For newbies:
Welcome to the Mises forum! There's a few things about the forum that are not completely intuitive, and I found that a lot of stuff has to keep getting explained multiple times, so I figured it would be helpful to just put everything in one thread that all newbs should visit. First thing's first:
This is a pet peeve of mine...soon after I joined I discovered that the default setting on new accounts is that only "friends" can send private messages to you (aka "start a conversation"). This is kind of annoying, as, if any user wants to contact you they either have to send you a friend request, you accept it, then they can send you their message, or they have to post on your wall (which is even worse if they were looking to have any sort of dialogue with you). So:
When you're signed in, if you look at the top right of the screen, next to your username you'll see the "edit" link. Click that, then click the "site options" tab. (While you're there look through all those settings and make sure they match what you'd like.) If you scoll down eventually you'll see a section labeled "Conversations Configuration". Click the radio button for the appropriate group. (Obviously, it's most useful if you allow "all users" to contact you)
So you may have noticed by now that the quote feature doesn't work. You may have also seen the various ways people have come up with to quote others so that it is made known to whom and what they are replying. But most of those ways are cumbersome at the least, and usually confusing to the rest of the forum readers...so to quote properly:
You can go here and you'll see an explanation of how to use the bookmarklet that helps with it...but if you don't feel like messing with that even, you can just manually change 'false' to 'true' (in the url) every time you're replying to someone. In other words, whenever you click "reply", go to the address bar at the top of your browser screen and change that last word "false" to "true"...and then tap "enter" or "return". (Personally I find that much easier and quicker). And then if you end up quoting from the same person a lot in the same post, you can just cut and paste and reuse the same brackets, and it will look like this. (If you end up quoting the same person a bunch of times, it sometimes helps to make it look neater if you only include their name in the first one, so it can be shown whom you're replying to, and then in all the others you remove the "user=" part, and it will just be a box with their text. I'll do that generally if I quote the same person more than 3 times in the same post. Like this. )
If you look at the top left of each post, there's an icon of a paper with a folded top-right corner (to the left of the poster's username). That icon contains the specific URL for that particular post. If you right click that and select "copy link" you copy the link for that post. That is the URL you can use to hyperlink to specific posts.
If you submit a post with a large number of links (or some other possibly spammy characteristic) the system will flag it for moderation. You will be notified of this with a large message that says "POST PENDING MODERATION". Do not freak out. Your post has not disappeared. All this means is that your post is placed in a limbo and will not appear in the thread until a human moderator approves it. This is a way to help prevent spam. If your post does not appear after 12-24 hours, send a message to a moderator and let them know you have a post that needs approval.
So there's a yet undiagnosed issue with the forum that causes post content to get lost sometimes...resulting in a blank post. Like this. And this. If this happens to you, sorry, there is no way (we know of) to recover your brilliant prose. Here and here are quick threads with the basic recommendation: use a different browser. Firefox and Chrome/Chromium don't seem to have any issues. (So join the new millenium and quit with the Internet Explorer, you laggard.)
But there are never any guarantees.
Rule of thumb: always always always higlight and copy your text before you click send.
Rule of thumb 2: if what you're writing gets even past a paragraph, click the source button at the top left of the editor, highlight and copy it all onto Notepad. Repeat this every so often just in case the browser crashes. (Ask me how I learned to develop that habit.) The source button allows you to see the html code that makes up your post. If you copy that, all of your formatting is preserved...even if you paste into notepad. Then if you need to repaste it, just open up the text editor again, click the source button and paste it there.) Mistakes and mentors, folks. The only two ways to learn anything. The latter are a lot cheaper.
Basically not recommended. Use browser bookmarks instead (sure it's a local solution, and means you can't access them on any computer (well, technically you can), but it also means you get to group them and tag them for easier reference.)
