Travel Forum Feedback

Problem - the Cell Phones thread by Robert has been replaced by an ancient zombie cell phone thread from 2009!

I'm really disappointed to see that you removed the "classic" thread. It was a really easy way to skim through a bunch of posts quickly without having to click on every single one.

The editing page looks good though.

One more comment ... the date and time display have changed. I used to see the time posted as Pacific time. I'm now seeing GMT. Was that intentional?

There is a problem with a few topics that share duplicate titles with past topics. There is a problem in the URL for these topics that share the same title. We are currently working that out.

Sorry about the Classic View. The Classic View was something from the original Helpline when there were not any split-out sections of the forum. When we added sections to the forum (To the West, etc) we were building on top of the same source code, enabling us to continue the singular run of posts that original users were familiar with. This became the Classic View. We're on an entirely new code base now which is why the Classic View can't continue. Hopefully the new feeds, one for each section, can help and maybe even allow you to be selective with the regions you are most interested in.

Regards,
RS Webmaster

The time on each post... none of us caught that in testing. :) We'll get that fixed in short order. Probably tomorrow.

As someone who has gone to Europe every summer for a month for 11 of the past 12 years and have taken 11 RS tours, I check out the Helpline almost every day. I have use the Classic View (?) to see all of the posts to see where my experiences my help others seeking information. I do not intend to click thru each grouping of locations to provide the same information that I was able to do in the Classic View. I view its removal as a real disservice to those using this web site.

Frankly, I am loving what I see so far. Haven't made a post (other than this one), so I don't know about the editing/formatting features yet. I do like the new look.

I agree. I like the new look and new features. I never used the Classic View so it's really not fair for me to comment. I do know, however, that whenever changes like this happen, eventually, you do get used to the new system. You find things that work better and you can weigh those against what you've lost.

Pam

(I like the preview!)

I too am mourning the demise of the classic view, but I can move on and get over it. The "new" site is looking pretty interesting.
GO RED SOX!!!!

I've noticed a couple other odd things to check out. I already mentioned in a separate email that was able to see the edit button on a post when I was logged on. I just noticed that it's the last post that has the live button. I also noticed that the edit did not appear for my own post which was just above Elaine's here in the feedback thread.

Another thing that I noticed is an issue with the breadcrumbs that appear as you open a post. I was looking at the question about getting tickets for the Anne Frank House in the To The North Forum and the breadcrumbs at the top do not take you back to To The North. Rather they take you To the West. :)

Have fun debugging.

Pam

My log in is all lower case but when I log in from my iPad the iPad automatically capitalizes the first letter of my log in. That has not made any difference

Everything seems to be working fine for me. I never used the Classic View because I found it confusing, and it included sections of the Helpline that I had no interest in. Good job!

The new site appears to be using the wrong date. The posts I'm viewing tonight (Oct. 30) are indicating as Oct. 31.

Also, I'm not able to Edit any of my previous posts.

One more comment ...

Are you sure that you want to allow the user to sort by date? One click on the "Last Post" and you are back in 2007. It makes it really easy for someone to accidentally bring up (and perhaps comment) on some very old posts. (Sorry,can't help myself - been working in software development for 20 years)

By the way, the response time seems much faster than before.

There have been a few times when I wanted to review my "Sent" Private Messages. Is there any way the new site would be able to offer that?

Also, the new site seems to remove the formatting for paragraphs in some Threads, and puts the entire post in one long paragraph. Is that going to be corrected?

I'm sure that this will be very interesting.

A few observations:

When I had a go at moving around the site last night after it first came out and again this morning (UK time) I noticed that several posts were misplaced by region, and several out of order by several years. That's only from looking at the top page in each region.

Just before I clicked to reply here I was given the opportunity to edit and delete Ken's post. oooopppss.

Overall it looks promising and I'm sure that our beloved webmaster has poured pints of blood and sweat into it. I'm going to withhold judgement until it has had a few days to bed in.

