Size of text area, social media space and cut-off posts

These are the three main questions that people have, so let me try to answer them as best I can.

1. Why is the size of the text area so small?
Actually, it isn't. It just seems small after years of being able to stretch text as wide as your screen. We went to a fixed-width because it is easier on our eyes. We know that the smaller screen is problematic for those who need to ratchet up their font size due to eyesight issues or lower-resolution monitors. But having open space on either side of your thread is actually a good thing, I promise.

2. Why can't we move the social media links somewhere else (or remove them altogether)?
The area taken up by the social links and the search functions was previously taken by redundant navigation boxes. (I think we all forgot it was there because we also ignored it :-). Beneath that area are and were ads shown to non-subscribers, or those who choose to see them. I appreciate the suggestions from those who have suggested moving them, it is not likely that we can or will move the social media and search boxes to the right or to the top. If I hear otherwise, I will advise you as soon as I hear it.

3. Why are some threads cutting off on the right-hand side?
As best I can tell, this appears to happen when a thread contains a long string of characters (someone has typed a long line of "~~~~~~" or "------" in a post) OR when there is a long URL (hyperlink) OR there is at least one post that contains five images.

It does not happen in all browsers, so if you encounter a thread that does NOT have any of those issues AND is cutting off for you, please post a link to it and specify what browser you are using (and if it's a PC, Mac, tablet or smart phone.) If we need a screenshot, I will let you know.

Please bear with us. For obvious reasons, the techs want to be sure that any additional changes/corrections don't cause any other problems or hiccups, if we can avoid it.

Please use this thread to alert us to any new or different issues. I understand these answers may not be what you would like to hear on those three questions, but at this point, I can assure that we hear your concerns loud and clear, and the cut-off threads have our highest priority for a fix ASAP.

Terry ~ In the first paragraph of #3 you mention 5 images as one of the
problems. Does that mean we will be changing to only 4 per post?

Yes, I know we used to only have 1, but now we've all gotten spoiled rotten
with 5, so I was curious :-)


PS: I thought for now, it's probably not a bad idea to shorten sentences
in some threads for the people that are having cut-off problems.

Not as far as I know. I would personally hold out for the five if I have a vote.To my (non-technical) mind, it stands to reason that if we created the function to allow five images, we should be able to make the text area accommodate them.

I don't recommend shortening sentences. This is (I hope!) a very temporary problem and once it's sorted out, those posts will look odd. I do understand it is a very real problem for now, though - and hitting a "hard return" (to use the old typewriting keyboard parlance) resolves it for the short run.

Thank You!!

This thread is not running off the edge for me. ^_^

HoneybeeNC, Yeah, I guess it is because no one has messed it up YET.

Terry, Can we have an horizontal scroll [if that would help] if we cannot get things 'fixed'?

How would it be if everytime any website decided to rearrange the way it looked, it would depend on all its users to constantly reconfigure their home computers in order to use said website?

Honeybee, unless/until someone does one of the three things that seems to cause the thread to cut off, this one will be okay :-)

Indy, let's cross that bridge only if we need to. I know they are keenly aware of this issue and are working on it. A fix *should* fix all former threads as well as avoid problems in future threads.

Earthling, most websites I use reconfigure things pretty frequently. Because they make small, incremental changes, the frequency of changes is irritating,but the changes are not as dramatic.

For a number of reasons (including the fact that we are on a totally customized, built-from-scratch platform), we have held off on making these changes as long as we could. That means changes are more significant, especially for our members who have not recently updated their browsers, or upgraded to a newer monitor and/or operating system.

All I can do is apologize for the inconvenience. It is unlikely we'll wait as long to make future changes, but (before anyone panics) we don't have anything specific planned for now.

Thanks for the new combo thread Terry.

Are you saying that if Steadycam3 went back to this Plant ID Forum thread
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1326098/

and edited post with long url
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/p.php?pid=9607092

that that thread would no longer cut off text for me or Miss Mary?

Or, if I posted the same link steadycam3 posted with a long url here that this new thread would cut off text on the right?

Or if I posted 5 pictures on this thread that it wuld render this new thread cut off on the right just like others cited? Perhaps 5 pictures as a cut off cause has been eliminated by rolling over the fifth pic to a separate line,

Could yo address the "wonkiness' illustrated in steadycam3's screen shot of same?
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.p

Thank you

At this rate Terry, I doubt you will have to worry about anyone panicking since you probably won't have many long time subscribers around for the future changes. I for one am tired of all the wasted spaces on both sides of the screen. I think you are trying to drive us all to small screened, hand held, portable units, even if our older eyes cannot see them.

People buy the bigger screens for a reason. Also, we don't take these with us to work, to the mall, etc, while driving, we use them when we take a break from our gardening which I mistakenly thought this forum was all about.

