SCOUTER-Terry

Yes, there is logic to prevent people from artificially inflating the ranks. Most notably, you can click on "rank this post" again and see a list of users that have voted. Over time, we'll refine the system to eliminate any artificial inflation that creeps in.

"Voting off the island"

Well, the island is preparing to grow pretty significantly... you'll soon see some additional improvements to the SCOUTER Forums that include the ability to syndicate them out to many other Scouting sites. As the "island" grows, these rankings and filtering will help moderate the quality of the resources posted.

TERRY HOWERTON

You now have the ability to rank individual posts made by Forum contributors, to either give them a thumbs up or thumbs down on the individual merit of that post. Posts that receive a large number of positive votes will eventually be featured posts that rotate throughout the SCOUTER Network.

Remember, you are voting on the individual merit of that specific post, not the overall merit of all of a contributors posts.

TERRY HOWERTON

Yep, and it works in a similar manner on any web site, not just SCOUTER. Nice little product. Enjoy.

TERRY HOWERTON

This thread was spun from another thread.This is an example of a spin off.

TERRY HOWERTON

Beneath each post is now a link to "spin-off new thread", which will make it convenient to create a new topic based on content within that user's post, while preserving the core subject of the original thread.

TERRY HOWERTON

I believe the "glitch" is fixed now.

More improvements on the way.

TERRY HOWERTON

I believe the "glitch" is fixed now.

More improvements on the way.

TERRY HOWERTON

Yes, looks like there's a bug. Noticed it this evening, and we're working on fixing it now. Probably be resolved sometime Thursday, 1/29.

TERRY HOWERTON

If you still see posts from people you have squelched, then can you please verify that you are in fact "logged in" to the site? If you are, then there will be a "Welcome Back XXXXXX!" message above the Active User Count. If you are not logged in on return visits, perhaps you have Cookies disabled (this feature requires you have enabled Cookies on our site, in order to remember you on return visits).

TERRY HOWERTON

BTW, you'll know you are successfully logged in to the site if there is a "Welcome back XXXX!" just above the Active User Count.

TERRY HOWERTON

Now you can squelch out any user on the board so that you can ignore their posts.

If someone is predominantly just an agitator to you personally, you can simply set the system to never display posts made by that person. Their posts will just not appear in any threads you read.

To squelch out one or more people (you can always "squelch" a person, and your squelch list is private only to you), you should login (use the "Site Members Login" link in the right column). Once you log in, you'll see a "Ignore this User" link in next to each person's posts.

You can manage your squelched list by clicking on the "Ignored User List" link at the top of the forums (below the "New Post" button).

Additional features we're still building but relating to this will be a Member Rating, that will allow you to vote on the quality of a member's posts, which will also be tied eventually to squelching.

Thanks Mark, and others. We've been doing this site since 1994, and I only wish I had more time to contribute to making it even more valuable to grassroots Scouting. It's certainly a labor of love, not just for me, but for dozens of people that have been involved over the years.

Good news though, we have been working on several improvements to the entire site during some rare down time over the past month, and we'll be rolling those out as they are completed.

Your suggestions are always welcome, and nearly always appreciated! :-) (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

Terry, This isn't compatible with Netscape is it?

We didn't test it... Netscape is the browser used by less than 5% of the visitors to our Forums. Of course, the old fashion way of creating a post still would work fine.

TERRY HOWERTON

New Formatting Tools Have Been Added

Well... after several requests, we have updated the SCOUTER Forums to include a easy to use format tool that allows you to change colors and sizes and quote text from other posts, etc.

We have also now added a SPELL CHECKER to the system... it's a third-part tool called ieSpell, that you download to your computer and that integrates spell checking into your IE web browser.

To use the format tool or spell checker just click on the "FORMAT THIS POST" link to the left of the Message window when creating new posts.

TERRY HOWERTON

That problem has been resolved. It looks like we were having a login problem with about 1/3rd of the accounts, which were all hosted on a server that was failing. Fixed now. Enjoy.

TERRY HOWERTON

Changed how?

TERRY HOWERTON

Folks --- the topics have lately strayed pretty far from Scouting. I'm not ending them, but let me insert a gentle reminder that at the end of the day, we want to be able to still like each other on this board. We're all Scouters, and we can disagree strongly about a lot of things. It's perfectly fine to debate disagreement, especially when it has relevance to Scouting, but when the conversation degenerates into passionate squabbles, please make sure you can still maintain some respect for each other (and yourself). Otherwise, take the discussion somewhere away from our campfire.

TERRY HOWERTON

(This message has been edited by a staff member.)

OK, that's enough. Break it up. Everyone back to camp. There's nothing to see here. Move along.

