new thread
Hi all. It was brought to my attention that perhaps the reason I haven't gotten much feedback on my most recent update is for my lack of acknowledgement of those who have paid me compliments. I would like to sincerely say that I am sorry if I did not recognize your feedback or compliments. I did not mean to come off as rude. I truly do appreciate any and all feedback, comments, etc. I have not been able to visit the board as much as I used to or would like to. I will be sure to be more aware of this in the future. Thank you to the member who brought this to my attention. Much appreciated.
Take care.
beardedpiper
I would add to this for many years I could never tell when
a new posting was posted to this site. Then all of a sudden
a 2012 something changed that allowed my browser to remember what
posts had been read and whats one were new. To this day I have
no idea why this happened, but it did.
I use firefox as my browser. Anyone else notice this issue?
Hi beardedpiper,
You are not the only person who does not recognize or reply to feedback on this board. When I first began to visit this board the lack of replies did bother me. I am on disability so I have plenty of time to respond to posts. I came to realize many people don't have as much time as I do to frequent this board. I myself am very thankful for this board since it helps me get through my sometimes boring days.
I did not think you were rude or anything. I simply figured you were doing what most people do-running your life as you see fit. I am glad you did not get upset about the person bringing this up to you. However, maybe it will let other members know that we might try to at least acknowledge compliments and replies on this board. Please keep your wonderful hair and beard growing! Have a great rest of the week my friend!
Ted
In my opinion, part of the problem is how this board is laid out. It is VERY outdated and can be extremely difficult to navigate. Compared to other message boards that I frequent, the layout makes it a lot harder to interact with folks and keep a conversation going.
I personally don't post / interact on MLHH as much as I would like because it is almost impossible to find a conversation way down the page that you had been engaged in and might want to continue. Especially if it is more than a day or two old.
I sincerely believe that if the board were updated to a much newer and more user friendly format, the participation (as well as the amount of new, high quality members) would vastly increase.
I remember in the past when someone posted a suggestion to the powers that be that they update the board, the gentlemen in charge of MLHH vehemently disagreed. Which is their decision and I respect it.
But I REALLY think a change in format would greatly benefit the board and it's members.
Again, this was just my opinion and I mean no disrespect.
These are some good arguments. I know I came here two times before I actually joined on the third visit. The reason I didn't join was the the board looked so old that I thought it was dead. In my experience, Hyperboards are almost never living boards, instead being shambling, unliving mummies, preserved by the magic of the Internet.
I know it says in the FAQ that you don't want to update the board, but the old school style turns a lot of younger people off. Changing over to vBulletin or something similar would do a lot to garner new membership, not to mention being simpler to use.
Just a thought...
Hi Septet,
You and Element make very good points here. It probably takes somebody's money to keep this board up and running on a daily basis. I just wonder how many members have actually clicked on the link that says "Donate"? Now I don't think the leadership of this board will change the format of the board with more donations. But, I have not donated anything to this board yet. I have received so much entertainment from this board and sometimes forget about donating. Of course, this is just my 2 cents as it were.
I just want to send my most sincere thanks to the leadership of this board! Hopefully that will be enough until I can donate something! Please keep up the good work!
Ted
I have to disagree here. I'v been using computers since
1973, as I often say "newer is not always better."
And now that i'm using Windows 7 after using every flavor
of windows over the years my OS preference is still good old
fashioned DOS. Yes you read that right, DOS.
I've had a number of handheld devices over the years, but my favorite is still the HP200LX, which was a DOS based handheld
device made by Hewlett Packard with Lotus 123 built in.
Newer is not always better.
Hi LHIA,
Heck, I will take Windows 98 over any of them. My favorite MS operating system would have to be XP Professional. Both of those are rock solid in my humble opinion.
Ted
I think he never said that newer is better. He only said that vBulletin could be more attractive for younger people to join the board.
I am not sure if vBulletin isn't better, considering that from time to time we have new posts from people trying to upload photos incorrectly.
It doesn't matter if this board changes systems, I will still love it!
Ted
Disagree, if you want to find a thread it is hardly dificult.
Depends on the thread. Some are very easy to find, some i've
found very difficult. Some i've had to resort to using Google
to find something on this board.