I'm very upset at the loss of the Classic view and the lack of anything to replace it.

There are four reasons that the loss of it bothers me:

1. Our visitors often fail to be specific in the titles of their posts. How many times have we had "Transport" or "train" as the title of a thread in the Transportation region? Previously as I scrolled through the Classic View I could see what the question was without having to dig into each dubious looking question. Now I will just let those wash by without opening them - so our visitors, if other regulars act as I will, won't get the answers they are looking for.

2. The Helpline gets its fair share of spam. When I scrolled through Classic it was obvious, even on posts for regions I don't normally respond to, to see the spam and the zombie wakeups. Now, if the spammer is careful with thread name choice, they are much more likely to get through. If enough get through that could be a vulnerability for the Helpline.

3. I often view the Helpline on a shared computer or a very slow one. I am often off-line when viewing via my phone. In all of those cases the computer can download the whole page of Classic View and scroll around without using resources. Now reading through the Helpline off-line will be impossible and using a slow computer will be nearly impossible.

4. When somebody posts in the wrong region, for example a question about Italy in the Trip Reports region, using Classic View it can be seen and responded to. Now it will be lost.

If that functionality has been lost, and if nothing is put in place to replace that functionality, I'm afraid that there is considerably less value for our visitors.

That probably means much less input from Nigel and people like me. Sad.

I'm not being egotistical here but I do think that the experience will be lessened for our visitors. I can come or go, and there are always plenty of people to take my place - I'm sad that the benefits for the visitors are lost.

I do note with glee that our character allowance has doubled. THANKS, Webmaster.

Might it have been a good idea to have run a side-by-side beta to iron out the kinks?

I'm sure that there will be improvements....

The most recent post on General is a post from February about southeast Asia.

Sigh - wouldn't let me log in, so I hit sign up...now I'm back to scratch with my post count and profile as it started me a new account...

Nicole, formerly in Nova Scotia, now know as indyodin til I fix my profile...

They fixed me :)

I like James' idea about an 'agree' or 'like' button. If there had been one I would have used it on his post.

The system showed the option "Edit Reply/Delete Reply" under Idyodin/Nicole's post. To test it, I clicked on Delete Reply. It popped up the box that said "Are you sure?" and I clicked "Cancel", otherwise, I could have deleted her post. But that only occurs for the last post on the page. That was before Andrea posted, and Nicole's was at the bottom of the page. Otherwise, love the new look and increased character count for our posts. Miss the Classic View/Seeing posts as they are written and added.

In addition to a "Like" button there could be a "Report Inappropriate Content" button, especially if it zaps the post until reviewed by the Webmaster.

When noting which countries go into which buckets maybe include Iceland with the North. We are now getting quite a lot of comments about Iceland, it is within Europe politically if not geographically, and is not listed anywhere else.

Also, wasn't there talk of an "Everywhere Else" region?

There is a problem with the edit and delete function. Others have hinted at it but I think I understanding what is happening or at least I am consistent in getting it to happen.

1. When I logged on and go to any subject area, the blue delete/edit options shows on the last posting.

2. It is inactive. When I try to delete or edit someone else posting, I get the error message that the function is not available.

3. If I post a comment in that subject area and return to the discussion, then the blue delete/edit option is attached to my posting which, of course, is the last or most recent posting.

4. If I come to a subject area where I have previous posted, the blue option is, again, attached to the last posting (same as 1) and is inactive. But if I post a second comment, the the blue option is attached to both my latest posting AND to all of my previous posting on the same subject.

5. At the moment, if I wanted to delete or edit any of my previous postings, I would need to first put a new posting on that subject so that the blue option is turned on for me.

6. It appears that the blue function is at first only attached to the most recent posting. I hope this is clear, if not, contact me.

It also looks like the last posting date on the discussions are getting mixed up. Some old postings are jumping to the top. Also the posting number counts for the discussion are not always matching up.

