 sj |
||
|
||
Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal
|
|
|
Subject: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mark Clark Date: 03 Oct 02 - 01:16 PM <rant on> Now that Max and Jeff (AKA, Pene) have provided us with a built-in tool to easily create hyperlinks (AKA, blickies) I'm seeing many more URLs showing up in posts as non-active plain text. Why is this? Please, people, the effort to create a blicky using the new tool is approximately the same as the effort we must expend to copy your text URL and paste it into a browser address box. By performing this effort one time you save everyone else the time and trouble to go through those same motions over and over again. If your link is important enough to have value for others, it should be worth the very small effort to make it an active resource for them. <rant off> - Mark |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: wysiwyg Date: 03 Oct 02 - 01:36 PM I hope you're not PO'd over the Charlie Poole thread; my posts there are strictly worksheets for a larger project with live links that are meant to go in other threads. And I could use a hand on the research in there if you're interested. ~Susan |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Clinton Hammond Date: 03 Oct 02 - 02:07 PM "using the new tool is approximately the same as the effort we must expend to copy your text URL and paste it into a browser address box." So why is it a big deal on way or another, if it's that easy? I think a bigger deal is people calling them 'blickies' and sounding like idiots... Can we stamp that out instead? This has been, One Mans Opinion... ;-) |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mark Clark Date: 03 Oct 02 - 02:51 PM Susan, I'm not PO'd I just hate to see these threads be less useful than they could be. I'll check out the Charlie Poole thread; what sort of help do you need? Clinton, Point taken. I actually never use the “B” word except here. Just trying to fit in. Even though I'm deeply familiar with the technology and it's jargon, I try to remember that most people have no interest in the technology itself, only its use. Keep in mind that the whole point of the World Wide Web is that links be active so a click loads the referenced page. Having that functionality is more important that what an active link or hyperlink is actually called. - Mark |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Bill D Date: 03 Oct 02 - 03:03 PM awww..Clinton..as 'local'and non-technical as it is, the term "clickie" and it's related forms are actually rather creative, folksy and highly descriptive. I usually refer the them as URLs, myself, but in ANY community, a local set of jargon/vernacular develops and 'sometimes' serves to ease fears and promote understanding. The are people using them amd making them who would have NEVER tackled a "Universal Resource Locator" (and I am still grinning over the woman many years ago who asked me if I had enjoyed my weekend at the "Blue-string pluckin' thingy") |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: wysiwyg Date: 03 Oct 02 - 03:17 PM Mark, I've been matching up old Charlie Poole songs with existing DT and thread material. Hooking in online recordings from Honkingduck by Poole or others. Someone offered chords and what we will end up with is a thread on Poole songs like the Dave Macon thread. Right now I am just digging up the dirt. So the songs and chords can go in the most relevant existing threads, or DT and other links go in a new lyric-add thread, song by song. I'm just about done digging. Now it will all get cleaned up as working links in various threads. ~Susan |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Jim Dixon Date: 03 Oct 02 - 03:26 PM Yeah, I'd rather call them "links." That's what the rest of the world calls them. Well, maybe some still call them "hyperlinks." (Bill D: Don't you suppose a lot of people come here already knowing what a link is, but not knowing what a "clicky" or "blicky" is?) To create a link with the new tool, you have to copy-and-paste twice, plus you have to wait twice for a new screen to come up. No way is that approximately the same as doing a copy-and-paste once. (OK, twice, if you count the time I do it plus the time you do it.) I copy-and-paste URLs only to document my source, after I've copied-and-pasted all the information I think anyone is likely to need into the thread. It's kind of like adding a footnote to a printed article: it's there so you can check my accuracy if you want. If I've done my job right, most people won't bother. I do create a link in other circumstances: if the linked-to page is especially good, if I want a lot of people to see it, or if it has a lot of useful information that I don't want to copy into the message for some reason. I think that's a good policy. While we're on the subject