Format question

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Dudley Henriques

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Dudley Henriques
Newbie getting used to the forum structure;

When viewing a thread in linear mode, I'm seeing posts without quotes answering someone but without reference to exactly who has been answered. With quoting it's of course easy to tell.
My question is this;
On such a post, is the post answering the poster directly above it or answering the initial poster who started the thread.
In other words, is there an easy way to determine just who is being answered without a quote included in the answer?
Sorry if the answer to this is obvious and I just missed seeing it somehow
:))
 
Dudley,

No there is no way I know of to do that. It's sort of the opposite problem I have in threaded forums. There I can't figure out the order of the conversation, people responding to one post but referring to others along the way.

Good luck most of us don't know what we're talking about let alone who we're responding to.

Joe
 
Areeda said:
Dudley,

No there is no way I know of to do that. It's sort of the opposite problem I have in threaded forums. There I can't figure out the order of the conversation, people responding to one post but referring to others along the way.

Good luck most of us don't know what we're talking about let alone who we're responding to.

Joe
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I'm simply quoting the message or part of the message I reply to so that people can follow the dialog better, but I can't figure out who or what people are addressing when they reply without a reference to the poster they're answering :)
The thread expanded mode might be better as you can follow the linked lines as on Usenet.
 
User CP
Edit Options
Thread Display Options
Thread Display Mode = Hybrid

this will give you a thread tree similar to usnet
 
Dudley Henriques said:
Newbie getting used to the forum structure;

When viewing a thread in linear mode, I'm seeing posts without quotes answering someone but without reference to exactly who has been answered. With quoting it's of course easy to tell.
My question is this;
On such a post, is the post answering the poster directly above it or answering the initial poster who started the thread.
In other words, is there an easy way to determine just who is being answered without a quote included in the answer?
Sorry if the answer to this is obvious and I just missed seeing it somehow
:))
Click to expand...
In linear mode, which is the mode I use, the way to tell who the quote belong to is that it should say as part of the quote. But the original post of which the quote is from may be much earlier in the thread.

There have a been a couple of instances where people have kinda messed up the quotes due to editing mistakes. Nothing you can do about that. There was an instance of that today.

But people can also just add quotes by using the quote tag.

For instance

Hi Dudley
Click to expand...
Is a quote I added

I guess I could have been fancy and added my attribution
smigaldi said:
Hi again Dudley
Click to expand...

Does that help?
 
Dudley Henriques said:
Newbie getting used to the forum structure;

When viewing a thread in linear mode, I'm seeing posts without quotes answering someone but without reference to exactly who has been answered. With quoting it's of course easy to tell.
My question is this;
On such a post, is the post answering the poster directly above it or answering the initial poster who started the thread.
In other words, is there an easy way to determine just who is being answered without a quote included in the answer?
Sorry if the answer to this is obvious and I just missed seeing it somehow
:))
Click to expand...
Quoting you to make it easier! :)

I usually read in linear mode. I generally use context to tell who someone is responding to. If I'm commenting on one paricular aspect of someone's post, I may quote that section to make it clearer. OTOH, if I'm making general comments about one or more entire posts, I may not do the quoting. Heck, I've (rarely) seen people make reference to posts that are in entirely different threads, or even in reference to things that were said in the "real world" or the chat room, though they're usually identified as such.

I'll admit, though, that some of us who have gotten used to the format over the years may take liberties with our style that may be confusing to newbies. Hopefully we'll be more sensitive to your needs and accomodate them, until, of course, you're thoroughly inculcated with our ways and we'll collectively return to our current nefarious manners!:rofl::hairraise::goofy:
 
Some examples of editing quotes.

