Forum updates

Dear .tel member,

As you may have noticed since opening I’ve optimized the design and the handling of this forum many times.
I tried to find out the best way to provide a useful platform for all .tel owners, prospects and more interested parties.
After months of work I guess this forum is pretty much ready for the next months / years.

In this topic I like to announce important changes to the forum.

Today I’ve extended the permissions for guests of this forum:

1.) I’ve opened all external links to all guests, so not only members can see and follow them.

This means members don’t need to add the prefix http:// into the visible display of links anymore, because they will work for members and guests of this forum the same way.

2.) Guests are allowed to vote on polls from now on.

3.) Furthermore I reduced the flood control. Members are allowed to post or edit messages all 10 seconds from now on.

I’ll watch the future use of this forum carefully. Whenever I’ll notice complications or discomfort by users, I intent to optimize this forum again.
Please let me know if you have more suggestions to improve the appearance or handling of this forum.

We are ready to accompany the way of .tel in the future (tomorrow and beyond) …

… and we are always happy about new registered users to extend the possibilities for exchange of experiences with .tel!

Thank you for your help and support,
Alex

Thank you very much, Alex!
This forum is great and it’s very refreshing to read not censored comments from all sides.
For the first time it’s possible to have an unlimited exchange of ideas about TEL!
Keep going the great work!

TelFan wrote:Thank you very much, Alex!
This forum is great and it’s very refreshing to read not censored comments from all sides.
For the first time it’s possible to have an unlimited exchange of ideas about TEL!
Keep going the great work!

Agreed !

Alex's forum is now very much like Telnic's forum used to be, before they banned several contributors and introduced "Lock-Down" that prevents newbies checking out .tel unless they go to the trouble of registering (which most won't).

Well done Alex - .Tel is all about open communication !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

3.) Furthermore I reduced the flood control. Members are allowed to post or edit messages all 10 seconds from now on.
..
Thanks, I tend to re-edit far too much to restructure my presentation of thought and waiting too long was frustrating.

As you may have noticed our forum has gotten a slightly fresher look.

Please let me know if you need some additional improvements which will help you feeling comfortable here.

TelTalk wrote:As you may have noticed our forum has gotten a slightly fresher look.

Please let me know if you need some additional improvements which will help you feeling comfortable here.

Alex, what's happened to the list of major contributors, giving their posting stats by overall and current month, that was on the left-hand margin ?

http://MikeSeaton.tel

TelTalk wrote:Please let me know if you need some additional improvements which will help you feeling comfortable here.

Without secondary info at the left side now it became better - by my opinion.

Also, if you will decide to reduce a total number of sections, it also could become easier to navigate through the forum. As one person once said, forum should develop naturally.

mikeseaton wrote:Alex, what's happened to the list of major contributors, giving their posting stats by overall and current month, that was on the left-hand margin ?

Sorry - found it on the right-hand side now.

I am currently viewing the TelTalk Forum on a 1024x768 desktop screen and since the changes have been made it is necessary to sideways scroll to see this - unfortunately many who use this screen size won't bother to do this !

I hate having to sideways scroll on a site !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

PS. We always test our software on a 1024x768 screen to ensure it requires no sideways scrolling since many desktop users are still using this resolution - it is also the standard setting for the iPad 2 screen.

mikeseaton wrote:Alex, what's happened to the list of major contributors, giving their posting stats by overall and current month, that was on the left-hand margin ?

http://MikeSeaton.tel

I have exchanged it with the top posting users this week and month on the right column to display more current data.

Since I don't want to provide an information overflow I thought it's better not to provide too many statistics.

maxi wrote:Without secondary info at the left side now it became better - by my opinion.

Also, if you will decide to reduce a total number of sections, it also could become easier to navigate through the forum. As one person once said, forum should develop naturally.

Thank you, that's kind!

Reducing the sections has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand I like to provide a wide range of topics and enable visitors to find the specialized content they are interested in.

But you are right the overview could suffer. What topics are expendable?

mikeseaton wrote:I am currently viewing the TelTalk Forum on a 1024x768 desktop screen and since the changes have been made it is necessary to sideways scroll to see this - unfortunately many who use this screen size won't bother to do this !

I hate having to sideways scroll on a site !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

PS. We always test our software on a 1024x768 screen to ensure it requires no sideways scrolling since many desktop users are still using this resolution - it is also the standard setting for the iPad 2 screen.

I apologize for this inconvenience.

I have tried to bring the more important forum components into view field.

Especially due to so many forum topics lately I wanted to increase the list for latest topics, so that regular visitors don't have the need to click through the categories.

I have tested the new layout on all common browsers on different computers including cell phones and tablets. On all devices tried by me the size for the main category section in the middle gets reduced, so that the third column gets displayed inside the frame borders automatically.

Do more visitors have the same scrolling issue like Mike?

Please let me also know if you want me to arrange forum widgets which are important for you (e. g. in the third column) on different positions!