____________________

Greetings:

We've made a few changes to the message board that we hope will make it easier for everyone to identify new messages.

1. We killed the Read "New feature." While it did group new threads that contained new messages, the format that it defaulted to didn't display new messages making it's value questionable. We're working seeing if we create a new routine for it so it may be back in the future some time.

2. To help dial-up users, we've changed the way that threads are displayed. Rather than have the whole thread display itself along with the Table of Contents (TOC), you'll now only have to open the top/original message and the TOC. (Unless of course you're using the Fully Threaded view option or click the "View All" link.)

3. We've corrected the way that the TOC displays messages. It now displays yellow message icons to identify new messages within the threads.

4. Now if you click on a selected message, only that message and the TOC will appear. We believe this dramatically cuts down on the page loading times. From there you can simply click on another message link on the TOC.

Thanks!
Ben

• RE: Message board New message changes,Ben Chiu, 08:12z, 11-08-01
• New Message feature fixed,Ben Chiu, 08:26z, 11-08-01
• RE: Message board New message changes,RobertVA, 18:07z, 11-08-01
  • RE: Message board New message changes,Ben Chiu, 18:16z, 11-08-01
• RE: Message board New message changes,RobertVA, 18:10z, 11-08-01
  • RE: Message board New message changes,Ben Chiu, 18:18z, 11-08-01
• RE: Message board New message changes,jerryrosie, 15:41z, 11-10-01
  • RE: Message board New message changes,Ben Chiu, 18:51z, 11-10-01
• RE: Message board New message changes,RayProudfoot, 15:32z, 11-11-01
  • RE: Message board New message changes,Ben Chiu, 21:07z, 11-11-01
    • RE: Message board New message changes,RayProudfoot, 21:05z, 11-12-01
      • Mark All Thread,Ben Chiu, 21:57z, 11-12-01
        • RE: Mark All Thread,RayProudfoot, 19:48z, 11-13-01
          • RE: Mark All Thread,Ben Chiu, 07:30z, 11-14-01
  • RE: Message board New message changes,Mike_Greenwood, 01:32z, 11-12-01
• RE: Message board New message changes,jimh, 22:15z, 11-15-01
  • RE: Message board New message changes,Ben Chiu, 22:45z, 11-15-01
    • RE: Message board New message changes,Ben Chiu, 17:44z, 11-17-01

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test

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Please disregard #1 above. We were able to fix the bug.

Ben

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But I LIKE the fully threaded view option.

The trouble is I can't figure out how to turn it on.

Doesn't bother me to much in regular view because I can click on the "view all" link. However, the "read new" page doesn't seem to have the "view all" links.

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>>But I LIKE the fully threaded view option.
The trouble is I can't figure out how to turn it on.<<

You can only do that from the conference page. There may be a reason why you can only do that there, but I'll see if I can add the link for that feature to the read new section.

Ben

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Not to mention the read new list displays the first message with the thread TOC instead of one of the new messages.

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>>Not to mention the read new list displays the first message with the thread TOC instead of one of the new messages.<<

Hmm, we'd have to create some logic to pull up the newest message first. It's possible so, if you can whip up the logic for that (on top of the other things you're working on!) we'll make it work like that.

Ben

>>We've made a few changes to the message board that we hope will make it easier for everyone to identify new messages.<<

And these changes certainly help when looking for new messages as most of us "re-patriots" from CSI tend to do. Ya' know - gotta look at everything for fear of missing something....

***Reality - the refuge of those who can't handle simulation***
Cheers, Jerry

>And these changes certainly help when looking for new
>messages as most of us "re-patriots" from CSI tend to do.

Glad they help. As you know, all of us behind the scenes are actively making as many changes to the VPC as possible to help ease the transition.

Ben

Hi Ben,

I want to thank you and the lads for the effort you've put in to make message navigation easier. You have succeeded admirably!

One of the biggest bugbears of many of the message boards on the Internet is the inferior way they are designed compared to those on CompuServe (especially when using OzWin).

I think you've bridged a big gap in your efforts and hopefully your membership will reflect this in the coming weeks.

Well done!

Kind regards,

Ray
Cheshire, England.

Hi Ray:

Thank you very much your for your very kind note.

We're still actively looking for an offline mail reading solution. It may not use OzWin (from what we can tell that's proprietary to CiS's system only), but unless I'm mistaken, it's the offline part is the what counts the most.

Thanks again,
Ben

Hi Ben,

Speaking personally the need for an off-line option will be less important to me after next Monday after I have ADSL installed. This is a fast, *always on* connection but you probably knew that already. However, for those who pay for their calls this would be a tremendous step forward.

After scrolling through the new messages I thought of another option which may or may not be possible.

