I have had a profile here for a little while, but this is not the site I turn to by choice, and as I have the odd friend here that prefers this site, I thought it might help the site admin to hear why I dont like it that much. I doubt I am the 1st to moan, but I am saying this with a positive attitude - I would like to see this a more usable site...

* Some of the pages are very slow to load - this may be just the home page? - which is overly complicated and has way too much stuff in too many columns - all of which probably slows it down. Not to mention all those annoying chat windows along the bottom.

* Chat - I do like to chat sometimes, but I always miss those little chat things along the bottom. I'd prefer a dedicated chat page (I often have multiple tabs open - EG facebook on one and facebook messages in another - I see a red dot on the tab when there is a new message in there, so easy to keep an eye on).
My PC is also on most of the time, so it looks like I am open to chat all the time, but I just dont see people say hello.

* Friends list? - there must be a place to just see a list of those people I have added as friends, but I can't find it.

If I used the site more, I'd feed back on more of it. Maybe later - see how this goes 1st...

Many thanks for the site, I would like to use it more...
Caitlin
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Hi Caitlin and thanks for your observations. While it's always nice to receive compliments when we get things right, I believe that good, honest, well-intentioned criticism is far more important because it helps us to improve. Posts like these are always welcome.

We are well aware that our 'Home' page is often very slow to load but the reason is not because of all the various elements on the page. It is in fact because of the 'Safe Feed' system which is supposed to help prevent adult photos from appearing in our Activity Feed or Wall. Unfortunately it consumes an awful lot of resources and slows the loading of the page right down.

We would like to get this problem sorted out but we simply cannot afford to pay developers for the time it would take to get it right. Remember, Transtastic is a free community so we have no proper income. We occasionally receive a little donation from one of the members but that is usually in the order of £10 or maybe £15 and whilst welcome, it does really not go very far. We also have a very small share of advertising revenue but that is quite tiny.

>I'd prefer a dedicated chat page...

There is one. Just click on the Chat option in the main menu near the top of every page. That said, the chat room is usually pretty quiet. We need some Chat Tsars to get people in there. Any takers?

Your Friends List is available on your Profile page. Just click on the Profile Menu item that says Friends.

Hope that helps. Do let me know if you find any other problems (there are loads). Although we are aware of most of them and can't afford to get them fixed, our members often flag up new things for us to grapple with.

Many thanks for your feedback.

Katie :)

Thank you Katie, LOADS of feedback - much appreciated.

I will go over it and reply... I am sure you are aware of much of this, but a "newbie" view might be useful:

* I understand - the performance of the main page is a tricky thing, and then more so due to finances.
Community funding is tricky - I contribute to some sites - but usually after I have used them for a while and want them to carry on... A chicken and egg problem - one of those sites has since pissed me off with nagging ads for money, AFTER I gave them some - worse their nag stops you using the page for a few seconds each time - so I probably wont give them any more in future. They did not reply to my feedback there...

* I like the look of the chat page - I dont chat too often on these sites, but it's good to see that. I also found I can use the icon bottom right to show I am offline - that stops all those little msg tabs that I never spotted in time.

* I think I found the Friends menu item you referred to. Initially I thought it would be a drop down menu off the menu at the top -
HOME PROFILES CHAT ALBUMS PERSONALS DATING FORUM BLOGS VIDEOS ADVERTISE MORE

But there is a lower menu bar too -
All Updates Friends Photos Posts Videos Classifieds Scheduled Posts Groups More
* I'd prefer a simpler look, but £££
* I was looking for a simple list of who I had friended, but that seems to be a selected feed of their updates, so not as useful for that.

Lastly for now - the reply box is a tad small (3 lines, but scrollable I know) - just funny on long replies like this.

Caitlin
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Hi again Caitlin,

> I think I found the Friends menu item you referred to...

No, that's not it. You need to be on your Profile page. To get to your profile page in the first place, just take a look at the main menu, near the top of every page. Just above it to the left of Sign Out there's a smaller version of your profile photo. Click on that and you'll be taken to your Profile page.

Once there you will see a little menu at the bottom of the main picture and one of the options is Friends. Click that and you'll see a list of all your friends.

And yes, the reply box you referred to is a bit small but it does say 'Quick Reply'. If you are not in a hurry you can also use the big reply box by clicking on the pink Reply button which is located near the top of this page. On the downside, the bigger box is on a page of its own which does not show the post you're replying to.

Anyway, hope that helps a bit.

Best regards,

Katie :)

Thank you Katie, I am getting there... just the usual quirks of different sites.

Caitlin
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Hi Caitlin,
I totally understand where you're coming from with your views, I used to be a moderator here at Transtastic and the site was a real mess.

Home page would take over 60 seconds to load and many times up to 3 minutes or just time out, forum and other parts would just time out none stop, and I'm on a 76mb fibre connection.

Now things pretty much work as they should though there are still bugs to be worked on, and home page for me takes about 23 seconds approx to load now, and it is consistently that too.

But yeah, there are still things to improve, was many idea's I had at the time of being a moderator but was shocked to find out it would cost 100's for one thing and 1000's for another.

But I can honestly say from way it used to be when Katie took over the site to how it is now, it is a 1000 times better than it used to be, and I'm sure in time as money comes in it will get even better.

If I was super rich and could say how much would it cost for the following, then pay for it to be done, I've always liked the layout and look of TVChix, is it any better to transtastic or gender society or others? to me yes as it's what I'm used to, to many users who have grown up with the likes of facebook and are used to the full on graphics and picture feeds, then I'm sure they would be saying yewww that looks too plain we prefer transtastic and others .

So it's very subjective, and what you have been brought up with and got used to using.

Blessed Be

Hi Katie, I Have Been Reading, The Dialog Between Your Self And Caitlin, - As a Newbie, ! I can Say The Site Is Not That Easy To Navigate, But Get's Better As One Ask's Other's, I Have A Brand new H.P Window's 10 Laptop, And Yes, The Page's Are Very slow To Load, So Money Can Fix It ! - Can The Site Post A Fund upgrade Weekend ? I Will Give £10.
Rosy RoseLeigh

Sorry for the delay in replying. That's very kind Rosy. We do have a donations page you can use at https://www.transtastic.com/se4/pages/donation. It's going to cost an awful lot more than £10 to put this site right but every little helps and brings us a little bit closer to perfection.

Thanks and hugs,

Katie :)

As Promised, £10, Let's Get Some More Girl's Considering.