Pending Change to Forums Look

[Kimberly Ann]

Hi All,

Some changes to the forums visual appearance will (should) be released this week. Most are simply upgrades to fonts, buttons, colors, etc. This is to align the forums with all hp.com web sites.

A nice addition to the forums pages will be a search window in the upper header area that will allow you to search the forums from any forums page (keyword only). A link will be available to go to the current search interface window, too. The window will also allow searching all of hp.com.

Thanks,
Dan

[Pete Randall]

Dan,

While I welcome continued development effort on the forums, all I can say is that I will withhold judgement. With the myriad problems repeated time and again in your Issues thread, which continue to hamper the utilization of this most valuable resource, I can only hope that effort has been made to address not only the "appearance" but the "functionality" of the forums.

I anxiously await the premier!


Pete

[Jeff Schussele]

Hi Danno,

While this is certainly good news, I know that I speak for *many* others hoping that very soon now you'll announce the great news.
So, to paraphrase Harry "So when's it gonna be punk? Go ahead & make our day!"
And no - that's not *our* beloved Harry - he'd probably be a tad more direct..he..he..he.

Welcome back stranger,
Jeff

Hope you had a fine vacation Dan. We sure missed you, but rest assured Cheryl & others filled in admirably in your absence.
And a shout out TO our Harry - stop by more often! It's getting harder for Pete, RZ, JP, JC, Tully, others & I to care the load w/o you! There is certainly a gaggle of SA talent here - but sadly a lot of 'em are a pretty dry lot.
Live Free & prosper, my friend.

[John Poff]

Hi Dan,

I'm looking forward to seeing the new changes. This group is so shy and reserved about making remarks about the forum, but I'm sure you might hear one or two comments about the changes. :)

As for Jeff's remarks... Dry? Me? I'm never dry. I only drink on days that end in the letter 'y'. Actually, if I ever let loose with my real personality on the forum, well, I would be getting reprimanded daily. ;)

JP

[Kimberly Ann]

Hi Guys,

Yeah, ok....so I didn't see that one coming. :) We are still working on the performance problem, and I apologize for the duration. It has been a tough one to crack. The look and feel will be a definite change, something that will pull the forums in line with other hp sites.

Oh, and yes its good to be back.

Thanks,
Dan

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

I agree with above `complaints', but if you're addressing the look-and-feel, please try to use as little as possible elements in order to have fast building pages, and *PLEASE* try to look into my 100% wish, so wide screens will use more of it's valuable space and not end up with 50% white space (please, please, pretty please)

Enjoy, have FUN! H.Merijn (Who hopes that fonts will not be fixed to courier or times, because I hates serif fonts)

[H.Merijn Brand (procura]

Ohh, and before you forget, try how it looks in browsers other than M$IE:

?? Opera-7 ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/win/711b/en/
?? Opera-6 ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/win/606/en/
?? Opera-5 ftp://ftp.opera.com/pub/opera/win/512/gl/
?? Mozilla http://www.mozilla.org/releases/
?? Mozilla-Firebird http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firebird/release-notes.html
?? Phoenix http://www.mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/phoenix-release-notes.html
?? Netscape-7 ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape7/english/
?? Netscape-6 ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/netscape6/english/
?? Netscape-4 ftp://download.xs4all.nl/pub/mirror/netscape/communicator/english/4.8/windows/windows95_or_nt/complete_install/
?? Beonex http://www.beonex.com/
?? K-Meleon http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
?? Amaya http://www.w3.org/Amaya/User/BinDist.html

?? Lynx http://lynx.browser.org/
?? w3m http://w3m.sourceforge.net/
?? links http://artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~mikulas/links/

Enjoy, have FUN! H.Merijn

[Pete Randall]

Dan,

Maybe I should clarify. I was not referring just to the slow performance problems. I think a far more serious issue is the multiple submit problem where people have to (or think they have to) submit multiple times. We see multiple replies, we see multiple questions, and we see failure to assign points which leads to whining about people not assigning points when in fact they have tried.

Sorry, I shouldn't be turning this into an "issues" thread. I'll look forward to the new look.

