What the heck is going on?

[lardman]

Well I\'m not too fond of the forum software. Too busy and cluttered, and too much graphical rubbish to be downloaded when I\'m trying to use a dial-up connection. Perhaps there\'s a setting somewhere so I can change how my screen is displayed, I\'ll have a look.

No flames please, it\'s just my opinion.


Simon

[nilch]

Even I would love this forum to be a bit less graphics based - not too good on my home dial-up PC and certainly not very Zaurus Opera friendly (scaling notwithstanding).

I think, just a forum home page to start with would be good, the home page announcing ZUG openings around the world doesnt make for very interesting read as a front page. And secondly the few (10-15) forum threads shown at the top on the home page dont show which categories it falls under as a result making it difficult to make out what the truncated thread topic really is about.

A few of my suggestions to make it better. Personally I liked the zauruszone.com forum software.

And seems a wee bit slower than say the older forum (Zaurus.com) but that is understandable.

[offroadgeek]

Sorry guys... sometimes I forget about dial-up woes, and just throw up a bunch of crap on the site.  

I\'ve made a few changes, mostly moved a couple blocks (calendar, stats, maps) to the right side.  And now there should only be the main ZUG Menu block on the left (unless you aren\'t logged in!).  This should help because when you\'re in the forum, the right blocks aren\'t displayed, so there will be less to load.

I\'ve changed the default setting for only 5 news articles to load on the home page.  I think by default your personal settings are set at 10.  You can change them by going to My Account -] Change homepage, then change it to whatever number you want.  You can even select to only have 1 news article show.  That will reduce the amount that needs to be loaded on the homepage.

Other than that, the forum itself is very lean.  No fancy graphics or anything.

Hope this helps the dial-up users, and all.

Please keep the suggestions coming!

offroadgeek

[zenyatta]

erm... I don\'t think the forum is as lean as it could be. In particular, when composing a reply (not Quick Reply of course) there are tons of smilies and other icons that show up and one hardly ever uses more than 2 of them.

If this could be switched off somewhere in the settings I\'m sure it would make the dial-up folk happier.

Just my $0.02.

z.

[charlie]

I personally would like to see a view new posts icon so that I can easily check all new posts since I last logged on

Thank Charlie

[tumnus]

There\'s a \"View posts since last visit\" link at the top-right of the forums homepage.

[charlie]

Thanks Tumnus I was just about to post a grovelling apology for my previous post.

I found it just after the post. I feel such a fool.

Charlie

[gawth_slacker]

I think the download section should stay also.  I am new and i see that the contents of the download section can grow a bit more, but it is more versitile than what i have found on the web.  and Foxdie is correct in saying that it does draw more viewers and hopefully more members for having something more material than reference to offer.

I think the current board software is the best around, you can do a lot more with it than most of the others. As for the downloads section I\'d say YES because it draws more people here. I think if you\'re looking to make this one fo the most successful Z sites than we need a comprehensive database of what we can do and what we can download for our Zaurii.

My suggestion would be to contact killefiz and integrate his website directly into the ZUG site, not just a small link of the most recent software on the main page.

I wouldn\'t worry about the DB loss, I think it\'s murphy\'s law that puts it as \"anything that can go wrong WILL go wrong at the WORST possible moment\". All I can suggest is keep making daily backups and fix the login problem

[gawth_slacker]

I am not all that html literate, but if there is a possible way, could you maybe consider making a zaurus/dial up site that links certain info from this site to it without all the graphical stuff that zaurus/dial up users can log onto seperate from broadband users but still lets them view the same posts and other relivent info as the broadband users on this site...

Sorry guys... sometimes I forget about dial-up woes, and just throw up a bunch of crap on the site. 

I\'ve made a few changes, mostly moved a couple blocks (calendar, stats, maps) to the right side.  And now there should only be the main ZUG Menu block on the left (unless you aren\'t logged in!).  This should help because when you\'re in the forum, the right blocks aren\'t displayed, so there will be less to load.

I\'ve changed the default setting for only 5 news articles to load on the home page.  I think by default your personal settings are set at 10.  You can change them by going to My Account -] Change homepage, then change it to whatever number you want.  You can even select to only have 1 news article show.  That will reduce the amount that needs to be loaded on the homepage.

Other than that, the forum itself is very lean.  No fancy graphics or anything.

Hope this helps the dial-up users, and all.

Please keep the suggestions coming!

offroadgeek

[gawth_slacker]

I was thinking maybe a frontpage that has two options, one for dialup/zaurus users and the other for straight broadband/home pc users.  one would be more lean than what is here now, the other would stay the same or even grow for those who are not hindered by slower connections, but both cross linked in certain areas such as posts and what not so they all have the same important information available

[gawth_slacker]

btw, i am hoping that by tax time, i will be logging onto the net with my zaurus with a cf netcard i can plug into my hub along with a full size keyboard to type more quickly.  If all works out, i will be logging onto the yahoo linux chat room with gaim or gyack...cant wait!!!