Starship Asterisk*

Chris Peterson wrote:Many forums like this provide a category just for making test posts. It allows people to try out different features, and can just get swept clean every few days. That would be nice here.

You can try out anything you want without posting. Use the Preview function at the bottom of the Post or Edit box. Then just X out of the tab or window when you finish playing. Still, a sandbox may not be a bad idea.

Thanks for the link bystander. I thought I'd searched everywhere. Don't know how i missed that. This is such a different site in operation from what i was used to, that i don't think it would help much to just practise in the preview mode like you suggested. I would have to see the result that actually gets posted so i can relate to how it works. I suppose it would be best to pick one of the - not being used posts - near the bottom of the - Discuss Anything forum - to actually practise on and then use the Delete button to erase it. Sounds like a plan to me. How's it sound to you?

beyond wrote:I suppose it would be best to pick one of the - not being used posts - near the bottom of the - Discuss Anything forum - to actually practise on and then use the Delete button to erase it. Sounds like a plan to me. How's it sound to you?

Start your own in Open Space or practice here. If you use Preview to look at the results and don't ever actually post it, you won't have to delete it.

an image of an old man figure reaching down from a cloud planet motif and casting a couple beams of light in a similar angle to this magnificent APOD.
I recall having seen this image as a plate in Kahlil Gibran's book 'The Prophet', although had no luck with an image search, so perhaps my memory fails me.
Now I have found the image on youtube in an obscure little video, PrtScn 'd it, saved it out of Paint, and have registered with this lovely site to post the image but cant quite get it in this post.
Im guessing that the image must be a URL and would like to provide it but can not so...
Please help

Regards,
Otto

Hi,

I just tried to print this thread, with unexpected results. Using Firefox v3.6.8 in Mac OS X v10.6.3, I got three pages printed: first, a page showing the top matter down to the title of the post; second, a page showing the illustrations with their captions, but no accompanying text; third, a page showing the reply button and the rest of the bottom matter. In other words, all of the text in the post except the image captions was left out of the printout. I expect there is an error in your print stylesheet.

I didn't try printing from other browsers.

Rob

I see the same thing running Firefox 3.6.3^* and Mac OS X 10.5.5^*, and it didn't matter whether I used the "View Print" option in the upper right of the Asterisk screen or File/Print from the Firefox menu.



^* I KNEW you'd ask.... because I have less than 3 Gb free on my hard drive, and need more space than that to update any/everything, that's why!

I know it doesn't fix the problem, but if you really wish to print the article, try Universe Today:
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Alchemy By Supernova

Yeah, I know about the Universe Today article. I tried there first, but they don't even have a Print button to give a simplified version of the page, and I didn't want to try with all those ads around the article. Hence the desire to print it from the Asterisk page. I got around it by copying and pasting the text into a Pages document and printing it from there.

Rob

I hate the 'Latest Observations and Images' subforum under 'The Observation Deck'. Is there some feature that this provides as a subforum that isn't possible as a sticky topic, or something similar? It's hard to read- I can't just click the Mark Posts Read under the Observation Deck, and clicking on the latest post doesn't seem to clear the new post status. This subforum just makes for more mouse clicks.

To be honest, there are polls and recent images and recent submissions all over the place. It's confusing as all getup. Personally, I'd like to see all these just go away, and just have a user submitted image forum (not necessarily for APOD consideration). I'm disappointed when I see an APOD that's already been posted and discussed in these forums. There's an element of surprise that is lost, and it seems to be happening more lately.

Chris Peterson wrote:I hate the 'Latest Observations and Images' subforum under 'The Observation Deck'. Is there some feature that this provides as a subforum that isn't possible as a sticky topic, or something similar? It's hard to read- I can't just click the Mark Posts Read under the Observation Deck, and clicking on the latest post doesn't seem to clear the new post status. This subforum just makes for more mouse clicks.

I'm not sure just what your complaint is. How is it hard to read?

You can click Mark Forums Read in the Observation Deck (OD) and all posts in the OD and subforum will be marked read.

You can click Mark Topics Read in the subforum and it will clear the topics there.

The subforum provides an ordered list (reverse order of original post) of the last three days of new topics. It is autopruned every night.

How does it make for more clicks. If you don't want to go there, don't. All the topics there are just shadow copies of the topics in the main forum.

The same feature is in the Communications Center. Have you not noticed or is it not a problem?

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand your complaint.

bystander wrote:I'm not sure just what your complaint is. How is it hard to read?

Well, for one thing, it's hard to notice up at top, above the main page content. So I think I've read everything, or marked it read, and when I go back to the main page, the Observation Deck is still flagged as unread.

You can click Mark Forums Read in the Observation Deck (OD) and all posts in the OD and subforum will be marked read.

It isn't working that way for me. That marks the stuff below the link as read, but not the subforum or its contents.

You can click Mark Topics Read in the subforum and it will clear the topics there.

Yeah, but I don't want to read this forum. I'd just like to mark it read. But I have to open it to do so. More clicks.

The same feature is in the Communications Center. Have you not noticed or is it not a problem?

I still don't notice, even when I go look. There is no orphan forum at the top of that page. The only other forum that seems to have this construction is The Classroom, and it is posted to so rarely that the inconvenience has gone unnoticed.

