is there a way to tag threads for future reference? and other similar questions

ejdarling

In trying to research my spontaneous-mysterious-refusal-to-download-to- BS1 problem, I·have scanned 2000 threads, so far. I'm only halfway through,· and· I'm starting to wish I'd taken notes, because now I only sorta remember where the similar threads·were....·how do you handle this?·If I wanted to assemble a help-file relating to a problem, is there a better way than downloading the threads and working them on my PC? Can you even do that?
Could there be a standard set of subjects created, so that searching would be reliable?

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· -Eric

John R.

No direct answers, but:

It is my experience that "Standardized" subjects will create more problems than they solve, even if used a "secondary" marker. People will forget to set them, interpret them differently than one another, and not change them as a subject evolves from one to another. Even with the relatively broad descriptions of the differnt forums here, it seems there are regulary topics being moved from one forum to another (appropriately so).

I believe, based on hints, that the all powerful and knowledgeable IT Guy at Parallax is working on enhanced searching capabilities. The fact that they let this guy out of the back room to answer posts here is a testiment to the trust they (Parallax) have in him, and his ability to talk with users without alienating them. If we give him time, he will fix it. Just don't expect him to do it in his "free time", as he has none. If he is married, he has less than none.

Speaking as another IT guy, search capabilities in general are a pain in the -ah-er- neck to get working the way people want. There are outfits that make a substantial living providing search engines and services, and the fact that there are numerous companies offering numerous options should be a good clue that nobody, not even Google, has found "Search Utopia" yet.

Lastly, and possibly most significantly, if you see a thread you like, you can either save a reference to the page as a bookmark (Ctrl-D in most browsers) or cut and past the URL from the address bar into another document for future reference. This is probably better than "downloading", as it gets you back to the thread itself, including any updates since your original visit.

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John R.

8 + 8 = 10

ejdarling

Thanks! that is the most thoughtful & attentive post I've ever seen! (Eric shuffles away, mumbling, "ctrl-d, ctrl-d, ctrl-d....")

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· -Eric

Jim Ewald

Recognizing that the search feature is less than optimal was a negative when we evaluated the forum software available last year. I have been working through several alternatives that would, ultimately, allow us to use the same body of code on each of our web sites. We are testing a Google mini to see if it will give us what we need. The results are promising.

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Jim

Parallax IT Dept.

ejdarling

Thanks, Jim. I saw some talk about searching, but I'm new here. Do old threads expire, from age, or maybe periodic need to clean out storage, etc?

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· -Eric

Jim Ewald

The search engine is decent but the user interface could use some work. It's been an on-going issue since we moved off of the Yahoo site. This engine just wasn't up to the same standard as the Yahoo or Google search engines. We have installed a Google search engine that is ready for public access at http://search.parallax.com.

Our long term plans for threads are to keep them on-line for as long as the hardware can keep up with the message volume. The site has been up for about 17 months and we're still a long, long way for pushing the underlying hardware.

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Jim

Parallax IT Dept.

Bruce Bates

Jim -

I've certainly no idea if this is doable with your present software (dotnettBB), so just consider it a passing thought. If messages "aged out" (say) after 18-24 months or so, at back-up time, and then became compressed, so marked, and then rejoined the message base, I don't think anyone would complain about the subsequent decompresion time to retrieve them.

I suppose this might necessitate a newest-to-oldest search mechanism, to avoid constantly running into compressed messages, but I'm not sure message age or order is as important as the contents of the message itself.

Regards,

Bruce Bates

Jim Ewald

Bruce,

Using some sort of near storage solution is a good way to keep the working set to posts to a manageable size. The site was designed to have sufficient capacity to avoid any archive operations for years. At design time, it we determined that it was less expensive and more effective to throw hardware at the problem instead of radically changing the undelying dotNetbb code. the good news is that, over time, the hardware keeps getting bigger, faster and less expensive. I can't say the same for coders [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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Jim

Parallax IT Dept.

Tom Walker

Well....some of us do get bigger....unfortunately...:^)

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Truly Understand the Fundamentals and the Path will be so much easier...

ejdarling

In trying to solve my original problem, I looked at all 3600 threads of the Stamps forum, until I reached the beginning post 17 months ago. There were maybe a dozen instances of "failure-to-communicate" similar to mine, but you had to read and understand the subject, and/or read the thread itself, to know whether a problem was similar or not. I can see why searching is hard to implement; there is little common understanding among users of what to call their situations, and no librarian to review & classsify the threads.
Most threads, it appears to me, had good advice, but given randomly, as well-meaning people happened to think of things which might help. Since searching is probably a lost cause, couldnt the KB at least have articles about what to do if you get certain specific error-messages? I tried to educate myself before (or at least along with) bothering others with my problem, but got no help at all from the KB. Wouldnt it be a time-saver to write one article such as "what to check when your stamp wont downoad," listing "batteries, cables, port-settings, buffers, ... " etc, and point people to it, versus trying to remember all those things again & again? I would help write it myself, but dont know anything. Maybe a KB organized like a wiki (I think I'm using this right) would facilitate the institutional memory...

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· -Eric

Chris Savage

Eric,

·· This is something we're already working on.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com