Dear Friends,

As you can see I was a busy beaver last night. I also made some changes to the forum software. They are all experimental, and subject to change based on your feedback and suggestions.

Feel free to post or email any comments you have, but we would like specific feedback on the following issues:

1. Is the font too small? It's currently set to 12px (basically 12pt) Arial. Should we try 13px? Don hates it, so you can become his best friend by hating it too.

2. The new message count function REALLY slows down the loading of the sidebar. If you're using Safari on a Mac, it's like watching paint dry underwater. On the PC, it's not too bad, and it's pretty quick on either platform with Firefox.

The problem is that we're using forum software from the Internet stone age, before flannel became haute couture, so in order to do this, your browser has to send a request to the forum software for a new message count for each forum separately through Javascript. So it can range from "not to bad" to "downright pokey," depending on the speed of your computer the busyness of the site.

Also, we can't easily extend it to Don's Domain, since it would pop-up a bunch of browser authentication errors for non-members. If everyone loves the new message count, I can see what I can do, but it's a big job.

So too summarize, is it too slow for you to be useful or do you like it?

3. The exact behavior of how the new message checking affects your board cookies is unclear to me, so I'll be watching it.

4. Do you like the logo on the right or back on the left?

That's it for now. Let us know what you think.

Good Cards,

V