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        Pete Atkin >> News >> The 'new' MV: love it!
        
(Message started by: S J Birkill on Today at 13:18)

Title: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 13:18

I'm announcing the new MV to all members today. Please post your messages of approval as replies in this thread.

-- Steve Birkill, MV administrator

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Noam Greenberg on Today at 18:30

I think this is much better than e-mail. Requires some discipline, but I'll manage.

Question: can a post be linked to more than one thread? I know this will destroy the neat tree structure, but it may be logical at times.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 18:36

on 08/01/04 at 18:30:28, Noam Greenberg wrote :

Question: can a post be linked to more than one thread? I know this will destroy the neat tree structure, but it may be logical at times.

Not possible at present. I think we should keep things simple, at least for now -- SJB

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Pete Smith on Today at 18:49

Yep, this is all good stuff. Definitely a Great Leap Forward. Especially like the split up into categories, and the ability to see instantly who sent each new post, although this is hampered by the use of nicknames rather than real names by some.

Why doesn't the text in my reply wrap round like other people's?

Pete Smith

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by JohnMorr on 02.08.04 at 17:02

All in favour - I've just (somewhat guiltily) caught up on 7 weeks-worth of MV and the bulletin board will make it easier to dip in and out.

YaBB seems very similar to EZBoard, as used by the Smart club - see:

http://www.thesmartclub.co.uk/mboardnew.html

but the categories could perhaps benefit from a little tweaking. I presume Steve can do this as we all gain experience?

But let us please hope that MVs abjure smileys - at best pointless, at worst (as when someone replies with nothing but a smiley) infuriating!

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by S J Birkill on 02.08.04 at 17:15

on 08/02/04 at 17:02:54, JohnMorr wrote :

but the categories could perhaps benefit from a little tweaking. I presume Steve can do this as we all gain experience?

Yup! Any suggestions welcomed -- SJB

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by John N L Morrison on 02.08.04 at 17:28

Having now done a bit of roaming about the bulletin board, I suppose I'm missing a "General" section - having separate sections for Pete's music and Clive's words seems a bit artificial, given that the great virtue of their work is that the two are inextricably intertwined. Having a "General Topics" section works well for the Smart Club, which I've already mentioned:

http://www.thesmartclub.co.uk/mboardnew.html

where the moderators will move "non-general" postings to the appropriate area.

Also, what about a "Photos" section for gigs etc.?

What do others think?

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Richard Bleksley on 03.08.04 at 20:32

Having given myself a couple of days to settle down and get used to this new forum, I'm now ready to express my opinion, which is "Yes! Yes! YES!!"

I don't think it's just people with broadband connections who will benefit, Steve. Even though I'm still on a dial-up connection (though on a flat-rate tariff, so time on-line doesn't signify), I find it much more convenient to use. I don't use Outlook Express or anything like that, and accessing e-mail from my ISP home page involves going through three slow-loading pages before I get to my in-box. If the connection crashes anywhere in this process I have to start all over again. On really bad days it's taken 10 minutes or so of swearing before I've read a single mail.

And now, having bookmarked this site, it's one click and in straightaway!

One thing that's always irritated me a little about the mailing list is that if you get two, three or more threads going at once they get tangled up and hard to follow. Now they're all laid out nice and separate. And yes, it does seem to encourage the quick spontaneous reply, leading to livelier discussions - though at the cost of more flippancy and facetiousness, which may annoy some. (Yes, I do plead guilty here!)

All in all - great idea, Steve, well done!

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Murray C Campbell on 04.08.04 at 13:30

With the old email system it felt like we were all in the same room.
I have been wandering from room to room here, picking up threads
and generally getting the feel of the new format.

Well done Steve, I read the first paragraph announcing the changes
and thought, he's had enough, he's going to throw in the towel.
So glad you didn't.

Murray

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Chris Reichardt on 04.08.04 at 21:30

;D A great improvement over the weekly emails.

I've been a lurker ::) for years but I feel I can now post in particular threads especially Off-Topic without cries of "Off topic!"

And if it reduces the load on Steve, then even better!

I see Pete's a MV Novice but then he always has been difficult to categorise :D

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Richard Bleksley on 04.08.04 at 22:50

One more thought to add to my previous post.

The forum does have less of the feel of an exclusive club than the mailing list - but then, we don't want to be elitist, do we? Should please Colin, anyway.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Jon Philpot on 09.08.04 at 22:23

Having looked at the new forum for a few days, I think it's much better than the old system. The threads can be read more like a conversation and once you've got the hang of it, you can easily pick up new messages. I was a 'weekly' MV but now find I'm checking in every day - I may even post again!

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Stewart Betts on 10.08.04 at 16:57

As a confirmed "Weekly" lurker I was a bit worried when Steve started mentioning the new BB format. As (I guess) for many others, a weekly fix of exchanges on Pete & Clive's work provided a feel-good link back to my youth, when Clive's lyrics and Pete's tunes seemed to make a direct connection with all those painful and pleasurable emotions and experiences... (still do, in fact!)

However, having chosen the year's rainiest day to take a day off, I decided to register and I've spent some time finding my way around the forum. Its growing on me and I think it will be fine - if I can get my head round all this thread business I may even post a bit more often (well, two posts in all those years won't take much beating!)

Its good to see that Pete has been posting - getting his e mails as part of the weekly digest was always a highlight for me. I also liked the "Introducing myself" postings from new members - is the new forum very encouraging towards that sort of posting? Where would they best appear?