of links, I wish people, when linking to another Mudcat thread, would use RELATIVE links rather than ABSOLUTE links. In other words, like this: <a href=/thread.cfm?threadid=39208>PermaThread™: List of all joke threads</a> instead of like this: <a href=http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=39208>PermaThread™: List of all joke threads</a> (Quotation marks are unnecessary.) With a relative link, if you start out in a mirror site (ragtime, loki) you stay there; an absolute link like the one above switches you over to "www". Also, I like it when people insert the name of the thread (or song, or website) into the link instead of the words "click here" or other non-informative stuff. I'd rather know where I'm going before I go there. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 03 Oct 02 - 04:01 PM I know how to do a link, a blicky, a blue clicky, a hyperlink, a URL (which is a misnomer) the old way, but I've yet to figure out how to do this newfangled thang. Okay, I THINK I figured it out. Test link to DaveO's unfinished site Try that for size. Dave Oesterreich |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 03 Oct 02 - 04:02 PM Okay, okay, I take it all back. I don't know what I was doing earlier, that didn't work. Apologies to the extent they're indicated. Dave Oesterreich |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mark Clark Date: 03 Oct 02 - 04:04 PM Jim, Good point about the use of relative links. I had just spent a bunch of time on an elaborate post on the same subject. I kept using the new preview facility to make sure everything was correct then finally submitted it without checking the preview box. SHAZAM, the whole post disappeared never to be seen again. I'm guessing that if we use preview, we'd better post quickly, before anyone else posts, or we lose our work. Just something to keep in mind. - Mark |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Joe Offer Date: 03 Oct 02 - 04:26 PM Hi, Mark - I can't see why you should have a problem like you've explained. Fool around with it and see if you can duplicate it. Just doesn't sound right. When you check the "preview" box and hit "submit," your message is not really submitted. It produces a test page that shows you what your message will look like when you do submit it. There's an editing box below the display, and that contains the text that will be posted (unless you change it). You should be able to let that sit on your computer for as long as you like. You have to click the "submit" button on that second page before it will post. If I see URLs in messages, I usually try to turn them into links. I'd rather see an URL than a goofed-up link, however. It's amazing to see what a mess people can make of links. Sometimes, it's impossible to figure out how to fix them. -Joe Offer- |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mark Clark Date: 03 Oct 02 - 04:45 PM Joe, You and your crew of JoeClones are miracle workers as far as I'm concerned. You're always watching and fixing things up and, believe me, I've seen the sort of links people can create. I'm hoping that with the new facility, busted links will be far less common. I'll see if I can cause another disappearance. Okay I've previewed and re-edited this post a couple of times. Now I'll just let some time pass before doing another edit and final submit. - Mark |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Joe Offer Date: 03 Oct 02 - 05:11 PM See, Mark? 'Twerks. 'Twerks good, fer a fact. -Joe Offer- |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Amos Date: 03 Oct 02 - 06:16 PM Mayber we should call them twerks! :>) Actually I think it is just fine that we have a little local obfuscation by calling them Blue Clicky tThings or blickies. Adds to the flavor of the joint, and god knows this dive can use all the flavor it can get!! L<)) (Just kiddin.....!) A |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Bill D Date: 03 Oct 02 - 08:23 PM Jim Dixon...I agree with you...sort of..*grin*. It would indeed be clearer & easier if everyone adopted one standard and one nomenclature, but I also KNOW it ain't gonna happen! I never use quotes when typing out a link, and I often past the URL as the text, so there is an idea of the destination, but sometimes the urge to be clever just overwhelms me...;>} thing is, getting everyone to adhere to a standard is like herding cats....if making sense were all that is required, everyone would have adopted MY definition of 'FOLK' a long time ago! So, I guess I'll just poddle along, making links, clickies, URLs or whatever, as the times seem to warrant. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Wolfgang Date: 04 Oct 02 - 06:17 AM Let us extend Bill's advice to thread titles. I hate 'Look her', 'Didn't I tell you?', 'Have you also seen this?' and all those uninformative titles. Wolfgang |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: clansfolk Date: 04 Oct 02 - 06:35 AM I think I worked this one out now check this web site http://www.TheElderlyBrothers.co.uk DOH!!! |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Fingerbuster Date: 04 Oct 02 - 07:27 AM Is that an ELECTRIC 5 string?????????????????????????/ |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: clansfolk Date: 04 Oct 02 - 08:05 AM which one????? I presume you're refering to the Elderly bros photo's? The earlier Chorley photo's has an old F*** playing his SwanElectro "mellowtone" Banjo made by Terry Swan of Nottingham, UK - I (the old F***) have two of these the one in the Picture is "Stripey" who is in the repair shop at the moment. In this years Chorley photo - I'm using a Goltone EBM Electric banjo (more flashy!!!) There's a better view of the goldtone on The Ian Gartside Band front page and another pic of the swan in the photo section, taken at the sound check and also on the Penny Black Folk Photo Page. Terry Swan has a Website cheers Pete..... |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: treewind Date: 04 Oct 02 - 08:16 AM I agree that using Submit for the prewie function is less than obvious in its intention. It might just possibly be better to have two buttons: one for preview and one for Submit (or post). Also I've just noticed a tick box on the right of Make a link("blue clicky"). Does that possibly apply to the Automatic Linebreaks legend on the next line? It's not in the right place if so - or has my browser screwed up? Anahata |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: MudGuard Date: 04 Oct 02 - 08:21 AM Normally, the "Automatic Linebreaks" sits to the right of the checkbox... |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Jeri Date: 04 Oct 02 - 08:33 AM There's a box, then "Preview" There's a link (no box) to "Make a link" There's a box, then "Automatic Linebreaks" |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: catspaw49 Date: 04 Oct 02 - 08:38 AM Yeah, I should have mentioned that to Wolfgang, but I assumed he'd noticed as he generally does see everything. You can opt out on many of the new functions. Spaw |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mary in Kentucky Date: 04 Oct 02 - 09:10 AM I wish people (including ME!) would write out the URL and also the title of the page as well as make a link to it. So many places on the net change their location within a year's time, so links often become inactive after a year or so. If you have the original URL or page title, you can search on Google to find the new URL. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mark Clark Date: 04 Oct 02 - 09:47 AM Mary, Many browsers will display the URL in the status bar at the bottom of the window when the mouse pointer is over a link. If you don't see a status bar, choose View/Status bar from the menu. If you browser doesn't have that function, try right clicking on a link and selecting Copy Shortcut from the context menu. These techniques won't get you the page title but they will give you a URL you can edit. - Mark |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mary in Kentucky Date: 04 Oct 02 - 10:49 AM Yes, but the problem is when I'm reading an old message and the link is no longer correct. If I'm reading from a thread I can look at the URL, but if it's something printed out...not there. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: wysiwyg Date: 04 Oct 02 - 12:40 PM Then you would look up the old thread and decipher the blicky from there? ~S~ |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: mack/misophist Date: 05 Oct 02 - 01:05 AM In response to Mark Clark, the man who originated this thread - I beg to differ. I find the hyperlink tool slow and awkward. I find it...ungraceful. Cutting and pasteing has more grace and takes less time and effort. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: GUEST,Joe Offer Date: 05 Oct 02 - 03:09 PM Well, it may be indelicate of me to say it, but I think the "make a link / blickifier" is a tool for morons, and it encourages them to remain morons. Maybe not, though - it forces them to learn how to copy-paste, and they are forced to look at the HTML for a link while they paste it into their text. Still, it's a lot more efficient to learn how to do a link. I guess my big complaint is when people post links to good music information (especially when it's folk lyrics), and then I find the link dead a year later. It's nice when our speed-demons come up with an answer to a lyrics request in 43 seconds, but something is lacking if their response is just a link to another site. I suppose some people have "ethical considerations" and think we shouldn't copy another's work - but all of folk music is basically a violation of this sort of ethical viewpoint. We're atrying to assemble a permanent body of knowledge here. The Internet is a notoriously impermanent soruce of information, and I think it's important that we post and retain the information here. This happens so often that I now have added a standard message to my cache of editing remarks: Lyrics copy-pasted from the link cited above. A dead link is about the most worthless source of information I can imagine. -Joe Offer, posting on http://207.103.108.101/- |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Jeri Date: 05 Oct 02 - 03:15 PM It's not any harder to type the HTML stuff in than to copy and paste. In my opinion. Jeri posting on Shorty, where a cookie is still a cookie, even though it's the 'old' Mudcat. