I'm going to weigh in on a couple of the new features:I like what you're trying to do with the "new" flag added to newer reviews, but it's not working. Number one, there are numerous listings that come up for providers as "new" on a particular day, but the individual reviews don't always have a "new" box. Additionally, as was the case for one review I e-mailed you about today (Samara/Moe), it was listed as today (11.29), but the only "new" review on that provider was one I'd read yesterday.Wouldn't it be better to just stack the reviews on top in the order that you reveive them with the latest one on top? (It would take the reviews out of chronological month-order, but we can see which month it came in, so that's not such a big deal, It's much more important, to my mind, to read the ones not yet read.)Then I'd like to see a check box where you could indicate "read" or "unread". That way, much like you're keeping track of our favorites, we could keep track of which reviews we've read and which we haven't.The "new" box is not preventing already-read reviews from being clicked on, which, I thought, was the point.

I agree with Mister E - I'd like an indicator that shows I have already read that review.  This could be accomplished if instead of those grey VIEW and REVIEW buttons, you used hyper-text links (like you do with the reviewer's name).  That way, the browser automatically changes the color of the hyperlink that you have visited.  Without this, I am often confused after reading a review and returning to the list, which I have already read.  Even if I'm going down the list, I have to remember the one I looked at before.

The problem with this is that ultimately your previous-hit links expire, and that you are back to not knowing for sure.  It would help if you did things in a sequential fashion, but not that much.I think that if the posts had their posting date listed as well as the date of the visit, and if we were able to sort the reviews by posting date, this would make things a lot easier for people.

We are still trying to figure out how to make the "new" info more readily available. I will have to check on the button thing. I know that there is alot of java behind it.To track reviews veiwed by each user isn't simple, pluss it would require that we store a ton of data. I don't think that we want to do that. The ordering of reviews was talked about, but we can open it back up.I will talk to the programmer and see which things are doable.

Here's the Java code to change the VIEW button to a hyperlink, so you get change of color automatically when visited.Old Code (button):[form ACTION="../control/ShowReview.asp?Review=478&user=1074" METHOD="post" id="form2" name="form2"][tr height="31" bgcolor="ccccff"][td width="51" height="31"][input type="submit" value="VIEW" name="VIEW"]New Code (hyperlink):[a href="../control/ShowReview.asp?Review=478&user=1074"]VIEW[/a]--modified by mojo at Thu, Nov 30, 2000, 05:48:09

Here it is in action:

Not to beat a dead horse, but this "New" feature is just not working at all. There are reviews marked 12/1 that have "new" listings that were from days past, but no additional reviews marked "new", yet the provider is listed as a 12/1 review.Again, why not stack the most recently submitted review at the TOP of the stack and add a button to check review as "read"?

Like the Staff person said, having TER keep track of which reviews you have read and which reviews you haven't would require a database for each person using the service, or at least each VIP member.  That might not be too easy to implement, and it might affect performance.I proposed a simple solution, and nobody seemed to comment on it.  If TER posted the date the review was added along with the date the session occured, one could pretty much guess what they had read and what they hadn't.  You could even make the list sortable by either date.

Chubby, let me ask you a question then:Is the "Favorites" list only available to VIP's? If not, why would that be any different than keeping a database of which reviews have been read?But, you're right. If they did include the date the review was added, it seems to me that would be a simple and elegant solution.I'd still push for the latest review always being the top one of the stack as well, but your date solution would probably accomplish the same function.

We need to come to some sort of general agreement as to what works for everyone. We can change the button to a link, flip the sort order and add the date posted without a ton of work. Is that OK?

As has been said, probably the most foolproof and easy way is to change the physical sort order (newest review on top) and definitely add the exact date the review is posted and let us keep track ourselves.However, if the button can easily be changed to a link which will mark a review as "read" or "unread" it seems to me that would be an additional good thing.

One only marks a few favorites, so you are talking about a few extra artifacts that were stored.But let's say that you've looked at reviews of hundreds of providers, and many of those providers have ten or more reviews.  Do you see how many things would have to be tracked in that case?  That's why I would probably not want to implement this if I were running this site. It sounds like they are quite agreeable to the sort order change and the date posted feature, and I think we'll all be happy with that.

eom

We will start on this modification early next week.

OK, this update has been completed. Check it out and see if we need to change anything.

I'm very happy with the new sort order and the links that change color when I visited that review.  Thanks!

No problem. Keep the ides coming and we will do our best to continue to develope the site in the areas that everyone feels we need to.