DrStool Posted December 11, 2003 Report Share Posted December 11, 2003 Now that the question of what to do with the Urinal has been settled, what should we do with the Barchart applet? Your comments are welcome. For those of you who missed it, the Urinal now loads in a separate quick loading custom sized window when you click the link in the left column, or below the thread. This way the Urinal is available quickly when you need it, but it isn't stuck out there where some people don't want to see it, and it slows down the page loading. I hope everyone likes the new feature. I will also be doing some things to speed up page loading. There are also several things you can do from your control panel. These include reducing the number of posts per page, and choosing no to show avatars and signatures. The control panel is reached from the My Controls link. If you are not a registered user, register, then log in, and you will see the link in the top menu just below the banner ad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dozer Posted December 11, 2003 Report Share Posted December 11, 2003 Doc, I wanted to thank you for devoting some attention to page-load times. I realize us modem-folk are in a minority here; and I very much appreciate your keeping us in mind. fwiw, the big problem with barchart is that, for some screwy reason, it insists on loading the applet -itself- every damn refresh; instead of just loading fresh -data-. But yes, it's not that useful during the day anyway. Actually, that refresh issue might be worth looking at. The only web-pages I make are dirt-simple affairs with a couple pics and some text, just to sell a piece of equip or something. But if I understand the stuff correctly, you can tag things to force a reload upon page-refresh, or not. And my guess is that the default in most code-chunks is "ON". If there were only some way to refresh just the messages....that would be a big speedup maybe. just some thought. tanks again for your kind consideration doc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FauxCaster Posted December 11, 2003 Report Share Posted December 11, 2003 Doc, I like it. But my Mac doesn't. Java has never worked well on Macs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 11, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2003 I don't think you can reload the page without reloading the applet. The board software is written on thousands upon thousands of lines of code, run on php and a mysql database. I think what you're asking for is an alteration of the board code to only load the new stuffwhile holding the existing page. Can that be done? I'll pass the suggestion along to the developers. Maybe they can work it into a future version. I know less than nothing about programming. I'm limited to plugging ready made stuff into simple templates. But I'll pass along any suggestions. Try to make them short and sweet and I'll copy and paste them into an email and send it to IPB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anoscope Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 only thing I would ask is to make it open a new page, not get 'off' capital stool page that is linked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 Yes I need to change the href target Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hiding Bear Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 only thing I would ask is to make it open a new page, not get 'off' capital stool page that is linked. Agreed. Maybe it could be added to a blank spot of the Wall Street Urinal page. In addition, what about including adding quotes for silver, oil, natgas, bonds, and other markets open 24 hours? (assuming you have space in a seperate page). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soros Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 Actually the default invision board index.php is currently 411 lines. Dozer is talking crazy. But what you could do is add this: <body ... style='margin:0;' ... > Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aureleus Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 The kitco charts are good enough, actually rather good because they give a nice overview. I do not see where barcharts give value added - most of the indices are offered in kitco charts and anybody doing the ETF's has his own applet. Use the money to pay for some webdesign. If you are very keen on some content, www.financialcontent.com has some pretty good and cheap stuff, also they have some very intelligent technology solutions. I must add that I have just testdriven their offerings, cannot guarantee for their live quality. The subscription based pricing system bills clients relative to the number of page views accrued monthly through each account they manage. Pricing is based on usage. (Each query made to our server constitutes a page view.) regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 12, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 aureleus- Web design? You mean you don't like the home made look? Actually we have a few designers right here on the thread. Right Soros? Fauxcaster and ano and Phatbubble know a thing or two about web design as well. My inhouse design team! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeerMarket Posted December 12, 2003 Report Share Posted December 12, 2003 regarding reloading the applet, the browser can cache the code for the applet so it doesn't have to download it each time you load the page. But it has to restart the applet - there is no mechanism I know of for storing the state of the applet running within a web page when the web page goes away (is reloaded). As for web design, I don't need it pretty, but I will say when I point people here I find if I don't give them specific directions on where to go, they usually get lost. No offense Doc and I realize the ads are needed (I can only imagine what you had to pay the city of NY to drive that novelty vehicle around during rush hour ), but links to 5 or so of the "hottest" areas of the site near the top of the page might help newcomers. And I'm sure some of the talented designers here could come up with icons for these links representing The Anals, IDS, M2M, Stooltrading, etc, so you could give these links the look of a "toolbar". It also might be worth reducing the space used by ads at the top so users don't have to scroll down as far to see posts - I think some newbies don't even realize they have to scroll down to see it. Again, I do understand the need for the ads but I also believe there's a tradeoff here - if the ads prevent people from finding all the great content here, you may lose people who otherwise might become loyal users. jmho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 13, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 Nobody likes ads. But if someone won't scroll down the page to see what's here, oh well. Ad revenue provides about 30-40% of the Stool's revenue at the moment. Ad contracts require the ads to be in the first screen the user sees. Unfortunately, only about 15-20% of the visitors to the site in a given day are subscribers. If I could get that up to 25%, then I could make some of the ads go away. Perhaps it would be a good idea to move the Free Forums list to the top of the left column. I'll have to give that some thought. It might surprise you to know that the vast majority of new traffic that comes in, comes from referrals from other message boards directly to specific posts on the site. Stool Google ads appearing in the Google ad network are second, and they refer directly to the Stool front page. The third largest source is general searches. (Wanna get a laugh? Do a search on Google for "Walmart stock". It's the number one search term for search referrals to the Stool). It takes a particular kind of individual to be interested enough to want to surf the site. So far, you have all seemed to find your way here, thank goodness. Those who don't bother, aren't Stoolies at heart anyway. This is a niche site for a niche market. It appeals to those with a certain level of intelligence and a certain world view. That's intentional. It's certainly not for Everyman. I like the site the way it is, but I know it's big and it's complicated. If there's a good way of simplifying the site without hurting it, sure I'd want to do that. That's why I'm always soliciting your ideas. You all think of things I never would and you bring things to my attention that I otherwise wouldn't know. So I'm all ears. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrStool Posted December 13, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2003 I changed the targets on those links to open a new page. I also moved the form list to the top of the menu column. Looking for toher ways to better organize the page. Tanks for your suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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