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| Author | Topic: Attention Scott Martin |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-05-2005 06:35 PM
  
To Scott Martin: Some time ago you replied to a post of mine, wherein I suggested that more forum categories be created so that the questions of visitors might be directed in a more orderly fashion (See 12-31-04 thread "Reed & Barton holloware... pattern?) You had said that Silver Salon would love to consider creating such new categories, but they would require a knowledgeable and frequent moderator. I was thinking a little about that, and I was just wondering to myself, what does it take to become a Silver Salon moderator? What are the qualifications and prerequisites? What would being a moderator entail? Of course, it may be presumptuous of me to think that such questions would even bear any relevance to myself, but I was thinking that I may one day like to participate more actively in Silver Salon. When I discovered this site about a year ago, I was excited to see that there was in fact someplace for people to voice their questions and comments about silver and expect knowledgeable reply. I myself have been introduced to silver, its objects, its history, and its makers, only very recently and am in many ways still a novice. But I love to learn about it, am thrilled to research it, and when I know something, I like to share it. Let me know how someone may have an opportunity to participate more deeply in these forums. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-05-2005 06:53 PM
The simply description about being a moderator is found on nearly every forum page right up there next to the "How to Post Photos" link. Give the link a try or just click here: It has been a long time since there has been a new moderator and it has been even longer since we have reviewed the Want to be a Moderator? page. It may need to be updated; especially given the current changes in the forum. So think of it as a place to start. IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-08-2005 12:25 PM
Thanks, Scott. I will look over this page and review the responsibilities & requirements. In the meantime, is there currently a distinct need for particular new forum topics? If so, I'd love to discuss my degree of interest in these, and my willingness to act in the role of a moderator in one of them. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-08-2005 02:17 PM
You should know that I will seriously entertain any concept for a new forum. But I am not likely to start a new form unless there is a clear need and desire from a significant number of members. We determine a clear need and desire by what is posted and by the number of different members participating in those posts. These posts need to have been done by many members over time & on a regular basis. And then, if there are persons volunteering to moderate, we will consider starting a new forum. Upon starting the new forum we will move all the prior threads/posts into the new forum. Before this can happen, we must first see a significant body of posts on the proposed forum subject/topic in the other forums. These post's subject//topic needs to be truly distinct enough such they would fit better if broken out to a separate forum. We also need to believe that a new forum will better serve the needs of our membership and that the overlap between forums is minimal. We will review the candidate moderator's prior posts to see if they have a history of properly using the forum features (photos, UBB code, search, etc). Additionally, we will see how well they respect and abide by the Guidelines. We will also determine if the candidate moderator has been helpful to others about respecting the Guidelines and properly using the forum features. I realize the above should be incorporated into the "Want to be a moderator?" page. I am awaiting comments and suggestion from the moderators before instituting any official changes. Once I hear from the moderators and there is a general consensus, I will change the "Want to be a moderator?" page. Until the changes are posted please use the above as a guide to my personal approach to starting a new SSF forum. IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-11-2005 01:49 PM
Hi, Scott. I can understand the concern about clear and distinct need. Looking at the General Silver Forum, one gets the impression that it could probably use a little sub-dividing, but then the scope of issues are so spread apart that it's difficult to place them in any set categories and say that such need exists. In any event, if the need arose for another moderator, I'm sure I would gladly consider the job, as it would not only be fun and exciting (Some people have the strangest hobbies, I tell you), but it would certainly look good for me in the future (I imagine it would be okay to mention my participation as a volunteer activity on my resume?) Just for your consideration, some areas of the silver trade I find especially fascinating include: Aesthetic/Japanesque movement, Art Nouveau, foreign hallmark identification, eastern European makers, etc. And I would still admonish Silver Salon to create several more manufacturer categories, just to better organize a lot of postings that must by default end up in General Silver Forum. Perhaps the existing General Silver posts can be reviewed in order to identify which makers are brought up most frequently and might warrant their own category (Reed & Barton? Towle? Whiting? or does Whiting belong with Gorham?) IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-11-2005 06:13 PM
Your enthusiasm is appreciated. I really don't think another silver manufacturer forum is indicated but I do think you have inadvertently suggested an idea. Its an idea you can try. And after your first attempt at the idea then all members can give you and the moderators feedback about whether it adds something or not. As I see it, the idea is to create a "master post" which lists all the relevant "Name here" Silver Manufacturer posts. This would be very similar to the Books: questions, mentions and reviews. For example:
Topic: etc. etc. etc. If you want to give this a try, I think it will go a great deal towards organizing things as you have suggested. If you have a problem with the forum/UBB code don't worry I will help you with it. What do you say -- do you want to give it a try? IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-12-2005 01:16 PM