Thanks Frank, those are really good details on nailing down the issue with the edit/delete links. They are clearly only supposed to appear for your own posts, but it does sound like permissions are working correctly in that you can't actually edit or delete someone else's post. We'll get this fixed.

Of course, thanks to everyone else as well for their comments. We are taking notes on everything and trying to prioritize fixes at the moment.

I took a shot at deleting James but couldn't get it done. Seriously, it looks like it is always attaching at first to the most recent posting. As soon as you posted I lost the blue option but as soon as I posted again, I got it back for all of my postings on this subject.

I now see the blue buttons attached to Frank's last message.

EDIT: Now it is attached to mine and no longer his.

MORE EDIT: I see that the time is back on the left coast again...

I like the idea of a like button, because I always like my own posts.

On the subject, "St. Jude's Day Storm", when I went to that page, the Edit/Delete feature appeared on a post halfway down the page; Toni from Charlotte, NC, has a post that is number 13. There are 8 posts after hers. So it is not always the last post on the page, as I previously thought, that always gets the Edit/Delete. Frank is right; if I click "Edit" on Toni's post, I get an error message. But if I click "Delete", it shows no error message and seems to allow me to do that.

Another "like" for the "like" button. But it could also be "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" the way it is on YouTube.

If you are going to take advice from anyone here, Mr/Ms Webmaster, please especially consider Nigel, Roberto, and Ken. With the vvery thoughtful advice from these three people one could travel the world efficiently, enjoyably and inexpensively. Almost forgot: Roberto and Ed

I like the look. Regarding the Classic View, I enjoyed looking through it, but did not use it exclusively. I can see how that would be a loss for some folks as it was rather convenient.
I am given the option of deleting/editing other folks' posts. Such power (that can be used for evil!).

• Any Conspiracy Theorists out there?

6 and a half year old zombie is at the top of the Transportation front page.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/transportation/1-hour-5-minute-layover-in-paris-on-way-to-venice

The zombie was posted by .... wait for it ..... Steve!!!!

--- Webmaster Edit: Not the same Steve ---

With all these changes, wouldn't this be the perfect time to delete any question originally posted at least 2-3 years ago? How does it work in most businesses? Typically, you keep current year plus 2 and toss the oldest. For example, anything asked in 2011 would be purged 1/1/14, leaving only 2012 and 2013 and the new year, 2014. I'm sure there will be some disagreement on this, but I can't imagine that the information from 3 years ago would be current enough to be useful. And we can see from the questions that people rarely search for answers anyway. They prefer to get a current answer to their question. If it is too scary to just delete the old stuff, a "special" archive section, with a search capability totally separate from the more current questions, could be set up. But, and that's a big but, there should be a caveat that the information found in the archive is not current and may no longer be correct.

I would take an in-between step. After six months freeze or close the discussion. It is still available for review but no one can add to it. Prevents the problems of people digging up old posts to either hijack the old question or continuing to add comments to a stale discussion.

Am I doing something wrong? I did a test search on Copenhagen. I got a page of results, identical to the page I would have gotten on the old board. But when I clicked a link - any link - I was taken back to the landing page for the Travel Forum (community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum) and not to the post that I'd selected.

The preview pane is nice, if a little "gilding the lily." Since I can see what I am typing up here! :-)

I'm fixed and back to as close to normal as I can get!- thanks Andrew!

Several headings in the General Europe section actually take you to posts in Trip Reports and To the Boot.

The social media buttons at the top of the page appear to be non-functional.

The social media buttons at the top of the page appear to be non-functional.

Ah, the duplicate posts are back...

Hello Webmaster,

Thanks for making some changes to the helpline. I don't have much to say at this point as this is the first time I have seen the new layout. However, I have a request that I'm hoping you will consider:

On the sign-in, where we input our email/password, is it possible to make a checkbox that remembers and saves our info so I don't have to re-enter it on each visit? Sometimes I check the helpline numerous times per day and I hate having to re-enter my info over and over to sign in each time.

I realize this may seem minor, but I would love to see it. However, , I know nothing about programming, so maybe this just isn't possible with your new code?

