Re: Toastation feet Reply #50 – January 04, 2011, 12:51:27 pm Yahoo Message Number: 119405"Larry, Perhaps you missed my post last night that said cost should NOT be a consideration as the cost could be ZERO for members. So please don't throw that dead fish out as an argument."Don There is no such thing as a free lunch. This forum is paid for by Yahoo. RV.net is paid for by the Affinity Group. I do not know of a provider of multiple topic forums that are totally free. You can find free software but someone needs to pay for the domain name and bandwidth. All the multiple topic forums I'm aware of have multiple moderators to monitor the traffic plus a webmaster to oversee the entire operation. Management of such a forum becomes a much bigger job and would require a more formal organization. Remember this is a free forum run mostly by one person who has spent thousands of hours, over many years, without one cent of compensation. In return, he does have a lot of influence over how it is operated. I have not seen anyone volunteer to research the options, to come up with a comprehensive plan and then take the responsibility to run the new site for an extended period of time. To expect Andy to do this is unreasonable, especially since the existing forum only seems to seriously bother a hand full of the 4400 members. You are retired with spare time on your hands, maybe it's time to learn some new skills. Most of us have developed strategies to deal with the forum. I find it to be much easier to read the postings directly off the website, preferring not to plug up my mailbox. This eliminates having to delete messages and, for me, is a much faster way YMMV.Larry
Re: Toastation feet Reply #51 – January 04, 2011, 01:00:05 pm Yahoo Message Number: 119408"We haven't had to pay yet."PaulI took a look at the site and saw no advertising. So who pays for the domain name, server and bandwidth? This stuff isn't free, even if YOU do not have to pay. Have we discover the elusive free lunch?Larry
Re: Toastation feet Reply #52 – January 04, 2011, 01:21:10 pm Yahoo Message Number: 119410I don't really know who pays for what.But the developer has other Internet work to do. I do, too. In my case adding a website and domain name to what I am already doing would add less than $20/year for the domain name. No extra cost to me for hosting. Receiving/Delivering email is another matter. I'm not sure what the developer needed to do to enable that. There are some pretty low cost hosting deals out there.You might ask the developers. ___ best, paul "Thriving not surviving" Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. All I can say is we are not promised tomorrow ~ so let's live today like we mean it!
Re: : Toastation feet Reply #53 – January 04, 2011, 01:36:38 pm Yahoo Message Number: 119411On Jan 4, 2011, at 10:29 AM, Andy Baird wrote:Quote"someone is paying for http://www.lazydazers.org and how much use is it?" Quite a bit, actually, since its search function works better than Yahoo's in many cases. Art Berggreen pays the bills and does the work of keeping the archive up to date, but folks like us help to support that work via PayPal donations. Art Berggreen's labor of love is the first resource I go to for locating archived messages. I don't even *think* of using Yahoo any more."How much use is it?" Indispensable, IMHO.Lorna Sunny Coarsegold
Re: Toastation feet Reply #54 – January 04, 2011, 02:15:50 pm Yahoo Message Number: 119414--- "Larry" wrote: I find it to be much easier to read the postings directly off the website, preferring not to plug up my mailbox. This eliminates having to delete messages and, for me, is a much faster way YMMV. -- I have done the same for the same reasons with every message board that I read since I first started reading "newsgroups" some years ago; *one* experience with trying to wade through/select/delete the massive "deposits" into my email box, even in digest format, was all it took to convince me that reading a message board on its website was the only way to go. For me, reading messages on the website is fast and simple; scroll, select what interests me, read, and move on. If I want to do any "research", e.g., find a website or a specific piece of information, in order to respond to a post, I copy the post, paste it into a Word doc, and go about doing whatever "lookups" are necessary for a response. If I don't want to use bandwidth while "composing" a response, I do the research, paste whatever URLs or information the response requires into the doc, save it, and go *offline* to compose a response. Easy, fast, and uncomplicated. The Yahoo format has its limitations, but, IMO, many of us have learned "work-arounds" for using the board that aren't overly frustrating, inconvenient, or time-consuming. I realize that we are not all going to agree on the "right way to go", but, personally, I don't find the board difficult or cumbersome to use, and, right now, I don't see any *viable* alternatives to the status quo, either in format or personnel, for making massive changes. What we have works; it's not "ideal", but what is? Let's not "throw the baby out with the bath water". As ever, YMMV.Joan
Re: Toastation feet Reply #55 – January 04, 2011, 11:25:34 pm Yahoo Message Number: 119422QuoteCost is not an issue, organization and ease of use are issues. But, it seems you and everyone else is quite content with the status quo. That amazes me. Organization and ease of use. Somehow, I'm missing the basis for this "argument." I went to the Foretravel site to check it out. It is "organized" by "Recent Topics" headings, and there were 20 of them on the main page. Each showed the subject. To read the thread on any topic, you have to click on that topic to read the messages. If you want to read any other messages, you have to go back to the main page, then click on another topic. Back and forth, back and forth. That seems quite inefficient to me. There is a form of oganization, however. I get my Yahoo forum messages in Digests, usually one to three a day, not by individual email for each message. The digest that contains Don's message to which I am responding is typical. It has an index at the beginning which shows "Messages in this Digest." This digest shows 9 message groups, listed by their subjects, and includes the author id's. So, right away, I can quickly review the topics, and then either use the scroll wheel in my mouse, or drag the vertical bar on the right, to quickly go to the numbered message group that interests me. I can instantly ignore all the topics I don't care about. However, if more than one topic intrigues me, I don't have to go through multiple back-and-forth steps to get to the divers threads. I just scroll through the Digest's one single page that contains all of the messages. Now, would someone explain to me what the Foretravel "organization" does that gives it superior "ease of use?" Given the use methodology for Yahoo I've described above, I'm befuddled and "amazed" that any change is desired. Full disclosure: I seldom actually use the methodology I described. I enjoy the tech talk and the off-topic lunacy of this forum so much that I simply start with the first message and read straight through to the end. That would be impossible with the Foretravel format. Amazing.--Jon ('06 TK "Albatross")
Re: Toastation feet Reply #56 – January 05, 2011, 12:37:43 am Yahoo Message Number: 119424Quote Full disclosure: I seldom actually use the methodology I described. I enjoy the tech talk and the off-topic lunacy of this forum so much that I simply start with the first message and read straight through to the end. That would be impossible with the Foretravel format. Amazing.As a ForeForums user, that's exactly what I do. But I rarely go to the Foreforums website. I read all postings via email. I also subscribed to all categories. So I read "all postings" in the order they were created, not category by category. (Those who do not want to receive non-technical postings or non-Foretravel postings can simply not subscribe to the approptiate categories.) I CAN read all postings but I often do not. When I find a subject is of no interest I simply delete the email when I see the email's subject is in the thread I'm not interested in. Many of us prefer messages via email because they are more easily received and faster read with an iPhone, Droid X, etc, as email than via the web with an iPhone, Droid X, etc. When traveling, we try to stop at every rest stop to stretch our legs. Then I can break out my Droid X and Kathleen can break out her iPhone (if needed) to catch up on whatever we want. Kathleen sometimes even uses her laptop as we drive.As always, YMMVbest, paul[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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