The BRIDGES FORUM is format where a question is used to start a discussion.

How does the BRIDGES FORUM compage to the page based discussions at BRIDGES proper?

-- Anonymous, June 26, 1998

Answers

Response to Discussion group formats

The discussions at BRIDGES proper are not structured. The user may enter text anywhere on the page:

For example, if the opening of a discussion rambled on, the respondent could enter a response after the appropriate paragraph. Or, if the response was in the nature of furnter explanation of a word, phrase or idea, the respondent/commentor could insert a parenthetical (do we need spell check here) or a URL to another page as a footnote or source of further explanation.

Of course, the user reading pages at BRIDGES proper can add answers, comments and further questions on the same page.

Some regard this anybody 'can' edit anything feature of BRIDGES to be a plus. I like the idea that others can clean up my spelling mistakes. Some don't want anyone to touch there words and worry that something could be screwed up another user and the screwed up text attributed back to them.

The BRIDGES FORUM format that I am now using to post this message runs like a series of comments in sequential order on a page at BRIDGES proper. One user cannot insert or edit the work of another, which, as justed noted, is regarded as a plus by some. Another plus, for BRIDGES FORUM is the outline structure using the subject line through which the answers, comments and further questions can be tracted.

BRIDGES FORUM also has a notification system--which sends email to the person establishing the FORUM, the person asking the question (starting a new topic) and anyone else participating who clicks that option.

-- Anonymous, June 26, 1998

Response to Discussion group formats

One draw back to BRIDGES FORUM is that even the author of the item is not able to edit his or her earlier efforts. Comment: Guess what the "adminisrator" or anyone who can access the administrator's area can edit the question and answers or comments that follow. That seems call for a some conventions so that the initial entry can be distiguished. Drop me an email at jdebruyn@usa.net if you would like to get the administrators password to do just that or just look at what those with the administrator's password can do. John DeBruyn (June 26, 1998)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 1998

Response to Discussion group formats

Let me see if I can enter some html swiped from my viewing the source on one of the pages at BRIDGES.

what's and what's WhatsGoingOnAtBridges for the details. For other frequent destinations Go to: AboutBridges | RecentChanges | EditAndCreatePages | SearchBridges | TopTenPages | AutomationGuide | CommentsQuestions about BRIDGES''

I guess you can ;) Comment: Yup, you can but I had to put my administrator hat on and make some corrections in the html as the internal links in BRIDGES proper refer to just the page name and not the whole URL for the page. I also added the link to RecentChanges which was the page that I swiped the html code from in the first place and it did not link to itself ;) JohnDeBruyn (June 26, 1998)

-- Anonymous, June 26, 1998

Response to Discussion group formats: BRIDGES FORUM vs. BRIDGES proper

The "administrator" access is user friendly and permits the editing that goes on in BRIDGES. So taking a leaf from WardCunninghams's book, let us give the inmates the run of the asylum here in BRIDGES FORUM ;) Drop me a note, address some where on this page, for the password--below if I had to guess.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 1998

Response to Discussion group formats: BRIDGES FORUM vs. BRIDGES proper

Just checking in.

-- Anonymous, June 27, 1998

Response to Discussion group formats: BRIDGES FORUM vs. BRIDGES proper

I'm checking in here as well as Gene. One hitch that we always get stuck with on web based boards is the text edit box that is our editor (makes me wish for the days of EDLIN ).

Advantages over Bridges would be the fact that users can't change text already entered by others, whether on purpose or by accident (and the latter is the most likely). The disadvantage is that it won't lend itself to group "editing" of a document--that is, we can discuss a document, but not make changes to it.

The email notification is useful, but my strong bias is that to really get a group up and running, there has to exist good offline tools for the regulars. For instance, the ABA mailing lists and misc.taxes.moderated tend to be used by a lot of heavy contributors just because they can set them up to be *efficiently* used. Any purely online experience always is subject to the glitches that will occur with any Internet connection.

For instance, while composing this post, I "timed out" on my connection and had to Win95 *not* to hang up. I don't face those problems with either of the other alternatives I mentioned. Additionally, except for those items I decide to have emailed to me, I have to make a conscious decision to get to a web based board. The email lists come at me no matter what I do, and usenet can be almost as automated (I can send the system off to get messages even I don't plan to do anything with them right now).

-- Anonymous, June 27, 1998

Response to Discussion group formats: BRIDGES FORUM vs. BRIDGES proper

Hi Ed: I think what we need is a combination of the Web message base with email notification plus email submission which is something that Ward started work on. However we only got as far as a crude slap the in bound email with all of its headers at the bottom of the read/write page. It required editing the email additions by hand and then the page grew beyond the 33,000 or what ever limitation that our browsers impose on the edit function. (post script: it only took me a month to get back to the Web site to respond to your post.) John

-- Anonymous, July 28, 1998

Response to Discussion group formats: BRIDGES FORUM vs. BRIDGES proper

It appears to me that on Bridges Proper, one has Topics which may contain several related questions and answers to those questions but that here, on the Forum, each new question should be a separate Topic. Have I missed something? Shucks. I've gone and asked a question instead of providing a response to the one posed! No, it appears to be both a response and a question. Surely, the question wouldn't make an interesting topic.

-- Anonymous, September 06, 1998

Response

To heck with being a slave to the form! <> I have several, probably useless, comments to make to the above discussion, so I'm going to follow the old Compuserve way of responding! (John, please delete this if it is too far of course. Thanks.)

>> I like the idea that others can clean up my spelling mistakes. << Me too!

/// Editorial Note: You are on course. Send me an email if you would like to access this message base, clean up spelling, see how it works and even leave little notes like this one :) Make sure you tell me you want the administrator's password for BRIDGES Forum. jdebruyn@usa.net September 17, 1998 ///

>> Let me see if I can enter some html swiped from my viewing the source on one of the pages at BRIDGES. << So if the software parses HTML, this should be in red.

>> Hi Ed: I think what we need is a combination of the Web message base with email notification plus email submission << HyperNews is a very nice (IMHO) implementation of precisely this concept. http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/hypernews.html? Any user can chose to receive all posts and to post to the Web message base by email. Any user that posts on the Web page and has not subscribed to the email notification feature still receives all of the responses to his post by email.

>> One hitch that we always get stuck with on web based boards is the text edit box that is our editor (makes me wish for the days of EDLIN ). << I copy/paste to a text editor, make my repsonse, spell check in the text editor and copy/paste to the text edit box.

I think all of the comments are valid. It seems to me that what is really being sought is an Internet based combination of all of the best features of email and cooperative collabration on the creation of documents. BSCW (Basic Support for Cooperative Work) which John referrs to on Bridges at tripod.com. (http://members.tripod.com/web8000/) comes nearer to meeting this goal than any other software program that I have seen so far. However, another group is working on a project that is open source and may allow the development of a customized system that has precisely the features we want. http://www.ntlug.org/casbah/cbApps/index.shtml

/// Ed (as in Editor not Ed Zollars) is back :) For more on casbah try CasbahSwiki which is a site like BRIDGES at c2.com:8000 that runs on a clone of the wikiwiki script./// John DeBruyn, September 18, 1998
\\\Ed <--> Ed I think these are two two peas from the same pod. At least the same people seem to be working on both sites. Sorta' like BRIDGES and web8000. Note the link to ntlug.org on CasbaSwiki. On ntlug you'll find the documentation that has been produced so far. -- I think. <<gg>> Bobby Sanders 9/18/98 \\\

Maybe that is the real question -- what features do we really want/need -- even before that, what needs do we want to address?

-- Anonymous, September 07, 1998