# New changes to MHF



## sallytrafic

Dont like the changes to top of MHF 

where has my one click to Forums gone?


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## JohnsCrossMotorHomes

I second that, pain in the butt have to keep going to favs to get new page!!


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## Rislar

He he, i was just thinking that, but i've got it sussed now, just didn't know where to look so now i go to the heading of the page, i like it though for quick access to other pages


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## Briarose

Agree I thought it was just me been wondering what is going on all night.

Edit to add if something ain't broke why fix it.


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## sallytrafic

Also some of the pull downs are headings and not clickable


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## hymerowner

Pull down menus are useless - no links


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## exmusso

*Changes*

Give the man a chance.

Probably spent ages setting it up and within a hour, the complaints are coming in. What about all the benefits.

Must agree though as I was about six pages in and usually hit 'forums' to take me back to the front page.

How about a shortcut button Nuke?

Cheers,
Alan


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## HurricaneSmith

I thought I was going bonkers too.  

I think I'm going to like the new look. Previously finding stuff was not intuitive, and I seemed to stumble over things.

Hang in there everyone, I'm confident you'll all wonder how you coped before.  

HurricaneSmith


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## Medallionman

*Re: Changes*



exmusso said:


> Must agree though as I was about six pages in and usually hit 'forums' to take me back to the front page.
> 
> How about a shortcut button Nuke?
> 
> Cheers,
> Alan


Same with the Home button, have to wait for the dropdown.

Brian


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## JohnsCrossMotorHomes

ah sussed it *ENTER MOTORHOME FORUMS!!!*
under Discussions Tab


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## sallytrafic

We want our 1 click to the Forums and we want it

now 

how on earth am I going to get back to the forum page?


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## artona

Hi

I am missing the forums button as well, I am pestering the man at the top  

stew


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## trek

I DON'T LIKE THE CHANGES EITHER !!!

please can I have the "FORUM" tab back ---single click only please


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## sallytrafic

Another annoying thing as I go from MHF up to my back button or other browser or apple control I get a flash of the pull downs as my mouse inevitably passes over one or the other enroute. Almost as annoying as the adverts.


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## baldybazza

I don't like it either it is far too slow.

Jan


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## artona

Hi

Ah ha, just had it pointed out to me that you can get to the forum index easily. 

Just scroll to the top of the tread you are on and then over to the left click on motorhome facts forum index - takes you straight there, thanks

stew


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## sallytrafic

Yes Stew but accurately hitting the bread crumbs ain't the same as a button.

and bread crumbs aren't there at all if you are several pages into the forum and not in an actual thread


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## suffolkian

One step forward.....two steps back = progress???


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## hilldweller

There are more menus than a Chinese restaurant on this page now.

I hate animated menus. Too slow. Just after the page has been improved a lot in speed.

Resources is like watching something grow or watching paint dry.

And the menu bar is flaky.


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## nukeadmin

lol you lot are a hard crowd !!!

ok yes i agree the original box in affect was too slow, i have swapped it for a simpler faster variant, i have linked the word Discussion to the Forums so simply click that like you used to click the word "forums"


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## Medallionman

Help my eyes! Everything went Yellow, seriously YELLOW!
Brian


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## Penquin

Changes to "Home" button are most annoying at the moment, increases time taken to get anywhere via Home,;"Motorhome Facts Index" gives about 10 recent posts, "New Posts" via Home used to give many more, but to use it now is slow. 

Any chance of Home button going back to as it was and then having a dropdown menu from that page?


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## DABurleigh

Oh well, looks like I'd better order a Cray supercomputer to surf MHF. Even with the latest menus as I scroll across them my CPU screams up to 100% utilisation :-(

Dave


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## JohnsCrossMotorHomes

DABurleigh said:


> Oh well, looks like I'd better order a Cray supercomputer to surf MHF. Even with the latest menus as I scroll across them my CPU screams up to 100% utilisation :-(
> 
> Dave


Those Sinclair Z80s do need help!


