Below are notes on Blogs, Galleries, Avatars, Signatures & More:

Member Galleries

Every registered Bressler.org member has access to their own Gallery section that they can choose to use, or not.

The Gallery is here. The Member Galleries are here. Both are linked in the top pull-down menu.

If you select 'User Panel' from the top left of the Gallery, this will give you options to edit/add files to your gallery, as well as the 'Image Dump'. I believe you can also add sub-galleries to your personal gallery. Personal Galleries are for personal photos. Image Dump is typically for humor/entertainment garbage (hence 'Dump').

Anything you had on the old Photopost Gallery AND/OR the old VBulletin Member Galleries has been moved here.

Recent Gallery photos and/or recently commented photos display on many site pages, as do random Image Dump uploads.

Member Blogs

The old member blogs are still available, from the 'Blogs' pull down menu at the top.

Since there has been no activity for many moons, I've removed some the supporting applications, however, any established members may still have a personal blog and contribute items that may appear on the Bressler.org Front Page.

Contact me if you have an interest in being a contributor.

Avatars, Signatures, Subscriptions, Post Sorting

These can all be changed in Forum Settings, which is linked from the top Forum pull down and from a tab on your Profile.

If you're getting email notifications that you don't want, your answer is probably in here.

Of course, same rules apply to the blog as posts, most notably, no frickin' Life Insurance spam.

Which do you prefer as the default view of the Forum, the Recent Discussions tab or the Categories tab?

I like the Recent Discussions tab as it gives you a very quick look at what's happened since your last visit, if anything. With Categories, you have to scroll down to see what's up.

I vote for recent discussions.

Recent Discussions is fine with me as long as we still can find the others. I was looking at the Suicide thread and my sceen shows a first to last order, though this thread shows last to first (which I prefer). Is there, or will there be, a user setting for that like before? And my wife wants to know if there is a way to not get email notifications when someone posts. Do you think it's alright to pet on the first date as long as both people are consenting adults?

Pistol Pete wrote:
Is there, or will there be, a user setting for that like before? And my wife wants to know if there is a way to not get email notifications when someone posts.

Forum Settings:
bressler.org/index.php?option=com_kunena...2&func=myprofile

Link at the top, link on the side, link in your profile.

I vote for recent discussions

I will note though that one thing I miss is the "view unread posts" feature that just lined them all up so you could read them quickly along with the Mark Posts read so you didn't have to read stuff just to get it marked read, if you know what I mean.

Good point. I will have to see what options I have when there is an unread post.

There is a Mark ALL Forums Read option available from the main category view, and a Mark Forum Read available from each category.

I've already run into one instance of the Recent Discussion tab confusing someone. At least I'm guessing that was the problem. They could not find the Midway Forum.

If it was Stibroker, remember he doesn't even know how to read.

This would be a good thread to make specific complaints, recommendations (e.g., "I can haz avatar? Oof.. how?")

"Forum Home" & "Catagories" should be the same thing, or remove the "Catagories" title and change the "Forum Home" link to the one "Catagories" has. "Catagories" is a true Forum Home Page and is the most useful for jumping around in. "Forum Home" really isn't a home page, it is the internal parts of "Catagories". I'm just pointing it out because some PLCs we had where I worked were set up the same way where the operator had multiple paths with different names to the same conclusion and we got phone calls about them.

You've changed your mind then?
bressler.org/index.php?option=com_kunena...amp;id=226314#226319

To be clear what the options are, there is one Forum Home, and it can either be pointed to the "Recent Discussions" tab or the "Categories" tab.

I definitely understand your point, which is why there was a thread to discuss it, and I kind of agree.

On the other hand though, with a steadily decreasing amount of activity, it seems more practical to show a Forum Home that displays ALL the active conversations within the last two weeks. With a category view you have to scroll the whole page to see where something is going on, then essentially repeat the process for each individual forum.

Further, with Category view, to get to a thread you actually WANT to be in, it takes two clicks versus one, at a minimum.

I think both of these points are particularly relevant when it comes to new users. What would you want a new user to see first... a list of categories, most of which haven't seen any activity for months... OR... the list of recent threads that actually have an ongoing discussion.

As a webmaster who's trying to compensate for a Forum that's been in decline for a couple of years, I would tend toward trying something new. I also think, for old schoolers, it's a matter of getting used to how to move around as fast as you did before.

Now, if there were still a few dozen active people here and 100 new posts a day, I would definitely lean toward categories.

This is not a final word though. The whole point of the previous thread was to have discussion. A lack of discussion, however, also favors a "Recent Discussion" view.

Thank you, Mrs. Loopner. No, I haven't changed my mind (as far as you know) and am getting used to the new layout. I was clicking around and seeing how things correlate, or for Sti, work together. I hadn't thought about the newbies, and you're right.

As for the decreasing activity, I think we've just gotten lazy and don't have many new ideas. We used to hammer the "Suicide Thread" and other Photoshop spots. I've been trying to think up new stuff but Bush won't let me.

May I also say that's a stunning house dress you have on.

Ideally, each user should be allowed to pick their own Forum Home layout.

Hopefully, the next version of this Forum will allow everyone to pick between any of those first three tabs. This is a very new Forum application, and I expect/hope that the next version will have a lot of improvements. It should be out very soon.

Oh My God, there's 3 tabs now?

JBMoney wrote:
no frickin' Life Insurance spam.

come on......were is the love..........the kids have got to eat.......nofollow links....really....still nothing but love for ya JB.....

"next version"?! Oye vey. I thought this is the next version. Do you work for Obama?

"This is not a second stimlus bill, it's a jobs bill".

Where are the jobs?

"In the third drawer down on the right".

Can we have access to it?

"No, it takes a ki".

Where is the key?

"I had to split it with the sound effects man".

Can we see your half?

"No. I snorted it before I came out here".

I like the new set up, I'd just say 2 things. I wish there was a mark forum read button so I didn't have to read threads I'm not interested in to get them to show read and I wish as you read each topic, the next unread would come to the top.

But I really do like the set up with Recent Discussions being the opening page.

Agree with the mark read issue.

There are, however, multiple ways to mark an entire category as read. There are 'mark forum' read buttons at top and bottom of each category, and an obscure pull down at the top right of each category listing. So you could read what you want, and then mark everything else in the category as read.

There is also a Mark All Forums Read button at the top of the main category index.

It needs something on Recent Discussions though.