Proposal to Summarize Long Threads

[ChrisGreaves]

I've no problem with long posts if they are a genuine attempt to help from one user to another.

Hi Argus. Please take a look at that nine-page thread. Suppose that you wanted to block sites:-
(a) from Google News
(b) from Google searches.

A question: Would you now wade through those nine pages to find the solution that works for you?

Me neither.
My thinking is that if I do end up wading through all nine pages, I could post my findings in a single summary post with
(1) A quick-start technique to give a reader an idea of where we are headed. Perhaps "How to block "www.ctvnews.ca" from Google news results"
(2) A long-haul solution "How to never, ever again, see the web site "chrisgreaves.com", for any reason, in your {Firefox} browser.

A long thread (such as the one I quoted) once it has settled down, is a deterrent to finding and using a solution.
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

But Chris, soon it will devolve into discussions of who is summarizing and what they're are leaving out due to any supposed biases. We DO NOT want to go there!!!!

Hi PJ. I see your grin and cautiously disagree.
This Thread is (or could be) a discussion of who is to summarize. An obvious candidate is the originator of the thread.

Suppose you wanted to know how to block CTV News from Google news results; you might PM the thread originator (me) asking if I had determined the solution which worked for me ("yes, Post 1234567 held the magic result") or you might ask if I was interested in making a summary ("No; I am too busy in the garden right now"), or you might ask if you summarized it, would I confirm the summary.
I think that the "who" is not a serious issue.

As for biases, I think that a summary would cover that. In the example nine-pager, a summary might say "I developed this summary using Firefox 79.0(64bit) on a Win10-2004 laptop, and I was specifically looking to never again see "chrisgreaves.com" in evidence in any browser search results" or similar.

Obviously then (I hope) my bias is towards Firefox rather than Edge or Chrome or Mosaic, and my bias is towards a web url. My summary ought to be a shortcut to guide you towards banning "Horlicks" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horlicks) from ever appearing in YOUR browser.
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Chris: have you ever thought of summarising what you post before you post it, rather than after? During English lessons at skool we often had to précis pieces of text to extract the salient points therefrom in a more-condensed form...

Hi John; yes I do summarize the content of most articles I write. I have a "readability" macro that shows me the <i>change</i> in readability.

Summarizing an article or a post in a thread is different from summarizing a thread.

I could go back to my original post and truncate it

Code: Select all

I use Firefox 3.6.13 to search for solutions.
Some links annoy me.
Something that inhibits the opening of a new tab on right-click would save me time.
I am asking for a parental control feature.
I'm also looking for ease-of-use - I look at a page, click a button, and I'll never see that web site again.
Does this strike a chord with anyone else here?
Statistics for Document3
254 --->  70 Words.
183 --->  65 Unique Words.
8 --->  6 Unique paragraphs.
12 --->  7 FOG index.
50 --->  80 Comprehension
26.3% --->  00.0% Empathy
0.54 --->  0.51 Complexity

But a reduction of 75% in the size of that post does little for the person trying to find a solution in nine pages of the thread.

Cheers
Chris

[Doc.AElstein]

These comments are not necessarily directed at this forum , but more generally at the idea of Summarizing large Threads in Forums….
Since I have been in forums, I always thought a lot of the most senior people have a strange reluctance to actually doing what theoretically what I thought Forums were about: Sharing knowledge , helping solving problems and learning from each other, and in general furthering Knowledge. I have always assumed I must be very, very wrong.
But some recent experience has confirmed that in a lot of cases my original thoughts were almost certainly correct.

More generally, I have seen in the past a very strong abuse ( IMHO ) , of the Hijacking rule which most forums have. In many places if someone has a very relevant and useful follow up comment / correction or question, they will be pounced on , punished and encouraged into starting all over again. I have even seen extreme cases of where there was a mammoth thread where many tried to solve a long standing problem and failed. Some one then joined just to post finally the perfect solution. A Moderator deleted the post, closed the thread, posted the usual “don’t hijack threads” canned reply and some time later that new member in question was badgered into leaving…

That and a few other things I have dug up just recently all suggest some almost fear amongst some of the “best” people of anyone doing anything that might prevent some people churning out the same answer time and again, even when those people openly complain about “having” to do this. The truth is they may not want to do it, but feel some addiction or compulsion to do it, and can’t live without it.
I am not a psychologist, but I expect their may be some deep in fear of anything that might danger their virtual existence.
Clear concise explanations and summaries of solutions often lead to attacks on the individual doing it.

Chris, don’t ever suggest anything like this at one of the major forums, or you will be a marked man!

