PORTAL not working?

[fishNAbowl]

Is anyone else having issues?

[MRTom]

Check the post by cory.

Hello everyone. We'll be running an experiment to see how the usage of the forum is without the recent topics. After analyzing data. Topics that fall off the recent topics list become lost almost forever.

This shows that most of us are relying on this feature to get our content. This discourages new content creation and means we can lose things we were interested in by lots of new topics being created.

For the time being I'd like to see everyone use the forum normally. I realize this will be a change for most of us. No one likes change. However the goal is to make some areas become active again. We'll have things sorted by category again instead of just a list jumbled together of for sale threads, african cichlids, shrimp, etc all on the same list.

So lets give this a test and see how it goes

Thanks.

[fishNAbowl]

Ohhhhhh, it was the thread that was right before mine, LOL!

[DMD123]

I have to admit I depended on the portal to see what was going on. I now have to look at each individual section now. The only bad to this is if someone posts in a area I dont frequent, I most likely will miss it....

[Chiisai]

I have to admit I depended on the portal to see what was going on. I now have to look at each individual section now. The only bad to this is if someone posts in a area I dont frequent, I most likely will miss it....  

The other issue is having to dig through all categories to see if something was posted other then the "Last Post." This makes me feel like its a bit much effort to see if anything relevant is being posted. That was one of the reasons I liked the original setup was it was easy to see the threads that were active in the last 24-48hrs. So you didnt have to dig through every category.

[Guest]

I have to admit I depended on the portal to see what was going on. I now have to look at each individual section now. The only bad to this is if someone posts in a area I dont frequent, I most likely will miss it....  

 The other issue is having to dig through all categories to see if something was posted other then the "Last Post." This makes me feel like its a bit much effort to see if anything relevant is being posted. That was one of the reasons I liked the original setup was it was easy to see the threads that were active in the last 24-48hrs. So you didnt have to dig through every category.

 
 

[DMD123]

Ok, it is official.... I HATE NOT HAVING THE PORTAL!   

[Madness]

Do you all remember back when this forum was flooded with posts?  A thread would get entered in the morning and by the afternoon it had moved off of the portal, then relying on the portal would cause you to lose or completely miss that thread.  

Though I do agree the portal was convenient.  All you need to do is go to the forum that is of your interest open it, and everything you have not looked at will have an envelope at the far left that looks like it has a letter in it.  Not to hard to see this and know what you have not looked at, and if you have the envelope will be closed.  This is a simple way to see if a thread you were following had any new input posts.  Not to mention, as soon as you open the forum link a PLUS sign will be in every category that has a new post, if you dont see any PLUS signs then nothing new has been added.  

Though I do agree that it will force people to frequent there own interests and ignore all the other threads.

[DMD123]

I learned a lot about shrimp and plants from seeing them on the portal and being intrigued enough to look. Otherwise I pretty much just checked out the cichlids.

[Chiisai]

Do you all remember back when this forum was flooded with posts?  A thread would get entered in the morning and by the afternoon it had moved off of the portal, then relying on the portal would cause you to lose or completely miss that thread.  

Though I do agree the portal was convenient.  All you need to do is go to the forum that is of your interest open it, and everything you have not looked at will have an envelope at the far left that looks like it has a letter in it.  Not to hard to see this and know what you have not looked at, and if you have the envelope will be closed.  This is a simple way to see if a thread you were following had any new input posts.  Not to mention, as soon as you open the forum link a PLUS sign will be in every category that has a new post, if you dont see any PLUS signs then nothing new has been added.  

Though I do agree that it will force people to frequent there own interests and ignore all the other threads.

Yeah about 3min after I posted I realized about the plus sign thing... so I guess my complaint is no longer valid and thus retract my previous statement.

Although I do frequent another forum http://www.backyardchickens.com/. If it wasnt for their version of the old Portal the site would be almost impossible to naviagate. The Forum has thousands upon thousands of threads. and if you were just looking for a place to jump in it might seem very intimidating. Luckily they have a search query so you can dig up topics if you were looking for something specific

[Madness]

I believe that is why Cory is trying to dumb this one down a bit. So that its not really difficult to find things. We will see if it works or not.

And I agree with you DMD, and I feel that not having the portal will cause more segregation amongst the interest groups.

