Oh, if you're wondering how to add a signature, just click your username somewhere (like at the top-right corner of every page) and then click "Signature Settings".
So far, I'm impressed with the simplicity and clean feel of Vanilla.
As far as categories, what do you want this forum to be? I would say let the forum evolve. Keep some of the old, but get rid of the fluff. Not sure if Reader Mod's will be of any use, and the Buy & Sell was not too popular.
Yeah! I think that we all are computer geeks of one kind or another. I think the actual names of the subcategories will develop over time. I liked trying to help the newbies with spybot and adaware back to back - after getting into SAFE mode. But, I also remember getting that advice and worrying about how to get into SAFE mode. It's all so easy once you've figured it out. I think there should be a site for newbies who are trying to fix the computer and don't know what to do next to be comforted. There are generally a few things that have happened to get them to this point. Power cord bitten by puppy, screen power switch in off position, etc. Eventually they try to find a forum that will help them when all of the above have been addressed. We can suggest CCleaner, hijack this, and all the registry fixers after the malware has been expunged. There is a process to follow, once the problem has been named. The rest of the time I think I spent professing my left-wing tendencies on hot-button items. Prolife vs. ProDeath, don't ask, don't tell, why not use condoms, follow the money to see how to vote on the Proposition, is lobbying really a good thing for the Country, etc. iggy8n
I agree with iggy8n. It would be nice to attract and help the newbies in the world of computers. And once they get some help, they may join us for a discussion or 2.
I wonder if the fix the broken computer isn't the main ingredient that got this group together in the first place. Hi carnoj. I originally bought CPU way back at a supermarket because I was thinking about getting a new computer and wanted to get up-to-date. I learned about the forum from the magazine. Then, I met Freddy, CB Hedricks, Mantra, Cyclo, Techguy, MOG, Jay and the rest that were talking about exactly what I wanted to know. I joined when I saw that not only was this a helpful place, but I would get to help others also. I like to tell people about what I've learned. It's nice to get the recognition that I'm not a totally useless person. Some may dispute my presumption about why we're here. But IMHO that's basically why. CPU kept the newbies coming in with new weird problems. I wonder if google would be able to label this forum as the place to get computer answers? The subheading names might get the idea across also. I think if we want this to continue, we'll have to do some kind of marketing. I'm not that interested in selling ad space to IBuyPower quite yet. But, I think there should be some kind of draw to those who don't know who we are.
Hi iggy8n. The more I think about it, the more I would like to see a "Help, my computer won't..." section that would draw computer hobbyists and newbies to our little treasure trove.
The only problem with this forum software is that there is no categories per se, it's like a blog where everything is dumped into one section and you can tag the threads.
The reason I was initially attracted to the forums was to help people but then I grew old and cynical and stayed because of the friends I'd made.
When I have an automotive question, I just ask google and it gives me a bunch of possible places with the solution. When I go to them, for the most part, it's a fixit question-and-answer place, where you search the FAQ's for similar questions and try to (indirectly) find a solution. That is generally insufficient for me. Eventually after avoiding the "pay the mechanic $20 for the answer" places, I get to the forums that might have someone doing what I'm doing. I sometimes find a procedure or answer that works. I've picked up malware in these forums too. Where do you go if you've picked up a virus or some other kind of malware? I'm sure spybot is ancient - I was told about it maybe 5 years ago. There must be some fancy new software (that would have been advertised on CPU.) I await getting some recommendations in this forum. I read afterdawn.com. If I've corrupted a driver for my GPU or motherboard, I first have to get thru all the pay-for-finding-the driver-updater-programs. It's a pain to deal with all of that first. It's become such a money-grubbing place out there that it looks like someone has done you a favor for free - but you can't actually get anything done unless you 'register.' This forum could be the go-to-place if we were able to help whomever google sent. I guess the main thing we must do is make google aware of our goal.
Malwarebytes, unhackme and tdsskiller are all good things to use. Also, download and burn a copy of mini pe to cd. Then boot off of that and manually delete the virus if you know where to look and what you are looking for.
1) Changed the default font from Lucida Grande to Verdana. At first I didn't mind LG but after a while it looked a little "dirty" and not so clean to me. Was kind of distracting too.
2) Changed the font size of the topic titles on the main page from 14px to 12px.
3) Changed the post form textarea font from Lucida Grande to Courier New.
4) Changed the post text color from #000000 (total black) to #444444.
Let me know if you liked something better before or have a good idea for another tweak.
