Rex

A little clumsy, maybe, but you can do this now!<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads.cfm?fid=2&amp;tid=1286136&amp;<BR><BR>Go ahead, try it, click it!<BR>

Rex

I will NEVER top again!<BR>

Rex

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention - - the "jump to" thread opens in a new window.<BR>

elizabeth

Rex - how did you do that?<BR><BR>BTW - been carting around the envelope with my "pin money" - finally mailed it this morning!<BR><BR>

Rex

Elizabeth:<BR><BR>You actually don't have to DO anything!<BR><BR>See below, a message I was working on (but it failed topost, for some reason)...<BR><BR>It also appears to be retroactive, as long as the URL is/was preceded by <BR><BR>these letters (remove the spaces)<BR><BR>h t t p : / /<BR><BR>Of course, you might know - - all these years, I have been stripping off those letters from the front of any website addresses I list in "my" posts.<BR><BR>To see an example of an old post where this works, go to <BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/topframe.cfm?fid=2&amp;tid=1286331&amp;<BR><BR>Eve n though the URL is no longer valid (a "broken link"), the browser TRIES to jump to there - - showing that it recognizes the URL as "clickable" (sadly, www.cwlease.com took down their excellent route planner).<BR><BR>Very coo!<BR><BR>Of course, the real question is going to be - - how do you find the "tid"... how long will I keep this "my" little secret?<BR><BR>Answer: not long - - lots of other people (Paulo comes immediately to mind) will figure it out in no time...<BR><BR>I'll post it in a minute - - got to try IE as well as Netscape.<BR>

Ed

That's still not what's needed, Rex. It's a small group ('the clique'?) that will know how to extract addresses. Even then, with such long URLs there will be many that are unable to handle such addresses as they're difficult to copy into the browser window.<BR><BR>It's not a substitute for what (I thought) you requested, which I call a "Thread URL". The URL (tid) should be a visible part of the thread, and the thread ID (1286331) (which you call a time stamp) should be all that is required to plug into a window box to fetch the thread. (Similar to a search argument.)<BR><BR>Until something like that makes it simple as pie, using the existing URL is going to be useful for only a few. Topping will be required for the masses.

Rex

Oh dear...<BR><BR>This is not going to be as easy as I had hoped!<BR><BR>When you use search to find a thread, you don't actually get the "tid"...<BR><BR>Oh well, it's (surely) still there, just a matter of finding an easier way to identify it.<BR><BR>No reason to keep secrets, though, on the one method that I actually DO know will work.<BR><BR>When you locate a thread (by conventional "scrolling back" (i.e., next 50. next 50 and so on) - - clickj on "View, Page Info" - - this is in Netscape Navigator 4.7 - - haven't tried other browsers yet. A new window will open. This contains the URL of the thread in the active frame; you don't need anything after the "&amp;" (ampersand) right after the "tid".<BR><BR>but you DO need the first 7 characters - - this is important the (h t t p : / / - - remove the spaces) - - you know what i mean?<BR><BR>Wowie, Zowie!! So many questions to answer, so many "clickable references" to give!<BR>

Rex

Ed,<BR><BR>I couldn't agree with you more. and I wish it really was a timestamp (01.31.03.12.40.00) - - it NEEDS to be displayed.<BR><BR>But the functionality is there, and for ME, this means the beginning of the end of topping.<BR><BR>My catalogue of "greatest hits" will begin in the next week or two. And yes, I will post them with "titles" to go with them, so that humans can read what a "tid" stands for...<BR>

Ed

If using MS IE (probably at least v4 and up, but certainly v5 and up) the way to pick up the "URL" of a thread is to right click on the hotlinked title in the left frame and select "Copy Shortcut". That produces a URL like<BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/message...numresponses=6 which points to this thread. This can be pasted directly into a browser address window. I suspect eh &amp;num tag could be eliminated and produce for timeless results. <BR><BR>If Fodors were paying attention to this dialogue they would provide instructions on the most appropriate way to use this URL, and any caveats ... instead of letting us farble around like we're reinventing the wheel.

Ed

Looks like having an "incorrect" &amp;numresponses suffix on the URL is unimportant. Even with &amp;numresponse set to 6 when this thread really has 8 responses, all 8 show up.<BR><BR>Just copy the shortcut to the thread and you can start building your own "Best of Fodors" collection.<BR><BR>I look forward to your first anthology Rex!<BR><BR>And then when Fodors sees how it improves the usefulness of their already 'best of breed' forums they'll finally implement some simple changes to make thread-referencing easy and accessible to all.

