Welcome to the new site! 👋 (2 Viewers)

[Microtus]

No, no. Please don’t stop because of some people who can’t be bothered to read and are being obstinate. You have helped a lot of folks with the tips and tricks you have added and your comments in other areas to help navigate and FULLY make use of the site.

I agree with Lisa W. I have read virtually all of your tips and tricks and applied your findings to my situation as necessary. (And thank you!) Please don't stop!

 

[Essex Tern]

The facility to mark a forum read, was there and I used it, found it useful to be able to see, at a glance, if there were any new contributions to a particular forum, was easy.

It was a very simple thing to do previously and now it's a bit more involved, I'm free to comment as anyone else is and my preferences are just that, MINE.

Would using a default filter for watched threads serve your purpose?....

As an example if you say wanted to watch just the ID forum for new posts, you can watch that thread with the watch option, and then under New posts in the filter on the right hand side, select unread threads and watched only, and save as your default, and then when you next look under New posts, you will only ever see new contributions to the ID forum since your last visist.

Obviously the number of threads you watch is user definable, so you could watch a large number of threads, but just by selecting New posts, go straight to your own choice of threads and new posts within them, that you are interested in.

Hope that helps someone 👍

 

[tenex]

If you want to mark it read without reading it, why not just ignore it anyway?

You seem to want everyone to work the way you do or would. A good interface is supposed to accommodate different styles of working. (This is why some of your tutorials are less useful than you imagine. I couldn't figure out the point of the long one on marking things read.)

Maybe too, there’s just some folk, that for having absolute control of a computer device gives them the power to control their own little bit of the internet, which is a great ego massager...

I consider that highly inappropriate as well as unqualified. A good interface even allows some degree of user customizability. And whose ego might this be about:

I just spent the best part of two days adding tips and features as I discovered them to the tips and tricks thread as we were asked because I thought it might help some people.

If you're tired, take a break. Others are helping too.

 

[jurek]

@Deb Burhinus
Sorry. Many people appreciate your work. But many people expect all the features to be in standard places. Maybe like a computer keyboard: most people want letters in standard places, even if the standard keyboard layout is not the optimal one.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

A good interface is supposed to accommodate different styles of working. (This is why some of your tutorials are less useful than you imagine. I couldn't figure out the point of the long one on marking things read.)

A good interface even allows some degree of user customizability.

The whole point of some of my posts were to demonstrate that the interface does allow for a degree of ‘customizability’ because of the personal preferences you can set up in the functions and the different pathways you can take to acheive the same objectives and the new opportunity to use different media content in posts. The creative potential in that, I think, is one of the beauty of the upgrades.

Steve’s comments re. the ‘unread’ posts filters below is exactly one of the functions I covered in the tips and tricks thread to demonstrate this ‘customizability’ in choosing what you view .
Post in thread 'Tips & tricks'
https://www.birdforum.net/threads/tips-tricks.401722/post-4101625 I’m sorry you couldn’t understand it.

I get that some folk are having difficulty or just don’t like the changes but to an extent, this is a work in progress. However, I’ve been really impressed with how open Ollie and Steve have been in the past few days to hearing how things might be tweeked for the better. I can’t think of any other organisation that involves it’s members in consultation on how to improve on appearances and functions of it’s website in the way BF is trying to do. At the end of the day, though, this is just one internet site, is it worth getting so angry and upset because you can’t find a button you were used to having in the same place anymore or that it takes a fraction of a second more to do something? If I started feeling that strongly about such things, I would consider that might be the time to evaluate how long I was spending on social media and in chat forums and consider that maybe it was time to step away from the computer and get some ‘real life’ perspective.

 

[Steve]

But in doing it this way, you have to revisit the forum whereas the way I did it, you can see from the main page if there are new posts without going in

Here are few changes that have been made to the "Watched threads" page:

• By default, only threads with new posts (read: new posts you haven't read yet) are shown, to view all watched threads you would need to click on "Show only: Unread"
• There is a new "Filters" drop-down menu through which you can choose to apply certain filters such as, show threads only from selected forums or by a specific member. There are few more filters for power users.

 

[Sangahyando]

Overall, I like the changes. This may be the least important aspect, but I also approve of the new set of emojis - the old ones made it really difficult to convey anything, IMO.

 

[Nutcracker]

Overall, I like the changes. This may be the least important aspect, but I also approve of the new set of emojis - the old ones made it really difficult to convey anything, IMO.

I do miss the :t: and :-C and :storm: emojis though - it would be nice if they could be restored please!

 

[Deb Burhinus]

Isn’t :t: a thumbs up (your favourite?!)

?

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Deb,

I asked a simple question: Is there a way to mark a single thread as "read?" It was a function I used frequently. The value to me is I can go into a Forum, clear the stuff I didn't care about, and leisurely take my time to read the stuff I don't. It's just the way I work(ed). You work differently than I do. So be it.

Before asking the question, I read this thread in its entirety at the time and the entire "Tips and Tricks" thread and didn't see an answer. So that's when I asked my one question. Then I went to bed. Now I come back a day later, saw your response saying you added something to "Tricks and Tips" so I immediately read that too. It still didn't answer the question.

But in your response you started getting snippy. After that other people started piling on. And it just escalated.

I appreciate the time you took to document some of the changes, and there are definitely some new things I like. There are some things I didn't like, but I didn't want to provide that feedback since I figured it would be counter-productive. But your comments about "control" and "ego massaging" are really unhelpful.

