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Forum Index : Off topic archive. : Forum Filter?
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pcaffalldavis Senior Member  Joined: 17/10/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 187 |
Does this forum have any filter options? I would like to be notified when threads I subscribe to receive new postings, as I currently am for several, but I would like to be able to exclude some postings from some members. Some newsgroups in other forums offer this option. Does this forum offer that option? Not to be rude, but sometimes our satellite goes down and we must resort to dial up. At dial up speeds some members frequent postings are just not worth the dial-up time and trouble. Pete in Hyder We're all here 'cause we're not all there. |
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Keith @ Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 167 |
Pete Have a look at your forum settings when you are logged on ... see "Settings" at the top of the page. Email notifications may be of help. Blocking buddy "don't send me messages" may help. Limiting posts per day per person would not affect the vast majority of forum members and would be a really great help ... but that is up to the administrator. Keith The more we know, the more we know we don't know ! |
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Gizmo Admin Group  Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5015 |
Hi Peter. Sorry there are no filter options for the email notify function. But at least its a plain text email and very small in size. The email notify is a bit of a problem for me actually, as the forum sends out hundreds of emails every time someone makes a post, and some mail servers, like AOL, have in the past blacklisted thebackshed.com as a spamming source due to the excessive emails it sends. I would rather there was no email notify function, its something I'll review in the future. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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sparkey Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
glenn i turned mine off in the settings i was getting emails by the dozen but i did realize that when posting you do have an option to stop the email back to your isp but yeess it is a controlable option in your personal setting`s which i have diss abled so if i can do it others can too....regards sparkey.... technicians do it with least resistance |
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| Keith @ Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 167 |
Glenn The email notification is really a nice to have but not a necessity .... the private message would be a better option in my opinion. That way people would revisit the forum check their PM's and work out the one's to look up. Maybe a search option that lists unread forum postings since the last visit. I checked the postings per day of a few members and it appears that the highest of those was only 5 per day since the start of membership .... so the next option would be to limit postings based on a weekly or monthly quota. I'm sure you can do this manually by removing the ability for an individual to sign on to make posts. Not something that should have to be done but when you have a gigabyte quota with your internet account/ mobile phone data allowance you get shaped or charged or worse. You certainly think twice about wasting your allowance. Keith The more we know, the more we know we don't know ! |
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| pcaffalldavis Senior Member Joined: 17/10/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 187 |
Thank you for the thoughtful replies. Being as new as I am to thig group I was afraid I might get flamed a bit with such a question. I have my settings tweaked as best I can. Still, when notification emails come one often wants to log in and see the photos. This takes much longer than downloading simple text and often ends up being too much for dial up. I recall some groups in the past that had some nice filtering options. For example you could opt in or opt out based upon specific words (which could be a user name). This was really nice when I was working in Foxpro years ago. You could opt in for every post, forum wide (not just thread), that mentioned a specific programming function. This was great if you were having trouble learning how to use some particular nuance of a specific programming command or technique. Just as it was nice to be able to drag a net to pick up all threads that used that key word, it was also nice to be able to skip notifications of postings that included any specific word or words (or user name). If you tired of notifications of others that didn't speak any of the languages you could read or understand you could avoid receiving emails notifing of their postings. Right now in another forum I monitor there is a French man in Canada that wrongly insists he can communicate in English. Reading his postings are like reading gibberish. It is impossible in the final analysis to understand if he is suggesting one should or should not do something. After months of following his senior member status postings, I have finally given up all together on making any sense of anything he ever writes. This forum does not have opt out either, but I wish it did. This guy posts twice as often as Sparkey, in Frenglish in nearly every thread in multiple forums. And then there are the terminally confused. Reading and trying to understand the prose from some members is like going to a dyslexic convention and asking for directions to the washroom. Your are better off just not going (both ways). Fortunately I have not found any of those here! But you get what I mean. I bet if you put in such a opt in or opt out filter based upon a list of user defined words the server's email generation load might be signifigantly reduced. But I could be wrong. Some days I'm wrong before I get out of bed. Still, I keep trying! Thank you everyone for accepting the topic so cordially. Pete in Hyder We're all here 'cause we're not all there. |
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| sparkey Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
welcome to the back shed ...sparkey ...// technicians do it with least resistance |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5015 |
I'll file this away under suggestions to improve the forum. There have been some good idea's lately, and I do take notice, but for the next few weeks at least I cant devote much time to the forum workings. See I'm in the middle of taking out a big loan for a house and shed, so I need to concentrate on my business and make the books look good. Once I get over this busy period I'll look into implementing some of the changes suggested. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| aargee Senior Member Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
Glenn, You and me both ;-) - Rob. For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
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yahoo2 Guru  Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
I am not sure that slow loading on dial-up is entirely due to photos, I am finding that my browser is pausing and waiting for some content when my mobile broadband connection is slowed, My gut feeling it is something from google that is hanging but that is wild speculation.Google content seems to be everywhere! I am amazed at the speed that a thread appears and grows in the maximite section, you make the rest of us look like monks that have taken a vow of silence  I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
this is my browser paging for stuff it missed on just one page.(due to slowed connection) 
I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5015 |
Over the last few days there has been a lot of hacking attacks on this forum and some of my clients web sites. This may be slowing things down a bit, its global. The type of hack is what we call a "SQL injection attack", and it causes the web page to error in my case, which is a good thing. If it didn't error, it means the attack was successfull. My sites look for and block the attack, plus most of the attacks are aimed at PHP based sites running MySQL as the database, but this is a ASP/MSAccess based, so the hacks dont work anyway. Its nothing to worry about, its just annoying because it can slow down the site. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
it only seems to be the parts of the style sheets that load from java that are pausing, like I say at full speed its so quick I cant see anything. I would be in favour of a tax deductible world study tour so we could "visit" some spammers and hackers and graphically "explain" our frustration with their chosen vocation  . I would find that very therapeutic. 
