This forum and its navigation - we loose knowledge
Mike Harding said
07:42 PM Apr 17, 2017
One thing which frustrates me about this forum is its default practice of showing new topics first to the exclusion of older topics which are still under discussion. This means that for many (most?) users topics which may be receiving a lot of posts will disappear from their screens.
It is possible to change this default setting to ensure that topics which were most recently posted to are shown at the top of the list, here's how:
Go to: User Details Settings Order of topics [and select] Last Modified
macka17 said
08:08 PM Apr 17, 2017
Mike.
if people keep posting. it'll stay on the page.
it's only when people slow down. On that one.
Others with more posters overtake.
Unfortunately. The pages can only carry so many posts
Then it flips over.
Small forum small volume basically.
Keep it this way please (small.)
Maybe she could extend length\no of posts per page??.
Baz421 said
08:08 PM Apr 17, 2017
Yep that's the setting I use.
iana said
08:32 PM Apr 17, 2017
It would also be good if the "Mark all as read" button worked properly.
Santa said
09:07 PM Apr 17, 2017
Why not simply subscribe to the thread, each time a new post is made you will be notified immediately by email.
Just tick the box at the left hand bottom of the reply page reading " Email me whenever there is a new post to this topic." if you are no longer interested in the thread you can also unsubscribe.
Cupie said
10:29 PM Apr 17, 2017
Santa wrote:
Why not simply subscribe to the thread, each time a new post is made you will be notified immediately by email.
Just tick the box at the left hand bottom of the reply page reading " Email me whenever there is a new post to this topic." if you are no longer interested in the thread you can also unsubscribe.
Exactly ..... That works for me.
PeterD said
11:20 PM Apr 17, 2017
macka17 wrote:
Unfortunately. The pages can only carry so many posts Then it flips over.
Maybe she could extend length\no of posts per page??.
Whilst on the settings page that Mike Harding recommended you can increase the number of posts per page by putting a number in the box beside the heading "Topics Per Page (Enter 0 to use forum default.)" Likewise you can increase the number of replies per page in the thread you are reading by putting a number in the box beside the heading "Comments Per Page."
Another thing I have done is to set up the "Email Digest of New Topics" to send a digest daily. This lets me see new topics started or answered in the sub-forums I do not watch.
Play around with the settings on the settings page to see what they do, you can always set them back to default if you don't like the changes.
Don't forget the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page after you have changed something.
-- Edited by PeterD on Monday 17th of April 2017 11:24:43 PM
PeterD said
11:27 PM Apr 17, 2017
Santa wrote:
Why not simply subscribe to the thread, each time a new post is made you will be notified immediately by email.
Just tick the box at the left hand bottom of the reply page reading " Email me whenever there is a new post to this topic." if you are no longer interested in the thread you can also unsubscribe.
You can subscribe to each of the forums. When you are viewing the index page for a forum there is a "Subscribe" button at the bottom of the page.
The Belmont Bear said
07:44 AM Apr 18, 2017
Thanks Mike I didn't realise that you could actually alter your forum settings probably because I never looked so I changed a couple of things over to my own personal preference.. What I would really like to do is turn off the spell check as I'm sick of having to retype words that are auto corrected when there is nothing wrong with them or even blanked out because they might be a swear word when they are not.
Cheers BB
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 07:45:05 AM
PeterD said
08:02 AM Apr 18, 2017
Spell check is generally part of your web browser or something else in your operating system, not the forum. Don't switch off the spell check, look at just switching off the predictive text bit of it.
Dougwe said
08:08 AM Apr 18, 2017
I just leave it as 'forum default' and scroll down for two pages, usually by then threads have settled to none to very few comments. I have been using that way for years now. Everyone has their own preference though.
As for 'spell checker' it hasn't worked on the forum for me for a couple of years now for some reason. It also plays up on my laptop running windows 10. Was ok on 7 though. Must have a look around for some sort of setting for that.
The Belmont Bear said
08:22 AM Apr 18, 2017
PeterD wrote:
Spell check is generally part of your web browser or something else in your operating system, not the forum. Don't switch off the spell check, look at just switching off the predictive text bit of it.