Anyway, I'd like to make the request that there be a way to mark a thread as "read" without opening it be included in some future revision to the program, if possible.

thanks,

JH

 

[Deb Burhinus]

I asked a simple question: Is there a way to mark a single thread as "read?" I

The problem then perhaps is how you are phrasing the question. If you mean you want some way of differentiating your read threads from unread threads, you could just use the tag at the top of this sub-forum which is situated on the right hand side above the thread lists. It gives you the option of hiding threads that are read as a default for this sub-forum. I don’t think you can manually tick off individually each thread, at the moment, it is automated to do it as a list in the forum interface but you don’t need to go into individual threads to do it either.

. You work differently than I do. So be it.s

I’m just ‘working’ within the parameters of the functions the site gives me but I believe there’s enough flexibility built in to suit everyone

..in your response you started getting snippy. After that other people started piling on. And it just escalated

The only one piling it on here is you. 😄The other responses apart from the one I was specifically responding to, have been very supportive and encouraging publicly and privately.

Let it be noted that I was making very general comments in my original post about how I have seen people behave in working environments over the years as systems are modified and updated and I was making general observations on the ‘relationship’ computer/device users can have with the internet and the power that social media gives them with the resultant acting out when that is for any reason curtailed (based on my professional experience). It was not directed at any individuals here per se, but I was personally attacked for airing my views to which I am entitled - but that is not why I got ‘snippy’, it was the suggestion that I was wasting my time adding any tips etc to Ollies thread because essentially people don’t care about improved functionality nor are interested in learning new systems which i didn’t find helpful and actually made me feel like I’d been an idiot for trying to help others. However, it’s not worth falling out over. All is good with the world where I am.


Have a good day 👍

 

[tenex]

I asked a simple question: Is there a way to mark a single thread as "read?"

The problem then perhaps is how you are phrasing the question.

No, the problem is how you keep responding to a perfectly simple question. (It makes one wonder whether all is really good in your world after all.)

This upgrade is a major change, and everyone's feedback should be welcomed, whether it strikes you as "positive" or "negative". No one really knows how much flexibility there is in the new system, whether what they still want (or now miss) can be added, or how easily. We just want to find out. No one needs to justify themselves, or please you. Quite a few people are helping to make the new interface better in various ways with their feedback, not being some sort of "problem" or "acting out". As a result I'm getting over some initial reluctance myself and concluding that it's going to work well, in some ways better. Let people figure that out, don't try to shove it down their throats.

 

[Deb Burhinus]

I get that some folk are having difficulty or just don’t like the changes but to an extent, this is a work in progress. However, I’ve been really impressed with how open Ollie and Steve have been in the past few days to hearing how things might be tweeked for the better. I can’t think of any other organisation that involves it’s members in consultation on how to improve on appearances and functions of it’s website in the way BF is trying to do

I can only repeat what I said earlier and reiterate an appreciation for getting the new site to where it is and with so many new features as well as having the opportunity to be heard on some constructive criticism and suggested improvement.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Would using a default filter for watched threads serve your purpose?....

As an example if you say wanted to watch just the ID forum for new posts, you can watch that thread with the watch option, and then under New posts in the filter on the right hand side, select unread threads and watched only, and save as your default, and then when you next look under New posts, you will only ever see new contributions to the ID forum since your last visist.

Obviously the number of threads you watch is user definable, so you could watch a large number of threads, but just by selecting New posts, go straight to your own choice of threads and new posts within them, that you are interested in.

Hope that helps someone 👍

Thanks for this ET, it would work to a point but my original moan was aimed only at the loss of a verry simple aspect of the old site. Previously, two clicks on say Rufflled Feathers, would grey out the forum title which would return to colour with any, new contribution. You can still do it but instead of two clicks on the forum titlle, it's now two clicks within the forum, return to main page and refresh.

It was / is, very easy to skim the main page for the forums you use most and see, without actually going in there, if there was anything new.

 

[sbarnhardt]

Unfortunately it only seems to go to the first unread post, when doing that, if someone else has actually posted on that thread on or since Migration Day.

Your term "Migration Day" caught my eye! It's certainly an event worth noting and remembering.

Perhaps we should declare it an "International BF Holiday"? I say this somewhat "tongue-in-cheek", but why not?? I'm game! Anybody interested?

how to use the new set up or even care about it’s improved features, then clearly I have been wasting my time - you are probably correct since there’s little evidence people are even reading the thread anyway or benefitting from any

Look Deb, you are doing everyone a great service doing what you've been doing. Keep it up! I appreciate it and I'm willing to bet the majority of the fine folks here on BF agree! Thank you for what you do!

 

[peterday]

When I post a photo in the Gallery and fill in all the details of the photo, I have to type them all from scratch, whereas in the old version of Birdforum you were presented with your previous entries in that section. which saved a lot of time, particularly with the camera/lens description.

 

[delia todd]

Yeah I'm with you on this one Peter. I hope that Ollie can sort it out. Meantime, what I do, is open a previous image of mine in another tab, and copy/paste the information from it.

 

[shrek48]

Hate it, but I hate any change slowly getting used to it, seems easier I must say ;-) do like how light and bright and uncluttered it seems, but still hate change ;-) 😜

 

[Kits]

When I post a photo in the Gallery and fill in all the details of the photo, I have to type them all from scratch, whereas in the old version of Birdforum you were presented with your previous entries in that section. which saved a lot of time, particularly with the camera/lens description.

Do you mean the metadata, Peter?

 

[KC Foggin]

When I post a photo in the Gallery and fill in all the details of the photo, I have to type them all from scratch, whereas in the old version of Birdforum you were presented with your previous entries in that section. which saved a lot of time, particularly with the camera/lens description.

I hear you Peter. I find it very annoying.