Think speed...

[Lourens]

I love the Buriram Expats website! I like all the valuable information that is available. I’m keen to the idea of sharing and having good conversations. I’m fond of separate sections for different topics. I care for the chat box.

I dislike all the advertising. I hate the scroll boxes. I despise the worthless icons. I loathe the spam.

I know advertising generates income and it is a necessary evil. I’ve tried reading the scroll boxes once but found it irritatingly repetitive serving no function at all. And those icons and other worthless junk on the site make it very slow to load a page. With already slow connections in our area, it can be a painful experience wasting time while I could have had another beer. Sometimes the site loads only up to the non-functioning chat box and then stops!
I would love to explore the other parts of the website (not only the forums) but never gets the chance because of the above problems just getting to the good stuff. I have a very fast connection in my office at work but even then, attempting to read the forum is met with hung time.

I truly feel the website is due for a major overhaul. It might be a good idea to consult with others and get their feelings on the subject. There are many forums on the internet using the same engine but with speeds twice or even three times faster than Buriram Expats. Perhaps it’s just me, but what do other users think?

Please comment…

[ADMIN]

Let's talk about all these points you mentioned:

Scroll box:
Took off.

Forum Icons:
I assume you're talking about the new design/symbols for each BOARD.
I would love to hear your opinion about it and suggestments to improvements, what we are trying to do is simply to make the forum more visualised, plain text doesn't generate more readers..I'm talking about people with less/no experience in forum systems.
for all of us, forum is a comfortable easy pratform to work on but many others do not familiar with this system.
Make a suggestment about the size of the icon or anything else and we'll test it to all users satisfaction.

Spam:
The main problem of all forum operator.We have few "firewalls" blocking the spam and if they doesn't work, we do it manually asap.

Advertising:
compare to other big main forums systems, we have very few advertising ads, compare with TV or other forums, you'll find us relatively clean of ads.
Please do remember we operate the forum by ourself. self sponsored highly time consuming with all the aspects of running the website and forum at once.

Internet connection:

Mostly the website server is OK, we are aware of slow internet connection especially in the villages areas where there is a need for minimum upload data websites to surf in the website with all the functions, however sometimes there is a conflict between powerful function (higher internet speed consuming) to simple and less powerful applications allowing users with low speed connection experience all website's functions.
Finding the balance,together with good stable website's design is our main goal and challenge.
We'll not compromise on either of them and we'll keep doing our research and implements in the future.

Any comment are welcome.
We're always working to make you feel as much comfortable as can in the forum. 

[Lourens]

Already an improvement. I think those scroll boxes was just a nuisance. I agree, not many are familiar with forums and how they work exactly. But I think it gets confusing when you have to start looking for a link among all the nice pictures. Right now, the pictures stand out and distract attention. In my opinion it is the links that should stand out while pictures are used to make the site attractive. Perhaps the pictures could move to the right side to leave the subject links more exposed. (With cookies enabled, the pictures load quick enough)

You already explained about spam and filters for it and I understand it fully. Unfortunately, we have to live with that. Luckily, spam does not slow the website down.

Advertising: I understand about the advertising and I appreciate tremendiously the effort you put into Buriram Expats. But here is what I suggest: Replace the Phanom Rung picture and BE logo with just a Buriram Expats (spelled out in ful) banner across the top. This can be narrower in hight and will eliminate the need to scroll down to see forum topics. Also, move Google adds to the right side oriented vertically. Again, this will move forum topics up on the page and easier to access.

Thanks Admin! You're doing us all a great service to administrate this website.

[ADMIN]

you'll see some changes within today.
I agree with you I carried away with the design and pictures, bringing the topics upper to the forum page and minimize scrolling is very important point.
Please comment after the changes I'll do today.
  Thank you.

[ADMIN]

Is it better now?
 

[TBWG]

Is it better now?
 

It seems quicker now, 

TBWG

[Lourens]

FAAANTASTIC! You're a wizard  It is much faster than before and does not look cluttered anymore. Welldone. I hope others feel the same way. Thanks Admin.

[Lourens]

OK - I played around on it a bit now. May I make two other sugestions?

1. There is no link from the forums page to the front page where all the good things are. I would like to access things like the maps, gallery and other information by only clicking on a link.

2. (Appologies to Dave) This is the BURIRAM forum. The Surin section should not be first and should be moved down.

Once again - Thank you for all your attention and hard work.

[ADMIN]

no problem. yu're right about the surin location, it shouldn't be there.

please advice about location of surin forum.

I'll add the links to website's homepage within today.

 
keep give me notes if you feel like some more changes need to be done here.
It helps alot.
 

[Lourens]

Surin forum - right between Gay people and Family and children. (I'M KIDDING!!!) Somewhere down the list is fine as long as it's not the first. And there is no need to make it separate either. They're all part of the family. 

[buriramboy]

agree. new design much much better. look cool also. 

[ADMIN]

I took off all the Pictures/ Icons / Banners on board index to keep the forum clear.

I think the forum will upload faster now and easier to navigate.

[dave the dude]

OK - I played around on it a bit now. May I make two other sugestions?

1. There is no link from the forums page to the front page where all the good things are. I would like to access things like the maps, gallery and other information by only clicking on a link.

2. (Appologies to Dave) This is the BURIRAM forum. The Surin section should not be first and should be moved down. None needed, Lourens. I agree 100%

Once again - Thank you for all your attention and hard work.

The easiest thing in the world to do is criticize someone who is trying to change things, That said, I think you have done a great job and work incredibly hard on this forum (& I should know). I think these changes are an improvement and the increase in speed is an added bonus. IMHO the page looks far neater but slightly too orange! LOL.

One observation>> When I use the spell check, the background is black and is hard to deal with. Can this be changed to fall inline with the posting box( for instance) 

[ADMIN]

OK - I played around on it a bit now. May I make two other sugestions?

1. There is no link from the forums page to the front page where all the good things are. I would like to access things like the maps, gallery and other information by only clicking on a link.

2. (Appologies to Dave) This is the BURIRAM forum. The Surin section should not be first and should be moved down. None needed, Lourens. I agree 100%

Once again - Thank you for all your attention and hard work.

The easiest thing in the world to do is criticize someone who is trying to change things, That said, I think you have done a great job and work incredibly hard on this forum (& I should know). I think these changes are an improvement and the increase in speed is an added bonus. IMHO the page looks far neater but slightly too orange! LOL.

One observation>> When I use the spell check, the background is black and is hard to deal with. Can this be changed to fall inline with the posting box( for instance) 

We'll change it today. Thank you for your input!

[ADMIN]

We have changed the forum color tones into light blue as it was in the first place, I think it might be better to brighten the forum working area and give it fresh feeling!

The question is...... WHAT DO YOU THINK ?