Forums | MacLife

matt wrote:

Frank,

For years, the main contact for making server changes on this site was a student who joined this site when he was something like 13 or 14 years old.

That's not hypothetical. He kept things running. He was *the* guy. In fact, he was the one who made the decision to switch these forums to PunBB.

If only Future Networks had *half* the quality control that GUI did...

You and I seem to be talking about two different things. Do you think that we might be able to meet in the middle? I've already agreed that it is likely that you are correct about the small amount of time that it would take for the change. Can you meet me halfway by agreeing that the magazine and website are owned by a much larger company these days and that said company might want to do things a little differently? Perhaps they don't want the open themselves up the the potential problems that could come from turning the site over to an outsider. Perhaps the forums are not separate entities residing on their own server now and in order to give someone access to them would give them access to other parts of the site. I guess I'm asking if you can simply agree that this might not be as black and white of an issue as you make it out to be. I don't doubt that you have experience coding html and forums. Do you doubt that I have experience developing and deploying software for large corporations? Trust me when I tell you that they don't deploy changes (even small ones) without testing and they don't hand over their code to outside sources.

Frank

Count your blessings.  At least it's not:

Forums | Mac,Macintosh,Mac tips,Mac hardware,Mac software,Mac printers,Mac help,Mac storage,Mac hard drives,Mac digital cameras,iLife,iLife tips, iLife help- MacLife

That title is really a travesty.  I hope they realize that search engines actually intentionally filter out sites that try to boost their rankings with stunts like that.

Daniel wrote:

Count your blessings.  At least it's not:

Forums | Mac,Macintosh,Mac tips,Mac hardware,Mac software,Mac printers,Mac help,Mac storage,Mac hard drives,Mac digital cameras,iLife,iLife tips, iLife help- MacLife

I always just go straight to the forums without ever passing through the home page of the site.  Travesty indeed.

Rik, I've no doubt you're right as far as you go, and page titles aren't the be-all end-all, for me at least. I'm not greatly worked up about them. But these forums are hemorrhaging readers, and we'd like to staunch that. I've no doubt they'll be maintained, but I think I hear tumbleweeds approaching. Once folks find new homes, they're gone and seldom come back. Anyway...

frankly wrote:

thelegendofjohn wrote:

Somehow this thread about forum design has devolved into talking about slavery.

Only someone that didn't read the entire post would think that

And you didn't understand mine at all.

frankly wrote:

Bat wrote:

The Mac|Life parent site has page titles...

Here's the problem. I don't doubt that it might be able to be fixed in 10 minutes. And if you were making a change on your own homegrown forums for some non-commercial site then I would say go ahead and make that change. However, no project manager, software developer, system administrator, or dba in a professional commercial environment would release changes into a production environment whether the change took 10 minutes or 10 days without QA testing. [..] Have some common sense here and come back to reality.

I am in reality. Now you read with some comprehension.

I did not say hand over to a third party. I said it would be an easy fix, based on good authority. So let Future take just a small slice of their admittedly tight timetable and show us someone does care enough to fix this before too many become intolerant of it & take their browsers elsewhere and end their subs. Mac|Life is still a computer-oriented lifestyle mag; pushing the latter excessively because the iPod/ iPhone etc. are big now could be a grave error. MA's old core readership already seems to be jumping ship.

With many believing print media a dying breed, the online component is increasingly important. Demons indeed; a few ads are a small price.

/me wishes an end to alcohol intolerance. Mwave time.

Rik wrote:

Tonight I roasted an organic chicken with a thyme, lemon, cracked pepper, sea-salt, and olive-oil baste (500 degrees breast-down for 20 minutes, then coat the back with the baste, flip it breast-up, baste again, roast for 8 more minutes, baste again, then lower the oven to 325 and roast until an instant-read thermometer reads 160-165 in the thickest part of the thigh -- which should be another 30 minutes or so, depending upon the girth of your bird), and served it with a mixture of pecan and wild rice with a touch of sage honey and some finely chopped roasted pecans, pistashios, and dried apricots, and put on the side some steamed baby zucchini sautéd with red pepper and garlic butter.

