why so few threads?

Subject: why so few threads?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 01:03 AM

Mudcat folks,

Why are there so few threads presented for our perusal one day and, the next day, it seems as if the list is endless?

Sometimes I'm looking for a specific thread I want to add something to, and it's just not there. But it was there at noon---or whatever!!

Art

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: AndreasW
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 02:41 AM

How do you view the threads? is it on the "New messages since your last visit" page? Then you only see those threads (messages) since then. If so, use the "Main Forum Page" link at the bottom of this page.

If you view the threads on the Main Forum Page, make sure the Age setting is correct. After changing it to a higher value and hitting "Show threads" you should see more threads (very many if you set age to 365

Also make sure the filter is empty if you want to see ALL threads with the given age limit.

HTH
Andreas

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 04:45 AM

Art, the default on the filter is set to one day, so you only see threads that have new messages posted within the last day. If you post a message, you get three days' worth of threads. You can set the filter to any number of days, or you can make use of "New Messages Since Your Last Visit" (if you're registered). It used to be that the filter was set for a bigger number of days, but then it took too long to load all the information on the "Forum Home" page. Max decided one day worked best. If it were me, I guess I'd set if for 3 days and hope that would avoid some duplication of threads - but it weren't me that set it.
I do think it's good if people are posting messages on a topic that had been discussed before, if they open the existing thread instead of starting a new one (unless the old thread is getting really long).
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 07:54 AM

Joe,

I'm inclined to agree that a 3-day default might be preferable - if it doesn't cause other problems. I know a couple of newcomers who got slightly confused when they returned to the site and couldn't find things! Yes, it's very simple when you know how - but the newcomer doesn't!

Regards

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Jon W.
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 11:51 AM

Interestingly enough, there seems to be no way of setting the number of days back to just one day after you've posted a message and have had it set to three days. Seems like that option ought to be on the pick list (or whatever you call that drop-down menu).

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 03:18 PM

stupid question, but what does "default" mean in compu-talk? To me it means our team loses 'cause I punched the ref! (Actually happened to me in highschool--but I was swinging at the quarterback's chin & missed & got the ref coming up to stop the fight.)

And how does one "clean the filter"??? Never have hit the filter thing for some reason.

What happens when I click "show threads" after those have already appeared?

If I put 365 days in the proper place, does that mean I'll get all the threads for the last year??? or just the threads that were up there on that one day a year ago???

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 03:26 PM

We in California know the answer to that one, Art:

"Default" is what causes "De-earthquake"

Any more questions you want me to answer?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 03:56 PM

Oh, Art, was it a serious answer you were looking for?
"Default" is the way something comes from the factory, before you make changes to customize it. If you'd like a biblical analogy, it's the way the Maker intended it, like it was before Adam ate the apple.
You can change a lot of computer defaults and they'll stay changed. That means, generally, that if you screw your computer up, it'll stay that way until you find somebody who can fix it. Mudcat isn't set up that way. Max sets the defaults, and we can't change 'em permanently - but we can often make one-time changes. On the "Forum Home" page, you can experiment and you won't do anything that will cause permanent damage or embarrassment (as opposed to what might happen when people post messages....). If you push the "Show Threads" button and do nothing else, the only thing that happens is that it refreshes the screen so the menu displays any new messages that may have been posted. If you put a word in the filter box, the menu will display only the threads that contain that word. If you change the number of days, the menu will show all threads that have been posted within that number of days.
In humble and trepidating and respectful and groveling contradiction to what Jon says, I believe the Forum menu does not remain set at three days once you post a message. If you read a thread and then go back to the "Forum Home" page via one of the links Max has provided, you go back to a one-day menu.
There is a way to sneak around that, though. If you're reading a thread and want to go back to a Forum menu with 3 or 365 days of threads, use the "Back" button on your browser, or the "backspace" key on your keyboard (but you will not see threads that have new messages posted within the last few minutes, since you are looking at a menu that has not been refreshed). If you post a message, though, you're SOL - you go back to a 3-day menu.
Is that enough of an answer for you, Art? Or did you like the earthquake answer better?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Jon W.
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 04:13 PM

Joe, that's not a contradiction to what I said, it's just a work-around. What I mean is that when you click on the little arrow button by the "Age" box you get a list of the number of days you can enter - 3, 7, 14, 30, 60, 90, or 365 days. Those are the only choices. And if you try to type '1' in directly, it changes to 14 days. It seems to me that '1 day' should be on the list too. Otherwise one has to do what you said - go back to Forum Home through another link. No biggie, but it seems like a loose end from the days when three days worth of threads were the least you could show. Or in other words, why should posting a message change the thread age setting?

Jon W.

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 05:01 PM

Thanks Joe and ALL. I'll copy this and digest a bit at a time.

But before all this info got here I put in "365" and hit "show threads"!!

The computer started doing things I've never seen it do (and then it wanted a cigarette)!!!! EVERYTHING froze up and it flashed lights at me for 30 minutes and showed no sign of stopping! All I could figure to do was a hot shut down! I did that. No problem. It diagnosed itself and found no cancer. Then I went back to mudcat & we were back to 3 days.

???? Very interesting...

Art

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Barbara
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 05:02 PM

Geez, Art, you probably just don't have enough room (memory) for an entire year of all the threads, and that's what you asked for. Know this rhyme?
I really hate this damn machine
I think that I shall sell it
It never does the thing I want
But only what I tell it.
Ah, shall I duck now? Thanks Joe and Jon for showing me some back and frontdoor ways around Mudcat.
Barbara

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 05:02 PM

DARN!!

sorry

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 05 Jun 98 - 05:05 PM

I tried the 365-day bit, too, Art. It took a while, but I got the whole list of threads and started counting. I lost track at a hundred pages of threads, and there was a lot left to go. We've sure talked a lot over the last year, haven't we?
Now, put sex in the filter box and set it for 365 days, and you'll see it may well be a bit too tame around here. We've only done it three times in the last year....
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 06 Jun 98 - 11:40 AM

So that's why folkies are a dying breed!

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Jun 98 - 11:58 AM

"The bee is SUCH a busy soul,
It has no time for birth control.
And that is why, in times like these,
There are so many 'Sons of Bees'"

and, I guess, so few folkies..they have so few gigs, they have plenty of time for birth control...

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From:
Date: 06 Jun 98 - 08:56 PM

I would like to echo JonW's (implicit) request. That is to have "1" (one) as an option in the number of days, so that you can post a message and return to (approximately) the same list you were using before.

Even better--when you post a message the option you return to is the one that you had before you posted the message.

Computerese is a funny language. When networking first came out I was confused by the word "transparent". To say a program is "transparent" to the user means he/she is unaware he/she is using it, I at first took it to mean that the programmer couldn't see it. That was certainly my position!

Murray

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: northfolk
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 11:20 AM

Art; I just figured that one out two days ago, I'm glad you asked it and not me. As to the "poets" Barbara and Bil D. it reminds me that to err is human, to really screw up, you need a computer. aside to Joe Offer, RE: sex in the 365 day box, To Heir is human, too!

Subject: RE: why so few threads?
From: RS
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 09:41 PM

I too like the three-day thread listings. So I get around the one-day default by accessing the site via a bookmark, as follows: http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm?Title=&Age=3 . This automatically loads the page with the last three days listings in place.