Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum New Forum Ideas

Hi anyman,
No I'm not suggesting that we return to the 'old forum' where everything was mixed,
and replied to -all mixed up down on long single page. Oh No. Very unscientific.

My suggested change would actually be very little different from what we have now!
ALL the different Forum 'Science divisions' would run down the main front page, in the form of one, prehaps two PICTURE ICONS which the writer or maybe Kate would place on the extreme left of the page. (You could have at least 25 different subjects (picture icons)
Everyone viewing the icon/s would know exactly what the postings were about.

At the moment, we all have to RELY upon the information that the writer can IMPART with difficulty, using approx the 2-10 words in the "new topic line" when first posting.
Descriptive words that often bears little relation to the type of science being discussed.

Everything else would be just the same. Ten or twelve average length postings, STARTS you onto a NEW page, ...just as it does now.

The main point being...that you could have (at least) 25 different icons (ie BASIC subjects) that could be chosen, to run down the left of the main page.
I feel it would be better than Kate trying to Put/Type out ALL the different categorys of the Sciences, onto all the different (projected) main pages. Thats even more unrealistic than the four main pages we have now.
Pages that people would have to FIND and reply to. And hopefully wait (having to GO and LOOK) for a reply, if they hav'nt forgotten?

I often find that once about 15 postings/replies are made, you get to access pages 2, even 3 or more
OFTEN by then, the subject has gone completely off topic. With no meaningful reference to the original subject matter.
In fact if the subject became greatly changed, (and the original writers became frustrated, the truly scientific minded ....would normally drop out....BUT, they could enter a new icon at the end of their letter and state "I'll resume this (different) topic from the more RELEVANT front page icon" IF THEY WISHED.

So that anybody that came in to 'scienceagogo' for the first time, accessing the front page icon of their choice....everything would appear quite normal.
The subject matter,would always TEND to equal the basic icon. I say tend to, 'cause no-one's perfect

I also feel icons would help keep the original science by subject matter together. Nobody could shout back and state "this belongs in 'Origins or should be in 'Climate"
No-one gets embaressed. You just change your subject (icon) by going back to the front page, and write under a different subject icon. Allowing others to carry on, as they want?

***A late thought. Using an icon you need not try to fit in description of your subject within the
"New Topics line" You could just add some related words there, alonside the DNA icon
ie -Umbilical - Blood - New gene.

Any foreseen difficulties or comments, guaranteed to give the Moderators, a headache

I'm done, ...off to buy some fireworks (Nov:5th)

thanx, mike

i still like the old board best...but *as is* is the next best thing (perhaps your icon suggestions would help in the present climate :-)

kate, you, and i go back to april '98 when this board began (i came in a couple of weeks after you but still in the first month)...dano came in at the end of that year, amaranth came in the following year, uncle al sometime after that...

there may still be others around that are lurking or have changed their monikers, but...

i don't guess that gives us any special privileges, but it oughta (there oughta be a grandfather clause or somesuch, eh :-)

anyway...carry on, and enjoy your day (nov 5)...what is that...i don't recognize it as a general uk holiday...is that your bday...or your kiddos

Mike?s idea is sounding better to me now.
I?d suggest not replacing an icon if the subject changes; just add more icons. Then you don?t loose the history of the thread (librarian talking again).

As for my idea, changing nothing but the names and description of the existing fora, the basic idea of posting by source (level of authority) could still work. Science Disc. would become the ?Reports? forum, NQ would be for ?News? sources, and Avian Flu would become the ?Letters? forum for speculative, etc. (as former posts detail). It?d have to be by following guidelines, but the same is true for using icons to indicate topic or subject. Both systems could work together. And origins would stay the same.
Smaller type could allow for more info on the main forum pages too.

~samwik

P.S. Any comments on the basic concept of the "source" idea? Too hard, weird, nebulous?
Thanks,
~S

Anyman quote;

"anyway...carry on, and enjoy your day (nov 5)...what is that...i don't recognize it as a general uk holiday...is that your bday...or your kiddos"

It celebrates what my father used to call the day that the only person to enter parliament with good intentions was caught. (i.e. he was going to blow the place up, terrorist that he was).

But it also coincides fairly closely with a Celtic fire festival to protect the population during the coming winter.

Sorry, off topic.

Yes you are right anyman,
Water under the bridge and such.
I rem Kate when she had an ICQ No

November 5th is only celebrated in the UK
Captain Guy Fawkes a Catholic, stashed 8 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the 'Houses of Parliament' in an attempt to blow them up.

The original Catholic majority in the UK were forced to renounce their religion by King Henry VIII, in favour of Protestism. Old King Henry got pretty mad, when the Pope refused to allow him a divorce to remarry.
Henry sent a message to the Pope, telling him in effect to get lost. And banished all catholic priests, and took all their property. And made the country Protestant overnight, virtually.
All catholics who refused to change to protestant were tortured or put to death in their thousands.

Mr Fawkes was 'shopped' captured, and horribly tortured before he could light the fuses.
He ending up carrying his intestines over his shoulders, before being hung drawn and quartered His body hung in a cage for all to see, until it rotted away.
Fireworks are let off in many Uk towns, celebrating saving the Parliament building. The biggest celebration of all is held at Lewes, on the anniversary of Captain Guy Fawkes capture where thousands of people (all professing to be Protestant) come in from all around carrying lighted flaming torches around the town before marching to a huge bonfire to watch an effigy of the present day Pope being burnt on the South downs.
It can get scary in the crowd, many people lost their hair etc. but its a time for bing drinking and roudyism and fireworks every Nov 5th
Dogs and pets are advised to be kept under blankets in a cupboard.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4402828.stm
AND
http://www.lewesbonfirecouncil.org.uk/history/index.html

--------------------
"You will never find a real Human being - even in a mirror." .....Mike Kremer.

.

Years ago my aunt Opal (refs. avail.) did some geneaology work and told me I was related to Guy Fawkes.
sooooooooo, BOT
Any comments on the idea of using "sources" to filter the topics a bit?
~Samguy

Please to remember the 5th of November ...

No doubt you are related to everyone else on earth too. ;-)

LOL DA, Thanks for my first LOL of the day....

~Samguy

P.S. ...but, BOT???

I posted this elsewhere, but thought it should be here:
""
Richard, I read your posts too (eventually), but my computer is limiting my capabilities these days.
I was avoiding this thread, but even this "non-scientific" topic is introduced as a "science Letter" (I'm still lobbying for the "source" model -even if just Icons!) and called for a "study." I've been frequently surprised when these threads that I first feel are of no interest and not "scientific," turn into something that leads me to some insight, or at least are informative. At least this could be considered as social or psychological science. I do think this belongs over on a "hot topic" type forum, but that's for another day, eh? Thanks Richard for the plug (shower curtain effect thread), I agree it's hard to decide where to put things; but there may not be a way to make it perfect. I like the organic nature of it all, evolving serendipitously. So I'd vote for not killing to many threads, just let natural selection do the work.
Cheers
~samwik
""

Regretably, I'm not too familiar yet with other aspects of these fora (icons, defaults, prefs., etc.). Maybe this is already addressed and I just don't know about it, but....

I'm still surprised nobody has a comment about a "source" model for the fora. I'm hopeful that at least as icons, "source" can be worked into the threads or posts.
Thanks for listening,
~Samwik