Suggestion Box

My first suggestion is that every page shows the Spring-wise time! Being in the UK, it would be helpful!

You're on GMT -2?

Errr.......I'm on GMT....as for -2, I've no idea :/

OK, another idea. It would be nice to have my conference hotlist in a separate frame on the Main page. That way, I wouldn't have to update the entire Main page every time I go to it - just the conference hotlist.

Oh yeah, and you might want to kill Topic 15 - the first "Experts on the Spring" topic. For some reason, Yapp decided that we should have two Experts topics, rather than the standard one :)

Good idea, I'll look into a framed version.

My WELL account came through last night. Since then (2300 GMT) I've recieved one phone call (from the WELL office), three welcome emails from the WELL office, and two independent emails just from ppl to say hi. Perhaps we need to be a little friendlier towards newly-registered users. Certainly a welcome e-mail (even if it was canned) would be useful - I would be happy to run such a service.

Also, I think on-line bios are well overdue! This topic seems more like "mikeg's suggestion box", than a Spring-wide one :/

You're on Mike. You can be our welcome wagoneer!

You'd better supply me with a list of newly-registered e-mail addresses then :)

Keep up the good work, mikeg, you are thinking up lots of good ideas for the rest of us! :-)

Okay, mike, here's one from me... On the possible ranges for the web interface, how about a today choice? The way I jump around on here, sometimes I don't have a response until two conferences and seventeen topics later, so a today selection sure would speed up my re-searching.

Erm, I kind of understand what you're getting at wer, but perhaps you could be just a little more explicit!

Why, Mike, I didn't know you were that kind of guy...

LOL! Watch out WER, you might start scaring people away!

Don't know, stacey, I think some of them like watching us too much...

I dunno. nick and wolf seemed to be wrapped up in their own cyberaffair!

Does that mean what I think it means?

I dunno. What do you think it means? You frequently ask odd questions I am unsure how to respond to! *smile*

Who, me? Don't know WHAT you could mean by that... If Nick and Wolf are having their own, it implies we are, too. Or not. Doesn't really matter, I'm having too much fun to care. *wink*

*giggle* me too! Where's the couch? Or the counter? A chair?

I'm gonna get smacked if I try to translate any of this to the physical world, aren't I?

D'ya like it rough?! *grin*

Find out.

My, my, my. I'm gettin' all worked up again!

For?

Now I know why they call it the suggestion box.

And did ya get my e-mail?

Just got it. It felt odd seeing your name in such a private place. I've other private places... like to leave your mark?

Won't get ya in trouble, will it? If you ever want to talk via e-mail, use kitchen_manager@juno.com

alrighty. wish I had access at home. Well, maybe not. I might morph into purely virtual girl.

I've just re-read the whole of this topic, and I'm amazed by it. We were on a good run of interesting suggestions, and then just one word by me - explicit - degenerated it into something pseudo junior-high :)) OK, here's another _sensible_ suggestion: how about having the name of the host at the top of each conference page? There currently seems to be no way to find out the host of a conference. Also, isn't it now possible to integrate the online bios into the Spring?

Aha...if you nip up through the spam to response 12, WER suggested a "today" link. Well, I think you can do that now, if a little awkwardly. If you type in the url: www.spring.com/yapp-bin/restricted/browse//since/-1 then you should get a list of responses posted within the last day. I haven't tested this yet, so don't take it as gospel. But hey, try it out - it might work!

We can integrate online bios easily. Just transfer your webpage over. I can give you permission in an area to do this.

haven't tried it with -1, but typing in -3 from the web interface gives really weird results...

alright, what's this -1, -3 business??

don't you wish you knew...*wink* I think, actually, it was the weird dates those couple of days that have thrown that off...

OK, terry, if you give me somewhere to transfer the pages to, I'll do it - alternatively you could just grab them straight from my web domain. However, probably easier if I copy them over myself etc.

I'll set up an area! Email me a reminder if you don't hear from me by email with the instructions.

OK - btw, that's probably the fastest Spring response I've ever had :)

Hmm...not sure if the post was here, but I was going to be the (cue terry-term:) "Welcome Waggoner" for new Spring subscribers. I'm still very interested in doing this (basically a welcome e-mail for new Spring people and perhaps getting together a basic guide of how the interface works etc.). However, terry I need you to send me a list of new people as they arrive, otherwise it'll never work!

