But WHY are the forums being changed?

I've tried twice now to answer questions on the new SL Answers and get an error message when I submit the reply.

This forum, despite being crippled, works better than this new one.

Note to self: if I set up a company website's software with a supposedly integrated package, make sure the package includes a very conventional looking and working forum.

At least till Google Wave takes over everything.

Question: Would anyone like to buy my shoes? Only L$100 per pair. All colors. Lovely styles.

Why are they changing the forums? Damned if I know. To be honest, I'm not exactly against the new answers system though. Apart from the multitude of bugs, including the one that crashes firefox when I try to reply to a question of course. I don't see how it stifles discussion. We have a forum called Resident Answers and people still post nonsense and chit chat in it. I hardly see how that will be forced to change in the new system unless LL start wielding the ban hammer more forcefully like they did in Concierge Information Group.

As has been pointed out in this thread some way for newbies to ask questions and get answers with only minimum LL input is extremely valuable. The KB was an utter failure (in my mind) so maybe this will be better.

It's clear (to me) that this forum technically sucks. It's like being stuck in the 90s. Now, I know they could have just upgraded it to the latest version but here's also some value in a single integrated place to go for answers, blog and forums. I kinda like being able to go to the Discussions link and see every message in every system sorted by time. They've already said they'll be using the same system to run a new style of forum and it's pretty easy to imagine how that will look and function just by looking at what we have. I think it'll be OK.

That reminds me. Has anyone heard any news concerning the future of the xstreet forum?

Rock

Perhaps they feel these columns are too wide for the average monitor so we need to go like the blog so we save power by only using the middle 33% of our screen

This new "blogorum" of theirs is their new baby. Of course they're going to be waving their ban-hammers at anything that moves if it looks like it will besmirch their precious baby in any wayI have *never* encountered a KB that I liked. They all suck, mainly because of their over-simplicity - the kind that basically says "the only reason you're here is because you're a complete moron, so we need to baby it down for you". You stating that their new "forum" will be better than the KBs is like stating eating dogshit is better than being doused in gasoline and lowered into an active volcano.Yes, this forum technically sucks. It's because LL decided to cripple the hell out of their aging software rather than update it. I mod a couple of vBulletin sites, and it is truly amazing what this software is capable of if its full power can be unleashed. It can even be made to integrate well with their blogs, if they can hire someone competent to design the templates. I've seen their new system, and it didn't take me long to analyze it and come to the conclusion that it will collapse on itself in the matter of weeks. Tops. If the load lag doesn't kill it, the loss of interest caused by ripping this community out by its roots will. This place here may be dysfunctional crap; but it's home.

What makes you think they have any idea what will make them money in the long run?

Microsoft's KB seems to be pretty informative. Linden Labs should be improving their KB, not breaking their discussion groups.

Not the middle 33%. The right 33%.

Not even the right 33%. Since the posts and replies indent, a lot, it's often the right 20% or so.



At least it makes trying to decipher the non-English language forums I look at seem more familiar.

This forum works perfectly with page zoom. Zoom the screen to 130 percent and the forum fills the entire screen, and is nearly perfectly centered. This makes it much much easier on my eyes.

None of the page designs that put the main content on the right side of the screen with a sidebar on the left that gets empty after the top screenful were designed by anyone with any empathy for those with less than perfect vision. Content in the middle of the screen works much better with page zoom. If it can't be in the middle, put it on the left and make the huge empty wasteland on the right.

No page zoom option I can find, I'm not about to waste more resources running a 3rd party forum viewing program, every other forum I use manages just fine with a full width screen.