# New look!



## bmcquin (Mar 10, 2008)

Nathan,
Just started looking around, think I'm gonna like it!
Great job! :clap:


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## RobertCDF (Aug 18, 2005)

AAAAGGGGG!!!! that was torture waiting (btw I think it was slightly over 2 hours)... hmmmm.... might take some time to get used to it.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

If you guys find any issues, please report them in the feedback/tech support area for the new site:

http://www.contractortalk.com/f120/

Thanks and enjoy all the new features! :clap:


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

bmcquin said:


> Nathan,
> Just started looking around, think I'm gonna like it!
> Great job! :clap:


Thanks, I have high hopes. We tried to keep what was working and add on to it. I hope people like it.


RobertCDF said:


> AAAAGGGGG!!!! that was torture waiting (btw I think it was slightly over 2 hours)... hmmmm.... might take some time to get used to it.


Sorry we were a bit over 2 hours  Hope you can get used to it quickly.


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## Brutus (May 29, 2007)

Looks great! Too much rain this afternoon, came home... CT is down...  . But, I can see it was worth it! :thumbup:


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## chris klee (Feb 5, 2008)

nice upgrade. when i heard it was gonna be soon, i didnt think it would be this soon. :thumbsup:


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## Max10 (May 2, 2006)

How do I get rid of all the damn ads on the right side of the page?
Not a big fan of the new look...


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

There were ads on the right side of the old site. Don't see the issue.


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## Max10 (May 2, 2006)

angus242 said:


> There were ads on the right side of the old site. Don't see the issue.


Not even close to the size of these... 1/3 of the page is ads..


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## vos (Apr 6, 2010)

what happened to chat? cant find it


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Could be a combo of screen size & resolution. I have mine set to 1366x768 and it's not an issue for me.


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

Max10 said:


> Not even close to the size of these... 1/3 of the page is ads..


The sidebar ads when from 160px wide to 300px wide. The ads are shorter than they were though. They went from 600px tall to 250px tall. Anyways, the purpose of this was to allow for sidebar widgets which feature content from other sections of the site like reviews and projects.

Before we made this change we did an analyses of what browsers and screen resolutions our visitors had and a small percentage (under 5%) used 800x600 or lower.


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## Darwin (Apr 7, 2009)

I like the look. Please add a "Today's posts" or "New Posts" link in the navigation bar at the top, like the old CT. Pah-lease..


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

vos said:


> what happened to chat? cant find it


It still works http://www.contractortalk.com/chat.php
I just haven't figured out where to put the link yet.


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

Darwin said:


> I like the look. Please add a "Today's posts" or "New Posts" link in the navigation bar at the top, like the old CT. Pah-lease..


Forum drop down, first link. New posts. :thumbsup:


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## Darwin (Apr 7, 2009)

Roger that.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Darwin said:


> I like the look. Please add a "Today's posts" or "New Posts" link in the navigation bar at the top, like the old CT. Pah-lease..


As Nathan said, it's still there. You don't have to even to do any extra clicks. It's just about 1-2 seconds longer to get to.


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## Cole (Aug 27, 2004)

Love the new look! Great job, Nate!


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## Darwin (Apr 7, 2009)

Call me an egomaniac or whatever, but I don't see the number of visitors to my page anymore.:sad: I used to come here just to see how many people visited me. I had like Mods and regular folk checking in on me.

I had like, 3000+ people checking in over the course of membership here! Now I don't. Sorry, I'm a numbers guy and I need a daily ego trip. :thumbsup:


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## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

Like the new look. The ads on the side are little to big. For my laptop screen even set at 1200x800 it takes up 1/4 of my screen.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

I like the new look but them ads in the side bar are a little OTT on my iPad. More than 1/3rd of the screen!


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## Willie T (Jan 29, 2009)

I run my rez @ 1680x1050, and Brother have I lost a lot of screen. About 1/4.

No ads over there on the right.... just blank screen below the header.

I suppose the ads will start showing up soon enough.


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## PrestigeR&D (Jan 6, 2010)

Finally....I am able to log in.... I thought I was banned....:laughing: 




B, Now I like it.....:thumbup: still a no go on the log in with EI 9 /windows 7


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## loneframer (Feb 13, 2009)

Darwin said:


> I like the look. Please add a "Today's posts" or "New Posts" link in the navigation bar at the top, like the old CT. Pah-lease..