Still waiting for e-mail re: bio transfer, btw...

I've got a guy who wants to help you with cgi, I'm letting him do his own cgi stuff here and in trade he's going to help you. I will forward an email to you about this.

That's excellent - great news :)) What I like to see is trading - a job for a job.

I really really really think we should have some frame capability on the main interface. It would be *so* useful to be able to slip in and out of conferences without having to go back to the main page every time. I'm willing to put some time into helping develop this.

Don't like frames, myself, they tie up too much of my little ol' screen...

Besides, you can always use the previous topic, next topic, previous conf, and next conf buttons...

We may want to have a "frames option" and that way folks could choose. Is the graphical web interface working pretty well? I tend to stick to telnet because of the speed and ease of knowing the commands that I have now. But I know the rest of the world is webbed out.

I've gotten used to the web interface, and usually don't got no problems with it, and most of the extra goodies I add to my confs is web based...one of these days, I need to get out the books and learn telnet...I wish each conf could use a different template, however...

gotta go with paul on that one. telnet is the mode for us impatient, instant gratification, efficiency freaks!

Oh of course keep in a no frames option, but a frames one would be nice.

Kill Drool. Too much bandwidth, always filling the "last five messages" bit on the Main page, arrogant, big-headed, xenophobic. no need.

three days early, mike... (fort sumpter day is april 12th... but if we're gonna do this again, i get to be jeb stuart, this time)...

*lol*

being english, i'm now totally confused. anyone care to explain? :)

The attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina was the kick-off of our Civil War (you know, Abraham Lincoln, slavery, Gone with the Wind?) You are being labeled a secessionist (maybe think Bonnie Prince Charlie at Prestonpans).

*lol*

damn Autumn, you did a good job with that. maybe you'd like to come visit and teach these chilluns here a thing or two!

Ha ha, Ft. Sumter & Gettysburg are about all I know of the civil war, but I'm a big Scottish history fan--gotta love a guy in a kilt......

really... (tres interessant)... what eras are you interested in? (found any insights into calgacus, for example? everything i've read has been filtered through pointed roman heads)...

I love the period of the Uprising and the role of the Highlanders--the more romanticized, the better (we are not exactly going for realism here). I have no clue who (or what?) Calgacus is. (your celtic blood is probably boiling by now...)

you are referring to the so-called jacobite uprising? bonnie charlie and all that? what particularly attracts you to it? to me this was a terribly sad period... culloden, in my mind, marks the end (in any substantive way) of the celtic people in scotland... the end of the dream or whatever, i suppose... (and the ascension of butchers, like the duke of cumberland)... calgacus was the leader of the caledonian (highland) picts, against julius agricola, circa 84 AD... in a speech before his council, he is reputed to have uttered this amazing oration: We, who live on the edge of the earth and who are the last bulwark of freedom, have been to this day been protected by our remoteness, and by the mystery of our name. But now the frontiers of Britain are open, and beyond us there is no people, nothing other than the seas, the rock and the still more dangerous Roman, whose usurpation is not to be escaped by self-abasement or moderation. These plunderers of the earth are now invading the seas because, having devestated all else, they now have no more land (to conquer). A wealthy enemy excites their cupidity; a poor one, their lust for glory- they, whom neither east nor west have satiated. To thievery, murder, and rapine they endow the lying name of "government". They create a desolation, and they call it peace." calgacus, a caledonian prince, obviously was blessed with the celtic gift for rhetoric... just blows me away- a better description of the romans i have never read ("savage", "barbarian". or not)...

And, why many liken America to Rome...

The Uprising is the most interesting facet of Scottish history to me because it represented the high water mark for that society. That soliloquy was pretty chilling--sounds like things have not changed much since Calgacus' time...

Hmm...the "parti" command is very useful for finding out who is visiting your conference. However, the output doesn't seem to be sorted in a useful way (e.g., in date order). Would it be possible to change this?

mike, i will take a look at it. i am trying to work on all of the scripts that the telnetters use.

