An editing suggestion for the New Year

[Patrick_Mucci]

In order to help with searches and confine discussions to golf course Architecture I'd like to suggest that at the end of each calendar year, that the author of any OT (Off Topic) thread/s,

DELETES THEM.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Patrick,

I like your idea, but any thread with at least one reply (by another person) cannot be deleted by the author.  Only the Powers That Be can do that.

[Mike McGuire]

PM -

I'm in favor of making the search function work ( better).

Would it help if OT topics could somehow go away after no respones in a month? This would require someone to monitor.

I've heard there are upgrades to the YABB software available now that would help accomplish the same thing ?

[Joel_Stewart]

Pat:

I have to agree with you.   It would be nice if Ran would take down some of the OT within hours if not days.  Just scanning the last few weeks you see topics on John Lennon, eBay, cuffed pants, John 31:6, food and golf calendars.  I'm not sure how much memory this site has but it seems you could free up quite abit if the OT are deleted.

[Patrick_Mucci_Jr]

Michael Whitaker,

Since you contribute nothing to this site in the way of interesting threads or financial support your comments, likewise, are of  no value.

If a data base is shrunk by 1/4 to 1/3 searching through it becomes quicker.

[Jim Nugent]

Here is another site-related suggestion/question.  Often the links don't work: we have to copy and paste.  Any way to fix that?  

[Kevin_Reilly]

The linker just needs to use proper board coding when leaving a link.  A ? in the middle of a link will cause trouble otherwise...this is common with many boards using YaBB.

Example:

http://www.comcast.net/sports/nfl/index.jsp?cat=FOOTBALL&fn=/teams/2005/12/25/288908.html

But, if you start your link with [ url] and end your link with [ /url]

(without a space in between the bracket and the first character), it will work fine.

Example (you won't see my "[ url]" text, but believe me it's there:

http://www.comcast.net/sports/nfl/index.jsp?cat=FOOTBALL&fn=/teams/2005/12/25/288908.html

[Sébastien Dhaussy]

Here is another site-related suggestion/question.  Often the links don't work: we have to copy and paste.  Any way to fix that?  

Jim,

Try tinyUrl at http://tinyurl.com/

When you want to make a link on an article and you think the adress is too long, you copy the adress at tinyUrl.com and you got a little link. Works well.

[Lou_Duran]

Patrick,

What is an OT in the context of this site?  Would you care to quantify the content between topical and OT?  50/50?

How about topics such as distance and technology which have been examined repeatedly over the years?

BTW, I am all for making the DELETE function more powerful for the initiator of a thread.  I would also like to see a more efficient archival system.

However, though posting on this site has cost me considerably, I can't condone censorship.  My preference would be for the ombudsmen who can delete a thread to use that capability sparingly.

I have my New Year's resolutions which will likely please some of the participants here.  Discipline and self-control are high on my list.

Happy New Year.
     

[Joe Perches]

In order to help with searches and confine discussions to golf course Architecture I'd like to suggest that at the end of each calendar year, that the author of any OT (Off Topic) thread/s,

I'd very much like to suggest upgrading the software to

http://www.simplemachines.org/

It is the next version software of what is used today on GCA.

I believe improvements to the search capabilities in the newest version is a sufficient reason for the bother of changing software.

If Ran or anyone else would like assistance in converting, I would be happy to help.

[Patrick_Mucci_Jr]

Patrick,

What is an OT in the context of this site?  Would you care to quantify the content between topical and OT?  50/50?
Forget the percentile, it's considerable.[/color]

How about topics such as distance and technology which have been examined repeatedly over the years?
How do you classify those as off topic ?
They're related to architecture since they impact the placement and nature of features[/color]

BTW, I am all for making the DELETE function more powerful for the initiator of a thread.  I would also like to see a more efficient archival system.

However, though posting on this site has cost me considerably, I can't condone censorship.

How do you classify the process whereby the creator of an off topic thread deletes it ?[/color]

My preference would be for the ombudsmen who can delete a thread to use that capability sparingly.

That involves a third party.
Just let the creator of an off topic thread exercise his ability to delete it.[/color]

I have my New Year's resolutions which will likely please some of the participants here.  Discipline and self-control are high on my list.

Happy New Year.
     

[Tom Huckaby]

Patrick - big sigh.  Another issue where your desire to be right overwhelms your logic and intelligence.

Read Scott Burroughs' post, #2 in this thread.   The author can delete his first post, but all replies remain, as will the Topic itself.  The author does not have the power to delete replies nor to delete the entire topic, if it has replies.  Only if it has zero replies will the entire topic get deleted.  Only the administrator - Ran or those to whom he has given this power - have the ability to delete a topic with replies.

So you have a nice idea, but it can't be done.  Kinda like a blind man enjoying the sights on and out from a golf course.

 

[Patrick_Mucci_Jr]

Tom Huckaby,

This concept may be beyond you, but, the author of the thread can indicate that he'd like his off topic thread deleted.

I can't see any reason why Ran wouldn't honor that request.

[Bill_McBride]

I think Patrick is suggesting a software change that would make his plan feasible.  Given the increasing volume of posts, it isn't a bad idea at all.  Look at the earliest page of posts, most threads had four or five responses.  Lots more today.

The big problem is, who's going to decide what's to be deleted?  The devil is always in the details!

[redanman]

Here is another site-related suggestion/question.  Often the links don't work: we have to copy and paste.  Any way to fix that?  

Best Way

[*url=http://whatever it is in its entirety] Type LINK TO LONG -WINDED URL[/url*]

As I just did on Pete Pittock's thread:


[*url=http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/113591490792780.xml&coll=7]LINK TO ARTICLE[/url*]

yields:

LINK TO ARTICLE

Use the above format without the *'s.  You can have a URL link that is 200 characters long, it doesn't matter.

[Garland Bayley]

Michael Whitaker,

Since you contribute nothing to this site in the way of interesting threads or financial support your comments, likewise, are of  no value.

If a data base is shrunk by 1/4 to 1/3 searching through it becomes quicker.

It seems to me that it is the search engine that is the problem. Think about it. You type the same search in google and gca in two windows and then fire them off as nearly to the same time as possible, and google comes back in a small fraction of the time gca does with perhaps 100,000s of results from all over the www.
I have always assumed that yabb stood for Yet Another Bulletin Board following the typical naming convention of a lot of free software after UC Berkeley came up with yacc many years ago. Maybe there is a free yase (yet another search engine)  that could be attached to yabb.

[Tom Huckaby]

Tom Huckaby,

This concept may be beyond you, but, the author of the thread can indicate that he'd like his off topic thread deleted.

I can't see any reason why Ran wouldn't honor that request.

That is indeed true.  But in practicality, it requires Ran, or one of his minions, to take the action to make it happen.

You were asking for the author HIMSELF to delete the thread.  That cannot be done.