Being able to easily find all of your own posts.

An easier way to put multiple pictures into a single post. People who don't know the img src business end up starting multiple posts on the same topic.

Just replacing the search software with Google search on the relevant site/forum.

Here is what I DON'T want:

avatars
signatures
+1/like feature
animated smileys

I'd love to see a Notification indicator *on the GW page* (similar to Facebook) as opposed to having replies emailed. I'll use the email feature if I start a thread, but it's easy to lose track of making a comment in someone else's thread. I don't want a bunch of emails, but it would be nice to be able to opt into threads after commenting.

I don't have a problem posting photos (multiple or single), but it's clear many do. Making it a simple process *within* GW would help.

linelle - yes, that's a great idea. If instead of saying last post was at whatever-time, if it said last post was by xyz at whatever time, and better yet, if it indicated how many posts were there since you read the thread. That's a good idea!

Angie - I don't even know what an avatar is. It's like an animated icon, right? ;)

Hi Gang,

As per aliris19's request, I'm signing up to get updates to this post. Be assured that I will read all of your requests, but please understand that making a wish does not make it so. LOL. It is understood that the software is antiquated and doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles. But, there is beauty in the simplicity -- and it's what has made GW so successful over the years. That being said, we are looking at ways of making some upgrades without losing what works.

Right now, we aren't able to load more than one photo at a time due to the way that the software uploads and stores information. We're still looking at this, but for the time being it is limited to one photo at a time. Also, updating the search engine is at the top of my list! This will probably take a bit longer to implement, but it's getting done.

Thanks!

Tamara

Hey Tamara -- thanks.

But please note that some of these requests are, I think, really simple -- as you say, part of the beauty of this setup. For example, while not a "real" programmer, I can't imagine it is a difficult proposition to attach the contributor's name of the last post to the code that grabs the listing of the time at which the last post was made to a thread. That would be (IMHO) a very helpful, very simple improvement to the setup.

I imagine there are many more such super-easy, lots of bang-for-buck improvements that can be made. The success isn't so much, I don't think, due to the simplicity as the presence of lots of very helpful, knowledgeable and kind contributors. I think the association with "simple" is spurious.

=0.02 of course. And many, many thanks for whatever it is that you do do! (That sounded a little snotty but isn't meant to be, I just don't really quite understand the inner workings of this site. I've heard your name mentioned, but never noticed posts from you or understood how or if there is any connection with the site's "management"). I think it's fantastic that you're "listening".

And of course, I'm sure what most people want most is a way to update the finished kitchens blog. I don't know what's happened with that herculean effort but it was also an integral part of the site's success, I think, and as I understand it, wholly independently done by Starpooh? I can imagine like most of us, she's run out of time (and possibly interest) at some point. Can the management come up with some creative way of "simple-y" helping please???

In addition to the things already mentioned, I would love it if when I go to a post that I've viewed before, it would start at the place where I left off - many of my other forums have that feature and it's based on being signed in, but it is SO handy.

Ditto what andreak said!

Implementing Google search is pretty easy.

I agree with Tamara that updating the forum software too much would be a bad thing. Case in point--removing the 150-limit on posts would be very bad. In other forums, all conceivable questions have already been addressed in posts started in 1995 in which all the original participants are long gone. Newbies who dare to repost the same question are sternly admonished to find the old 1995 thread, which now has 1,687 messages. There, their urgent new query will make as big a splash as a popcorn kernel in the Pacific, as they attempt to ask questions of people who died during the Clinton administration.

However, the picture thing really needs to get fixed. At least a more point-and-click way to input the img src HTML code when linking to other sites???

BTW Angie has a good list of shudder-worthy "improvements" I hope never to see on this site.

FAQ - Tamara, have you heard from your developers about the problem I've had with the FAQ? It's not just the one I originally had issues with, I've seen it again.

(Missing large sections of the text so it cannot be edited, etc.)

Thanks!

Aliris: No, an avatar is a little picture, typically located just left of your name, that "represents" you in your post. So, we would see, for some made-up examples, a picture of some colorful tiles every time plllog posted, or a little bee every time Beekeeper'swife posted, or perhaps a little cast-iron frying pan crossed with a hammer every time I posted.

By the way, this is a concept from Hinduism. An avatar is a manifestation of a deity (typically Vishnu) on earth. That is why there is more than one "appearance," or form, of Hindu deities -- they are the same deity, just different avatars of him or her. (I am not Hindu, so if you are reading this and feel I have misstated this concept, feel free to correct me.)

The movie "Avatar" clearly riffs off this concept by having the humans descend to the planet (can't remember its name) in a different form than their human selves. The embodiment of, say, Sigourney Weaver that roams the planet could be called her avatar.

I agree with Marcolo and Tamara that it would be best to keep this forum simple. We know how it works, we like it -- don't mess with it too radically. And I agree explicitly with Marcolo that, in other forums, the existence of long-running threads institutionalizes orthodoxy even worse than we have done that here, and makes it difficult for newbies to "come up to speed" and have the temerity to ask a question.

I would love to see the finished kitchens blog current. If there were some way people could add their own kitchens much like starting a forum thread which links their pictures, details, and automatically listed them in alphabetic order.

I tried that in a regular forum thread but it didn't take off. Maybe we could do like over in appliances, they have a Lacanche numbered thread, so after every 150 posts, they move up a number. I didn't want to push it for fear of looking as if I was trying to replace the Finished Kitchens, but there are hundreds of finished kitchens which are long forgotten because you can't "search" for them unless you know the particular kitchen or person you are looking for. And, many are missed if you don't log on for a few days.
Should we start a thread called "Finished Kitchens Part One"?

Tamara - the masses are thrilled with the STICKY capability!

Many, many thanks....

But: will there be a way to bring all the posting-links along for the ride too? Buehl had a clever way of adding links for different subjects' worth of issues to the followup threads of her Keep-on-page-1 posting. We're worried all that information could be lost. Here's the thread for reference

Here is a link that might be useful: Buehl's Keep-On-Page-1 thread as of 8/16/12