:) thanks for all the hard work!!!

You've probably noticed, but the search function doesn't work for helpline topics... perhaps google hasn't crawled the new pages yet?

Gretchen

You can set your computer to autofill for that kind of task. Web site doesn't need to do it.

GMT is back again.

I can't imagine using the Classic View. I think I tried it once or twice when I first joined the Helpline, but found it to be so time consuming. People post titles like, "Train", "Hotels", "Teen activities" and you wouldn't know to which catagory it belonged. I never go to the "To the Boot", "The East", "the North, or "Trip Partners". I only look at posts that interest me. You can see from the date what is new. It takes me all of 5 min. to look at all the boards in the morning, to see what came in new on the threads that are of interest to me.

It is like on Trip Advisor. All the cities are divided up, and I never look at threads that have questions about towns I know nothing about.

Perhaps this has been one of the problems with newcomers. They have been using Classic View and just post their question, not knowing that they have posted in Trip Reports, etc.?

It too would really like to have an "inappropriate" button. Without the use of moderators which just about every online forum has, this is the only way to let the Webmaster know. He then has to wade through all the emails every day until getting to the one that says, remove this post.

It looks like we have lots more space to write, with far more characters? Also, the pages have more posts, you don't have to wade through 4 pages to get to the last post. This is a feature of Fodors that I always liked.

Dear Webmaster,

I too prefer the Classic View to having to go to every topic. I was able to see interesting things that were in forums I would not normally visit when I could see Classic View.

I also remember sometimes not finding a thread in the forum it was supposed to be in, even when clicking on the read all button originally to see the whole thing it didn't turn up in that forum but was still in the day that it was originally posted Classic View. That's how I found them. I hope that problem was fixed. I did assume if it wasn't there that for whatever reason the post and/or thread had ben deleted by you for some reason.

I do know that I could tell deleteable (aka post that would be deleted) posts on the weekends when you or a replacement were not there.

I wonder if maybe instead of a "like" button it could be a "ditto this reply" button. Then a list of who dittoed it. Just a thought. The new system might not let you do something like that.

Although I don't remember ever having so much to say that I had to continue a post for those that do it is nice to have more characters to use in the posts.

I don't see a spell check for the reply page. That might be helpful because two words are underlined as misspelled but no way of checking. Just right clicked on the words and got some help.

Have fun (if that's the term) fixing the fixables.

Have been running through a bunch of postings. Looks like the blue option - edit/delete - problem has been resolved. Seems to be working as in the old days. Progress is being made.

A few comments:

I've issued a notice for users of Internet Explorer versions 8 and 9 at the top. If you are on IE7 or IE6, sorry but it is time to update to the latest version possible (likely IE8 for your system).

The edit/delete links that should appear next to your own posts when you are logged in should now be appearing correctly.

If you are hoping for spell check to be added as a feature, this is really something that browsers are doing. You might try Chrome if that's what you want.

If you are looking to have your browser remember you login information, while this is something that we could technically provide, this is largely a feature of your browser these days. This is something that you can turn on in your browser settings aka internet options.

There have been a few dissenting comments about the readability of the 'new layout.' If people find that something is more difficult to read, I would particularly appreciate more detail since the text size and font of all posts have not actually changed.

I am really not enjoying clicking on topics only to discover then are zombie threads.. can we not sort that out.. how on earth are posts from 2006 or something showing up randomly .. and often in wrong forums to boot.

I have been spending less time on this forum because its just become a bit of a hassle.. how was this updating supposed to improve my experience here?

Never used the 'classic view' myself, but a common feature of most forum software is a feature to see all threads that have been added since you last logged on. That would restore much of what people have been looking for in the classic view. Of course it depends on whatever this is being run on having that capability.

