NEW FORMAT: WHAT DO YOU THINK?
 

I'll start. I like the ability to just to the most recent message or forward the thread to a friend. <BR><BR>I HATE losing a third of the screen to the animated banner, because now I have to squint and scroll to see the list of messages. You can only see one or two of the whole list of 50. And only the shortest posts can fit on the entire screen -- more often all you get is the header and the click-points and the first sentence or two. <BR><BR>Sorry, Fodor's, the extra time/effort it takes to go between keyboard and mouse is annoying and makes me less likely to scan the whole list, much less go on the the next 50.<BR><BR>

I definitely LOVE the new format. I thought the old format was a bit "kludgy". The bolds are well placed and the email adresses are clickable! (i know you could copy/paste, but no need to do so now...)<BR><BR>I am not sure what you mean by animated banner taking one third of your screen... I dont even have an animated banner! There is a Fodor's Rants and Raves banner sitting at the very top and i dont think it is larger than 50 or 100 pixels.<BR><BR>Marcos<BR>

Still trying this on for size!<BR>I am replying to a second post now, and I noticed that the site has retained my name and address in the boxes-strange!<BR>Three things right off the bat;<BR>1-I agree with above poster,<BR> I liked being able to see more than a few questions at a time.<BR>2- this format makes it feel very cramped here!<BR>3-messages posted do not fit into my screen anymore.<BR> when reading the replies to a post, I<BR>must move the message back and forth to read the whole sentence.<BR>Is it the new format, or is it my computer?<BR><BR>Just when we get use to the new format, things change again.<BR>Oh, aren't we all creatures of habit!

WOW, I thought I was in Wonderland!!! I am not sure how I like it yet! I agree with the Fodor's banner however...it is too big! Nancy, I think it may be your computer....mine seems to fit,,,,I also have a 17" monitor, so I am not sure if that is your problem...me, being such a technical wizard and all....not! Time will tell.......maybe I just need to get used to it! :-0 Judy

I see now (about not having to re-type name etc) - - must be using a cookie or something - - I assume I could change it to "xxx" or something if I preferred.

I like the new bells and whistles BUT I agree with all above who say that we've lost too much of the screen to things other than the posts. <BR><BR>I am sure the banner space at the top will be used for advertising, and it is a standard size for that. What we are reaping folks, is thep price of success here:)<BR><BR> Maybe some space could be gained in the next section. There is an awful lot of white space where it says travel talk and search. even a half inch more out of the top and bottom of that section would make a difference. <BR><BR>"Travel Talk" doesn't need to be that big and there doesn't need to be so much white space beneath it and the search box.<BR><BR>I have a 17" monitor set for 800 x 600 and it feels pretty claustrophobic.<BR><BR>BTW my comments are moderately professional as I do teach web page design at my college:)

There is, on the whole, also too much whitespace at the top of the topics and the posts side.

Feeling cramped? In the very far top right of your screen are 3 symbols...a minus sign, a square and the x. Click on the x and voila,,,your screen should get bigger.<BR><BR>The colors here seem much brighter than before. I think I am wider awake than normal for this hour in the morning. What I like is that Sally and I can continue a dialogue without having to go to our email sight.<BR><BR>Dr. Betty

I mostly run Netscape on 1024x768,17".<BR>Too much whitespace 4 me, otherwise fine so far.

Particularly with this forum, not being able to select by Geographical topic is a pain. I'm interested in travelling to England and the Cotswolds area, but using the search to find England + Cotswolds (plus how many other search words would I need?) seems like a hard way to glean information.<BR><BR><BR>

Just noticed the autofill for name &amp; address!cool!<BR>The site obviously works differently too, posts appear faster.

Yeah Frank, Cool....

I liked being able to access geographic areas, and I also prefer more messages to appear on the screen. It's too tight.

I am replying again, just to add some other comments.<BR><BR>I do a LOT of web development (that's part of my job...) and I must agree that the design does include a lot of white space, but that is necessary to accomodate those running lower resolutions. I normally run my screens at 1024 X 768 while browsing the Net, but use 640 X 480, or 800 X 600, as my base resolution when doing web design.<BR><BR>In addition to the other changes, they really muist have re-worked the search functionality. It is much faster now.<BR><BR>I like that you can create and reply to messages in the same window that you normally read them.<BR><BR>That's all. <BR><BR>Enjoy your day,<BR>Marcos

I guess I can get used to the format, but I find that it's running much slower..anyone else see that? I tried to reply to a post a moment ago and it just sat and waited and waited...waiting for Fodor's to respond. Yuk..I hope this gets better.

