What was wrong with the old board?

Jon,

Yes it is and you may have missed it, but it seems to be at www.surveyorconnect.com  (www.beerleg.com)  


Andy

Yeah, head on over to the Parvenu Parlor with the rest of the technophobes.
C'ya,
MLB

MLB,

you're doing a great job coming up with URL's for Wendell.  Keep it up!  

Look at all this mind-boggling technology.  I'm frightened!

nothing wrong with the old board....  nothing wrong with horses or the Model T, either....

Each board serves it's own purpose, now we have choices and pretty good ones at that...

It's September 9, two months in, and we are still (after a brief respite) having 15 - 20 second waits after clicking on a thread or a "back to" link..

Too slow.....too frustrating.


And if "the Parvenu Parlor" being referred to is the one I am thinking about, here are three comments:

1. Many times someone will post a question, regarding "how do I perform some function, I don't have the manual" kind of thing. I'd post my question where it is going to be answered most quickly......at this point in time, it seems to me that's probably that other site.

2. There is a site called "Alexa.com" which shows the traffic on a given site when you input the name. Try inputting that site's name and then input "RPLS.com"....see what you find. (The site rates the input site by how many sites have greater traffic, so the lower the number, the more traffic.) What you will see will surprise and sadden you, if you are a POB regular.

3. If you are wondering "where did everybody go?.........there's a good chance they're "over there".


Is there room for both sites?....sure, and probably for several others. But if you just want to "click and read"......well, you'll have to chose for yourself.

it died

I'm not sure traffic is or should be the measure of value -- the latest moronic vampire flick gets more traffic at my local multi-screen than an arty indie movie but the latter is substantially more intelligent and worthwhile.

The two boards seem increasingly to serve complimentary functions. The other board is (as its name implies) more like a local meeting or informal lunch where guys discuss professional topics but also shoot the breeze and maybe crack some jokes, some perhaps a bit blue. This board may come to more resemble a state-level seminar where things are somewhat more orderly. Both can be useful or at least enjoyable.

Here is a quote from a post on the other board: "...take a ride on Colfax Avenue west--dead as a bad fart, they kicked the jews out and built up around the mexicans." Does this convey a professional image? Would you tell your clients to check it out? I defend freedom of speech to the death but somehow this sort of distasteful stuff seems more rare here and that will keep me coming back.

Traffic IS, in fact a measure of value.....to advertisers. Like the "moronic vampire flick", traffic brings revenue, which is what POB isall about. And since no posters I know of are kicking in their own money to RPLS.com or POB, I'm guessing it's important to them also.

Secondly, I find the other Board (why am I dancing around???) "Surveyorconnect.com" (aka the unfortunate name "beerleg.com") more like "the old POB" than this one.

As for your quote from the other board, this kind of thing showed up REGULARLY on the old POB, so it's nothing new. And, if you've been over to the "POB Lounge", you know we could pick out dozens of quotes over there just as bad or worse.

As for "professional image", you'll have to have that debate with the folks who post in "the Lounge".

All very good points. I guess I meant value to the surveyor, not the advertiser, but you're right -- they pay the bills. My hope is that this board will somehow dispense with some of what I disliked on the old board -- though you've reminded me that I tend to keep my blinders on -- I avoid the categories (P & R etc.) where that stuff most often comes up.

Probably what I meant is that all was not bliss on the old board, at least not for me, and some of what I see here is an improvement.

Bottom Line: If it works for you......that's great.

Professional image?
Who among you actually believes you cultivate a "professional image" in an on line forum? All this site is , or any other site, for that matter is a place to exchange information. Speed has not been an issue for me, most of the time. The most important items lacking here are the archives and a useful search engine. The old search function was actually not too bad. It was just never updated the way most web search functions have added improvements and enhancements over the years.

As an analyst I see what the design process theory was. It seems simple, put all things in their proper place. Then everyone will simply search the appropriate category for the desired information. It might have been  (and still might be) successful had the former site not been so chaotic. Mob rule is what it is. The sites I have developed were always confined to data retrieval and users could not communicate with each other online. That made things easier, but they still weren't that easy. There were complaints yes. But there was a useful product, so there was traffic.

The problem here is best described by Bill Cosby : "I don't know what the key to success is, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Wendell for instance, simply built the site he wanted to build and put it up. Surveyors, being the "professionals" they are flocked to it. That is a reflection of what the "comfort zone" of the Professional Surveyor is.

In web design classes they teach "The Middle School Rule". That rule simply stated is "If a Middle School student can't navigate the site effortlessly in ten to fifteen minute he will leave and not return. Then you need to start over." Now I commend many of you for proving you have far greater patience than a Middle School Student. BTW- they have all moved on to "apps" on their iphones. The first requirement of a professional is some degree of maturity. And we have all seen so many examples of that demonstrated here we should be proud.

And BTW- TDD did not provide an accurate characterization of West Colfax.
MLB

You call it "comfort zone"....maybe for some, but I see it differently. People didn't come here for "comfort"....they found a site that fit their needs, that answered their questions, that gave them a sense of community, a forum for their rants and raves, or whatever else they got out of it, and for the better part of twelve years, they came.

