|   NEW FORUMS OPEN | sysop
Jan 12, 2004 7:29 AM | | Posting here will be open for at least 1 more week.
Drop by the new forums, register and reserve your handle, and start posting!!
Remember that you need a valid email address to activate your registration. Also, some email systems like Yahoo, Hotmail and MSN sometimes puts the registration email in the spam mailbox so check there.
Any problems, contact me at fcebedo@yahoo.com
francois |
| What About the Archives? | Bikezilla
Jan 12, 2004 9:58 AM | | There's a lot of very good info in the current, uh, old forums, How do we get to them now that they've been removed from the forums page?
-Bikezilla |
| Bye Bye MTBR | Davide
Jan 12, 2004 6:54 PM | | I am sorry but the new forum are just horrible and so I'll stop wasting so much of mine (and especially yours!) time in front of a computer!
I really enjoyed all the chat, the occasional smile and all the info. Even the insults since most of the time I knew that they would not have taken place in person.
Too bad ... I would have liked to post the build of my 5-spot, but I guess that my ego will have to take a back seat!
ciao a tutti
Davide |
| Bye Bye MTBR | warmseth
Jan 12, 2004 10:24 PM | | "I would have liked to post the build of my 5-spot, but I guess that my ego will have to take a back seat!"
you want an insult? you sound fucking crazy! the new format is so offensive that you refuse to post a picture of the bike you're building? good ridance wacko.
just kidding. but really it's not too big a deal. |
| Bye Bye MTBR | wait wait!!!!!!
Jan 12, 2004 11:10 PM | | Is that really you in that picture? |
| Your loss I guess | Trevor!
Jan 13, 2004 12:52 AM | | I would have liked to have seen your 5 Spot build indeed, as they are the posts I like the best, Shame you don't like the new formats. It seem so many people are stuck in the past and unable to accept the change which may take some getting used to - but just like a new bike - its just something you need to get used and then you'll love it. |
| Yes, that is me in the picture and ... HAVE FUN, RIDE MORE, FORGIVE THE OCCASIONAL INSULTS I HAD SPOKEN ON THIS PAGES ... CIAO! | Davide
Jan 13, 2004 9:57 AM | | And you are right: it is my loss and I will miss MTBR.
I am not in the habit of being "stuck in the past". I generally embrace progress but this is not. The new format is the "cheap" format that is available on many other forum, and that format is the main reason why I don't even look at those. It it cumbersome, unintuitive, hard to navigate and it does not promote discussion. I tried it here and it has the same problems of the other sites. (Would you call going back to DOS, after Windows NT or MAC X, progress?).
To all the survivors: HAVE FUN, RIDE MORE, FORGIVE THE OCCASIONAL INSULTS I SPOKEN ON THIS PAGES (I'll forgive yours!) and ... CIAO! |
| Ciao (nm) | Trevor!
Jan 13, 2004 8:33 PM | | |
| The new format is the standard | Innocent Bystander
Jan 13, 2004 5:24 AM | | the new format should be embraced if you ask me. That is the format of every other forum I post or lurk on. It is so much more flexible and is so much more functional. I would say give it a chance and get used to it before making a decision to leave the boards all together. |
| "It is so much more flexible and is so much more functional..." | Tscheezy
Jan 13, 2004 8:42 AM | | I am really struggling to keep an open mind about the new system. I also avoid other boards like RM, etc, simply due to the obstructionistic format. I am curious what it is about the new system which is better than this? Flexible and functional? Details? I am not claiming the current system does not have its flaws, mainly in security and support, but the thing it does BETTER is provide a means of communication. What are boards for if not that?
Francis pointed to the smilies, avatars, and profiles as a big selling point. That insulted my intelligence. Perhaps you can point out how the new system is superior for the exchange of ideas I have missed.
Still trying to keep an open mind ;^) <----- (darn it all! on the new system that would have been a smiley)
tscheezy |
| a freakin' mess | brainbckt
Jan 13, 2004 9:51 AM | | I'm with tscheezy. Why do you think google was such a runaway success? One of the primary drivers was its clean, no-nonsense approach (i.e., no obnoxious graphics, etc.). What do avatars, smilies and the like have to do with the exchange of mtb info? It's not fun or clever, it's just an annoying distraction. Use of the old format is easy and intuitive. The new one isn't. Yeah, yeah, I should give it a try, right? Well, I've f***g signed up twice already and it still won't take.
Are you reading any of this Francois? Obviously not... |
| One big complaint seems to be... | Innocent Bystander
Jan 14, 2004 7:56 AM | | that you don't know who is replying to whom. This is the posters responsibility, just as it is on this board. You should hit "Reply w/quote" to reply to a single person.
Also, for me, I always hit "View All" when looking at a thread here. That is not a problem on that board.
The profile system allows for better means of contact to a poster or person. The problem of having people post under anonymous names just to make obnoxious posts will not be as much of a problem, unless said poster wants to create a whole new profile and identity... and in that case, they most likely need help anyway.
I, personally, am very comfortable with that format. I have watch message boards evolve over the years, and I think that format is very functional and is more feature filled providing more means of communication OUTSIDE of the board itself.
I say give it a chance. Most boards in the next few years will be in a very similar format, so why not give it a chance so you can feel comfortable on the many bike related forums on the internet. There are may other GREAT forums out there to take part in.