You are correct Peter I use Apple's Safari you have to do it while typing a comment such as this one i.e. in Safari open - "Edit" then "Spelling and Grammar" uncheck "Correct Spelling Automatically" to disable it. I don't seem to have the option to just remove the predictive text maybe thats a Windows thing so I also turned off the "Check spelling while typing" option as well. Thanks mate that auto correction has been annoying me all this time and I thought it was a forum setting.
Mike Harding said
11:24 AM Apr 18, 2017
Dougwe wrote:
I just leave it as 'forum default' and scroll down for two pages, usually by then threads have settled to none to very few comments.
The problem with that is that if someone resurrects a thread or replies to, say, a four week old thread you'll never see it. It also means there is no point in adding new information to existing threads which are more than a couple of weeks old instead it's necessary to start a new thread thus information about one specific topic becomes scattered and disparate across many threads which makes it much more difficult to retrieve information.
I would prefer to see the default changed to show most recent posts first which, almost by definition, will also show new posts very high up on the listing - best of both worlds.
Santa said
11:51 AM Apr 18, 2017
Mike Harding wrote:
"The problem with that is that if someone resurrects a thread or replies to, say, a four week old thread you'll never see it"
You certainly will if you subscribe to it, even if the reply is to an old thread, if you have subscribed you will receive an email advising you there has been a reply.
I'm wondering if people are understanding what I'm saying?
PS no knowledge is loose/loosed/lost.
-- Edited by Santa on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 11:54:37 AM
Mike Harding said
12:11 PM Apr 18, 2017
Hi Santa
I understand the concept of subscribing to a thread but it is not a facility I would use. It's cumbersome and oblique and I don't want e-mails coming into my inbox every time, say, a serial poster decides they need to eject another dollop of wisdom - especially if I'm paying for those e-mails via NextG. Additionally; even if I did receive an e-mail it would undoubtedly be at an inconvenient time and I'd just delete it thinking "I'll look later" and then forget.
And "lose" should have two 'o's - otherwise it sounds like doze, although I understand your confusion as my copy of the Concise Oxford is also wrong in this matter :)
Santa said
12:30 PM Apr 18, 2017
Morning Mike,
Choices to make! subscribe/unsubscribe, I certainly don't find the method intrusive, if I no longer interested or the thread turns to rubbish I simply unsubscribe.
Emails and data are a different story, guess if your on a limited plan it makes a difference, although email only accounts for a minuscule amount of data used, unless people are sending you large data files or photo's, i.e. the email advising of the last post to this thread was 9 KB, bugger all.
DMaxer said
01:35 PM Apr 18, 2017
Peter, I think you will find that the word "lose" means to misplace or not win and the word "loose"means the opposite of tight or fastened.
-- Edited by DMaxer on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 01:36:04 PM
Santa said
02:44 PM Apr 18, 2017
Mike Harding wrote:
Hi Santa
And "lose" should have two 'o's - otherwise it sounds like doze, although I understand your confusion as my copy of the Concise Oxford is also wrong in this matter :)
Heh heh, thanks for enlightening me Mike.
Happywanderer said
05:49 PM Apr 18, 2017
Are you trying to totally confuse me? This is my way, firstly I don't subscribe. I don't want to go check my emails before coming on here.
Come straight on here and open each group. The latest to be written on are at the top and have a green tick with a white background. Anything I've already read does not.
When I've read what I want to it then shows as closed until someone else writes on it.
When I've read everything I want to in all the sections I mark up the top that all have been read.
Spellcheck comes from my phone, not the forum and easy to use.
I also have my settings set to show the latest writing first at the top rather than 3 or 4 pages further down the track.
A lot easier to read that way.
Santa said
05:56 PM Apr 18, 2017
More than one way to skin a cat, obviously people do have systems that they are happy with.
Figuring out your work flow and adjusting forum settings does the job for many, bit of thought/learning involved, not exactly rocket science.
DeBe said
08:38 PM Apr 18, 2017
I have found I get emails ocasionaly for posts asking questions about Waeco fridges that were posted a very long time ago. Its generaly when people have googled for faults on Waeco fridges, & Google directs them to the posts on this site.
Santa said
09:32 PM Apr 18, 2017
DeBe wrote:
I have found I get emails ocasionaly for posts asking questions about Waeco fridges that were posted a very long time ago. Its generaly when people have googled for faults on Waeco fridges, & Google directs them to the posts on this site.
