SCOUTER-Terry

Hmmmm.... can you tell me a bit more? Please email the exact error to us using the Contact Us form. Also let me know what you're placing in each of the fields. We'll isolate the remaining bugs and fix it for everyone.

TERRY HOWERTON

OK, I think most of the bugs have been worked out. You'll notice several new features:editing posts worksediting your profile worksyou can subscribe to a thread and receive emails when new posts are made without having to post a message yourself (and unsubscribe yourself from monitoring a thread)you can link to specific posts (copy shortcut from the paperclip icon above a post)you can view other's profilesyou can see the total number of posts of other membersand how long they have been members of SCOUTER.comyou can view all recent posts on one page by clicking the link on the home page that says... Click Here To View Last Today's Active Topics

TERRY HOWERTON

Yes, we're addressing these problems now. Apparently "fixes" that we've been making recently were posted to the live server too early, and have caused a few other problems.

Please be patient.

Thanks.

TERRY HOWERTON

Publisher, SCOUTER.com

As you can see, we have been introducing a few new features to the SCOUTER Forums recently. I hope everyone finds these features helpful, and we're still working on a few more tricks that will continue to improve the Forums over the next couple of weeks (including private, member to member messaging).

Specifically, two repairs have been made, and I would appreciate your testing and feedback:

1) We have fixed (we think) the problems some were having

with editing posts (which you have to do within an hour

of making the post). Please let us know if you are still

having problems with that feature.

2) We have also (we think) fixed the problems some were

having with editing your profiles... we encourage you

to complete your personal profile if you would like to

share information with other members.

Are there any other requests or suggestions for improving the Forums?

TERRY HOWERTON

SCOUTER.com Publisher

Excellent thread.

TERRY HOWERTON

This is a general forum announcement.

I have now suspended a member of this forum after warning them for their unScoutlike behavior. This member has been asked to refrain from participation in these forums for a period of no less than three months.

This member could not follow the simple rules that were established for participating, and repeatedly violated my request to: (1) keep the debate honest and (2) treat each other with respect. There is no limit on what can be debated in this forum, but there is a basic requirement for decorum.

The member that has been banned was warned in the past for using multiple screen names to support their own posts. The member has been warned (not specifically, but publicly) for calling names and otherwise acting immaturely.

After receiving a series of complaints from other forum members, I have carefully reviewed all of the posts and made this decision. It is my sincere hope that the removal of this member (or any other members that might be banned from this board for failing to follow the rules) does not limit or hamper the debate of the issues. I believe that debate is a very worthwhile thing.

The banning of this member had nothing to do with the opinions they expressed on the issues being debated, and was limited only to their violation of the rules of debate.

Only one member has been suspended at this time. There is nothing preventing this member from registering under a different name and coming back, but I would ask him to act on his Honor and follow my suspension. After three months, this member is welcome to contact me and request reinstatement.

I take removal of a member to be a very serious thing. I do not like to do it at all (in fact I have never done it before), and will only consider doing so again very judiciously and if I feel there is no other choice.

It is my judgment that other members have also crossed the line of decorum, and they have been warned to modify their behavior or also be asked to leave. However, at this time I am removing only one member with the hope that this will solve the problem and allow the debate on this board to return to the issues.

I will again encourage the many participants and viewers of these forums to enjoy and contribute to the many boards of SCOUTER.coms forums. If you do not enjoy the Politics and Issues forum, please just dont read it. There are more than 150,000 pages of resources on or through SCOUTER.com, and Id encourage you to enjoy them.

TERRY HOWERTON

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

Yes, we're working on improving that a lot, including more exact links. Some of the links are exact, others will take you to the publications home page. This harvesting is automated right now, so it's not perfect. Based on feedback, we're working on a more improved version that will search even broader than the current filed of publications.

-- TERRY HOWERTON

Photos on web pages are usually JPEGs at 96dpi. At that resolution you have room for dozens of photos within the 1 meg limit.

But, ask and you shall receive... I just doubled the free space allowed to 2 megs, so now you have even more room.

TERRY HOWERTON

SCOUTER.com Publisher

(This message has been edited by SCOUTER-Terry)

Some of you have already noticed the Headlines link at the top of SCOUTER.com. This is a new feature that we're slowly introducing to the site. I would be interested in your feedback on this feature.

-- TERRY HOWERTON

SCOUTER.com already provides free web hosting to more than 2,000 Scout units.

http://www.SCOUTER.com/hosting

Sorry All! I accidentally deleted this thread when I only meant to delete an accidental double post from one of our posters. That will teach me not to meddle!

I'm very sorry, please feel free to post your thoughts on this subject again.

TERRY HOWERTON

SCOUTER.com Publisher

Sorry, I have corrected my instructions on how to edit a post. The instructions on how to do this are CORRECT as listed above (for one hour after you post, there will be a edit icon that will appear above your post).

-- TERRY HOWERTON

What you discuss is irrelevant... this is an open forum and the policy is that no poster will be squelched due to their point of view. How you discuss it is all that's relevant. As I have said before:

Keep the debate honest - 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 fact; don't register as multiple user names and post in support of yourselfTreat each other with respect - don't call each other names, limit the demagoguery, acknowledge that this is just a forum of debate, not the last stand in defense of your point of view

While I don't join this forum often, I love a great debate as much as anyone. Years of classical debate training taught me there has to be some rules of discussion, some basic parameters that frame not what you debate but how you debate, otherwise the discussion degenerates quickly. I'm establishing some of those rules above, to encourage more healthy debate.

