Forum Format

wirebender

First just want to say that I'm very glad that this forum exists, and that Mark and family are so willing to give of their time and knowlege to teach us. OK. Always say something nice before you complain, that's my rule(by the way, where have they hidden the smiley faces :?). Anyway, I liked the structure of the old forum better. It looked like...a forum! I could go to the 'Post Your Painting' subforum and look at everyone's paintings and say 'I could never do that..." Now everything is on one page and I'm old and easily confused. Help.

Bob

[Deleted User]

If you have any questions about how to do something, just let me know and I'll do my best to help. The smiley faces can be accessed by clicking the tiny smiley icon in the top-right of the box where you type your comment. I'll try to make this more obvious when I have some time.

tjs

Bob I've been easily confused all my life! After awhile ya just get use to it

Mark_Carder

We plan on adding categories (sub-forums) once the forum grows some. Right now it still takes about a week for topics to leave the the front page.

garrykravit

Yeah, I'd really like to see a category for DISCUSSION and one for PAINTINGS. As it is this way you have to wade through everything looking for paintings.

[Deleted User]

Categories have been added and the forum format has been updated. It's probably a little more familiar to you now. Hope you like it!

Ronna

It's great. Thanks David.
Now we can't lurk anymore.

[Deleted User]

@Ronna Yes, I added the "who's online" panel… do you think that's a good thing or a bad thing?

We'll be making some other improvements and additions very soon.

gfish

Dang, I just notice that. I thought I could hide in here and then pounce when the opportunity was there.

Vangie

Thanks, David and Mark. At first I thought I was seeing things. But I'm getting used to it now... I just have to click on each category.

One good thing about the old format is that I could see straight away which ones have updates that I haven't read. Is it possible, perhaps, to change the colour of the main category to purple if there's nothing new to read?

Another suggestion if I may: It would be nice to see all the paintings that each Carderite has posted when you click on their name, or something like that.

Vangie

I tend (usually, but not always) to exit DMP without logging out, so you'll most likely see my name there 24/7.

Mark_Carder

Easiest thing is to just set your bookmark to "recent discussions".

[Deleted User]

Vangie said:

One good thing about the old format is that I could see straight away which ones have updates that I haven't read. Is it possible, perhaps, to change the colour of the main category to purple if there's nothing new to read?

@Vangie We're requesting that functionality from the forum software people, so we'll see what our options are soon. The problem now is it only triggers it to switch to purple if you've viewed every thread within that category.

A short term solution is to go to the category list, hover over a category, and in the top right a little gear icon will appear. Click that and choose "Mark Read". This will make the category purple until a new thread or comment is posted.

Or do what my dad suggests. The Recent Discussions link is just below the Add a New Post button.

Vangie said:

I tend (usually, but not always) to exit DMP without logging out, so you'll most likely see my name there 24/7.

That isn't how it determines who's online. The way it works — and this is how almost all "who's online" functions on websites work — is it just checks for activity, and after a certain number of minutes with no new activity, it removes you from the list.

Vangie

@David
I just hope that your software people can fix it because I've tried it and it's very cumbersome. It's also possible that while I'm on a page, somebody has posted something that I won't see until I get out of it, and/or if I clicked the 'Mark Read' and somebody's posting at the same time, then I will miss that post.

Thanks for always trying to improve the DMP site.

[Deleted User]

Vangie said:

@David
I just hope that your software people can fix it because I've tried it and it's very cumbersome. It's also possible that while I'm on a page, somebody has posted something that I won't see until I get out of it, and/or if I clicked the 'Mark Read' and somebody's posting at the same time, then I will miss that post.

@Vangie In the mean time I think my dad's solution is better then. Link: forum.drawmixpaint.com/discussions

Now for another problem… I'm just now noticing that the @username thing is not alerting me when someone mentions me. I could have sworn this worked when we started the forum…

Vangie

@David
Clicking on the "Recent discussions" takes me back to the old format! Brilliant!

CharleyBoy

David, you mean we have to create a code name when we "bad talk" you and Mark??

gfish

I guess I never paid much attention (as usual) but I must have always been on 'recent discussions' because each time I enter I see what subjects have new responses which is nice. ">

Gary

@Vangie
To see the forum with the new additions in a different color, click on the "Recent Discussions" as you noted above.... to toggle back to the new format, just click on "All Categories" under "Categories".

[Deleted User]

@Ronna @gfish @Vangie
You can hide your online status by ticking the box on this profile settings page: forum.drawmixpaint.com/profile/online

But I think it's nice for people to be able to see who's "hanging out" at any given time.