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## gaspode

Medallionman said:


> Help my eyes! Everything went Yellow, seriously YELLOW!
> Brian


Hi Brian

Yes, looks like there's a small bug in there somewhere, give Nuke a little while to find and fix it. 8)

Hint:
Give it a short time to get accustomed to the new style, I thought it was strange at first but I'm really getting to like it now. Conservative lot we are aren't we? :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## moblee

I like it :!: Keep up the good work,Nuke's a smashing bloke :^o.


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## artona

Hi

_Oh well, looks like I'd better order a Cray supercomputer to surf MHF_

is that a £10 000 consideration Dave?

stew


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## Biglol

Change has done it, you should never change anything, people get lost so easily  Everyone on here is too old for change, even if it's for the better


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## gaspode

DABurleigh said:


> Oh well, looks like I'd better order a Cray supercomputer to surf MHF. Even with the latest menus as I scroll across them my CPU screams up to 100% utilisation :-(


I'm getting a momentary blip between 18% and 42% depending on the size of the menu Dave.


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## DABurleigh

I'm very pleased for you!

Think I'll come back on Saturday and hope things are better 

Dave


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## Penquin

No-one is criticising Nuke in any way - he does an excellent job (and one I suspect few of us would want to undertake), it may well be simply the devil we don't know, but at present the changes are causing problems for some of us.

I am sure Nuke will approach the issues raised and will come up with good, workable answers. He has so far on may other points e.g. my signature now displays the Logbook function - it has not for the last few days, I have done nothing so he must have sorted out a minor glitch.

He does an excellent job and all of us should be grateful to him.


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## hilldweller

Penquin said:


> No-one is criticising Nuke in any way


Yes we are.

That is the way software is improved.

I like the Amercanism "Improved Worse".


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## hilldweller

nukeadmin said:


> i have linked the word Discussion to the Forums


How about make Home hot, linked to HOME.

Make Account hot and link to Your Posts - good for editing Your Posts and going back in after a post. Add Your Posts for tidiness.


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## sallytrafic

Yes I get a serious CPU utilisation blip as well

I think the problem is that no one surfs MHF in the way Nuke would have us.

I don't need to go to most of what is on the new menus more than once a week or once a year or never but I hit the forum button every two or three minutes. This is mainly because having contributed to a thread or simply read it I don't want to go to that particular forum but instead to the main forums page.

I don't use the 30 posts on the front/index/home page 
I dont surf individual forums
Having previewed my post before entering I don't want to see it after posting.

In fact what would suit *me* best would be a forum return button at the bottom of the page or a floating one that is always on my screen.

So I have made a button on my apple that gets back to the forum page quicker than hitting discussion as it now is.


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## peedee

I think we all use it differently Frank. I hardly ever go to the Forum page but work off "Your Posts" and "New Posts" in that order. These appear in the top right once you have logged on. I will reserve judgement until I have used it a while but I think I might find it a pain not having a one click "Home" button and with the drop down menus why are the left hand menus necessary?
Nobody particularly likes change but think we should give it a chance.

peedee

edited because couldn't tell my left from the right


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## Rapide561

*MHF*

Should the word "rallys" actually be "rallies"?

Russell

Rest of it looks ok to me.


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## carolgavin

I think I quite like it, dunno about this CPU thingy so am gonna ignore that. Does this mean that we are getting rid of the block on left hand side of screen and all those pictures at the top????


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## Coulstock

*Consensus*

Give the new changes some time to be comprehensivel assessed before jumping in with the requests for change

Harry


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## nukeadmin

> How about make Home hot, linked to HOME.


Well actually simply clicking the site logo a cm or so above the Home button already did that, but ok I have also linked the Home to the front page



> Make Account hot and link to Your Posts - good for editing Your Posts and going back in after a post. Add Your Posts for tidiness.


No i don't believe this is logical, I have tried to improve on navigation by making things logically accessed in categories and also one thing that appears to be overlooked is that most of the menu system links have up to now only been accessible from the front page only, now it doesn't matter what page in the site you are on, the links are always top centre 



> I think the problem is that no one surfs MHF in the way Nuke would have us.


No Frank the problem is EVERYONE surfs MHF in a different fashion 



> Should the word "rallys" actually be "rallies"?


