Davepar

Davepar

Well Known Member
The only advantage I've found to the Yahoo Groups is that questions seem to reach a larger audience. I guess it takes less effort to read stuff that shows up in your inbox vs. surfing to a web site and checking for posts. Other than that, the forums are much, much better.

I've found one trick that is pretty cool for tracking the forum activity without going to the web page every hour. You can put a list of the latest forum posts on your web browser home page.

For example, this is what is now displayed on my home page:

homepage.jpg


1. Go to www.google.com. Click the "Personalized Home" link in the upper right corner. Create a Google account, or sign in if you already have now. Now make this page the home page for your browser (Tools menu, Options).

2. Next, click the "Add Content" link in the upper left corner. In the text box under "Create a Section", enter "http://www.vansairforce.com/community/external.php?type=rss2". This is known as an RSS feed.

You can customize the location on the screen, by dragging it around. You can also customize the number of posts displayed by using the "Edit" link next to VansAirForceForums.

Dave
 
Photos and databases

I was discussing this with Randy Lervold and pointed out the two things I like about the Yahoo groups that the VAF forums don't have are the photo and database sections. The photos are nice for obvious reasons and the database section on the RV-3 Yahoo group has been a big help because RV-3 weights were a big issue in my decision to build.

Are you listening Doug?

Ken
 
The Yahoo and V Bulletin boards are far easier to post and archive photos on, otherwise the search functions here can quickly locate LOTS of info. I like both!
 
You can also use teh RSS feed in Firefox. Go to the bookmark manager and select "new live bookmark". Put in the address that Dave showed "http://www.vansairforce.com/community/external.php?type=rss2", give it a name and your done.
 
weight & balance database

flymustangs said:
I was discussing this with Randy Lervold and pointed out the two things I like about the Yahoo groups that the VAF forums don't have are the photo and database sections. The photos are nice for obvious reasons and the database section on the RV-3 Yahoo group has been a big help because RV-3 weights were a big issue in my decision to build.

Are you listening Doug?

Ken
Click to expand...

http://www.rvproject.com/wab/

Feel free to encourage RV-3 group members to enter their data in that W&B database. I don't benefit in any way from it, it's there for YOU.

)_( Dan
RV-7 N714D
http://www.rvproject.com
 
Thanks Dan!

Thanks Dan. I had forgotten about that page on your site. Just need to get some RV-3 guys to enter some data in there now.

Ken
 
dan said:
http://www.rvproject.com/wab/

Feel free to encourage RV-3 group members to enter their data in that W&B database.
Click to expand...
Love that Dan!

I'm planning on adding a photo gallery feature to the forums in the 2nd quarter of this year, btw. There is also a 'subscribe to *forum*' feature that might duplicate a lot of the Yahoo email functionality - in a daily digest format. Playing with it now....

Best always,
Doug
 
yahoo forums

one thing you may not be aware of , at my Job I can't surf the internet (I know bummer right) but I can check my yahoo mail via my cellphone and read post.. my cellphone won't do html, but its nice keeping in touch with the questions and answers during my 6pm to 6am shifts... infact its the only real fun I have been having lately.. I can also get it to check my other email to pick up the other list stuff.. so don't please don't shut them down yet.. :)
I will get a blackberry soon though and it does html so I will be all set then.. :)
thanks for all you do though.. this project would be impossible without all these list and web pages..
esp www.rvproject.com (thanks Dan)


Danny..
 
The Yahoo Groups aren't going away ...

I know that Doug has said that he wants to shut down the Yahoo groups he runs, but I know that there are many, many people who find e-mail list much more efficient. I can get through a bunch of messages much more quickly using an e-mail program than I can by using a web based interface. If I am on the road, once I find an internet connection, I can check my mail then disconnect. Then I can sit in the airport, or on the airplane, read e-mail, compose replies, and send them next time I have an internet connection. Try that with a forum.

I know a lot of people like web-based forums. Good for them. Different strokes for different folks. If we all liked the same kind of aircraft we would all by flying Cessnas.

But the current forum implementation doesn't work for me. With e-mail lists, I can check the mail several times a day, and get through the postings in a few minutes. With a web based forum the time delay to go from one page to the next eats up too much time. I can only keep up with a small sub-set of the various forums, and even then only if I have a sustained net connection.

I can understand why Doug might want to not run the various Yahoo Groups. Hopefully he will be willing to pass the keys to the groups to someone else. If not, Cary Rhodes has already volunteered to set up new groups. So the Yahoo Groups aren't going away. The worst case is the existing ones will be replaced by new ones.
 
godspeed said:
one thing you may not be aware of , at my Job I can't surf the internet (I know bummer right) but I can check my yahoo mail via my cellphone and read post.. my cellphone won't do html, but its nice keeping in touch with the questions and answers during my 6pm to 6am shifts... infact its the only real fun I have been having lately.. I can also get it to check my other email to pick up the other list stuff.. so don't please don't shut them down yet.. :)
I will get a blackberry soon though and it does html so I will be all set then.. :)
thanks for all you do though.. this project would be impossible without all these list and web pages..
esp www.rvproject.com (thanks Dan)


Danny..
Click to expand...