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: wysiwyg Date: 05 Oct 02 - 11:50 PM I agree, but the preview of the link is very nice. ~S~ |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: GUEST Date: 06 Oct 02 - 03:03 AM Joe, I'd agree with you in general about dead links. However, some of the lyric requests are so moronically obvious, and available in so many places, that a 'click here' is about as much enthusiasm as I can muster.... |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Joe Offer Date: 06 Oct 02 - 05:50 PM Well, I'm not talking about lyrics we already have - for those, a link is best, since it's a waste to re-post what we already have. I DO think it's important to post lyrics we DON'T have, except when they're pop lyrics that aren't likely to be of interest to folk musicians. I also note that some people link offsite to lyrics that we have right here - sometimes, those offsite lyrics come from the Digital Tradition in the fist place. If you link to offsite lyrics, than some Mudcat/DT harvester has to check the link to see if we already have the song. I know there's a temptation to just link to sheet music at Levy, and that's nice - but it would be even nice if people would transcribe the lyrics (and maybe the tune) for us. -Joe Offer- |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: GUEST,Peter from Essex Date: 06 Oct 02 - 06:28 PM Jeri wrote: It's not any harder to type the HTML stuff in than to copy and paste. In my opinion. In theory I agree but with my typing copy and paste is far more reliable. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Bill D Date: 06 Oct 02 - 06:49 PM I think the point is, one can copy & paste the URL into the "a href=" code and between the little brackets.... I also do not see why it bothers some so much to remember < and > and / , but it sure seems to, so I have no objection to having the 'gadget' there. (But then, I can re-set the time on a VCR without reading the manual..)....we all seem to have blind sopts, whether it be spelling, tunes, remembering names...etc... My weakness is music theory (key changes, modes...etc.).... |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: GUEST Date: 06 Oct 02 - 07:35 PM I'm not one (usually - I have my moments), but people do have problems with the <a href=URL>Text</a> method and often make mistakes when learning. One of the most popular solutions with message boards is the one I think was started with the UBB message board system. At its simplest, the code is [url]enter the url[/url] which substitutes the text I have in bold for both the URL and Text portions in the HTML system. Short of trying to auto recognise a URL in text, it the the most efficient system I know of for a user trying to enter something along the lines of: details can be found at http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm. Its longer version is something like [url=enter url]enter text[/url] which I don't see as being much easier than the HTML version. I provide both UBB methods in addition to HTML on the sites I maintain but as a user, tend to use UBB only where I wish to post URLs in the "simpler" form as I find it so much quicker than HTML. Jon |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: Mr Red Date: 06 Oct 02 - 07:48 PM Clinton, Amos Personally I call 'em blickies because they are the cerebral equivalent of onomatopaeic. Love 'em or hate em you know what they are. If you don't then you struggle with URL and hyperlink - I try my hardest to get strangers and family to go on my website and I have to spend a fair time with concepts and detail in some cases. Say "a blickie is a blue clicky thing" and they nod Say "a link is... " and they ask more questions Say "URL" and you loose them. Opinion? Not! One man's experience - yes. |
|
Subject: RE: Tech: A blue clicky thang (blicky) appeal From: GUEST,Blimey i just noticed how to do it Date: 07 Oct 02 - 06:26 AM I only just discovered the way to do a blue clicky thing ..so its a good thing you've started a thread to draw it to peoples attention ha ha Regards.. Jim Clark acoustic musicians and poets sound archive |
| Share Thread: |