I don't like the way that when I post an answer to a question, the question list automatically returns to No. 1, which was the one I just answered. I may be 150 questions into the site, and now I have to page forward to get back to where I was. Also, to much space on the sides of the replies. I'm also getting alot of errors.

I agree that the ad banner at the top seems much bigger now and the actual content in the site feels cramped. I liked the old format better, but maybe I'm just not used to this yet. Also, for some reason it is taking my computer a lot longer to go to each forum when I click on it. Fodors, it would help if you would make it so that we could go directly from one forum to another without going back to the "Travel Talk" main page -- I would like to be able to go directly from the Latin America forum to the Europe forum without going out and coming back in again. <BR><BR>Also, I haven't checked today so I don't know if it's still there, but yesterday there was an article on the main Fodor's page relating to exchange rates, and the decimal points and commas were all wrong. Anyone who read that article and relied on the numbers in it would have an awful lot of bad information (I think anyone beyond grade three would have realized this though, so probably no harm done). It seemed like it must have been some kind of a technical glitch.

Hmm - am I the only one to notice this is readable without reading glasses? Very big plus for me...now that I'm a doddering old 50-something

Judy and Dr. Betty,<BR>This must be a conspiracy between Fodors and my husband, to get me off this site by making it too difficult to read replies.<BR>(Am I being paranoid?)<BR>Actually,<BR>my real problem is I have an 11" screen!<BR>I am on my husband's computer now, and there is no problem with reading the<BR> messages, as he has a larger screen.<BR><BR>Now, it is my turn to conspire.... how do I takeover my husband's computer????<BR> <BR>

Please go back to the old format. Or Please MAKE THE FONT BIGGER, I can't read it!!! And it' slooooooow.

Lisa<BR><BR>Till Fodors provides the short cut you're referring to (if ever), you may have the same result by typing the "Forum ID number" (fid=x) in the netsite/location window above. If, for instance, you replace the fid=2 by 6, it will take you to the Latin American Forum<BR><BR>Paulo

S. Fowler et al are undoubtedly right that the banner space will be sold to non-Fodors advertisers -- but that doesn't mean it has to be quite so large. Plenty of sites get along with half that size, or put things off to the right margin, where there is currently just white space.<BR><BR>As to how much appears on screen: I have a large 17" monitor and I keep the display toggled to the largest size (Dr. Betty, not every browser and platform uses the symbols you refer to), and I'm still feeling very cramped. Sure it's nice to have the large font, and I can re-set the font to a smaller size to fit a bit more on. But the fact remains that the percentage of the display area devoted to the actual forum discussion has been cut considerably, pretty much to less than half the available space.<BR><BR>When I find myself working on a quarter of the screen -- as I do when scrolling messages or writing a reply -- I think it's uncomfortable and, here, unnecessary.<BR><BR>

Overall I think I could get to like this change. The search function in particular is sensational. I did a test case and it worked fast and pulled up great stuff. <BR>I'd agree with previous posters that it would be beter to have the banner shrink a little, but I can live with it.

Boy, the print sure looks tiny to me. As a former reading teacher, I can also point out that sans serif type is much harder to read. (Maybe it was sans serif before, but it didn't seem SO sans serif.)

I would like to see the message title appear in a bolder font. I have a hard time distinguishing between the message title and the number of responses. I also agree that there is too much white space.<BR><BR>Other than that, I like it.

Plus, I just tried to post a response and got a strange message--Data not available...contact site administrator. What up with that?

JT (and other that are complaining about the too much white space)<BR><BR>Marcos gave the technical explanation. I normally run a 800x600 pixels screen, and sure do get some white space on the sides. This space obviously increases if one runs a 1024x768 screen. <BR><BR>Now, what about people that have monitors that may only be run to 640x480 pixels? I just did that! All the white space on the sides is gone and I can't read the entire line. I have to use the horizontal scroll bar (slightly) to that effect. Had the site been designed for a 1024x768 resolution it would be very awkward for those not being able to run this resolution.<BR><BR>Paulo

I agree that it has slowed down and I don't like the fact that I can't choose by geographic area. I continue to have some kind of link error everytime I go to the site.

Help needed. Not as computer savy as some. Using a 19" monitor and still have a scroll bar at the bottom of the messages. Set text size to the smallest setting and using full screen helps. (IE browser)<BR><BR>Very hard to read since you have to slide the scroll bar for each line of text, or just guess what word you are not seeing. Some other setting I need to change?