You also might want to check the wireless phone cards for laptops that the cell phone people offer. My boss surfs the internet anywhere a mobile phone signal is. The cost might be equal to a blackberry subscription (assuming you already have a laptop to plug it into)
 
2. Next, click the "Add Content" link in the upper left corner. In the text box under "Create a Section", enter "http://www.vansairforce.com/community/external.php?type=rss2". This is known as an RSS feed.
Click to expand...
Great. How'd you know that was the address? Can you create an RSS feed from any page?
 
DeltaRomeo said:
Love that Dan!
There is also a 'subscribe to *forum*' feature that might duplicate a lot of the Yahoo email functionality - in a daily digest format. Playing with it now....
Click to expand...

How about a subscribe to forum option that sends out e-mails as soon as a message is posted?

I'm having some sort of problem with e-mail notifications though - I get messages for some threads that I've subscribed to, but not others. I don't know whether it is a problem with the forum not sending the e-mail, or with my ISP losing it somehow.
 
Kevin Horton said:
But the current forum implementation doesn't work for me. With e-mail lists, I can check the mail several times a day, and get through the postings in a few minutes. With a web based forum the time delay to go from one page to the next eats up too much time. I can only keep up with a small sub-set of the various forums, and even then only if I have a sustained net connection.
Click to expand...

Working the forums off line clearly does not work and if that is a requirement then email is a better solution. But...

If you have a sustained high speed internet connection I find it very easy to check the forums by clicking the 'new posts' or todays posts button. For me I can get to the 3 of 30 posts I care about in no time.

For me I tolerate the email for the few nuggets of info but I really hate scrolling through messages that have been replied to 12 times.

DOUG: It would be pretty cool if the forum would pull up all the new posts on a page so we don't have to page surf to each one. Give me a button to get to the thread if I care to. That would be very fast....

Chuck
 
chuck said:
Working the forums off line clearly does not work and if that is a requirement then email is a better solution.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I don't need that capability too often, so I could live without it if need be.

If you have a sustained high speed internet connection I find it very easy to check the forums by clicking the 'new posts' or todays posts button. For me I can get to the 3 of 30 posts I care about in no time.
Click to expand...

I don't know whether it is my ISP, my browser, or what. But I have a significant delay between when I click on a link to a post, and when the post appears in front of my eyes. That makes it much slower to go from post to post than it is to blast through a bunch of e-mails. This is the deal breaker for me. I only have so many hours in the day, and I can't afford to spend more time than I already am on following lists and forums.

For me I tolerate the email for the few nuggets of info but I really hate scrolling through messages that have been replied to 12 times.
Click to expand...

Yep, that is a weakness of e-mail lists for sure. If people can't be bothered to trim the quotes so I can put their post in context, I usually can't be bothered trying to read their message. Delete.

DOUG: It would be pretty cool if the forum would pull up all the new posts on a page so we don't have to page surf to each one. Give me a button to get to the thread if I care to. That would be very fast....
Chuck
Click to expand...

And, how about an option to customize the list of forums that are captured in the New Posts and Today's Posts links? I don't have the time to follow every forum. The current format where these links capture every forum isn't that useful to me.
 
daily digest

Morning all,

There is a 'subscribe to forum' feature that I just tested last night. Worked like a champ. I subscribed to the 'RV-8/8A' forum and got one email showing (broken into two sections) the new threads and the updated threads - kinda like a top level overview of that particular area's activity. This one email showed up in my inbox three minutes after midnight.

I'll work up an article tonight and post on the site. This might help with those Yahoo users who enjoy a daily digest. Looks like daily/weekly digest only - no individual emails.

OK, back to work <g>.

B,
D
 
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How about forum RSS feeds?

Doug,

The starter of this thread showed how to get an RSS feed for the whole body of forums. Would it be possible to have RSS feeds for each forum? And make the limit on the article text quite large, so that most postings would be completely contained in the feed. That way it might be practical to use an RSS feed reader as an efficient way to keep up on postings. That might solve my latency complaints about the web interface.
 
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Kevin Horton said:
I don't know whether it is my ISP, my browser, or what. But I have a significant delay between when I click on a link to a post, and when the post appears in front of my eyes. That makes it much slower to go from post to post than it is to blast through a bunch of e-mails. This is the deal breaker for me. I only have so many hours in the day, and I can't afford to spend more time than I already am on following lists and forums.
Click to expand...

