My computer blocks them too. I was surfing with my iPhone this afternoon and saw an ad in one of my posts.

The first post in this thread by Venture has an ad for "BE NAUGHTY" "START DATING" "JOIN NOW!" I can only imagine the first time Steve Lackmeyer posts and finds an ad for the Oklahoma Gazette nestled in among the wisdom.

Not gonna speak for Venture or Steve, but as far as I'm concerned that kind of crap has got to go.

You might just consider either not looking at the ads, or watching less porn on your iphone.

I've been working on setting up a photo hosting tool... There was one installed when I bought the site years ago but is no longer functional after all the software upgrades.

I'd like to get the current version and have it installed properly, but all this takes money and there a few other upgrades we need to do first.

But I agree that photography should be an important part of this site. We'll get something setup soon.

A simple forum may have the strongest ease of use, for both the photographer wanting to share, and the reader who knows where to go for photo sets. The photo hosting tool sounds wieldy, difficult to navigate, and like it may use up a lot of bandwidth. As it is, if people want to show dozens of photos, they could just host it off-site somewhere else and hyperlink, then the photo forum index page can serve as a listing of different photo sets. (god I hope nobody ever thinks to start a never-ending "show your photos here" catch-all thread, a la Mystery Tower thread)

Are posts able to be edited?

In the FAQ, it says to click the "EDIT" button and at the bottom of my pages, it says I may edit my posts. For the life of me, I can find "Report Post", "Reply"; "Reply With Quote"; and "Multi Quote"; but I cannot find "EDIT".

Never mind. It appears that the ability to edit goes away within a day's time from the original posting. I'll just have to live with my various mistakes.

You can always report the post and ask for an edit by a moderator.

You may have noticed this already, but the site in the last day or two has started having an issue with the last page you can click to from the 'new posts' page in at least some cases of long running threads not be anywhere near the last page.

In any forum (or if you use the "What's New" button to get the most recent list from all forums) I always click on the little blue icon to the left of the thread title (shown below). It will take you to the first post you have yet to read in that thread, rather than the last one.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/newposts.jpg

I think the wikipedia function just makes everything way too complicated.....

Not sure how in love I am with this new format.

It's not even close to fully implemented and will be much more organized once it is.

Unfortunately, I can't do this off on the side, so what you are seeing is a big work in progress.

You may have noticed this already, but the site in the last day or two has started having an issue with the last page you can click to from the 'new posts' page in at least some cases of long running threads not be anywhere near the last page.Actually it's not just recently. I've experienced this intermittently for several months but have yet to find any pattern of events that can make it reproducible so that Pete can troubleshoot it. My experience has mostly been that when it fails, it takes me to the first post in the thread, even if the thread has dozens of pages.

It's been a bit of an annoyance when I've already read the most recent post, then want to go back to it and refresh my memory several hours or days later.

It does look like a mess right now, but the only change that I'd suggest is with the banner..that particular skyline angle still isn't growing on me.

My site usage and interest has certainly gone down. Too much information in one place. It's going from a discussion based forum to a fact-reference encyclopedia with an attached forum....

Pages are taking longer to load as well, because of all the information.

Again, not nearly finished.

It's going to be messy for at least another week.

Pete - Is there any way we could get a "personal attacks" forum?

Yea...maybe a place to bitch about other posters, etc. You know, a "cyber bully" forum.

I get what you're aiming for, I think. However, is there a way to click a switch on my end so that when I click alink in new postings, I can go straight to the discussion thread instead of landing on the article page and having to click a new to ipen the discussion thread.

Not a big fan of article page purgatory myself.

I get what you're aiming for, I think. However, is there a way to click a switch on my end so that when I click alink in new postings, I can go straight to the discussion thread instead of landing on the article page and having to click a new to ipen the discussion thread.

Not a big fan of article page purgatory myself.

I click on the "go to first new post" blue button next to the thread title and I never go to the article page.

Also, I'm still not a fan of the "other urban development" forum. I think it needs to go back in with the general urban forum.

I click on the "go to first new post" blue button next to the thread title and I never go to the article page. ...

THANKS. Dinna know that front dot was actually a link.
Color me a happy camper.

I know things are a work in progress but is there any way to replicate the link bar (New Posts Private Messages FAQ OKC Event Calendar Community Forum Actions Quick Links) under the tabs on the info pages like it is on the discussion pages? I have become used to those being there.

Looks like we got a like feature on each post!

However appears everyone is still hit by the bug where they can't navigate to the forum by just going to www.okctalk.com. Might need to put up a simple re-direct page to go to www.okctalk.com/index.php

Looks like we got a like feature on each post!

However appears everyone is still hit by the bug where they can't navigate to the forum by just going to www.okctalk.com. Might need to put up a simple re-direct page to go to www.okctalk.com/index.php

The re-direct should be corrected. Try hitting refresh if you go to the root address.

The re-direct should be corrected. Try hitting refresh if you go to the root address.

That it is. Silly cache. :)

Thanks for the updates!

