Forum Moderators: open
Elizabeth,
Here you'll find the details for the style codes.
[webmasterworld.com...]
You need to put the words in the [quote]
[edited by: Marcia at 11:51 am (utc) on Jan. 23, 2003]
"forum 31/648-2-15". Could you tell me where I could go to find out what those numbers mean and which one of them equals "Professional Webmaster Business Issues" and which one equals "How did you get started?"
forum 31 => "Professional Webmaster Business Issues"
648 .... => "How did you get started?", i.e. the thread number
2 ...... => the number of the page of this thread
15 ..... => number of messages that get displayed per page
Could I ask which of those "style codes" you used to make that box with words in it?
That would be the [.quote] style code.
Nesting style codes is a bit tricky. To get a link in bold [domain.de] you need to use [.b][.url=http::/domain.de]bold link text[./url][./b], i.e. the url style code needs to be the inner most one.
Of course you would need to delete the dot in all those style codes to actually use them. I had to put them there to prevent the forum software from interpreting them as the actual style codes.
Andreas
Forum Numbers: Is there a listing somewhere that shows Forum #31 sandwiched in between forum #30 and #32? That lays the forum headings out in consecutive order by number first and topic heading second? And that includes the thread numbers and names in the same way? So that a person deficient in understanding such as myself could scan a list of everything all at once?
a) What does "ubb" mean?
b) Why isn't there a "u" for "underline" as well a "b" for "bold" and an "i" for "italic"?
c) How does "center" wind up changing the font? Is there a code for changing fonts that's not on the list?
d) There are four codes for "url". What does the explanation for the fourth one mean?
e) Beside "quote" it says "icq number". What does that mean?
f)
"Fixed" appears to let me convert to Courier and also to use "bold" which is pretty cool!
Of course you would need to delete the dot in all those style codes to actually use them. I had to put them there to prevent the forum software from interpreting them as the actual style codes.
I am feeling very smug and pleased with myself just at the moment. :)
Thank you very much!
Regards, Elizabeth ...
P.S. Is there a "Suggestion Box" around here someplace?
i've never noticed one. forums are often changed / updated to reflect changes in the search engine / web mastering world, so havign such a list would just be another thing to maintain and update every so often. stick to the forums by name :)
>>Is there a "Suggestion Box" around here someplace?
The community center:
[webmasterworld.com...]
There is more than one road to Rome! :)
I subscribed to this outfit a couple of days ago and had the good fortune to get at least a little bit oriented to it via telephone.
Then I looked about for a place to begin. When I saw Gibble's "How did you get started?", I crossed my fingers and pushed the button.
Oops! This is for how to get started as a webmaster with paying clients, not how to get started as a customer attempting to get her money's worth from her purchase.
Obviously, I need a better way to find a better place to be than the one I used before so let's see ... how is this outfit structured? Where's the index? What can I do to avoid having to read all these pages of paragraphs? Why can't I just go to a list? Who can I ask?
You say, "Stick to the forums by name" and the reason you give why I should do that is "Forums are often changed/updated to reflect changes in the search engine/web mastering world, so having such a list would just be another thing to maintain and update every so often".
Whose problem is that! Suppose I hadn't elected to subscribe to this thing right away. Suppose I had decided instead to look around for awhile first and see whether it was worth subscribing to or not? What affect do you suppose your answer to my question would have had on me under those circumstances?
What's happening right here, right now, is at the very core of the whole question of "usability". Not "user-interface engineering", but "usability" ... those aspects of a website which enable users to get in, off and out with their tasks accomplished.
My first thought upon reading your post was, "Okay, if there isn't one, then I'll make one." My second thought was, "There probably is one, somewhere, because how could there not be, for something like this?" And my third thought was, "Let's put 78 up there in the address bar and see what happens." Nothing much. Hmmm. "Let's try 78/1 and see if that helps." Nope. "Okay, how about 78/2 ... bingo!"
Hello, and Welcome to The Attic is the first discussion or "thread" I guess you call it of the paid-subscriber section of this thing. I tested 3, 4 and 5 to see what they might turn up and knew right away that a list of these forums by number together with their topic headings would be so useful to me that it would be worth whatever time it takes to compile it so I've got a little file going in EditPadPro for just that purpose which I'm perfectly prepared to add to as I go along until and unless somebody turns up with a clue which will take me to The Keeper of the List.
Why? Well, for one thing, I'm sitting on something which just crossed my desk which I think everyone concerned with the subject should know about; but, while I know that this place here is not the right place for it, I don't know which place is. If I had a list of places, then I could figure it out in five seconds flat.
For another thing, I'd know what you know, like the fact that there's a "Community Center" at Forum 19. For which tidbit of information I'd like to (a) thank you very much and (b) determine for myself next time around.
Ideally, I'd like to be able to "navigate" this site to good purpose and at top speed and for that I need to know (a) destinations, and (b) distances between points ... preferably the shortest possible ones!
