Looks like they pulled the plug on the old car-talk board around 5pm Friday, May 31. This one seems a little cumbersome to use but maybe we will get used to it…
Yea it always takes me a while to figure it out.
Hang in there, guys. We’ll all get used to it, in time. There are a lot of great things we’ll be able to do in the coming months, thanks to this new system.
Know that on the Car Talk end, we all really appreciate your time and energy, helping our visitors out with their questions. And, elsewhere in the other topic area, post your ideas for new features, fixes, etc. We can promise that we’ll do our level best to address concerns and keep this area a great, fun, excellent resource.
Best,
Doug Mayer
Car Talk
Your post was a brain saver. I just signed up new and it looked one way. I get my confirmation email and sign back on that boom!! its all different. I thought I was nuts. Probably am some. Have to say i think I like the looks and feel of the old board better but sa la vie!
But how do I make a NEW post???
I really liked the old format better. On this one you have to scroll and scroll. Things are separated too much.
Ohio Girl
It would be nice if they just transferred all our registrations to the new board. I can’t use my old one because it didn’t have six letters, but worse, what if someone else registered as caddyman before the original caddyman got to register. Will the new Tester, OK4450 and some of the others get in a register in time before an impostor steals their Car Talk identity?
What happened to all the history? Were all the previous posts wiped out?
I don’t know where “elsewhere in the other topic area” is. As someone else has said, the line spacing is excessive in each post. And, the type size is too big. If I set my screen from 100% to 75%, then, the type is too small. So, maybe a sent size equal to 87%? In toto, some things good, some things need work.
Yeah, I actually still prefer the old old format before they changed it to the old format. But just hang in there for a while and it usually gets easier.
What happened to the number of posts by each member. I remember JEM had hit the 10K post landmark, Ah…
I must get use to this setup.
It looks to me like everything from the old board has vanished into the ether.
It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty good. I hate to say it, but the new forum design isn’t going to work. It is not a step forward, it is about three steps backward. I’ve gotten into the habit of visiting almost every day – I doubt that I will bother in the future.
I’m posting this only to see if I can get posting messages to work. It didn’t yesterday evening, but maybe that was due to the phaseover.
Overall, color me unimpressed. The new format isn’t awful, but I don’t see yet why the previous one wasn’t good enough. Yeah, I understand that there may be all sorts of improvements that aren’t obvious on the surface. Maybe I’m jaded from 45 years in the computer business, but I tend to be awfully conservative about changing existing interfaces. (Well maybe the Attach Files button – thats new?)
Anyway, I will now click Preview Reply and see if I end up at a Preview screen rather than the Home Page this morning. … Yep, that’s better.
I got to get used to this too… Well, at least our “Posts” are posting immediately which is definately a plus+++. Hope it stays that way.
transman
Look under your name under the red Welcome banner. Top left of the screen.
I surf all the automotive sites, have for years. When I first came to cartalk, it was an open forum. You could post and say anything, alot of people did.
Then they started monitoring the posts, cut that stuff out, made it a better site. But because they monitored the posts, sometimes it would take hours for your posts to show-up. I didn’t like that.
Now your posts show up within seconds, I like that.
Every time one of my favorite sites changes things, it takes me awhile to get used to it.
At least I’m not a lurker anymore. good work
The old board was extremely old code.
Old code “wears out” so to speak.
Lots of chatrooms and discussion forums have been shut down in the past 12 months because the internet is evolving and you have to bring your websites up to speed. There’s alot of factors to be considered.
This board is far from perfect but it’s a much better and more stable format and there’s a gargantuan amount of room and possibility for the web lackies to expand it with. I hate to sound like the movie charachter inspirational coach type but the fact is that if we all stay dedicated to coming on here every day and answering everyone’s problems like we used to do on the old board, and we work like a team with the cartalk web guys, this new forum will end up better than the old one.
It just takes time.
-Matt
PS: I’d like my old post count back too!
WHAT IN THE SAND HILL ARE YOU GUYS DOING???
I’ve been a member of the Q and A forum since 2003, I was absent for almost a year in 2006, I come back and someone had stolen my Identity and you changed the format. Now, overnight you changed it again!..and to make matters WORSE, you deleted the past posts! I had ACTIVE posts going concerning a VERY SERIOUS electrical problem I’m having with my Dodge van that Mechanic: me_art12 was helping me with! I logged on this morning anxious to see what he came up with next, and you guys WIPED US OUT!..Plus, with this new format-You’re a “Scrollin’ fool” !
Any other “Bright Ideas”…?
Not too happy- PhosphorusBronze.
When President Bush won his first term I was disappointed but resolved to say and think nothing but positive thoughts. After all, even if you have zero confidence on an office holder, are we not all better off if that official does well? Of course!
When President Bush won his second term I was not only disappointed, but shaken that such a thing could happen. How, even after seeing his behavior, could anyone in their hearts condone him as our president?
But, in keeping with all being better off I held my tongue (most of the time).
The Car Talk board has now changed, and even if we don’t see an advancement, or perhaps a reversion in usefulness, should we hold our critiques in the hope the board will evolve?
I don’t think so; the board isn’t nearly as important as the Office of the Presidency, and so I don’t owe a bias to supporting what I think is wrong.
In short, the format is more clunky than before, and 6,000 pages of useful information has been apparently deleted. This doesn’t seem like a winner to me in any way or form.
I’ll keep coming back because I need a serious time waster that makes me look busy, and this is Mecca in that regard. But, I will rue the loss of so much goodness that now seems gone forever.
Just my two pesos.
Like a fungus, I guess this new board will grow, although for the moment I’m not real enamored with it.