There 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. And while the majority of people rarely venture into the Politics and Issues forum, it's still a public place. I'd suggest you act as if you are standing around a campfire late at night at some Camporeee with a group of other adult leaders, 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

Folks, SCOUTER.com provides this separate Politics and Issues Forum ONLY to protect the value and integrity of the rest of the discussion forums (keeping what some people consider irrelevant and hot headed debate separate from the area where Scout leaders can share information and ideas of value to their daily and weekly roles as Scout leaders).

While I don't regularly participate in the forums, I have been receiving complaints and been monitoring them more closely lately (remember, many more people read these forums than actually post).

As I said in my previous post, I won't scrutinize the content of the debate in the Politics and Issues forum, nor will I squelch out anyone for expressing a point of view in this part of the Forums. However, I will enforce two rules (maybe more later, at my discretion ;-):

1. Keep the debate honest.

2. Treat each other with respect.

... basically, act Scout like.

I just closed a thread. You can continue to debate the various issues raised in that thread under new threads if you see fit. But that thread violated BOTH of the rules above...calling each other names, regardless of the points of view, is inappropriate.registering as multiple user name only to support your own posts is unacceptable.If these rules are unacceptable to you, then please leave SCOUTER.com.

Sorry if this message seems abrupt to anyone, but my previous attempt at bringing some decorum was not embraced by all.

TERRY HOWERTON

Publisher, SCOUTER.com (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

This thread has been closed by SCOUTER.com staff.

-- TERRY HOWERTON

Good question! Yes, it's accurate, at least usually. The counter displays unique visitors to the SCOUTER.com site within the previous 10 minutes. The average number of visitors on the site is usually around 250, sometimes more or less. Those times that you see the Active User Count spike up to 2000 or 3000 or more is usually inaccurate, and often the result of a visiting search engine or web spider that is cataloging the site. There are nearly 100,000 pages on SCOUTER.com, so it takes a search engine a lot of time to catalog it.

People using the SCOUTER Net Compass and Search Engine, which contains about 12,000 hand picked links of web sites of interest to Scouting, drive the active user count.

TERRY HOWERTON

Publisher, SCOUTER.com

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

SCOUTER.com is an independent community of Scout leaders, not affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America or the World Scout Movement. This site has been the largest community and portal for Scouting since November of 1995 -- the dark ages of the Internet :-) The staff of SCOUTER.com periodically monitors and rarely intervenes in the discussion forums.

The Politics and Issues forum was established specifically to provide an area for debate separate from the important matters of Scouting, namely how to have the best impact on a young boy growing into a great citizen - of his family, community, nation and world. By providing a separate area, only people interested in participating in these discussions had to read them.

Without comment on the subject matters being debated, the level of rhetoric recently in the Politics and Issues forum has lowered to personal insults, which is conduct unbecoming of Scout leaders and participants of this forum.

Obviously, controversial topics abound in Scouting and society, and the Politics and Issues forum is an appropriate place to discuss those topics. If someone's point of view is contrary to your own, or contrary to Scouting policy, there is room for debate. Certainly there are issues in which all of us as Scout leaders are in nearly unanimous agreement. There are also issues in which good, honest Scout leaders disagree with each other and with the organization.

While SCOUTER.com maintains this is a private website and set of discussion forums, and reserves the right to edit or remove any posts at our sole discretion, the Politics and Issues area does not warrant or receive the same level of scrutiny as the rest of the site.

If a poster is nothing more than a nuisance (and we've had that happen a few times in the past), we'll block them from participation. However, in the Politics and Issues area of these forums, if a poster is contributing to debate in an intelligible way, regardless of their point of view, their participation will not be blocked.

I would suggest that you could simply not read (or at least not respond) to posts that agitate you or are inflammatory. Alternatively, I suggest you spend your time contributing to the discussions that take place outside the Politics and Issues forum (encouraged).

TERRY HOWERTON

SCOUTER.com Publisher

Yes, thanks for the headstart on the formatting. Let's hold off on attempting image and links for now... we're going to need to add a user friendly way to add those items.

Hyperlinks will auto format if it recognizes the URL like http://www.SCOUTER.com

-- TERRY HOWERTON

There has been recent discussion on the SCOUTER Forums about how to edit or format posts. Here's an answer to both questions:

You can apply formatting to the content of your post (like making words bold, or changing the color of a sentence). Please refer to the F.A.Q.'s for more information on how to format the content of a post.

You may also edit the content of a post that you make, as long as you do so within one hour of posting it. Click the "edit" link that will appear above your post for one hour.

We're preparing for another significant upgrade to the SCOUTER.com site that we'll be releasing over the next 60 days. Thanks for your continued suggestions on how we can improve this portal.

Thanks... and GOOD SCOUTING TO YOU!

TERRY HOWERTON

Site Publisher

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

Thanks everyone. Of course, annoyances like this are hard to police, but we'll just keep blocking him out. My guess is his attention span is pretty short, so I suspect he'll tire before we do. And if he persists, it is not too difficult for us to track him down through his ISP (which, BTW coolscout, is Sprint DSL and the process is not difficult for us to identify a user name and contact your parents... Don't you feel grown up?).

Nonetheless, if you have any other concerns please bring them to our attention and we'll do our best to respond. These forums are really intended to be self-administered by the members, and to that extent I appreciate the help of some of the regulars on here.

TERRY HOWERTON

Publisher

SCOUTER.com

A new Private forum has been created here for discussing matters relating to the OA. It's entirely appropriate to continue discussions about the OA in public forums that can serve to inform the other members of the Scouting community. However, in order to preserve some of the mystique of the Order, there are some discussions intended only for members of the OA, and as such you can hold those discussions inside the private forum created at http://www.SCOUTER.com/forums

The password is the Admonition of the Order. If you don't remember the Admonition, as another Arrowman or look it up in your OA handbook.

TERRY HOWERTON