Message board, I hope I can express myself without anyone getting upset.

The new format was not accepted well by many at first and was a topic for a while but now most seem to have accepted it. Many issues/dislikes were discussed at first and a few “silent“ changes were made. AJ has yet to respond to any inquiries as to why the change was made in the first place.. It seems it’s still is not accepted by most as evidenced by the lack of use recently.

I have not accepted the new format yet and I have a few issues I’d like to bring up.

1) When you reply to a post the message replying to cannot be seen, of course if you hit back arrow to view it again, etc. you loose what you have wrote so far, gone, nadda, no undo, no back space will bring it back (a problem on the old format as well) GONE. So you have to start over. Myself, I find it helpful to be able to view the post you are replying to as it was on the old format.

2) There seems to be a time-out feature, after a certain period typing, your post goes away, what you wrote goes away and it kicks back to front page, you have to start over. I tried 4 times this morning to write this thread and each time it got stopped when almost finished. Finally I decided the best way (only way) was to write it in word and cut and paste it to the message board. At first I thought I was hitting a key by mistake, but I;m convinced now it’s a “timed out” feature.

3) On the new format, threads that you open are not shown as “read” like the old message board, so it makes it difficult to determine a new message from an old when you log on..

If people are happy with the format, fine, but if you’re not, speak up so maybe AJ will address it or respond.

Big John
(this message written I word, 1 attempt, start to finish)

Hi Big John, Though I agree with you 100% about the new format (I too liked the old one much better) A.J. did respond yesterday with a post right above this one. It stated that it had nothing to do with him and that it was Bravenet, he also stated he had made a call or email to state his dislike of the new format as well as ours. Unfortunately as of right now there is nothing A.J. can do about it. Just thought I would point that out. A.J. & Travis thanks for doing what you do if not for this website, I would more than likely still not be catching any fish LOL Take Care God Bless LOL Dave

Then why stick with Bravenet?
Cal

The reason we stick with bravenet is because the are by far, the best to work with and are only trying to work out the kinks. They are one of the very few that you can use that does not have constant advertisements and protected from pornography and spam filtering it's way in. Also, as you can see, the names are now posted in the thread where they were not at first so they are making changes. They are paid for through June so let's just give them a chance to work things out. If June comes and we are still not satisfied, we will check out other carriers.

As a non computer person who never learned to type, this new format just does not work well for me. If not for this website I would never even bother to sit down in front of the computer. Still, my thanks to A.J. and Travis and everyone else for sharing information. Cal P.

I hate that you feel the need to point out that Aj doesn't respond to things...all Aj does is fret about this website and works hard on it daily! As LOL Dave pointed out..Aj did respond to this and cannot control what the company decides to change. Why don't we worry less about this message board and more about the fish we're going to catch!!

Mrs. Salmonitis,
It's because we enjoy this site and want to make it even better.
A.J. has always asked for our input and never has tried to stifle it. If we didn't care for the message board then you wouldn't get any concerned posts.
We all know how much time and effort goes into this site. There have been numerous posts of appreciation.
IMO you should take it as a compliment that so many want to make it better. Thanks,
Cal

Note: I forgot to use Microsoft Word while typing this message while on the message board, it not only timed out, but shut down the site altogether and put me back to my desktop, it’s not my computer as I’m on a different one from earlier today..

Mrs. Salmonitis, I truly apologize I did not notice the note from AJ yesterday, THAT is one of my issues, there is no way for a new post to stand out as new and unread, they are ALL YELLOW. With the old format I would have noticed it immediately. When I made the earlier post, the first thing I said was I do not want to offend or upset anyone, apparently I did..

Unfortunately, “AJ is the man”, I would hope constructive criticism is welcomed. He and Trvis have has created a venue that none of us can do without.

Most of us are far from being computer gurus, we struggle with it even when it is running at optimal performance, so when it abruptly gets changed, not to everyone’s liking with no explanation, it can be aggravating, not only to us but to AJ as well..

I understand dealing with companies like Bravenet is difficult if not impossible, that is the sign of the times unfortunately. I’m sure he was more frustrated with it being pushed on him more than the rest of us.

OK, as suspected, we all know now it was something Bravenet forced on the web site, we are all on the same page. If they even hear some of AJ's (our) complaints and address a few, we will probably be fortunate.

Unfortunately the only thing that gets their attention is revenue or should I say, lack of it and from the sounds of things, unfortunately they are the only game in town.

The computer age is upon us and they run the show.

Again, I'm sorry, I'll try to cope with it..

Big John

Thanks Gus, thatis very helpful. Like I said, many of us are not that savy with all of this stuff, we read and reply.

All I have to do now is find the quote button, lol.

Big John

I found the "quote" button, guess it was there all the time.

Big John
(shutting down)

When you reply to a post, the post you are replying to shows up below the form where you type in your message. All you need to do is scroll down to see it so I don't know what the problem is.

Not sure why I never noticed that before, guess I'm not very observevant. It's hard to believe that it's been there all along, because I looked, what a dummy.

Big John

I spend a lot of time on this message board and have gotten great information and met a number of great fisherman. That said, I would like to also make a few comments, some have been said several times.
1. Cannot determine new or read messages. Although the new label disappears at some time, it is often still there even after the message has been read.
2. The biggest problem I have is after you have read a thread and want to go to the next one, it brings you back to the very first post. Does anyone have a remedy for this?

Thanks. Louis

I do not want people to think that I am the annoying wife of Salmonitis..I am not. I just felt after reading the posts this morning that I needed to let everyone know how hard Aj works on this site in order to make it a great website to visit. I realize that you all know this and appreciate it. However, Aj does not like a lot of the new things that came with the new look Bravenet has decided to go with either and he's working hard on changing it. Believe me, I hear it daily and what people say and what he sees does not go unnoticed! So, be patient and hopefully with the suggestions people made to him and the concerns with how it works, Aj will be able to work with Bravenet to get it more user friendly. I agree with White Cap when he says that he's loyal to this site and only wants to make it better..I am not only loyal to this site, but Salmonitis too.

Don't be to hard on yourself John. You are not alone with your frustrations of Bravenet. Primitive at best I say. But hopefully like politics when the term is up they are gone. Haha..had to get that in.

Ilucas, I’m not really being hard on myself, I’m just trying to wriggle off the hook carefully, I don’t want to be “another” hook wounded victim.

Big John