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[Resolved] Order of the forums


DavidT

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Posted

I've got a question about the order of the forums. Why is the "Mailhost System Configuration" at the top of the list? That makes no sense to me whatsoever. Shouldn't it be further down the hierarchy, perhaps between "SpamCop Blocklist Help" and the new "How to use" section? The Mailhost forum is clearly not as important as some of the others, and it also desperately needs a description.

DT

Posted

History: Julian posted the request for Beta test volunteers in thw what is now the Reporting Forum. However, people were posting all over the place, ignoring Julian's request to keep all comments within that one Topic. However, after doing all the chasing around, collecting all those postings found everywhere else, and placing them into that one Discussion, the complaint then was that it was simply too damn big to deal with (over 450 posts, if I can recall anywhere near right) ... I bitched enough to JT, Deputies, Julian that JT created that new Forum. (Recall, at the time, only JT had the power to do this kind of heavy lifting. I'll assume he put it at the top as it was the hot Topic of the day ..??) I spent the next three or four days trying to break out all those single-Topic posts into more specific discussions. I see that as a lot of wasted time for the most part, as the real work has never been completed, as I see it.

Current situarion, if it works straight through, no problem.

If something goes wrong and it's one of the obvious things that have been resolved before, then one of a number of us can (and have) popped in with the answer.

Anything else is handled by "e-mail to the Deputies" .. end of discussion. Ellen had offered to write up a FAQ, but apparently time has never arrived for that to be accomplished. I'm not going to try, as all I know about it is from wearing that systems analyst hat and noting the problems, some of the offered solutions, but the "real" issues have all been handled behind the scenes, so what those answers really are, I don't have a clue beyond the "e-mail the Deputies" ....

Changing the order will change the pointers, such that folks that have bookmarked specific Forum entry points will then end up arriving in a different Forum (at least touched on in a recent posting in the newly created "How To ... Forum) ... To me, not that big of a deal, and of course, would rather that folks come in at the Top of the Forum to catch any Announcements, but .... trying to minimize the ticking people odd .. I seem to do that so often anyway <g>

I'll try to come up with and add a description now that JT has tossed that capability to me .. one of those how to describe it in a single sentence issues <g>

Posted

Thanks for the history and details, Wazoo.

Changing the order will change the pointers, such that folks that have bookmarked specific Forum entry points will then end up arriving in a different Forum

No, I don't think so. They aren't in numerical order. Take a look at the "order" of the values for "showforum" as you mouse over the current forums:

7

3

4

5

11

etc.

The order is probably determined in the IPB admin control panel, which you now have access to. Therefore, there's no reason not to move the Mailhosts one as I have requested....correct? The Mailhosts topic is not "hot" any longer, and so it really should be put in a more logical place in the hierarchy.

Now, on to the other topic....that of the redundant, extra middle level that takes people here:

http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showforum=9

when it would really be better to always have people go here:

http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?act=idx

I'd imagine that's something else that you might very well be able to fix at the board config level, but I'm not 100% sure.

DT

Posted

Damn .. embarrassing ... I see that dbiel actually wrote up a bit of a FAQ way back on Jul 2 2004, 11:17 PM .. Ellen edited it a bit (and offered her thanks) ... off to change some Forum FAQ pointers also <g>

Posted
Thanks for the history and details, Wazoo.

No, I don't think so. They aren't in numerical order. Take a look at the "order" of the values for "showforum" as you mouse over the current forums:

<snip>

The order is probably determined in the IPB admin control panel, which you now have access to.

You've got me convinced of that logic .. I'm still playing with some of it .. still locked out the actual "support" area, but have been piecing things together by reading those bug, suggestion, and "other than Invision" support Forums .. lots of that "neat" stuff though is manipulation of source code, SQL scripting, and such ...

When creating the "How to .." Forum (and sub-forum set) it orginally went in as the bottom-most Forum. I wenr in and did a re-numbering action, which as you pointed out apparently (?) just deals with the display ordering .. whereas I was thinking that it actually changed a database entry/pointer ...

Therefore, there's no reason not to move the Mailhosts one as I have requested....correct? The Mailhosts topic is not "hot" any longer, and so it really should be put in a more logical place in the hierarchy.

matter now of working up the nerve to give it a shot <g>

Now, on to the other topic....that of the redundant, extra middle level that takes people here:

http://forum.spamcop.net/forums/index.php?showforum=9

OK, that one I had been looking at myself, but ... I haven't come across the right reference from someone else having tried that manuever. (actually finding plenty of references/queries about how it went wrong though <g>) Those two sections are "root" type structures, and JT had massively different settings applied to the Announcements section. I actually had been contemplating adding in a "new" Announcements section in the 'lower' section, moving all the content from above down into that one, then doing a Remove ... but still doing the knowldege building thing before messing anything up <g> Should I admit to locking myself out of the ACP a week or so ago? Naw, nobody else needs to know that <g>

Posted
matter now of working up the nerve to give it a shot

Aw, c'mon...go for it! :D

Edit: Way to go! I see that you made the changes. I consider them to be improvements in this resource....you can send anyone who gripes to me and I'll wear them out with logic... ;)

DT

Posted

It took a couple of tries, but .... might have picked yet another sequence or two .. will wait to see who else notices (or comes in with a new-found problem <g>) Thanks for the push!

Now back to figuring out why it's only a bit above 50 degrees (F) in here <g>

Posted
.... might have picked yet another sequence or two ..

