Calling Forumists, old and new: Please Register for the New Forum

[canyoncreekman]

Thanks to those who have risen to the challenge and kept this great discusion group thriving. We were at Alpine Club conference for a couple days and was I disappointed when upon returning I couldn't get my 'fix' on the previous site.  It's a tribute to the admins and moderators that the 'new seeds' have sprouted so quickly. Your efforts are appreciated.

 I was relatively new to the previous forum so this one isn't such a tidal change. I can undertand, however, how some long termers will need a time for adjustment.  The fingers just get used to automatically hitting the right keys and now they have to learn a new tune. I've been on other forums when there has be major changes and I felt like a fish out of water and wanted the 'old format' back but eventually appreciate the new.

 My hope is that the superflous bells and whisles are used in moderation. I find it 'buggy' when someone uses moving gizmos and such. Perhaps if I was part of the Sesame Street generation I'd not suffer old-guy-syndrome from spinning smilies, aggravating icons and coloured text.  I'll skip over messages in which  personal avatars can't keep still but insist on aggravating repetitive action.  I can tolerate the admins having a moving avatar as it catches our attention for site info, but other fidgety avatars remind me of ill-behaved children.

 Congrats on the new format. I'm sure that within a couple weeks we'll be tapping the right keys without effort to get at all the great new happenings. There was a comment on 'Americanisms'...fortunately we Canadians are versed in both British and American standards and I'd say that ......is better (wouldn't touch this one for all the tea in China).     

[Andrew]

Lets try this new system out. 

Like Heather and Lesley, I liked getting the text of the post in the email notification. I've now found the box to tick to switch this on on my profile - great!

Martin, could you enlighten us all (inventing the wheel etc)

Still finding it a bit awkward having to click 'notify' (to get email notifications) in every individual thread. It would be nice to be able to just click 'notify' for a whole board and get emails for all the threads on that board (or have a list of boxes for the boards to tick which boards you want) as for the old forum. But I can't see any way of doing that. Pity. It means you have to remember to go and tick every new thread in each board. Unless I'm being a bit dense.

Martin, I'm just going through adding the notifications and my understanding is that you can add a 'board' as in 'General Forum' or 'Plants Wanted'. I'll see what happens when I download my emails tommorrow.

True a notification button for the whole forum would be the easiest way.

[Andrew]

Well that seemed to work quite well.

I'll carry on with the AGS Greece thread shortly.

[Martin Baxendale]

Andrew, the box to tick to get the text of posts in your email notifications is located as follows: Click 'profile', go to where it says 'modify profile', click on 'notifications and email', in the 'profile' box that appears, tick the bottom of the 4 boxes for email preferences, the one that says 'When sending notification of a reply to a topic, send the post in the email'. That does the trick. You'll then see the text of the posts in your email notifications.

I also found your could tick 'notify' for boards, but didn't always seem to work for existing threads on  that board. I foumd it safest to go through and click 'notify' on each thread, and I'm doing that when a new thread appears, as well as having ticked notify on all boards. Your list of threads and boards clicke to notify appears in your profile section under 'notifications and emails' as above. There you can un-click ones you change your mind about.

I agree something like the last forum would be good - where you just had a list of boards you could click on and tick, that said you would get all notifications from all threads, and a single box for 'all forum' notifications (the n you could fiddle around with the details later. I just worry that I'm missing stuff, cos some of the notifiaction instructions seem a bit complicated!

[Martin Baxendale]

Andrew, I've also found that you need to un-tick the box in profile notifications and emails that says 'receive reply notification for the first unread reply only' otherwise the email tell you that you won't get any further notifications of posts unless you go to the forum and read the one you've just been sent (even if you've read it in your email)!

It would have been great if the system had allowed everyone to start out receiving everything that's posted, and then gradually fine-tune it themselves by cutting out what they don't want (with the option to re-instate stuff later).

[Andrew]

Thank you for that Martin.

I found the fourth tick box after the various comments and did get the text in the two emails I received when a new subject was created (one 'testing' seems to have been deleted and Marks 'Wildlife Autumn 2006' only has one post at the moment).

