VintageComics

PM system is still a horrible experience.

This would really be ideal. The marketplace has no shortage of traffic and I'd venture to say at least half the forum would prefer the option to turn it off. I often have more than one forum open so that list is redundant. My opinion if no capability to turn it off would be to get rid of it. It detracts from the whole experience for anyone who knows their way around.

Pretty good list, Arch. Is it possible to shrink the left side of the threads as well (basically making the member info/avatar space smaller) to allow for larger post area? May help to condense the boards. It seems that the "look" and the scrolling are the biggest problems at the moment. Yep. And getting rid of those boxes on the right. Or at least making them optional. They kill the eye appeal of all forums for me.

Yes I am and I believe there a lot of board members who would prefer that old board skin than this skin layout. I do not think I'm the only one asking for the old board skin and colors. I think what people want is the visual flow that the other skin had. I don't see CGC going back to the old color scheme as these are their corporate colors. But how the eye meets the page is most important and they can do that with this color scheme.

They could have set up an FAQ in it's own forum. It would have prevented zillions of questions being answered over and over. That right block of useless info still needs to go (or at the very least made optional). And as someone else said, they need to hire someone who understands visual management to make the site look better.

Apologies, the book sold weeks ago.

Running a scan of the site there are a bunch of areas where the contrast is too low (click on contrast in the left-hand column.) The main body text isn't identified, but it's a smallish off-black font on a light grey background. That's not a color/font choice I would make for this user population (it includes a lot of older folks.) http://wave.webaim.org/report#/https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/410146-a-few-boards-tweaks-to-note/ I tend to agree. After spending nearly a week trying to get used to this chat forum I'm finding that it's not a very user friendly design. It doesn't lend itself to easy and quick reading. I'd really ask Arch to reconsider the way this forum is skinned and find something similar to the previous one, which was dense, concise, organized and quick and easy to scan and navigate. This current skin (even with the Beta theme I'm using) is like comparing Kindergarten Legos to an adult set of Legos. It's somewhat useful, but you really can't do anything worth doing without exerting a lot of effort.

Oh, and I gre up in a car family. My dad had one of the earliest transmission repair shops in Toronto in the 60's and I was in the auto industry myself for over 2 decades. Most of my family still is.

You make some interesting points. IMO the 70's and early 80's where when the American companies took a turn for the worse and their cars went from being world class pieces of art (the 1950's and 1960's cars were some of the most beautiful cars ever mass produced and also reliable) and with the looming oil crisis and rising interest rates in the 70's/80's, for some reason the Big 3 decided to produce junk that was a shadow of it's former self. Mercedes and the German manufacturers still provide bulletproof cars during the 1980's and even into the early 1990s. I think it was Chrysler's short merger with Mercedes in the mid/ late 90's that turned the German industry on it's ear. In a desire to save money, Mercedes took a play from Chrysler's 1980's playbook and what and they changed their philosophy for building cars. That's when they came out with their ML SUV (built in the US) and changed the way the built their German cars as well. The result was that we had more recalls for each model in the late 1990's than Mercedes had previously in their 100 year history. A specific example would have been the way they treated their body panels. Mercedes would dip their panels for corrosion protection and their cars up until the mid 1990's had spectacular corrosion resistance. For some reason, an executive along the way decided they could dip ten times as many body panels in the same solution. The result was that the solution was watered down and they had monstrous corrosion problems in the late 90's and early 2000's which resulted in many recalls and customer complaints. They went from building legendary Benz's to having 1990 Hyundai levels of problems (not to pick on Hyundai but their entry level cars were initially terrible - they build great cars now) I think manufacturers like BMW and VW/Audi tried to keep up with Benz's sales volume and so they also lowered R+D costs and just began pumping out lower quality junk as well. Like the 1970's and 1980's for the Big 3, the 90's were the turning point for German cars who up until the mid 1990's were still solid cars. I saw problems in the 1990s on Porsche cars that a grade school student wouldn't produce (like battery acid venting right onto an AC condensor - lol) The Asian manufactures likely saw this as an opportunity and stepped in to fill the void but doing the opposite of what they had been doing. They initially came to the American markets with throw away pieces of junk in the 60's/70's/80's but by the time th e90's hit they were selling reliable cars. Some of their models were actually bulletproof. Cars like the Toyota Avalon, Camry, Corrola (short of corrosion issues, which are always a problem where there is snow/ice/salt) became the million mile cars that the 60's American cars and 80's German cars represented. From what I'm hearing now, even the Japanese cars have their problems currently and the Korean cars are taking the spot that the Japanese cars had in previous decades. When I rent a car (which is often) I tend to gravitate towards a Hyundai and I really like them currently. So it's really cyclical. Each manufacture had it's best years, depending on the decade. Now don't ask me about watches. I know nothing about those.

