Re: New layout on forum homepage

[Megan]

Just to play devil's advocate:

This is a vegetable gardening forum. My mindset during a summer day is: "I have vegetable X that is ripe and needs to be picked-I wonder how I should cook it?"

How does Mel's cook book lay things out?

Are ya going to make one subcategory for each veggie? That'll keep you busy!

[boffer]

It's halftime, gotta hurry!

brassicas
cucurbits
fruit
grains
greens
legumes
roots
tomatoes


I went to make French Onion Soup the other day. I could have looked in:

An international cookbook
A vegetable cookbook
A soup cookbook

[Megan]

I guess I mix my veggies and other foods up often enough that it would be extremely tough to classify a single dish into one of those categories. I hear where you're coming from, though.

[Old Hippie]

Sorry to change the subject on the new homepage but I was wondering if the country counter with the flags was new or if it has always been there and I just never noticed?

I like it.

There is so much awesome info on this site that I haven't even been able to scratch the surface of so I am not sure what is new and what is old. I haven't even begun to check out the recipes yet.

GK

[Megan]

The flag counter is new, I love it!

[camprn]

The flag counter is new, I love it!

+1

[Icemaiden]

Hi Boffer
The forum has gone all funny for me on Internet Explorer. I don't know if that is my problem or yours but I haven't changed anything as far as I know.
All I see is Welcome Mat and How too... Under that is a very thick footer.
Works OK in Google Chrome and Mozilla although on those the rolling message bit is sort of thick (deep).
You must be putting in a lot of time on the changes to the outlook. Appreciate that

[boffer]

Thank you. I'm often negligent about checking how well changes work in IE because I dislike it so much. So I was surprised to see how screwed up things looked this am. I was even more surprised (I'm being polite) when I removed all the changes I did yesterday, and the display in IE didn't change!

Once again it's a system wide problem. Ironically, others are seeing the problem in FF and Chrome but not IE. Until they get it fixed, all I can do is turn off the source of the problem which is the scroller. (and it's not because the jokes were so bad today either )

Stay tuned...

[middlemamma]

SFG forum withdrawls SUCK! LOL...Boffer...we can live without a scroller for a while in order to still be able to see the forum....it was a hand wringing experience!

[Icemaiden]

What great service! Especially considering the time difference

[ander217]

Thank goodness I can access the forum again. I was having withdrawal! Being able to email Megan was all that saved me.

Thanks for boffering it, Steve, even it's only a temporary fix.

[boffer]

There're other funnies now. Posters' names aren't showing in the recent topics list, but it's temporarily liveable! I tried changing the time format (how it is displayed) yesterday and couldn't. Now I wonder if that's part of the system tweaking.

Usually symptoms like we're seeing mean that they are making upgrades. Sometimes changes can only be observed when they are installed on the real live system ie there is no preview view for everything!

[quiltbea]

Mine is working fine now, but.....
I have Internet Explorer and I had the same probs last nite when I tried to answer an emal from the forum. It wouldn't download properly and things danced from right to left at the slowwwwwest pace imaginable. I thought it must be a board problem since all my other sites worked fine.
I, too, can live without the scroller if necessary.
Thanks for all your hard work Boffer. What would we do without you?
I'd surely miss this board and have withdrawal pains.

[ander217]

Is it snowing, or do I need to see a doctor about these spots I'm seeing?

Actually, with the temps outside at 90+ it's kind of nice.

(Boffer, are you doing this on purpose?)

[SFGHQSTAFF]

Hey Everyone, Thank you all for your patience as this technical glitch is worked out. The good news is that usually when things go haywire, it's usually because there is an upgrade on the way, we'll see. Either way, a special thanks for our great admin Boffer for being on the ball and taking care of it quickly.

By the way, I love the new Country counter Steve, it rocks!

Alan

[martha]

Thank goodness I can access the forum again. I was having withdrawal! Being able to email Megan was all that saved me.

Thanks for boffering it, Steve, even it's only a temporary fix.

A new noun - I boffer, he boffers, we boffer, he has been boffering...

Boffer, is this all a ploy to get us to admit that we really do like your jokes?

[ander217]

Martha, I was using my weird humor to make a play on words, but I think you may have something there.

