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Pastimes : SI Beta Site Launch - 7/01/99 -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (150)	7/4/1999 10:55:00 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2340

Does anybody agree with me on this? Or am I just speaking for myself? Posting part of a message sent to SI: I think you may be dissipating your energies too much, trying to turn SI into a one-stop site. For example, I do not keep my portfolio here, and do not plan to do so in the future. Other sites have much more sophisticated set-ups. Check out Morningstar, for example, which lets you view your portfolio in four different ways. What I came -- and continue to come -- to SI for is the message boards. And I will risk the guess that that is the reason most people in the past have come here. So I feel that the bulk of your efforts should be focussed on the one thing that makes you different from other sites. But as the absence of the two features mentioned above [thread index and "this thread only" search button] demonstrates, you have not made this area your priority. For example, I would like to see the search functions extended. Going back six months is not enough. It would be nice if I could start at a point a year ago in a thread, say, and then search back six months from that point. I think you will find that enhancing the message boards (and I definitely don't mean just visually) is the best way to keep the more thoughtful posters. You will never be able to compete with Yahoo! in terms of sheer posting volume and numbers of threads devoted to particular stocks. But you can ensure that SI will attract the posters who are interested in more thoughtful, literate, and civil discussion and analysis. jbe

To: marcos who wrote (150)	7/4/1999 11:24:00 AM
From: David Lawrence	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 2340

Hi Marcos, I've pretty much reserved comment on visual aspects of the new user interface until now. My typical reaction to software updates is to initially dislike a new interface format. However, more often than not, once I become accustomed to the new format I recognize its superiority over the old. It's in our nature to resist change. Some comparisons of SI Classic to Beta: Classic uses larger font sizes to aid in the visibility of navigation tools. Beta uses the same font size for almost everything. Both use sans serif font for everything except the actual message text. Beta does too, except for private messages, which are currently displayed in sans serif. A temporary oversight, I suspect. Both sites use colored rules. Classic uses them only for navigation bars, while Beta uses them for page formatting and some navigation bars. A major difference here is that Classic always uses dark text imbedded in colored bars, whereas Beta has some darker bars with reversed white text. We've dealt with this issue on documents published on our intranet and have come to the conclusion that dark rules with light text are something to be generally avoided. To wit: The reversed or light text on a dark background can be very eye-appealing in a high-resolution environment, such as process color on coated stock paper. Computer monitors are a different matter. Scott mentioned earlier in this thread that he was seeing a gradient in the colored bars. I observe the same thing - it's an effect of a LCD screen on a laptop. The bars will appear to have varying gradients as the position of the user's head and eyes move relative to the screen. There is also a tendency for reversed or white text to become "washed out" on a dark background. This is not observed on SI Classic because all of the colored backgrounds there use a lighter color with a dark typeface. The result of all of this is that a user in the current Beta environment must "search" for these features or labels because they do not stand out was well, thus detracting from the appeal of the site. It's a delicate thing, to be sure. Even though Cheeky's mock up uses dark type on colored rules, it too gives the washed out effect because the blue rules are too dark. Some continued tweaking is in order, IMHO.