A thread may have new messages but they may not be of interest to the reader. A *mark all as read* option for all in a particular message would be useful. A *mark all as read and move to next message* would be better still but I'm probably pushing my luck here .

I hope you don't mind me suggesting changes like this. I'm not inferring it's inferior in any way - just trying to make it as efficient as possible to navigate through unread messages.

Kind regards,

Ray.

Greetings Ray:

>Speaking personally the need for an off-line option will
>be less important to me after next Monday after I have
>ADSL installed.

I'm jealous! I can't even get cable TV where I live...

>A thread may have new messages but they may not be of
>interest to the reader. A *mark all as read* option for
>all in a particular message would be useful. A *mark all
>as read and move to next message* would be better still
>but I'm probably pushing my luck here .

Hmm, I don't think that'd be possible. We might be able to mark a complete forum as read, but not a sole thread. This is because messages are numbered, but threads are not (just dated), while forums are categorized separately. Let me think about it some more, we might be able to come up with something, but no promises on this one.

>I hope you don't mind me suggesting changes like this. I'm
>not inferring it's inferior in any way - just trying to
>make it as efficient as possible to navigate through
>unread messages.

Thanks for the suggestions, Ray. We're not offended in anyway. I hope everyone is beginning to understand that this is *OUR* site--yours, mine, all of us. And as such WE can make this thing work anyway we like or need it to (within technological and financial allowances).

Unfortunately, we're not a big company with tons of resources like AOL, CiS, and MSN, so things may take a little longer since we're all working on a voluntary basis (we all hold regular day jobs). But if it makes sense for the VPC community, you can rest assured we'll make it happen.

Thanks for your support.
Ben

Hi Ben,

<< I'm jealous! I can't even get cable TV where I live... >>

Sorry to hear that but ask me if I made the right decision when the bill comes in

Thanks for the info on the *mark all as read* suggestion. I'll await your investigations as to whether an alternative is possible but don't think I'm disappointed - I'm not. What did the man say? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

I understand you chaps have limited resources and have to fit all this in on top of full-time jobs. I don't have enough time with only e-mail and the occasional flight so Lord knows how you fit it all in!

Cheers,

Ray.

Hi Ray:

>I understand you chaps have limited resources and have to
>fit all this in on top of full-time jobs. I don't have
>enough time with only e-mail and the occasional flight so
>Lord knows how you fit it all in!

Simply love of aviation, my friend.

Ben

Hi Ray,

>>I want to thank you and the lads for the effort you've put in to make message navigation easier. You have succeeded admirably!<<

I can't tell you how your words here are appreciated. We all realize how limited this "web-based" stuff is, but thanks to input from *everyone* Ben has really come through! I have high hopes that the tweaks will continue!

--Greenie
**6 miles SSE KSJC**

Hi Ben,

I think you and the others are doing a fantastic job creating this site from scratch, and more so since you are all very much part time.

I know I don't catch on to a new system very quick, and I'm an old Ozwin addict, so I needed to pluck up some courage to ask a question here.

Would it make any sense just to mark all messages as "Read All"?

When I browse down the topics, it is time consuming to read a few replies, one by one, but where a topic is Read All, I can scroll down the opened replies, in jig time! :d

Just a thought, and I certainly don't imply any criticism of what you've already put in place.

Best wishes, Jim H.

Greetings Jim:

Thanks for the very kind words. We're doing our best to make the forum that we all longed for years ago, but the powers that were in charge couldn't see why we'd want to or how we could do this. If all goes according to plan, we'll reach our goals. However, whether those guys were right or not will finally be settled if continue to lose money doing this. If that happens, alas we'll have to admit they were right and we'll probably just just fade away.

I can't thank the guys that have stepped forward so far for their support and belief in what we're doing here--creating a community-based forum for all pilots to share information and just plain old have fun with things that fly.

>Would it make any sense just to mark all messages as "Read
>All"?

I'm not sure what you're getting at. If you'd like to view all of the messages in fully threaded mode (all messages showing), you can enter the forum, then click the fully threaded option (which is sticky, so the next time you log on, you'll already be in that mode after you select a forum). Is this what you mean?

>When I browse down the topics, it is time consuming to
>read a few replies, one by one, but where a topic is Read
>All, I can scroll down the opened replies, in jig time! :d

Ok, you like the message view (all messages within the thread are loaded when you select it). You know, we could proabably add the View All link to the Read New page. I'll have a look at that this weekend.

>Just a thought, and I certainly don't imply any criticism
>of what you've already put in place.

Understood. Thanks for your suggestion.

Ben

Greetings Jim:

>Ok, you like the message view (all messages within the
>thread are loaded when you select it). You know, we could
>proabably add the View All link to the Read New page. I'll
>have a look at that this weekend.

OK, I've added the View All option to the Read New page. When you click View All, all of the messages contained in the thread will download/display.

Best!
Ben