I know more than two messages have been posted so have now unticked the second box and will see if I receive posts of old subjects.

The tracking at the top of the page says 'Show unread posts since last visit' but when clicked 'No unread topics found...' !!

Looks like I will have to go by the 'new' icon next to the threads while getting sorted out.

[Lesley Cox]

Notification by email of EVERY posting works well for me, A) because I'm interested in everything and B) because I can delete all the irrelevant postings that say stuff like " I absolutely agree" or "could you send me the info please" without actually entering the thread and just enter those threads with something of interest to read or pictures of course.

But Martin, I'm sure you are perpetually stressed with that gun to your head all the time. That would make ANYONE a bit uneasy.

[mark smyth]

Might be an age thing but please, please, please add your details to the bottom of your profile ie fully name, town and country. I personally would like see, now that we have a chance, an image of the person posting. Mark a grumpy, for today anyway, 46

[Maggi Young]

Having urged you all to get going and join or re-join the SRGC forum, after the problem with the old Forum, I thought that I should really take a little of my own advice and register for another forum myself! I duly tootled off to the newish Alpine Garden Society Discussion pages to register there: Some very interesting stuff, as you might imagine, and lots from very familiar people on these pages. Guess who I found posting there, only a little ahead of me? Lesley Cox, talking about "traumatic events" at the SRGC forum !! Goodness me, I know we lost postings for a day or so, and it is true that Lesley was initially rather put off by the new set up, but in the last few days she has been posting good-oh, much to the delight of us all, I may say.
Poor Lesley, I am sorry that we seem to have been the cause of such drama in your week, we didn't intend it to be so! Good that the two of us have taken the chance to join in with the AGS forum, though, isn't it? We should get out more, I suppose, though I think you do better than I; you contribute elsewhere and I tend to be a lurker rather than any kind of Elf!

[David Shaw]

You must have been digging deep in the archives to find that avatar for me Maggie . Madeira, winter 2004.
This is how all good botanising trips should be achieved.
Thank you.

David, my friend, you must remember that an elephant never forgets! M

[admin]

If losing the ability to post for 24 hours and having to learn to use something new and better is the most traumatic thing that ever happens to any us I guess we can count ourselves most fortunate. Examples of  trauma might be witnessed daily in Iraq, Darfur, Lebanon etc.  Not being able to post on  a forum for 24 hours  may be  better described as a minor irritation?  It is satisfying  to learn that the AGS  have a forum now; good news  indeed for   plant lovers  everywhere that they are, like us,  adopting these newer  technologies.

[Lesley Cox]

So pleased Maggi that you are active too on the newer (than SRGC) AGS Forum. I registered months ago but hadn't done anything about it until our "minor irritaton" (you're so right Admin) but was encouraged to, by John Humphries who took pity on my misery that first day. As he remarked, the AGS version is perhaps more formal than here with maybe fewer jokes and less teasing among good friends, but hey, we'll change all that won't we?

[Maggi Young]

Lesley, I wouldn't even try! It will be great if it gets as busy as SRGC: we are most fortunate in having such an involved and enthusiastic membership/readership. It's terrific that well over one hundred forumists are signed up to the new SRGC forum, already, in only two weeks. We will soon be back at the "lost" figures at this rate.; around six hundred were registered to the old forum, you know, and, of course, that takes no account of the "watchers" (sounds better than lurker, don't you think?) and with the figures of something around thirty thousand individual visits to the rest of the SRGC site every week, there must be a goodly number of those people watching these pages too.  And very welcome they ...YOU...all are!!  Especially the 528 of you who have read this page atthe time of posting!!

[Maggi Young]

Okay, I'll give it some more thought and try to come up with something universally appealing!
 Why can't they just be "readers"... you know better than most how valuable readers are, Martin!

[admin]

It will be great if it gets as busy as SRGC

Their big mistake is that you have to be an AGS member to use their forum. I also note that they intend to close off areas of their main web site to non-members. Another  great mistake that will ensure the site remains marginal.