The time now appears to be GMT +2 hours. I suppose, since folks submit posts from around the world, having a single time stamp reference is necessary (rather than having someone from Australia post with their local time, followed by a reply minutes later from someone in the USA with their local time, which would make it appear that the reply occured hours before the original question), and while GMT is universal, it's disconcerting to see 9 PM on the computer while the sun is shining brightly outside. Since this Website concerns Europe, maybe it makes sense to have a European time stamp, but perhaps, since the Rick Steves world is based in Seattle, the time cited might be based on US Pacific Time.

Another observation that may have been completely resolved, is that yesterday morning there was a question about Spain in the To The Boot category. It appeared in the West section later in the morning, so that one question appears to have gotten sorted out, and perhaps any other misdirections have been identified & properly categorized. If not, there may still be questions in the wrong category, assuming they were initiated in the right category to start with.

Maybe it's my computer settings, but from other comments, this may still be an issue for more people than just me. I don't see a "Send" button at the bottom of the screen, for replying to posts (or even when signing in just now), but guessing (or knowing approximately where one existed previously), I positioned the cursor over that area and a broken-lined rectangle appeared. So the button exists, it's just invisible.

As for on-screen appearance, the reply strings sometimes appear in a hapazard, patchwork arrangement. Looking for a pattern, it appears any reply less than 5 lines is indented, and some subsequent, short replies are displayed in a diagonal alignment. Messages with at least 7 lines wrap around so that the initial lines are indented but the later lines start all the way at the left edge. This can be a little hard to follow, and to sort out who's message is who's and whom is saying what. Maybe this was an intentional design for space-efficiency for the new format, but it would be a cleaner display if each post had its own vertical space for the message content and the person's ID, before moving onto the next reply.

Also, maybe it's just me and I'll get used to it, but the spacing on the list of everyone's questions looks cramped. Even though the question title and the timeline are different colors (blue and black) they look crammed together. It would require more space, so fewer topic titles would appear on the screen at one time, but is it possible to put a single-spaced blank row between each question? Or could the time stamp of that question be indented so the question titles had some space between them on the left?

As you can see, I tend to run long, so having extra available characters now is appreciated. A spell-chack function would be really helpful, however, for both the writer and subsequent readers. Thanks!!!

Cyn:
Almost all the display issues that you are experiencing are bugs in certain Internet Explorer versions that we are currently working on (none of these appeared in our development area when testing...yay). By your description, it sounds like you are on IE8? We will work these bugs out to be sure, but I would highly recommend trying another browser like Chrome or Firefox in the meantime. IE version 10 is the only IE browser appearing correctly (thanks for always being years behind other browsers, Microsoft). Btw, way to go on figuring out that the buttons are actually there, but just nearly invisible.

As for Spell Check, to repeat my note above, this is a feature that is being adopted by browsers, not websites. You might find that you really like using Google Chrome.

Pat:
It is an issue of topics with duplicate titles. Since the URL for each topic includes the title of the topic, when we regenerated all the topic URLs, some topics shared URLs. The Helpline is currently taking you to the oldest of that topic. It is a bug to be sure. We have identified all topics this is happening to and are actively working on this issue.

For those discussing Classic View... we are currently focused on fixing bugs. After those are fixed, then we can discuss new features. ;)

WM I am a MAC user. The forums jump around. For example, I am looking at a post in "To the North" , hit the back button and it takes me to "to the West" and so on. Also the problem with old posts showing up mixed in with new.

Well, I appreciate this conversation with the Webmaster very much. Lets us know that we are being heard, or I should say, read. Thank you, Andrew.

Update: IE9 users should now have full use of the forums back now that the design issue is fixed.

IE8 and 7 users should now have full usability now that the buttons are appearing properly, but there are still many display bugs that need to be worked out. To be realistic, these will not be worked out until next week.

We've recognized that posts seem to be jumping around a bit and we don't fully have a handle on what is causing that. It seems that if you wait a minute or two and refresh the page, it fixes where some topics should appear, but then others have moved. We're working on it as one of out top priorities (that and the duplicate URL issue for topics with duplicate titles).

