Digital BW, The Print

This forums' design is so difficult for newcomers like me to 
negotiate and I wish the webmaster would do something about it. 

For example why does it have to be a big rassling match to read a 
complete thread? You go to a subject and instead of follow ups right 
below the initial submission there's nothing to direct you to them. 
If you submit a reply, it simply vanishes! 

So many messages automatically include the same long, confusing, and 
purely dumb request, etc "...if you want to unsubscribe...yadda 
yadda etc" tacked onto the end of the message. Over and over, yet!

Then when you finally get to the next thread in your face you get an 
animated advertisement and a question asking you if you want to go 
the next thread! 

 Yeah, so I'm old and plenty cranky. I tell it like I see it. What I 
see here is a forum that frustrates as much as it informs. A forum 
should attract readers, not drive them away.

Webmaster, will you please give us a break?

ALL Yahoo forums are the same?  I am guessing you are new to this.  There is
no customization.  All of that "junk" at the bottom comes on every message
from every Yahoo group I receive.

THE PITA is those who reply without chopping that off the original message;
or, those that reply below all the garbage.

HOWEVER, using a dedicated server a wholly controlled BBS could be put up.
But, it takes DONATIONS,  more time and attention, maintenance, etc.  Who
would do all that?

If you have all the messages just sent to your e-mail address, it is much
more organ ized and controllable.  I think that is what most of us do.

Seth 

==-----Original Message-----
==From: photobrusher [mailto:photobrusher@...] 

==
==This forums' design is so difficult for newcomers like me to 
==negotiate and I wish the webmaster would do something about it. 
==
==For example why does it have to be a big rassling match to 
==read a complete thread? You go to a subject and instead of 
==follow ups right below the initial submission there's nothing 
==to direct you to them. 
==If you submit a reply, it simply vanishes! 
==

On Saturday 19 March 2005 7:24 pm, you wrote:
>  This forums' design is so difficult for newcomers like me to 
>  negotiate and I wish the webmaster would do something about it. 
>  
>  For example why does it have to be a big rassling match to read a 
>  complete thread?

You are exactly right.  It *is* a hassle to read this group
(even if you subscribe to the mailing list).  The HTML
messages, irritating advertising, excessive trailers, etc.,
are all nuisances.

But in my mind, the biggest shame is that all the valuable
information shared in the forum is essentially lost because
it's invisible to Google.

I'm sure that Yahoo keeps it this way because it helps earn
advertising revenue, so I don't expect any changes there.

> 
> ..  It *is* a hassle to read this group
> (even if you subscribe to the mailing list).  ...


> 
> But in my mind, the biggest shame is that all the valuable
> information shared in the forum is essentially lost because
> it's invisible to Google...


Concur.

We need a Google-searchable data base, perhaps supplemented with an outline
of subfolders.  I think some have, for example, QTR, BowHaus-IJC, and other
folders for some segregation.

I have an archive of my posts that I'd be more than willing to dump into a
Google-searchable database.  If other individuals voluntarily did likewise,
with their own writings (and only their own writings) we might have
something.

If Google will not do it for free, would the group feel comfortable if a
commercial business financed it?  

Paul
www.PaulRoark.com

On Friday 25 March 2005 10:51 am, Paul Roark wrote:
>  > But in my mind, the biggest shame is that all the valuable
>  > information shared in the forum is essentially lost because
>  > it's invisible to Google...
>  
>  ... I have an archive of my posts that I'd be more than willing to dump into a
>  Google-searchable database.\ufffd If other individuals voluntarily did likewise,
>  with their own writings (and only their own writings) we might have
>  something.
>  
>  If Google will not do it for free, would the group feel comfortable if a
>  commercial business financed it?\ufffd 

Google doesn't providew space for things like this; they just
do searching/indexing.  But all that's needed is for an archive
to be made accessible on the web (without the Yahoo login junk).
Then Google and other search engines will find and index it
automatically (assuming there's a link to the archive from some
previously-indexed web page).

This is far better than relying on the search engines built into
any web-based forum.  Those assume that a researcher knows enough
about the topic to find the web-based forum.  Google is better
because you don't have to know about the individual forums to
search.

I've been archiving the email traffic since the middle of February,
but I don't have web space to make it available yet.  It looks like
about 20M/month of traffic so far.

Jeff, I really appreciate your offer and I , for one, will vote for it.

Ian


Message: 22        
   Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2005 17:38:35 -0000

   From: "k2kv" <js@...>
Subject: Re: Will this forum ever get streamlined?


Hello,

Here's a thought - - 

I own a large Website which offers resources for Web builders known 
as "reallybig.com." It is really a network of sites which has been 
online continuously since 1997. As part of that project, several 
months ago I purchased forum software and the necessary license to 
run VBULLETIN on my servers. Vbulletin is probably the most widely-
utilized and most stable commercial forum product in use today. Here 
are some examples of vbulletin board currently in use: