I would like to see the post indicators have a bigger difference. Read/un-read look too similar.

Kent

Will make note of that. We will eventually have custom style sets where you can change to different color themes and icon sets.

Cool, thanks for listening.

Also, if any of you guys see some on/off icons that you think would work well post em up here. If some of you are artists or play with photoshop and want to make a couple feel free and we'll certainly consider them for use here. Just make sure you follow similar image dimension/size of originals here so the page formats around them ok.

Good thing I decided to look here before starting a new thread. It would be nice to know which topics I have already read. I keep reading the same ones ones two or three times! :>))

Just so we are all on the same page here...are you talking about the envelope icons? The one's where if they are open it means unread and if closed they mean read? Are these uneasy to determine?

Also, the way that a thread is determined as "read" is based on your session and activity level. If you read something and come back 5 minutes later it will still have the unread icon near it but if you are inactive (don't click anywhere on the site for 45 minutes) when you return it will show you what is new since that last 45 minutes. There is now way yet to determine with individual posts if they were read during an active session or not because of technical reasons like cookies and some overhead issuse...That's not to say that we can't improve upon it to make it friendlier somehow. We have adjusted the timeout a bit so that "new" messages come up sooner if you return to the site sooner. We can play with that more if necessary to find a usefull medium.

Question is do you want to see all posts unread by you that may be a day old or more or just since you last logged on? This "qualifier" makes a big difference iin how we proceed.

Marc,
That's right. I think we are on the same page here. EBay comes to mind here. When You click on a topic or item it changes color and makes it quicker for me. I don't end up reading something a second time.

Please don't get me wrong here, I love the site! I hit it every day! Not so for the other two. RCO I only go to when I'm REALLY bored and have lots of time! Every one there DID do the modelers a real service in the early days and deserve credit for what they did.

While I'm at it, can I go back and resample (make smaller) my pic's on my replys? They don't need to be that big.

Marc,

What I was orginally talking about was the blue/light blue check mark icon that are to the left of each forum. I don't need to know read vs. un-read at the individual message level just at the forum/topic leve to know if I need to drill in further. I think the envelop icons are fine.

Kent

To answer each question above...

Yes we can change the blue light thing icons...I wasn't thrilled with them myself. It is simple to do once I/we settle on a good replacement. I'll look for some today or tomorrow.

Other question. I believe it should be no problem to edit your pics on your replies. Just click the edit post icon near the post and it should allow you to change/edit text and change what picture you posted. I think you may need to re-upload a new pic during editing so it replaces the old one as I have not experimented with this feature yet.

I find the current method very effective in determining both the new posts on the main menu, and on the page of the thread topics.

On the main menu, the icon to the left is blue'ish gray when that forum has no new posts. It turns yellow when someone posts something new. New posts are indicated in the individual thread topics by a down arrow next to the thread. Very Effective. I don't even pay attention to the envelopes.

I don't care for the length of user inactivity required before the "read" posts are renewed, so after viewing the threads I have interest in, I click "mark forums read" at the bottom of the main page. If I stop back 10 mins later, I don't have to remember what I read or didn't read. I just hit reload, or open the browser to RCU, and the icons turn to yellow reflecting new posts since I was last at RCU. This method also makes the refresh rate set by RCU a non issue for me.

I never noticed that the links don't turn another color after being hit, probably because of the method I use to determine new posts. I wouldn't mind if the links changed to a lighter shade of black to reflect visited threads/posts, but only if it was a lighter version of the existing color (which is black). As long as the colors didn't change on the links for posts read, I would be in favor. One thing I really like about RCU is the colors, and hope they don't change for a long, long time.

Plane Insane,

I use the same method as you but I never see the yellow indicators you speak of just blue and lighter blue.

Kent

OHHhhh, I'm starting to understand. Why would it be that way for one, and not another I wonder?

Yep, that would be the $64,000 question.

Kent

Could be monitor differences or other issues. I'll make the "lit" icon a little brighter today if I can get to that and let's see if that helps things a bit.

Hmmm...just about to make those icons when I though of what your problem might be if the on/off icons are always blue. Check to see if cookies are enabled to remember you in the control panel. They should be in order for this to work correctly. If not than a "session hash" is used to try to track you from place to place to remember who you are but that may not be reliable which is why cookies are used.

Let me know if that fixes it before I play with the icons and mess up something that may actually be ok. Thanks

I'm sure cookies are enabled because the system knows who I am when I come to the sight. I can see the difference between the two shades of blue it's just very suttle. It's not really a huge deal, it would be just a little bit easier to find the new stuff if there was a bigger difference in the two icons.

Ok, I just went and updated my profile. I was useing the RCUniverse Red scheme. I changed back to the default and it solved my problem.

Sorry for sidetracking you.

Kent

Whew...glad we figured that one out! The other style was one of the beta designs I was toying with.

Once I get the bulk of features that are most important up and functioning we will play with various themes which the user can pick and choose! Colors, layout, etc...Your own RC portal! I should probably delete that "alternate" style until we make up the real ones in the future...

Yea, leave it to me to stumble accross something nobody else is using.

It's the story of my life

BTW, you have built an excellent site here. Most of the others are so slow, I can't stand to use them.

ok, I see what you're talking about now. That 'red style' wouldn't be my first choice. Thank goodness RCU was sensible with their default colors... whew!

That was really just to test the feature out...horrible looking theme! The themes when they come will be really cool...when you change them your buttons and colors will change. You can choose whichever ones you like. Will get online after finish up the location search which seems to be working cool so far.

Gonna need some feedback on the location soon as there are a few ways to implement it. Will ask once I compose the thoughts..