Forum navigation refresher, please
 

Hi. I don't think I ever really understood how to zip forward 200 or 300 postings. Some of you get around so effortlessly. Can you do a mini navigation for dummies? Merci. J.

Just click on "next 50 messages" at the bottom of the page. Each page holds 50 threads and you can bypass each page by clicking that link at the bottom.

And in case you're really looking for a buried post you've made or posted on, all you really need to do is click on your name at the top left corner of the screen by where it says "welcome" and it will bring up only the posts you've done in the left hand column.

Do as Patrick says, and sometimes you need to click on your name twice. The first click will bring up threads where the first one shown is maybe a couple of weeks or a month old. The second click will bring up the most recent ones as well.

Thank you all for responding. I was hoping someone would remember how to move backward (I guess) to an earlier year by changing the address at the ending of the url line. J.

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgTopic...&start=300

Best wishes,

Rex

Note: I recommend doing this in a "new window" - - when you click on a message header, the actual content (right frame) will appear in the ORIGINAL window...

:)

Ah-ha, Rex. I kind of thought you were the person who had given this info quite some time ago. Thanks very much. You won't be surprised to learn, though, that I didn't understand a bit of your second posting. But maybe that's ok. If it's not critical, then don't wear yourself out trying to get me to comprehend. You should see how I frustrate the savvy teachers at my school when they try to teach me the ins and outs of edline grade posting. Woe. Thanks again. J.

Okay. Sounds like you are (most of the time? all of the time?) a one-window-at-a-time person, yes?

RIGHT click on the URL I cited above, and then on "Open in New Window". It will open up a new window with JUST the lefthand "frame" (the single file column of message headers). Now click on any one of them. You won't see the message (body); it will appear in your ORIGINAL window - - that's what I was trying to explain.

For what its worth, 300 (as you must surely have imagined) is/was just an arbitrary choice, you can easily jump "way back" to start=100000 (it's slower to actually retrieve a result).

You're right and thank you. I think I've got it now. J.

I'm the Interactive Media director for Fodor's -- we are getting ready to upgrade the forums and add features such as user prfoiles, search that actually works, and photo/video uploads.

If you have any thoughts on this topic, post away, or email me at [email protected]

thanks,
Peter Kay

Upgrading the forum? A search function that actually works?
<font color="red"> Y-A-H-O-O <font color="green">!!!</font></font>

Peter,
You could dump the lesser used forums and start some for &quot;trip reports - single entry&quot; and &quot;trip reports -blogs&quot;.

They should be fully indexable by country/multiple country/multiple continents.

As you are aware, blogs are the biggest thing on the internet these days -- Fodor's might has well get in on it.

Peter , it thrilled me to no end to see that you too do not use the preview feature LOL
User Profiles could be interesting :) as a would a Search function ... Photos will be great!!
And whatever Nimrod said..lol~

What part of my post don't you understand Scarlett?

Sounds nice bronxzilla! Hoping it's not one of the phpBB type boards though. Not so much a fan of that format and would miss the rolling updates at the left.

I look forward to when you all put up the big link to announce it, and thanks for the low profile news in advance.

lol, I understood it :) I just thought it was funnier to say that I agreed with you that way..in the more technical way that you used.

Oh boy, will I ever!

Mine will fall into some general categories:

1. Better introduction to &quot;the forum experience&quot; for new registrants, including (for some at least), a little bit of follow-up for first-time ever posters, and send them an e-mail noting the first reply to their first-ever post, with the URL, and a reminder of how to &quot;click on your own name&quot; and how to use the URLs of threads.

2. 30 minute edit possibility - - <i>at least</i> for original messages, especially message headers; possibly &quot;auto-add&quot; country (in the case of Europe or Asia; state for US; other category for auto-forum), or perhaps &quot;mouse-over&quot; country &quot;reveal&quot; for message headers (in the left hand column); on a vaguely-related note, perhaps &quot;mouse-over&quot; OP reveal, in the lefthand column.

3. Searching - search in title only as well as search &quot;everywhere&quot;; &quot;proximity&quot; searching (i.e., Paris adj 5 rollerblading - - meaning that the thread contains not merely Paris AND rollerblading SOMEWHERE in the thread, but that specifically, they are 5 words or fewer apart); mixed field searching (i.e., screen_name=Patrick AND keyword=xxx - - as in 123 for country code Croatia, for example)

4. Identity - - option to give each screenname a unique corresponding &quot;Anonymous54321&quot; name (traceable and monitorable for forum management); I haven't thought a whole lot about the notion of screenname profiles, but one thing that pops into my head right away is private messaging from one screenname to another (even though I believe, almost evangelically, in the value of PUBLIC questions and PUBLIC answers); some kind of &quot;Archive space would be nice also, to be able to list, perhaps even categorize, threads of note, from the past.

I'm sure I can think of more. These just come rolling quickly off my fingertips.

Thanks, Peter...

Peter! Thanks so much for your announcement. This forum has been invaluable to my travel planning since 1998, and I'm thrilled that you're implementing new features.

Adding to the good suggestions above: I know this was controversial in the past, but is it time to reconsider separate Hawaii and (maybe) Alaska forums? The rationale is that those locations are usually visited separately and are not integrated with trips other US locations.

How about &quot;hot&quot; links to any website, not just to Fodor's?

I do use the preview function intermittently, but I would love to be able to edit a message or reply after it is posted.

Get ready! When the word gets out, you may be inundated with suggestions.