We are still working on the time stamp issue. As many of you have noticed, everything is being time stamped in GMT. This bug is proving to be not as easy as expected to fix and we are currently reviewing options. We may have this fixed today, but it may have to wait until next week since this is not actually breaking anyone's user experience.

Webbie is cute he thinks I know what an "URL" is...sorry clueless.. if I was in charge of website I would have ruined it years ago.. nope I trust you guys to work it out.. don't even try and explain it to me.. its enough to say " we are still working on it and its been a bugger" lol

---Webmaster Edit: You use URLs all the time. :) For those that don't know what a URL is, you can think of it as a "link" or a "web address." For example, this is a URL: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/ ---

SEARCH

For those of you currently using our in-house search, clicking on a search return that is a Helpline topic will be broken until Yahoo (that's the service we are using) re-indexes our website. This is an inherent issue due to the rebuild of the Helpline with all the new URLs. It may take two days or it may take two weeks for this to happen. It's entirely up to Yahoo's indexing service.

Nancy, to respond to your comment, as our internal search engine returns results in the same way that the major search engines do, there is no way to sort search returns by date. Many of the search returns aren't Helpline topics and, as such, don't have dates associated with them. This makes it rather difficult to figure out a way to sort search returns even if we were able to modify the core of Yahoo's search algorithm to be date sortable. As much as I think it would be useful, I'm sorry but this request just isn't feasible.

Thanks for the graphic design input! We already have plans to update design, but we can certainly fix that particular use of color (the alternating grey/white) quickly.

Is it just me or is it a bug? - I see pages and pages of posts but when I try to use the search function to narrow down what I am looking for (within, for example the pages of posts in the "To the Boot" forum) it simply kicks me back out to the main page. . . I definitely need to have a working search function.

Jen, please see the post I wrote about search. It's two posts before yours. In short, it will fix itself, but an exact timeframe is unknown.

Re: Search - Thanks, webmaster. Missed that as I was getting so frustrated bouncing around trying different things searching. Here's to hasty Yahoo indexing. . .!

It would also be nice to see the "Logout" button on every page (as it was in the "old" format), so that I don't have to go one level down to my Profile.

@KEN: We're supposed to log OUT? Who knew??? ;-)

..And while we are all giving our wish lists to Andrew for future enhancements to the new Helpline:
Eileen would like real smiley faces and real winky faces.
I would like a sarcasm font.

Just a big THANK-YOU to Frank and the Webmaster for pointing out the auto fill feature. I had no idea it existed on the IPad until you two got me to thinkin'. I checked it out and found it.

One thing I just noticed is that there's some inconsistency in the Post count between different section of the HelpLine. Hopefully that will get sorted eventually?

:-) Love you, Elaine ;-) Animated emoticons?!? Ummm...YEAH! I'd luvs me some sarcasm font too LOL!

I DO miss my strikethrough, though. I used it sparingly - as opposed to most other devices ;-) - and saved it for special, deserving occasions.

I also very much like all responses on a topic being on ONE page! Saves lots of 'page flipping'.

I got your back Eileen, even though you forgot to pick me up for the September meeting. (unsmileY face) ;

Have to say my 2 favorite things so far, is that all replies are on one page and the increased character count. It is like the Helpline is growing up and joining the 2000's, instead of being back in online 1990's infancy.

I am also having problems with the "Search" function. Upon getting a list of possible replies on a "search" topic, I am returned to the "Travel Helpline". Otherwise, Good Job!

I think these changes are steps on the right direction. I commend the Webmaster for that.

However, on a friendly critical note, I'm flabbergasted at how Rick Steves' website still misses on many features that are standard or quasi-standard on competition:

• DisqUS interface
• threaded posts

We will need a department for RS get-togethers. The folks in Sacramento, Denver, etc. need something for that.

I've only attended one of those get-togethers so don't have a Great Dane or Poodle in this question (more like a tiny little Dandie Dinmont Terrier) but it seems to me that groups would have better publicity in General Europe where newbies are likely to look than in a special Region of the Helpline.

