Removing categories

[Chris Fraser-Jenkins]

Dear Anthony,
Helloo there! I got in, no problemo! But one thing, I definitely DON'T want to have to view messages compartmentalised under several different categories, which doubles the amount of time etc. - I want to see them all as they come in, chronologically. How do I do that?
Cheers,
Chris F.-J.

[Administrator]

Christopher

Glad you made it! The simplest thing to do is to click 'View active topics' (top left on the Board index page. That will give you a list of topics in order of most recent posting. This is probably what most people use to keep up to date with the whole forum. You can then click on the topic title to see the whole topic or click on the symbol on the far right(square with arrow out of bottom right corner) which will take you to the latest post for that topic. Hope that helps.

Regards

Anthony

[Chris Fraser-Jenkins]

Dear Anthony,
I've opened it up again (though it still brings up the other user-name that we already replaced), but again the various categories that I definitely don't want turned up in separate coffins. I just want to see ALL messages in chronological order - which could not be done by clicking that View Active Topics button you mentioned.
How do I entirely remove the various categories and just leave all messages? It is unfortunate to have to go to several different boxes, starting again each time, when one has a normal wide interest in ferns.
Chris F.-J.

[Administrator]

Christopher

If you click on 'View active posts' you will get a list of topics in order of their latest post - not sure why that's not working for you.

There are various ways to display posts in the forum, including that described above - you can't actually remove the categories - they're a fundamental part of the forum and make it manageable, especially when it gets large.

By the way, the old username being offered in the login box is probably coming from your machine, not the forum.

Regards

Anthony

[Chris Fraser-Jenkins]

Dear Anthony - I found your reply now. But I really do need to remove the many different boxes you have to search through. To be honest it's quite a palava to find messages in this site - fifty time easier in the old one.
Would you be able to programme in an option to open all messages in chronological order? That would be so much better and I'd be able to find everything, unlike at present. Those who want to be placed in little boxes can do so, but those who don't are left trying to search all over the place. The "view active topics" button only gives a few recent ones selected from the coffins. This is pretty time-consuming and involves many extra proceedures!
Hope you can sort that!
Cheers,
Chris.

[Administrator]

Christopher

Your general points are, I believe, answered in my earlier posts. You should be able to view in the way you wish from the 'View active topics' link. You can list as many 'active topics' as you wish by selecting the relevant time period from the drop-down list where it says 'Display posts from previous [ ] on the 'View active topics' page.

Regards

Anthony

[Chris Fraser-Jenkins]

Ah, so that's the secret! Sounds good.
Chris.

[Chris Fraser-Jenkins]

Dear Anthony,
About your "Books" category, again I really have to say how slow and difficult it makes it to split pteridology up under many small categories - this now makes no less than 13 places I have to look to find the different posts. Yet I'd guess that nearly all who read the forum will just want to see ALL the posts in chronological order, avoiding all these micro-categories!
This is particularly difficult when, as today the server for the site is very slow - for reasons I suppose one cannot know.
I wonder, if others agree (given that there are relatively few postings under each category) and want to see all posts, if you could consider removing these rather trifling and a bit artificial categories and posting up all messages in chronological order as they come - no more categories - it would make it so much easier to see everything and would make it on a par with the UK-ferns forum, which it could thus replace.
I doubt if many people are so narrow in their fern-interests that they only seek one or two of these minor sub-categories?
Cheers,
Chris Fraser-Jenkins, Kathmandu.

[Administrator]

Christopher

I have explained a few times how to look at just the recent posts or active topics, see:

http://fernforum.net/bb/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=41

I usually use the 'View active topics' when I go to the forum because, like you, I want to see all the new posts. However, it's clear from the number of 'views' shown against each topic, that most people don't and just pick and choose what they look at.

Regards

Anthony

[Chris Fraser-Jenkins]

Dear Anthony - yes, indeed, me too, as there usually isn't the time to check out all the categories. One has little choice but to go just for one or two boxes! The procedure to get just the recent messages is awkward and anyway it does not give you all the messages in order and has to be done anew each time!
OK, why not take a vote and see if people would like to remove these superfluous categories that were decided to invent? The number of messages is currently small and it seems there is little actual need for all these compartmentalised impositions.
I really want all the messages to come up in date order in one place - and for it always to be like that - then I'd be happy to transfer from the much more easy and straightforward Yahoo Forum! The ideal situation would be just to have ONE UK fern forum, but it means the BPS one should be as easy as the Yahoo one - currently it definitely isn't, I find.
Cheers,
Chris.