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Belfast
Vast Ambivalence
Joined: Jul 18, 2005
Age: 36
Posts: 1718
Location: New England
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 Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:28 pm Post subject: |
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| lau wrote: | | Belfast wrote: | | ...Also, when it comes to another function (and I know I recently said this here), that I didn't automatically know to translate the word "discusssion" as being the link to "forums", so I just have the index page bookmarked (obviating need for using the clickable item in menu). |
I should have supported you there! I rather like consistency. We have one set of forums.... |
Yes, that is the link I have stored in my frequently-used bookmark menu. Appreciate your patience in fleshing this out for me, as I feared being rebuked for pointing this out (and due to my relative ignorance as to comprehending computerese !).
My comment about "not being able to find way back to forums" was when on a non-forum, but within WP site, page. For instance, when in private messages or updating my profile or something, can't recall exactly-was another thread in which I commented on this, I think.
Think it was in there that I saw coment explaining that "discussion" was "the forums".
| lau wrote: | At the top of the page, it all goes different, and like you say, we have the completely different:
Discussion
A highlighted link on the front page says (in the singular, note):
discussion forum
I'd say that every one of these could just say "Forums".
The last one, "discussion forum", is a tautology: |
Agree. "Discussion" makes me think of Wiki where discussion means arguing about what should or shouldn't be on site, or admin. discussions on fora such as WP-rather than open communication between regular site members (aka the oldschool phrase "message board").
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*"You cannot administer a wicked law impartially-it destroys everyone it touches, its violators as well as its upholders."* |
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lau
Really nice person to know. :)
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 60
Posts: 9469
Location: Somerset UK
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| Posted: Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:31 pm Post subject: |
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I suppose my terminology goes like this:
The whole of WrongPlanet is a "message board", "bulletin board" or just plain "board". By that, I'm just meaning that WP is not a site sourced just by the owner, but it has a membership, who contribute largely to its content.
Within the board, discussions are organised by general theme into specific areas of interest - hence the "forum" (and on some software, sub-forums, and so on).
A single "forum" will have more than one conversational "topic", AKA "thread".
The "thread" concept was around way before it became as simplistic as it is on WP. E.g. in NNTP newsgroups, topics become multi-threaded and cross-posting is catered for. While this can be quite "clever", I get the impression that the whole concept has "evolved" and the simple board/forum/thread/post hierarchy is what works.
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"Striking up conversations with strangers is an autistic person's version of extreme sports." Kamran Nazeer |
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Strapples
Strapplius, God of straps!
Joined: Dec 01, 2007
Age: 18
Posts: 18398
Location: Chicago Area IL
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lau
Really nice person to know. :)
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 60
Posts: 9469
Location: Somerset UK
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| Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 7:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Strapples wrote: | | uhm... why are we arguing over linguistics. |
We're not arguing. We're trying to reduce confusion.
I also find it confusing that the "Forums" are called that, sometimes, but become "Discussion" at the top of the page, or the rather long-winded "Wrong Planet Forums Forum Index" elsewhere.
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"Striking up conversations with strangers is an autistic person's version of extreme sports." Kamran Nazeer |
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Strapples
Strapplius, God of straps!
Joined: Dec 01, 2007
Age: 18
Posts: 18398
Location: Chicago Area IL
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| Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:07 am Post subject: |
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| lau wrote: | | Strapples wrote: | | uhm... why are we arguing over linguistics. |
We're not arguing. We're trying to reduce confusion.
I also find it confusing that the "Forums" are called that, sometimes, but become "Discussion" at the top of the page, or the rather long-winded "Wrong Planet Forums Forum Index" elsewhere. |
Ohhh now i see what yer taking about.. all these discrepancies here... i barely notice them but n00bs might have issues... i uphold your argument or whatever we are calling it proposal arugment blah!
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check out my website at http://www.alinssite.info and my forum at http://www.disabledplanet.net and my WP threads by clicking
http://alinssite.iguido.com/Thread_List/Thread_List.html (UPDATE JUN 30 09)
DXED CLASSIC AUTISM HFA 7/10/09 |
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Orwell
Outer Party Member
Joined: Aug 09, 2007
Age: 20
Posts: 8369
Location: Room 101
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| Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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A very nice feature to have would be threading for PMs. With the current system, if you want to review a series of PMs between yourself and another member, you have to alternate between your inbox and sent PMs and open each individual message in succession- needless to say, that method is rather cumbersome. If a series of PMs between two members that were responding to previous comments of each other could be viewed all together as a thread, it would be very helpful.
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WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
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newnoz
Butterfly
Joined: Oct 20, 2008
Age: 57
Posts: 12
Location: Toowoomba QLD Australia
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| Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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| calandale wrote: |
And search would be nice to have back.
Not that many people use it, I fear. |
I came here to suggest that. It is just a coincidence that someone else asked for it too. (Coincidence is when the Universe wishes to remain anonymous)
How many topics do you suppose there are on: whats your favorite Aspie movie/TV character? Whats you favorite t-shirt expression?
Its a fun topic and i bet its been done many times
How big an item is a reasonably good search feature? Big money, big bandwidth? big something? Big DEAL!