I have to disagreee. i have no complaints about the format, as
I mentioned in another post I could never tell when a new post
was entered on this board.
Starting in 2012 the New posts would appear in my browser(Firefox) in a blue font. If I had read the entry that post would appaer in a dark red font. Now I use Firefox and that only started occurring in 2012. Prior to that if I wanted to determine what posts were new i'd have to look at each for the date and time which was a very time consuming process. I still have no idea why this started in 2012, and didn't happen earlier.
To this date I have no idea if this occurred due to some change
in firefox, or a setting on my comp0ter, or a change on the software for this board or maybe some update for Window$ or another program.
Anyone else epxerience this issue?
I'm running Firefox 21.0, Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1.
OK I have to ask here, what format is better? I have to say
i have not found a format that I consider to be "better.".
And please don't mention Yahoo groups, Facebook, Twitter none
of which I consider any better. If anything they are far inferior to this board. Yahoo, Facebook, and Twitter are extremely
buggy software packages.
This board has remained clean and free of crap which you find way too often on the other boards.
Ted
Quality of the board has more to do with the active moderation and the relatively small volume of posts. Any small forum, especially ones with a small focused membership has a pretty good opportunity to maintain a positive community spirit. The actual software is less important than the people involved in it.
The reasonable comparison would be vBulletin or phpBB, not any of the giant social networking sites.
I would point one of the reasons this board is so succesful is the
great moderators we have.
I would also mention that one of the problems with sites like facebook is the billions of users. Facebook may have been good
when it was designed by Zuckerberg for his friends at Harvard,
but now that it has billions of users it has a myriad of problems..
But again one of the things that makes mlhh so successful is the great moderation crew we have.
Hi Trolleypup,
I have mentioned the fact about the moderation of this board before. Plus, we have a good membership with a positive spirit. Good points you make here!
Ted
To me, this board's being a hyperboard is part of what makes it... it ( apologies for lack of extended vocabulary, I'm coming off a 5-day, 56 hour work week). It's the style of this board and staying out of phase with the general public that is the internet gives it a bit more character.
But, admittedly, that is just sentimental value and aesthetics. As for technological ease though, I still prefer this layout over others. We are without a doubt a community, but we are small enough of a community that a hyperboard can handle our conversations without the threads being lost in a matter of minutes, which is extraordinary for today's internet. And yes, some conversations can be lost rather quickly, but, being a hair board, there are only so many conversations that pop up in an average week. given the option to scroll down, post, and therefore revive a thread would kill this board. I mean this in no negative way, but without the repetitiveness, this board would be inactive rather quickly. having older posts be permanently down the line keeps the board fresh.
I prefer the hyperboard style for this communities needs and activity level.
peace and love,
Billy
Hi Jarvis,
Nice to see you post again! I hope you have been doing well other than working your butt off! You make excellent points as always!
Take care of yourself and have a great weekend my friend!
Ted
I would point out we need repetitiveness because, even though I started growming my hair long 49 years ago (1964) we have alot
of new people who come here to grow their hair long.
These new long hairs can learn alot from the veterans on this
site who have been down this road before. Ultimately it is not
an easy road to travel, and these new guys coming aboard the
long hair train can benefit from advice of veteran long hairs.
An FAQ can answer some questions but there will always be
things the FAQ can't answer. (Unless you have 5,000 page long
FAQ.)
I have to chime in here, and agree with Element... one of the least positive things in my eyes about this wonderful place is indeed the hyperboard format, one that has been outdated already in around 1996 or so.
The fact that there topics simply dissapear down the page and coming back a week later (due to a busy schedule or what not) in order to answer the people who commented on your pics, is quite a nag and makes for a very uncomfortable user experience.
Both vBulletin and phpBB would be FAR superior formats, which would in turn enable us to have usernames, passwords, profile pics, and much better sense of community, and most importantly- a way to keep an organized site, despite being a small number of members.
I am saying this as a member who really enjoys what this community conveys and stands for, and who appreciates greatly the hard work the moderators and admins put in, in order to keep this place a civilized, supporting and positive place for us who are on this wonderful journey! This comes from the heart, as someone who wants to see this place get better, more user friendly, and get more members to help spreak out the message: it's okay to be a longhaired guy, and we are all in this together! :)
And this long haired guy would like to see the current format
maintained as is. Any alternative has serious flaws and
brings a boatload of new problems.