I'm gonna miss that as well, had well over 5K visits.


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## bhock (Feb 17, 2009)

Is Chat gone?
or I am just missing it?


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

bhock said:


> Is Chat gone?
> or I am just missing it?



It's there just no hard-coded link yet.


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## vos (Apr 6, 2010)

bhock said:


> Is Chat gone?
> or I am just missing it?


Its stell working just not on the web page yet I asked earlier


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

You can access via this Sticky until it gets coded in:

http://www.contractortalk.com/f11/ct-chatroom-link-97538/


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## Willie T (Jan 29, 2009)

Any chance post acceptance can be denied until a SPELL CHECK has been run?

Maybe a big flashing sign that says "You're a Dummy", and your post has (x#) of spelling errors..... Oh yeah, add some punctuation, too."

Speaking of that, I just noticed my own SPELL CHECK has disappeared from my toolbar.


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## Bweikel (Feb 20, 2011)

Browsing from my I phone and not any changes here but :thumbsup:


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## J.C. (Sep 28, 2009)

Was there something wrong with the old version? This new one seems to be a whole lot of fluff with little worthwhile added content. :thumbdown


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

J.C. said:


> Was there something wrong with the old version? This new one seems to be a whole lot of fluff with little worthwhile added content. :thumbdown


You don't have to use any of the new features. It will not affect your participation here.


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## rselectric1 (Sep 20, 2009)

J.C. said:


> Was there something wrong with the old version? This new one seems to be a whole lot of fluff with little worthwhile added content. :thumbdown


It's new to us too. (Except we knew it was coming months ago)

Let Nathan get the kinks out, and explore for awhile. I am guessing that after a few weeks nobody will even remember what the old format looked like. :thumbsup:


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## jmiller (May 14, 2010)

Next best thing to unusable. 

It's the strangest forum I've ever seen...


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

jmiller said:


> Next best thing to unusable.
> 
> It's the strangest forum I've ever seen...



See Ron's comment from above :laughing:

Give it a chance. :thumbsup:


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

I am only losing about 1/5th on 1920x1080 screen. Seems to be more high res friendly and not very low res/tablet/phone friendly.


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## mikeswoods (Oct 11, 2008)

We need 'todays posts' back---

I don't see the changes as an improvement---The original site was simple to navigat and as soon as a person arrived here the good stuff was on the screen.

When I landed on the opening page today the thing was confusing--

Pictures--adds---no box to sign into. No new posts. If I didn't belong here already,I don't know if I would have stuck around long enough to find the forums.

When this posts --I'll be there will be a silhouette of a guy in a hard hat.

I haven't worn a hard hat in years and don't like to be dressed by someone else.

Sorry Nathan--not an improvement.---Mike----


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## loneframer (Feb 13, 2009)

I haven't had any real problems getting around, with a little exploration. I was looking over some old threads though and the ads overlapping the photos and text is pretty annoying.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

mikeswoods said:


> We need 'todays posts' back---
> 
> I don't see the changes as an improvement---The original site was simple to navigat and as soon as a person arrived here the good stuff was on the screen.
> 
> ...


Mike, you're fighting it. The "new posts" is still there....no extra clicks. Go To "Forum" in the upper Green tool bar (similar to where the old one was), let the mouse hover there for a second, the drop down will appear, click on New Posts. Voila!

Also, try the What's New tab.

The forums are pretty much only freshened up with new icons. They are mainly unchanged. Just give it some time to find your best way to use the new look and you will be fine.

For my first 2 years here, I never knew about the new posts button. Sometimes it takes a few times stumbling around to find your way.


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## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

rselectric1 said:


> It's new to us too. (Except we knew it was coming months ago)
> 
> Let Nathan get the kinks out, and explore for awhile. I am guessing that after a few weeks nobody will even remember what the old format looked like. :thumbsup:


Easy for you to say noob. :whistling


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## boman47k (Oct 13, 2006)

It was strange to me too. Thought my computer had been taken over. I did, in fact, back out and tried the favorite link again.

But for someone to be told "no one is forcing........" is even stranger.


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## J.C. (Sep 28, 2009)

I may have been a little premature on my complaints. The page I was originally on just sucked. There was all the pictures and ads and stuff on the right 1/3 of the screen and everyone's profile picture before every thread on the left so, I had way more worthless pictures than I had actual content. I can't even find whatever it was that I was on. The "new post" button under the Forums tab isn't too bad but I still lost the right third of my screen to pictures and I have a couple inches of white nothing between the header and the list of posts. I still wouldn't say it's an improvement over the old forum but we'll see how things go.