Hot links to ANY website introduces such an opportunity for mischief, Betsy (porn, worse)

Maybe, there could be the opportunity to have &quot;hot links&quot; to websites <u>from your own profile page, with the screen split, and all your profile info gets listed in side-by-side frames - - that way, if you seek to embarrass others or display bad taste, your &quot;stuff&quot; (required photo? e-mail address?) is shown right there (as a default), next to the objectionable website (and savvy readers could bypass that, when appropriate by &quot;Open in a new window&quot;, perhaps?)
</u>

Could you somehow incorporate the &quot;basics of _____&quot; idea, such as Paris 100, Paris 101, etc?
The challenge would be how to authenticate something as worthy of the Paris. Maybe people could vote on it, like eBay's feedback concept, so that lousy ideas got 1's and great ideas got 10's, with the ability to sort in descending order.

Another vote for retaining the left/right orientation of Current postings on the left, Detail of one post on the right.

It would help if you would fix the left-hand topics section so they will &quot;wrap&quot; regardless whether posters put spaces in their titles or not. ((b))

Peter,
my Christmas wish would be for Fodor's to start a &quot;WikiTravel&quot; site where people could write about general information that need to be kept up to date to be useful but be located at one place and not in many different threads or topics.
For example, how to buy a Carte Orange in Paris, or the cheapest way to call back from Australia, where to find a railroad timetable, etc, etc.

I am fascinated how good (in general) and current the information is that one can access at Wikipedia (see: http://wikipedia.org/)
Fred

I have another thought Peter: If you wish to garner a better focussed image of what is desired for Fodor's improvement, you should perhaps start separate threads on each regional forum to engage all on Fodor's and not just those on the Europe forum. To do otherwise looks to be rather Eurocentric.

Your posting is embedded on a thread where it is not likely to be read by those frequenting the Europe board, let alone those on other boards (US, Asia, Latin America, etc.)

Thanks for the replies so far, both here and via email. The quality of the posts on this forum continue to astound me, as does the generally willngness to help out newbies. The community is definitely the heart of the site and I am absolutely looking to make the experience better for you.

And to Scarlett -- PIMF (preview is my friend)

Peter
[email protected]

Obviously, preview <i>ought</i> to be my friend (as the example shown above illustrates well). This is a little much to ask - - but could there be a MANDATORY preview if...

a), there are &quot;unpaired&quot; HTML tags (<i>italics</i>, <b>bold</b>, <u>underline</u>, and the like.

or

b), if there are any HTML tags at all!

Thanks for your explanation, Rex. Maybe unexpurgated links would indeed be too &quot;hot.&quot; Heaven forbid we should have opportunities for more mischief on the site!
:-)

Some thoughts:

What about giving certain posters some kind of special status, based on their demonstrated expertise, the general quality of their input, maturity, leadership, and absence of &quot;agenda.&quot; These folks could also act as ombudsman for the rest of us, with a more direct line to Fodors' management in the event posting issues arise.

I've also seen other websites where contributors can be rated by other posters, based on certain standards, so users have an idea of where posters are coming from.

What about having a political travel posts section? I'm thinking not so much in terms of encouraging political posts but having a place to move travel posts that become &quot;too political.&quot; As an example, I follow my beloved Zags basketball website, and when talk veers awy from basketball, posts are sometimes lifted and plunked over onto the Crosby forum on the site, where people can bicker to their hearts' content.

Rex: PIMF is so much funnier looking than POTBMF

Mary Fran: I'm trying to imagine political Gonzaga Hoops threads -- &quot;John Stockton, hidden Neo-Con?&quot;

Peter

Hi Peter,

This is way off topic (non-Zags fans, talk amongst yourselves while Peter and I chat a minute about round ball) I'm thinking of one yesterday in which posters were discussing the transfer of a troubled player from an eastern school to Zags' WCC opponent USF. Discussion disintegrated into whether San Francisco was the best site for a troubled young man. Seemed to be some folks who feared he might fall into the clutches of unseemly folks in the Tenderloin. Forum moderators moved the whole kit and kaboodle off to the Crosby forum.

Mary Fran:

As a graduate of a perenially cellar-dwelling Division 3 basketball non-power, I can only imagine having that kind of problem!

Peter

PIMF

perenially=perennially

Yeah, but I bet YOU can get tickets to home games at your cellar-dwelling Division III school ... The good news and the bad news...

Peter,
When are these new features going to be introduced? I can't wait to see them in this great forum!

But then I'd have to do the Haverford Chant: &quot;Fight, Fight, Inner Light. Kill, Quakers, Kill!&quot;

It's just an internet travel forum, I don't think it needs to be so elaborate.

I think the idea of people being designated with special status is absolutely horrendous. Truly an awful awful idea. There are some website with lots of goofy icons and symbols and where people get to vote for each other in popularity, etc., and I think they are terribly childish and obstructive.

Yeah, Christina, maybe what you say is true. Again, I was thinking of my experience on the Zags basketball website, where there are a handful of sort of moderators who have a sort of leadership role that seems to be responsible for a highly civil tone, especially for a sports-related website.

It was just a thought. See me skulk off with my tail between my legs and climb into my cardboard box in the corner.

It would be great to have a section where trip reports would be retained without dropping into oblivion.

And I love that Haverford cheer. My own college cheer began, &quot;Themistocles, Thucydides, Peloponnesian War, X squared, Y squared, H2SO4...&quot;

Bronxilla, did you go to Haverford? Did you know Benjie of &quot;Benjie and the Bangers,&quot; a Haverford band?