What do you think of the new forum summary format?
0 voters
I’ve temporarily reformated the Legal Forum section to gather some feedback from you. Two changes
Go there: legal.forumosa.com
pls vote above and lmkwyt
I like having the legal forums back on the main page. Can I suggest that even if you decide to keep them separate after all, the link to the legal forums from the main page could say something like;
“Legal forums: visa, residency, traffic and other issues”
Of course everybody who’s been around for a while knows what the legal forums are, but I think that if you want to get newcomers to use them the link has to be a bit clearer. We’re already seeing some legal questions posted in inappropriate forums.
As for the shoutbox/chat, I’m not bothered. It takes a fair bit of space but I suppose if some people want to use it it’s OK. I suspect that only a select few people will use it regularly, though, and those people probably already have each others’ instant messenger IDs and cellphone numbers.
Also, that page seems to have an automatic refresh on it, whether or not there are any new things in the shoutbox. Does this push up the demands on tjhe server and hence the cost of maintaining the site?
Thank you, Joe. I appreciate all your points (especially this last one)
Cheers,
Yeah, I don’t see the need for a shoutbox, either. But that’s just me. Maybe some people really like that feature…
I like the shoutbox because it means that I don’t have to post silly little comments all the time, I can shoutbox it out.
However, if it pushes the space limits and cost of the site up, then don’t bother with it.
If we have a shoutbox what about one that deletes the text when you close the window or something. I don’t think we need to store all the shoutbox stuff too. A local Messenger thing is not a bad idea though.
I can’t read all the text that I typed in the shoutbox
No Horizontal scroll?
Or is it because I am using a notebook?
Same on mine… seems to be something odd with the width. But then again, I always seem too wide when I try to fit in something.
Yeah, I have the same problem 
But I think this link may be the cause of your problem roar.bizland.com/back.html
[quote=“Fatty Hogg”]Yeah, I have the same problem [/quote]I did originally type “Like Boss Hogg” in there, referring to your avatar, but I thought that was a big rude
I just noticed your location “around the back” 
That makes the link I gave you even more
I can horizontal scroll if I use the mouse to high light the text and move to the side.
I think it is a good idea. There is one small change you could make. Link the link to “legals” at the very top of the page to an internal anchor on the same page. This will avoid the need to scroll all the way down the page to find it.
I don’t like the “shoutbox”. If you think it is a useful function maybe you could put it on a separate page or at the bottom of the page.
I wanted to see for myself how a full complement of the forums would look all layed out. Also, it’s been suggested that we ‘sub-forumize’ other forums here (like the Living in Taiwan Forum) – can you imagine if things get longer?
I like to see that several forums here have lots of topics. It might be nice to flash older topics from time to time - but that’s another thing entirely.
The shoutbox is yet another attempt to see if there is any value in a “Chat” type of feature. Personally, I’m still unconvinced. The point that the auto-refreshing will drive up conuaries is almost enough to remove it straight away.
The original layout of the shoutbox is actually tucked at the bottom, and not to the right. I just didn’t see how valuable it would be to bit it down all the way down there.
I’ve come across a bunch of minor mods to make to these forums, but I don’t want to put them in if I need to uninstall the Shoutbox (it was tricky). I’ll bring this up at the Admin meeting we’re having this weekend and maybe speed things up.
If you really like the Shoutbox, please say so here (or on it) and let us know why it should stay.
Hi,
I hope this shoutbox experiment settles once and for all the question about whether there should be a chat section on this website. I’ll be closing the developmental section soon, and the Shoutbox will be removed.
I am also integrating the Legal forums into the front page – I will remove the Legal link soon.
The Ratings Revamp is progressing slowly. I plan to redesign the rating page to incorporate two things: a guide to rating and a web banner (we are doing more and more banner exchanges these days).
The return of the Weekly E-mail Blast is still in the works. Please look out for this in the next few weeks.
Finally, the overhaul of the Job databases (and other databases) is still underway. These are other sections I hope to have in place by the end of the summer.