We are back and Ken is going to see what if anything can be done. Cant sleep it is 5.00 am so I am checking the boards.

I am not a "techie" but these are the facts in laymans terms as I understand them and I may have some things wrong of course.

These boards work and operate so differently from a normal web site. Lots of things are far more complicated than on any other type of site. Just like we could not load a simple button for the Chat feature. I do have more empathy now for cruise critic and all the issues they faced when they tried to update their boards and change things.

We went to a very large I think called "virtual server", far more than we ever thought we would need so it is not the "size" of the server, so going to an even larger server would not solve the problem. I think when Karen talked to the Tech from the boards they always say it is the server. Standard answer. Servers of all types do have problems at times. The extensive graphics I know causes problems but we have tons of bandwith to accommodate them but they still need to load everytime and that takes time and can cause problems. The larger the boards get the more of a problem this could become. I really like the graphics. If we had no graphics we may have no problems but what a boring board that would be.

Anyway Ken will research this and see if anything can be done. I have come to learn that "technical" problems stem from the servder or site you visit, then your server, your computer etc etc. No simple answers. I personally have never had a double post or any problems here or at the office.Plus the majority of time it loads fast.

I have made one decision though and I am going to post this information below under a new thread. I was talking to LCT'ers on this trip about this and everyone agreed this was probably the best thing to do.

I am going to set up a new sub topic for "Off Topic Posts". This will include all the threads about pets, jokes, birthdays, travel other than cruises. I really think this will be better for a mulitude of reasons.

(1) The obvious issue is for new comers who dont understand all the off topic posts and it does inhibit many from posting real cruise questions.

(2) The off topic posts are growing and I dont want to inhibit that because if you are all enjoying these then that is one of the purposes of this board. However, it makes cruise talk so long at times to dig through to the "meat" of the matter. I notice a lot dont post under jokes, or birthdays, I am one of those myself. I used to feel I had to respond to all of these O/T posts and wish people happy birthday etc. Obviously I saw these posts and to not answer I felt was rude. However, to be honest it takes a lot of time and I usually only post at night and found myself up to all hours and not tending to emails that were coming in so I finally only posted when I have time. There are an increasing number of these posts now. So this way if you have an interest in these aspects you can go to off topic posts. If not you dont have to dig through them all or feel badly that you did not respond. This may be a personal reason for me but others have expressed the same opinion. It does separate all those threads from the real business of the boards.

(3) Also at some point we may have to delete old posts and we dont want to lose any valuable cruise information. These OT posts do not need to be retained forever and this is a much easier way to handle deleting old material. It often seems that these posts are the ones with the most graphics as well. Birthday cakes, tea sets, pictures of pets and family. So this could help with our graphics issues.

I know some of you may not like having to open two different threads but I think this is the best decision for the majority of people. You cannot please all the people all the time. So I am going to ask John or Karen to start a new thread called

Off Topic Posts
Posts for birthdays, jokes, pet or personal posts, posts relating to anything other than posts about cruises.