Hi Accipiter,
I assume this new program will have a linkage from the "Resources" drop down, yes?
"Anyone interested in an ETF navigator"............
Hmmmmm......that thought passed through the brain cells when I was testing the De'Scramble.
Knowing that you enjoy the work and challenge, I would be a fool to say no to a similar etf program.
Sure wish there was a way to buy you a cup of coffee or otherwise...........
Thank you again,
Catch

Reply to @Accipiter: Fixed now.

superb, wonderful aid and a tip of tshe hat to Accipiter !
I use aol.com and google chrome.
both are workable. philpill

Accipiter,
Should have had that third cup of coffee. Wouldn't ya know I tried India and Japan and without the space. Read the directions, Catch !!!!!
Used Russia and a few others.............all is well using XP/w IE8.
Catch

Hi Accipiter,
Ticker works fine............example: placed "ptt" to start, which I know should find Pimco Total Return. All classes for this fund did populate the list, and any one choice does highlight with a mouse hover.
The fund name lookup, as with your example of India or other names I used; did no operate.
Using IE 8.
Thank you for your time and efforts for this superb function.
Regards,
Catch

Reply to @Accipiter: How about MAXFunds.com ?

Howdy Accipiter,
I encountered the same problems as Maurice noted; but both areas are now normal.
Thank you.
Catch

Reply to @Investor:
The discussion board is now encapsulated within a WordPress page using the embedVanilla plug-in. Additionally the width is determined by the custom theme for WordPress that was developed by a talented volunteer. I can't easily see a way to change the width for just the discussion pages without changing the entire theme. However, you can gain maximum screen real estate by opening just the discussion board in a new tab or window. That eliminates the entire header and lets the board expand to full width. Alternately, you could try Accipiter's recommendation.
By the way, I do feel your pain. I most often access and work on the site with my laptop at a resolution of 1366 x 768.

Reply to @Accipiter:
First, I am sure you remember I have spent my personal time in various issues related to this site. In other words, I did volunteer as much as I can. Unfortunately, I do not have access to the site at a level to fix some of these silly stuff.
The only change that needs to happen is the removal of the width attribute from the frame specification that encapsulates the board. The board itself is capable of using the full width of browser and is artificially restricted.

Dear friends,
Chip and her stalwart programmer James completed the transition of the Observer to its new look and feel around dinner time on Sunday, November 27th. We hope you like it. While there are several adjustments left to complete - for example, they weren't able to move the Falcon's Eye to the new format yet, so it's functional vut looks the same as before - the basic look of the site should be settled now.
As Accipiter points out, you'll need to update any bookmarks to see the new pages. If you have the Fund Discussions bookmarked, start with our new homepage, click on the new link to "Fund Discussions" and then set your bookmark.
If you encounter problems, please do post them on the Technical Questions board or drop us a note.
Any changes in the board software, which we'd make only if that seems to be the collective will of the community, is still some weeks away. More on that topic around December 1.
Deepest gratitude to Chip and James for surrendering much of their holiday weekend to handle this transition.
As ever,
David

Reply to @Maurice: Hi, Mo!
Two separate issues. The status of the board software is open for discussion and we (Accipiter, Chip and I) are just starting to look at it. The other changes are fait accompli; the look was designed in great haste during the transition and the navigation was never as good as it could be, so I'm intent on trying to clean both of those issues up. The board, though, is a special part of the site and there especially, I want to be responsive to the needs and interests of its members.
Hope that helps,
David

Reply to @catch22: Hi, Catch.
Accipiter has the two boards set up and running on his own machine, and so I'll have to defer to him on the limits of the possible. In general, I imagine we could keep the current board as an archive, for a while or permanently.
David