BTW talk about wasted space, look at the ends of each line in this post. All of that space is there because a few words were too long to fit this small allotted area for discussions.

I honestly have to say that I think you and Melody are taking the brunt of all of this because your new bosses want it done. Please tell me if I am wrong. LOL, not really, don't expect you to.

Jnette, Godspeed on your way to GardenWeb already.
But don't expect a flood of "longtime subscribers"
coming along with you.
I'm not going anywhere ... unless driven off by the continuous plaintive mewl from people who INSIST on not reading Terry's patient responses & insist that moving the social network iconz would free up the left column.

Without testing it personally, my hunch is that yes, by replacing long URLs with shortened URLs, threads that have only that issue will no longer cut off.

And that yes - if someone posted 5 photos in this thread, the text would start cutting off. (Please don't try it - I'd like to make sure this thread is readable as long as we are still having these problems.)

The odd header is an issue I have reported and they are working on. (I too had a somewhat similar issue with the header links; mine was encountered with I.E. 10 when I cranked it up to 100% or larger, and did not resolve even when I zoomed out to 90%.)

I apologize in advace for being a dolt.

But here is what I don't understand:

I have read everything on the various threads (painfully).

Terry mentions a bit frequently that narrow columns
are easier to read. Fine, and I would agree.

HOWEVER comma, the dialog columns are SUPER
wide, resulting in the constant scrolling back n forth.

No lie, my left & right arrow keys are waering out,
no exaggeration !

I am on a two tear old pc, with a huge state-of-the-art
monitor.

It is very simple to drag the eges of the window to
make it narrower and hide the wide-open white spaces,
but it I the wide dialog boxes that are the problem, at
least for me.

It gives a headache to keep scrolling back n forth.

Most other sites with facebook, twitter, pinterest
capabilities put those icons at the very top or very
bottom of the page. It could be done here as well.

In the box where the posters name. city and
icon/avatar appear, the font, therefore the box is
more large than necessary.

But the dialog box font is smaller than we need.
go figger.

To those who re making your lines narrower,
thank you ! I already do this on my own so
I can read easier. It is a great relief to rest for
a minute from the incessant scrolling.

I am an old timer also, longer than appears
on my page. There was a gap when I became
legally blind.. So now, the only way I can read
ANYTHING is online. I count greatly on DG
to keep me sane. My apologies for not making
easier on you by having special needs.

I LOVED Daves Garden and have invested
a lot of the & effort, would hate to see it all for
naught. At this point in time not accomplishing
anything....

BajaBlue, I'm about to log off for the night, but I'm not sure what you mean by dialogue boxes. Do you mean the area where you type, or where you read posts? Neither of these is terribly wider than the other, so maybe you are referring to something else?

If you are on a very large monitor, which browser are you using, and what size zoom are you using?

I re-set your DG font to default to your browser preferences. I think that might help cut down on some of the problems of different processes fighting against each other. I will not check back in until tomorrow, so please don't wait up on a reply from me :-)

Pfg's Thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1316031/
is cut off on the right for me as well. I am running Windows Vista Pro and Firefox, both fully updated. I have the Firefox window at Full Screen on a 17" monitor. This seems to be a different problem to the one people are having where they have to scroll to the right to see the thread content.

Hope this Helps, KK.

Terry, why is it we can use the entire screen, almost, on things like this, but not all of them: Now this is just from logging on. We have the entire screen. Look what happens when we get to the discussion forums.

Welcome home, Jnette!
You are "watching" 7 forums:
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Yes! Strawbale Gardening darius Jul 16, 2013 9:33 PM

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The latest posts at DG:
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Read more: http://davesgarden.com/#ixzz2Zw4sEBe4

Still not fixed??!!
I have logged off, cleaned my history, cleaned cookies, cleaned cache, changed font size, have 2 different PC, both are the same. Still have to scroll to read the text, still have a large empty space on the left and on and on.
One DG member has left after being a loyal follower since 2005, she could not take this mess. I have renewed my membership for 2 more months...time enough to copy all my journals and diaries. I also plan on leaving since this is still not fixed. Why pay for something you now longer like anymore? Why pay when your opinion does not count? No notice to any chances were given, just spring it on us and expect us to be patient. Well I for one am not a happy camper and I would guess by the post...lots more feel like I do. Many have said " CHANGE IS INEVITABLE " or "CHANGE IS GOOD". I agree, change is good ....thats why im leaving and going somewhere that it doesn't COST and my opinion counts!
I will miss many on DG, but I will not miss be treated like a funding source with no options. Good luck with fixing the program....hopefully you get it fixed before your members have been reduced by half.

Yesterday things were okay on this thread. Today, the right edge is being cut-off again.

No right edge on my iPhone still. Patti

I HATE THE NEW LOOK

It wasn't me Honeybee! Honest, Terry1

I did do some experiments last night to see how the dialogue box changes
in size with various font choices available in Preferencestab.

I selected one post on one thread and then measured the changes in size
of the dialogue box at 8, 10 12 14 16 and 20 point options. The horizontal
width of the box remained constant at 9 inches (on my screen).
The vertical length however varied from 2 inches at 8 and 10 pt
3 inches at 12
4 inches at 14
5 3/4 inches at 20

Interesting, but far more interesting was that within the dialogue box, the area alloted to poster Id and info increased while the actualarea for the text decreased!
At 10 pt, one third of area was poster and two thirds was post, By 14 and 16
it was half and half and at 20, the poster info area exceeded the area allotted
to the post.

Since the new look has a fixed dialogue box width (9 inches on my screen)
would it be tweekable to limit the size of the posted ID info portion of the dialogue box so that when a larger text display is desired by users the text actually increases in size and area without having to accommodate an increase in the poster info portion, too?

It is IMHO the proportions that are off in our fixed width box and not the width of the box itself. Yes, I'd vote for wider width but that still wouldn't get me more text area relative to poster stuff much of which I know or can easily click on if I don't.






This message was edited Jul 24, 2013 8:40 AM

My above post did not post as it appeared in my preview screen before I sent it.

oops

This message was edited Jul 24, 2013 8:49 AM

I have the same issue Kaelkitty described above, with Pfg's thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1316031/. It occurs on some other threads and DMails as well.

I am running Windows 7 and IE 10, both fully updated. I have the IE window at Full Screen on a 24" monitor.

I think the "Tech Team" took off for parts unknown.
Same problems that we had a week ago.
Nothing is changing.
If you notice, only type halfway across
& you won't have to scroll.

That thread has multiple posts with five images. I believe that's why it is cutting off.

Bernie says, "If you notice, only type halfway across
& you won't have to scroll."

Bernie, where is the scroll tab for horizontal scrolling? My arrows will not move it sideways...only up and down.



This message was edited Jul 24, 2013 11:51 AM

Yes, and I am going to suggest to the tech team that we make the member information area fixed when we phase out the DG font sizing. It should remain relatively narrow/small compared to the text area. (It will enlarge or shrink with your browser's zoom in/out but it should not become larger relative to the text area, or encroach upon the text area space.)

I think you and Bernie are talking about two different things.

If you have your browser set to zoom in to larger than 100%, you may have to scroll left-right to read the text. That horizontal scroll is provided by your browser.

However, on threads where the text is cutting off on the right-hand size (currently), there is no scroll bar that will let you see the cut-off text. This is a temporary problem that should be fixed shortly. See my first post in this thread.

It appears to me that any long URL link is causing the thread to be missing on the right end for some settings. Why doesn't the right margin kick in like it does for normal words?

Terry can you say more about "the phasing out of DG font sizing"?
Specifically what that will mean for users

Does this mean for instance that DG font size will be whatever our browser default size is set at? Or that DG will be viewable by our individual parameters rather than by those set by DG? Or? Any probable time line for this phase out?

Edited to add this link to an article on getting web pages to play nicely with browsers and users:
http://lamb.cc/typograph/

This message was edited Jul 24, 2013 11:52 AM

This may be an uninformed question, but, how come the "wrap text"

string?
command?
whatever makes it wrap feature?

doesn't cause a long URL to split and jump down to the next line like it did before?

We never had problems with long URLs in the past, or did we?

Isn't there something automatic that could make any long text wrap around in the "post a reply to this thread" box to keep the box from expanding out of view on the right hand side?

Linda

Terry and others - would love to read
your posts, but they are hard to
follow because the words to the
right cannot be seen. ^_^

First picture, home page when opened.
2nd picture, home page after scrolling.
3rd picture, a thread page when opened.
4th picture, same thread after scrolling.

If they could figure out how to
center it before we scroll, it would be nice.

Each time you click on the next photo, you need to scroll to see it.

Yep.

I wonder how long this problem will be the main subject at DG- all the gardening posts have slowed way down- why should something be so darned probematic for so many people before a solution is found?

The most pressing problem - text cutting off, especially in I.E. 10, has been addressed and we are pushing out a change that *should* fix it ASAP.

If it does not clear up the problem threads for you after we make this change, please report which thread, and which browser you are running here. (You will not need to clear your cache or log back in for the changes to take place.)

Is it so crazy to ask the tech folks to test new formats and big and small changes on many systems: old and new, desk top, lap top, IPAD, IPhone, portables, ETCH a SKETCH ---BEFORE launch?

Feedback from users is necessary and certainly not beyond a reasonable expectation -- anyone with experience at DGardens knows we are a happily helpful and patient community. But, to rely to such a degree from subscribers coming from all technical skills and with diverse learning curves is not excusable.
Well, we can see the result.

This message was edited Jul 24, 2013 3:46 PM