Love all the changes...but I miss the downtown OKC skyline picture in the title graphic/logo. Realize its just one guy's opinion, but the new logo doesn't do much for me. Old one was really good.

What is the OklahomaTalk Network?

In the process of forming a local network of websites.


I'll probably add back some sort of skyline image down the road.

I agree with SoonerDave, the old banner/graphic with the pic of OKC's skyline was better.

Any chance we can get Tapatalk integration?

I looked into TapaTalk but by choosing the Mobile style as shown below, the site looks pretty darn good on a mobile device:




http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/mobile.jpg

Any tips for iPad optimization?

Any tips for iPad optimization?

I just use the regular site settings and it looks great.

You can also use the mobile template.

The banner at the top of the page kinda reminds me of the Napster logo, lol.

Question-When I used to scroll over people's names several options came up including "see forum posts" now when i do this it just says if they are on or offline. Was this a conscious change?

Question-When I used to scroll over people's names several options came up including "see forum posts" now when i do this it just says if they are on or offline. Was this a conscious change?

i thought it has always worked by clicking on the name... -M

Ok. Got it. Thanks

ditto. I think I've always left clicked on a name to get options like see forum posts, view profile, send a pm

I just use the regular site settings and it looks great.

You can also use the mobile template.

True...the Ohio urban board has a crappy iPad app version that prevents me from seeing the regular site and this is much better.

what happened to the downtown landscape banner pic at the top of the page? And what is the "Oklahoma Talk Network"?

I must've missed a thread or three!

Ummm...one observation....while I realize adverts have become a practical necessity, I do happen to notice that I get a lot of rather tasteless "Date sexy young asian girl" banner ads that I could most certainly do without. Any way you can control those, O benevolent site owner?

Yes.

I can exclude any advertisers so if you could send me detailed information (a screen shot would be most helpful) I will pull them.


Keep in mind that the ads are tailored to your web browsing habits. :)

Keep in mind that the ads are tailored to your web browsing habits. :)

Which just blows my mind, because my predominant ad is for Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge and, although I drive one, I don't recall ever searching or browsing them.

Yes.

I can exclude any advertisers so if you could send me detailed information (a screen shot would be most helpful) I will pull them.


Keep in mind that the ads are tailored to your web browsing habits. :)

LOL! Yeah, right :)

Actually, I think its demographics, because there's an "age" overtone to the ad image. When it comes up again, I'll snag it and let you know..

Ads are displayed based on browser behavior AND user profile (Demographics).

You don't necessarily have to search for a particular brand of truck to see those ads. You may just fit a demographic profile. There are literally thousands of factors advanced ad networks use. Not all of them are "interest based" like you think of when you think of conducting a search.

However, ads like "hot Asian girls" or more offensive geared ads, usually are the result of some type of behavior, not merely demographics. Why? Simple. They are optimized so that when they "roll" an impression (an ad is visible on the page you are on) they want the ad you are most likely to click on. Offensive ads don't have a high click-through rate (CTR). Relatability, timing (how recent did you search for that thing), social (peer) values, have more affect on whether or not you see an ad. CTRs go down as these values become less relevant. Few people are going to waste money on ads you are not likely to click on. And ad networks aren't going to waste ad space when a more viable ad is queued up.

The ad showing for me right now is for an online urban planning degree. Which makes sense since I was looking for grad schools that offered online planning programs last week.

If you are curious to see just how many ad networks are tracking your behavior, just install a tracking extension(plugin) for your browser and see. A popular one on Chrome is Ghostery. It will show you on each site, which sites/networks are tracking you. On most sites, this is several at a time.


If you want to modify what Google Adsense is showing you (this site uses Google Adsense to serve ads), then you can adjust your settings.

A couple ways to get to the right page:

1) Hover over the ad itself. A small graphic will appear that says "Ad Choices". Click on that and then scroll down to "Ad preferences". From there you will be able to remove generic topics

2) Search for Google Ads Preference Manager


Also, Google uses the DoubleClick cookies. Which means you can opt-out pretty powerfully. DoubleClick is a Network Advertising Initiative company which can be opted out of by going here: Opt Out From Online Behavioral Advertising By Participating Companies (BETA) (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/)

Just by visiting that link, you will immediately see how many companies actually are tracking your browser. Make sure you are sitting down. :)


If you are using Chrome, be sure to install this plugin to ensure sustained "opt-out" status as your browser is likely to change over time: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/keep-my-opt-outs/hhnjdplhmcnkiecampfdgfjilccfpfoe

If you need help with any of that, just ask. Happy to help.

Well, just for a personal disclaimer, I've not been doing ANY such searching that I could remotely fathom would induce a formula to pop that kind of ad, so I'm hoping maybe it was an outlier. Today's ads are much more sensible, eg Staples, Solar Energy company, stuff like that.

I over-emphasized that. While behavior is likely, it isn't the kind of behavior that always includes searches. Just visiting a completely legit singles website could trigger it. There is no way to know precisely and I didn't mean to imply you've been doing anything like that.

Oh, heavens, I know that, Sid. It's all good. :)