Ahh...it's easy. Just edit the file .forward in your home directory and insert you e-mail address. for example, my .forward is now: mike@griggs.demon.co.uk Simple

Two things to ask. 1. Is there a way to set up a "pager" in UNIX? By that I mean something that stops the screen after "x" lines, and pauses until you tell it to continue; I'm having terrible trouble with long topics, because they just disappear off the top of the screen. 2. Is there anything I need to do to make conferences catch up with linked topics? I thought that the idea of a linked topic was that you only have to read the response once, and it's marked as read in all conferences; this isn't hapening at the moment, so obviously something that I need to fix here or needs fixing there. That's it!

mike, there are many pager tools for unix. the oldest and easiest to use is called more. to use it, just pipe your output to it. for example, cat longfile.txt | more to use it on bbs, you need to set up your account to use it while logged in. to do this, create a file in your home directory called .cfrc and put the following line into it: define pager more i think that is all you have to do!

as to #2, the idea of a linked topic is so that people who don't normally visit a conference will hopefully post to a topic that has been linked in to a conference they visit...

Please put the B92 topic in the Radio Conference also up in IntConflicts (for the time being at least) and up in Media for obvious reasons. Thank you.

you're welcome...

Please put Record Collecting from Collecting also up in Music. Thank you.

tomorrow...I should be sleeping now...

And may you have had kind dreams and a good rest!

And whenever you (or some of the other good spirits of this place) feel like it, also put 61 0 Lotus Domino Webhosting and Applications (aschuth) from the Web Conference also up in Apps, and 62 0 How to set-up internet broadcasting (aschuth) from the same place in Radio and Media. And be sure to see if you find any helpful input, especially for latter topic (Terry!!). Reason: Read Reply #1. As usual, thank you very much!

I know this is a lot, but still... Many of the links on http://www.spring.net/cats/confs.html do not work; so, if anybody wants to follow the invitation on the homepage to browse, it's quite a nuisance. Perhaps some people who look for "The Spring" browse to these topics, don't succeed and "walk" off. Relates to "Choose a topic and join the conversation:" and the page behind that: The requested URL /cats/mags.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/media.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/place.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/social.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/talk.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/newest.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/private.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/arts.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/band.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/education.html was not found on this server The requested URL /cats/interactions.html was not found on this server. The requested URL /cats/internet.html was not found on this server. (And those that work may dead-end, like http://www.spring.net/cats/music.html)

good points...

... that's what I thought. Today, getting Stacey's mail, I also thought something along the lines of, wouldn't it be nice to put those pics into a "Prague (Czech Republic)"-topic in travel. Went there, and wanted to look at the Berlin one (to mail her the link as suggestion to do the Berlin pics - the castle, the ring, the story - in there), but it's gone. Well, aren't all things mortal.

you got mail from Stacey? and I didn't? (I guess I'd probably get more if I responded to what I've got, huh?)

huh is right! WER... didn't you get a bunch of jpegs from me??? Email enmasse???

that packet...oh, yeah...oops...hehe...

duh!

Excuse me - I don't really want to interrupt this fascinating exchange, but WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BERLIN TOPIC? Please? Hello?

it's still there...I posted to it today... http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/read/travel/31

OK, somewhere else I complained about the www.spring.net homepage having all these links leading to nowhere. Somebody fixed it, so somebody else says: thank you. Watch my keys: "Thank you". Great! When I went to look at it and all the other things you get to see without logging in, I noticed you neither see the Amazon.com ad nor the Go! search thing. Is that intended?

no...it's lack of time and organization...

...sounds familiar!

thought it might...

Ok, this is not so much a suggestion, but some feedback or comment on the structure of the Spring's conferences. I liked it the sequential structure (everything in a topic after another) quite enough until now, but since the traffic picked up (and you don't have DAYS anymore to be the first to reply on some curious posting), I am not so happy anymore. What if a posting receives ten, fifteen replies before you get around to read it, and you want to reply to it, too? Everybody else may have already gotten on a different tangent... So, yeah, I guess what I miss is a functionality that would provide multithreading, like creating trees of responses within topics. So you could reply to the original posting, and also reply to any thread you like to follow. I think this would improve the experience around the Spring, especially in the topics where the discussions are more lively than "huh" and "duh". Under the current load of postings per day, I feel restrained by the sequential structure. Is there any chance to get this with YAPP?

nope

hey Mike! how's the lovey life??

