John,

Just tried it on Firefox and it works fine. I can go back and forth looking at different mag issues. I can however only have one Magazine viewer open at a time and therefore each mag has to reload each time before viewing.

Bob D

Hi John,

It works fine for me as well. IE9 (64-Bit) on Windows 7 (64-bit) (With Compatability mode off)

What browser are you using (and version), sounds as if it could be a caching problem or even security settings in your browser.

Does it happen to all issues or just two inparticular?

Dave

Not sure if this worked, as when I posted this it started telling me (again) to log in to use this feature. If you have already received it, please accept my appologies.

Is Safari my problem with this site? I have to login numerous times per visit (sometimes for each digital magazine I want to look at, and any new heading I choose from the list in the 'my account' window, despite the banner saying I'm logged in).

The magazines will not load up unless I am physically looking at the page in question. As our family does not have the internet at home, we go to the library and use their (quite slow) wireless. This is a small country town and the library is only open 3 days a week and I can get to it for 1-2hours on two or three of those days. What this means is I am not able to do anything else while I'm wanting to read a dig. issue.

I can't sellect the one I want, set it uploading, and go and check my e-mails, visit the guild site I'm member of, or any of a number of other things I like/need to do and come back later and sit back with the mag to read (hopefully at home as I don't have the time at the library, so I'd better not shut the page or log out so my wife can use it). It completely highjacks the laptop. And it will only allow one mag at a time. If I wanted to look at consecutive installments on a project, and flip back and forward between issues to double check things, it starts the whole process over again (admittedly faster the next time but taking away any flow and ease, and using up time, time, time).

Frustrating is not an adequate description.

I am so glad I went for the complete package with hard copy delivered to my door. Being on the digital package would drive me nuts; quite apart from finding out after the fact, when I had subscribed and was able to read the forums, that the price of the dig. package only lets you rent viewing rights for the 12 months. As you do not have to print anything, or post anything to these people, I think you are extracting a lot of money from them for a transient product. I'll stick to hard copy.

Just checked the latest page I called up before changing windows to type this (20mins or so. I'm a slow typer) to find the strobing blue bar in the middle of the picture was still there and yet to become a high res pic.

Please, please make this work better.

Duncan

P.S. In regard to the suggestion of charging 4pounds per digital back issue to permanently download them, You've already made your money on them (and rented them). 50p would be plenty for something you don't have to print or post, and you might get quite a few takers at that price.

I doubt John (Haine) will ever get an answer to his original question. This site's software is apalling compared to any of the dozen or so forums I subscribe too.

In truth, although we dont know why it was written so poorly we do know it not going to get any better. The poor 'user experience' its not a problem to the site owners and as long as it justifies its existence commercially I cannor forsee them wanting to spend any money on it.

One of my gripes is the hoops one has to go through to copy and paste, another is not allowing the use of a browsers integrated spellchecker.

Ian

Ian

Well now, either my standards are much lower than everyone elses, or my computing setup just happens to be compatible – I neither know nor care.

I do not appear to have any of the problems which other users have and I actually find this site considerably easier to navigate than some of the others I have looked at.

In respect of digital copies, although I apparently have access to them, I also have the paper copies so if I want a copy for the workshop, then all I need to do is to scan and print it. Hence I have no need for digital. In any case, scan & print is a darn site quicker than having to download and then print.

There is a problem in finding the article(s) I want. This, in my case, was resolved early on when I set up a database programme into which I typed all the relevant info, eg, General Title which could be eg, "Milling", Article Title, which could be eg, "Use of Slotdrills", Author, Magazine No., Page No, Date, Multipart Series (Yes/No) and 10 lines for comments or description. This way I can easily find all references to a particular subject, then go to the "mag. store", pull out the mags in turn until I find the one I want. The biggest problem is thinking up a search name.

For what it's worth, my database has 2159 separate records in it, and has records dating back to 1988. It only includes those articles which have some interest for me, so for example, there is nothing about Traction Engines, or Clocks.

