7/17 What Just Happened to the Page? Anybody Else Seeing It?

GG, thanks- I will hang out and see what happens- I really enjoy DG but I get so frustrated with today's world and the craziness that it is. The social networks have taken over everything, and we old folks don't appreciate it. One can't watch anything on TV anymore without being told that they should tweet, hashtag, or whatever else-download an app --what a bunch of ----!

Oh my...I was gone all afternoon and evening last night and checked in on DG just before I went to bed. Sometimes things change quickly around here...sometimes.

For me, my biggest complaint is one a lot of people have already mentioned. When I go into a thread, it's glued to the right side of the screen with a ton of empty space on the left. I have to immediately scroll the page to the left...or move my chair over...scrolling is easier than moving.

I'm not having a problem...so far anyway...with text totally cut off. Gymgirl, I clicked on the link to that thread you posted and I didn't have anything cut off, so, once again, it appears that the changes are affecting different computers (or browsers) in different ways. Haven't we already "been-there-done-that".

Okay...In fairness to Terry, Melody, the techs and anyone else with less hair and shorter (more bitten) fingernails than they had before, here's a (very short) list of my personal Pros and Cons regarding this latest change.

It may not make a difference, But I suggest those of you with any issues, make a similar list...but do it in a calm and reasonable manor. The folks you're directing this to, didn't start out to intentionally alienate their members or send them away. I believe they've always had our best interests in mind, but it's not an easy task in this technological world we live in, to update and modernize without upsetting some applecarts.

With that said, here are my main Pros and Cons
(starting with Pros because everyone likes to be complimented now and then):

Pros
1) It appears the padding around the text boxes has improved (yay!)

2) We're back to a reasonable size box (cell?) for Usernames/Avatars (yay!)

3) Text size seems reasonable and readable (yay!)

4) The text boxes have widened some and really aren't that bad now (yay!)

5) We have Terry and Melody (Big Yay!!)

Cons
1) Huge, empty white space on the left (boo)

2) Pages glued to the right of screen require scrolling or moving your chair (boo)

3) Too much empty space in general (boo)

4) Thumbnails of posted pics are stacked on top of each other (minor boo)

By-the-way, we should all understand that the ad space for non-subscribers helps DG pay the bills. I don't understand why the white space wasn't there before all the changes started (but, hey, I'm not a "techy").

OK, I'm done with my long-winded post (unless I run into other issues while going through the site)



This message was edited Jul 19, 2013 11:33 AM

Terry,
The view has improved with going from the 14 to 12 pt. font. And, I can increase the text by control+scrolling.

However, the hidden text has cleared itself on certain threads (the sample page I posted is fixed), but it remains on others (I just visited a page over on the tomato growers forum, and, "oops, there it is"....

...

I am thinking that the problem would be to not take up a whole column by the headers for the facebook, twitter stuff. Put them somewhere else and then return the full page for the main viewing pages.

Does that make sense? Then, those who need a larger font will not have the pages cut off at the ends.

(My 2 cent's worth...)

evelyn_inthegarden
The purpose of the wide white column is not just for the little header you see for facebook, twitter, etc. If you go to preferences an elect to see the general adds that appear on the pages you will see what you are missing, that column is for add for people who are non paying members. I am leaving my adds on right now just to keep the darn page from looking so blahh!

Nope that didn't help, after the first few posts there are no more adds!

Seedfork, what browser are you running? I think I can give you an idea that might help improve the view since the white space is not your cup of tea :-)

I am using IE10

Okay. Do you see the little rectangle in teh upper right-hand corner, between the minus sign and x?

You may already be very familiar with this and if so, I apologize. But if not, if you click on that rectangle, you can make your window into any shape/size you wish. Narrow it down just until all that shows is the left and right columns. That's the fastest and easiest way to clear out anything that distracts or detracts from my use of a website.

Yes, the resize button, have you tried that? The white space stays no matter what you do, it just cuts off the text on the right side.

Ahhh, that's because there is navigation in that area (the "search forums" box.)

We ARE listening to your concerns and suggestions, but I can't promise that we are going to radically overhaul the new design.

DG has a unique tradition of managing some things by "committee" with input from our membership. But there are also some decisions that we have to make on our own. (Many of the local businesses I frequent change their layouts and color schemes, and if they had asked me for my opinion, I would have suggested something different. But they didn't ask me and usually I'm okay with their selections, even if they wouldn't have been my first choice :-)

What about putting the icons for FB, Twitter, and Pinterest in a vertical line, that would create more viewing space.

I vote for that Suggestion! And increase the overall font size.

I went back and tried the navigation, got the screen just right. . I did like the screen better,but I had to reduce it too much to get it that way and then it would change and have to be resized after leaving and entering another forum.

Just please make facebook and twitter optional, and things will be just fine.