There is a thread on this here. You can embed YouTube clips by simply using the following code:
[ View : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A ] (without the spaces...and make sure it's plain text)
You can also add sizes for the display by adding that to the end of the URL, separated by colons...so using the same link,
[ View : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A : 640 : 385 ]
would yield the video in a 640x480 resolution. (640:385 is the recommended size)
Thread on this here. Not all sites are allowed/work with this forum, but others like Vimeo do. You can use the same process as above.
Austrian economics links at Mises WIki - (all the relevant links to "what is Austrian economics?" "What should I read first?", etc.)
Reading lists - collection of various recommended reading lists on various topics
[ view : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A : 640 : 385 ] (without spaces) is the recommended size.
bump, gentlemen
Thanks for the tips, you helped me notice my conversation configuration was set to "Friends Only"
Maybe this could be stickied?
wow, cool. We have this and I think ladyphoenix is doing a tech support thing-a-ma-jig. If nothing else periodic bumps would be nice for a couple threads like that.
A forum for me!
Hi!
William:wow, cool. We have this and I think ladyphoenix is doing a tech support thing-a-ma-jig. If nothing else periodic bumps would be nice for a couple threads like that.
Thanks! Didn't know that part with the private messages and the youtube vids.
Maybe it is possible that this thread is automatically in the favourite posts section of each new member? Or they could just automatically forward them to this thread after finishing the registration. Would save some work and nerves ;)
Uhhhhh... Wow. I'm not sure I knew about
lol, sometimes I just make things up and call them facts. Ex: The fourth largest squid was discovered off the shore of Greenland in 1972.
You can go here and you'll see an explanation of how to use the bookmarklet that helps with it...but if you don't feel like messing with that even, you can just manually change 'false' to 'true' (in the url) every time you're replying to someone.
Just testing this thing out.
"Is life so dear or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?" -Patrick Henry
I'm not new and this helped me out.
Freedom has always been the only route to progress.
Thank you..Early-warning suggestions taken.
Didn't take me long to have a question not covered, did it?
What does the "point system" do other than to reveal one's
participation and/or involvement level on this site?
Ron Marquis:What does the "point system" do other than to reveal one's participation and/or involvement level on this site?
As far as I have been able to tell, it shows how popular the user is, based on the number of replies to his posts...i.e. a post that has multiple replies has a higher score...and the user's score is the total of all those points.
(oh, and )
You're one hell of a funny guy. Making things up and call them a fact...but come to think of it...if it make sense then it can be a fact. go get some research too so you could support your fact.
I'm a new member and i hope i don't get stickied. I really find this forum interesting and i think I would get some insights and learnings with this.
bulingit43:You're one hell of a funny guy. Making things up and call them a fact...but come to think of it...if it make sense then it can be a fact. go get some research too so you could support your fact.
It's things like this that make absolutely no sense that point me to the notion of someone being a spam account. Would you care to explain this?
bump
Been getting quite a few new members lately, figured it was time for a bump
I was browsing around and found 3 funny guys here :) ThatOld Guy and James Both thumbs up for you :)
Thanks, Johan Barry Matthew!
If I had a cake and ate it, it can be concluded that I do not have it anymore. HHH
You're Welcome ;)
A few things: the points system is amazingly useless, plus you can't respond to a thread without contributing points to someone, even if you would prefer to subtract points or at least not add to anyone. Also, call me a conspiracy theorist but I grew up on the internet and its my opinion that the new mises.org navigation system as well as the new community as well as the disrepair of this old community are entirely intentional. The new navigation of the main website is a brilliant way to shut off anyone trying to find media on mises.org, it wasn't always like that. And since these forum problems can be noticed by a 5 year old and fixed by a high schooler I feel its reasonable to conclude that they remain unfixed intentionally.
Anyways, how do you link to someone's post? I know a few workaround ways to do it, but normal forums just have a button or link at the top of each post that says, for example, "Post #12345". You would right click that and copy the link location to produce something like the OP did here:
John James:and it will look like this.
Let me retry that because the forum won't let me edit that post...
