Maiden speech from an old man

[Richard Gaskin]

Alex Tweedly wrote:

> It's beyond me how anyone can be bothered with the forums (which makes
> me wonder if what I need for the forums is a "Forums for Dummies" guide).
>
> How do you tell which forums and/or which topics have posts you haven't
> read yet ?
> How do you tell which forums and/or which topics have posts you have
> newly arrived ?
>      (Yes, those are two different questions).

These questions themselves demonstrate one of the things that web forums 
bring to the table that's usually missing from mailing lists:

In a forum there are links to things like "FAQ" and "View New Posts", in 
addition to links into the categories which can help traverse the 
knowledge pool.  We can think of these as supplemental tools and 
navigational aids, adding value and utility to the content posted there.

But in a mailing list, once a post passes through our In Box it's lost 
in the archives.  Sure, it's searchable (better through GMANE than 
Google) but only if you know what terms to look for.

As an example, in June when this was discussed here I posted an outline 
of options for reading the forums to suit a variety of preferences:
<http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-livecode/2014-June/202864.html>

To quickly get to new posts only, my bookmark is to the "View New Posts" 
link:
<http://forums.livecode.com/search.php?search_id=newposts>

For additional details on a wide range of topics for using the forums, 
there's the FAQ, also linked to from the front page:
<http://forums.livecode.com/faq.php>


> How do you set it up so that each morning (while you drink your coffee),
> you laptop will download all the new posts and have them (already
> identified as above) ready for you to read (i.e. while offline) ?

To download for offline reading see Jacque's helpful tip on setting up 
email subscription for the entire forum:
<http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-livecode/2014-June/202871.html>


> How do you compose a reply while offline ? (No, writing a reply in an
> editor or email and then copying/pasting won't count).

Given the popularity of PHPBB there may be tools for that, but typing is 
typing, whether into an email form window or a browser form window.

One of the advantages of doing the typing PHPBB's browser form window is 
that it provides additional tools for styling, links, embedding images, 
etc. to take full advantage of what BBCode offers.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  LiveCode Community Manager
  richard at livecode.org