Alan

[HansV]

Chris has a very long history with us, first in Woody's Lounge, now in Eileen's Lounge. His is not in danger of becoming a marked man at all!

[John Gray]

Indeed! Chris's notoriety is extensive and lengthy...
(That was low-jacking...!)

[ChrisGreaves]

Indeed! Chris's notoriety is extensive and lengthy... (That was low-jacking...!)

... and that's not all!
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Chris has a very long history with us, first in Woody's Lounge, now in Eileen's Lounge. His is not in danger of becoming a marked man at all!

Wot!
You mean I've wasted these past 3,864 days, Excel Rounding Errors notwithstanding?
I shall copy, then paste 100 times: "Must Try Harder"
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

...what I thought Forums were about: Sharing knowledge ,

Hi Alan. This view I share with you. Indeed, it is because online forums (and initially BBS) were such repositories of knowledge that I see their search and filter functions as being essential. Even were all the "fluff" deleted, Eileen's Lounge (as our example) out of 270,000 posts in 34,000 threads would probably still have 150,000 data-rich posts, and searching those can be a nightmare.
We post here mainly in my mother tongue, and I have problems locating threads that are relevant to a problem. English has such an extensive vocabulary (made worse for me by being raised English in Australia and spending half my life in North America), that searching by keyword "accurate" might fail if a post uses a synonym (precise, correct, exact, true, truthful, perfect), and that is just from the thesaurus of Word2003 with the first word that popped into my mind.
Anything that obfuscates⁽¹⁾ a post or a nugget of data is a handicap.
Hence my thoughts on providing a one-post summary available in a nine-page thread.

More generally, I have seen in the past a very strong abuse ( IMHO ) , of the Hijacking rule ... member in question was badgered into leaving…

Hijacking? Look no further my friend. I am IT and you may seek confirmation from any regular poster. I am almost always delighted when one of my threads gets hijacked because then I am invited into the minds of fellow-contributors. (Not many people know just how much Hans enjoys repeat re-postings of a link to the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, for example).
Eileen's Lounge, which is public and available to all is indeed more of a "family" than a "professional/technical" board. In my BBS days I traveled across the USA to meet various BBS families (The BBS in Terrace BC, The Blue Flame crowd in Dallas), and while I can count on the fingers of one hand the Eileen's members I have met face-to-face, those meetings have been rewarding. There was that TGV trip in 2016 for example ...

I am wandering off-topic, again, I know.

Clear concise explanations and summaries of solutions often lead to attacks on the individual doing it.

Excepting within the culture of I.P.Sharp Associates in Toronto back in 1986, this has never been my experience in my years in DP from May67 to the present date. I have had GLORIOUS arguments that have wound up like the schoolyard fist-fights - best of buddies for life after the five-minute sparring has ended - but I can't recall anything more than a slight bruise to my ego (which is, let's face it, so big that you'd need days just to eaxmine its surface!)

Chris, don’t ever suggest anything like this at one of the major forums, or you will be a marked man!

Alan, if you could just see the size of zucchinis hidden under those elephant-ear leaves in my backyard, you'd appreciate how much I long to be bounced. If keeping clever people entertained on Eileen's Lounge didn't soak up so much of my time, I'd be able to wade through my 1,000 books much faster, in my Muskoka chair, on the back lawn, under a shady tree, with a glass of home-made ginger beer, and a slice of zucchini cake baked by a neighbour on whom I off-loaded two zucchinis just two days ago ...

Cheers
Chris
⁽¹⁾ You get my point, I am sure!

[Doc.AElstein]

..... how much I long to be bounced. .... If keeping clever people entertained on Eileen's Lounge didn't soak up so much of my time, I'd be able to.....

Lol.. :) – Every time an account on mine gets banned, I am initially a bit annoyed at the insanity of Banning someone predominantly contributing help, just because the posting style doesn’t suit another’s preferences. But then there is a great relief that I have more of my free time to finish building my Castle, something that really I should spend all my free time on. It’s a bit strange that I am not banned here yet… Oh well, lets keep hoping , - I really must get the roof of a new garage finished before winter, I am still in the cellar extension… I don’t build conventionally, the walls are mostly finished, shored up above my head , as well as the roots of 6meter high conifers held in big green plastic bags to prevent the trees and garden all subsiding onto my head ( https://imgur.com/ySNNRjb )
Maybe I should post progress reports in Scuttlebutt. – The embarrassment at the slow progress might force me to build quicker …

[StuartR]

I shall copy, then paste 100 times: "Must Try Harder"

That'll be an easy post to summarise