Whoops Yes Russ, BognorMike already picked me up on that and i must have forgotten to update it !, sorted now


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## nukeadmin

Oh and another reason for phasing out the long list of links on the front page left hand side is that they are dynamically generated and takes quite a lot of database queries to make that list, so by phasing it out will have an added side effect of a speeder site

Secondly by removing that list it gives me more screen space to have some new blocks like last X reviews, last X blog entries and similar


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## Wizzo

I have the forums page as my 'favourite' but I've found this morning that it doesn't work properly on my old Mac at work. I get the headings as a list on a long yellow background which fills the screen and no ads. The forum still works OK though. so I will probably just have to put up with it.

JohnW


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## nukeadmin

i have removed the fader effect on the menus which should sort out the cpu issue some of you seem to have, I have also changed the colouring on the menu sub titles to make sure they stand out more from their subordinate clickable links

I am now working on the screen resolution issue i.e. the menu stretches to multiple lines on low resolutions


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## sallytrafic

Much better


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## hilldweller

nukeadmin said:


> I am now working on the screen resolution issue i.e. the menu stretches to multiple lines on low resolutions


I keep a favourites bar down the LHS on Firefox which reduces the resolution from 1280 down to ( guess ) 1100 for MHF.

If I close the sidebar the menu is on one line. All nice and tidy.

Sidebar on minimum width I have the menu on 2 lines. Welcome Hilldweller pluse date is hogging a lot of space.

As I increase the sidebar I get

Home.................Resources LINE 1
......................................Rallies LINE 2
Traders LINE 3

Move sidebar a bit more right and it then becomes 2 lines
Home..Resources
Rallies | Traders.

Either Firefox or your menu gets confused at certain widths.

Get rid of welcome hilldweller and date and all would be fine. I know who I am and I don't care about the date.


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## nukeadmin

> Get rid of welcome hilldweller and date and all would be fine. I know who I am and I don't care about the date.


ah but there will be members on here I assure you lol and that will be equally as vocal that use that aspect of MHF to track the time, and to make sure they are logged in


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## hilldweller

nukeadmin said:


> > Make Account hot and link to Your Posts - good for editing Your Posts and going
> > back in after a post. Add Your Posts for tidiness.
> >> No i don't believe this is logical


It is to me - my account - so why not Your Messages. MY - YOUR are the same. Certainly a case for Your Messages in My Account and weaker one for linking the header to Your Messages.

Lovely conflict of terms here "Your Messages" "My messages". We do click ""Your Messages" but get My Messages.

Mr Gates provides "My Documents" "My Computer" and he's made a few bob more than you programming so MY get's my vote as being the better term.


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## nukeadmin

k menu tweaked to look ok at 1024X768, sorry not going to look very good at resolutions below that, but majority of people are on at least this resolution now (98%+ on MHF)


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## nukeadmin

it wasn't the terminology i was saying wasn't logical Brian, it was the linking of the word "Account" to posts


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## hilldweller

nukeadmin said:


> ah but there will be members on here I assure you lol and that will be equally as vocal that use that aspect of MHF to track the time, and to make sure they are logged in


Fair enough, you've just folded Welcome Hilldweller - works a treat. Though looks bad because of the justification, I suggest Left Justify on the left and Right Justify on the right (date). Not sure about the "!".


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## hilldweller

nukeadmin said:


> it wasn't the terminology i was saying wasn't logical Brian, it was the linking of the word "Account" to posts


It is "MY" Account and it contains My Messages, not just any old messages.

So I'd go for

My Account
-------------
My Account Settings
My Forum Settings
My Messages
My Posts
My Topics


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## peedee

Meuu on the top centre of every page does it for me Nuke and thanks for making "Home" direct. 
peedee


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## Wizzo

Help! I'm losing it.

The yellow headers are now only taking about 2/3rds of the screen up but I cannot access the top four or five messages. The titles do not become 'live' as I scroll over them and any attempt to open them takes me to some weird places - MHF Trivia page, MHF Arcade page, Number Plate Registration Letters etc.

Mac OS9, I.E.

JohnW


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## nukeadmin

sorry John I don't use MACs so cant test it in a MAC, it is supposedly cross browser compatible

what screen res do you have set ?