Anyway, thanks to Steve, both for seven years of e mails and for moving us on to new territory - I hope it will mean less work, or at least less hassle, for you!

Stew

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by S J Birkill on 10.08.04 at 17:52

on 08/10/04 at 16:57:33, Stewart Betts wrote :

I also liked the "Introducing myself" postings from new members - is the new forum very encouraging towards that sort of posting? Where would they best appear?

Stew -- thanks for your kind thoughts. Yes, we must continue to encourage members to spill the beans about the loss of their Atkin virginity! Perhaps I should start a new thread just for this purpose... -- Steve

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Phil Crooks on 16.08.04 at 11:01

I must say I heartily approve! In the past I'd given up on individual emailings from MV on the grounds that a lot of stuff was going on that didn't really grab my attention. I think the new forum structure should allow far greater flexibility of approach to pick and chose what's going on.
Further, since I'm hardly around at the relevant time on Sunday evenings to read the weekly digest, I was missing a lot. Aha, but not any more!
Very nice work Mr Birkill. I'm looking forward to being a tad more active on here than I have been of late.

Kind regards,
Phil C.

(AMENDED to remove my surname from view. Yeah, yeah, I'm a paranoid freak. ;D)

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Colin Tucker on 16.08.04 at 16:26

For what it's worth, I think this is an excellent development.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Glenn on 26.08.04 at 13:01

Much better than the email version, far easier to reply to threads that grab personal interest without interrupting the flow.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Lurcio on 27.08.04 at 22:34

Hi Steve, hi everybody.
Well, hey - it's certainly a dammned site more colourful, (or possibly the other way round) !.
Dunno whether I hate the smiley faces [i]more [/i]than those clever things we do with brackets and colons, or whether my emotion on the subject has simply reached rock bottom.
Oh bovver - did the word 'more' actually italicise as a result of me hitting the 'I' button? all I got was i and slash-i. Quick, where's the 'undo' button?..... Erm.....Oh-Ooh !

Seriously; well done, Steve - theres a helluva lot of work in this and we all owe you one.
Just to see if I can take ths to the stage of owing you two, can I ask you a favour, maybe? Just to explain to me whether I can do something and if so how.
(Maybe this should cross-refer to FAQ's or TECH - up to you.....

I’ve put the forum up as an icon on my desktop at home and of course that logs me straight in as Lurcio without any input from my brain at all. Just right for this particular ham-fisted idiot.
So is there a way that I can set something up to get a similar immediate log in as Lurcio from my PC at work, which of course is a different mail address, provider etc. (this is, of course, a purely hypothetical question because there is absolutely no possibility of me even remotely considering the merest thought of accessing, from my office PC, anything other than corporate web sites, professional institutes,.......,)

Because when I enter MV from there I can only get in as guest- I can't even log in as Lurcio with password. Is that so, or am I missing something fundamental?
(By the way, I don't think it's the firewall, cos it finds the site OK).

Any thoughts?

Apart from that, I'll see you all, (well, many), in November with Amy and Butch (some of you may remember the two strange old men with the young girl last summer - and you may be relieved to know that Amy did eventually wash Pete and Clive's signatures off her tummy. I don't know - kids today, Eh? We were never like that, were we?. Hands up those of you who can remember..........

Cheers,
Bernard Hatchard. Whoops, sorry;....... Lurcio.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by S J Birkill on 28.08.04 at 09:49

Hi Lurc, good to have you aboard!

on 08/27/04 at 22:34:36, Lurcio wrote :

did the word 'more' actually italicise as a result of me hitting the 'I' button? all I got was i and slash-i.

Yes it did, but you hit the button twice, so two sets of nested 'italicise' tags were applied, with the result that the outer set was executed and the inner set displayed. If you use the Preview button below the message box you'll be able to see how your post will appear, before you post it. If you're on the current version of Internet Explorer for Windows, you can even have a live preview, updated as you type, by clicking the first of the two small buttons top right in the header bar of the 'Post' window.

on 08/27/04 at 22:34:36, Lurcio wrote :

So is there a way that I can set something up to get a similar immediate log in as Lurcio from my PC at work ... Because when I enter MV from there I can only get in as guest- I can't even log in as Lurcio with password. Is that so, or am I missing something fundamental?

I can't immediately guess why this might be. Anyone else had this experience? What comes back when you enter your details and hit 'Login'?

Steve

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Snoopy on 28.08.04 at 12:32

This could occur if the work machine has been configured to disallow cookies, I think.

You can check whether cookies are allowed by going to Tools -> Internet options, clicking on the 'Privacy' tag, and making sure that 'Block first-party cookies' is not mentioned anywhere.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Lurcio on 30.08.04 at 00:28

Cheers, guys - thanks for preview - nice one. If I should by some strange chance decide to go back to work after this wonderful Bank Holiday I'll give all the rest a go and let you know.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Drew Borrett on 06.09.04 at 02:21

I'm certainly with those who "love", rather than "loathe", the Bulletin Board approach.

I'm very much a "lurker", but I am sure that more active members will also find it much easier to follow threads than it was in the old weekly newsletter, much appreciated though that was.

Thank you to those who do all of the work.

Drew.

Title: Re: The 'new' MV: love it!
Post by Chris Reichardt on 12.09.04 at 18:52

Sunday evening and for the first time in years there is no weekly email

I feel strangely bereft but somehow reborn yet ..............

http://www.radioacademy.org/halloffame/goons/sounds/goons4.mp3