Just a quick question to get some info on how people access and use this forum.

Do you come to the Forum home page:
http://www.metamatic.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

or do you have a favourite category/section that you always go to first?

Do you use 'Today's Active Topics':
http://www.metamatic.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_daily

Do you get notification of responses to a particular topic that interests you?

And how about the search facility...?

I'm calculating everything
Looking at it every way...

Thanks - look forward to your feedback

Mx

Hi Martin,

I use the check for latest updates link.

I use the search when i'm looking for old threads i need to add something to.

I dont have email updates turned on since they fill up my inbox.

Occasionally goto forum home but only when i've lost the check for updates link which i have saved.

Brian

Martin,
- Mostly through notifications of subscribed topics.
Otherwise it's the "today's active topics" link that does the trick.
"Search" usually to look for a topic/artist you know has been discussed in the past but can't remember quite when or where...

I click 'Today's Active Topics'

As above 'Today's Active Topics'

I trawl the Green Room before selecting todays posts.

Mostly by 'Todays Active Topics' these days.

Hi Martin, I used to slavishly look under the main headings of John Foxx, Green Room, etc, until one day last year you mentioned on here about the 'todays active topics' link. That was a bit of a revelation as I'd never noticed it perched up there on the right, I use it now, but if I've been away for more than a day then I always resort to the main headings first.

Also, I don't always find that the 'search' easily finds what I want, I usually have to plow through a list first.

Tend to view the latest topics that have had responses.

I don't get email notifications because I don't want a clogged inbox, and since I don't check the forum regularly, I just turn to the brightly lit bulbs unless I have deleted cookies since my last visit, in which case I try to estimate when I last looked at certain topics and wade through those.

I have used the search function on occasion but don't really recall for what purpose.

I tend to visit the lit bulbs and go from there.

I don't get notifications, but in general I frequent between The Green Room and John Foxx sections.

I do find that it is sometimes very easy to miss an announcement in the announcements section though.

Usually I use this one : http://www.metamatic.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
I then open the subsections and check for the dates and open to my liking...or not

Hi Martin,

I usually go to the Green Room first, then the Foxx section. After that, if there's time I have a wander around. When I look at the forum via iPhone - the screen is dramatically reduced so I just look for news/updates etc.

I'm just happy to be able to use the forum again!

Can this new board be 'tapa talk' enabled or does it already have it?

"... So the barman says to the bear why the long paws?"

Hey! The joke wasn't [I]that[I] bad! Where'd everyone go?

Hello hello, we're back again (as someone once said). Back in Suuuumer-land! Hi all.

new url: www.metamatic.com/forum
Makes far more sense than the ubb blah.

Green Room and then "John Foxx" section.

Bookmark: http://www.metamatic.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi
then scan the recent posts.

Glad the forum is back.

Hi. It's great to see the forum up and running again. I too tend to go to any lit lightbulbs first.

Hi everyone, a little while since I posted, looking forward to engaging again with this new look forum and continue enjoying reading everyone's comments. Hope its a nice summer wherever you are, presently its torrential rain here for me in 'Summerland', (hey, where have all the emoticons gone? I'm looking for a smiley and there's none around!

Emoticons?

Click on 'Switch to Full Reply Screen' and then select the smiley on the left hand side of the menu items above the textbox

I was wondering where they had gone.

Cheers Martin

Be careful though, we don't want the forum over-run with the little darlings!!

Is there no longer an option to see who is online? Sad, but I miss that!!

Something I'm looking for myself... will keep you posted. It is a feature I too miss at the moment from the old forum

It's like walking into your local and it being empty!

Good luck in tracking down that pesky feature anyway

Lol! Fancy a pint while we're sat here...?

Alex, I second that! and I was too scared to mention it, I thought it was just a sign of the times or one of those things we'd have to sadly get used to, like when the lovely old wood paneled Rose & Crown pub gets a makeover into the upmarket brewery chain Parrot and Ferret.

Martin, it would be great if you can restore some of the old features.

I wouldn't mind seeing the old post count feature back as well. You know - the one where you could see how many posts everyone had made in the life time of the site. I think some folk were up to around two thousand posts when the old site went away.

