Recent Error Messages

[roddy]

Anyone who got an error message or a bizarre black and white version of the forums in the last hour can blame me as I was doing my usual 'live experimentation'. What I'm trying to do and what will probably happen in the next couple of days is that guests viewing discussion pages will get the same stripped down version of the forums made available to PDA users. This is mainly to try and get bandwidth under control, but I suspect it will also improve search engine rankings and so on. I'll be keeping an eye on stuff like new user registrations to see if it has any impact, either positive or negative.

It shouldn't make much difference to registered users - you might see the stripped down version on your first visit of the day, but once you log in you'll be back to normal.

Roddy

[roddy]

Changes are now in effect - will see what actual consequences they have over the next couple of weeks, I may just change it all back. To sum up:

If you are a registered member, the only difference will be a different appearance to the forum IF you visit a discussion page while not logged in - ie if you don't choose the 'remember me' option and click an email link informing you of a new post. As soon as you log in, you're back to normal.

If you aren't a registered member, all discussion pages will be the very plain black and white view until you register and log in.

The light style is actually available to all members if they want it - I use it on my PDA. It's not fully functional, as you'll notice if you try to use it, but if you want it upgraded, let me know. Squeaky wheels, etc. You can try it out by clicking here and return to normality here (one of the problems with it is there's currently no 'take me back to the normal style' link once you've opted in, hence the links)

If you are seeing something that you think is wrong, let me know - there are a fair number of conditionals hanging around checking to see who's logged in and who isn't and who's opted to hide ads and who hasn't and so on, and I wouldn't be surprised if I got mixed up somewhere.