Can you use another browser like Firefox to test ?


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## Wizzo

Hi Nuke,

Screen Res is 1152 x 870

The Operating System is not supported by Firefox so I think I am stuck with IE. 

Not to worry it will be OK on my home PC and I can at least read most of the posts at work. Incidentally the 'Last Post' button works which is how I got back to you.

JohnW


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## JeanLuc

Well, I'm looking at it on a MacBook Pro running OSX Tiger 10.4.11 and using Safari 3.2 browser.

It all seems to work well and very quickly for me. In fact, quicker than the previous version of MHF. I think the 'panic guide' drop-down menu bar at the top is pretty good. Before, I sometimes found the menu tree on the left rather confusing - now it is more like seeing a navigation map laid out in front of you. Sections seem easier to locate.

When I have a mo I'll look at the site via Firefox 3.04 on the Mac too and see if it works as well with that browser.

Good work Nuke.

Philip


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## nukeadmin

thx for the positive feedback which is slowly filtering through past the negative 

I am now happy with the menu and hence have already removed the old long list of links on the left hand page on the front of the site.

I too think it is much more logical laid out like it is and easy to use and most importantly standard throughout the entire site 

the front page left hand column now has a couple of new sections added to highlight the travel blogs section, campsite reviews etc Take a look


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## baldybazza

I am much happier with it now and it is working fine on Firefox for me.

Jan


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## hilldweller

nukeadmin said:


> thx for the positive feedback Take a look


In my humble opinion.....

Dump the home page RHS.

Valuable real estate is being wasted:

You have 2 menus - put New Posts etc in the new menu.
Subscriber No. etc Hide at bottom of LHS stack.
Membership New Today - we aren't bothered.
Members on line - too small to be of any use
Stats - we aren't bothered
Survey - 250 votes out of 27,000 - we are not bothered
DT adv - Events - LHS
Last 2 items - LHS

Widen middle to fill all RHS - it will look much tidier.


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## asprn

nukeadmin said:


> I am now happy with the menu and hence have already removed the old long list of links on the left hand page on the front of the site


Dave,

Works for me.

Cheers,

Dougie.


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## peedee

Me too and there is a noticeable increase in speed.

peedee


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## 88870

Looks great on a widescreen laptop using firefox ... site is much much faster too than previous. I am using 3 mobile dongle.

Ta very much Nuke ... I usually hit my bookmark to the site and wait for it to settle down. Straight there tonight! Very happy


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## Telbell

I like it! For me much more preferable to the left hand side Menus.

Presumably the "redundant" links will be removed in due course?


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## HurricaneSmith

I knew people would love the Forum's facelift given a little time.

For newcomers it was hard to navigate the previous layout, and pages were more stumbled over than found in an intuitive way.

I'm now having fun viewing pages of information that I didn't know existed.

The old saying 'If something looks right, it is right' is proven by Nukeadmin's hard work.

Thanks you.....    

HurricaneSmith


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## chapter

it's like shopping in asda you walk in one day and go to everything you need 
go a few days later and you can't find a bl%£dy thing
where are the rally staff list the only staff list i can find are the mods
chapter


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## sallytrafic

It is now (I hope partly due to this thread) much better than it started out when first revealed to us.

One suggestion: Add Private messages to Discussion menu

2nd suggestion Blogs are much more akin to Photos than to Discussion Forums ie you can comment on them but largely its a one way thing, shouldn't they be on the same menu (as Resources is getting long perhaps a new menu)


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## Jin

Hi,

I just like to say how much I like the new look to MHF - the layout is much simpler and easy to navigate. It must take you hours/days to make all the changes. I've been doing loads of searches on the site (researching before taking the plunge and buying a motorhome) and would like to make a suggestion

I have been using the search facility in Company reports forum. I have then been clicking on a thread but when I use the "go back" button to try to get back to the search results and check out a different result I get the "webpage expired" page loading. And have to go back into the company reports page and start the search again. Is there any way of getting straight back to the search results please? And if not would it be possible to add a link at the bottom of the thread?

