Ratings and trouble shooting

[Jennie@ifish]

Hi there!
I took the ratings thing down for now, as it seems to be experiencing problems.
I will put it back up, re your comments.
Can you please list here any problems you might be experiencing, including speed, errors, pages not loading, and having to hit reload? Please list your os and your browser. i.e. Netscape or Internet Explorer, Windows 95, 98 or me?

Thanks,
Jen

[Mr. Fisherman]

Jen,

I have only rated a few folks but have not experienced any problem images/icons/confused.gif .

I'm using Windows 98 and Expolorer images/icons/wink.gif .

Good luck images/icons/smile.gif ,

Ray

[Bait O' Eggs]

Jen
At work I use windows 98 and explorer and at home it is windows 98 and not sure what the AOL default browser is. Both of them worked fine but I only rated one person from each site.

I think the rating system will lead to hard feelings over time for a few. Everybody likes to think they are liked, when they are told they are a 1 (and a 1 in this case is bad) they will get hard feelings. I see it as a tool that can be abused with people giving negative ratings just because somebody doesnt agree with them on what the best boat is or some other silly item.

We got by fine without it before, I dont think we need it. my $0.02

[OR Coast Range]

I agree with BOE.

The point of this BB is to discuss fishing, environmental issues that affect fishing, and legislative issues that affect fishing. With the rating system, suddenly you have a popularity contest and people have a new reason to post - gotta get my rating up.

There is a very popular BB called slashdot (www.slashdot.org) that implemented a rating system (they called it karma). It didn't take more than a few days before people would post crap that followed the party line just to maintain their karma (this was called karma whoring).

Anyways, just my $.02 images/icons/smile.gif

[NEUTRON]

I'm using 98 with netscape on fractional t-1
access and now the DB is moving again. I've
had limited success using it the past 2 days.

[Irontrader]

I'd be for dropping the star rating completely. Something like is little more than a popularity contest. Does more harm than good.

If we want a rating that may mean something, how about adding a fish caught counter? My preference would be to only count keepers and to have 3 counts, one for salmon, one for sturgeon, one for all others. Each year reset all the counters so we all start out even.

Having a fish caught score would show who is fishing and who is not images/icons/grin.gif

[ 03-22-2001: Message edited by: Irontrader ]

[Gone Fishin]

I agree with Roy as well, ratings system not needed on IFISH most on this board are more stars than we have room for!

[Snagly]

I'm not certain we need EITHER a star-rating system OR a "cumulative fish caught" rating. However, three thoughts come to mind re the self-reported fish caught:

1. Billy Meyers and Centerpin from Terrace BC would have so many salmon/ steelhead numbers wracked up by May that everyone else would either quit fishing or move up north.

2. In Australia there are a couple of very well known C & R barramundi tournaments where the contestants measure, tag and release their fish. Subsequent recaptures of barra show that the average fish seems to shrink once it goes back in the water, some up to 4". That has interesting biological implications . . . or maybe it just confirms what most of us already knew.

3. Any attempt to report fish caught that omits "Mangrove swamp-dwelling species" will be vigorously objected to by yours truly!

But in all seriousness, leave off the star ratings please.

[Master Baiter]

I too believe that the rating system will be a liability rather than an asset to Ifish! It invites the kind of environment that you have avoided, like the recent rash of troll activity, this would give them more leverage to play pranks.

Jus my $.02.

[Jennie@ifish]

Amen. I think the rating thing is silly.
I like to think everyone here is a 5 star.
Group hug?
Jen

[smilesforu]

I found out how to turn it off in my profile the first day images/icons/grin.gif. Didn't really feel the need for approval at the time. Not really sure how often the rating system updated the cache. Just another thing to slow down the board speed when loading.
ie5
win98second
28.8 connect speed.... board load a lot slower than the previous version. A lot due to my small bandwidth I am sure. Got the option for a wireless modem that blazes at 1.7 mgbit....vroooomm if I can justify it images/icons/grin.gif

[ZaQ]

I vote for the removal of the rating system. Mainly because I only had one star........... images/icons/rolleyes.gif

[dock rat]

I'm using Windows 98 with Netscape 4.7. It's nearly impossible to use the discussion board from late afternoon through the evening for me. Extremely slow or has trouble stopping half way through loading and have to reload. In my opinion we should lose the rating system. Thanks! images/icons/smile.gif

[WaterDog]

Windows ME, IE5.5, 48k connection. It is slower to load.

I'll go along with dumping the ratings too. Dang, and I had a 5 stars! hehe images/icons/wink.gif

[CAGEY]

Hey WaterDog, just checked out your web site, pretty cool, have a good one. CAgey.

