Hi Dan,
I use the del.icio.us plugin for Firefox (it's called "del.icio.us buttons").
If I come across a post I might want to refer back to, I'll add it to my collection with the appropriate tags. "Tags" are analogous to "keywords", it's just the nomenclature that del.icio.us uses. Usually my tags are something like "cisco" and then the detail I want to remember, like "dtmf".
I've noticed that from time to time, my bookmark for a conversation fails. Since the forum is database-driven, it doesn't surprise me that the URLs change from time to time. However, a nice feature I've seen on other forums is a "permalink" function. This is a permanent URL for a conversation, rather than a dynamic one.
While I'm on the topic of neat features I'd love to see here, there are a few things I've wished for:
1. The ability to expand a conversation entirely (show all pages), or skip directly to the newest posts. An example would be the "free of charge wallboard" thread. It's getting to be 80+ entries, so it spans several pages. A new reader to that thread will have to click though 5 or 6 pages to reach the most recent entries.
2. More persistent attachments. I know you need to strike a balance between data-bloat and usefulness, but it's always a shame when I come across a thread with a neat-sounding attachment (usually a script) that has expired. I've seen several older conversations with a series of "please repost the attachment" requests. I don't know if you're able to implement a selective filter, but it strikes me that any attachment under 10kB could probably last a little longer than a 100kB log file. Alternatively, to save space you could automatically gzip or zip attachments. Since the majority of them are text files (or text-based scripts) they would compress >50% to save server space.
3. Finally, I know you've been adding HTML into the forum, and I'm glad it's been a considered approach.
I was reading in another thread about this process, and I agree that using font size and colour tags is probably a bad idea (too open to abuse).
One set of tags that might be really handy for web-literate posters are the
and elements for lists. It would let posters better organize the content of their conversations, and improve readability. (For example, I would have used it for items 1, 2 and 3 above, so that they would have auto-indented and been easier to read).
Sorry about the long and wordy post! I'm in awe of how useful this forum is and how generous some of the members are with their time and knowledge. I think you've got a great thing going here, and I only hope that I can contribute back to it once I reach a higher level of knowledge myself.
Thanks for your time, best regards,
-James.