And that's exactly what is meant to happen when you subscribe to a thread and a new post is made, as you unknowingly have.
If you check the advisory email you will also find an unsubscribe link, click on it if you no longer want to be notified of new posts to the thread.
Grandad5 said
07:50 AM Apr 19, 2017
The thing about this forum I find most annoying is the absence of a button on each thread that will take me to the first unread post.
Some time ago, on a similar thread to this one, a member posted a link to produce a list of all threads with recent posts from each sub-forum.
I'd hate to find it now if I just tried to locate it on the front page of the forum, but I've bookmarked it so that is my first view of this forum each morning. Here's the link if anyone else might find it useful.
Note however, its called "Recent" for a reason. It "appears" to only list threads that have had new posts added in the last 12 hours.
To ensure I see any new posts older than that I need to open each individual sub-forum and search for the "New Posts" icon.
In my humble opinion, (I'm too old to use IMHO) ....the ability to click on a link to show ALL threads with new posts since my last visit, and then a subsequent icon on each thread to take me directly to the first unread post in that thread is a standard part of every forum I have ever used. Except this one.
What's the go Cindy? Am I missing something or is this function an option in your setup that hasn't been turned on or is it just not an option here? I have been known to not see the obvious when it's right in front of me.
Jim
Ron-D said
08:07 AM Apr 19, 2017
Maybe It won't work here but on another caravan forum if you comment on a post even if it's months old it automatically comes to the top of the current page,so basically all the really interesting stuff is being rehashed and rcommented on until it finally dies out...
PeterD said
08:19 AM Apr 19, 2017
Ron, if you set your preferences as Mike Harding's first post this forum does just that. Give it a try. There is a blue line at the bottom of each forum that also gives you some options. One of those options is how the listing is sorted.
Every forum has provision for changing how they work for you. You may not be able to make a forum work exactly as one of your favourite forum does but you can make any forum work more towards your liking. Click on the "User Details" link at the top of any page and under the "Profile" heading on the LHS you will see an option "Settings." Click on that and see what the options do. I listed some of the things you can do above.
-- Edited by PeterD on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 08:30:16 AM
Santa said
11:21 AM Apr 19, 2017
This topic seems to come up on a regular basis.
Cindy has indicated in the past that she is limited in what she is able to do to a degree by the Forum software that is being used, changing to another software package is an enormous and costly undertaking.
The forum costs us nothing, is easy to use and is a valuable resource for RV travelers in Australia.
Most people use and navigate their way around the site without any drama.
All forums are different and take a little getting used to.
Some people, regardless of the amount of advice/instruction received simply don't understand internet technology, most get it, for others the penny never seems to drop.
Why not use and enjoy the forum with its minor limitations and appreciate the fact that behind the scenes there is a person working to provide you with an excellent forum at no charge.
Instead of whinging about what the forum doesn't do I suspect an expression of thanks and appreciation for what it does do would be more appropriate.
-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 11:23:01 AM
-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 11:55:12 AM
Cupie said
11:46 AM Apr 19, 2017
Santa wrote:
This topic seems to come up on a regular basis.
Cindy has indicated in the past that she is limited in what she is able to do a degree by the Forum software that is being used, changing to another software package is an enormous and costly undertaking.
The forum costs us nothing, is easy to use and is a valuable resource for RV travelers in Australia.
Most people use and navigate their way around the site without any drama.
All forums are different and take a little getting used to.
Some people, regardless of the amount of advice/instruction received simply don't understand internet technology, most get it, for others the penny never seems to drop.
Why not use and enjoy the forum with its minor limitations and appreciate the fact that behind the scenes there is a person working to provide you with an excellent forum at no charge.
Instead of whinging about what the forum doesn't do I suspect an expression of thanks and appreciation for what it does do would be more appropriate.
-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 11:23:01 AM
What's the world coming to. I find myself agreeing with Santa twice in one week.
I find this forum very good to work with & far more informative than others that I occasionally look at.
It's about time that I once again publicly thank Cindy for facilitating it. The last time was almost a decade ago ... May 2007.
