Ongoing Website Irritation

jboy wrote on 8/30/2001, 2:54 PM
When I'm on the "earlier topics page", and clk on "back to vegas family", I'm taken back to the most recent page,(1st. page), even though I desire to remain on the 2nd. or 3rd. page, or wherever I happen to be. Cant some genius at SF get this website functioning a little more logically. I would think it'd be embarassing for a software company not to have an intelligently functional website. Maybe just a simple "back to same page" option ??

Comments

FadeToBlack wrote on 8/30/2001, 3:25 PM
jboy wrote on 8/31/2001, 1:50 PM
I had the same experience as you GG, but I actually like the messages opening onto the first post. I do wish SF would tweak this website and offer a few user preference options. It'd make it so much easier to use.
Rockitglider wrote on 8/31/2001, 2:03 PM
Hello,

Sonic Foundry changed the way you open to a post to bring you to the first thread because you can find the subject matter first, instead of hearing the solutions first.
As far as the problem with it taking you back to the first page when on earlier topics, If you use your brouser back button instead of Back to Main Forum, it will keep you at the previous page.

See ya, Rockit
FadeToBlack wrote on 8/31/2001, 2:31 PM
jboy wrote on 8/31/2001, 9:48 PM
Not to mention the irritation of being on page 6-7, say, and being taken back to pp. 1, where you have to navigate back thru the 6-7 screens to get to the next message to be read on that page. GG, yeah, well we kinda know where we left off in a thread by looking at the dates, so you really dont have to repeat everything, you just pick up on the date when you last remember being there. No system is perfect, but this one could use some improvement. I repeat, does having a poorly functioning, not very well thought out website, inspire confidence in the ability of the software firm to write software, seeing how questionable a job it's doing on something so comparitively simple ?
theron3 wrote on 8/31/2001, 10:54 PM
yes, this site could be smoother. Other forums I've seen have it set up so that you click on a topic post and simply scroll down to see all the subsequent posts.
Perhaps it is time for a face/forum lift.
Caruso wrote on 9/1/2001, 7:31 AM
Haven't signed on in a little while, but, I, personally, am pleased with the earliest to last presentation that has been implemented during my absence. I always used to close my eyes when opening a topic so as to not "give away" the answer before I even knew what the full nature of the question was.

I like that feature.

The site is clunky, though, compared to others. All that said, it is no less useful.

Caruso
steveh wrote on 9/1/2001, 10:17 PM
I can live with the website the way it is - I'd rather see SF focus their efforts and talent towards their core business, and if and when they have the available resources work on polishing up the forums.
jboy wrote on 9/2/2001, 2:23 PM
I'm sure we can all live with this website the way it is, if the alternative is no website at all. I just wish it were brought up to the same high level of performance as Sonic's software line. I'm a total software ignoramus, and maybe it's naive to ask, but is it such a big deal to program the site so that you're not carried back to page 1 from page 10 every time you leave a message thread and want to read the next one on the same page, (which forces you, btw, to click 9 times on the "earlier topics" option to get back to p. 10) ?? This is not a rhetorical question, could some software savvy person answer this ?
Chienworks wrote on 9/2/2001, 5:33 PM
Actually you don't need to read through all the posts to get to the latest
one. All replies are listed on every page, so you can click on the one
you want to go to, even if it's the last one in the list. Personally i far
prefer having the original question come up first.

As far as getting back to the topic listing, In Netscape i use the "Go"
menu and select the most recent "Vegas Family" (or whichever forum
you're in) right after the "Forum Messages" entries. Netscape keeps
the last 15 pages viewed in this list. I presume MSIE has something
similar, but as would be typical for MSIE, i also presume it would be
much more confusing and obstruse to use.
SonyEPM wrote on 9/4/2001, 9:11 AM
Thanks for all of your comments on this. We are always interested in making our website/forums better for the end user. As you can see from reading this and other related threads, there is no universal opinion of what is "correct", but we do appreciate the feedback and will continue to refine the entire site.
jboy wrote on 9/4/2001, 1:03 PM
Sonic, glad to see you're actually listening. While there may be some disagreement as to what constitutes a "correctly" functioning website, I'm sure everyone will agree that it's a major butt pain to be returned to the first screen from one 10 pages away when clicking on the "back to vegas family" button. Yes, you can remain on a page by using the Back button to back up thru a message, but if its a long thread-say 10 messages, each backup takes a second or two on a dial-up, and there you go, another 20-30 seconds of your life down the cosmic toilet. This one defect seriously limits mobility on the site, and if you fix it I'll never complain about any site related issue again.
FadeToBlack wrote on 9/4/2001, 2:36 PM
jboy wrote on 9/7/2001, 1:47 PM
I like the things that work too, GG. I'm complaining about the things, (major things, to my way of thinking), that slow down movement thru the site and make it nearly impossible to efficiently move thru earlier material. If you never have a need to go back to earlier topics, and only read the new posts everyday, then the website as it stands works OK. By the way, I have the pixelan and VF 2.0 effects working together on 2 different machines without apparent intereference.