As I say, its not really my bag, although maybe one day we can start an English get-together, just seems that way to me...

One thing I've noticed... either new members are not required to put in their location or clicking through to see their profile after they post a question only gets nnaammee, 1 post. No location...

Having the location is helpful to responders.

The OP's location is important...if only for knowing where to get a "tiny little Dandie Dinmont Terrier" for ourselves ;-)

I agree with Nigel that the monthly meetings will get more notice under General Europe. We do want new people to see that these meetings exist. Don't we? :-)

A couple of observations from today.

Thanks, Andrew, the message sequencing seems to be fixed. All the threads (at least on the top pages) seem to be in chronological order now, and the mystery zombies have stopped floating to the top. Thanks!!

Also, it seems that in addition to not putting in a place they are from, most new participants on the helpline are using strange alphanumeric or exotic made-up names instead of a name. Is that intentional? Is there something on the registration page to encourage it? If it is accidental, I'd discourage it. It seems real, somehow, when people use real names, even if they are not using their own names sometimes. When people use alphanumerics and names of desserts it makes the whole thing less personable to me.

Hi,
I'm noting the comments about new members names. There is probably something we can do to reframe how we ask for one's display name when they sign up.

I'm also noting the comments about emoticons. I'll be changing all characters to display using wingdings shortly. :p

Wingdings!!! ;-)

I'm still waiting for my 'tiny little Dandie Dinmont Terrier'. Too.Dangdern.Cute! (thud)

(The Gentlemen of the Terrier world, needs daily walks, and can be vocal - sounds like Nigel!)

(EDIT: Hyperlinks work!)

Are you working on re-adding the locations of original posters? Pretty please?

Locations for the first post in each topic page... that shouldn't be too hard to add back in. :)

Commence wingdings! /*
Well that didn't work. I guess we'll have to cancel this high priority addition to the forums. Don't be too disappointed. :p

testing underline

Dang wingdings :'-( (sniffle)

testing underline didn't work?!? If at first you don't succeed...

Is 'Edmonds, WA New Zealand' in any of RS' books? I'd like to visit...

EDIT: FYI: Now - as opposed to 2 days or so ago - if using bold and italics together, it showed up in Preview as working, but didn't work in the actual thread post. Now, it doesn't work in Preview, but looks correct in the thread...FWIW. Good luck with that...!

Another EDIT: OK - Now that example worked in the EDIT, but not the original message from 2 minutes earlier. If you care. My brain hurts; I think it's those dang wingdings.

I don't really care what time zone you use, unless it would cause a problem with responses getting out of order if someone were to post from Europe after midnight before someone posting from the US where it is still before midnight. The old time was only local for those on the west coast anyway, so most of the country already had to "do math in their heads". Whatever you do, someone is going to have to adjust.

Webmaster: I've started a new thread, but I'm not getting any email notifications when someone posts a response to it (as we used to get).

Is this an oversight, or intentional? I looked for a box to check, as is set up for PMs, but I haven't found anything.

At the top of the "To the West" section a thread titled "How Much Time to get There & Other Itinerary Questions" posted by the webmaster appears twice.

Am wondering why it's not also listed at the top of the other regions?

I note that those two are slightly different. One is locked and one isn't. I bet is a test of the locking mechanism... which I can only wait expectantly for.... ;->>

Hi Nigel, What does locking do?

Locking means that the thread can be read but nobody can contribute further posts to it.

Once the old dormant posts (sometimes called zombies) are locked they can't be used by spammers, nor can they be dredged up by new posters to ask on ancient threads thereby sending email to the O-OPs and missing recent news.

Hooray for locking if it means the end to zombie threads!!

Yeah, that would be great!

I'm having the same problem as Eileen. I'm not getting email notifications for replies to the thread I initiated.

The title to the "sticky" at the beginning of the To The Boot region got zunked by the new editor...

and To The North too.