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

J.C. said:


> Was there something wrong with the old version? This new one seems to be a whole lot of fluff with little worthwhile added content. :thumbdown


Well, give it some time and we will see. My goal was to make common tasks easier with special sections designed to review products, show off projects, blog, etc.. I also thought the idea of following the people you find the most valuable would make the site easier to use. In theory you could get in and out a lot faster if you didn't have to dig around for the good content. 

But, I know change is tough. Let us work on the kinks and give the new features a try and report back. Thanks!



loneframer said:


> I haven't had any real problems getting around, with a little exploration. I was looking over some old threads though and the ads overlapping the photos and text is pretty annoying.


Work on that now. It WILL be fixed. Trust me :jester:



boman47k said:


> But for someone to be told "no one is forcing........" is even stranger.


I think you guys are misreading that statement a bit. Our goal in this redesign was to not touch what was working but add new features on top of it. In other words, the forums work just like they always have. I understand some people don't like the sidebar and we will see what we can do to resolve the issues but otherwise the forums are faily unchanged. That's what he meant when he said you no one is forcing you (TO USE THE NEW STUFF).



Thanks for all the feedback guys. We are reading it and making changes as needed. Give us some time, try out the new features, and I think it will all be good.


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## rbsremodeling (Nov 12, 2007)

I need a strong drink. ..


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

rbsremodeling said:


> I need a strong drink. ..


YOU need a strong drink.. how do you think I feel? :laughing:


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## Paulie (Feb 11, 2009)

Hmmmmmm, I think I just walked into the wrong house.


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## Cole (Aug 27, 2004)

Guys, give it time.


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## mikeswoods (Oct 11, 2008)

Is there any way to get rid of the silhouette?

I don't want an avitar---Just don't want a mug shot.


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## Paulie (Feb 11, 2009)

Cole said:


> Guys, give it time.


Don't get me wrong, I'm just.... well just not used to change.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

mikeswoods said:


> Is there any way to get rid of the silhouette?
> 
> I don't want an avitar---Just don't want a mug shot.


borrow mine if ya want


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

I used to think the old system was perfect compared to many other forums I enjoy - hope i get used to the new system.

Would also agree with page visits # - I liked checking in and seeing who was lurking. 

And yes, those ads are huge


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## ApgarNJ (Apr 16, 2006)

I like it! great job Nathan and anyone else who made it happen!

I'd like to see a direct button to the NEW posts, but i can handle the drop down menu. I just hate drop down menus. lol.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

ApgarNJ said:


> I like it! great job Nathan and anyone else who made it happen!
> 
> I'd like to see a direct button to the NEW posts, but i can handle the drop down menu. I just hate drop down menus. lol.


You don't have to click it. Just hover the cursor and it will appear. Only one click to get to new posts :thumbsup:


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## tgeb (Feb 9, 2006)

rbsremodeling said:


> I need a strong drink. ..


Nothing new there....Rory always needs a strong drink.


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## ApgarNJ (Apr 16, 2006)

yeah, these are pretty easy to navigate, other sites have horrible hover/drop down menu. 

i'll get used to it.


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## Bud Cline (Feb 12, 2006)

Looks okay to me!
I did notice that the first post on each page has FOUR ADS shoved in the middle of the block within the post, I'm thinking that is a little presumptive don't you think. Who wants those ads in their comments? I wouldn't.

But here's my major complaint that I just discovered and this ain't gonna git it Nathan.

I have my own spellcheck and when I try to use it my contribution goes to hell and becomes unreadable and is shoved all the way to the top of the frame. Why is that I'm wondering.:whistling


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## TileLady (Apr 8, 2008)

This site is loading slowly for me. It's frustrating. And it's all the ads. I am also a computer repair geek so rest assured it's not my computer. The old site loaded up nice and quick.

I'm really afraid to see how this looks and loads on my IPAD. Sorry but I don't care for the CT app so I still just use the regular page.

I really hate ads. I would probably honestly pay for a subscription to this site just so I don't have to see the darn ads. Although some ads (for tools), I do enjoy seeing.