Santa said
11:59 AM Apr 19, 2017
Cupie wrote:
What's the world coming to. I find myself agreeing with Santa twice in one week.
The horror! perhaps one of us is getting soft.
-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 01:32:14 PM
jules47 said
04:11 PM Apr 19, 2017
Yep I agree with Santa and PeterD - go into your profile - use the settings, the forum does what I want it to do without any difficulty - I really don't know what the problem is
One thing which frustrates me about this forum is its default
practice of showing new topics first to the exclusion of older topics
which are still under discussion. This means that for many (most?)
users topics which may be receiving a lot of posts will disappear
from their screens.
It is possible to change this default setting to ensure that topics
which were most recently posted to are shown at the top of the list,
here's how:
Go to:
User Details
Settings
Order of topics
[and select] Last Modified
if people keep posting. it'll stay on the page.
it's only when people slow down. On that one.
Others with more posters overtake.
Unfortunately. The pages can only carry so many posts
Then it flips over.
Small forum small volume basically.
Keep it this way please (small.)
Maybe she could extend length\no of posts per page??.
Yep that's the setting I use.
Why not simply subscribe to the thread, each time a new post is made you will be notified immediately by email.
Just tick the box at the left hand bottom of the reply page reading " Email me whenever there is a new post to this topic." if you are no longer interested in the thread you can also unsubscribe.
Exactly ..... That works for me.
Whilst on the settings page that Mike Harding recommended you can increase the number of posts per page by putting a number in the box beside the heading "Topics Per Page (Enter 0 to use forum default.)" Likewise you can increase the number of replies per page in the thread you are reading by putting a number in the box beside the heading "Comments Per Page."
Another thing I have done is to set up the "Email Digest of New Topics" to send a digest daily. This lets me see new topics started or answered in the sub-forums I do not watch.
Play around with the settings on the settings page to see what they do, you can always set them back to default if you don't like the changes.
Don't forget the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of the page after you have changed something.
-- Edited by PeterD on Monday 17th of April 2017 11:24:43 PM
You can subscribe to each of the forums. When you are viewing the index page for a forum there is a "Subscribe" button at the bottom of the page.
Thanks Mike I didn't realise that you could actually alter your forum settings probably because I never looked so I changed a couple of things over to my own personal preference.. What I would really like to do is turn off the spell check as I'm sick of having to retype words that are auto corrected when there is nothing wrong with them or even blanked out because they might be a swear word when they are not.
Cheers
BB
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 07:45:05 AM
As for 'spell checker' it hasn't worked on the forum for me for a couple of years now for some reason. It also plays up on my laptop running windows 10. Was ok on 7 though. Must have a look around for some sort of setting for that.
You are correct Peter I use Apple's Safari you have to do it while typing a comment such as this one i.e. in Safari open - "Edit" then "Spelling and Grammar" uncheck "Correct Spelling Automatically" to disable it. I don't seem to have the option to just remove the predictive text maybe thats a Windows thing so I also turned off the "Check spelling while typing" option as well. Thanks mate that auto correction has been annoying me all this time and I thought it was a forum setting.
The problem with that is that if someone resurrects a thread or replies to, say, a four week old thread you'll never see it. It also means there is no point in adding new information to existing threads which are more than a couple of weeks old instead it's necessary to start a new thread thus information about one specific topic becomes scattered and disparate across many threads which makes it much more difficult to retrieve information.
I would prefer to see the default changed to show most recent posts first which, almost by definition, will also show new posts very high up on the listing - best of both worlds.
-- Edited by Santa on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 11:54:37 AM
Hi Santa
I understand the concept of subscribing to a thread but it is not a facility I would use. It's cumbersome and oblique and I don't want e-mails coming into my inbox every time, say, a serial poster decides they need to eject another dollop of wisdom - especially if I'm paying for those e-mails via NextG. Additionally; even if I did receive an e-mail it would undoubtedly be at an inconvenient time and I'd just delete it thinking "I'll look later" and then forget.
And "lose" should have two 'o's - otherwise it sounds like doze, although I understand your confusion as my copy of the Concise Oxford is also wrong in this matter :)
Morning Mike,
Choices to make! subscribe/unsubscribe, I certainly don't find the method intrusive, if I no longer interested or the thread turns to rubbish I simply unsubscribe.