Actually, I hate to be the first to gripe, but.... I think that the Mailhosts forum really needs to be moved down one more slot, in that it's currently in between the two forums that have only to do with those of us with SC email accounts. IIUC, even "reporting only" folks can set up their Mailhosts, so it's not a topic exclusive to SC email people. If you move it down just one more slot, things will be perfect! :)

Edit: That's the ticket! Thanks, Wazoo. B)

DT

Posted
Now back to figuring out why it's only a bit above 50 degrees (F) in here <g>

Oh my....if you were in my neighborhood, I'd suggest that you simply open your windows, because it's over 70 degrees outside. (I'm in the greater Phoenix AZ area)

DT

Posted

Arrrggggh! 14 with a wind chill of -3 here .... anyway, though it looks like I could use a new thermocouple, it turned out to be one of those ancient screw-in type round glass-window fuses ... three stores later, no one has a 6.25 amp in stock, tossed in an 8 amp, crossed the fingers ... working for now with nothing on fire <g> it lasted through the "catch-up" mode and has cycled three times since then .. still no smoke showing .. looks like it'll get me through till Monday <g>

Posted

I'll try to shiver a bit on your behalf, but it won't be easy. :rolleyes:

Hey, I just noticed another change. Some of the icons just changed to new versions....specifically, the ones for:

Poll (New)

Poll (No New)

Locked Topic

Moved Topic

Up until a few minutes ago, they were the old versions that had some problems. For example, the two poll icons were the same shade of green...so there wasn't any difference between them (it was a bug in several versions of IPB). How did you change out the icons, long after the remote installation by the Invision techs?

DT

Posted

Swear to God, I had nothing to do with that <g> ... In addition to the re-ording, I did go in and change a setting under Group stuff ... in theory, the SpamCop staff folks should now show up in Blue when they're 'here' .. of course, no idea at this point if that's going to work ... Currently, JT has me set as "the" Admin, but it doesn't really seem to working totally as planned (I'm still thinking that some items are hard coded to "user #1" which would make sense) ... getting off-topic .. the icon set, I can't really touch (well, kind of) ... those are files on the system, hiding in some folder some where .. technically I could change the pointer to go somewhere else, but I've no idea what JT may have installed (or where exactly) ... so let's just blame this on possibly tickling something that freshened something up? (along that line, there are maintenance functions that can be run from the ACP, but .... one I did way back when did fix an icon type issue .. way back when, the first version, he'd added in a set of icons .. there was an upgrade applied, which then reverted back to another folder, so those older postings were pointed to 'no where' .. I did smash a key, and it allegedly fixed/added some soft links to icon folders, which then brought back the icons displayed in those ancient posts. I just hate to try some of the other functions from "remote" and knowing there's no way to handle breakage <g>

Relating to a post I'd placed in the "How to .." Forum, there was some talk and someone did up some new icons to replace the Quote and Reply buttons to stop some confusion .. but that would involve uploading some files and modifying some source code, way beyond the powers granted thus far <g>

Posted
Oh my....if you were in my neighborhood, I'd suggest that you simply open your windows, because it's over 70 degrees outside. (I'm in the greater Phoenix AZ area)

DT

23473[/snapback]

I in the middle of a blizzard right now....already 6" and the storm is still supposed to go on for another 18 hours or so.... I'm bunkered down for a while :)

Posted

We've actually seen a few flakes here in Phoenix once or twice since moving here, but they don't survive once they hit the ground. You know the saying about a "snoflake's chance in..." B)

Steven, you didn't comment on the new organization of the forums (which is the topic at hand, afterall). What do you think?

DT

Posted

I actually did not notice it until I read about it here. I usually only look in the first column for unread forums and click that icon to go to the unread message. I usually do not worry about what forum I am in until I go to reply.

Looking at it now, it is much more organized. Thanks Wazoo for taking the chance on this modification. It will hopefully help people put messages in the correct locations.

P.S. 2-3' drifts here, 50-60MPH winds, and another 10 hours of snow on the way....yipee! A whole day in the house with the kids :)

Posted
P.S.  2-3' drifts here, 50-60MPH winds, and another 10 hours of snow on the way....yipee!  A whole day in the house with the kids :)

It doesn't get much better than that!

Oh wait ... yes it does .... change that to read 'grand-kids' ... ah yes, the future awaits you! <g>

  • 2 months later...
Posted

Working on something else, came upon this Topic ... now that I'm sitting here sweating something fierce, guess it's time to go back downstairs and start going over the furnace situation <g>

Posted
Working on something else, came upon this Topic ... now that I'm sitting here sweating something fierce, guess it's time to go back downstairs and start going over the furnace situation <g>

26715[/snapback]

Thanks for the flashback on a day where I'm nearly 30 degrees (F) above the norm for this time of year. The kids were outside playing with the pool all day while I was in AC'd office.

Posted
Thanks for the flashback on a day where I'm nearly 30 degrees (F) above the norm for this time of year.

Shhhh...there's no such thing as global warming. Keep saying that over and over again while the polar ice melts away...that's what the evil Repugs want you to do. :angry:

DT

Posted
Shhhh...there's no such thing as global warming. Keep saying that over and over again while the polar ice melts away...that's what the evil Repugs want you to do. :angry:

DT

26732[/snapback]

THis is not a political forum and tmorrow is going right back to normal here (low 50's)

Posted
THis is not a political forum

True, but then all of the posts in this topic regarding weather aren't exactly on topic, now are they? It's not a meterological forum, either. :D

DT

Posted
True, but then all of the posts in this topic regarding weather aren't exactly on topic, now are they? It's not a meterological forum, either.  :D

DT

26737[/snapback]

Also true, but weather talk USUALLY does not get heated :)

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