure he's updated.  Hoopla should have sufficiently competent staffers to identify the problem.

For Hoopla's info, this device is running Android 4.1.2, and has all available updates.

RJR, I am not the least bit aggravated by your posts! By posting things like this, you, Dave and many others have helped make this forum a lot better.

It ain't perfect, but it ain't bad!

OGR Webmaster posted:

...

It ain't perfect, but it ain't bad!

Much better than "it ain't bad".    Largely due to the work you put into the software-update to give us the look-and-feel we have here today.  Thank you.

David

I agree that the forum is pretty good, or better than just pretty good, in both content and format.  Only vehicle I know of to exchange knowledge on model trains and control systems.

Rich - I agree with others that the OGR forum you've created is terrific (and I'm an S-gauge guy - still lots of things of interest to me).  It has taken me a while to 'get used to' the new forum look and feel, but I like it.  One of the things I miss is the ability to go back to my old posts - you could look back at old published and pending posts in the old system, but all I can find now is the pending posts (which, given the immediacy of the posts 'posting', I'm not sure what that's for).  Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place...?

Another, relatively minor, thing I miss is that the links listed in recent posts that I'd already looked at had a different colored font than posts I didn't open (my vague recollection is they were 'blue' when unopened and 'purple-ish?' after I had opened them).  I found that feature useful since I'm not always sure which posts I've looked at - at least by title.  I'm running Firefox 43.0.1 on a Mac as my browser...

another Rich

Tis mightbe my last post for a while.  See those two errors in my first three words?  I cannot correct them.  If I get rid of the keyboard, then go back, I can fix them , but it has become so painful . . .

I cannot post photos.  I cannot edit a previously posted comment.  I can get a lot of things with a single click, but most of the time it takes tow or ree.  That is 2 or 3 clicks.

Iam using an Apple iPad - probably not an uncommon device.

Iwill just look for a while.  But the truly interesting stuff gets locked . . .