Webbie must be playing with the clock. The time in the thread is my GMT time for post, the index or contents shows PST.

Now both GMT again.

here is a minor glitch

If you try to access the "Trip Reports" from the "Graffiti Wall" It will toss you out to the RS Travlers Help Line. You can access the "trip reports" from there and it works.

happy trails.

I use Chrome on my phone, and the print on some of the posts is teeny tiny - no discernable reason. But I haven't used Chrome on the computer to see if it does the same.

EDIT: Chrome on the computer looks fine.

Don't know if anyone has said this before but I like the idea on old format to not have to scroll down 100 some responses, the old way you could just go to the "next" page. Thanks.

There might have been a discussion/explanation for this, but I am curious about the sudden influx of new posters with strange names. Is there some restriction now that forces new posters to come up with unique names instead of just using their own names (even if they are not necessarily their actual names)? We have managed this long with several Nancys, Eileens, Franks, etc., and it seems somehow more friendly to continue to do so (not to mention that it's easier to tell if the OP is a man or a woman).

I use Chrome on a Wondoze 7 netbook (among others) and when I see quoted text I have to take my glasses off and hold it close. Very small.

The name issue has been raised but I haven't seen a resolution....

I'll be seeing today how IE handles it under XP.

"We have managed this long with several Nancys, Eileens, Franks, etc., and it seems somehow more friendly to continue to do so (not to mention that it's easier to tell if the OP is a man or a woman)." Agree very much with that point. It makes things far more convivial to address someone by name rather than by an avatar title. And there's not too many internet trolls who post under their given first names.

One other thing I have noticed is in Private Messages. It used to be that once you hit Send you would get a page showing you what you had written. Now that no longer happens. It would be great to be able to access sent messages, but if that's not possible, just getting to see it once would help, so we could review it to see if we forgot something or whatever.

A word about the sudden influx of new posters with strange names. Several of them have indeed appeared, and some do seem to be trolls. One of them posted a question about five days ago, and when several of us provided answers to their questions, they posted a one or two sentence insult to the board. The insult stayed perhaps 15 minutes, and was then removed by the OP, so as not to be caught by the Webmaster. I think the trolls are taking advantage of the fact that the Webmaster is busy fixing problems with the new system. The travelers who come here earnestly seeking travel advice, I believe, will always give their name, or some version of it. Yes, someone who gives their name will always get more replies than someone who posts as hidinginthebushes or some such stupid pseudonym. Perhaps we shouldn't reply to the trolls using pseudonyms and they will go away.

About Private Messages. I used to get a notice in my email that I have a PM at Rick Steves. Only that, and I had to come to the Rick Steves website to retrieve the message. Now, all I do is click on that email, and the entire PM is displayed within that email, including previous conversations in a running back-and-forth PM. In other words, anyone in your home who uses your email can read these messages. Not very private anymore. Not that I mind; most of my messages to another person are, "What restaurants did you discover on your trip to London?" Just be aware that the privacy is gone if someone else in you household has access to your email. And they don't need your Rick Steves website password to access this PM, either.

I so agree about the avatars. They are annoying. Very impersonal. I tend to ignore those posts altogether.

And Nancy's idea of a separate techie section is brilliant. Hope it happens.

The issue with display names is something concerning to us as well. The issue is not that we are forcing unique names. The issue is that we aren't getting people to choose a display name well enough. This is something that we are aware of and will fix. Thanks to everyone for their comments!

I think that is caused by editing. If you edit your respond, it treats as a new posting and bumps the posting to the top with a new time stamp although the time stamp on your edited posting stays the same.

By the way, what happened to that other thread that discussed the new format, "Where is Everybody?" It was gone when I awoke this morning. Did it devolve into a flame war, and hence, was deleted?

There are two features that would be awesome. Per the two could be combined. The ability to "like" someones post. Also the ability to bookmark or save a post for later. There are some really great ideas, but it is hard to remember the post and/or remember that great tip. So if you could like it and go back and find the articles you liked would be very cool.