39 replies to this topic

[Plumber]

Since the changing of this board format I seem to feel disconnected from everyone. Is it just my inability to accept change easily, or are the numbers of posts down? I really liked the old format much better than this one, I now feel that it is a less intimate place to visit and check in on old friends each day. Is it just me, or do others feel the same way? Plumber

[Bill Cotter]

I think the number of posts is down due to some members moving on, or getting buried in trying to survive the economy and having less time for the more fun things in life. I never thought of it being due to the change in software. What elements do you feel are that different that they would be likely to drive people away? I'm not involved in the software selection so I'm not asking that defensively at all, just curious.

The fact that "View New Content" doesn't ever work the same way twice in a row for me would be a factor I personally would list. VERY often it shows nothing new, but if I check all posts for the day there's a lot there. People aren't going to respond to posts they're not seeing.

[waynebretl]

Bill Cotter, on 08 September 2009 - 08:46 AM, said:

...
The fact that "View New Content" doesn't ever work the same way twice in a row for me would be a factor I personally would list. VERY often it shows nothing new, but if I check all posts for the day there's a lot there. People aren't going to respond to posts they're not seeing.

Really! Now I wonder how much I've been missing - have to check tonigh when I have time. If there really is a lot that's missing in "view new contents", that could explain it for sure, because I have been relying on it.

[Joey Chernov]

Iv'e noticed the View New Content issue too.

[xl5er]

Plumber, on 08 September 2009 - 08:25 AM, said:

Since the changing of this board format I seem to feel disconnected from everyone. Is it just my inability to accept change easily, or are the numbers of posts down? I really liked the old format much better than this one, I now feel that it is a less intimate place to visit and check in on old friends each day. Is it just me, or do others feel the same way? Plumber

It may be because the board is now on a 24 hour, "read or lose," cycle.

I cannot always devote sufficient time to an interesting topic at the moment I find one. Since the new BB, if I do not return within 24 hrs of the last post, the topic is gone forever. Even if I remember the subject or identifying words, a search can yield hundreds of returns. I can't poke through all of them. The topic in question will remain buried among them.

When returning from weeks of vacation, that inability to catch up removes a sense of continuity and some may feel disconnected from the flow of conversation.

I don't think the substance of PTU is transferable to the ephemeral culture of Twitter or a 24 hour cycle. PTU posts are considered, reflective, and use complete sentences. They often involve digging through photos and scanning, which aren't done on the run from PDAs. While PTU did also evolve into a social network, it did so organically and incidentally. It is not at the same level as the social networks designed expressly for and populated by teenagers and their abbreviated and transient concerns.

Nor is it likely that someone from this world of Twitter and social networking will contribute the type of information I think people expect from PTU. "OMG LOL here's a PDF of the secret entrance to the Underground Home from my BFF," is not a post you are likely to see from the iGeneration despite the fact that it is optimized for a 3.5" PDA screen and conforms to Tweet constraints.

I've been reading PTU for only a few years. Board veterans may find their browsing patterns not enhanced by recent features.

On the other hand maybe it is a coincidence. Does anyone remember what passed for headline news in these notorious "slow-news" dog days of late summer before 9/11? I do! I distinctly remember saying, "Boy, something big is gonna have to come along and sweep this stuff away. It's like we're consuming ourselves."

Shark attacks and reparations for slavery were the two big news items in the weeks before that Monday* morning, when all the movers and shakers were on vacation and editors were desperate to fill the "news hole."

Maybe everyone's in the Hamptons.

*Tuesday. Sorry.

[Yadda Yadda]

xl5er, on 09 September 2009 - 01:05 PM, said:

Does anyone remember what passed for headline news in these notorious "slow-news" dog days of late summer before 9/11? I do! I distinctly remember saying, "Boy, something big is gonna have to come along and sweep this stuff away. It's like we're consuming ourselves."

Shark attacks and reparations for slavery were the two big news items in the weeks before that Monday morning, when all the movers and shakers were on vacation and editors were desperate to fill the "news hole."

And don’t forget the Gary Condit/Chandra Levy scandal, and the Danny Almonte Little League World Series eligibility issue – both were big stories just prior to 9/11 (which, not to nitpick, was actually a Tuesday morning)...

