The new amalgamated philosophy forum.

Oh, and I just found another thing: We can't edit our posts more than once. That's a problem, at least for me Smile

I think it will be helpful to compile the known improvements we as a community would like to see.

@Zetherin,

As have I. One thing that I think would be easy to change and would improve general replying would be to have the BBCode Editor opened automatically. This way, members can bold, italicize, underline, insert hyperlinks, and quote, without initialize any editors. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, there

The second thing I would liked changed would be to insert a "quote" button. Right now there only seems to be a "reply" button, and the action results in a "@Whoeveryouwererespondingto". This is troubling because it means we have to copy and paste the part of the reply we want to respond to into the reply box (not to mention we have to manually quote it using the BBC
Editor).

Absolutely right. Only I did not know how to say it. Thank you. Those suggestions, if implemented, would make the whole thing a lot friendlier.

1 Reply

@salima,

salima wrote:

how did the
Quote:
my tags
get there?

Those are the forums you posted the threads in on philforum, here they are imported as having been tagged by the same name as the forum you posted them in there.

Quote:

is there a way i can make them what i want?

On each topic you posted you can change them to whatever you want.

Quote:

it seems like someone put tags on some threads i was participating in and now they are listed on my profile page as 'my tags'...there is some use to this for me?

Previously they were posted to forums, now they are tagged by the same name. It's as identical as the different method allows.

Quote:

this reminds me a lot of microsoft which thinks it knows exactly what everyone wants, and places like aol that want to reach out and wipe your ass for you.

We, however, do not provide any such wiping services, my apologies.

Quote:

it doesnt mean the forum itself and the members are not very fine, but when i open a page that is supposed to be my profile page and find a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with me i feel a little...insulted? enraged?

Nah, that would be patently ridiculous. It's just a list of forums from philforum that you posted in.

Quote:

maybe this is only another software issue...or maybe it is an issue i have with the world and progress and hegemony. maybe if nothing else i will learn more about myself from the resistance and feelings of exploitation that seem to be mounting up in me.

Um, how is it exploit... never mind. I don't think I even want to know, it's just a list of the forums you had posted in and has non-exploitative aims. If you want, tag your threads differently, or remove the tags altogether. That is just my best guess at how to organize them based on how you had them, feel free to improve on it.

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@Zetherin,

Zetherin wrote:

I think it will be helpful to compile the known improvements we as a community would like to see.

Here is a thread we are using for that:

http://able2know.org/topic/152740-1

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@kennethamy,

Quote:

I find it harder to navigate, and harder to reply and to edit.

I think some of your concerns regarding replying & editing have already been addressed in other threads here, kennethamy. (Though I've lost track of which ones, sorry. There have been so many threads! Wink

). I can understand that navigation of this site is a much more daunting prospect than your smaller, more compact site, though. But, trust me, it's gets much easier with regular site usage.

One thing which I don't know has been mentioned yet is email updates. For A2Kers like me who follow many threads, this is how I keep up to date on new posts to those threads.:
Under the thread topic heading (on page 1 of the thread) you'll see a "get email updates" link. If you click that, the wording will change to "stop email updates". This means that you are then notified by email when there's been a new post to that thread. Responding to the email link takes you directly to the the new post on the thread. I've found this extremely useful, especially for the smaller, less popular threads, which would get lost otherwise. I hope this helps.

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@kennethamy,

Answered you here: http://able2know.org/topic/152746-1#post-4167098

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Robert can I ask you why you actually purchased philoforum and then did away with it? I cant see your reasoning.

2 Replies

This seems like as good a place as any.
Will I ever get my personal messages back?
And is there a way to review my post before I send it?
And also is there a way I can quote someone in a private message and work form the quote in the message I am going to send?
Thanks

1 Reply

@xris,

I don't see it as done away with I guess xris. I think if you give this place a chance you may agree one day.

My reasoning was this:

There was a very valuable forum that was for sale and that might have had a hard time surviving (it was losing money and the owner couldn't afford for it to continue losing money).

I see a lot of value in the community and if it comes here it won't lose money, as the infrastructure costs are paid for (and work better than vb). I was willing to spend 5k on it because I think that the combined network effect of the forums would be a more vibrant community than either alone.

Now I know that the change may be unwelcome to some, but others will love it and thrive here and philforum isn't done away with, it is a big part of this site now and will be for some time.