Normally the rules of debate are pretty liberal in this area of the Forums, but at this point, the discussion can hardly be productive. The points are well made already. Reference this enlightened observation sent to me privately by another member:Can't help but think that you're observing the antics being displayed in the Politics Forum. And given the basis upon which this site and the organization were founded, I'm certain you would agree that the issues being, I'll use the term 'debated', but I hardly think that's the case, perhaps the 'battle being waged' is more to the point, would be best fought off-site...however the combatants wish to accomplish that...

The saddest part is that even now, the tit-for-tat cause and effect of accusation and rebuttal is spilling over to the keyboards of others...many of whom I would have not expected such.

Just my thoughts. Perhaps you share them. And perhaps it is, indeed, time to close that thread and ask the participants to pursue their finger-pointing (no matter how well or ill deserved) elsewhere. The whole thing begins to 'flavor' some of the newest threads being started...if you know what I mean.

TERRY HOWERTON

SCOUTER.com Forums operate with an expectation of decorum and respect, and members are governed by the rule to "act Scoutlike". Members who can not adhere to those rules are asked to leave. If a poster becomes nothing more than a nuisance (and we've had that happen a few times in the past), we'll block them from participation. Sometimes really lame people come back under new names and waste everyone's time, including their own, which must not be very valuable.

I haven't needed to explain "Scoutlike" very many times... and the only two "rules" I have given to define it a bit have gotten us all along pretty well:Treat each other with respect - don't call each other names; limit the demagoguery; acknowledge that this is just a forum, not the last stand in defense of your point of view

Keep the discussion honest - don't register as multiple user names and post in support of yourself or otherwise misrepresent your identity; don't state your opinion as fact; don't fabricate data to support your positions; don't claim to speak for "the organization" or the "majority", unless based on factThere are thousands of positive resources for Scouting on SCOUTER.com, and tens of thousands of people visit this site each month in search of those resources.

Stop for a moment before each post, and consider whether that post is adding to the resources here or just wasting other people's time.

If you post to the forums, I'd suggest you act as if you are standing around a campfire late at night at some Camporeee with a group of adults and boys, or sitting at a troop committee meeting with a room full of parents. Don't say anything (or act in any way) that you would not if you were around that campfire and not concealed by the relative anonymity of these discussions forums.

TERRY HOWERTON

SCOUTER.com Publisher

This thread has been moved to the Issues and Politics category for further discussion.

TERRY HOWERTON

Zahnada -- what part of the country are you located in?

It's interesting that you would suggest this. Over the past several months, I have been mulling around the idea of recruiting a research assistant to help me complete a biography on William Hillcourt. As many readers of this forum may know, when I was 19 I spent three years living and traveling with Green Bar Bill... and collaborated with him on tapes and writings for an autobiography. That experience was cut all too short by his untimely death at 92 years old (I'll never cease to be amazed at just how magnificent it is to "unexpectedly" die at 92 after such a full life).

Bill was a great hero of Scouting, and no aspect of Scouting's history went untouched by him. Ten years after his death, I'm probably now capable of doing what I set out to do together with him. It is the regret of my life that I was too young and our time together was too short for me to have asked all the questions I should have asked. Which is not to say that I didn't learn volumes... I have thousands of pages of notes and tape recordings... I just wish I had it to do all over again, as the experience could be far more rich now.

The story of Bill Hillcourt's life is best told as the story of the life of Scouting. Not so much the biography of one man, but the tale of Scouting from it's earliest days as seen through the eyes of Hillcourt... if that were the story told, it would be comprehensive and engaging. Hillcourt was a thread through the fabric of Scouting history.

Many people have encouraged me over the years to complete this project. I've always know that someday I would. The time draws near for me to recommit.

I'm now based in Chicago, and my work keeps me very busy. To start the project with momentum, I recognize I'll need help. While most of our dialogue and time together is fresh, and ten years ago seems like yesterday, I recognize that the real project requires far more research than has been done to date.

Perhaps we should talk a bit?

TERRY HOWERTON

Yaworksi and Zorn Packte (German for "Anger Packed") are one in the same. The source of each post by this person is an identical set of IP addresses (use of multiple screen names is one of the few expressed prohibitions of this forum).

I'd rather not enter into a childish and time consuming game of blocking IP addresses from participating in the forums, so I'll leave it up to the forum members to understand the source of the message when reading.

TERRY HOWERTON

Test 2

TERRY HOWERTON

Test

TERRY HOWERTON

Just a bump up of this message as a reminder to some new members of our forum. You are free to debate any topic, but decorum is mandatory. Decorum requires that we all act as adults, refrain from name calling or treating each other with disrespect.

TERRY HOWERTON