A boffer is a foam weapon used to put one through all the motions of attack without inflicting damage. Since Steve's handle is Boffer, and he was only giving us a temporary or "soft" fix, I tried to be funny and turn his name into a verb for making a soft attack on the glitch.

Never mind, I think it's all lost in translation now, but it made sense to me at the time.

[Furbalsmom]

Is this thread just for forum issues? I am unable to get into my PM. It says I don't have any new ones when I hover over the PM button, but when I click there because I want to reread some older PMs, I get just a green screen and my old PMs are unavailable.

I am also getting lots of info when I move my cursor over some areas such as in the upper part of the page under PM or Profile, boffer, ward, martha, cp and a couple other names show up until I move the cursor somewhere else. Does this make sense?? I know I am computer ignorant but I don't think this happened before.

[Icemaiden]

Sorry, but now the band with the scroller fills the screen and it takes a l-o-n-g time to load.

(Well, you did ask)

But I can switch to one of the other browsers if you want to ditch IE for ever

[boffer]

Oh, I believe you. But you might not believe this:



Everything looks normal in IE on my computer

There are still oddball displays being reported on the support forum. I just got home; let me play around a bit.

edit>>it did act up when I clicked the PM buttton. I'll turn the scroller back off till tomorrow.

[boffer]

Nice to know...or maybe not: This post is pertinent but geeky, although it does come with pics


Internet Explorer (IE) does not have a good reputation amongst software coders because Microsoft does not play well with others. The entire internet world has agreed on standards regarding browser displays-except for Microsoft. They can't be bothered to fit in.

This has been going on for years. One code is written for all the independent browsers available, then, it has to be adapted to work in IE. Microsoft can get away with it because IE is on nearly every PC sold, and half of PC users don't know there are other options.

There does seem to be some serious pushback developing against Microsoft. The extra man-hour expenses necessary to adapt to IE are beginning to catch the eyes of the bean counters. Maybe the next version of IE will be more friendly.

In the meantime, perhaps you have seen websites that say "Best viewed on Firefox" or Chrome or Safari or whatever. Developers will put that on their site because IE hasn't adapted to the new, agreed upon standards that everyone else has. If you're using IE, there's no telling for sure what you are seeing.

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Here's a simple example, Ha-v-v's current signature:

"I like to let my mind wander, but it doesn't always come back"

If you're using IE it has square corners, right? It's not supposed to; it's supposed to look like this, but Microsoft can't be bothered to conform.


This is what users of IE see

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Here's what the dotted border looks like in IE



Here's what the dotted border looks like in other browsers

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Just remember, in IE, you're not always seeing what others are seeing. I do my best to make the forum work properly in IE, but I admit, sometimes I forget to check because I hate to use it. I'll give the system techs another day to do their thing before I try to make the forum 'normal'!

[Icemaiden]

I knew most of that Boffer, which is why I said I could switch to another browser
I've taken some webdesign courses recently and it was an eye opener when it proved impossible to write code which would look the same on different browsers. And different on the various versions of IE too - we obviously use different versions.
Still, I prefer looking at things in IE because it has a slightly softer look and I'm just used it If I come across a site that doesn't function properly then I just switch to a different one. On some sites which I use the text ends up superimposed. I think there may be a bit of subtle resisitance to IE going on and some of the problems are accidental-done-on-purpose

[Retired Member 1]

Boffer, I use IE. I'm not having any problems specific with the jokes scroller, but for the last couple of weeks or so, when I reply to a message and get wordy I end up typing below the white box -- it used to scroll up to keep up with me. Now, I have to move the right hand deelymebob down with the mouse to extend the white box AND, the smilies no longer pop up their name when I hover the mouse over them. Nothing I can't live with, but just a change from what was. (And deelymebob is a technical term -- just ask the guys at the hardware store when I go in and say I need a deelymebob to fit the thingamajig to put in the whatsit.) It's taken 8 years, but I've finally trained them well enough they actually understand me!

[Garden Angel]

Same here belfry and it seems slower to . Not you Boffer , just the text ! and when I went to post this with the emo , it erased the whole post ! probably cause I was sassy, sorry !

[middlemamma]

deelymebob

LOVE IT

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