Hey there, Scott. I just read your suggestion above re organizing the manufacturer related posts, and I have to say that it would pretty well accomplish what I was recommending. Sure, I would be interested to try it out and see how things work. I don't know much about this Forum/UBB code tags, but I tend to be receptive to learn. Let's discuss the idea more and formulate an idea of what it would be and entail. IP: Logged |
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 03-12-2005 01:45 PM
quote: See the WHAT IS Silver Salon CODE TAGS OR UBB CODE? page. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-12-2005 01:52 PM
Great! If the forum/UBB code tags seems unfamiliar don't worry the hard part is collecting the posts and the subsequent organization into groups. To get things started, gather all that you want to organize for one manufacturer and let me know the following for each post:
The Forum/UBB code tags is not hard. I only used 4 commands:
The Bold tag The Italics tag And the Link or URL tag You can see how I used the Forum/UBB code tags in my 03-11-2005 06:13 PM post just by clicking on the edit post icon IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-17-2005 02:34 PM
Ok. This seems like a pretty daunting task. I'm willing to go through with it, but it seems to me like I'm going to have to search for each and every post mentioning, for example, Gorham, or Whiting, or any other manufacturer, and sift through each of them to categorize them. I take it I should run a forum search keyword "gorham" to get a list of all the posts related to that company, and use my discretion to organize them. Is this more or less what I should do with each manufacturer? IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-18-2005 12:05 AM
Thanks. I would suggest that you first tackle only one or two companies. You pick the company or companies. Let us know which ones you select. May be someone else would like to do another company? ???? IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-19-2005 03:16 PM
Alright, Scott. It turns out, actually, that many of the smaller manufacturers turn up relatively few posts in a keyword search. Dominick & Haff, for example, only turns up two dozen or so, and they seem more or less easily categorized. I've looked at your example above (for Gorham), and noted how you've categorized: General, Flatware, Holloware, Smalls. I suspect this could serve as a template of sorts for each manufacturer, as most postings would fall naturally into each of those subcategories. Well, I can go on and try to sort these D&H posts, maybe Wood & Hughes as well, since there aren't many posts there, either. Sorry, I'm starting at the smaller end of things, but I'm scared to try to tackle Gorham right now. IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-19-2005 03:33 PM
Just a test General subjects How's that? You know, Scott, your example was so nicely organized, with subcategories indented. How are you doing that? Is there a shortcut for that, or do you actually have to space-bar those indentations in? IP: Logged |
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wev Moderator Posts: 4121 |
posted 03-19-2005 04:27 PM
Use the [.list]-[./list] codes (periods added here to prevent their functioning). Click on the edit icon for this post to see their placement:
Topic: Eliel Saarinen Topic: Connection w/D & H? IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-19-2005 06:16 PM
Topic: Eliel Saarinen Topic: Gold Topic: Bailey, Banks & Biddle Co. Ad & Logo Topic: Connection w/D & H? Topic: Unusual Marking Topic: Harris and Shafer Topic: now I've really seen it all on eBay .... Topic: Another WHATZIT Flatware subjects Topic: D&H Pointed or Broad Antique or 1776 Topic: identification conundrums Topic: Florentine by John Wendt Topic: help id Dominick Haff pattern??? thanks Topic: spoon with 2 makers marks. Topic: Silver Flatware - Pattern is "Washington" Topic: Dominick & Haff "BLOSSOM" Pattern Topic: Dominick and Haff "Priscilla" Holloware subjects Topic: Silversmith ID Topic: gorgeous sterling waste bowl Topic: What does "Sterling 756" mean? "Smalls" subjects Topic: Dominick & Haff Dating Topic: D&H stopper IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-19-2005 06:24 PM
At the time of this posting, the above posted list of all threads relating to or mentioning the Dominick & Haff firm is complete. It seemed really time-consuming, but there it is. There's a lot of questionable stuff there, too. In fact, I omitted one thread that I had started, actually about another company, wherein I simply mentioned D&H. Also, what to do with "Wanted to Buy" posts for D&H? Two of the above posts are from people looking for D&H flatware, so knowing no better, I just put them in the flatware subjects category. Many of the threads aren't actually about Dominick & Haff at all. The whole process was a lot of cut and paste, and I began to wonder if the job, being so repetitive, couldn't be done by a simple program. But of course, no simple program could differentiate between one post examining holloware, and another about flatware. That's where the human element has to step in, I suppose. But there you go. Anyone else wanna give it a try? IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-20-2005 10:05 AM
I didn't think it would move along this fast. I know it's a lot of work. Especially if you are not using something to help craft the forum formatting code. Great job. If you continue and for any one else I would suggest that cutting and pasting be limited to
Url I haven't clicked through the links (later). I would NOT include the For Sale or Wanted posts (now removed). I have added some additional formatting. What does everyone think? Posts about Dominick & Haff
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wev Moderator Posts: 4121 |
posted 03-20-2005 10:38 AM
I'm a little confused here. Isn't this what the search function is for? It's nice to have things catagorized (setting aside the problems of thread divergence and duplication), but this seems like a whole lot of work to duplicate what can already be found. How often are such lists going to be updated? Daily, weekly, monthly? I think putting the time into developing a better search function would serve the forum members better. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-20-2005 12:34 PM
