DrStool Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 As you have noticed, I am experimenting with a nice news headline feed which I hope you find adds to the usefulness of the Stool. I've been researching newsfeeds and this source does a good job of selecting only real news stories and not some of the garbage that comes with most newsfeeds. The question is where should I put it, that will work best for you. The newsfeed is updated every 15 minutes, so it will have the top news items almost as soon as initially reported by the source. I like the idea of having the feed on the board pages because we are refreshing them constantly anyway. I like them at the bottom of the page, because that's where we always end up, when reading or posting, so all we need to do if we want to see the headlines is glance down. If we want to read an item, we can just click on it and it will open in a separate window. One stoolie mentioned yesterday that the presence of the Urinal on this page was causing his page to become distorted. This shouldn't be happening as the code which picks up the news item is in a table within the html wrapper that contains the message board generation code. But, we all know that things sometimes don't work the same in everyone's browsers, so I need to hear from you if there is a problem. Just comment below. These pages, even without the additional data are enormous. This creates problems for those of you who are not on broadband connections. There are things you can do to speed up page loading, but only if you are a registered user. Registered users have access to a personal control panel called "My Controls" that allow them to set the number of posts shown on each page, and allows them to remove certain items like post signatures, and graphics. If you reduce the number of posts per page from the default of 20, and remove some of the other stuff, which makes the site fun, but admittedly slows down the page loading, then you can speed things up considerably. With your help, I will be able to add this new feature in a way that makes the most sense for the most people. I hope you will enjoy it, and I hope it enhances the usefulness of The Stool to you. Many tanks for your feedback! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Hi Doc! Glad to see the news idea coming to fruition. Can upsidedown charts be far behind? I'm loving the idea of the Wall Steet Urinal having a component that becomes a weekly parody-filled swipe at the Journal...in the best of Mad Magazine tradition. It appears you already have many willing artists and writers at your disposal, Greenspan couldn't look more like Alfred E. Newman if he had Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon working on it, and the material to work with is never ending. As an example, the "Heard On The Street" section might be called either "Herd On The Street", or "Heard In The Alley" Mark has alread formulated an entire language which can serve as the basis for the magazine, and the PR/News opportunites which can flow from such a parody can lead to a massive increase in subscribers in the coming downturn. It's Mad Magazine for adults! Hopefully the Wall Street Journal will threaten to sue you, and you'll get famous and rich by lampooning the Matrix. Plunger Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksloth Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Doc, you know my thoughts - make it configurable from within My Controls, because it detracts from my stool-browsing experience... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 mk- I need more specifics, please. Specifically what is happeneing to your page? If possible could you email a screen shot? The javascipt that picks up the newsfeed is not part of the message board. It's part of the html wrapper template. The board is run by php and is embedded in this html board wrapper. Integrating it into the board software would be a project that is above and beyond my capabilities and resources. But there are other options, which I want to consider. So I am open to any and all suggestions. I want the new feature to be a postive addition for all. Other than lengthening the page at the bottom, it should have no impact on the message board at all. Perhaps I need to put it in an iframe so that page loading is not impacted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksloth Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Doc, I think I miscommunicated. Nothing "bad" is happening on my page. It's just that there is now more than 1 screenful of data/content between the bottom of the bulletin board's posts area and the actual physical bottom of the page. This basically means that I have to change the way I go about reading the board - which is a quick scan backward from the bottom of the current page to find my last read point, and then a slow scan forward while reading the new content. The addition of the news now basically means several more page ups that I didn't need to do previously. To my mind, from a design perspective, the previous setup was just about right in that any given page was not too long (just about 2 or 3 page up/downs would get you from one end to the other - assuming you hid the signatures within My Controls) from a useability standpoint. Now, this useability is reduced (to my way of thinking). Given that news doesn't change that rapidly (in contrast with the intraday charts that are also at the bottom of the page or the board content), if it were upto me, I would put the urinal as a link in the page (eg., in the left tower). I didn't realize that this block was not part the board - so obviously sticking a flag in "My Controls" won't work. In fact, even for the charts, you could think of updating your wrapper to disable them for AH and weekend access... And no, I am not bothered by load times. I've got pretty decent broadband access. Just a useability thing for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Two thoughts. You could reduce your posts per page in your board settings. The other is, the find last unread post button, does that not address the issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mksloth Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Not quite - I've already got the posts per page set to where I want it to be. The last unread post button isn't quite as useful. The basic thing is that this increases the amount of "clutter" on the page (not that I don't see your motivations for putting it up; I do; am just expressing my opinion) because the added content isn't quite as useful for me. I have