Draft ideas about how to use this forum

Comment 3

Comment 1, Three comments here, I will delete comment 2

I should add that my experience with Groups.io was some time ago. I just looked at the newer version and it looks like it might be better. Like Garry, I'm an old guy, too, and making changes isn't the easiest thing in the world.

I will be trying to follow this with the hope that it survives. I really miss the old RadioBoard. I tried the Groups.io regenerative group but found it hard to use (user unfriendly). It did not seem to foster group discussion, at least in my experience.

Thank you, qrp, for your posting on ARF which led me here.

Tom

One thing I just noticed -- you can't edit the contents of a private message after it is sent. So be careful when sending private messages!

VK3YE, a well-known homebrew radio enthusiast, was kind enough to link to this forum, as you can see here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/theradioboard/msg4177396/#msg4177396 . So, the word is getting out about this forum. Let's hope new members will join and post interesting radio projects and discussion!

I'll try to do my part by writing up the current status of my all-2N3904 shortwave superhet. It's working, though mighty ugly to look at. I've got a couple of ideas for improvements -- I had added, then later removed a regenerative IF stage. Now I'm thinking I need to add it back again to get sufficient selectivity.

It won't find it yet because I haven't migrated this WIX site to the pro version, so search engines really don't index it well yet. I'm waiting for a price reduction. Usually one a month they cut it in half. I registered the name and simply forwarded the name to this site.

I wonder how long it takes the search engines to pick up on that. A google search the "the RadioBoard" still points to the suspended site.

I registered a site http://theradioboard.org/ It redirects here. When WIX has a promotion, I'll upgrade the site

Thanks very much for the kind words. I want to have this go live, and before I do that, i want to make sure everyone gets the URL.

On another note

Here is a message from WIX support about issues with posting dates

Thank you for contacting Wix Customer Care team.

First, as a Customer Care Expert, I want to personally apologize for the long response time. We are experiencing a higher wave of traffic these days, and we are doing our best on providing assistance to all of our dear users, first-in first-served basis. We appreciate the understanding and flexibility while we work on improving our Customer Care delivery pace and quality.

If I get you right, you want to know whether it's possible to display the date when the forum post was published on the forum page, instead of the number of how many hours (days) have passed.

I totally understand your request, however, please note that it is currently not possible to display the date immediately after posting your forum post. For the first 9 days from the posting date, "one day ago" will be displayed, and after the 10th day, the date will be displayed as "month : day". After about a year has passed, the date display will change to "year ○ month ○ day".

Wix is constantly working on feature updates and improvements, and your feedback is extremely appreciated.

Ultimately, I think people will go where the content is. There is no point to reading nothing. Right now most of the available content is here.

Personally, the groups i/o format is unappealing and clunky to me, including the iteration that Reset prepared, which does look much better and it is clear he made real effort to make it look good and easier to use, which he/she should be commended for.

But I still perceive it as lipstick on a pig.

This is the easiest forum software I have ever used. The criticism of the forum software was unfounded, it seemed to me, and left me with a lot of questions about why it was made.

I think you've done a terrific job with it for whatever that is worth.

73

Win W5JAG

If you are a thread starter, there is an apparently unlimited amount of time in which you can edit a post. I went back into my receiver thread and edited to align the text in some of the posts.

This will be useful for correcting mistakes, typos, adding in new information to a post., etc.

I really like this forum software.

73

Win W5JAG

Larry, Folks seem to be migrating to a groups.io RadioBoard. It is the second one created there and is set up to function as an interim full function board rather than QRP-gaijin’s original re-grouping and admin point. It is called TheNewRadioBoard, FYI.

I'm gonna try to post a survey on choosing a web address for this forum. Wix just offered me half off for the year, so I want to take advantage. FYI, I won't be asking for money.

Thanks for the comments, Win! I never found the old RadioBoard (ORB) difficult to post to, except for including graphics. I had to put them into a file on my computer and make sure they did not exceed 250k. I got used to "inline" and "pre" after some time.

Text wise my only complaint was that it might time out and I'd loose the entire post. So I just kept clicking "Preview" periodically to reset the clock. It was good to check over my work anyway before posting.

Hey ! If you click on the time stamp thing out at the end of the forum topic in the index, it takes you direct to the last post in that thread ! No scrolling !

73,

Win W5JAG

Valid points, all.

The technical topic I posted and will be adding to is lengthy and starting at the top every time and having to scroll to the end will get unwieldy at some point, if not already there. Most technical topics will be the same, I suspect, unless they're just really simple stuff

But here's the flip side - it was really, really, easy to make and post that information. Far, far, easier than the old RadioBoard which was, frankly, a PITA. The worst I have ever used, actually. But still better than Groups. I have no idea how easy or difficult it would be to do the same content on groups i/o as I did here. It looks cumbersome, but maybe it;s not. I dunno.

So, what gets priority - content creation or ease of reading? Without content, there is nothing to read, no matter how easy. Without readers, there is no point in creating content. Chicken or egg? I know what I prefer, but I don't know what the correct answer is.

We may be bumping into the limitations of free.

The Collins Collectors Association recently switched to Groups. It is an improvement over their old mail server, so I have no complaints there, but it's just not up to snuff like a web forum.

My $0.02, anyway.

73

Win W5JAG

Do folks here think that having posts displayed in chronological order is a good idea? That is, would reverse order be better? The newest post in a discussion at the top, the older ones below. I do not see an option to change this at the user level. To see the latest post I have to scroll to the bottom of the page.

The Groups.io platform has this option for a user to click on.

Perhaps it is something that can be eventually implemented. I'm not sure who would want to view a discussion at the very beginning each time they come into it.

On further thought, the current format and operation of this platform seems better oriented towards very brief comments and ongoing chatter. The old TRB membership employed fairly wordy posts (some VERY long) in detailed technical discussion with images often used.

Just thinking out loud.

Poor Larry! I'm not sure he knows what he waded into . . . . We may have to salary him and provide health and retirement.

(Am I having second thoughts about groups.io?)

Working on this, thanks. There is an add on that will show posts in date order, with the real date, but it is not working. Wix support is aware and is looking into it for me. Meanwhile, I'll look into font size.

I've been adding a .pdf of the posted text to my posts, so anyone who wished to archive it can do so more easily. Looks like the date should be added to posts as well.

Win

W5JAG