I've been on sites that use vBulletin and phpBB and they both
have their own issues that make them inferior to this format.
We will have to agree to disagree, my friend :)
I've been both moderating and working behind the secenes on quite a few forums and message boards in my life, and though it demands more server capacity and a tighter upkeep form the moderators, the "newer" formas are superior in every possible way.
I understand that you are an old school guy and don't really like change, but just as our hair and souls keep growing during our lifetime, change is a bliss and is mandatory for success and progress.
Either way, I, for one, would be happy to donate, as I am doing on other sites, in order to get this move going and make the MLHH a bigger, better operating and smoother experience :)
it's not that I don't like change. I like change, but I like change for the better. All too often that change is not better.
As I always say newer is not always better. All too often
hardware and software gets released, people rush out to buy the
lastest and greatest new product, and find a boatload of bugs/
glitches/undocumnted features.
So you get versions of programs like Micro$oft Word with thousands
of bugs. And too many other software packages get released with all those bugs.
So too many times you've got software and hardware that is sold
before the bugs are ironed out. When i'm paying hundreds of dollars for a software package I don't be want to be paying all that money for the privilege of being a beta tester.
i have this nasty habit of wanting the software to work right
out of the box.
This is one of the reasons why I wait years before buying a new
operating system.
I also hate bugs in my software.
That's all good and valid, but the fact of the matter is, that both vBulletin and phpBB are codes that have been here for a loooong time, not new operative systems like windows or word, and they are proven to be user friendly, successfull in implimenting features that communities gain from and enjoy, and simply WORK.
I too am the type to rush into the brand new thing just because it's new, but I also know that proggress cannot be stopped by the fear of it not being positive. The only result is people being left behind.
Again, this is not meant as rash critique towards the board, but rather my opinion and wish upon seeing it enter the year 2000 at least, not to mention 2013.
....and are very buggy.
Computer software/hardware are the only consumer areas where
users accept products that are very flawed/buggy/etc.
If a car company sold a line of cars with as many bugs/glitches as
computer products have the govenment would have pulled them
off the road faster than you can say "Fung Wah Bus."
(Fung Wah Bus is a bus line that ran low cost bus travel
to New York City, the government found the whole fleet unsafe
and shut the bus line down.)
But consumers willingly accept computer products with lots of
bugs/glitches/etc. Well this is one consumer who doesn't accept
that and finds the practice intolerable.
The following is a list of computer software that has
no bugs:
[left blank because every software package ships with a number
of bugs/glitches/un resolved issues. That is the sad state of
affairs in the computer industry today. And as someone who
has used computers since 1973 I don't accept that as state
of affairs.]
And there's also the old saying "If it ain't broke don't fix it".
Some people are always learning that the hard way.
------------------
Hmmmm, if mlhh had a "like" button I'd certainly push it in response to your response;) Cheers
Mârk
I'm glad it doesn't have a like button.
A woman I know had to report her husband died on Facebook.
Some how a Like button seems highly inappropriate for that
type of post.
1. No matter how old or new your computer is, this board always works.
2. No one ever has trouble logging on to it because it doesn't make you log on.
Those two things mean that no one gets shut out. We are the only major resource for support for longhaired men, and it is important that we be accessible to everyone.
Mmmhmm! When I have a problem with the internet, I always check MLHH, since even with bad service, it STILL comes up fast, when other sites don't come up at all.
A good point, Trolleypup. It's good when people notice. I remember several years ago when we upgraded the system, one of the users in Austria posted the next day, saying in effect, "What the hell did you guys do? When I got up this morning, it was like the hyperboard was across the street from my house!"
No, this site does not look like Facebook. It is twice as old as Facebook. In this day and age when people are tempted to put their site with a commercial outlet that will milk it for advertising hits and may vanish or change the rules at any time, the longhairs here "rolled their own", and beholden to nobody, we "own our own". I remember when some said we should put it with Yahoo Groups, the up and coming thing. Well, we know how Yahoo Groups has become obscure now. We've seen MySpace come and mostly go. The hyperboard just keeps chugging along.
