I’m not sure exactly what it took for me to get in, but once I did, it has been pretty seamless.
I think the problem was an old e-mail associated w/ my acct. I had forgotten the password. I THOUGHT I had updated my acct to my current e-mail. But when I tried the e-mail sign in option, I was not getting messages to my current e-mail.
Then, I tried to get into the old e-mail acct, and somehow or another, my current e-mail was listed as a backum (in addition to an iname acct!)
I don’t even remember what steps got me to be able to post. Various users and Tuba were very helpful and supportive. But once the squirrels/fairies decided to let me in, I’ve been stumbling along same as before.
Good luck in figuring out something that works for you. I sure would miss your posts, so I encourage you to keep trying.
I’m willing to tolerate the technical glitches, and work through them. I’ve been here over 20 years, I’m not going to have a snit and jump ship. I just wish I wasn’t experiencing this level of dyshedonia when visiting. Maybe it’s my resistance to change, maybe it’s my age, maybe I’m sick and tired of dealing with COVID every farking day and wearing gown/glove/mask all livelong working hour and stressing about coming down with it myself/giving it to loved ones etc. I dunno. Life goes on.
I suspect it’s the COVID-19 stress. I’m able to stay home and I’m stressed, so I can’t imagine what you’re experiencing. Here’s hoping more people get the message to stay home and wear masks (although that’s probably not possible for the people in your situation). Anyway, good luck.
It feels harder to browse around to me, too. You can look at a disorganized list of every new thread. Or you can look at a topic, but it’s sort of hard to navigate among topics. It just feels more random, somehow.
I often DID just look for “new threads” on the old software, and that experience is pretty similar. But sometimes I would go to Cafe Society and look to see what had been posted. And while they’ve managed to implement “hover the preview” in some places, it doesn’t seem to work there. (yet?) And that makes the whole experience less engaging.
Mouseover preview works for me for threads in Cafe Society on my PC with Straight Dope Light theme. The mouseover preview depends on the skin (theme) you’re using.
If you want to try the SD theme and you haven’t yet, hit your avatar in the top right corner, then click on your username at the top of the drop down box, then go to preferences in that list. On the preferences page, on the left hand column, go to the bottom of the list where it says interface, click that. The first dropdown box lists the themes. Scroll to Straight Dope Light (or dark), pick that and hit save at the bottom of the page. Mouseover preview should work in Cafe Society in that skin.
I’ve tried several themes, and I’m currently using Discourse Classic. I forget what I disliked about “Straight Dope Light”, maybe the color scheme? And Mouseover works in some places, but not others. I haven’t exactly figured it out. But I tried it right before posting that, and it didn’t work when I was browsing a category.
But yeah, there aren’t many thread titles shown at once (I already made the text as small as it will go) and in many places they don’t even mouse-over. It’s just a lot harder to browse the site in an organized way that it used to be. I think someone said it used to feel more like like a book club, and now it feels more like a large party with everyone talking at once.
I often enjoy large parties. But it’s a very different “feel” than the site used to have.
A very different feel indeed. Returning to the original subject:
I’ve tried. But it’s just not the same anymore. And it’s not just the images, or the avatars. In fact, after some finagling I’ve figured out how to block the big avatars next to each post. I haven’t found a way to hide images in posts without losing the links as well.
But the tone of the board has changed, and not in a good way. It’s kind of subtle, but there’s a small group of posters who make condescending remarks to anyone who wants to be able to tweak things to work more like what we’re used to. (Not you, @puzzlegal , even though you were in one of those threads.)
But even that’s not the last straw. I’ve had a massive barrage of spam/scam emails lately - jumping from 3-4 a day on average to over 70 a day, most of it the kind that might make my wife suspect I’ve signed up for a hookup site. Most of it gets scooped into the spam folder, but a few have slipped into my inbox. Even if it all got caught by the spam filter, I still have to wade through it because I occasionally see stuff there that should have gone to my inbox. I got suspicious and looked back through my spam folder. Sure enough, it started at the time they started transitioning to Discourse.
And on top of that, Tuba’s gone. (And I can’t be the only one who’d wondered why she hadn’t posted in a few days.)
It’s not a decision I’m happy about, but this may be my last post. I just don’t see this continuing to be the SDMB in anything but name for much longer. I hope I’m wrong. I’ll lurk for awhile, but not every day and not for long unless it looks like things are improving. Probably make me ineligible for some badge I was on the verge of earning. Darn.
Huh. I have NOT seen any significant increase in spam, and the spam I’ve gotten has gone to other addresses than the one I use here. Possibly my ISP has filtered it out? But I don’t think this is a spam source.
Hmm…now that you mention it, I’ve received a single spam message since the board migration at the email address I use here. It went directly to the spam folder, so no harm done, and the timing may just be a coincidence. That email is my “good” account; it’s my primary personal email address, in addition to being used as the notification address for a few boards, news sites, and very trusted online stores.