The Sledgehammer!

[bruce]

Barnaby,

I experimented with some code for displaying non-US teachers and it works pretty well. I'll apply similar methods for the clubs soon.

Bruce

[bruce]

Teacher directory is back up!

There are a lot of incomplete entries in the database, so the state search is not as robust as I would like, but the text search works very well.

Check out them non-US teacher listings!

Bruce

[Linda Collins]

Bruce,

Thank you so much for the return of a simple, workable site for Everything Dulcimer! A sigh of relief from me...

Linda
http://www.cabinhillmusic.com

[bruce]

Hi everyone!

I'm detecting a definitive lack of complaints these days. I hope this is a sign of a nice happy community for now.

- I've been manually updating new content every day. It's going to be a few more weeks of this at least while I do some catching up with the 'day job.' Then I'll start creating the methods for everyone to maintain their own content.

- I'm manually doing some cursory screening of new discussion members. I've deleted a few spammers, but is anyone seeing spam that I'm missing?

- In general, are we doing okay?

Bruce

[strumelia]

Wow, thanks for asking Bruce!

Things are running fast and smooth, for me anyway. I love the clarity and simplicity of the new ED...so easy to find what you need!

I did notice that avatars seem to be gone now for the past week or two. Is this just me, or is there a plan concerning them?
One day I'd love to see the member 'signature' feature return, but i realize you are very busy and it's not a high priority need.

[kwl]

Over the last few weeks I have deleted some spam and so has Barnaby, but you seem to catch most of it. I, too, would like to see the signature feature return. Otherwise things are looking good from my perspective.

Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

[Judy K]

Bruce, I am amazed by how much quicker ED has been loading lately, even on dial-up. Before your changes I would read the forum with a dulcimer across my lap, playing while waiting for a page to load. It wasn't unusual to go through an entire song or two with each change of page. Now this is the quickest loading of the 3 forums I check daily. Thanks!

[bruce]

Thanks all!

Yes, I too noticed the slow loading so I unplugged some of the components that were used as add-ons to the discussion.

One of those components were avatars. I hate to say it...as cool as they are, they do slow page loads considerably. But I want them back too. So, if we bring them back, they will have some strict restrictions on size. That way, we can enjoy them without slow page loads.

I hope folks are noticing the quick page loads on the front end. These are way, way faster on my connection. I'd love to hear from those with dial-up on the speeds they see with non-discussion pages.

Folks, I don't visit every forum everyday, so if you detect spam please email me (bwf@everythingdulcimer.com). I rarely notice that I have PMs, so they aren't a very good way to get ahold of me Spammers are immediately deleted (yes, their whole user account and their posts). So, they only get one shot.

Thanks all!

Bruce

[brashley46]

So email you instead of using the exclamation-point-in-a triangle link? Okay ...

[Judy K]

I hope folks are noticing the quick page loads on the front end. These are way, way faster on my connection. I'd love to hear from those with dial-up on the speeds they see with non-discussion pages.

As a dial-up user with a 'wondrous' net-surfing speed of 28.8 Kbps, getting from the Jam Session to the Home Page took quite a bit of time (minutes) when I first tried it. Once on the home page everything else loaded quickly (only a second or so) as I flipped through clubs, tab & teachers. To double check the time issue, I came back to the Jam session to start over. This time the home page loaded immediately. So the first time may have been a glitch -- or the second time's speed was increased due to the first check. On every part of ED I checked this dial-up user has noticed major improvements in load time. But is the home page necessary? It would be nice to be able to access the tab/teachers/events/etc directly from the discussion forums which I have always considered the heart of ED.

The only 'glitch' I find now is a long standing one in the discussion forum. In the 'Bowed Dulcimer' section, if one selects 'Bowed Dulcimer Discussion', only topics from the 'Beginner's Area' will list in the "active topics", with nothing from the 'Playing Bowed Dulcimer' section. It has been this way for months.

Is this the type of information you wanted, Bruce?

[WaterPig Master]

It would be nice to be able to access the tab/teachers/events/etc directly from the discussion forums which I have always considered the heart of ED.

I too am in favour of consistent site wide navigation. I also think that the navigation items for teachers, builders and performers should be merged into a 'people' drop down. As it is there are a lot of navigation options.

Cheers,
Barnaby

P.s Please stop the navigation items going bold on hover! There are more subtle things that could be done, like a slight colour change, or toggling an underline. The problem with increasing the weight is that it messes up the rest of the layout, and pushes the other items along a bit.

[WaterPig Master]

One of those components were avatars. I hate to say it...as cool as they are, they do slow page loads considerably. But I want them back too. So, if we bring them back, they will have some strict restrictions on size. That way, we can enjoy them without slow page loads.

Do they not get cached? Unless people are using really enormous images, or they're being needlessly requested from the server on every page load, I wouldn't have thought it would have a huge impact on page load times.

Cheers,
Barnaby