Dear friends,
A friend of MFO and very talented website designer, Anya Z., took up the challenge of redesigning the Observer's look and navigation. She worked with my design preferences (clean, clear, navigable, friendly, vaguely dignified) and has made some substantial improvements. Beyond the cosmetic changes, we'll have better navigation, substantially better access to the archive, cleaner and more complete menus and far few headaches for Chip when it comes time to post new content.
Chip and two members of her staff have given over part of their holiday weekend to making the site transition happen. At the moment, they're making the page by page transition. The change will affect the background of the discussion board, but not its function or content.
There might be little bugs after the change. If so, just let us know and the technically competent folks (which is to say, not me) will get on it.
-----------------
On a related note: Chip, Accipiter and I are now discussing whether it would be in our collective best interest to re-initiate the discussion board using the software traditionally associated with FundAlarm's discussion board. That program, wwwboard, is old and no longer supported by its creator. It has none of the side features of Vanilla Board, the current software, and might be more susceptible to spam. Accipiter is looking at the prospect of needing to rewrite the software. That said, it's clear that the old software had a very open and welcoming feel. For those who might not have been active on the FundAlarm board, here's an archived snapshot of the old board (courtesy of the Wayback Machine): http://web.archive.org/web/20100722113832/http://www.fundalarm.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html
Our plan is to email a survey to all of the board's registered users, almost 700 people, with special attention on the 150 or so people who visit regularly. (Surprised? I was. Chip reports that most evenings, there are about 150 folks visiting the board.) Accipiter has a series of questions, from which features of the new board folks find most useful to whether we should consider running the fund discussion board with one set of software and the off-topic board with the other.
Nothing has been decided. Mostly we're just listening to folks' concerns and trying to make this as good a place as we can.
Thanks for your patience and support. I'll share updated information as it becomes available.
As ever,
David

As some will remember, back on FA we were able to post a link which would transition directly to another thread within FA itself. I've been trying to do that on MFO, but on my browser at least, the results are very erratic and useless. I'm probably missing something here- any ideas?

Hi Accipiter,
I am not complaining; and I am not leaning on you, Chip or David for a fix. I am most pleased that MFO exists; and I sure can live without a full blown search function. I just could not determine why some searches were normal and the bee search did not work; thinking there was a problem at our pc.
Thank you for your time,
Catch

Howdy Accipiter,
Before I forget...........and thinking about birds of prey; had one of these on the wooden fence 10 feet from the house and it was not particularly afraid of my approach within 10 feet or so and just hopped from the fence to a nearby maply tree as I stood and watched. A very pretty bird.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_harrier/id
Today, I presume the same bird; while I happened to be standing in the driveway glided quietly downward and snagged a dove for breakfast not 20 feet above my head. Farther north in Michigan, folks have lost cats and small dogs in the yards to the eagles.
The search: I found many post names without problem; but was looking for a post from bee . No luck. Search found nothing related at all......blank.
Thank you for your thoughts about this; and I would prefer a more full bodied search, too; but I don't use the function too much and not on a bitch list. The site is fine.
Regards,
Catch

Morning, Catch- dunno, I tried with a few different names and they all seemed to work OK. Tried with Accipiter, as I knew that he would have a whole lot of posts, and it did fine with him too. The search function apparently does not just look for posting names, but evidently searches in the posting text as well- ie, try "dunno" (without the quotes) and see what comes up. The search is persnickety about spelling, though, and I would guess that "close" does not count for this function.

I'm willing to think about it. There are four considerations that kept me from tracking "alarming funds" from the get-go.
1. I'd need to secure the technical expertise to create it -- I'm pretty much clueless on what would actually have to happen.
2. I'd need to find or hire a programmer to do the monthly updates -- in truth, I'm running flat-out as it is (the site, parenthood, three classes, 32 advisees, administrative responsibilities to the college and a desultory research program) -- and I'm not willing to dump more work on Chip and Accipiter.
3. as Investor notes, it'll cost - though I know not what.
And, most importantly,
4. it's clear how much predictive validity the model has. At base, I'm not sure whether 2010's "alarming" funds actually underperformed the market in 2011, for instance, or whether the "honor roll" outperformed it. It might be that the "most alarming" funds remain consistently alarming, but the research on the predictive value of winners' performance is pretty discouraging.
So, in any case, that's the sort of stuff I've been pondering. I want to the site to be as useful and accessible as possible, but I also want to be sure that we're able to sustain whichever initiatives we start.
Back to grading!
David

Reply to @Accipiter:
Hi A,
I often find this feature (edit) helpful...thanks for the work you do here for this forum.
Thanks for your response,
bee

Hi Accipiter,
Noticed the sideback time/date, too.....and this is a nice add-on.
Catch