Forum Change :)

What do you think of the forum change ?

PS!, the google ads on the right, sponsors the hosting of this website AND any extra money will go to the X PRIZE Organization or one or more of it's teams (feel free to click on it )

Text was a little small, but I just bumped it up a notch in Firefox.

Still thinking about the shock ya gave me with that whole "you've been banned" thing the other day.

Well, I think the forum structure is getting crowded down too much ... cant say I like the Ads on the right side ... I would love to be able to break the forum out of it's frame into it's own window but I don't know how to do that.

Then again, I'm just a grumpy old guy who whines constantly.

DKH

I've learned how to tune out 99% of the ads. Only stuff that might interest me catches much of my attention.

Site looks cool. I've found that I also tune out the adverts - I noticed them at the beginning, and now had forgotten them till right now.

The 'new posts' functionality doesn't seem to be working properly. I used to just check which posts had an orange icon by the side of it, and the first time that I enter the site, it shows the orange icons, but as soon as I enter any of the forums, everything gets marked as read. Is this a problem with my cookies or something?

Thanks for providing this site Sigurd - we all really appreciate the opportunity to discuss here.

Yeah I noticed this too. Glad it isn't just me.

DKH

ah, me too - i never know with this machine whether a problem is specific to me or a general issue!

Very good ... only problem is text size but, like someone already mentioned, just click it up a notch in Foxfire and you're good ta read.

--Ralph

It's not the topic of this section of the board and it's not the topic of this thread but it would be interesting which teams Google is sponsoring or round about what amount of money it has given to the Foundation. I'm not asking for the amount of dollars but of the purpose - is it a donation for the cash prizes of the CUPs beginning in 2006?



Dipl.-Volkswirt (bdvb) Augustin (Political Economist)

I don't think Google are directly sponsoring the X-Prize or any specific teams. I think actually what Sigurd said is that by running the Google ads mean that he can finance this messageboard. I think that if you have a significant number of visitors, then you can be paid by Google to have the ads on your site. Therefore the more that we click on the ads, the more money that comes in to pay for the site and give the rest to the X-Prize Foundation. Is that what you meant Sigurd?

Some answers...


1) Google is "not" directly sponsering the X PRIZE.
Google Ads provide is with money, if people click on the advertisement.
It's about +- 1 to 4$ a day on this moment (before the forum) and with this forum it may go a little up.

The webspace doesn't cost that much, so the extra money will be used for sponsoring the X PRIZE, or a team etc.. we'll make all details public, and even with a forum vote when we collected anough money to do so.

>>Text was a little small, but I just bumped it up a notch in Firefox.
In MS IE, it's looking ok for me, but with Mozilla it isn't, so I'm able to see the problem, I'll try to fix it.

>>Well, I think the forum structure is getting crowded down too much
I'll soon provide a second forum style choise, back to normal, without advertisement.

>>The 'new posts' functionality doesn't seem to be working properly
I just tested it (in IE) and it worked perfectly, I'll test it in Mozilla soon.
I'll also try to fix this problem.

Restoring a dark background w/ light text option (what I was using prior to that little hiccup the other day) would also be nice for some people.

I tried the other two styles on this one, and they appear to be broken.

(Note for Firefox users with the really small text: Ctrl + [plus-sign on keypad works] bumps the text size up one without having to hunt it down in menus)

I'll also re enable the dark with light text soon.
Those styles are currently disabled, cause they are currently not compatible with the site change.

i think white or grey text on black is alot nicer on the eyes than white: it's not like staring into a lightbulb. and i also think the google ads are good for the site in general, i didn't even notice them until i saw it mentioned in the posts, lol. ps sigurd, can we artificially inflate our hit count with google ads by going to them, going back, and then going to a different one, or would that be an exercise in futility/illegality/wasting time?

I think you should just change the font. It's really annoying to have to zoom in.