Thanks, Nora
Take care, Nora |
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twoshots
Boltzmann Brain
Joined: Nov 27, 2007
Posts: 4229
Location: Boötes void
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| Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:05 am Post subject: |
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Is there any way we can get the "post reply" button away from the "new topic" button? I mean, how many people go inside of a thread and post a new thread anyway, compared with how many people accidentally start new threads while trying to reply?
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* here for the nachos. |
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alex
Developer
Joined: Jun 14, 2004
Age: 23
Posts: 6492
Location: DC Metro Area (No. VA)
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| Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 9:21 am Post subject: |
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[quote="newnoz"] | calandale wrote: |
How big an item is a reasonably good search feature? Big money, big bandwidth? big something? Big DEAL!
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quite a big deal, actually. don't have the money to implement a search feature of our own without severely slowing the site.
http://wrongplanet.net/supporters.htm |
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0_equals_true
Genuine Charlatan
Joined: Apr 06, 2007
Age: 27
Posts: 6992
Location: London
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| Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:25 am Post subject: |
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| alex wrote: | | newnoz wrote: |
How big an item is a reasonably good search feature? Big money, big bandwidth? big something? Big DEAL!
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quite a big deal, actually. don't have the money to implement a search feature of our own without severely slowing the site.
http://wrongplanet.net/supporters.htm |
Alex it doesn't necessarily have to be that expensive. I have talked before about various options to improve overall performance not just the search/db side of things. Bear in mind I'm not always the most tactful person, so I will say it like it is.
One of the most obvious things that could improve performance is archiving. I don't even need to know anything about your setup to know this is the case. You can nearly always improve things by archiving.
Nobody is expecting to be able search the result of every single thread and post since 2004. It is a known fact that as tables grow performance will be less. It is perfectly reasonable to have archive periods/groupings and search within these, and even have restrictions/priorities searches within archive periods/groupings. It can be done countless ways. The only requirement is that when you separate you don't leave any straggling relationships that are important for it to work. You could even have a way to resurrect achieved threads, although personally I would favour not. Seriously if I really wanted something from 2004 I would have no problem waiting a little while for it. I don't think people will grumble too much if they have to do one or two searches to get what they wanted, if the search is accurate. The problem with the google search is that it is designed for indexing on the macro scale, relative to the whole web. BB threads on average have a notoriously poor rating (why wouldn’t they?), and those pages are just not so easily indexed. You get plenty of noise too even if you put lots of no follows. It isn’t strictly chronological either, it simply doesn’t understand or care about the logic and relationships of the forum.
I also mentioned search engines/accelerators that you can add-ons that you can use for indexing. Obviously this would be something worth considering after any archiving and considerations how you are going to use it with specific archive periods, groupings.
There are lots of other things that you can do to improve overall performance, but those are the two main ones I would recommend for now.
If you let diseconomies linger those diseconomies will grow and totally engulf everything. It is definitely worth being proactive towards them. |
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0_equals_true
Genuine Charlatan
Joined: Apr 06, 2007
Age: 27
Posts: 6992
Location: London
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| Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:37 am Post subject: |
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| Not to be alarmist but I have noticed an overal nock on performance over months compared to normal browsing. Someone likened it to trying to wade through molasses at times. There are plenty of thing you can do improve the requests/response times. |
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0_equals_true
Genuine Charlatan
Joined: Apr 06, 2007
Age: 27
Posts: 6992
Location: London
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| Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 8:14 am Post subject: |
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On the off chance that you are interested here is and extension that works with prune posts to move to an archive.
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?t=912205
You can use auto pruning with it. Works with phpBB 3.
Also there are extensions that work like vbulletin archive to make search engine friendly threads. |
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ford_prefects_kid
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 18, 2008
Posts: 573
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| Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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I was wondering if the common "friends" feature had ever been suggested for wrongplanet forums. It makes it easier to keep track of members you might have bonded with considering the large active community on the site. Once a member accepts anothers' friend request, the members' names usually show up in a "friends" box on each other's profile.
This is a popular feature on many forums because it allows users to feel like they have some niche in the community, even if they aren't on enough to become familiar with all the posters here. |
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Neuro-typical
Tufted Titmouse
Joined: Aug 20, 2008
Posts: 32
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:11 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd like to be able to search for my past posts |
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lau
Really nice person to know. :)
Joined: Jun 18, 2006
Age: 60
Posts: 9469
Location: Somerset UK
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| Posted: Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Neuro-typical wrote: | | I'd like to be able to search for my past posts |
You can.
Unfortunately, there is a bug/conflict/syntax problem, when the "Find all posts by Neuro-typical" link gets set up.
Provided: http://www.wrongplanet.net/forumssearch-search_author-Neuro.html-typical
Doctored: http://www.wrongplanet.net/forumssearch-search_author-Neuro_typical.html
Because hyphens are allowed in names, and they are also used in the syntax of the link, it all goes a bit wonky.
Rearranging the link, and replacing the hyphen with an underline (a wildcard) side-steps the issue.
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"Striking up conversations with strangers is an autistic person's version of extreme sports." Kamran Nazeer |
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