My Questions and Suggestions to Admin

About This Message Board
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My Questions to Administration:

Do you expunge already published in the Internet any messages or materials in the Message Boards?

Do you revise any such messages and materials?

How long will you preserve intact all these messages and materials in the Internet?

Do you have contingency plans for future preservation, for future researchers, should the owners of this operation no longer possess the material means to keep the operation going?

Are there groups in the Internet who are recording for posterity your websites and all their materials?

Do you have a section where new members can learn how to use your formatting devices, like quotation, indentation, size of types, etc.

My Suggestions to Administration:

Please give a number succesively and chronologically to every post that arrives in every thread of every board.

Please enlist Google for your search function, to cover all the materials of the whole Straight Dope operation, so that every word appearing there at any time, that is not a commercial (or beter, even the commercials), can be located by a patient researcher.
Thanks for your kind attention, and I really enjoy and benefit from your operation.

God bless you all.

Susma Rio Sep

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Quick lad! Run to the stagecoach office. This missive needs to be in London by nightfall! The steamer for Chicago Town sails on the morrow! Make haste, boy!

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I think there should be. Doesn’t vB have a tutorial for this or something? If not, does anyone want to help me make one?

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There’s already a VB code tutorial here.

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That’s one function of the ATMB forum. There are about eleventy-billion threads titled “Test” or similar.

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Ah yeah, I remembered that one, but didn’t remember it being so comprehensive and straightforward. Well, back to doing nothing!

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The board software already does this; did you mean that you want the post ID displayed in the posts?

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In lieu of that, there’s always Boardreader.

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Post numbering issues is also the topic of this thread started by Rhino.

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Sometimes, No, As long as the Chicago Reader will host the site, No, Yes (www.boardreader.com), ATMB / FAQ.

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Why do people care about numbering the posts of the SDMB? Posts within a given thread are displayed in chronological (and therefore numerical) order, and looking at the posts in numerical order wouldn’t make much sense. Is there some benefit I’m missing?

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<< Do you expunge already published in the Internet any messages or materials in the Message Boards? >>

I don’t know quite what the heck you mean by this, but we do not permit any published material to be copied on these boards, except insofar as fair usage and copyright rules permit. If you mean, are posted messages deleted, the answer is yes, if they are counter to our rules.

<< Do you revise any such messages and materials? >>

Again, I don’t know what you mean by this. Material posted elsewhere is not allowed to be posted here (if I understand what your saying) is not allowed, and certainly cannot be revised. If you mean, do we revise messages that are posted here, the answer is: it depends. Persons making awkward typographical errors, for instance, can appeal to a Moderator for correction. Occasionally, we provide or correct links, and do similar revision.

<< How long will you preserve intact all these messages and materials in the Internet? >>

As long as the Chicago READER feels like it. The Chicago READER is currently paying for it, and will do as it damn well pleases.

<< Do you have contingency plans for future preservation, for future researchers, should the owners of this operation no longer possess the material means to keep the operation going? >>

Absolutely. These plans are kept in an envelope marked “Eyes Only” kept in the vaults. In the event of nuclear holocaust, the surviving READER chain of command will open the envelope. OK, seriously: the Message Boards hover around the columns published and owned by the Chicago READER known as the Straight Dope. There are no contingency plans, and we expect none. Contingency plans cost money and time and effort, and there is no foreseeable event that we would need “contingency plans” for.

<< Are there groups in the Internet who are recording for posterity your websites and all their materials? >>

Please let us know if you find any such. These materials are copyright of the Chicago READER (and the posters, as per the Registration Agreement.) No one else has the right to record, publish, or make use of these materials without express permission of the Chicago READER.

<< Do you have a section where new members can learn how to use your formatting devices, like quotation, indentation, size of types, etc. >>

Yes, the FAQ section of About this Message Board. At the top of this page, you will see a button labelled FAQ that will answer these and other questions. Susma, you are advised to read the FAQ at your earliest convenience (that means: NOW!). Your posting style and mannerisms have already aroused a fair amount of antagonism, and it would behoove you to learn about this site before you come trouncing in. That’s called “manners.”

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<< Please enlist Google for your search function, to cover all the materials of the whole Straight Dope operation, so that every word appearing there at any time, that is not a commercial (or beter, even the commercials), can be located by a patient researcher. >>

Commercials and advertisements are not permitted here, other than those for the Chicago READER and Straight Dope. If your comment is an advertisement for Google, you are hereby advised that it is in violation of our rules to advertise here.

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Makes it easier to reference specific posts in a long thread. I’m assuming that “numbering posts” refers to numbering within the thread as opposed to the overall post number Cgf refers to. In other words, in this thread, Susma’s post would be #0 (as the OP), TheLoadedDog’s would be #1, Achernar’s would be #2, and so forth. In rather lengthy threads, referring to “post 74” is easier than “the one in the middle of page 2” or “the one dated 5/5/03 at 08:31 EDT.” This is particularly true in places like certain GD threads where the average post length is well over a screen-full.

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Well, I guess I can see that being useful. And it doesn’t need to involve any extra databases access–just print and increment a counter for each post.

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16 - You’re more than welcome to start each post with a number.

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17 - I don’t know. Given what people have gotten riled up about before, I don’t see it going over as “more than welcome”. :smiley:

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987 - The problem with that will be the same problem that any thread with a numbered list has. (1) Simulposts will mess up the numbering and (2) Smark alecks will purposely misnumber the posts.

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  1. Really, Kat? I just don’t forsee that becoming a problem. Where in the world would you get such an idea?
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  1. I don’t see a problem with simulposts, myself.