Facebook, twitter and pintrest are just three items at the top of the column, moving those three items will not help a thing. It only looks like it would because you are not seeing the column of adds down below it. You will see what we are talking about by going to your preferences ,then" add settings", and selecting to show "advertisments". Then come back to this page and look at it.
But, if the user name and date column were stacked vertically over the message block the would free up some more space for a much wider message block. I think that would be good, but I could be wrong.

Ok, Terry,

Truly, just offering a suggestion here...

I understand the need for ad fees to cover Dave's expenses. But, the paying members shouldn't have to suffer through that extra column which seems to be throwing the screen views off.

Since you KNOW who the paying members are, how about you fix our screens by removing the ad column from OUR views, put the Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest links in the white space where "Replies and Views" appears, and write in that left side ad column just for the NON-paying viewers or for those paying members who absolutely cannot live without the ads?

Is this possible?

As a paying member with the option to NOT view the ads anyways, why do I want to be inconvenienced with an ad COLUMN meant for the non-paying members only?

I perused the different community pages, and if there are only 3 main columns on each of those screens, certainly that 1st column with the three links and the search boxes could be put on top of the middle column, collapsing the screen to only two main columns. Then, the views would be centered, and no scrolling left-right.

Linda

I guess I haven't made this clear enough - as far as I know, we have no plans to make the text area larger.

The text area width was determined independently of the other design elements.

Deleting the "Follow us" or moving the search box wouldn't affect the size of that area.

Some good pointz about subscribers having to suffer substandard display. But I suppose ads bring in more revenue than subscriptions do?

Seedfork, if that resizing thing worked for you, you COULD open DG in a different window rather than tab, and keep it open & resized. PITA, I know. But if a site has known problemz with my browser of choice, I keep a different browser open for that purpose. Sometimes I have 2 or 3 browsers, several windows and dozens of tabs open at one time.

Where was the column for the ads before the change?

I just noticed that all the complaints here were by subscribers(paying members), so I logged out to see what type of view the non paying members have, guess they don't have access to this forum. It was not a pretty picture.

The right side of the column with text in all the forums is cut off for me, so I can't read all the text.... Others have probably posted it, but I didn't want to read through all the posts. I hope this will be fixed soon....

Good question Elsie!!!!

The right side of the text is cut off when I use a larger font (I had been using 16); when I reduce the font to 12 there is no problem. But I like using a larger font....

Reduce you font to 12 on DG site, then use your browser to increase the size of the font.
That's the best help I can offer.

Happy,
Leave the font at 12 point. To increase your screen size, hold your control button while simultaneously turning your mouse scroll wheel forward or backward...

This message was edited Jul 19, 2013 3:48 PM

You know, I wouldn't have a problem at all if my screens would just pop up past that "Follow Us" column every time...

I can adjust my fonts, read the text, it's just having to scroll over to the right every time I open a new screen that's nutty...

Could a width just past that "Follow Us" column be set as a default for every screen on the website (like it is on the home screens), so that the column is still there, but if we wanted to see that column then we'd scroll LEFT to view it?

The home page is perfect. Centered well and no extra wide columns on either side. On this one, unless I go to VIEW, then go to STYLE and then change to "No Style", the right side block is gray and covers the script in the dialog box.

There is no problem in the "message box" from the default setting.

I do remember one very annoying ad when I first joined (as a non-subscriber to see if I liked the website). It was on the very top of the page, by one of the insect repellent companies and if you accidently rolled the curser over it, the whole page would fill up with mosquitos blocking the view of everything...awful!

As subscribers, we've got it pretty good as far as ads go.

It was not the adds, it was the cut of messages on the right side and the general appearance of the narrow columns.

This is the view of the Texas gardening forum, from a logged out view.

Seed, in my opinion that's pretty ridiculous.
Why can't the link to the social networks be put elsewhere in a place that doesn't interfere with the forums? Haven't several people asked this question?

seedfork, 'm guessing Ithat has something to do with your browser settings and possibly your screen resolution because I located that thread and viewed it logged in and out, in Firefox and I.E.10 and the URL links wrapped (in Firefox) or were small enough to fit on one line (in I.E.10) for me.

Have you checked your screen resolution? We can start there. Let me know if you need some tips to do that.

Terri, this is the only site, that my computer is having problems with. The only one. I don't see displays like this anywhere else on the entire internet. That tells me it is not my display settings, it is not my font size, it is not me. This site just has problems. Now how many other people reading this post are having problems like this on other sites, may I have a show of hands. There, see!
Does it sound reasonable to you to change display settings for one site? Then go back and change them for all the other sites? I just noticed that some of the forums now still have the right side text cut off, some don't. How am I suppose to adjust for that?
My display is set at 1600x1200 the recommended setting for this monitor.