[master chi]

My 2 cents,the portal is what keeps me coming back so often,I check it every  morning,with it not being there this forum becomes less convenient,than others,and will most likely become less visited,because now it does less to distinguish itself. I love being a WABoxer,and will continue frequenting the site,but with no Portal,it has lost one of it's key components. Please reconsider it's removal. I have had no issue with looking up old threads that have been lost in the portal,mainly because the same way we are now being forced to use the forum,is exactly how someone would go about finding those old threads. So the change in my eyes is just unnecessary

[Madness]

My 2 cents,the portal is what keeps me coming back so often,I check it every  morning,with it not being there this forum becomes less convenient,than others,and will most likely become less visited,because now it does less to distinguish itself. I love being a WABoxer,and will continue frequenting the site,but with no Portal,it has lost one of it's key componenets. Please reconsider it's removal. I have had no issue with looking up old threads that have been lost in the portal,mainly because the same way we are now being forced to use the forum,is exactly how someone would go about finding those old threads. So the change in my eyes is just not unnecessary

Well said and I agree.

[earthfish]

I NEED the portal in the morning I don't have time to look through everything before school. I have to get up early as it is PLEASE bring it back on the reason for me to check here is invalid

[MRTom]

Say earthfish, if in an urgent need to read what has changed, check out "View posts since last visit" on the forum page. You could bookmark that page and be good to go.

[lloyd378]

I may be in the minority but I would check the portal and not find similar interests listed. So ice have been reading the older posts in the cichlid section lately as they are interesting...... I m not sure the title portal even needs to be on the forum home page. I do like the things posted since last visit section just incase some other type of interesting fish is posted ( like the croaking guaramis)

[lloyd378]

It might be nice to have three portals available.... Fish, plants/ inverts, and finally everything else in the hobby like cl, DIY builds etc.....it could be the best of both worlds

[Seattle_Aquarist]

I have to admit I depended on the portal to see what was going on. I now have to look at each individual section now. The only bad to this is if someone posts in a area I dont frequent, I most likely will miss it....  

+1, I refuse to wander aimlessly through multiple sub-forums to try to find new interesting posts. Maybe I will come back if it get fixed.

[Jubs]

I have to admit I depended on the portal to see what was going on. I now have to look at each individual section now. The only bad to this is if someone posts in a area I dont frequent, I most likely will miss it....  

+1, I refuse to wander aimlessly through multiple sub-forums to try to find new interesting posts.  Maybe I will come back if it get fixed.

+2

[hobbyorobsession]

The portal for me is the gateway to this site, and my preferred way to navigate it. I would view it substantially less with out that function.

[anthony]

Bring back the portal...Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease

[fishNAbowl]

I would like to think I see more of the forum using the portal. There are more than a few topics that don't generally interest me so I don't go into from the forum main. But, they may have an interesting topic posted in them. I wouldn't see that from the forum main, but when they are in the portal I look at the thread name ,if it sounds interesting I enter it without realizing I clicked into "Salt water, or Africans" or some other forum that I normally don't frequent. These are forums I generally don't randomly enter unless I see an interesting topic in the portal.

[KaraWolf]

I wouldn't mind seeing the portal extra long. so things cant fall off the end so quickly. Though a sticky somewhere that 'splains how the navigating is supposed to work w/o the portal. Had no idea about the plus's until madness said something.

[anthony]

I can check the portal 2 or 3 times a day there is no way I will point and click all those topics just to find out there is nothing new. When you look at the topics they have a lot of views but not that many replies. If topics fall off the map its because they are not that great. Just because someone creates a topic that dosen't mean we are all going to jump on it. Now the front page looks like one of those unfinished web sites that you don't want to click on. With the portal you see there is activity and people posting a few minutes ago. The way it looks now takes it down a notch -

[dwarfpike]

I'm the only one that dislikes the portal? Man I feel old now. Thanks guys.   

[KaraWolf]

I will say the best way to.find old stuff is definatly through the forum subjects....unless its something someone said that was slightly off topic but really interesting lol

[Guest]

Its back!

[anthony]

thanks Cory

[DMD123]

  Glad to have the portal back!   

[fishloverRon]

Thank you Cory! I didn't like the other way at all. I know not everyone checks things out all day long on here like I do most of the time, but this works best for me.

[Guest]

Portal page kinda looking weird

[fishNAbowl]

I knew something was going to change when I seen admin logged in...  I think he's just messing around - seeing what he can doO.

[Aquarium Co-Op]

The changes last night looked fine on my end. However on smaller screens there seems to be a problem. reverted it back.

[ShortyKiloGyrl]

Portal is about the only thing I look at too. Glad its back hopefully the bugs get worked out

[ShortyKiloGyrl]

Bugs fixed! Yay!

[Anthraxx]

aww no hank cam now lame

[poffman]

Can we get the portal to have page 2,3,4 etc? That would solve a lot

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