Thanks - brilliant site - I've been learning loads  

Jin


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## pepandspice

Hi, I like the new look. Found the forum tab under discussions straight away. 

Regards,
Pepandspice.


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## spykal

Jin said:


> Is there any way of getting straight back to the search results please? And if not would it be possible to add a link at the bottom of the thread?
> 
> Thanks - brilliant site - I've been learning loads
> 
> Jin


I will be a little {offtopic} but this is best struck , sorry answered "while the iron is hot"

In a browser with "tabs" ( say IE7 or firefox ) When the search has found what you want use a right click on the link and then chose "Open link in New Tab" ... in that way you will always be able to return to the original page, the search results, by clicking on the first tab. You can of course have many tabs open allowing easy comparisons.

Mike


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## Jin

Thanks Mike - you're right, that's an easy way round it. Thank you.

Jin


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## hilldweller

spykal said:


> In a browser with "tabs" ( say IE7 or firefox ) When the search has found what you want use a right click on the link and then chose "Open link in New Tab"
> Mike


Firefox 3 here defaults to opening links in a new tab. Which is good. 'till you're half asleep and decide the backspace does not work any more.


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## sallytrafic

For some reason the home page has become very CPU heavy.

Its putting my CPU to the max whereas 3 copies of BBC iplayer all going together only nudges it up towards 3/4 capacity.


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## DABurleigh

Good spot, Frank.

Can I have my computer back please MHF you hog?

Might be Chrome-specific? The rotating "slider" top left apparently.

Dave


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## JeanLuc

sallytrafic said:


> For some reason the home page has become very CPU heavy.
> 
> Its putting my CPU to the max whereas 3 copies of BBC iplayer all going together only nudges it up towards 3/4 capacity.


What are you running it on in this analysis Frank? On my MacBook Pro (2.33GHz Intel Core2 Duo with 2GB ram) it is drawing a max of 53% CPU when the home page opens in Safari. This is very brief, then it settles down to about 10% max as the ads etc cycle on the home page. Similarly, when switching to a forum post, it peaks briefly at up to 50% then settles back to around 5%.

Interestingly, Firefox in the same environment is slightly more 'processor-hungry' with peaks around 64% of CPU, but again, the settle-down rate is below 10%.

Also, Safari runs 10 threads through the processor on the home page whereas Firefox requires 2 or 3 more.

Versions: Safari 3.2, Firefox 3.04


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## sallytrafic

My options are in my signature

I was using the apple I will use the Linux ones later for comparison


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## DABurleigh

Well it won't be that good an experiment as nuke has pulled the troublesome graphic for the moment


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## sallytrafic

Well spotted Dave 

Now the home page barely perturbs my CPU


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## aultymer

Off topic (maybe) but I see DAB and Frank are contributing here - I was following a thread about rally people vanishing and now I can't find the thread???
Is it connected to the changes discussed above?


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## DABurleigh

No.

I posted again this morning wondering where it had gone. Nuke then explained to me that he pulled it. So I deleted my second one.

Dave


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## hilldweller

Am I missing a trick here.......

Your Posts.....Post a reply....now I want to get back to Your Posts to continue down the list.

ATM I have to go Home...Your Messages in two stages.

Is there A Better Way ?


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## spykal

hilldweller said:


> Am I missing a trick here.......
> 
> Your Posts.....Post a reply....now I want to get back to Your Posts to continue down the list.
> 
> ATM I have to go Home...Your Messages in two stages.
> 
> Is there A Better Way ?


Hi

In a tabbed browser such as IE7

Use a "open link in a new new tab" for the "post a reply" ( in IE7 right click and choose)

Then return to the original tab to get back to the list of "Your Posts"

Mike


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## vmeldrew

Pardon my ignorance, but how do I search for a member now?

Keep it clean please!


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## gaspode

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/members.html

There's a link in all the forums and threads at the top of the page, below the new yellow links.


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## hilldweller

spykal said:


> Use a "open link in a new new tab" for the "post a reply" ( in IE7 right click and choose) Mike


That works, but it's a fudge.

Maybe I'm picky but I've been writing windows software for 20 years.


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## vmeldrew

Thanks, Gaspode.

Hope my eyes get better soon!


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