There's something to be said for celebrating the history of having longevity. Your employer is a great example. Sure, we could rip up the rails, junk the wildly popular F Line trolleys and cable cars, and change the name of the outfit from the quaint but historical "San Francisco Municipal Railway" to the "San Francisco Bus System". Sure, the cable cars look old, but from the lines at the turntables, that certainly doesn't keep people from riding them. And you and I know how much the infrastructure in the streets and in the cars has been rebuilt underneath. The hyperboard is similar to that. It may look old, and it feels no shame in looking old, but a lot of work has been done underneath. Only about 20% of its software dates to 1997, for example.
I don't want to look half my age. Why should the hyperboard? There's a lot of history behind the hyperboard. It's a survivor, and that is something the community can take pride in. Some people may see it and just think, "It is old," but many will see it and think, "These guys must be doing something right. Their community has been around for a long time!"
Bill
Hi Bill,
Certainly glad you saw this thread and chimed in because if anyone knows the nuts and bolts of the mlhh it is you!Funny how the masses like to see things constantly redone so as to make whats tried and true obsolete.Suppose its a good policy if you want to keep selling new stuff every year or less and to keep money flow going.I'm glad the mlhh has stayed true to its roots because at the end of the day its always there:)Thanks for your insight Bill.Cheers
Mârk
The high bosses keep trying to change that...I think, this year we are the SFMTA (SF Municipal Transit Agency?), and on the 100th anniversary logos, it is labeled The People's System, not The People's Railway. At least, in the corporate branding manual, the 1920s O'Shaugnessy bullseye is deemed acceptable, although the current version of the "worm" is preferred.
Whatever...it is the actual functionality at the street level that matters, not what the visionary airhead revolving door bosses come up with in their fever dreams.
It can get frustrating when you're trying to come up with new ways to say what is essentially, "Looks good, dude" on a daily basis. Not to mention trying to respond to each compliment in a way that doesn't sound like you just copy/pasted each response.
I don't mind if someone doesn't respond to my post, it's their thread and I assume they're watching it. I know I sometimes don't respond to compliments if all I can think to say is "Thanks for the compliment".
I read every post on the board, but sometimes I can't think of anything to say, so I say nothing.
Whoever told you that would do well to remember that not everyone likes to talk, some just enjoy listening.
perhaps if this board was like facebook where you are notified when a response to your post is received. sometimes it is hard to find your original message and any responses when you have to scrool down the page or even pages.
but, considering you guys are all volunteers, you are doing a great service to us longhairs.
mikeh
Except Facebook doesn't act like that. Facebook has a boat load
of bugs/glitches/etc. so a lot of messages/responses never get seen.
I've noticed that happens alot on facebook and is one of my
pet peeves with facebook.
I would also mention it sometimes impossible to find a previous
post on facebook, especially where that post will often
vanish into thin air in less than a day.
I've seen posts that get posted on facebook in the morning and
by the evening they'll be gone.
Try CTRL F (non-Mac) or CMD F (Mac). This is the "find" command. Put in your user name. You can quickly see all the posts you now have on the board. Of course any replies will be right there with them, and recent unread replies will be blue amid others that are purple.
Bill
I would mention that this behavior only started for me in 2012.
Prior to that I the only way to find new posts was to look at the
date and time of posts. Prior to 2012 the post would change color but the next time I returned to the board all the posts would again be blue.
Probably a browser setting problem. Most web browsers allow you to tell them how many days you want a link to remain purple.
Those who use more than one browser or more than one computer will also find that the purpleness does not carry over from one browser or computer to another.
Bill
Now i would go into the board a minute later and the putple would be gone while in the same browser.
I always used Friefox, being that IE was so vulnerable.
I see no reason why you owe any apologies. Anything and everything could be going on in your life or with this board that would cause responding to every comment to be next to impossible. Have a great weekend.
Steve
If I get lots of comments, some need comments back, and I tend to reply to those, and maybe cover thanking others in those replies. This keeps the message count down while still letting people know I was interested in making conversation, not a broadcast. People like to be thanked, but they also appreciate a lack of message glut, so I see that approach as a compromise.
Bill