Regards, Elizabeth ...
P.S. On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it to attract more paid subscriptions to this forum?
Nick
Thank you for the reassurance that you make every effort to protect user emails. I didn't give mine out when I first signed up because I didn't want to run the risk of adding to the burden of spam I'm already carrying and I had no way of knowing what your position on this might be.
As to "profile urls", while I'm obliged to admit that I don't perfectly understand what you've said in regard to them, I would like you to know that it's been very helpful to me as a new subscriber to be able to go to the websites of people who are posting here and see who's who and what's what. If I'm reading you correctly, then I will be able to continue to do this, and that's fine.
The problem, I gather, is with "public" vis-a-vis "private" profiles. I think I see how it might be beneficial to members to be seen "out there" as being a participant "in here" but doesn't that work both ways? Doesn't it indirectly advertise the forum itself as well as the member?
Now that you are soliciting paid subscribers, wouldn't you have an interest in having that continue, if a way could be found around the increasing "number of problems that have occurred with profiles"?
Would making profiles "private" necessarily have to mean that the information couldn't be made available to these "spider" things in some other way? How would a spider know, for example, if it was looking at a compendium you put together for public indirect-advertising purposes and not at private in-house-use-only reference pages?
"The Keeper of the List" could set whatever requirements for "graduation" from private to public that are in the best interests of all concerned and those requirements could be "published" internally so that everyone would know just what they have to do in order to "graduate" from one to the other, if that is what they want to do.
You said, in your article "26 Steps To 15k A Day", to "plant yourself firmly on the high ground of the middle of the road" and, in this situation, that seems like very good advice to me.
May I add something to the "wish list"? If you do ever get around to "publishing" a compendium of graduates or alumni or whatever you wind up calling them, then would you please let me know where you put it? All I want for Christmas is a list by category of who's doing what around here!
Regards, Elizabeth ...
P.S. I learned a lot from your article and I would like to print it out for future reference but I made the mistake of not bookmarking it. I'd really appreciate it if you'd provide a link to it. ;)
Thank you for the link to Brett's article, 26 Steps to 15k a Day [webmasterworld.com].
I came to this forum as a result of a link to forum 21/3450 on liquid vs fixed layout [webmasterworld.com] which turned up 2nd to the top in a search I did on that subject.
Is it deliberately selected and registered by Brett due to the excellence of its content, or is it picked up right along with all the other series by these spider things?
Are both the public forums and the private forums at the mercy of these little beasties, or are the private forums somehow able to escape them?
Is "stickymail" subject to the invasion of these content snatchers, too, or is it protected in some special way?
If these "public profiles" that Brett is talking about are public outside this forum as well as inside it, then I can certainly see why, as he says, "the number of problems that have occurred with [them] has steadily increased."
On the other hand, I'd hazard a guess that 80% of these problems are predictable and therefore preventable by adequate advance notice.
The sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, of course, is where to put that notice so that everybody will see it and how to structure it so that everybody will actually absorb what it says.
I followed a trail of links starting with the one you gave me, Andreas, and I wound up facing a screen full of color which got my undivided attention before I even knew what it was about. See Search Engine Theme Pyramids [searchengineworld.com].
Going from that site to the first thing a new member sees here is like taking a cold shower! See webmasterworld registration page [webmasterworld.com].
I realize that "Terms of Use and Conditions of Service" is a legal statement as well as a position statement, but I couldn't help thinking that if its contents were approached from the "theme pyramid" perspective with a little bit of color thrown in for good measure, then you could accomplish a whole lot more with it than you're accomplishing now, including but not limited to nipping 80% of your "public profile" problems right in the bud. It stands to reason that this would be true because there isn't anything at all in there about them now!
Not that I could see, anyway. Not "as such". Not in everyday language that people deficient in understanding such as myself can understand.
It seems to me that you have a golden opportunity on this, the first page that a new member sees, to set the tone that will ultimately convert what is now a cacophony of "public profile" problems into a symphony of inspired performances on all fronts.
There is another thing you could do, too, which would go a long way toward shaping a new member's understanding of what you are trying to accomplish here and that's a series of maybe seven "stickymail" reports delivered at the rate of one maybe every three days with "the rest of the story", including but not limited to a chapter on the extent of your vision in regard to "profiles" generally and "public or private" profiles in particular.
Once the main body of information you wish to convey has been completely delivered, you could continue to contribute to effective perceptions via the simple expedient of the equivalent of a "newsletter" delivered at the rate of maybe once every three weeks. It could include links to what you consider to be important posts and invitations for contributions in specialized areas and announcements as to changes in policy on points like public vis-a-vis private profiles and so on. It could even include a shamless plug for your paid subscription!
And if you put up a "newsletter suggestion box" somewhere, then it will practically write itself because you'll have in yours hands whatever people have in their minds. And wouldn't that be nice! :)
Regards, Elizabeth ...
[edited by: Marcia at 11:26 am (utc) on Jan. 23, 2003]