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@sometime sun,

sometime sun wrote:

Will I ever get my personal messages back?

Yes. We are working on importing PMs, friends, tags, thanks.

Quote:

And is there a way to review my post before I send it?

There should be a big preview button no?

Quote:

And also is there a way I can quote someone in a private message and work form the quote in the message I am going to send?

Only manually, bbcode works in private messages but you have to use them manually right now.

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I think getting the forum more workable would be nice, but the main difference I notice from between today and a few days ago is the existence of 10 or so new philosophy threads--that makes the forum seem a whole lot more palatable to me anyway. If it wasn't for the world cup I'd be posting and reading.

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How to Navigate the New Philosophy Forum on A2K

As promised, here are the links to various topics in the new tutorial I just posted so that when needed, you can navigate directly to the information you seek rather than having to scan the entire thread for the info.

Index of the new A2K site tutorial:

The Registration and Login Screens

Anatomy of the homepage

How to use the Filter/Sort Topics Tabs

Anatomy of the Profile and Preferences Screens

How to initiate a new topic thread

How to send a private message to a member, Anatomy of a topic thread, Anatomy of the post composition screen

How to use the Reply and Quote Buttons in a topic thread

Anatomy of a member's profile page

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I have to agree with my fellow expatriates from the old philosophy forum; I think we've exchanged the H.M.S. Titanic for a Disney cruise ship and I'm not entirely sure if I'd rather eat lunch with Goofey or be in the North Atlantic.

And say what you like, call me (or us) snobbish, but atmosphere really does matter for certain activities. If Nietzsche came back from the dead and offered to do a free lecture, would you choose Chuckie Cheese as the venue?

1 Reply

@BrightNoon,

I think you guys are seriously misreading the able2know userbase if you think it's an intellectual step down. Having been a member of both forums for months I can tell you that though there is less posturing it has many more intellectual heavyweights.

Don't mistake levity for vapidity, a2k as a demographic skews towards more highly educated and more mature than the Philforum demographic did (note: these are demographic generalizations of course, and not to be extrapolated to all), the big difference is in how serious people take themselves.

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@xris,

xris wrote:

Robert can I ask you why you actually purchased philoforum and then did away with it? I cant see your reasoning.

He's the Sam Walton, and this forum is the Walmart, of internet discussion forums. PhilosophyForum.com was just one of the local markets being bought out for assimilation.

2 Replies

@Pangloss,

Upon what do you base your characterization of my motives and personality Pangloss? Do you have no compunction negatively characterizing others without knowing a shred of information about them?

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

Robert Gentel wrote:

Upon what do you base your characterization of my motives and personality Pangloss? Do you have no compunction negatively characterizing others without knowing a shred of information about them?

All I know is that you bought PhilosophyForum, then went missing in action as the owner/admin from that place for quite some time. Then this change happened with basically no warning or discussion with the members. That's enough for me.

By the way, that post was a bit facetious, of course...

1 Reply

I know someone may have put it up but I missed it,
what are the rating systems? thumbs up down business?
What does the number at the top of thread mean?
How can I hold a certain number for it to fall later?
Some people don't get or 'like' me, could not the deletion of ratings be personal and not professional?
Should not once you have been rewarded for something keep it?
How horrible to have a button that is welcomed to be used as a negative.

4 Replies

@sometime sun,

i rarely use the thumbs, occasionally i'll thumb up posts by folks that i feel are being persecuted, but i don't really have any use for the thumbs or the ignore feature

0 Replies

@Pangloss,

You may wish to consider that your old forum may not have been in existence much longer because of the financial trouble it had. You'd still be looking for a new home for you all to gather.

You may wish to thank Robert for INVESTING in your forum so that your group's dynamics and discussion threads could be preserved by merging them into one of the many points of common interests here. Much better than having it all vanish into the nether. Thank the old owner of the philosophy forum too.

You may wish to thank Robert for the proactive (and necessarily swift) actions he took to protect the security and privacy of the members of the old philosophy forum when the forum was hacked and security breached.

You may wish to thank the members of A2K for being so welcoming and helpful to you in this transition rather than ignoring your pleas for answers to your questions in your philosophical corner of our world.

You may wish to look deeper than just the skin of this forum before deciding that we are not on par with your level of discourse.

2 Replies

The new amalgamated philosophy forum.

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