I'm wondering out loud if some sort of backshed news ticker app might solve/reduce the email traffic. yahoo I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5015 |
One addition I'm going to add is a plain and simple "New Posts" page, a bit like the Active Topics link at the top of this page, or on the front page http://www.thebackshed.com/Windmill/home.asp, but designed to load fast, very clean with no java or images, and only show the topics that have changed since you last visited. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| yahoo2 Guru Joined: 05/04/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1166 |
Sounds great! I love the mouse over on the topic title that shows the first sentence of the first post. I really miss it when I use other peoples browser's that don't let it function and when I use the search tool. If the "new post's" page shows the topic ,poster and the first few words of the last post it could be a real killer. I'm confused, no wait... maybe I'm not... |
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| Ray B Senior Member Joined: 16/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 219 |
Oh Pete you have raised the "Elephant In The Room" which relates to one particular poster on this forum. Can someone speak to the offending person or design a "Sparkey Filter".... . The idea of limiting the number of posts allowed per day sounds like a good first step. RayB from Perth WA |
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| Gizmo Admin Group Joined: 05/06/2004 Location: AustraliaPosts: 5015 |
I hate running a forum. Thats been done here before. One member who would post the same subject matter several times a day. The posts were long but with no real information. I tried limiting the number of posts per day in the hope his posts would be more on topic, but there was a backlash, as this same person would also post very informative posts from time to time as well. It didn't end well. So I wont be limiting the number of posts for anyone in the future. I think everyone should be aware every time a post is made, the server will send out hundreds of emails, and some members have limited internet bandwidth. If your going to make a post, keep it on topic and friendly. If possible ( this is what I try to do ), answer a few posts with one post. The main thing to remember is a whole bunch of people will be reading your posts, so make the post count. Glenn The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now. JAQ |
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| Keith @ Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 167 |
Ray re my earlier post The posts per day is not a viable measure .... amongst the highest posters I checked was one just over 5 per day. This in itself is not a high number if an individual has a need for a 2 way "conversation" with a number of people on a particular subject/topic. Usually the subject/topic will be resolved in a reasonable time but could exceed 5 per day for a short period. However, if an individual consistently post 5.5 + per day that is over 2000 posts in a year or 166 posts per month. That is the crux of the problem. A possible solution is to set a monthly limit that won't affect the majority of members but which will limit frivolous posting .... By setting a monthly limit, members will think seriously about the need for a post before putting fingers to the keyboard and hopefully their free running rambling drivel for postings will come to an end as they will not want to run out of their monthly allowance in case they have something important to post. Additionally, there are enough members on this forum to answer queries that a few suspended members won't stop the flow of information. At the end of the day people need to learn self control. Good etiquette on a forum is only good manners but sometimes these rules need to be listed for all to see. Keith The more we know, the more we know we don't know ! |
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| sparkey Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
fine i dont kneed the greif ...from now on i am allowed to read i shalt not ever post again.... technicians do it with least resistance |
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| Keith @ Senior Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 167 |
Glenn You have great responsibility as administrator of a forum ... I do not envy that responsibility but I do respect your authority. In politics the Speaker will have members removed for breaking rules and or unruly behaviour. In school the teacher/principal will do the same .... in public the police will do the same. This forum should be no different. If the rules are clearly laid out then you can impose the required authority/penalty to bring that problem to an end and the members have to respect that authority (including the one being suspended/cancelled) if the action is fair and just. Keith The more we know, the more we know we don't know ! |
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