[Salmonator]

windows 98, netscape pe and cable modem. It is much slower than the old version. Not whining, just answering the question. I have to wait a whole 8 seconds now instead of 2 seconds for the old one images/icons/grin.gif

[HOGTIDE]

Windows 98 / Netscape. Things really load slow nowdays.Initially getting the main Discussion page takes forever. The worst part is after posting a reply, it takes so long to return to the original page that I almost give up. Almost...I said "Almost" discourages me from posting.More time is spent waiting to return to the desired page than time spent reading.

Maybe this is normal. My Computer is only 9 mo.s old and has all the turbo charged features...but we are on a regular phone line with 64k modem.

[OneLastCast]

Windows 98/Explorer modem 56bps modem only works at 28.8bps because of where we live. Eventually they say our phone system will be upgraded.
New discussion page seems to take forever to get around in. I like the new board layout in general, just wish it was faster.

OneLastCast

[Phish_on]

New version definitely slower on the home system (28.8 modem), not as noticable at work (Fast Ethernet to T-1). Not that I EVER check in at WORK ...

Also requires more "stop and reload" action. Windows NT and Netscrape 4 ...

[Jennie@ifish]

I wish it were faster too.
There does seem to be problems with the free netscape version. I can't even use Netscape with this thing.
With everything else going on, I don't think I'll ever get the whole thing updated right!
I'v been here since 5 this morning!
Whaaaaaaa!
Jen

[Buddy Page]

Hello again Jenny,

Did a little debugging on the Netscape problem and found something that should help solve it. I initially thought the problem was JavaScript related, but I could never get a JavaScript error. In frustration, I opened the Java Console (Communicator Menu, Tools, Java Console) and then went to your BB and it worked.

The problem is releated to a Java error, not JavaScript. It appears that your programmers need to make sure that Java is loaded when Netscape is the browser. This is an area I'm not very familiar with, but when you open the Java console first, before going to your BB, it works. Tell your web developers they need to make sure they are using only cross platform Java and not MicroSoft only code! At the very least, to make sure that Java is loaded first before they start running Java code in Netscape browser.

Good Luck...

[ 03-24-2001: Message edited by: Buddy Page ]

[Buddy Page]

I have another general observation on the JavaScript code. On the Topics page <http://www.ifish.net/cgi-local/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=1>, there is a lot of unnecessarily repeated Javascript code. The following code is virtually the same for every topic in the list. This code should be made into a function and simply passed parameters that are unique to each record. Doing so will *greatly* reduce the size of the topics page and *greatly* speed it up. As it is structured now, every single topic line has to load, interpret/compile and process the same Javascript code. Making it into a function means you will only load and interpret/compile the code once. Then its stored in memory and each line only has to call it and return a result, *greatly* increasing speed and *greatly* reducing the memory requirements.

<!--

var closed_topic = "N";
var fiery = "no";
var post_j = "2451993.1027";
if (post_j > session_j) {
if (closed_topic == "X") {
document.writeln('<IMG SRC="http://www.ifish.net/ubb/redlockfolder.gif" BORDER="0">');
} else if (fiery == "yes") {
document.writeln('<IMG SRC="http://www.ifish.net/ubb/hotclosedb.gif" BORDER="0">');
} else {
document.writeln('<IMG SRC="http://www.ifish.net/ubb/closedb.gif" BORDER="0">');
}
} else {
if (closed_topic == "X") {
document.writeln('<IMG SRC="http://www.ifish.net/ubb/yellockfolder.gif" BORDER="0">');
} else if (fiery == "yes") {
document.writeln('<IMG SRC="http://www.ifish.net/ubb/hotclosed.gif" BORDER="0">');
} else {
document.writeln('<IMG SRC="http://www.ifish.net/ubb/closed.gif" BORDER="0">');
}
}
//-->

[ 03-24-2001: Message edited by: Buddy Page ]

[OneLastCast]

Sorry Mudsucker;

I thought long and hard about it and decided I would just run down and make a couple of casts while I'm loading the pages. However with all the wife has me doing today it might just be and equal trade.

You can keep your duck.

OneLastCast

[Trick]

Dang Buddy your one smart dude. Jenni, put him on the "payroll".

I've experienced similiar slow downloads as listed above. I'm running on a regular phone line, that is if you can call this ancient network that St Helens has as "regular"? I'm using both explorer and navigator. Explorer seems to perform better on this site then the Navigator? Using a 56k modem, even though I never hook up at much above 28.8. Junk phone lines. All in all it is getting very hard to get on the board on a consistant basis and it is very fustrating.

[mudsucker]

images/icons/tongue.gif images/icons/tongue.gif Onelastcast i will trade you your modem for my dsl if you trade me house's then i could have a place on the river.you have to pay the price to live on the river,
i would say it is a fair trade off. images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif
aAs for the site being slow?? Maybe a little but not bad with my dsl conn..