Ideas and suggestions like a new or better forum search function are a much bigger deal than the idea IJP is trying out in this thread. Especially since a new search function would require fundamental forum code changes ...... The IJP idea being floated here is something that is within in the reach of any member. It is something that can be done with little or no assistance from the moderators. So if you see a theme that might be best broken out in a new forum.... I can't think of better way to demonstrate it to us all. Also I think this idea might prove very helpful in gathering up all those good EPNS (and other) repetitive answers into one place. This way we could point a new questioner to the answers without a lot of effort. Then we can focus on any new follow up questions There might be other ideas here that could be explored. Especially ideas that don't require forum programmatic changes. And I would love to hear them. Do others see the opportunity I think I see for some helpful sub-organization by any member? I can change my mind about this and other ideas but would like give this idea (& other ideas) a try.. Hopefully the good ideas will surface and stay afloat. And if the idea clearly demonstrates a need for a better and more difficult concept/feature to be implemented then I will certainly add it to my future projects list. If you have new, different or related but divergent ideas please start a new thread. In this thread lets see where the IJP idea takes us. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-20-2005 02:46 PM
Here are some first impressions (I need to explore more of the D&H list). OK I have begun (more to go thru) clicking on the links in the General Subjects Section. I would include many of these that are in the General subjects section in another section. Perhaps it would be called "other mentions of Dominick & Haff" or something. I think a link should be to thread that is substantially about D&H and not just have a mere mention buried somewhere deep in the thread. Otherwise WEV could be correct, we are just unnecessarily duplicating the search function. I believe we will see an immediate benefit from the sub grouping. And then, even if it ends up being just a few links in each grouping, as long as the links are on target for D&H (and fits the sub grouping) it would be an improvement over the basic search. Time will tell, but we might decide "other mentions of Dominick & Haff" is no different than just including:
Dominick & Haff (click here). Anyone else? I am going back to working my way through the list. IP: Logged |
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-20-2005 03:23 PM
Another thought that comes to mind is that some of the topics no longer fit the evolved thread. Where the thread started and what it became no longer fits the topic. I suppose in some cases I could edit the topic into something more fitting. And in other cases something more would be better. For example a description:
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 03-20-2005 04:37 PM
quote: When a search brings up a long list of topics, it can be laborious and time consuming to have to go thru the entire list one topic after another. Having a list of topics that have been vetted for importance, or otherwise categorized so that a person could make an informed choice among them, would go a long way toward making the task less daunting and rendering the site more user friendly. IP: Logged |
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Arg(um)entum Posts: 304 |
posted 03-20-2005 04:42 PM
What, in my mind, would greatly facilitate and enhance this approach, is if we could a) get people to use topic titles that convey the thrust of the inquiry or post b) prevail on the moderators to modify those topic titles if the thread develops into a totally different direction from what the original poster expected. This wouldn't only help in this type of effort but in any ordinary search or even a scroll through past threads. IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-21-2005 12:35 PM
I think it would definitely be a good idea to add a brief description of the discussion beneath the topic headings, as Scott has shown above, since the topic headings are not always clear about the topic (ironically enough). To those out there doubting the practicality of this sort of list, I was thinking the same thing at first, but others bring up a good point about more effectively navigating the threads than would be possible with a basic search. If implementing entire new forum categories is not practical or desirable (and in this case of D&H, with at most just a couple dozen threads, that would be so), then this is really the only way to present the applicable topics to viewers in an orderly fashion. As swarter says quote:may prove to be good for everybody. At this point I can't say that I'm absolutely sure the good will outweigh the effort (wev makes an important observation-This is going to take some upkeep if the lists are to remain current), but for now I'd like to see if these lists turn out to be helpful for anyone. IP: Logged |
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swarter Moderator Posts: 2920 |
posted 03-21-2005 04:53 PM
The frequency of needed updates will depend upon the frequency with which new threads are added - it is most important that the older posts on the back pages be indexed -- scanning the current page is relatively easy. IP: Logged |
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IJP Posts: 326 |
posted 03-21-2005 05:46 PM
Posts about Wood & Hughes
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-21-2005 07:00 PM
Here is the trick. I do my coding in a word processor. I use the html nonbreakingspace character & nbsp; (remove the space between the & nbsp; ) to get the spacing I like. The forums will strip the & nbsp; from the code but it will insert the space. So I keep a copy in my word processor so I can make any corrections without having to retype the formatting & nbsp; . Posts about Wood & Hughes
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Scott Martin Forum Master Posts: 11520 |
posted 03-21-2005 07:08 PM
One more thing. You will never get it to look the same in every browser. Every browser has different type and type size settings. So don't go too crazy trying to get it perfect. IP: Logged |
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