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Old Posts

Posted: August 16th, 2013, 10:15 am
by Alan Patterson
It just seems like it might be easier to navigate around these Board Index/Category/Topic/Posts if only relatively recent posts are viewable. I am saying that perhaps after 3 to 6 months, if a post has not been updated in any way, that post could be put below in a tab called something like, In Here are Additional Posts of the above Topics in our Pre-Archived Section; that way, we can see what is going on in a glance. And, the posts are still there and any new people to B-Greek would know that the place for them to search would be in there also.

There is just one way to weed through a lot of Topics/Posts. For example, one of the new posts that I was looking for was down about 15 Posts from the Top of a Topic. Perhaps, worst case scenario, you could put posts up based on how recent the post is. That way, you know that the new posts are on top and you don't have to go down searching to see if there are other recent posts. I don't know; it just seems to me that a better system is available.

Does this make any sense?

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 16th, 2013, 11:55 am
by cwconrad
I, for one, don't think it makes much sense. One of the things I like best about our topic arrangement is that, providing that the threads have initially been put in the forum or sub-forum where they belong, one can quickly look through the listings in a forum or subforum to see whether a matter of interest has been addressed. On the other hand, if you want to look at what's currently under discussion, then just check the headings up at the top of all listings in the Board Index:
View unanswered posts • View unread posts • View new posts • View active topics
I find those last two categories quite helpful to see what's currently under discussion or what new messages have been posted since the last time I've logged in.

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 16th, 2013, 1:03 pm
by Stephen Hughes
Alan Patterson wrote:any new people to B-Greek would know that the place for them to search would be in there also.
As a new person new to the forum, I do most of my searching via the search option. For me it would be an advantage to have the search expanded to include the data and discussions included in the old email lists. As thorough as I try to be before I ask a question or post an opinion or observation, it is sometimes brings out a slightly pink shade of embarrassment when I find that what I have posted has already been covered.

Case in point my posting on Trenchard audio and my reference to e-speak. It is variously called e-speak, espeak or eSpeak. Despite giving some information about eSpeak that I would otherwise not give, I suppose the post contains information on a possibly useful vocabulary learning technique for those who otherwise don't have an effective way of learning.

If the search engine were expanded to include not only the posts made on this forum but also on the list archives, then, as a new forum member, I would be able to tread lightly on a number of areas that obviously have a history or a group of people with recurrent (pet) interests here; (voice terminology, historical linguistics, linguistic terminology, NT versions or the role of reading widely/ writing or actively speaking in the learning process).

It seems clear that there is an artificial hiatus in the asynchronous communicative continuity of the B-Greek community by not including reference to the earlier list posting in search results generated now on the forum.

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 16th, 2013, 5:00 pm
by Alan Patterson
Here is a good example,

I went to Koine Greek Texts, then to New Testament. It would be rather difficult to run through the 1,938 posts just in that topic only. We really do need to come up with a better system. Remove mounds of clutter that can still be searched, and if someone so willed, they could still run down a list of 2,000 posts if they really saw a need to do so. Eventually, there will be 5,769 posts under New Testament. It is time now to start preparing, if you ask me. It is an extremely simple process, unless this program was not created such to allow for volume.

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 16th, 2013, 8:03 pm
by Stephen Carlson
I think the best way to search old posts is to google what you're looking for and add "b-greek" to the search terms (or use the site: restrictor if you know how). We generate too much material to be able to maintain them manually.

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 16th, 2013, 9:48 pm
by Louis L Sorenson
Try plugging the following code into Google or Bing. Replace [search term] (including the brackets with your search term). The results will include entries from the archives going back to 1994 all in one fell swoop.

[search term] site:http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum OR site:http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/ OR site:http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/test-archives/ OR site:http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/archives/

Perhaps we could host such a search field in the B-Greek forum's main page (include another search box) next to the rather useless phpForum search box.

I have been thinking about how to integrate the archives into our current forum. You can find the thread at http://www.ibiblio.org/bgreek/forum/vie ... =39&t=1996. (Note: This was a thread which was discussed between the moderators and administrators a year or two ago.)

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 16th, 2013, 11:26 pm
by Stephen Hughes
Stephen Carlson wrote:the best way to search old posts is to google what you're looking for and add "b-greek"
Searching google for participles and "b-greek" gives 28,900 returns. It seems that even with the double inverted commas the search engine intelligently searches without the hyphen too.
So far as I looked through the 3,080 returns, it seems that they are all limited to the B-Greek forum and archives.
Louis L Sorenson wrote:Perhaps we could host such a search field in the B-Greek forum's main page (include another search box) next to the rather useless phpForum search box.
The advantage of the current search is that the returns of the search come with forum specific materials and I find that seeing the name of the poster lets me contextualise the exerpt somewhere within the poster's personal freier Geist. The number of posts is expicitly an indication of participation, and also and indication of interest in the subject matter. The level of participation in the list is not indicated in the search via Google.

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 17th, 2013, 12:10 am
by Louis L Sorenson
I doubt the archives will list the participation - it was just an email list. But the php Search gives some metadata about the poster. That is a good thing methinks.

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 17th, 2013, 12:31 am
by Stephen Hughes
If the old post data could be structured with a choice for each thread, I wouldn't mind choosing a category from a drop-down box associated with each thread, which could then be put into the database and become searchable from inside the B-Greek forum. Perhaps with a number of user votes, it could be associated with a sub-section of the forum.
Alan Patterson wrote:I went to Koine Greek Texts, then to New Testament.
I agree that a topic heading called New Testament (texts) is going to be crazy big because of the nature of the subject matter which most members are intrested in.

Re: Old Posts

Posted: August 17th, 2013, 12:34 am
by Stephen Hughes
Louis L Sorenson wrote:I doubt the archives will list the participation - it was just an email list.
Can those lists be processed and brought into the preset format as posts assigned to individuals based on their email addresses, which people could claim by contacting someone with administrator privilages?