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 Author | Topic: Suggestions on BNC forum structure (Read 1,281 times) |
Roger Clifton
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« Reply #30 on Apr 29, 2012, 11:48am » | ![[Quote]](http://images.proboards.com/buttons/quote.gif "[Quote]") |
Nope. Unless there are plans to enable "limited HTML" it looks as if I cannot contribute to BNC anymore. (I have since discovered that limited HTMl is available, using square brackets instead of angular brackets)
Well, not if I am required to support my wildest assertions with hot links to respected authorities. Since that constraint underpins the authority and readability of the BNC website, people like me really need to have the acceptability of "limited HTML" fixed.
Now, please don't leap to reassure me that a highly intelligent, well-educated, long experienced, and incredibly busy teenager like me should actually enjoy using the mouse to compose his or her text directly on the BNC webpage. That's not completely true - you see, I'm not a teenager.
I have the impression that the majority of informed and thoughtful comments on BNC are made by people who are several decades separated from their teenage years. Well, one or two. I, at least, work elsewhere, in a familiar workspace that is sympathetic to fumbly hands and blurry eyes, and then paste the result to less friendly fields.
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huon
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« Reply #31 on Apr 29, 2012, 1:02pm » | |
It might be nice to have, well, an Open Forum in the Open Forum section.
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« Reply #32 on Apr 29, 2012, 1:25pm » | |
Roger - the formatting works differently and is much simpler here once you know how. I am also on a steep learning curve and went down the same path as you did.Same age group I suspect 
What you have to do if you want to insert anything or use bold, italic, quote etc is not use the "Quick Reply" box at the bottom of the page but click the "Reply" button in the line above that box, directly under your comment (or in a line at the top of the page). This opens a complete box which is headed with formatting buttons and emoticons. The buttons include Links, YouTube, Bold, Italics, Underline etc.
Please have another go at testing and/or let me know if that helps you.
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« Reply #33 on Apr 29, 2012, 2:10pm » | |
Quote:| It might be nice to have, well, an Open Forum in the Open Forum section |
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@ Huon
Semantics have obviously misled folk here so Open Forum has been re-named Off Topic Forum which, more pertinently, describes its purpose. The Practice Thread is an example of what should be posted on the Off Topic Forum.
The whole point of the Forums is not to have long complicated open threads moving from one topic to another but to have dedicated subject boards and sub-boards which aggregate like topics. A new topic may be created within a board or sub-board as long as it fits within the board classification.
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QuarkingMad
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« Reply #34 on Apr 29, 2012, 2:51pm » | |
Apr 29, 2012, 11:48am, Roger Clifton wrote:Nope. Unless there are plans to enable "limited HTML" it looks as if I cannot contribute to BNC anymore.
Well, not if I am required to support my wildest assertions with hot links to respected authorities. Since that constraint underpins the authority and readability of the BNC website, people like me really need to have the acceptability of "limited HTML" fixed.
Now, please don't leap to reassure me that a highly intelligent, well-educated, long experienced, and incredibly busy teenager like me should actually enjoy using the mouse to compose his or her text directly on the BNC webpage. You see, I'm not a teenager.
I have the impression that the majority of informed and thoughtful comments on BNC are made by people who are several decades separated from their teenage years. I, at least, work elsewhere, in a familiar workspace that is sympathetic to fumbly hands and blurry eyes, and then paste the result to less friendly fields.
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The coding used on forums is no different to HTML. The only difference is that you use the square brackets "[ ]" rather than the angular brackets "< >".
For example:
This sentence is no different to the following.
This <b>sentence</b> <i>is</i> no <u>different</u> to the above.
Also line breaks <br> are not needed as the breaks you make while typing are retained. It's easier to use square brakets as it eliminates a key press, as well as line breaks retaining while typing out paragraphs.
If you're not sure of the right code to use you can click on one of the butons in the "add tags" panel to insert it. Furthermore you can highlight words and then also click on the relevant tag. Much like in Microsoft Word.
HTML is in a way retained, all you need to do is sub out the angular brackets for square ones.
