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Author Message
25 new of 156 responses total.
other
response 111 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 26 18:59 UTC 1999

wow.  sounds like te html parsing required a lot of work and will make
conferencing a whole new range of fun stuff!  thanks, jan!!
other
response 112 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 26 19:29 UTC 1999

just tried it, but communicator 4.05 crashed twice at the same spot (scrolling
through responses).  running a powerbook 190cs (68lc040) with os 8.0.
hhsrat
response 113 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 27 03:38 UTC 1999

YAPP compatibility is a good thing?  I used YAPP on M-Nut for a few 
days, and it drove me crazy.  (this was back in Nov.)  Backtalk seemed 
like a much more sophisticated interface.

Maybe things have changed
senna
response 114 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 27 10:16 UTC 1999

Not that fast.  You might want to keep tabs on what people do with html,
becuase it's possible for that to be misused.  
jep
response 115 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 27 21:55 UTC 1999

The current YAPP interface for the WWW is buggy to the point where I 
can't stand using it.  I've used Backtalk about every day for a year 
and a half, and I'm very pleased with it.  I hope M-Net will adopt 
Backtalk if it's compatible with the YAPP text system.
dang
response 116 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 03:43 UTC 1999

YAPP compatability refers to Backtalk working with YAPP the way it does 
with Picospan.  Backtalk itself doesn't seem any different, either way. 
steve
response 117 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 04:05 UTC 1999

   Grex has been running for 96 hours now with the new ram and
repaired memory card, so I think that can be called a success.
If either the card or individual SIMMs were to have failed we'd
have experienced it.  Thanks to Charles for some nimble repair
work on that card!
russ
response 118 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 04:26 UTC 1999

Uh-oh.  I'm not sure I like what this represents, Jan.  The strength
of Grex (and M-Net, once) was what the users brought to it.  When the
conferences become more of an impromptu web page where most of the
content is links, Grex will become a poor cousin of SlashDot.  The
inaccessibility of the graphical content to many computers is another
negative to this change.  Up to now, anybody with a dumb terminal and
a modem could be a full participant.  When large parts of the conferences'
content is only accessible using much more advanced (and expensive)
hardware, what becomes of that part of the user base?
 
I fear this will be like the file read feature in party:  most often
used to dazzle rather than illuminate.
mcnally
response 119 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 05:58 UTC 1999

  Put me down in the Luddite column, too..  I think the addition of
  HTML extensions is unlikely to add much (beyond annoyance) to responses.
  I hope there's a way to turn it off and still enjoy the other benefits
  of the new Backtalk version..
steve
response 120 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 06:48 UTC 1999

   Russ, Mike: the technology is changing, and *fast*.  All three of
us are old-timers; what we know and have used is not what the masses
use.  The web is the net.  Not a component of it, but the backbone as
seen by an ever increasing number of people.  Probably we should move
this discussion to another item, however.
janc
response 121 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 19:02 UTC 1999

I'd have no huge objection to turning it off (there isn't a way right
now, but it isn't hard to add - eventually I plan to make it a setting
that fairwitnesses can fiddle with on a per-conference basis).

Frankly, I don't believe it will be a problem.  Simple HTML gets
translated to plaintext just fine.  Doing things like images and tables
well is enough extra work that few people will bother, and you won't
mind missing responses where people do them badly.

And I do agree with STeve - Grex has to keep exploring current
technology.  We don't have to try everything that comes along, but we
have to be adverturous in trying things.
keesan
response 122 of 156: Mark Unseen   Feb 28 23:03 UTC 1999

I would appreciate if people would not put anything in their responses that
cannot be easily accessed by dial-in users.  If there is a link, make sure
that we can read the URL if we want to go look at it with lynx.
janc
response 123 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 1 00:31 UTC 1999

One thing I want to see is something that does that automatically.  If I
enter an HTML response like:

  Visit my <A HREF=http://www.wwnet.net/~janc>home page</A>.

It should generate a plain text response for Picospan that looks
something like:

  Visit my [http://www.wwnet.net/~janc] home page.

Of course, even now any picospan user can see the HTML version of any
response by doing, for example:

  !extract -h agora 3 123

This will print response 123 of item 3 of the agora conference,
prefering the HTML version, if there is one (there isn't).  Without
the -h flag it gets the plain-text version.
steve
response 124 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 1 01:25 UTC 1999

   I think what Backtalk is doing is perfectly reasonable.  It takes
the html stuff and makes plaintext out of it, which is the proper
thing to do.
omni
response 125 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 1 06:54 UTC 1999

  And above all, disable the blink command. Not everyone is as stable
minded as me. ;)
jshafer
response 126 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 1 15:43 UTC 1999

What he said.  No blinking!
aruba
response 127 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 1 16:27 UTC 1999

I'd like to announce that Grex had a great month, financially, in February.
See the treasurer's report for details (item:coop,80).
dang
response 128 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 2 22:18 UTC 1999

I agree.  No blinking.
gregb
response 129 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 3 04:27 UTC 1999

I've been to other conf systems, like Electric Mind, that allow HTML 
tags, and things seem to work out fine, for the most part.

One thing that could help, is to set up a conf. for those who want to 
try out HTML.  This will give people a place to get use to it before 
taking it into the regular confs.  Granted, not everybody will be so 
accomidating, but I think the majority would.

Oh, and I agree with the others:  <blink>NO BLINKING!</blink>  (Yes, I 
know it won't work.)
janc
response 130 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 3 20:43 UTC 1999

When the new Backtalk goes live, it will have a feature in it that
allows fairwitnesses to disable HTML posting in their conference if they
so please.  There are definately some conferences where HTML posting
would be very nice - web, auction, enigma and test come to mind.

The BLINK tag has been on our banned list since day zero.

However, animated GIFs are still possible.
danr
response 131 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 3 22:54 UTC 1999

As soon as it's up, i think we should have a contest for the worst animated
gif. :)
orinoco
response 132 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 3 23:37 UTC 1999

There's already a test conference, which could be used for trying out HTML
and whatnot.
jazz
response 133 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 4 14:05 UTC 1999

        Finally someone who bans blinking tags.

        Now if only we could ban MIDIs entirely ...
remmers
response 134 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 4 22:14 UTC 1999

Re HTML responses in Backtalk: I agree with STeve in resp:120 that this
should have its own discussion item. HTML conferencing would represent a
major change to the user interface, and like other major changes to Grex
- the internet connection, outgoing internet access policy, anonymous
web reading, etc. - there should be user discussion and input prior to 
making a decision on installing it. Coop would be the appropriate
conference.

I will say that I tried out the 'backtalk' conference using the new
version of backtalk, and it really does do HTML.
janc
response 135 of 156: Mark Unseen   Mar 4 23:34 UTC 1999

I've installed a much newer version of Apache on Grex.  You shouldn't
notice any difference.  If you do, let me know.
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