Mark forums read should now work!

And the subforum in the Communications forum should be there.

Let me know so I can remove the test posts.

bystander wrote:Mark forums read should now work!

And the subforum in the Communications forum should be there.

Let me know so I can remove the test posts.

Yes, regrettably the Communications subforum is now there. As invisible as the other one, up above all the forum controls and links.

When I click on Mark forums read (with your test post) it does not mark the subforum read. When I click on the last post link and get taken to the subforum, that also does not mark the forum read (which is really odd, since I'm taken into that forum. The only way I can get the subforum to show as read is to click on the main link to it from the hosting forum, or to click on the Mark forums read link once I'm inside the subforum.

Chris Peterson wrote:I hate the 'Latest Observations and Images' subforum under 'The Observation Deck'. Is there some feature that this provides as a subforum that isn't possible as a sticky topic, or something similar? It's hard to read- I can't just click the Mark Posts Read under the Observation Deck, and clicking on the latest post doesn't seem to clear the new post status. This subforum just makes for more mouse clicks.

The subforums are gone.

To be honest, there are polls and recent images and recent submissions all over the place. It's confusing as all getup. Personally, I'd like to see all these just go away, and just have a user submitted image forum (not necessarily for APOD consideration). I'm disappointed when I see an APOD that's already been posted and discussed in these forums. There's an element of surprise that is lost, and it seems to be happening more lately.

I can't address this.

Chris Peterson wrote:To be honest, there are polls and recent images and recent submissions all over the place. It's confusing as all getup. Personally, I'd like to see all these just go away, and just have a user submitted image forum (not necessarily for APOD consideration). I'm disappointed when I see an APOD that's already been posted and discussed in these forums. There's an element of surprise that is lost, and it seems to be happening more lately.

Users can still post to the Observation Deck, and I encourage them to do so; I'd love to see more user-posted images!

Images that were submitted used to be posted one image to a thread. I think grouping them together and using a clear and consistent title makes it easier to view them (or avoid them, if one wishes to avoid possible future APODS); I could certainly be wrong about that, and if I am, I hope you and others will let me know!

The polls help the APOD editors out and also increase participation on the forums. My understanding is that one of the functions of Asterisk is to help support APOD; if the polls aren't useful, I would expect to discontinue them.

I don't know what to say about seeing APOD images before they are chosen; if you are looking at images submitted for APOD consideration, it's likely that at some point you're going to see some images that are chosen for APOD. I don't know how that can be fixed, but am open to suggestions.

I can't say I really like the new subforums, either. I was content just browsing the first couple that caught my eye and moving on instead of having someone pick the "top" ones, personally.

geckzilla wrote:I can't say I really like the new subforums, either. I was content just browsing the first couple that caught my eye and moving on instead of having someone pick the "top" ones, personally.

They're gone!

Besides which, they weren't the "top" ones, just the latest ones.

I didn't touch 'em! Well, whatever, latest, top, isn't it just more work without much point? I dunno, I'm kind out of the loop here.

geckzilla wrote:I didn't touch 'em!

I wasn't accusing you. I removed them. They were just an obviously not well received experiment.

OK I think I got it! Will try to post my image.

uhh wait, recent submissions end the 24th and it is the 25th, do I start a new thread?

I've been getting emails, apparently from the Asterisk, telling me that new posts have appeared in threads I am interested in.

EG_____________________________________________
Hello JohnD,
You are receiving this notification because you are watching the topic,
"Galaxy rotation, Spiral Galaxies in Collision (20 Apr 2008)" at "Starship
Asterisk*". This topic has received a reply since your last visit. You can
use the following link to view the replies made, no more notifications will
be sent until you visit the topic.

If you want to view the newest post made since your last visit, click the
following link:
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... 4&e=133054

If you want to view the topic, click the following link:
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... =9&t=13565

If you want to view the forum, click the following link:
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewforum.php?f=9

If you no longer wish to watch this topic you can either click the
"Unsubscribe topic" link found at the bottom of the topic above, or by
clicking the following link:
http://asterisk.apod.com/vie ... atch=topic
--
Thanks, The Management
____________________________________________________________
[I've removed some blank lines to compress it]

Also strangely, if I click on the first link, I get to the Asterisk, but am told: "You are not authorised to read this forum."
Thought the second gets me to the thread in question, that hasn't been added too since 21st April 2008.

What's going on?

JOhn

JohnD wrote:Also strangely, if I click on the first link, I get to the Asterisk, but am told: "You are not authorised to read this forum."
Thought the second gets me to the thread in question, that hasn't been added too since 21st April 2008.

What's going on?

You get the notification as soon as a new post is made. But sometimes, a post gets deleted or moved before you follow the link, and in that case you'll see the "not authorized" page. A little confusing, but perfectly normal. Since most posts are stable, you shouldn't see this particular message very often; most of the time you should get to the correct message.

Ah, So!

Thnak you, Chris. Logical when explained. Though it does seem to have happened several times recently.
One is an accident, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action (Auric Goldfinger)

John

Maybe you just attract spammers

Anyway, this particular post was spam.
My apologies for the inconvenience.