Not with Yapp, but the www.austen.com website has a threaded conferencing system they homebrewed up. It's running on our server. Maybe we could use some of their code for a "threaded" area for special discussions.

you can kind of thread with yapp...it takes some serious template reconfiguration though...

How do you people feel about this feature? Would it bring a benefit? I wonder how others feel about this. (On the other hand, seeing how my personal interest suddenly vanished yesterday - guess the current batch of things happening in Cultures will pretty much pass me by, which is a bit sad; this was the stuff that tempted my question originally -, it may not be necessary to bother at all. Sounds like work, huh? No need to sweat if it may not be rewarded... or needed at all!) The sequential structure we have now is very fine to get started in a topic - display from 0 on, and you know very fast what's happening. Browsing through a tree is quite the bother, if you are looking at the topic's history. I would like to know your opinions in this question.

Alexander, I am reading a lot of these Topics' comments quite a while after they were posted. It IS frustrating to find 20 or 50 messages which have gotten quite far from the original thought on which I wanted to comment. Not all topics work well for this, though. It just might be better to begin the posting with "Re: post 243 - " or some such...or use italics to bring the thought from the previous post. It works well in Drool with the Italics. We have to use it there since so many posts tumble out o our fingers all day long. Browsing through is a tree is most annoying. I have done it and thereafter avoided those places. (BTW I owe you a reply, but I thought I would give you a day off.)

the re: is better than the italics because the telnetters don't have to sift through html code then...

could telnetters use the url of the original response, too? problem: discussing an older issue might stand in the way of continuing the current exchange... m., thanks for your comment (not liking tree-hierachies in this). there two side to it, though, i guess.

The only real reason I do not like trees and threads is because those using them tend to post throw-away lines and short comments. I much perfer the well-thought-through commentary I usually find in your postings. They are not mutually exclusive, however, so it could just be my prejudice against the posters whom I have seen using trees...

that will give the telnetters the information they need to look up the response, but they won't be able to use the url for a link

threading is evil - keep it out! :)

Tha master has spoken - I agree entirely.

The Claw is my Master

I shall not want

I do not think I want to know what he maketh me to do...

I want not to know where he maketh me lie...

I do not want to hear all that noise every night...

...but I would like two other things: (A) The "Clear"-button back, and (B) not all get these cookies Visto wants to place on my machine EVERY TIME I reload a page with the Visto link on it. Any chance?

If you get your clear button back (and why not just hilight it all and hit the delete button?) we all do. If he will put it at the opposite side of the box from where the submit button is, that is fine with me. Just do not put them side-by-side, please!

Because highlighting some really long crap takes ages, Marcia! And I positivly hate that!

Ok...understand. I am sure when the resident Spring genius gets back he will honor your and my request to reinstate the buttons and to place them at the opposite end of the submission box. Would that be satisfactory?

Hmh. Lemme talk to my lawyers, and they call your lawyers.

...and they'll do lunch and stick us with the bill...we should just get together as civilized people and I will allow you to have your way.

If you right-click your mouse in the text box and hit the menu option "Select All" then highlighting won't take any time at all - far less time than it takes to recompose a message that you've inadvertently hit Clear on.

Thank you, Mike...we may not convince Alexander, but it is worth a try!

speaking of that boy... Herr Schuth... oh Herr Schuth... get yer bum over to pumpkins... I CHALLENGED you!

There's an iddy-biddy typo on the Conference Index page. The Sex conference states itself as being private and you should email 'sex@spring.com' for access. I'm not sure that headhunter firm Spring will appreciate too many people emailing to ask for access to their sex conference :-)) Just a thought...

Mike, you'd be amazed how many people who email me about how to get in. I tell them. Perhaps it is there as a caveat against underage readers??! It has been there since I first posted in 1997...

Good suggestion, I'll fix that!

What's the url of that page with the bad link?

http://www.spring.net/yapp-bin/restricted/index

Cool, I'll fix it.