That is an example of linking someone's post, like I was referring to. How do you get the link to that post?
hashem:A few things: the points system is amazingly useless, plus you can't respond to a thread without contributing points to someone, even if you would prefer to subtract points or at least not add to anyone. Also, call me a conspiracy theorist but I grew up on the internet and its my opinion that the new mises.org navigation system as well as the new community as well as the disrepair of this old community are entirely intentional. The new navigation of the main website is a brilliant way to shut off anyone trying to find media on mises.org, it wasn't always like that. And since these forum problems can be noticed by a 5 year old and fixed by a high schooler I feel its reasonable to conclude that they remain unfixed intentionally.
This is an interesting take. I'm interested to hear more. I'll create a thread for further discussion (and we'll just have to hope it doesn't get ghosted like a number of other discussions about things like this).
Anyways, how do you link to someone's post? I know a few workaround ways to do it, but normal forums just have a button or link at the top of each post that says, for example, "Post #12345".
I know exactly what you mean. And as far as I know, there is no direct way to do it. The easiest way is if you're lucky and someone has already replied to the post you want to link to. In that case, the "replied on" link is the URL you'll need. You can just copy that link and use it in your own post. If you can't find a reply to the specific post, the only way I have found is to manually enter the post ID. And of course, the only way to find out the post ID is to hover over the "reply" button of the post you want to link to and look at the URL. You copy the six digit number and then insert it into a URL using the same syntax as the "replied on" URL.
Yes, you can only get this down to about a 4 step process, and yes it's utterly ridiculous, but (a) it gets the job done and (b) what else are you gonna do?
John James: Anyways, how do you link to someone's post? I know a few workaround ways to do it, but normal forums just have a button or link at the top of each post that says, for example, "Post #12345". I know exactly what you mean. And as far as I know, there is no direct way to do it. The easiest way is if you're lucky and someone has already replied to the post you want to link to. In that case, the "replied on" link is the URL you'll need. You can just copy that link and use it in your own post. If you can't find a reply to the specific post, the only way I have found is to manually enter the post ID. And of course, the only way to find out the post ID is to hover over the "reply" button of the post you want to link to and look at the URL. You copy the six digit number and then insert it into a URL using the same syntax as the "replied on" URL. Yes, you can only get this down to about a 4 step process, and yes it's utterly ridiculous, but (a) it gets the job done and (b) what else are you gonna do?
sonofabitch.
John James:(b) what else are you gonna do?
To paraphrase Marc Faber: We're all doomed, but that doesn't mean that we can't make money in the process. Rabbi Lapin: "Let's make bricks!" Stephan Kinsella: "Say you and I both want to make a German chocolate cake."
+30 ThatOldGuy for providing priceless information!
If you look at the top left of each post, there's an image of a paper with a folded top-right corner (to the left of the poster's username). I need to take a step back and reevaluate how I could have missed that for so long................
John James that would be an interesting thread. I have a lot to say on that topic. At least I feel Occam's Razor points to intentional or at least willful mismanagement and disrepair. The existence of this thread is a tribute to that fact. I could write a book about the new navigation for the main mises.org website alone. Names come to mind like...
How to Infilitrate and Wreck the Management/Oversight of the Anarchist Hub of the Internet or How Not to Develop Website Navigation
Clearly if the website was just completely ruined that would be too obvious. So they just crippled it instead.
John James: sonofabitch.
In one of the many reading list recommendations threads can I/we get a section for recommended fictional reading? All I really know about is the driver and atlas shrugged. Thanks.
Good call. Let's start a thread.
I've been experiencing this for the last week or so- hopefully this can help anyone who may be encountering the same difficulty.
I'll finish a post, look at it on the thread and notice some error. I'll edit the post to correct the error and I won't see the post or the cursor in the field. This used to lead to my refreshing the page over and over in hopes that the cursor and the text will return (the entire post is usually in the lower quote-field).
The way I've fixed it is to click "New Page" in the tool bar above the text field (it's the white square between the square with a magnifying glass on it and the floppy disk on the top toolbar). By clicking that, the cursor should return to the field and allow you to type/edit the post.