Don |
| One big complaint seems to be... | Tullebukk
Jan 14, 2004 8:27 AM | | You mentioned that there are many other great forums out there to take part in. Can you recommend some? I've been looking for some good mtb forums for the past seven years or so, but haven't been able to find any that I really like other than this one. It would be nice to have a few options. |
| Sure... | Innocent Bystander
Jan 14, 2004 10:17 AM | | I like the forums on ridemonkey.com, hcor.net, pinkbike.com, nsmb.com and visit them daily. ridemonkey is probably the closest to this one in terms of community, but a TON of good info can be found on the others as well. |
| I didn't find the new format a problem... | Bikezilla
Jan 13, 2004 10:17 AM | | Just different.
I think it is easier in many ways. With a glance I can look into a forum and see if any threads of interest have been updated. I can jump right to the latest comments, I can get the whole thread w/o much fuss. Okay there is no threaded view, and the quoting feature is a little overdone.
My only problem with it is the method to successfully post multiple pictures seems to change from time to time.
Maybe I'm missing something but the new forums don't seem all that bad.
-Bikezilla |
| Or tell us how we can PAY HIM to use the old format....nm | jasonwa
Jan 13, 2004 11:08 AM | | |
| There is single thread cascade view, not all forum list/cascade | derby
Jan 13, 2004 11:20 AM | | In the new format if you open an individual's topic post within a forum there is an icon at the top-right for "Cascade" view which opens up all the posts under one original post within a forum, like a subset of this old forum view. I think it then defaults to that cascade view afterwards when you are logged in. I have to play with it more. If that feature could be moved up to default at the Forum view, then the opening page view would be as robust as this old format.
After setting the cascade view default, you must click on each new thread post listed under the forum's topic to see everyone who's posted and their topic under the first post. That may not be so bad.
I read a note from Francis when he announced the change to come a few weeks ago that the new format was technically easier to maintain.
- ray |
| Even just being a mod, this old software has a LOT of problems | CraigH
Jan 13, 2004 5:45 PM | | The fact that the old software is no longer supported is one of the main reasons for the change.
Problems with it can't be fixed. |
| New What Bike to Buy board is here... | CraigH
Jan 13, 2004 5:43 PM | | http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=48
Index page for all the boards is here:
http://www.mtbr.com/techtalks/ |
| The problem with the new format is... | Tullebukk
Jan 14, 2004 3:41 AM | | ...the lack of the threaded view on the main page. IMO, that is the single most important feature of this forum, and is the reason that the content on this forum is so much better than on other forums. I would give up all of the other new features to get the threaded view on the main page.
The reason I say this, is that with the new format, it takes much longer to browse through the forums. What I used to be able to do in about 5 minutes, now takes over 2 hours. That's not an exaggeration. I'll give an example.
I used to visit the Passion, General, Shocks, Weight, Brakes, and Bike2Buy forums almost daily. On my computer, it takes roughly 10 seconds to load the main page on each forum, so for 6 forums that about 60 seconds. Each forum has about 50 posts on the main page, and I could browse through each forum in about 45 seconds. When I say browse, I mean I would scroll down looking for new posts that I have not yet read (they show up in a different color so they are easy to spot). If I saw something I wanted to read, I would right click on it, and open it in a new window. Then, I would continue browsing down through the forum opening new windows as I go. If you figure it takes 45 seconds to browse each of the 6 forums, and ten seconds to load each forum, I could browse through all of the forums in just over 5 minutes. Then I would have all of the threads I wanted to read open in separate windows. Additionally, a lot of the time, it's not the first or last thread (the only ones you can see at the top level of the new forums) that I wanted to read. It was something in the middle. I think a lot of the time, the most interesting part of the thread is a discussion that takes off in the middle of the thread someplace. For example, I wouldn't have seen your post (this one) from the top view in the new forums.
Anyway, with the new style forums, I still have to open up all six of the forums I want to view (10 seconds each time). Plus, I have to open up the first 50 posts in each forum (300 posts) and browse each of them. So, if it takes 10 seconds to open each one, and lets say another 15 seconds to quickly scan each one, that's over 2 hours just to browse the forums to see if there is anthing I want to read. Something I could do with the old forums in 5 minutes. Perhaps it won't be quite this bad, but you get the idea. It _will_ take a lot longer to browse through the forums, and the quality of the content _will_ go down (especially in the tech areas). And, I haven't even touched on the fact that the new forums are not sorted by latest post, so you will potentially have to browse through several pages of old posts just to find the new posts.
The bottom line, is that people aren't going to take 2 hours a day to browse the new forums. So, much of the secondary content that was added to this forums will be missing from the new forums. Less content means less interest and fewer posts, which means even less content and even fewer posts, and so on. Soon it's not even worth visiting except to read the reviews. At least that's my experience with every other mountain biking forum that I've visited that uses this new format. No real content or useful information, just some chat and bike porn. See RideMonkey for an example.
I'm going to try to keep an open mind. At least I'm not going to purposefully stop reading this forum. But, past experience tells me that I will soon loose interest, and so will lots of other people. |
| Tullebukk hit the nail on the head | Tscheezy
Jan 20, 2004 11:00 PM | | I don't look over nearly as many boards as I did here. It is just way too much of a pain in the butt.
I hang out on the Turner board and occasionally venture out, but what I see happening is shocks, brakes, drivetrain, tires/wheels, and other topics get addressed right there on the Turner board rather than on the boards bearing those titles where they belong. I can only guess this is because other people think it is too much of a pain to head out and look around too. Tullebukk already did the math telling us why.
A sad state of affairs on mtbr.
tscheezy |
| |