Rex

Nice tip, Ed... and essentially the same thing exists in Navigator - - it's called "Copy Link Location"<BR><BR>This will make this much faster.<BR><BR>Ed, what do you think about my observation that the database may have been culled? I can't imagine why or by what criteria. I have many of my early posts, but I recently clobbered over a bunch of the ones from Q1 2000. I sure hope they're not gone forever. I cannot find my own "first post", no matter what I search.<BR><BR>This is what it said, for what it's worth:<BR><BR>===========================<BR><BR>V enice-Bonvecchiati Hotel<BR><BR>Author: Mary Curcurio ([email protected])<BR>Date: 11/04/1999, 3:25 pm ET<BR><BR>Message: Has anyone stayed at the Bonvecchiati Hotel in Venice? It's near St. Mark's Square/Piazza San Marco. Good location? It seems nice (on paper), but I'd like to hear a testimonial from someone that's been there. Thanks for responding. <BR><BR>Author: Carol ([email protected])<BR>Date: 11/04/1999, 4:37 pm ET<BR><BR>Message: Hi Mary: <BR>I stayed at the Bonvecchiati several years ago with a tour group. It was very clean, the rooms were not too small and quite comfortable, the staff was lovely and the location is absolutely terrific. It's right near Piazza San Marco, and for some wonderful reason, it's not noisy. I noticed it's a choice on an Italiatour package--I'd grab it in a minute. It's at the confluence of 3 small canals and has a great outdoor terrace. It's not what you'd call "charming", but neither is it tacky or 50's modern. It's comfortable. <BR><BR>Author: Rex ([email protected])<BR>Date: 11/04/1999, 4:56 pm ET<BR><BR>Message: Mary,<BR><BR>I concur with every positive comment Carol has made. I stayed there with 11 teenagers in tow last year, and I have already made reservations to go back with a group of 16 for next June. Also has Internet access right in the lobby, if you haven't had an "e-mail fix" from wherever you've been before arriving in Venice. It's a particularly convenient alternative to a cybercafe - - some kind of machine that you pay by the minute by swiping your credit card - - whatever the rate was, it wasn't that bad.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR><BR>================<BR>

Rex

Oh, and one last thought in response to Fodor's having "the information we need" to "do this right"... and I don't want to sound like that 1984-esque TV commercial for Apple (the one that only ever aired once - - and has been re-broadcast a million times - - with the hammer into Big Brother up on the giant screen)...<BR><BR>But this is (only) one example of why the Internet is truly changing the world, and "central control" will never again work quite the same way it iused to... the USERS take the information apart and put it back together again in ways that the "creators" and "publishers" cannot/could not/would not see.<BR><BR>Collectively, "we" have the power...<BR><BR><BR>

Ed

Re "culled" database, I don't have a means of looking back to see if anything is "missing". I was musing about that the other day in fact:<BR> Does Fodors dump stuff after x days<BR> or y years?<BR><BR>In the old days one would have thought so. With storage being so cheap now many operators find it not worth the effort to clean out archives.<BR><BR>Perhaps Fodors might tell us?<BR> have tthoug

Rex

Hmmm - - regarding the identification of the "tid" - - following a search - - I'm nt sure if this is "browser voodoo" or not.<BR><BR>I just posted my first answer to a question using a "clickable URL" to an old post. I had located the old post by searching, and sure enough your "right click method" (I will never again do that much clumsier "View Page Info" method again) DID show the correct "tid" even though I had gotten there by searching. Now I wonder if it is a fucntion of being on some page other than the "first 50".<BR><BR>More experiments to do.<BR><BR><BR>

nancy

Rex,<BR>I am fairly computer illiterate, and have *never* understood what you have been talking about all this time.<BR>I still don't, but <BR>I am glad you are happy!

xxx

Why are you two - Ed and Rex - posting this stuff here? Fodor's has asked for comments to be posted to its grab bag.

Rex

Nancy,<BR><BR>One example will be worth thousands of words:<BR><BR>Click here:<BR><BR>http://www.fodors.com/forums/messages.cfm?fid=2&amp;tid=1282862&amp;numresponse s=105<BR><BR>It will take you DIRECTLY to <BR><BR>"Long Anticipated Trip To Italy in Trouble."<BR><BR>(it will open in a new window)<BR><BR>For many highly sought after posts, this means the END of topping.<BR><BR>This is going to substantially change this forum.<BR>

Rex

Dear xxx<BR><BR>This is history in the making, and this is "our home" - - not the grab bag. But I may post this whole thread there.<BR><BR>And what the heck, I will e-mail the whole thing to [email protected] right now. They have my permission to re-post my remarks anywhere they want!<BR>

Rex

By the way - - has anybody seen an example yet of a thread e-mailed to yourself? I will e-mail this one to you, Ed - - let me know if and when you get it.<BR><BR>This is one bad thing about hotmail.com addresses - - they can be somewhat slow to "register".<BR>

Ed

Rex, I have not received your e-mail sent through Fodors. Nor have I received one I sent myself.<BR><BR>Is the mail-a-friend function working?