I think that depends on whether you believe in Zeus or not.

Strange, I was sure only searches greater than 3 characters worked.

What a n00b Were you able to find it? It's possible it hasn't migrated over yet.

Agreed. With luxury pricing there is a lot of prestige built into the price. And double may not be the actual cost, I was just trying to make a point. If you want a tank of a car or a toaster that will last for 2 decades, or any other bulletproof item (the way it used to be in many areas) you're going to have to look to pay through the nose (relatively speaking compared to what we're used to paying today for items).

So after you click on the swoop arrow, what next? Do you still have the highlight the text in the post to get it to nest? The swoopy arrow only takes you backwards through the posting chain that got you to that post, so it's really for reading purposes only - unless of course you want to highlight and quote someone along that chain. But you can keep hitting the arrow to keep going back indefinitely until there are no more quotes to read. Once you're done reading backwards you can then just hit your browser 'back' key to get back to the 1st post you hit the swoopy arrow on. Another trick I use (Mozilla - not sure if all browsers have it) is that I right click on the swoopy arrow and then click "Open Link In New Tab" so that my original page stays undisturbed. I read what I want to read in the new window and then come back to the original post I want to reply. Complicated? Yes.

Have you tried the swoopy arrow on the right of the quote block? It lets you jump to the quoted post, and daisy chain back through the conversation. OK, I've been looking for the swoopy arrow all day. Just found it in the top right of my quote block in your last post. The main reason I couldn't see it is because there wasn't enough contrast - it blends too nicely into the background. I kept clicking on it and it kept taking me further and further back through the conversation. Neato. Again, a little more work but creates less over all clutter as the thread increases in size. EDIT: Just noticed there are now multiple swoopy arrows for multiple quotes. Again, Neato.

That was one thing I did find annoying. People would just hit the quote button even when there wasn't a reason to and so you'd have to scroll through dozens of the same pictures on a page (or video or GIF). I like that the new quoting feature will eliminate a lot of unnecessary clutter. I agree with Sqeggs though that it will make conversations more difficult when all of the quotes are not quoted in one post - it forces you to scroll through the entire page (or pages) which really is an eyesore right now unless you guys skin this forum to make it more conducive to readability. The upside is that people will hopefully learn how to copy and quote and the extra effort needed will reduce unnecessary clutter.

Mercedes Benz used to have a million mile guarantee on some parts (bumpers, control arms, etc). No matter how old the car was, if it broke they'd replace it free of charge. They did away with that policy over a decade ago.

Actually, you couldn't do it on the old forum either. Your searches had to have at least 4 characters.

You may want a quality product but if it costs double to make would you be willing to pay that? Most would rather take their chances IMO and take the cheaper product.

Interesting point. I used to work next to a Rolls Royce repair facility that specialized in older models from the last 100 years. They would literally bang out a fender with a hammer from a plate of steel to fit a car. Good luck finding a craftsman that can do that anymore.

There are going to be exceptions but I was speaking generally. Japanese (and Japanese based) cars from the 2000's seem to be rock solid. Louise's Honda took a 200,000 Mile bashing before needing serious engine work. Toyotas from the same era have a good reputation. But it's my understanding that even those cars which were the 'new bulletproof' have declined quality. They got what they wanted - a foothold on the world stage (Toyota is #4 in the world behind the big US 3 now) and they likely scaled back on quality to collect the cash based on an old reputation .

I started a thread in the Question / Vote forum about an FAQ. They really need to have an FAQ about the new forum features which would eliminate half the questions they are being asked over and over. And people who don't know about that forum need to find out about it. That's probably the quickest way to get the mod's attention.

...would have eliminated a lot of confusion and clutter with questions so that we could have focused on stylistic discussions rather than everything all at once. Is there any chance for a proper FAQ or explanation to most of the new features on the chat forum or is it too late now?

It wold help reduce clutter.

Are you saying that the PM Inbox is too narrow? If so, I agree. Being able to see it full screen would be ideal, unless there is a way to do it and I can't find it.