I think it is hardwired into the forum or page layout.

ncdrawl wrote:

the featured technology section or whatever? i want the forum to take up a whole page...

Lamont is correct: The forum is now limited to the width of the rest of our website. While the rest of the site's viewable content is now significantly wider than it was, the forum is narrower than it was.

Hey!

I was checking out the ads at Stereophile and a forum broke out!

It seems the smilie faces and color options must have used up too much of that expensive internet colored ink.

Dudes, if you want the side bar to go away, just get a piece of your favorite color construction paper and cut a 4" wide strip, lengthwise. Then attach it to the right side of your monitor!

I guess when they hit 12,000 members here, it triggered a "sell" button.

Let's see if this still works...

;)

Nope!

Aside from the extra space for advertising, I do not see the advantage for this new format...The actual posts are now half the size they had been....

I kinda like it.

Hate the side panel as well- too big and even if it has be that size, the surely the forum can expand and contract it's size based on browser width? I KNOW this is not an impossible option.

Moderators please fix. :)

As I tried to explain in the Announcements thread, the old site was made up of three separate servers: one for all the content we publish in the magazine and archived to the web, a second for the blogs, and a third for the forums and galleries.

Now, everything on Stereophile.com exists on a single platform. This is a very good thing.

What this means: In the past, users could only comment on blogs or participate in the forum. Now, users can comment to every story on the entire website. (Try it out.) In the past, users could only search the site, but could not search the blogs. Now, users can search the entire website, including blogs and forums.

In addition, images found in reviews and blogs are significantly larger -- 600 pixels wide rather than 450. The ads you see to the right of the forum are the same ads you would have seen everywhere else on the site. The forum is going to remain at its current width regardless of what we place in the right hand column. In other words, we have a limited frame to work with. By comparing the old forum to our new forum, we are comparing a simple, dedicated forum tool to one that works within the framework of a much more powerful overall platform. In a little time, we will be able to adjust the current forum to work much like the old. The main differences will be the appearance and the narrower view; functionality will be very much the same.

For people who came to Stereophile.com primarily for the forum, I understand that these changes seem counter-intuitive. The changes should significantly benefit the site -- and the user experience -- as a whole, however.

"surely the forum can expand and contract its size based on browser width?"

This is something we deliberately chose not to do, because it screws up the formatting of the reviews and features, making them less readable/convenient.

"Moderators please fix. :)"

The 600-pixel column width for content is dictated by the overall width of the webpages having to be fully visible on all possible monitors/resolutions without scrolling, though yes, this does result in black bars down the edges for those with larger monitor screens. Interestingly, this has been true of the Stereophile site (other than the forums) since we went live in December 1997; no-one has complained about the fixed column width until now, when we made it wider.

John Atkinson Editor, Stereophile

Changing to a heavier font would help in the transition to smaller text areas.

As I read your response I am forced to note that 25% of my screen is black panels and a further 30% or so a white border on the right with nothing there but a bit of advertising...that makes the content of the forum maybe 40% of the total screen size..

How does that make sense?

How about a bigger font? If there is only going to be content on 40% of the screen, perhaps we can make that content easier to read.

Just curious :-)

"Will you be censoring the comments like you do in show reports?"

We try to moderate with a light hand. But comments that are defamatory or unnecessarily offensive or appear to be due to a personal vendetta on the part of the poster will continue to be deleted.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Hey, Lamont!

You [content deleted by moderator] and the horse you rode in on.

About your momma, [content deleted by moderator.]

:D

I kinda like the format.

It is indeed odd to have less than one-third of the screen display content.

Navigating is very awkward. Previous and Next thread options would help (maybe I missed them in the white, blue and black expanses. :)

As I said elsewhere there should have had two pages for the forum, the first for last issue and announcements the second for the forum proper

As it is the forum has a lot of wasted space; it takes too long to go down the posts; and at the same time it is bloated with unecessary stuff

here is my favorite forum:

www.dpreview.com

just purchased by Amazon

Ok, I am going to try to be diplomatic: This new format SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will this cause the death of the forum? Will SP implode in an orgy of self destructive omnipresent marketing? Will Lamont audit himself and send himself to jail? Will our members go to CES to hunt down JA, SM and AB to punish them for this atrocity?

Or will they just go to Buddha's room to drink themselves into oblivion with the B's fine wine in a futile attempt to forget the horrendous barbarity perpetrated upon us: the loyal followers of everything Phile like.

Or will we just whimper, TS Eliot like, lamenting the bang that was once our forum?

Never mind, I'll get used to it.

What about the 'views' info..I cannot figure if folk are reading the thread or not even if they do not respond.

Can't widen it. It will interfere with the frames. Forum is formatted along with the rest of the entire stereophile.com. It is actually a good idea. This is now a bulletin board system with no bells or whistles. You'll get used to it.

tomjtx wrote:

Ok, I am going to try to be diplomatic: This new format SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Will this cause the death of the forum? Will SP implode in an orgy of self destructive omnipresent marketing? Will Lamont audit himself and send himself to jail? Will our members go to CES to hunt down JA, SM and AB to punish them for this atrocity?

Or will they just go to Buddha's room to drink themselves into oblivion with the B's fine wine in a futile attempt to forget the horrendous barbarity perpetrated upon us: the loyal followers of everything Phile like.

Or will we just whimper, TS Eliot like, lamenting the bang that was once our forum?

Never mind, I'll get used to it.

LMFAO! :)

ncdrawl wrote:

yeah, but who visits the site more?? forum folks or guys who like to comment on blogs.

My most recent stats on this show that the home page draws, by far, the most visits. By far.

After the home page, the most popular destination is the Floorstanding Loudspeakers landing page. Very close behind the Floorstanding Loudspeakers landing page is my blog. After my blog is the Equipment Reviews landing page. And after that, by a large margin, come the forums.

In addition, show blogs (CES, RMAF, SSI, etc.) are extremely popular for the time they are being posted, attracting large numbers to the site.