a forum individual post retrieval suggestion

[Ken S]

One of my frustrations with a forum is the difficulty in retrieving good information from the past. I have finally devised a procedure to help me with this. I generally work with my ipad, as I can use it in more places and my grandchildren are generally on the main computer. This procedure should work with other tablets, as well as laptops and desktops.

I start with a blank document in pages, apple's word processing program. I titled the document "Tormek forum highlights". I open this document before opening the forum. If I see an especially useful post, I copy/paste it into the document.

With the ipad, under general settings, gestures can be enabled. With gestures, swiping side to side with four fingers switches programs quickly.

Originally, a typical topic was a question posted. Jeff would reply. Sometimes the original poster would be polite and post a thank you. Occasionally another member or two might post. Except for Jeff, all members had fewer than fifty posts. Life was simpler then.

I like to go through past topics to learn. The system of numbering posts by members  where this week's number one will become next week's number fourteen is difficult for me. I think the copy paste document will be more efficient. It will let me edit eighty replies down to a few paragraphs.

Eventually I might try to categorize the posts. A temporary fix might be to bold a key word or two.

As always, I am open to suggestions.

Ken

[SharpenADullWitt]

Because of the upgrades, transfers, etc.   I don't think there is ANY good suggestion for searching the old posts.  Also remember the forum wasn't always divided into sections, but one big blog (it would take a moderator going through ALL the posts, and moving them individually, to possibly re-index them).

When I joined, I went through ALL of them.  Since that time, I occasionally go back, if my mind is on something specific.

[Ken S]

SADW,

I agree with you. Where I find this method useful is when I find a particularly useful post. I can copy paste it into my working document.

Ken

[SharpenADullWitt]

I have no idea what version or what options are not turned on, in this forum software.  (thought this was based on an old open source forum software)
If this is based on what I think it is, there may be an option, to allow a user to subscribe to posts.  This effectively can be used as a "favorites" button, but instead of your browser, it is accessible from your profile (from any computer online).

[Ken S]

test post

[Ken S]

test 2

[Ken S]

Good question, SADW.

I emailed Sweden's IT person.  This is his reply.

"Yes you can. You have to do it per category. Say for example that you want notifications of new posts on the "General Tormek Questions" category, you click to enter it and then click the "Notify" button below the board."

I found a new topic notify place below the subforum and also a new post place at the top. My test topic and test posts are to gage the time it takes to get through the system.

Ken

[Ken S]

I received a notification about Rob's new Oh Dear topic. The topic notification seems to be working.