Oh, where were we?  Ah, yes, the Forum page titles ... sorry, but I got distracted. Y'see, there really is more to life that 12 to 15 hour days nursing servers 'n' PunBB code.

Guys & gals, you're dealing with Future US -- the ultimate skin-of-the-teeth, understaffed and overworked publishing company.  They do, indeed, care about you, but they're way-stretched.  Get over it, please.  All will be well in due time.  Trust me, although the management and in-the-trenches folks at Future care about you, they're fighting many other demons as we speak.  Take a deep breath -- and would you like to share a bit of after-dinner port?  My wife and I have a fine 1956 Colheita that we're nursing, drop by drop.  Might make you feel a wee bit mellower.

I'll skip the port but that chicken sounds delicious!

Frank

I am sure this has been brought up before, but.. why is this run off of PunBB and not off of like vb? or iv?

Rik wrote:

Oh, where were we?  Ah, yes, the Forum page titles ... sorry, but I got distracted. Y'see, there really is more to life that 12 to 15 hour days nursing servers 'n' PunBB code.

As far as I'm concerned, the utter lack of attention paid to this board has become a joke at this point....but c'mon Rik, there's a huge difference between "12 to 15 hour days" and putting in a couple of minutes a year.

The whole 'more to life' line is a bit insulting in view of that enormous gap.

frankly wrote:

bratboy wrote:

Rik wrote:

Oh, where were we?  Ah, yes, the Forum page titles ... sorry, but I got distracted. Y'see, there really is more to life that 12 to 15 hour days nursing servers 'n' PunBB code.

As far as I'm concerned, the utter lack of attention paid to this board has become a joke at this point....but c'mon Rik, there's a huge difference between "12 to 15 hour days" and putting in a couple of minutes a year.

The whole 'more to life' line is a bit insulting in view of that enormous gap.

You really missed the entire point of his post.

Me neither.

THe thing is, the people in charge DO NOT smurfing CARE.

frankly wrote:

ukimalefu wrote:

THe thing is, the people in charge DO NOT smurfing CARE.

Wow, I think that is much more harsh than the reality. I'm willing to bet that it is more of a case that they simply have more pressing issues and that since this site is up and running without any problems that prevent people from using it that they simply don't have it on their minds right now.

I know that some people in here are familiar with code but have any of you actually developed software for a large company for a living? There are ALWAYS application features and interface elements that you would LIKE to go back and tweak but when you have other things that are more important you don't get to do that.

You make it sound like these people are actively flipping us the bird and I find that to be ridiculous.

Frank

Frank, at least one person on the forums had server access for the first 7 years. The magazine didn't have a problem with it then. It wasn't until the switch that it became a problem.

Frank, I do not understand why you are so combative about everything.  Why is it always that you're the one against everyone in every thread you participate in?

In this case there are many people who are dissatisfied with the lack of attention the site is getting, this is the "Forum Feedback" area - the appropriate room for people to make their dissatisfaction known - and they're doing so. 

You've been here long enough to remember what it used to be like, and people aren't asking for much.  Why does that get under your skin?

frankly wrote:

oatmeal wrote:

Frank, I do not understand why you are so combative about everything.  Why is it always that you're the one against everyone in every thread you participate in?

In this case there are many people who are dissatisfied with the lack of attention the site is getting, this is the "Forum Feedback" area - the appropriate room for people to make their dissatisfaction known - and they're doing so. 

You've been here long enough to remember what it used to be like, and people aren't asking for much.  Why does that get under your skin?

I'll respond to you in private about your personal attack on me. As to the second point. Comments like this:

THe thing is, the people in charge DO NOT smurfing CARE.

are why I reply. When people say things like that a little perspective is needed in the conversation. I didn't realize that Forum Feedback meant bitch-fest and that anyone that didn't feel like bitching was not welcome. Duly noted.

Frank

Your posting style is nearly uniformly combative.  There is no personal attack.