Dudley Henriques said:
Newbie getting used to the forum structure;
Click to expand...

gprellwitz said:
I usually read in linear mode.
Click to expand...
As do I as mentioned above

gprellwitz said:
though, that some of us who have gotten used to the format over the years may take liberties with our style that may be confusing to newbies.
Click to expand...
You might be on to something there Grant, I am very used to the style now on here. USNET's threaded mode looks strange to me now.

gprellwitz said:
Hopefully we'll be more sensitive to your needs and accomodate them, until, of course, you're thoroughly inculcated with our ways and we'll collectively return to our current nefarious manners!:rofl::hairraise::goofy:
Click to expand...
Ditto
 
smigaldi said:
In linear mode, which is the mode I use, the way to tell who the quote belong to is that it should say as part of the quote. But the original post of which the quote is from may be much earlier in the thread.

There have a been a couple of instances where people have kinda messed up the quotes due to editing mistakes. Nothing you can do about that. There was an instance of that today.

But people can also just add quotes by using the quote tag.

For instance

Is a quote I added

I guess I could have been fancy and added my attribution


Does that help?
Click to expand...

Hi;

This helps if the quote or a reference is given. That naturally gives a picture of who is saying and has siad what. The linear posts I was referring to are posts where there is nothing showing except the message with NO accompanying visual reference to exactly who the poster has answered.
 
Dudley Henriques said:
Hi;

This helps if the quote or a reference is given. That naturally gives a picture of who is saying and has siad what. The linear posts I was referring to are posts where there is nothing showing except the message with NO accompanying visual reference to exactly who the poster has answered.
Click to expand...
Those are tough. I read linear mode sort of like a conversation would happen in real time. If I respond and I am backing up in time I quote. I think it is better to quote so people know to whom or what you are responding too. But sometime people will be responding to the OP and will nto quote. It takes me a bit to figure that out.
 
gprellwitz said:
Quoting you to make it easier! :)

I usually read in linear mode. I generally use context to tell who someone is responding to. If I'm commenting on one paricular aspect of someone's post, I may quote that section to make it clearer. OTOH, if I'm making general comments about one or more entire posts, I may not do the quoting. Heck, I've (rarely) seen people make reference to posts that are in entirely different threads, or even in reference to things that were said in the "real world" or the chat room, though they're usually identified as such.

I'll admit, though, that some of us who have gotten used to the format over the years may take liberties with our style that may be confusing to newbies. Hopefully we'll be more sensitive to your needs and accomodate them, until, of course, you're thoroughly inculcated with our ways and we'll collectively return to our current nefarious manners!:rofl::hairraise::goofy:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. The Hybrid seems to work for me for the time being anyway. I'm sure as time passes I'll get the hang of the linear mode and become as "organized" as everyone else :)
 
One thing I wish the forum software did was automatically nest quotes. It seems that if you quote something that includes quotes, those included quotes are dropped. If they're important I'll manually add them back in as Scott refers to above, but it's a hassle.
 
Jim Burns said:
User CP
Edit Options
Thread Display Options
Thread Display Mode = Hybrid

this will give you a thread tree similar to usnet
Click to expand...

Jim; I'm trying both Hybrid and threaded mode. Both look identical. What's the difference?
 
There was a mod we had a while back that told you who the reply was to - I'll have to see if I can find an updated version for the newer code.
 
Greebo said:
There was a mod we had a while back that told you who the reply was to - I'll have to see if I can find an updated version for the newer code.
Click to expand...

That would be great if available, but don't worry if it isn't. The Hybrid mode gives a good picture of who's answering whom.
 
What, you want pilots to actually appear logical when discussing aviation?

:rofl:
 
Jim Burns said:
User CP
Edit Options
Thread Display Options
Thread Display Mode = Hybrid

this will give you a thread tree similar to usnet
Click to expand...

I used to use Hybrid, but since it mixes new and old posts, I spent a lot more time reading the board than I do now.

Now, I use Linear mode and click the little blue and white check-mark icon next to the thread title to go to the first unread post in the thread. As long as I read the board on a regular basis there's rarely any confusion as to who's talking to who, but if there is I can simply jump up to the older messages and use the ol' noggin to figure it out.
 
I guess I played the straightman pretty good, eh?
 
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