Muscatine

My thought is, things are going well and I like the new format over the old.

The speed is markedly better than when you first introduced the new format and I do notice it increasing continually.  I personally like the way you have it set up to show recent replies so I don't have to go through pages of non responsive posts.  I also like the ability of people to post cute stuff and appreciate the way it is not being abused so we don't have to see pages of junk.

It's quite notable that you folks are working hard to keep this site up to date Robert!

BTW, the speed for the "fast" Machlink is approximately 5-6 seconds for new page loads and return pages are approximately 10-11 seconds.  Not really a big deal since I have learned to adjust by clicking back prior to finishing the page.

The "12/pencil" icon will be changed to hopefully make its purpose clearer.   You're not the only one who thought it was for changing font size, or to express an interest in changing font size.   Sounds to us like most folks who want to change font size are finding the default font in posts to be too small - it's not that they want their posts to be bigger than everyone else's but that it's hard to read.

So, we're working on a preference setting on your profile page to allow you to make all the text in the discussion area bigger - this gives you the option of changing how you see the page, without forcing everyone else to see it that way.  Don't know if this will address your concern or not?

Regarding ordering of posts, people (in Muscatine!) used to complain that an active discussion, going on for days with lots of replies, would get pushed off the first page by a bunch of new posts which have no replies - the replies would be more recent but they'd have to dig for them.  The new ordering addresses those complaints.  Again we can probably create a personal preference setting that will allow you to see the newest topics first rather than the newest posts, but I think the default ordering will remain as it is now because most folks prefer to see recent activity at the top.

Hope this addresses your concerns somewhat, and please bear with us on getting these changes up and running.  We have about 36,000 neighborhoods and small town sites nationwide and we're trying to make things work well for a wide spectrum of people... hopefully without any more bonehead moves on my part that make it so nobody can post!

I have been wondering who pays for this site. Certinaly nothing in life is free. How is this thing financed? Do you sell our e-mail addys? Seems I have gotten a lot more spam since this site changed and I wonder if it is because of you guys.

Herman