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« Reply #35 on Apr 29, 2012, 2:55pm » | |
Thankyou DangerAus for that information. Many of the commenters used to using BNC will be finding their way around this new format and helpful information from those used to Forums is most appreciated. I will copy your comment to BNC along with my remarks on the formatting to warn people in advance that things operate slightly differently over here. 
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Barry Brook
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Karma: 103 | | Re: Suggestions on BNC forum structure
« Reply #36 on Apr 29, 2012, 3:19pm » | |
Further to DangerAus, there is (at least) one difference.
On BNC, to quote text you use <blockquote>blah</blockquote>
On the new forums, you just use quote (in square brackets), i.e. no block required
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huon
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« Reply #37 on Apr 29, 2012, 4:27pm » | |
BNC Moderator (Reply #36),
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my comment. I have high hopes for this new site! But I think you are making a mistake if you don't have an open forum here. I'll give you three quick reasons.
The open forum is so much fun, both to post a comment on and to read. Forcing people to comment in narrow channels may be efficient, but you risk losing a lot of the vitality of BNC.
An open forum can complement the focused discussions. The forum can act as a catalyst and incubator. When ideas generate a certain level of interest, they can then move to a specialized thread.
For a sense of community, you need a common forum, where everyone can congregate and touch base once in a while.
I may be completely wrong, but that's my two cents worth anyway.
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Roger Clifton
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« Reply #38 on Apr 29, 2012, 9:17pm » | |
Thank you, DangerAus and Moderator - I test out your guidance that the less-than and greater-than symbols in HTML can be replaced by square brackets...
The following text should be visible as four characters, in italics:
text
Hey, that works, and "preview" works too!
The following text should be visible as four characters, in bold:
text
Getting better all the time...
Most importantly, can we insert hot-linked text? The following text should show only three characters visible, but hotlinked:
www
... and again -
Table of Nuclides
and now link to a comment:
Tom
Quote:
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Josef O
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Karma: 0 | | Discussions on public discourse on energy policy?
« Reply #39 on May 1, 2012, 7:47am » | |
Barry, great job, as usual!
When I was looking through the existing forum structure, I was wondering where to put questions / comments on the "public discourse" or education on energy policy questions. I think one of the themes of BNC - at least implicitly - is how to have an informed dialogue on energy policy and energy options. There are some interesting examples out there on how to communicate and discuss complex, critical issues that should also be of interest to the BNC crowd - and maybe that would warrant its own section. If you think it is beyond the scope of the site, that's fine.
Point in case:
I myself am currently thinking about a format to engage students in an informed and critical dialogue on the various risks of our energy alternatives (including the risk of sitting in the dark). I would like to hear if other academics have done something similar and if yes, with what results.
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Anon
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« Reply #40 on May 1, 2012, 8:34am » | |
Maybe the Nuclear Advocacy board is where you should go for that.
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« Reply #41 on May 1, 2012, 9:50am » | |
@Josef O
If you want to discuss and promote nuclear power go to the NuclearAdovacy sub-board (as suggested by Anon). However, if you want to discuss the pros and cons of a variety of energy sources you can start a topic under the main board Energy Systems. Your topic should appear under the sub-boards in that category. If you like it is similar to an Open Thread but just on Energy Systems
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Roger Clifton
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« Reply #42 on May 6, 2012, 12:07pm » | |
Does anyone know of a way to "follow" a thread on e-mail ? Previously, I found it very convenient to be able to eavesdrop on an ongoing conversation as it happens, without interrupting my work and studies elsewhere. Of course, the BNC Forum is very much worthy of direct study however I often can't find time to browse.
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Barry Brook
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« Reply #43 on May 6, 2012, 8:53pm » | |
Roger, I provided some information HERE (and in a comment above that) on the RSS fields and the ability to follow threads. You basically just need to set up a Bookmarks list in your profile, and then you can follow this.
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Barry Brook
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« Reply #44 on May 6, 2012, 8:55pm » | |
Also, if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can get the ProBoards app - I've found this an incredibly useful way to view the forums, as the new posts/threads are automatically highlighted, making it as easy or easier to read than email delivery of them.