Take care,
Pete

[John Meissner]

I'd have to agree with Merijn - make sure it looks good in other borwsers .... I use netscape 7.02 from my Red Hat Linux 7.3 (work) and 9 (home) to participate in this forum.

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

don't forget netscape/moz and ie5 on hpux either...

Later,
Bill

[Khalid A. Al-Tayaran]

Hi Dan,

Good news.
WE like to see a submit+reply button (both as one button). Instead of assigning then replying of course on slow connections.

[John Payne_2]

Hey,

Any changes to look and feel are fine by me. Have fun!

I will certainly like to have the search bar on the page itself. That will be nice.

(Just don't make it girly.. No offence to anyone :) )

John

[Laurent Laperrousaz]

Hi

I am glad to read that the search remarks that a lot of people did on this forum has been taken into account!

Will the reply/question writing area be resized to be wider ? That would be an easy one to update!

Thank you

Laurent

[Steven E. Protter]

My 2 cents.

Perhaps you might let some of us assist you in testing.

Perhaps put the new look and feel in al alternate domain test.itrc.hp.com and get some feed back.

On a technical level I don't know how easy that would be. I also have no idea on the policy implications at HP.

I would note however that any changes you make will be better received by us your users if they are vetted in some way by us, your users.

Thanks.

Hope you enjoyed your vacation and keep up the good work. I'm sure that performance and multiple submit problem is tough. It think they are related. When it runs slow or gives you a 404, even if you check the thread in another window you don't see anything there.

Some process is as my past supervisor says "tied up in its shorts".

Glad to have you back.

SEP

[NightHawk_1]

That is great about the search options, thanks.

[Kimberly Ann]

Steven,

Appreciate the offer. The dry run environments are behind the hp firewall, so that's no good. I suppose we could figure out a way to get a production mirror outside. Anyhow, the noted changes are pending for today...you've probably already noticed changes to other ITRC pages, like login. I'll talk to the lab about what it might take to provide access to any improvements before they go out....interesting idea. I suppose one way would be to hold a 'netmeeting' session and demo things in the future (one workaround idea!).

Thanks,
Dan

[George_Dodds]

Hi Dan

Well there's nothing like a bit of redecorating to brighten the place up :)

If it helps make the forum more usable then i'm all for it.

Being able to search from any page will be nifty as well.

Cheers

George

[Chris Vail]

Dan:
How 'bout letting Pointy Hats and above be part of your beta test team? Or maybe just the salad heads--they have a lot more time on their hands than the rest of us.....


Chris

[Pete Randall]

Dan,

Interesting! I saw the new reply box. Very nice. The need for the new buttons eludes me. The fonts have now shrunk even further - do you think I'm still 20 years old?

However, my biggest first impression was the SSI errors! I was locked out right after I first witnessed the "improvements".

I really think you ought to consider the testing suggestions. Obviously your developers don't know how to test.


Pete

[Umapathy S]

Dan,
Hope I am seeing the updated forums page now. It looks nice. But really miss the good old one and some what puzzled with the new stuffs. I got errors when tried to refresh the old screens. So I went back, logged out and in again. Yet to see all the new features.

cheers
Umapathy

[Dario_1]

And talking about changes. Good deal Dan!!!
It looks very nice.

Regards,

Dario

[Umapathy S]

Pete, I feel the fonts size has increased. I use mozilla.

cheers
Umapathy

[Dario_1]

Dan:

I am also having the problem Uma is having. I have to use the back button to break out of the reply. My replies are showing, but I have to go back to be able to get into the forum again.

Regards,

Dario

[Victor BERRIDGE]

Hi Dan!
After some strange ssi...404 errors...

I just saw the new look!
Not bad at all
Keep up the great work!

All the best
Victor

[Kimberly Ann]

Hi All,

Hang in there...the deployment is still taking place. They need to complete a few more steps, and release the old style sheets. Things will appear better in a bit. Pete, I think you'll still be able to put away the glasses...and if it makes you feel better, yes, you look 20 years old!
Thanks,
Dan