Emails and data are a different story, guess if your on a limited plan it makes a difference, although email only accounts for a minuscule amount of data used, unless people are sending you large data files or photo's, i.e. the email advising of the last post to this thread was 9 KB, bugger all.
Peter, I think you will find that the word "lose" means to misplace or not win and the word "loose"means the opposite of tight or fastened.
-- Edited by DMaxer on Tuesday 18th of April 2017 01:36:04 PM
Heh heh, thanks for enlightening me Mike.
Come straight on here and open each group. The latest to be written on are at the top and have a green tick with a white background. Anything I've already read does not.
When I've read what I want to it then shows as closed until someone else writes on it.
When I've read everything I want to in all the sections I mark up the top that all have been read.
Spellcheck comes from my phone, not the forum and easy to use.
I also have my settings set to show the latest writing first at the top rather than 3 or 4 pages further down the track.
A lot easier to read that way.
More than one way to skin a cat, obviously people do have systems that they are happy with.
Figuring out your work flow and adjusting forum settings does the job for many, bit of thought/learning involved, not exactly rocket science.
And that's exactly what is meant to happen when you subscribe to a thread and a new post is made, as you unknowingly have.
If you check the advisory email you will also find an unsubscribe link, click on it if you no longer want to be notified of new posts to the thread.
Some time ago, on a similar thread to this one, a member posted a link to produce a list of all threads with recent posts from each sub-forum.
I'd hate to find it now if I just tried to locate it on the front page of the forum, but I've bookmarked it so that is my first view of this forum each morning. Here's the link if anyone else might find it useful.
thegreynomads.activeboard.com/p/recent/
Note however, its called "Recent" for a reason. It "appears" to only list threads that have had new posts added in the last 12 hours.
To ensure I see any new posts older than that I need to open each individual sub-forum and search for the "New Posts" icon.
In my humble opinion, (I'm too old to use IMHO) ....the ability to click on a link to show ALL threads with new posts since my last visit, and then a subsequent icon on each thread to take me directly to the first unread post in that thread is a standard part of every forum I have ever used. Except this one.
What's the go Cindy? Am I missing something or is this function an option in your setup that hasn't been turned on or is it just not an option here? I have been known to not see the obvious when it's right in front of me.
Jim
Maybe It won't work here but on another caravan forum if you comment on a post even if it's months old it automatically comes to the top of the current page,so basically all the really interesting stuff is being rehashed and rcommented on until it finally dies out...
Ron, if you set your preferences as Mike Harding's first post this forum does just that. Give it a try. There is a blue line at the bottom of each forum that also gives you some options. One of those options is how the listing is sorted.
Every forum has provision for changing how they work for you. You may not be able to make a forum work exactly as one of your favourite forum does but you can make any forum work more towards your liking. Click on the "User Details" link at the top of any page and under the "Profile" heading on the LHS you will see an option "Settings." Click on that and see what the options do. I listed some of the things you can do above.
-- Edited by PeterD on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 08:30:16 AM
This topic seems to come up on a regular basis.
Cindy has indicated in the past that she is limited in what she is able to do to a degree by the Forum software that is being used, changing to another software package is an enormous and costly undertaking.
The forum costs us nothing, is easy to use and is a valuable resource for RV travelers in Australia.
Most people use and navigate their way around the site without any drama.
All forums are different and take a little getting used to.
Some people, regardless of the amount of advice/instruction received simply don't understand internet technology, most get it, for others the penny never seems to drop.
Why not use and enjoy the forum with its minor limitations and appreciate the fact that behind the scenes there is a person working to provide you with an excellent forum at no charge.
Instead of whinging about what the forum doesn't do I suspect an expression of thanks and appreciation for what it does do would be more appropriate.
-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 11:23:01 AM
-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 11:55:12 AM
What's the world coming to. I find myself agreeing with Santa twice in one week.
I find this forum very good to work with & far more informative than others that I occasionally look at.
It's about time that I once again publicly thank Cindy for facilitating it. The last time was almost a decade ago ... May 2007.
The horror! perhaps one of us is getting soft.
-- Edited by Santa on Wednesday 19th of April 2017 01:32:14 PM