OK Mike, thanks

Something else to look for.
Can't promise anything, but it will be worth a rummage...

Mx

Without wishing to denigrate Martin (and previously Rob's) efforts, I do find the layout of the forum very confusing and unnecessary. There are too many subforums which don't justify having their own forum and where no-one has posted for months, which tends to clutter up the screen as well as confuse the user.

As a simple example, if I want to start a thread about a positive review of the John Foxx and the Maths album (or tour), should I post it in "John Foxx news", "John Foxx", "John Foxx and the Maths", "Collaborations" or even "Media and press"?

I would prefer a much simpler layout - just 3 categories "John Foxx" (for threads about John or any of his collaborators), "Non-John Foxx" (for threads about other artists and non-music topics) and "Announcements". So much more streamlined!

That's a fair point Herbert. But isn't that like just having three boxes and putting everything in??
We've organised it like this so that people can find 'forums' ont he home page rather than 'threads' within forums the next layer down.

Others have identified that one or two forums overlap, which supports your case though. One to re-visit...

In the meantime, post your review/link in Media and Press.
That helps me to build up the Archive for use later on this site...

I'll discuss with Rob how best we can address this. Thanks

Mx

Recently I seem unable to access the forum at home in the evenings, when it's been fine all day at work. I wonder if my ISP is blocking it, or has anybody else been unable to access it in the evening?

I've not heard anyone else with this problem.

I presume you use a different computer at home, with a different IP address etc - or do you mean that you work from home and there is a time of day when the forum won't let you in?

Try accessing from the blocked computer in the day time if you get a chance to eliminate the 'time of day' issue.

Then otherwise I dunno - empty cache? Remove cookies? IT's not my thing - but good luck. I don't think there's an issue 'our end'

Mx

It's a different computer at home, different IP and different ISP.
It's always been fine in the past... just this week.

I'll give a try to the cache and cookies, you never know!

Since we've had the new-look forum I've increasingly had a similar problem, its always in the evenings, and I sometimes cannot get the forum to launch, or if I've been in a thread and come back to the main list and then click on another thread I get the 'unable to connect' message.
I use a mac, and admittedly there is a situation in my area where Sky has to piggyback on a BT exchange thats not as fast as elsewhere, but I never had any difficulty with accessing the forum prior to its change.

I'm with Talk Talk at home - I get a Talk Talk error message page saying it couldn't find the page.

I use a mac both at home and at work.

I've got one of the intel imacs from 2006, changed a while back to browsing with Firefox as there was some kind of issue with Safari on the level of mac that I have.
I'm sure to get one of those messages soon - I'll take note of exactly what its says as I think I'm wrong in my earlier post and it likely says unable to find the page.

Let me know how you get on.

If there are technical issues this end, I'll ask Rob to have a look at it

Mx

...actually, this morning I tested it both in Firefox and Safari and got the same message, so it's obviously having an issue with out home ISP all of a sudden.

Hey, it just happened there when I tried logging out (as it has done before) instead of the forum I got a message page thus:

'Server not found
Firefox can't find the server at www.metamatic.com.
Check the address for typing errors.
If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network connection.
If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure that Firefox is permitted to access the Web'

I'm back now after 3 or 4 attempts to either find the metamatic homepage, or having done so, having to do the same to get to the forum.

Some of the graphics on the Metamatic homepage didn't load for me either - just remembered that.

I can't remember my password so if I log out now, I might not get back in!!

I get those messages all the time on several different websites!
Usually means my modem / internet connection is not working properly.

Firefox is especially unstable on a BT connection I find... :-(

Thank-you for bringing this to our attention...
I'll liaise with our ISP to see if there's a more significant problem.

Rob

I have considered that, and my modem does physically die after a year's use, just like the Sky+ box - a ploy no doubt by Bond villain Rupert Murdoch to get you to pay for his secret underground lair. I don't have a problem with other websites apart from youtube at weekend evenings, but I think that's a speed issue. Metamatic is the only forum I use.

(Like Alex, I also had the homepage graphics sometimes failing to appear, but that was only in the early period of the new look forum, its not occurred since).

It's working this evening!

Wouldn't work this morning!