a few recommendations

[popndekl]

i have built quite a lot websites and know a little about design and ergonomics of such things and i think there would be fine if you changed some things:

• logging out. i think there's missing a checkbox called "remember me" - it's a little annoying having to log in every time i open this site in a new window (or is this made intentionally, to let premium (gold) users have a little priorities? (in this case i understand that - i'll keep logging in manually  )
• main menu images - they do not preload. i've noticed a preload script, but it doesn't work. i usually see images that swap slowly for the first time you get your mouse over (because they have to load), but these are special - they are getting reloaded every single time! observe your internet traffic monitor (zone alarm or network monitor) and put your mouse over and out of those images. every time the mouse if over, images load again and again! this is weird, although not so bad, but it doesn't look professional. this is happening also with buttons in this message editor.
• forum template. it's cool-looking and i specially like the message editor, but i think it would be better to have white background. every professional website has white background and this too, so i think this forum should be white too.
  do you know that blackboard is called so because school boards were black at first, but they had to change them to green because the contrast was too strong and after few hours you could get a headache? now blackboards are white and things on them are written in black, with a pen.

and your chatroom - it's excellent. really. have you tried to set the language to "pig-latin"? lol! really cool. congratulations. also to your site. i was partially impressed with the design, and that helped a lot when registering. congratulations again. 

[nilsjohan]

Many thanks for you recommendations!

1. Yes, the remember me or always logged in is still missing but will be added - for everyone of course. (It is not intentionally.) However, I do not understand why you have to login again when you open a new browser window. Do you block cookies or anything, or do you mean you first close the window you are logged into and then open a new one? 

2. I can not recreate the problem - menu images just preloads fine and they are not reloaded again. The most downloaded menu gif is requested in average 1.3 times per visit (30 mins) and 0.25 times per page view so most visitors do not appear to have problem. But if you experience this there must be some problem for sure. I will look into this and if you have some furhter information that might be helpful you are most welcome!

3. I am perfectly aware of this but the piano forum has used black backgrund for almost four years and most visitors like it this way. Until the merge two weeks ago we had an alternative theme with white background that will be recreated and available soon (even if VERY few members were using it).

[popndekl]

yes, you're right, i have to close and reopen the site.

those images are weird, really - i believe it works fine because that "MM_PreloadImages()" script always worked fine...

and after all, this black template is not so bad at all. 

[nilsjohan]

and after all, this black template is not so bad at all. 

Welcome to the "dark side" - as a true Piano Forum member!

Regarding the images, I just changed some setting in IE and recreated the issue. What I did was in Internet options > General > Temporary Internet files > Settings > check for new versions of pages (translated from a Swedish IE so just look for something similar). I always have it set to "automatically" but if I chose "always" I get it exactly as you explain. Does it make sense for you?

[popndekl]

YES! that's it!

once i played with those settings and changed to "never" and then i had to reload site every time i uploaded a new version to test, but i forgot where that setting was - and when i found it, i set it to "always", with the feeling "oh yeah, here you are"

now it works just fine