Forum Features & Updates

Topic Categories now here

Good evening everyone, Apologies in advance for any confusion, but some of you might have noticed a few changes to the look of parts of this forum. I'm hoping that it's for the better.... I'm sure you'll let me know one way or the other! A few weeks ago a member, who shall remain blameless... I mean nameless (!) suggested an idea that I'd put off some time ago due to the added complexity of making it happen. However, I decided it really ought to happen - and so now, for better or worse, it has. To make life easier for everyone I've retained the original "all in one" Topic index, so you can hop from one thread to the next regardless of how it's categorised. But for those of you who would like to, for instance, explore one type of topic at a time, like "Wartime and Blitz" or whatever, then a new link is available in the toolbar called Topic categories. The only extra thing that members now need to think about is "which category will my new topic belong in?". Well, some will be easy to decide, other topics might be less obvious. If in doubt, just leave it in "Memories and Nostalgia", which covers most things on here. Either me or our capable moderators will be quite happy to move a topic to a suitable location if necesary, so don't worry unduly about it - just carry on enjoying the forum, which you are all turning into the best one in the UK, if not the world! (My opinion - everyone's welcome to one!) By the way, not all topics have been moved to a category yet, but that should get sorted out over the next day or three. Thank you all for your time and patience - and let me know if anything doesn't work quite as it ought to - there are usually teething problems with these sorts of major alterations.... especialy if I've made them! Cheers all.

No, all is ok with the site Rob - just keep up the good work - love the site like all of us do

Thank you Rob, you are constantly striving to make this wonderful site even better. Wanted to let you know your efforts are really appreciated. Best wishes, Jan

Spot on!

Hi all Yes, bravo indeed. So much work and effort goes into the development & running of the site, much of which is beyond my capability. It's comforting that in addition to the named officials, many members act as stewards in so many ways, from greeting new people to giving courteous help, advice & encouragement. Whilst I would love to think that younger people were interested & using our site, many of our members are slightly longer in the tooth & for some, the site may be now or in the future, their eyes on Coventry, where distance or infirmity prevents mobility in any way. Good old the internet. We used to have 'Beer at Home' & I still have 'Tea at Home' but we can all enjoy 'Coventry History at Home', without leaving our armchairs. All started by Rob. ps. "Hey, can we buy shares?"

Hi Rob, I didn't think possible for you to make the forum better..... but you have. Thanks for all your hard work, it's much appreciated by all.

Hi, I agree with all. This is history in the making. Without this site the memories and photos that are now collected here would end up on the tip or in a grave but are now available to all. Even though I know nobody here it is nice to know you ALL.

Yes, it's the icing on the cake Rob and no doubt you will find some more. A big THANK YOU.

There appears to be a large empty space to the right of the Topic Index which wasn't there before?

Hi Dutchman, Aha, I think I know what you mean. Now that the topics are divided up, there are fewer on each page, which probably means that there's less chance of a longer topic title in some categories.... which in turn means that the "content table" doesn't stretch so far to the right. I think? I did consider making the table's width close to 100% to get rid of any unused space on the right, but some people with very wide screens might find themselves scanning a long way from left to right to read each topic and its date, so in the end I just left it to just take up what width it needed.

And before I forget.... thank you all for such kind and supportive comments. If any of you ever think of any further enhancements that you think might be useful, let me know, and if they're feasible then they'll be considered. All the best, Rob

I mean the orange space to the right Rob. The longer topic titles have been split over two lines:

I see what you mean - corrected now, hopefully! The "topic" column was previously fixed-width, but I've now assigned a minimum width and allowed it to stretch out if necessary. Is that better on your screen? Regarding the colour, though, does that space really look orange on your screen? Either your screen needs calibrating, or you should take your oranges back to the shop for a refund!!!

Yes, much better thanks Rob Well yes, a very pale "orange", almost yellow.

Text-entry box improvement

Good afternoon everyone. In an effort to strive for constant ease of use of the forum, I've made a couple of small updates this afternoon. When you make a post from now on, you will notice that the box in which you type your text is no longer limited to a narrow width, but should automatically stretch to the width of your screen, which will give a larger area for those with large monitors. Likewise, those working on small screens will hopefully benefit from the fact that the text-box will also automatically shrink to your screen size. I've also changed the font to "Arial", which is more rounded and hopefully easier on the eye. Anyone who experiences any problem with this, please let me know, and if necessary I can revert it to the original "Times New Roman" text-font. A small additional change, too - as with the red "auto-tag" that appears to let folk know when a member has edited their post, a blue symbol also now appears to record that a moderator (or webmaster!) has made an edit to a post. Cheers to all, Rob