enough news feeds as it is and the stool is a "views" site rather than "news" site for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 OK. I will consider this and see how the survey progresses. Not a good size sample yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dozer Posted December 7, 2003 Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Doc, you know my thoughts - make it configurable from within My Controls, because it detracts from my stool-browsing experience... Doc, I gotta second that. The KEY is to make it user-configurable...and not by 'category', but by item. You cite the ability to turn off sigs and graphics as the main way to speed up loads. But heck, the sigs and graphics are KEY components of the pages. The suggestion to reduce the # of posts per page is, in my opinion, contra-indicated. That actually REDUCES bandwidth efficiency, because of the ton of NON-post material brought in on every page-load. To maximize BW usage, one would want to set it for -100- posts/page. The Kitco stuff addition was nicely done, but since that addition, my page load times are -already- noticeably slower; due to the many off-site server accesses. I am DREADING the news-feed addition....unless it's just a link that I can choose if I want it. For what they may be worth, here are my suggestions: Eliminate the off-site accesses. Especially the one going to "web24x7" or whatever it is. That one is always slow. It just occurred to me that the Kitco's may -already- be user-disablable. If so, great, kudos, and tanks If not, please do make them so. Perhaps I have an atypical "style", but I run with 6 browser windows open, and have a news-feed in one and Kitco info in another already. Another is Stool, and another is Stockcharts. For those on a modem, this style WORKS, because one can initiate a load on a background page whilst reading the foreground page. So one can use the pitiful modem BW -continuously-, even while reading/writing. As importantly, this setup allows ME to choose WHICH data I want to load, and WHEN. A suggestion on charts/graphics: If the software allows for it, put a hard-limit on width. I.e., so the board never even posts the chart if it's over X pixels. It is SUCH a pain in the ass to have to scroll EVERY line of EVERY message on the entire page; just because of careless/sloppy graphic-posting. Change the "add reply" functions so that it returns me to WHERE I WAS. Gawd....I am so tired of having to back-page twice any time I post. I just don't get why they ever designed it to drop you at the END when you reply. It oughta drop you where you WERE. Also, the "fast reply" button needs to be added to the page TOP as well; and I would very much like to see both REPLY buttons added to every individual post; alongside the "quote" button. Many times, it's easier just to grab a single line from someone's post and insert it into my post, than it is to quote and then have to delete 99% of the thing. On that subject, a periodic gentle-reminder to NOT blithely quote entire 1,000 word posts would do a lot to minimize page size and BW waste. Back to the news-stuff specifically: I've been using the internet heavily as a research tool for over 10 years....patent-research, product-sourcing, etc.. I am already pretty good at ferreting out good-quality news. On the other hand, what I do NOT have at this time is a good TIMELY source for market-specific news. I.e. "the fly on the wall" type stuff. Immediate notice of broker-upgrade announcements, company rumours, etc.. The things that move individual issues. I tried the fly....oh did I try...but their site-code is SO fvcked up and IE-specific, I finally gave up in disgust. But THAT's the "news" stuff which I see as the most valuable service you could provide. oh, one final thought on layout.... An easy way to optimize usage of precious screen-space is to simply look for blank space. I would DEARLY love to see that orange left-column GO AWAY It's a HUGE waste of space, since the lower 75% is pure dead-air. Put all those links in a horizontal format, and put 'em at the bottom, preferably. A couple of PRIMARY links at the top (i.e. in-page "#" type links) could instantly put someone on the details. i.e. "Anals Menu", drops ya to the bottom where all the individual Anals-subcomponent links are. Something like that. A key to information-organization is that, the more ya have, the more levels of hierarchy you should have for working through it. The less info, the less hierarchy. The stool pages are basically "flat", but there is so much more now, that it's time to add one level of hierarchal control to it, imo. Hope there's a kernel or two of value in some of this, and tanks for your constant efforts to make this a good place for us all ! dozer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2003 Dozer- heh heh. I'm just one guy, a non techie, non programmer, on a shoestring budget. A very worn shoestring. I did find out that incorporating the newsfeed into the board software is doable and may be financially feasible. It would involve having the headlines "on" by default, for the benefit of non-registered visitors. Registered users would be able to turn it "off." Your other suggestions, I will "take under advisement." By the way, here's a hint. I will not repeat it. If you just want to scroll through the entire thread without all the other gewgaws, use the "print this page" button. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 8, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2003 The newsfeed is still in test mode. It does not update automatically yet. However, I will manually update it as often as possible so that we can all get a taste of how this would work if permanently installed. Again, would love to hear feedback. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 9, 2003 The news feed is not updated automatically every 15 minutes. This is a 4 day trial. I have to commit, or not at the end of that period. Let me hear from you both pro and con. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
depends Posted December 10, 2003 Report Share Posted December 10, 2003 Fir me news is nose. Wont read it - too distracting. Wouldn't pay fir it either. Plus it may slow down the refresh rate - and even a little is too much although I have cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 10, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2003 It would be free to all visitors. I'll run a poll straight up yea or nay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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