Ian Phillips,

There is a thread not too far away titled Help or something similar. It's about photos and was started by Lynne. The second entry therein is by me, the bulk of which was produced using Libre Office Writer, then copied using Control A, then Control C. I then switched into the site and used Control V to insert it. Dead simple. Easy-Peasy. I don't have a problem.

Spellchecker? What's that? Seriously though, a few years ago, there was a rather cynical saying that one could guess a person's age by their spelling ability – good spelling over 40 (perhaps 50 now), poor spelling under 40 (50?). Now I well appreciate that you may not like that, so how about a practical suggestion – write it out using your favourite word processor, spell check it, then copy & paste as above. Job done.

Kwil,

Quite agree with you, but at the same time I have discovered that there are a lot of very intelligent people out there who are not particularly computer-savvy and who do need help. Quick disclaimer – I have no formal computing training, but having used one, and experimented etc, I now know that I know quite a lot more than some people (and a heck of a lot less than others).

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

I don't know what the problem is.

OK, it is not as good as the BBC's but far better than eBay's. N is right about the Myford site.

JA

That is because theYahoo groups are 1980s/90s leftover dinosaur systems, based on email. And yes they are horrible. Which is a shame because they are the world's best reference for old Drummond/Myford lathes. Which is why people still persevere with them, with much muttering.

This site, with ads and commercial backing, well, it is owned by a magazine. They are print people. Used to grinding up trees and plastering ink on them. Been doing it for hundreds of years since Caxton's day. They are notoriously slow adopters of new technology. I worked for Murdoch's publishing monster for years and they always mouthed that "we are a modern, multi-media company" but their websites sucked bigtime. Same old things, slow, clumsy, hard to interact or post pics, dud links etc etc etc. Yet they claimed to be on the cutting edge of the digital revolution.

The backroom boffins were mostly old print compositers retrained from slinging hot lead to doing computers. So once they learned one new computer system, that is where they liked to stay at, in their comfort zone, avoiding anything new.

They need to get a couple of high-school kids in to sort them out with the latest IT.

I disagree. The Yahoo Myford Lathes group can be a very efficient means of asking and answering questions; it has a lot of very knowledgeable people there, and frankly, as I use it, is far less of an IT pain in the arse than this site software. I use it by having e-mails delivered to my computer; that is a lot less trouble than logging on to the site every time I wish to read stuff. I'm not a fan of Yahoo in general (just the opposite in fact) and I agree that if you only use it by visiting the website it is archaic. The other Yahoo groups I use regularly (Harrison Lathe and 7mm) are also both excellent.

If I had to choose between any of those, and this site, it would definitely be goodbye to you here. Ah, desert island web forums anyone…

David

Russell

I am one of the people who has problems with this site.

I have looked at my own setup (Its OK on EVERYTHING else, other forums etc)

I have asked politely (search the old posts and you will see plenty from me and others)

I still think the site is awful.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Ian P

Hi Ian

Just what problems do you experience?

I usually just type my reply into the box on the thread but, in this case I’ve written it in MS Word then done a “copy & paste” into the post. ( using CTRL V)….. [back to typing in the box] and here it is! What's so hard about that?

I've heard others say that they use the Yahoo groups by having posts delivered to their email but I already get too much "stuff" that way. With this site, if there is a thread that interests me I just tick the box beneath the posting box and I receive notification when anyone posts a reply. If I get fed up with that I just remove the bookmark . If I find a particular member especially annoying I can choose to exclude their posts ( I only did this for one individual some time ago – but the facility is there!)

Some folk moan about having to upload images to an album but here again what is hard about it? They are your images and you may want to use them in more than one thread. Indeed you may want to remove them from the forum at some future time. Easy – you just log in, go to "Your Photos" and delete one or more. The images will be removed from the albums and from any post in which you have inserted them.

Good functionality in my book.

Norman

I value everyone's contributions. Dyslexia or inexpetrience with IT doesn't mean poor workshop skills.

Neil