Author Topic: Indexing Fora  (Read 6353 times)

Ethel

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  • Boat Model: Bavaria Sportline 350
  • Boat Year: 1993
Indexing Fora
« on: November 03 2011, 09:39 »
Hi
I really appreciate your initiative to start a Bavaria specific site.  I have a suggestion which you may like to consider before the volume of posts becomes too great. I find that with sites like ybw it is very hard to find existing posts on subjects of interest, and they tend to be distributed over different fora.

Would it be possible to create fora for each class of Bavaria, or to cross reference posts by boat type to give an alternative way of accessing material of interest ?

Nigel

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    • Dolcetto - My Boat
  • Boat Model: Bavaria 47
  • Boat Year: 2000
Re: Indexing Fora
« Reply #1 on: November 03 2011, 12:12 »
Would it be possible to create fora for each class of Bavaria, or to cross reference posts by boat type to give an alternative way of accessing material of interest ?

This is one area where I know what I'm talking about, having studied electronic conferencing for a recent degree course. If sub-categories are necessary (and generally I don't think they are) then these should focus on aspects that the different boats have in common (Engine, Rigging etc) not on what makes them different (Bavaria 30, Bavaria 31, Bavaria 32 etc).

The best way to make sure that posts can be referenced is to use a descriptive subject. Subjects such as "HELP!" are useless, and where possible I will change them; but so far most topics have been well described. In addition, it can be useful to start each post with a summary describing the topic in more detail than the subject, but less than in the body of the post.

[UPDATE]

There is a powerful Advanced Search facility on the forum, see the Search link in the row below the forum title (or below your avatar if you have not collapsed the window header with the button on the top right of the window):

Home  Help  Search ...  

Note that the Search box and button on the top right of the window is a Quick Search. This is not as useful, which is why it vanishes if you collapse the header as above.
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ironbark

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  • Boat Model: Bavaria 37
  • Boat Year: 2007
Re: Indexing Fora
« Reply #2 on: October 17 2012, 11:14 »
As a newbie to these forums I was intriqued by the subject title even though it was a little old. I did not recognise the word "fora" ..... so being a sometime copy sub-editor I just had to look it up in the Oxford and found the following

Definition of forum
noun (plural forums)
1a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged:
we hope these pages act as a forum for debate
an Internet message board.
2chiefly North American a court or tribunal.
3 (plural fora /ˈfɔːrə/) (in an ancient Roman city) a public square or marketplace used for judicial and other business.
Origin:

late Middle English (in forum (sense 3)): from Latin, literally 'what is out of doors', originally denoting an enclosure surrounding a house; related to fores '(outside) door'. forum (sense 1) dates from the mid 18th century

Spelling help

The plural of forum is usually spelled forums; the plural fora (as in the original Latin) is chiefly used when talking about a public square in an ancient Roman city.

Nigel

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Re: Indexing Fora
« Reply #3 on: October 21 2012, 16:36 »
The plural of forum is usually spelled forums...
Only by people who didn't do Latin at school.  :)
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