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## Sir Mixalot (Jan 6, 2008)

Looks good Nathan. :clap:
I'm sure once everyone gets some time on the new stuff. They will get used to it more and more.
Thanks for the upgrade.:thumbup:

-Paul


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## ApgarNJ (Apr 16, 2006)

Can we use photobucket links to create a picture project? seems like we can only upload a photo. and mine all have to be resized first, I have a lot of photos on photobucket, but I can't seem to create a project using the photo bucket links.


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## ApgarNJ (Apr 16, 2006)

Bud, you mean mountain Dew?? lol


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## JerLinde (Apr 19, 2011)

Mike's Plumbing said:


> If you just click on "forum" and not the child pages the forum looks the same as the old one.:thumbsup:



Ya I found that no problem, But was just thinking if I was someone who did not know about the other forums not listed in the drop bar.


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## CarpenterRN (Dec 3, 2009)

Another vote for the "new posts/today's posts" in the tool/menu bar.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

It's there:


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## CarpenterRN (Dec 3, 2009)

Thanks, I saw that. I was talking about an actual listing in the visible menu bar like the old site without having to open up a drop down.




** Using the drop down to get new posts, which is a popular feature (re: the new posts icon), is just adding an unnecessary step. It is so much easier to have the "new posts" icon to click on visible in the menu bar.


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## avguy (Feb 8, 2010)

Not bad, looks cleaner.


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

Shawn Prentice said:


> Thanks, I saw that. I was talking about an actual listing in the visible menu bar like the old site without having to open up a drop down.



Shawn....no extra clicks needed. Just let your cursor hover over the "Forum" for maybe 1 second. The drop down automatically appears. It's no more than a 2 second process over the old way.


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

The "What's New" link works great too :whistling


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## Bweikel (Feb 20, 2011)

Kinda off topic but does anyone know how to add a profile pic from i phone ?


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

Bweikel said:


> Kinda off topic but does anyone know how to add a profile pic from i phone ?


Can't be done... yet. Sorry.


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## Acres (Feb 12, 2011)

Maybe it's just me. But I have a bunch of ****e on my right hand side, meehhh change, was it broke befor?


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## CarpenterRN (Dec 3, 2009)

angus242 said:


> It's no more than a 2 second process over the old way.



Come on Angus, that's 2 more seconds off of life, which is getting shorter as we browse these forums


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## Bweikel (Feb 20, 2011)

Nathan said:


> Can't be done... yet. Sorry.


Ok thNks for the quick reply:thumbsup:


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## ewingpainting (Jun 2, 2008)

Looks good on my laptop, no prob wit the adds, just needs some tabs for the mobile browsers. maybe a new post at the bottom and a login


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

ewingpainting said:


> Looks good on my laptop, no prob wit the adds, just needs some tabs for the mobile browsers. maybe a new post at the bottom and a login


We will have a totally new mobile app later this year that does everything.


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## ewingpainting (Jun 2, 2008)

Nathan said:


> We will have a totally new mobile app later this year that does everything.


I hope it doesnt change the format to much, some of the other forums that redirect to a mobile version suck, just speaking for all those mobile users out there, i will be the voice


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

ewingpainting said:


> I hope it doesnt change the format to much, some of the other forums that redirect to a mobile version suck, just speaking for all those mobile users out there, i will be the voice


He's talking about the app, not mobile version.


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

Yes, the mobile app.


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## katoman (Apr 26, 2009)

Ok, good job guys :thumbsup:I like the new site, faster, no problem navigating.

I only have one complaint. After hovering on forum, which is fine, when I click on 'new posts' it's clicking twice. It's driving me nuts.

Is this the site or my mouse? That's the only time it's doing it, so I think it's the site.

All in all a tiny thing to complain about. Site is great. :thumbup:


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## angus242 (Oct 20, 2007)

John, have to say it's your mouse. I don't have the issue nor has it been reported previously.


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## Nathan (Jul 21, 2003)

Using IE?


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## force8 (Aug 25, 2008)

:clap::clap::clap::thumbup::rockon:


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## Bud Cline (Feb 12, 2006)

Hey wait a minute! I don't remember this from the other day here. Only one post per page now and all the rest of the space is filled with ads??? Am I seeing this correctly?


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## boman47k (Oct 13, 2006)

I just click on 'forums', and things seem basically the same as before, except for the ads. The ad thing is no big deal to me after I get past the first post or two. I think I may like that a little better.


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