I'm impressed! I'm sitting here using an IBM 1200/1300 Thinkpad and am having no difficulty reading font sizes or coping with extraneous white space.<BR>Like having name and Email address printing automatically, particularly since my regular Email address is so lengthy. I like the mail this thread feature and the jump but am not too sure of the value listing queries by most responses. (I was drunk...will sit at the top of that list forever!). In all, most pleased with improvements. Thanks, Fodors' folks!

It's too crowded looking and the banner is way way too large. New and improved does not always mean better by any means. Runs much slower too.

Paulo,<BR>Once again, you seem to have an answer for me! and this wasn't even travel related.<BR>I must be running those lower number pixels, because I am unable to read an entire line on a reply and must scroll back and forth.<BR>What a pain!!<BR>Is there a solution, besides steal my husband's monitor?<BR>

Nancy,<BR><BR>My Windows system is in Portuguese, so I don't know exactly the denominations that appear in your version.<BR><BR>You may try to go to Start? (lower left corner), then Configurations and Control Panel. Look for Video (or Monitor) and open it. Next go to the Configurations page ... Can you tell me what you see (regarding Color pallete, Font size and Work area)?<BR><BR>Paulo

I have a 19" monitor and normally keep it set at True Color 640 X 480 which is great. However, like others, that now means I have to keep scrolling right and left on each line just to read a post. I can reset for Fodor's to be at 800 X 600 True Color, and I can now read it, but the print is so much smaller than normal or any other web site. Does this mean every time I go to Fodor's now (5 or 6 times daily, usually) I have to change my setting to 800 X 600 and move right up to the screen to read it? If so, maybe Fodors is just trying to reduce the number of us that use their web site. it will certainly slow down my use of it!<BR>Will someone explain the reason for changing what didn't need fixing? Also it sure is slow now. When I click "post my reply" I think it will never come up.

Nancy,<BR>Go to Start &gt; Control Panel &gt; Display &gt; Settings. Drag the arrow in the Screen Area section to the right (towards More). Cick Apply. Then Click OK.<BR><BR>

Patrick, have you tried to use the 600x400 option together with large fonts?<BR><BR>As for the response time, I bet that there's a technical problem with the new application. Even though now there are quite a few cookies placed everytime anything is loaded on your screen, it should be faster than the older application. Fodors analysts sure have their work cut out to sort the inevitable bugs that are inherent to almost every new application.<BR>Paulo

Re:Speed.<BR><BR>Any animation (as in the banner) will slow down loading for a lot of people, esp. depending on the speed of their machine and their modem.<BR><BR>And a lot of us are posting right now -- esp. on this thread it seems -- and that slows things down considerably, explains the various error messages, etc.<BR><BR>Interesting how much more amenable people on this (Europe) forum are to the changes compared to those on the US forum......... is it character differences or time zone differences?

Now that I've been on this site for 15 minutes or so, here's the rest of my problems: What is the deal with after you post a reply, it disappears then reposts on the right side of screen at the end of the other posts just like always, but then you go to the left side and resume checking out messages, after a minute or two you get this delayed reorganizing of the numbered posts? It used to switch at the same time as your message posts. Now you have to sit there and wait until the left side disappears and then reorganizes. Major pain. <BR>Dr. Betty: are you kidding us about the format to the screen? If I click the little X in the upper right hand of the screen it will close the entire web site, not change its size. Doesn't everybody's Windows work that way?<BR>Three times now I have clicked a message and gotten the response "unavailable". Everything seems to stay there. If I click "refresh" I get a clear screen then a message that nothing is available. I have to close out of Fodors and come back to it. Hope that problem can be fixed.<BR>I'm not a master computer user, maybe that's the problem. This site used to be easy to navigate. Now I guess it takes a computer whiz to know how to reset everything evertime he wants to visit Fodors!<BR>

I don't know what my glitch is? But I *cannot* choose any of the 50 posts on the left. Everything seems to be the fine after I click-on a topic but it doesn't come up. *Only* the topic that is No. 1 when I enter the site is available on the right with all the responses??? But I do not have a computer but access the internet thru "Webtv", perhaps that's the problem? I hope it's just a temporary problem, I'd hate to not be able to access the posts on this site:(. Regards, Walter

Here's one thing that helped me see more in each screen. I went to view and turned off my toolbars. It's not much, but it's something.