I like the way it looks. Cng, I think you've done a very professional job of putting this website on the air - along with finding most of the original players. I'm a bit confused with why we have two titles for the General Discussion/All Discussions. Why not just name them one or the other? I like having My Discussions separate - so I can check to see if anyone answered my discussions. It seems that you end up in the same place whether you click on one title or the other. Maybe I'm just missing the trees or some other forest that I haven't thought about. The CPUmag forum did have a number of titles that could confuse a newbie. I know sometime people would show up in the General Discussion with a technical computer question. Or sometimes the difference between software or hardware wasn't that clear when it was a problem that was not easily fixed. So, I'd like to know if one can use the 16 digit registration code from an old broken laptop instead of buying another copy of XP professional? I've got the original CD. But, I know I can't use the same registration code as the one on this desktop. I heard a rumor that Microsoft was in court about this in Europe and they had to give up the ownership of each copy. Does anyone know if that's true. I guess this would belong in the Technical Department. Is it Software or Hardware?
What do you guys think, nav panel on the left or on the right? It used to be on the right, now it's on the left.
On the "main" pages I personally prefer it on the left because I think it's a lot easier to see and access, but does having all of that blank space on the left-hand side of the page when scrolling through a thread seem a bit weird?
Comments
As far as categories, what do you want this forum to be? I would say let the forum evolve. Keep some of the old, but get rid of the fluff. Not sure if Reader Mod's will be of any use, and the Buy & Sell was not too popular.
Indexing would be okay with me.
Categories would be in order provided there are enough users and activity to warrant them.
Indexing seems fine to me. Who knows, if we get googlebot to crawl the site we might get old users searching for "CPU Forums."
I agree with carnoj, let it evolve.
I think there should be a site for newbies who are trying to fix the computer and don't know what to do next to be comforted. There are generally a few things that have happened to get them to this point. Power cord bitten by puppy, screen power switch in off position, etc. Eventually they try to find a forum that will help them when all of the above have been addressed. We can suggest CCleaner, hijack this, and all the registry fixers after the malware has been expunged. There is a process to follow, once the problem has been named.
The rest of the time I think I spent professing my left-wing tendencies on hot-button items. Prolife vs. ProDeath, don't ask, don't tell, why not use condoms, follow the money to see how to vote on the Proposition, is lobbying really a good thing for the Country, etc.
iggy8n
I originally bought CPU way back at a supermarket because I was thinking about getting a new computer and wanted to get up-to-date. I learned about the forum from the magazine. Then, I met Freddy, CB Hedricks, Mantra, Cyclo, Techguy, MOG, Jay and the rest that were talking about exactly what I wanted to know. I joined when I saw that not only was this a helpful place, but I would get to help others also. I like to tell people about what I've learned. It's nice to get the recognition that I'm not a totally useless person. Some may dispute my presumption about why we're here. But IMHO that's basically why.
CPU kept the newbies coming in with new weird problems. I wonder if google would be able to label this forum as the place to get computer answers? The subheading names might get the idea across also. I think if we want this to continue, we'll have to do some kind of marketing. I'm not that interested in selling ad space to IBuyPower quite yet. But, I think there should be some kind of draw to those who don't know who we are.
The reason I was initially attracted to the forums was to help people but then I grew old and cynical and stayed because of the friends I'd made.
Where do you go if you've picked up a virus or some other kind of malware? I'm sure spybot is ancient - I was told about it maybe 5 years ago. There must be some fancy new software (that would have been advertised on CPU.) I await getting some recommendations in this forum. I read afterdawn.com.
If I've corrupted a driver for my GPU or motherboard, I first have to get thru all the pay-for-finding-the driver-updater-programs. It's a pain to deal with all of that first. It's become such a money-grubbing place out there that it looks like someone has done you a favor for free - but you can't actually get anything done unless you 'register.' This forum could be the go-to-place if we were able to help whomever google sent. I guess the main thing we must do is make google aware of our goal.
1) Changed the default font from Lucida Grande to Verdana. At first I didn't mind LG but after a while it looked a little "dirty" and not so clean to me. Was kind of distracting too.
2) Changed the font size of the topic titles on the main page from 14px to 12px.
3) Changed the post form textarea font from Lucida Grande to Courier New.
4) Changed the post text color from #000000 (total black) to #444444.
Let me know if you liked something better before or have a good idea for another tweak.
I'm a bit confused with why we have two titles for the General Discussion/All Discussions. Why not just name them one or the other? I like having My Discussions separate - so I can check to see if anyone answered my discussions. It seems that you end up in the same place whether you click on one title or the other. Maybe I'm just missing the trees or some other forest that I haven't thought about.
The CPUmag forum did have a number of titles that could confuse a newbie. I know sometime people would show up in the General Discussion with a technical computer question. Or sometimes the difference between software or hardware wasn't that clear when it was a problem that was not easily fixed.
So, I'd like to know if one can use the 16 digit registration code from an old broken laptop instead of buying another copy of XP professional? I've got the original CD. But, I know I can't use the same registration code as the one on this desktop. I heard a rumor that Microsoft was in court about this in Europe and they had to give up the ownership of each copy. Does anyone know if that's true. I guess this would belong in the Technical Department. Is it Software or Hardware?
On the "main" pages I personally prefer it on the left because I think it's a lot easier to see and access, but does having all of that blank space on the left-hand side of the page when scrolling through a thread seem a bit weird?