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There's no 'silver bullet' for solving the climate and energy crises. The bullets are made of depleted uranium and thorium... |
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Janne M. Korhonen
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« Reply #45 on Jun 5, 2012, 6:58pm » | |
Barry and Mod,
While I'm not actually an user interface designer, I've been involved in usability design for some years. The comments on the blog and the fact that discussion has not easily moved to the forum suggest that the forum structure is indeed too messy. I would suggest again reducing the number of subforums to a bare minimum; in particular, sub-subforums should be eliminated altogether unless there is a very very very good reason to have them (which I don't see at the moment). With the relatively few posts now being generated daily, this forum would work with just one or two big discussion areas with individual threads (with suitable topics) playing the part of subforums.
With fewer subforums, following the discussions would be much easier and would in all likelihood increase the odds that people will actually contribute and comment to forum instead of in the blog posts. The best forums, in my experience, evolve over time: subforums are added only when there is sufficient content to warrant one. Even then, less is often more.
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Barry Brook
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« Reply #46 on Jun 7, 2012, 12:15am » | |
Janne, you (and others) are correct. Logically (in my mind, and that of the BNC Moderator), it made sense to give people a classification structure. But in practice, such an approach is NOT user friendly.
So, I've totally revamped the Boards. There are now only 4 options - BNC Blog Posts, Energy, Climate Change, and Forum Help. Basically, if you want to find something specific, just put it in the search box (the search engine on Proboards is excellent). No more fine-grained hierarchical classification. Just nice and simple.
As for the BNC blog, I'll now close comments on all the new (Post BNC Forum) blog posts, and not open them for most blog posts. The only place to comment on BNC blog posts henceforth with be at the BNC Forums: http://bravenewclimate.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bncblogposts
Thanks everyone for the critical feedback - much appreciated.
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There's no 'silver bullet' for solving the climate and energy crises. The bullets are made of depleted uranium and thorium... |
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Janne M. Korhonen
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« Reply #47 on Jun 7, 2012, 1:04am » | |
Super! Much better now.
More boards might be a good idea in the future, but even then, I advise to keep the hierarchy very flat - even though it would make logical sense to have a hierarchical structure (say, Energy -> Wind energy) at least to a certain extent it's much more user-friendly to just have one hierarchical layer. Fewer clicks required to reach = more page views.
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Anon
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« Reply #48 on Jun 7, 2012, 1:27am » | |
Seems to be a little bit too far in the other direction.
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speedy
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« Reply #49 on Jun 7, 2012, 10:48pm » | |
Jun 7, 2012, 1:27am, Anon wrote:| Seems to be a little bit too far in the other direction. |
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Agreed. While the previous structure was maybe at bit too much fragmented, I find it vastly superior to this overly simplistic structure.
Keeping all forums on one level is fine, but I would very much like more granularity, 10-20 forums is better than just 3 + help.
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Anon
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« Reply #50 on Jun 7, 2012, 11:05pm » | |
Just getting rid of the sub-boards and having the top level classifications probably would've been the ideal.
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davidm
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« Reply #51 on Jun 8, 2012, 12:58am » | |
Nothing is going to be totally satisfactory for everybody. I'd say this is an improvement. However I would increase it to 5 categories. Restoring the 'Other' category would be good as a basket for those threads that just don't easily fit under Climate Change and Energy.
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« Reply #52 on Jun 8, 2012, 4:04pm » | |
MODERATOR
Still a work in progress guys - let us see how this goes for a while and if it proves too simple maybe we can expand the board structure a little.
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QuarkingMad
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« Reply #53 on Jul 4, 2012, 12:04pm » | |
Just a quick thought. How about adding a fifth forum section and place all the TCASE series in there as separate threads to hyperlink to the BNC Blog posts. Then you can get additional comments from new members, and current ones, in the forum and it's easily accessible.
For example people can put new additional info in these threads if the Blog post has an out of date source.
Thoughts?
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