You need a tabbed browser. I'm using Firefox. Or IE7 will have it when it's released. I pull up the New Posts. And then right-click/open-link-in-new-tab for every topic that looks interesting. The tabs load in the background and then I read through them one by one. Very efficient.

Being able to skip endless discussions on primer, nose wheels, and alternators: priceless. :)
 
DeltaRomeo said:
You bet, Kevin.

You simply use this type URL

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/external.php?type=rss2&forumids=123

(where 123 is the id number of the forum of interest)
Click to expand...

Thanks. That works. But, it seems to have only one item for each thread, starting at the first post. This is OK if you haven't read that thread yet, but otherwise you need to scroll and try to find the new post(s). Not efficient. And the feed only holds a few lines - the RSS reader has to hit the web to get the whole post. I was really hoping for something that would have the full text of each post, so I could jump straight to the new posts, and get them instantly rather than wait while the RSS client pulled the bits off the wire.
 
View First Unread

Davepar said:
You need a tabbed browser. I'm using Firefox. Or IE7 will have it when it's released. I pull up the New Posts. And then right-click/open-link-in-new-tab for every topic that looks interesting. The tabs load in the background and then I read through them one by one. Very efficient.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion. I had been playing around with tabbed browsers, and it does help. But until a few seconds ago I hadn't figured out how to have the browser go to the new posts.

I just saw the "View First Unread" link that is in the windows you get from "New Posts". That at least gets me to the first new post in a thread. But, I've still got two questions:

1. How do I jump to subsequent new posts in a thread without doing a post by post search?

2. Why is the "View First Unread" link only there some of the time? It would be useful for it to be always available, I think. What logic determines when it is available, and when it isn't?

Time to head into the shop. We've used up my quota of computer time until I get some work done. :)
 
Kevin Horton said:
I just saw the "View First Unread" link that is in the windows you get from "New Posts".
Click to expand...

That's a good point. I didn't notice that feature for a while either. For everyone else, we're talking about the little down arrow to the left of the topic name
firstnew.gif
. Clicking on that will take you to the first post since your last visit. Very handy.

1. How do I jump to subsequent new posts in a thread without doing a post by post search?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean by subsequent. The next time you visit, the "go to first new post" link should point to the first post since your last visit.

2. Why is the "View First Unread" link only there some of the time? It would be useful for it to be always available, I think. What logic determines when it is available, and when it isn't?
Click to expand...

I've often wondered how the "new posts" logic works. I've done some reading on the vBulletin web site, and I think I understand it now. When you first visit the forum, a timer on the server starts ticking. Let's say you visit the "New Posts" link. It will show all of the topics with new posts since your last visit. As you read topics, your browser keeps tracks of the read topics and they will no longer be in boldface in the "new posts" list, and the "view first unread" link will be reset, since presumably you've read all the posts in that topic.

Now remember the timer I mentioned? The default value for this is 15 minutes (unless Doug has changed it). When 15 minutes goes by since you've done anything on the forum (read a post, responded, etc.), the whole "new posts" list will be reset. It's the same effect as going to "Quick Links" and hitting "Mark Forums Read". The next time you visit the forums, the "new posts" list will show all topics with new posts since you last posted or read a topic.

It's rather complicated and not perfect. Supposedly vBulletin is working on a better system for the next release.

Dave
 
Davepar said:
I'm not sure what you mean by subsequent. The next time you visit, the "go to first new post" link should point to the first post since your last visit.
Click to expand...

If you view the thread in Hybrid mode (and maybe Threaded), and you scroll the page, the posts show up so that a reply to a post is just below the post being replied to. This layout makes it clear which post is being refered to, which can be a problem if people don't quote any text. The result is that the posts are not displayed in chronological order. So new posts may be scattered in the middle of the page. Thus it is hard to find new posts.

Linear mode puts the posts in chronological order, which makes it easy to find new posts, but you sometimes can't put the comments in perspective, as you don't know which post they are responding to.

I've often wondered how the "new posts" logic works. I've done some reading on the vBulletin web site, and I think I understand it now. When you first visit the forum, a timer on the server starts ticking. Let's say you visit the "New Posts" link. It will show all of the topics with new posts since your last visit. As you read topics, your browser keeps tracks of the read topics and they will no longer be in boldface in the "new posts" list, and the "view first unread" link will be reset, since presumably you've read all the posts in that topic.
Click to expand...

Hmm. This may explain why I get strange results. I visit the forum from three different computers. I guess the knowledge of read posts is stored in a cookie, on each computer. So the New Posts on one computer doesn't take into account that I may have read some of those posts on a different computer. Oh well.

It sure would be nice to have a system where the forum server could remember which posts a user has seen. With an e-mail list, I delete the message after I've read it, and thus it doesn't get picked up again on another computer.
 
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