I doubt that folks who have had no trouble adapting from a transit and chain to EDM's, total stations, GPS and scanners are having technical or conceptual problems adapting to this site. It has nothing to do with the old site being "chaotic"....this site just doen't do what most of it's users want it to do. As I have been saying from the very beginning, I'd be willing to bet if it didn't take so long to get a response from a mouse click, lots more folks would be here.

You mention "maturity".....I doubt that that has much to do with it either. I post from work or from home. In each place, I've got a limited amount of time to spend hunting and pecking, clicking and pasting, etc., etc. POB managed to escalate the amount of time needed to a point above which I am willing to commit on a regular (i.e., they way I used to) basis. "Maturity" is knowing when to stop waiting for Small World Labs, or whoever they are, to fix their problems.

You have long been insisting that you have no speed problems....more power to you. For me, on two distinctly separate systems at home and at work, I have lots of speed problems when on line here, and they are not related to virus software or machine speed or memory....it's just    S  L  O  W. Just researching the information for the paragraph below took several minutes of clicking and waiting.

Finally, the numbers tell the tale. Posters have left RPLS.com in droves. What percentage of posters would you say remain, as active, thread participants? 20%? I have no access to statistics...I'm just guessing.

Sponsored forums? The Topcon group's last post was on August 18.
Ashtech? Less than 50 posts in a month....slightly over one a day.
A Sokkia Forum that's "closed"????.....yeah right, what's that all about?
Ask A Surveyor? Less than 50 posts since inception.
Machine Control? 9 members, 1 post.
Classifieds? 5 threads, last post August 10.
Associates (nee "friends")? Everyone knew who their "friends" were on the old site.
Classified Ads - Positions Available? Empty.
                         Stolen Equipment? Empty.
                         Books? Empty.
                         Education and Training? Empty.

Let's face it....the site has evolved into a series of features that are not worth the effort or the wait to access.

Is there useful information to be obtained here?....of course.
Is it always worth waiting for?.....not every day.


One might ask, why am I still here? Well, I'm trying to hang in, waiting for that sign that it's going to get better. Unfortunately, I've been hearing that for two months now. Is it worth the wait? So far, a definite "maybe"......in two more months, who knows?

Ang- you seem to have misunderstood my use of the term "Comfort Zone". I am not saying one should be comforted here, although it certainly happens when users can get a quick , easy answer to a vexing problem. What I am saying is the relative comfort of the environment for users. In other words, is it easy for them? Well, indeed the learning curve went up, but not as much as the bandwidth requirements.

The dialup folks are all gone. But they were already challenged by images on the old site. This is absolutely a broadband site. It just doesn't always act like one even if you have a broadband connection. The compartmentalization was supposed to simplify things in the eyes of the developers. That was all a cyber-misunderstanding. All the impassioned pleas for more precise categories produced the proverbial "camel" committee design.

What is particularly vexing here is that surveyors are supposed to be well versed in the concept of intent. But as my late mother used to tell me "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". You could ask Arnold Swarzeneggar or Barack Obamuh how good intentions tend to work out. I would bet they would have some interesting comments. But I would rather stick with Winston Churchill on this one: "When you find yourself going through hell, keep going".
MLB

I have several times wondered the same.  What was wrong with the old board?

The net change to this new board is overall negative, and I too am patiently waiting, hoping that someday it'll be at least as good as it was.  Right now, its terrible.  Slow, unpopulated, all the reasons Sicilian Cowboy articulated.  RPLS, are you listening to these posts?

I'm going to check out the other site to see what it has to offer.  Thanks for the tip.

Not a whole lot other than upkeep was getting way to intense.

This one needs to be trimmed considerably. 

They tried to make too much of a change. 

Kristi, 

One step at a time.  No giant leaps, please.

SJ

Sad to say, but I rarely check in here anymore.  I used to visit many times a day, but between the speed issue and the lack of login persistence, I find that I just don't want to go to the trouble.   Surveyor Connect is snappy and I don't have to log every day, so that's where I end up spending most of my survey-related online downtime.

I'll keep this site bookmarked and drop in every week or so to see if those barriers are still in place.  But until they're removed, I'll mostly be at the "other board."

Nothing seriously wrong with the old site, nothing seriously wrong wit the new site. People ought to stop the denial and admit it can be frustratingly slow in certain instances (yes, and I've tried it on a T1 so stop telling us we it is a dial-up problem).
Like any forum it can be co opted by some supreme blowhards who must fulfill an infantile need to grind some axe or other, even in the wrong category. This thread shows examples of that. They are so delusional as to not be capable of recognizing that they may only look like fools and make that axe look duller and duller with each post. When you are in a hole, stop trying to sell us dirt.
That other board  (which is speedy and is not in any way techo-lacking) recently got rid of old 'THC'. Banning someone for threats and calls for killing has nothing to do with freedom of speech. It is more about being a decent human being.
I could only dream out loud for the day when this board is rid of it's biggest blowhard. Gawd, go find a street corner to rant on for what good it is doing.

The biggest problem with the new board it is way to "cold".  It just feels too isolating.  The old board was great, it had a great format.  Very inviting.