I think your points are well taken about not being able to find new posts very easily, and then having them disappear into the various subfolders before you have a chance to comment on them. However, I was playing around with the Active Content view earlier today, and think I have found a way to find recent posts from the past day, week, 2 weeks, month, etc. (Note: I say "think I have found..." as I don’t have any way to verify that all the posts made during these time frames are actually in the search results, but it seems like they are).

All you need to do is scroll down to the bottom of the main World’s Fair Community page and you will see a menu title that says “Today’s active content” – click on it, and you should see all the active topics from the past 24 hours:




Then, if you look in the bottom right-hand corner of the “Today’s active content” page, you will see a little drop-down menu and a “Go” button that will allow you to change the date range for active topics:



Hope this helps…
Kevin

[xl5er]

WOW! Thanks for both corrections! That wasn't nitpicking at all!

I wonder why I didn't see that menu! Probably the same reason I forgot to fact check the day of 9/11. (Don't tell anyone but I am gonna go back and correct it)

[xl5er]

My joy was premature.

Yes, you can modify the period of searching for active topics from 24 hours, to one week, two weeks, a month, etc, but when you get the results, you cannot view more than the first page. I tried several methods of doing so, clicking on the arrow, clicking on the page number itself, clicking on "last page", and entering the page number. No joy. The result was a formatted "active topic" page with no topics returned.

When I tried selecting different periods of time, the most ancient topic returned on the first page happened to be one week ago. I don't know if this was coincidence or not. In any event, all I get is one page.

Another unheralded change is that the "quick reply" has disappeared.

[Yadda Yadda]

That's odd... the extended date ranges were working perfectly for me the other day, but now I am getting the same results as well - only active topics from the past 24 hours are showing up...

[Mike Kraus]

Just now noticed this phrase - "Currently hiding posts below points. Change threshold?" - in the blue bar at the bottom of each topic.
Have no idea what it does.

[xl5er]

Yeah, 'points' refer to the numbers generated by the red and green buttons on the lower right of each post. If you click 'change threshold' you can set the point value of posts that will display for you. The idea being, in 'How To...' type BBs for example, the How To Fix Leaky Faucet post that is the most useful or clearly described will get the most green, positive clicks and therefore the most points. And you shouldn't waste your time viewing anything less.

This assumes that...

There are too many competing posts about a given topic.

The most popular is the most useful. Which is not the case.

The people voting are trustworthy. Which is also not the case.

It's part of the whole David Letterman Top Ten, rating women, Siskel and Ebert Thumbs Up or Down, "Four Stars", rating everything we see, phenomenon displayed on every magazine at the checkout. I think it is most useful in filling our psychological need to pass judgment and exert power. Nietzsche would curse the internet: "You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."

In any event, I don't think the point system travels well onto PTU.

[xl5er]

When I click to view page 2 of Active Content in One Week, I trigger one of these commands:

<li><a href="http://www.worldsfaircommunity.org/index.php?app=core&amp;module=search&amp;do=active&amp;search_filter_app[]=1&amp;st=25" title="2">2</a></li>

<li class='next'><a href="http://www.worldsfaircommunity.org/index.php?app=core&amp;module=search&amp;do=active&amp;search_filter_app[]=1&amp;st=25" title="Next page" rel='next'>&rarr;</a></li>

Either brings up Page 1 of 1 of Active Content in 24 hours, and shows it empty.

This code seems to be fouled up and pointing to the wrong page, or else the page was given the wrong URL.

Can you just change the 25 topics per page limit when the "24 hours" option is used to 100 topics or so and override the time period constraint?

[Bill Cotter]

Doesn't work for me either.

[magikbilly]

"...Is it just me,..."

Nope, not at all.
The place seems to have lost its pulse and I am not alone in that opinion at all. I have just returned from a multi-month break for these very reasons, and others to do with the way the room was going re walks and shows and whatnot, and I find I was able to catch up on what I missed in under 5 minutes. How do we jumpstart this place again? Where did the discussions go?


MB

[Mary Ellen]

I think the format has done us in. I find it difficult myself.