New Mars Forums

clark

Member

Registered: 2001-09-20

Posts: 6,362

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

This thread is intended to be a clearing house of sort for various questions related to the NewMars website.

If you have a question on how things are done here, why they are done, or whatever, post em here.

Hopefully the web administrator will reply (or one of his surrogates). 

clark

Member

Registered: 2001-09-20

Posts: 6,362

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

First question:

When, and why, was the delete function removed from allowed posters actions?

It seems we only retain the ability to edit posts now. Why the change?

Will the moderators take a more active role in deleting double posts throughout the various threads?

If we want posts deleted, who should we contact?

I can't seem to find any explanation for this change. Thanks for an update.

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

Second question: can't we have a "alert Admin" button in the topics, for alerting admins more easily when problems occur (spam, threads becoming too long, Cobra not agreeing with my leftie views ... )
Not everybody knows who the Admins are.
Ok, it's mentioned in here, and when Adrian and Josh post, it's above their avatar, but relative new people might miss that fact..

BTW admins: please lock topic "post central for information on CEV"... it's well over 300... Bork alert! Heehee...

Josh Cryer

Moderator

Registered: 2001-09-29

Posts: 3,830

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

To answer clark's first question; because it was being abused (would be my guess, I haven't had Adrians opinion here). The logs were/are full of "deleted posts."

The forum software doesn't really allow accidental double posting, and they're a lot rarer than one might suggest (so they're not that bothersome).

To answer Rxke's question, a "report this post" feature can be enabled, not sure about doing that, but it might compel people to seek out the admins more than they do now. Good thing, or bad thing, depends (ie, should people handle their own conflicts or should the admins be called upon to settle every single thing? right now I think we have a lot of the former here, but yeah).

Of course, I'm lazy as you all know; yeah, I guess I'm biased.

But it's certainly an option, and we'll have to see what Adrian says.

---

Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
--------
The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.

Adrian

Moderator

From: London, United Kingdom

Registered: 2001-09-04

Posts: 642

Website

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

Concerning the deleted posts feature, as Josh says, it was being abused. There is absolutely no reason to have the ability to delete your posts when there is already the ability to edit your posts. The important difference is that when you edit your post (for example, to remove all the text inside), the thread still reflects the fact that you at one point made a post and then deleted it. Being able to delete a post can be extremely misleading.

There is an 'alert moderator' function but I'm not convinced it's necessary yet. Maybe if the forums got much rowdier and busier.

---

Editor of [url=http://www.newmars.com]New Mars[/url]

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

Not really about changes, but something that puzzled me for awhile:

I track a lot of topics, and recently changed my email address to get those topic alerts delivered to, because the other becoming a spam repository.

But the 'trackings' I made before the change of adress keep coming to my former adress. Not too bad, but confusing, for I didn't check it too much anymore...

(Edit: Part deleted, me bad...)

C M Edwards

Member

From: Lake Charles LA USA

Registered: 2002-04-29

Posts: 1,012

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

Has anyone ever considered preparing a subject index for posts and articles? 

Having passed the 50000 post mark, the New Mars forum is becoming unsearchable.  The blog has been nearly so for a while.  I know the internet data miners among us have all become calloused to 1000 hit keyword searches that take days to slog through, but the rest of us could really use an alphabetical index.

---

"We go big, or we don't go."  - GCNRevenger

Rxke

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2003-11-03

Posts: 3,669

Re: Question regarding changes to NewMars - Various questions about NewMars site

Won't help much. Take a topic, any topic, and see how it swings wildly offtopic real fast...

I guess that's a bit of a transition 'teething problem:' going from relatively few users/posts, who read virtually everythig, so it's no biggie going offtopic, ... to the situation we're in now: lots of posters/topics, and even for the NewMarsjunkies hard to follow what was said where...

Maybe a much more stringent posting-rule or something, with mods frequently pointing out things go off-topic? But that's bound to be unpopular...
OTOH: Bad Astronomy does this: *very* strict rules about on and offtopic stuff (not to mention the other rules, but those are needed there because of the matter discussed...)

errr... Well... I have to say Bad Astronomy is a joy to browse, even as a total newcomer...
I really think, in the long run, New Mars needs this too, 'growing up' into a more structured thing, where of course you can still go wild in the free chat (heehee, maybe expand the free chat a bit?)

But keep the other stuff organised, so if you look for something you find it without having to worry there'll be other stuff like the things you look for in other unrelated topics....

I know: ramble rant rave....