Your thoughts please! How can we improve...

Originally Posted by WebSlave

This is not by accident that such viewing is disabled. This site is visited by an incredible number of search engine spiders. If viewing of attachments by guests were enabled, each of those spiders would be downloading and viewing those images as well, which would cause an increase in loading on the server. Which could impact YOU by slowing down the overall throughput that the server is able to provide. This just seemed like a sound decision to make in order to make things better overall for registered and logged in members.

Besides, in my opinion, I want to encourage viewers to register and participate. People who are not registered and/or not logged in are NOT going to participate here while they are viewing. If they have to register and log in, then at least if they get the urge to participate while reading something of interest at that moment, they WILL without having to go through the registration and logging in process first.

Heck, I have been to more than a couple of sites that won't allow you to view anything unless you are registered and logged in. So I think this is a fair compromise.

I use tapatalk for the site frequently, it's far easier and less intensive on mobile this way. Images on my phone still look amazing, they aren't resized that way. I think my phone has better resolution than my home monitor... Lol

I don’t use Tapatalk and have absolutely no desire to do so.
I understand, though, that some others do like it (different strokes and all that ).

As far as mobile phone/s (smart phone in my case), I have full access/capabilities, can view all, etc. on Fauna... everything that can be seen/done, on Fauna, with the use of a PC.
Only thing, that I cannot do (as stated earlier), is leave a comment when giving Karma. No problems with viewing photos (or videos) either. Plus, am able to enlarge photos if need be.

'Course, regardless, mobile phone screens are much smaller than PC monitor screens. Sooooo, with the way that things have been heading, I can foresee a future with no naked eyes and a great investment opportunity in eye wear/correction companies.

Originally Posted by Pasodama

'Course, regardless, mobile phone screens are much smaller than PC monitor screens. Sooooo, with the way that things have been heading, I can foresee a future with no naked eyes and a great investment opportunity in eye wear/correction companies.

Man, I hear that. I can no longer read that extremely small print that companies put on the small bottles of Excedrin, etc. without using reading glasses and holding the bottle just so in strong light. And trying to get that 127 digit serial number off of some piece of computer hardware is a real chore as well. I'm not really interested in abusing my eyes further with a smart phone screen.

Of course, this problem might be short lived anyway. I'm seeing ads for smart phones getting into a screen size war with apparently the larger screens supposedly more attractive to users than the small screens. I think I can see where this is headed eventually anyway. Clothes with much bigger pockets. Eventually kangaroo pouch sizes.

The smart phone thing was fun for a little while; but I still keep it in my backpack, as opposed to on my person, as much as possible...and go days at a time without even looking at it. I'm more protective of that number than I am my home number; and everybody that has it knows not to call unless it is an emergency.
If it weren't for the fact that once or twice a year it proves its worth, I'd probably follow through with my inclination to get rid it

Opinion:
World is going mobile. Everyone can see that. I do the majority of my business (reptile related and real job related) on my phone.

I am sending this from my phone. I love FC, but without Tapatalk I would visit it once a week instead of 5 times a day.

Yes, a computer is nicer. But I browse FC in my free time. My "in between" time. Bringing a laptop everywhere just isn't feasible.

If I am waiting for a homeowner, I am using my phone. Waiting on a buyer to show up? I am on my phone. Etc.

Having a mobile friendly app would be fantastic. It could even be made into a premium feature for contributors. I bet your contributions would go up.

Is it costly? It can be. But it would allow users far more access to the site. And just for the record, my phone shows better pics than my pc and even has more pixels.

As for the Facebook part of things - a social presence can make or break a company in today's market. I understand you are retired. But you have built something huge, why not try to keep it alive?

You have moderators to help you. Get a Facebook mod or two that can run a page for you. It pretty easy to do. Just basically have the page point to here.

Anothing thing on the topic of Facebook - sharing a thread to Facebook. Being able to post a classified here and then click and post it to my Facebook would be great. Or to see something and want to share it with other people on Facebook.

I am not sure how your backend is coded, but that should be a fairly simple and cheap mod.

You should look into it, Rich. I know this is your site. But we all love it and want to see it thrive. And coding nowadays is not NEARLY as expensive as it was ten or even five years ago. Most coding has become streamlined and anything Facebook related even more so.

Is there anyway classified adds could automatically be set to lock after 30 days? If the op wants to repost all he or she would need to do was delete the now locked add and repost. I am getting real tired of seeing something of interest and opening the thread to find out it's from a year ago and was resurrected this morning by someone...that someone also usually goes on to bring up at least 5 other topics from 1-2 years ago asking the same question, "Is this still available? Call me at 1-800-ICANTREDDADATE, I am very interested.", thus making the classifieds look stale and annoying the #/^& out of most of us.

Originally Posted by EmeraldBoid

Is there anyway classified adds could automatically be set to lock after 30 days? If the op wants to repost all he or she would need to do was delete the now locked add and repost. I am getting real tired of seeing something of interest and opening the thread to find out it's from a year ago and was resurrected this morning by someone...that someone also usually goes on to bring up at least 5 other topics from 1-2 years ago asking the same question, "Is this still available? Call me at 1-800-ICANTREDDADATE, I am very interested.", thus making the classifieds look stale and annoying the #/^& out of most of us.

How about the users who comment "very interested, is this still available" on clear, exposed scam ads, even when the original poster has already been banned?

I would rather not repost an ad after 30 days, it's a bit tedious. A lot of guys use the same thread for a long time. There is probably an easy way to prevent what you describe without locking the post.

Originally Posted by Occidentalis

How about the users who comment "very interested, is this still available" on clear, exposed scam ads, even when the original poster has already been banned?

I would rather not repost an ad after 30 days, it's a bit tedious. A lot of guys use the same thread for a long time. There is probably an easy way to prevent what you describe without locking the post.

Ctr-c, ctr-v...done, add reposted. Haha.

Originally Posted by EmeraldBoid

Ctr-c, ctr-v...done, add reposted. Haha.

It's not exactly that simple - you also have to re-upload the pictures in the correct order, retype the key words and add another title. I'm not saying it's difficult, just a bit tedious.

Originally Posted by EmeraldBoid

Is there anyway classified adds could automatically be set to lock after 30 days? If the op wants to repost all he or she would need to do was delete the now locked add and repost. I am getting real tired of seeing something of interest and opening the thread to find out it's from a year ago and was resurrected this morning by someone...that someone also usually goes on to bring up at least 5 other topics from 1-2 years ago asking the same question, "Is this still available? Call me at 1-800-ICANTREDDADATE, I am very interested.", thus making the classifieds look stale and annoying the #/^& out of most of us.

It's just not that simple here. Every change made will be appreciated by 10 percent of the membership, hated by a different 10 percent, and not make a bit of difference to the other 80%. So paying for custom programming changes of that nature are only going to be done when felt it is necessary and prudent.